Posted by Adam Kuban, April 26, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Each Saturday evening we bring you a Sunday Supper recipe. Why on Saturday? So you have time to shop and prepare for tomorrow.
I don't know how it happened, but my favorite dish from my go-to neighborhood Italian restaurant happens to be a simple concoction of penne tossed with some good olive oil and some sautéd garlic and broccoli—all topped by a grilled chicken breast. I always picture it as their sop to dieters or calorie-concious diners, and I always feel like it's akin to ordering steak at a seafood joint.
I order it because over the past year or so, I've started getting the acid reflux after eating heavily tomato-sauced foods, and this lightly treated pasta preparation appeals to me. The price, however, does not. (I'm embarrassed to even mention it here because it's ludicrous for what actually goes into it.)
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Posted by Gina DePalma, March 4, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Spring vegetables arrive shockingly early in Rome to the eyes of this American. As the availability of puntarelle has waned, artichokes have burst onto the scene as the first harbingers of primavera.
Nobody celebrates the artichoke like Romans, and at the produce market, artichokes harvested from the countryside surrounding Rome are always the first choice of shoppers; they are a specific variety that thrives in the volcanic soil from the valleys surrounding Monte Cimino, Lake Bracciano, and Lake Vico.
Huge, purple-green globes have taken over the town, piled high in the open-air markets and artfully arranged at the entrance of Roman restaurants and trattorie. A bouquet of artichokes in the window means there may be carciofi alla guidea (crisp and deep-fried), alla Romana (braised in olive oil, with red onion, garlic and fresh mint), or any number of other artichoke delights on the menu tonight.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, February 21, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Today's Cook the Book recipe (adapted from Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver) is a slow-cooked leek dish that delivers the true flavor of the vegetable by asking you to keep the leeks whole while still finely slicing up the outer layers for an ultra leeky hit. Oliver says it's a great dish for dinner parties or to serve alongside a Sunday roast.
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Posted by The Gurgling Cod, December 22, 2007 at 7:30 PM
Sunday Night Soups, where each week The Gurgling Cod shows up to offer a soup appropriate to the week's Sunday Night Football game on NBC.
The antepenultimate regular season Sunday Night Soup has SNS regulars the Redskins venturing to Minnesota to face the Vikings. The Vikings play indoors, which seems a shame, given the hardiness of their namesakes, and the franchise has languished since moving to a dome in the 1980s.
These teams have radically different foodsheds—the riches of the Chesapeake and the sweeping expanses of the northern reaches of America’s breadbasket. Flour comes from Minnesota, and crabs from Maryland, so breaded soft-shelled crabs would be an idea, but they are unwieldy in soup, and out of season, anyway. They will be teeing this one up not long before Santa kicks the tires and lights the fires, and that calls for something festive but not overwhelming. In other words, a perfect spot for Fergus Henderson’s leek, potato, and oyster soup.
This recipe is from his first book, published Stateside as The Whole Beast
. He has a newer book out as well, Beyond Nose to Tail, which is more attractively produced than the first but not as compelling to cook from. Despite what the newspapers tell you, there is nothing wrong with giving cookbooks not published within the last year, so if you have a cook on your list who likes to use everything but the squeak, start with the first one.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, December 7, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Soup rarely appeals to me (too much liquid, not enough chewing), but when the weather is bitterly cold (like now), nothing fills up your inner crevices as well as a bowl of hot, chunky soup. Tom Colicchio's simple diced potato-leek soup combines diced potato, leek and bacon in chicken stock flavored with butter and chives. You've got your vegetable, starch and meat all in one spoonful. Although it make go without say (since Colicchio didn't mention it), make sure you wash your leeks thoroughly before using them—otherwise you may find yourself eating a potato-leek-bacon-dirt soup.
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