Baked Rigatoni with Brussels Sprouts, Figs, and Blue Cheese (FM)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for greasing the pan
• Salt
• 8 ounces rigatoni, preferably whole wheat
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts, roughly chopped
• 4 ounces Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, crumbled [use some Danish blue]
• 6 to 8 fresh figs, or 1 cup dried, chopped [Used dried since fresh are out-of-seaon.  1 cup is a whole lot of dried figs.]
• Black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped almonds, for garnish

Mise en place.

I guess technically you're supposed to blanch the sprouts after removing the pasta from the cooking water, but I flaked on this and figured that steaming them would be good enough.  Also, I didn't think to save any of the cooking water to use later on.  Ohz well.

Stir everything together except for the almonds and add a splash of the cooking water. (Eh, I used heavy cream instead since I had an open container of it.)  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at 400 degrees until mixture is bubbling.

Oh, I also had a little leftover prosciutto which I thought fit well with the rest of the ingredients, but it wasn't really enough to be altogether noticeable.

The almonds were just supposed to be a garnish, but part of the way through the baking process I tried to top the practically overflowing dish with the almonds and tried to toast them along the way.  I didn't really achieve too much of that before pulling this out of the oven.

This dish was fine.  Not incredible but not borderline gross like the cannellini and zucchini dish.

Pasta with Fried Zucchini and Cannellini in Vinegar Sauce (FM)

• 1 pound zucchini, cut into 1/2 x 3-inch sticks
• Salt
• Olive oil as needed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• Black pepper
• 2 cups cooked or canned cannellini or other white beans, drained
• 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar, or to taste
• 8 ounces any pasta, preferably whole wheat
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint, dill, or parsley [I forget what I had here.  I'm thinking parsley?]
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, for serving.

Mise en place.  The zucchini has been salted for 20 minutes and patted dry.

I was not quite happy that olive oil is used to fry the zucchini in this recipe.  A half-inch of it.  Decided to strain it through a coffee filter after this step.

Which was, by the way, wicked dangerous to start off with, but Mark Bittman's recipe didn't state to let the oil come back to temp between batches.

Cook onion and garlic (with some salt and pepper) in 2 tablespoons of the oil until onion begins to softer.

 

Add beans and mash with fork or potato masher until more or less broken up.

Toss everything together and adjust the seasoning.  The dish already seemed totally sad at this point.
Maybe if I had used a full 1/2 cup in general in topping the dish, divided among the servings of course, this dish would've been palatable, but it really shouldn't be that way.

Bittman says that "You don't really see vinegar in pasta dishes too often", but personally I've seen vinegar applied to Italian dishes at least and within Bittman's other cookbooks to much better effect.  I've never seen it used with cannellini beans, and overall the dish struck me as muddled, unspecial, and a waste of olive oil.
Oh well, they can't all be winners.

Pork Stew with Green Beans and Oregano (FM)

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 ounces boneless pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
• Salt and black pepper
• 3 shallots or 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried [I used 2 tablespoons dried.  Oops, but it was fine.  Two tablespoons since I was doubling the recipe due to the fact that it's allmost impossible to buy 8 ounces of pork shoulder.]
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 pounds green beans, roughly chopped

Mise en place.

Browning the pork.

Cook onions and garlic until nicely browned.

If using fresh oregano, add 1/2 of it here.  Since I was using dried, I put all of it in to realize moments later that I had added 3 times as much oregano as I should.  This somehow didn't result in an overly oregano-forward dish.

Return the pork to the pot.  Add the wine and enough water to half cover the meat.  Which doesn't make a lot of sense if technically you're only supposed to be using 8 ounces of pork.

Bring to a boil, deglaze, and simmer, covered, until the pork is nearly falling apart and the liquid is saucy.

Add green beans, raise heat to medium-high, and cook until the green beans are crisp-tender.  I had to season aggressively to taste.

Oh this is also where you'd add the remaining 1/2 of fresh oregano.

The dish didn't really hit it out of the park, but neither am I miserable about the fact that I have 6-8 servings of this to get through.  The sauce was flavorful enough even while being quite simple.
I didn't really weigh out the pork shoulder after trimming off the fat and bone, but I'm sure it was at least over a pound if not more.  However, there really wasn't room left for any more green beans in the pot.

Chicken Enchiladas

from The Best Light Recipe by ATK

• 1 medium onion, chopped fine
• 1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil
• Salt
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
• 3 tablespoons chili powder [Made my own according to Mark Bittman's recipe in HTCE]
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large breasts), trimmed of excess fat
• Ground black pepper
• 8 ounces 50 percent light cheddar cheese shredded (2 cups) [Used some pre-shredded 4-cheese Mexican blend.  Full fat, y'all.]
• 1 (4-ounce) can pickled jalapeno chiles, drained and chopped
• 12 (6-inch) soft corn tortillas
• Vegetable oil spray
• 1 lime, cut into wedges (for serving)

Couldn't locate a 4-ounce can of pickled jalapenos, but I found an 11-ounce can.  I was surprised to find it contained carrots as well.

I suppose a 4-ounce can, drained, would contain even fewer jalapenos than the can I bought, but I thought it was worth noting that the total weight came out to be 2.3 ounces.

Mise en place.

Sweating the onions in 1/2 teaspoon of oil with a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, and sugar.  Cook until fragrant.

Stir in tomato sauce and water, bring to a simmer, and cook until slightly thickened.

Nestle chicken into sauce and cook until thickest part registers 160 degrees on thermometer.  Set aside to cool and shred.

 
Strain sauce through medium-mesh strainer.  The sauce was crazy spicy at this point since I used chile de arbol in the chili powder rather than "mild" chiles.  I hoped the heat would even out later, and it did.

I guess you're supposed to toss the chicken, 1 cup cheddar, jalapenos, and cilantro with a 1/2 cup of the sauce, but I kind of flaked and threw it all in there.  Pouring out as much sauce as I could later.

Wrap tortillas in plastic wrap and microwave until warm and pliable.

Place a 1/3 cup of filling evenly down center of each tortilla.  Tightly roll and set seam side down in baking dish.  I only managed to use 9 of them.
Then you're supposed to spray the tops (I guess this uses less oil, but my spray has expired and I didn't have a new one.), but i just brush them with vegetable oil.  Pour 1 cup of sauce over the top and sprinkle cheese evenly.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes covered with foil at 400 degrees and then uncovered for 5 minutes to brown the cheese.

 

Pretty serviceable enchiladas.  Not crazy greasy.  Certainly not terrible.  Sour cream and store-bought salsa picante to accompany them.

Stir-Fried Fennel and Pink Grapefruit with Shrimp (FM)

• 3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• 1 bunch scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 fresh hot chile (like jalapeno or Thai), minced [Somehow flaked of this.  Use red chile flakes instead.]
• 2 large fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced
• 2 grapefruit, peeled, segmented, and chopped [Bittman says that if you know how to supreme citrus, you should go ahead and I did.  Don't typically have much practice at this.]
• 8 ounces shrimp, peeled
•  1 tablespoon soy sauce, or to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint, cilantro, or a combination
• Salt and black pepper

Mise en place.

Heat oil over high heat.  Cook scallion, garlic, ginger, and chile for a couple of minutes.  Then add fennel and another couple of minutes.

Add grapefruit, shrimp, and soy sauce.  Cook until shrimp are uniformly pink.  Basically another couple of minutes.

A decent stir-fry.  My one objection:
Where the hell is the grapefruit?  Kept eating the damn thing and nothing about it ever screamed grapefruit to me.  If you're going to supreme the grapefruit, maybe doubling the amount might fix this.  As it is, it can't really stand up against 2 large fennel bulbs.

Shrimp Fra Diavolo (CI)

from Cook's Illustrated, February 2014

• 1 1/2 pounds large shrimp (26 to 30 per pound), peeled and deveined, shells reserved
• Salt
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2-1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 anchovy fillets, rinsed, patted dry, and minced
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced pepperoncini, plus 1 teaspoon brine
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Tomatoes into colander set over bowl.  Pierce tomatoes with spatula and stir around to release juice.  Do not wash colander.

Mise en place.  The shrimp was tossed with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over high heat until shimmering.  Cook shrimp shells until they begin to brown.

Add wine and let bubble away until reduced to 2 tablespoons.

Add reserved tomato juice and simmer to meld flavors.

Strain "stock" and discard shells.

Heat remaining oil, garlic, pepper flakes, and oregano over medium heat until garlic is straw-colored and fragrant.

Add anchovies and cook to the same effect.

Off heat, add tomatoes and mash with potato masher until coarsely pureed.  Stir reserved juice mixture in and return to medium-high heat.  Simmer until thickened.

 

Add shrimp and simmer gently until just cooked through.

Remove from heat.  Stir in basil, parsley, and pepperoncini and brine and season with salt and pepper to taste.

The shrimp fra diavolo can be served with salad and crusty bread, but spaghetti serves my purposes better.
The dish was pretty good and certainly not some straight-forward and pedestrian "rubbery seafood in spicy marinara."  The use of shrimp shells built a huge background of shrimp flavor that would've been impossible if it wasn't there.  Unless, of course, one overcooked the shrimp; which this dish avoided, except for when I went to reheat the leftovers.

Pasta alla Norcina (CI)

from Cook's Illustrated, February 2014

• Kosher salt and pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 8 ounces ground pork
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed
• 7 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 pound orecchiette
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (3/4 cup)
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pulse mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped.

Dissolve 1 1/8 teaspoons salt and baking soda in 4 teaspoons water.  Add pork and fold gently to combine at let sit for 10 minutes.  Or in my case, until I prepped the 1 teaspoon garlic, 3/4 teaspoon rosemary, nutmeg, and 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg.  Smear with rubber spatula until well-combined and tacky.

Form into a 6-inch burger.

The brine and baking soda help the meat retain moisture.  Smearing the ingredidents together forces the proteins to stretch out and link up to form a strong network and springy texture.  And the patty shape helps the homemade sausage to stand up to a good sear.

Also, the butcher didn't seem inclined to repackage a 0.84 lb package of ground pork for me so I upped some of the ingredients in the recipe overall, but particularly the sausage part by 50%.

The remaining mise en place.  Using a new Bota Box of Riesling this time.

Sear sausage patty over medium-high heat until well-browned on both sides.  I guess technically the very center of the should be raw, but none of it looked too pink.

Chop sausage into 1/8 to 1/4-inch pieces.  Transfer to bowl and pour over cream.

I guess maybe I shouldn't have added 50% more cream, but that's fine.

Add 1 tablespoon oil, mushrooms, and 1/8 teaspoon salt.  Cook until mushrooms are browned.

Stir in remaining 2 teaspoons oil, remaining garlic, remaining rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.  Cook until fragrant.

 

Stir in wine, deglaze, and cook until completely evaporated.

Yeah, maybe too much cream.  One also adds 3/4 cups of the pasta cooking liquid in here as well.  Simmer until the pork's no longer pink?  The pork wasn't really all that pink as I mentioned earlier.

Remove pan from heat and add the Pecorino Romano.

 

Combine sauce, pasta, and lemon juice together.  I guess parsley if I really bothered when I only need a bit of a fresh herb.

You could loosen the dish up with more reserved pasta cooking water and season with salt and (imo a GREAT deal of) pepper.

People often ask me what's my favorite dish in general or out of recently executed recipes.  I never really know what to say except that maybe I cook Chicken and Dumplings a couple times a year.

This dish though?  Totally amazing and delish and a bit less time consuming than that other dish.  I kind of want to get the opportunity to show it off to someone.

Apparently this is widely considered to be the ultimate pasta and sausage dish?  Well I'm not going to argue with that.