I spotted this in a magazine and thought it had a chance. Ben didn’t care for the chickpeas, but everyone else thought it was delicious. Bonus: this is an easy pantry supper that comes together really quickly.
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
7 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
1 pound angel hair pasta (we used spaghetti)
1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 cup unsalted roasted almonds, chopped
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the broth, red pepper, and 3/4 teaspoon salt and bring to a boil.
Add the pasta and cook, stirring, until the broth is nearly absorbed and the pasta is al dente, about 6 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas and parsley.
Divide among individual bowls and top with the almonds and Parmesan.
Halloween and Thanksgiving are long past, but today, some beast grabbed me and urged me to cut into the Galeux d’Eysines pumpkin I purchased in October. It was a gorgeous pale pink, and covered in sugar warts. It was gnarly, ugly and completely fascinating.
It was easy to cut, as far as pumpkins go but inside, it was shocking orange.
Finn and I scooped the seeds, and because Caroline has just leant me Little Heathens, I decided to slice it, peel it, chop it into two-inch pieces, and slow cook it per Milly’s strict instructions, with just enough water to see through the pumpkin.
It cooked all day, very slowly, from about 9 am until 6 pm. I had a beautiful, rich, perfectly smooth and perfectly pumpkin puree.
I kept tasting, and while the flavor did get richer and sweeter as the day went on, It’s a mild, sweet pumpkin, and tastes like a pumpkin wants to taste if it’s very refined.
The question was–what to do with all of it. Ravioli on a weeknight was out of the question. I’ll make pie tomorrow, but wasn’t up for baking today. I settled on Pumpkin Risotto, substituting a hard apple cider for the classic white wine, adding grana padano, nutmeg, and butter to finish. It was glorious. My daughter, after her first bite, declared, “This is the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life.” Her friend, Cassie, who had a taste on the way home from her playdate also declared it delicious. Finn was not as big a fan, but he’ll grow into it.
Pumpkin Risotto
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 c arborio or–better–carnaroli rice
3/4 c hard apple cider
about 6 cups chicken broth
Fresh pumpkin puree, about 1-1/12 cups
fresh grated nutmeg, to taste
about 1 cup fresh grated Grana Padano (available at Trader Joes)
Heat broth in a separate pan until medium hot.
In a heavy bottomed pot or large sauce pan, sautee garlic and onion until soft.
Add rice and stir until well coated.
Add cider and stir until most of liquid is evaporated.
Add stock, about one cup at a time, stirring after each cup until broth is absorbed. Continue adding warm broth until the rice is cooked through. It should be tender, but each grain separate.
Add enough pumpkin to brightly color and flavor and risotto, to your taste.
Add butter, a grating of nutmeg (to taste), and cheese. Stir until absorbed.
Serve immediately, with an extra grating of cheese. And some fresh or fried sage leaves if have them.
It’s an in-between time right now. We have some Christmas decorations up (paper-glitter snowflakes, a wreath on the door) but not all (no tree, no stockings). The boys are opening up windows on the Advent calendar and counting down the days till Christmas, while I am counting down the (fewer) days till I can start some Christmas baking. I have past lists of cookies and treats to guide me, and some new recipes to try, and I will report back after the new year.
In the meantime, it’s time to stir up another batch of Wonderballs, originally published as Powerballs in Wondertime magazine. These are easy (the kids can make them!), keep in the freezer, and are a pretty healthy little burst of energy snack:
Makes 40-48
Mix together 1 cup peanut butter and 1 cup honey until smooth. Gradually add in 3 cups old fashioned oats and 1/2 cup ground flaxseed. Add 1 cup chocolate chips (I rarely reduce the chocolate in a recipe, but I do cut this by half, just to make it easier to form the balls; also, if you have mini chocolate chips, use those) and 1 cup any combination of chopped nuts and soft dried fruit (try 1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanuts and 1/4 cup each of raisins and dried cranberries) and mix gently in your stand mixer or smush together by hand.
Roll into Ping-Pong-size balls and, for maximum presentation value, put in paper mini muffin cups. You can eat them right away, but they’ll be less sticky after a night in the fridge. They freeze well too, layered on wax paper in an airtight container.
Thanksgiving prep is starting early this year as preliminary reports from my brother-in-law indicate that the rental house has an Inadequate Kitchen. So Tony and I have each made one kind of cranberry sauce, my mom’s brown and serve wheat germ rolls are rising, and the wild rice is cooking for the vegetarian entree. Meanwhile, Tony is prepping Wednesday night’s dinner: our standard pre-Thanksgiving dinner, his dad’s pasta puttanesca. While he’s chopping, Eli and I have been enjoying a little tea party of play tea and imaginary puttanesca. Here’s Eli’s recipe:
First you need some olive oil. And then some olives and capers and celery and garlic. Then some more olive oil. Then a little bit of honey. And now some mushed-up bananas!
He started off fine, of course, then took some weird turn into puttanesca smoothie, which doesn’t really sound good to me at all. Here’s how Tony makes it, as his dad made it years ago:
Pasta Puttanesca
This recipe is for a pound of pasta, which would serve 4 adults. I’ve never actually measured this stuff, it’s all eyeballed, so these quantities are my best guess.
The celery might suprise you. The taste is really quite nice — it’s important to dice it finely so there aren’t big celery “crescents.” But the subtle crunch is really what you’re after.
Note the rather small quantity of tomato sauce. This is decidedly not a chunky, olive-y marinara sauce. It’s very light on the tomato sauce… the small quantity of tomato sauce and some olive oil makes the sauce just barely fluid and helps it coat the pasta well.
1 lb. pasta (works with either long noodles or shapes, e.g. penne)
40-50 pitted kalamata olives
4 tbsp capers
10 cloves of garlic (adjust to taste)
8 stalks of celery (especially the tender inner stalks)
1 cup tomato sauce
olive oil
fresh ground pepper
grating cheese
Either mince the garlic or slice it really thinly and saute in a frying pan with a generous lug of olive oil. When lightly brown, transfer into a bowl. Use a rubber scraper to get all the flavored oil as well.
Chop the olives coarsely and add to bowl. Rinse the capers in a strainer and then chop just once or twice and add to bowl.
Trim away any of the tough celery stalk bottoms. Cut the celery lengthwise into strips (about 1/8″) and then dice. Add to bowl.
Add tomato sauce to bowl. Add another couple tablespoons of olive oil. This is important to make the sauce nice and thick so it coats the pasta well.
Add as much ground pepper to taste — I’m a pepper freak, so I’d do about 30 grinds for a full pound of pasta.
Mix well and let stand. You can do this as far in advance as you like… the flavors will only improve. I wouldn’t do it more than a day in advance for fear that the celery would go soft. Although if you made this and froze it immediately, I imagine it would be great. I keep meaning to make a giant batch and try that some day.
Cook your pasta. Before draining the pasta, pull out a cup of the pasta water.
Drain the pasta really well. We can add water later, but we want to control the moisture ourselves.
Add the sauce and 1/4 cup of water to the empty pot or a large bowl. Add the drained pasta. Mix well coating all the pasta. Add more water 1/4 cup at a time if needed. The pasta should be nice and moist, but we don’t want a big puddle of liquid at the bottom of the pot.
Serve with lots of nice grated cheese at the table.
