This is the kind of thing that happens to me in the middle of the week. I’m minding my own business, just trying to roast an easy chicken with some veggies and I get an idea: How about some figs roasted in with those veggies — can you roast dried figs? I sure don’t know the answer but I’m betting my dad does.

A call to Steve Degon with a cooking question is never that simple, and instead of knowing whether or not I can roast a dried fig (answer: not unless you reconstitute it, and then I’m still not convinced), I’m left with the makings for an amazing fig and port sauce.

I’m hardly complaining, because it was super-easy and more delicious than I could have possibly imagined. I can just feel it — this is going to be one of our new go-to sauces. It’s that good. It probably helped some that it complemented the garlicky chicken perfectly. You really need to try this one, and even though it’s a piece of cake to make, you can serve it to company and let the ooing and ahhing commence.

The roasted chicken is inspired by a Cooking Light recipe in an old cookbook I have of theirs. I’ve never tried it until tonight, but I love the way the chicken comes out when you cook it on a high heat for 30 minutes. It sort of sears the skin and makes for a really moist chicken.

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Chicken with Fig and Port Sauce

Ingredients:

For chicken

• a whole chicken
• 8 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil
• 2 onions, quartered

For sauce

• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup port wine
• 4 large dried Turkish figs, chopped
• 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tablespoons butter

Preheat over to 450 degrees. Place chicken breast side up in a roasting pan and push the garlic and rosemary under the skin of the breast and drumsticks. Also put some inside the cavity. Brush the skin with olive oil and salt and pepper the skin and the cavity. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, turn down the oven to 350 degrees, add the quartered onion to the roasting pan, and cook for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until chicken reaches an internal temperature of 180 degrees and drumsticks move freely in their sockets.

When you’ve got about a half hour of cooking time left, put all sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until figs are mushy and breaking apart. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Carve your chicken and serve over a bead of spinach with the roasted onions and the sauce. You could also include onions of shallots in your sauce, or chop the roasted onion and add it to the sauce before serving. Mine tasted so perfect the way it was that I didn’t want to mess with it, but it accompanied the onion wonderfully.

I’ve got quite an advantage over most of you reading this post, because you can’t call up Steve Degon any old day of the week and get inspiration like this. It’s my duty to pass on his brilliance!

It’s all Kona’s fault. I had been planning on making homemade pasta for a while now, because I really miss raviolis and can’t find any gluten-free ones locally. Somehow, I always had an excuse when it came time to make them.

Then Kona wrote her post about her foray into homemade pasta land, and how easy it was. That’s it! I was determined to try it … and now that’s all I want to do. Like Bob, I think I’m in a cooking rut.

My first homemade pasta adventure came when we invited my parents to diner a couple of weeks ago. Way to experiment on the dinner guests… and put them to work. Keith rolled out the dough and my parents and I uncurled it and laid it out in preparation for the cooking. Then I figured, we’ve already gone this far, so I asked my dad, the family gourmet, to make the sauce.

Oh, just one note here — we used Kona’s homemade pasta recipe, but with the spelt flour we needed four eggs instead of three, and I wholeheartedly agree with Kona that I wouldn’t roll the pasta before cutting next time. It adds an extra step, and the unrolling was labor intensive.

I had in mind what I wanted: something light and lemony and green so the pasta wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sauce and it would complement the poached steel head trout we made in the Sous Vide. I’ve eaten my dad’s cooking long enough to know that he’d make a sauce that would embarrass many Iron Chef contestants, so after I described the sauce from my imagination, I followed him around the kitchen and took detailed notes.

Homemade Pasta with Green Beans, Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups green beans, lightly steamed
• 6 ounces artichoke hearts (I used frozen)
• 2/3 cup basil, chopped chiffonade style
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups baby spinach
• your homemade pasta, cooked until it floats

In a large skillet or saute pan, saute the chopped shallot in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, then pour in the white wine and cook until it’s reduced by half. Add artichoke hearts and capers, cook to heat through. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and the green beans and cook through again. Add spinach and the cooked pasta, cook until the spinach is wilted and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss in basil just before serving.

If I made this recipe again, I’d probably use more lemon and more spinach, but that’s only because I’m a lemon freak and a green veggie whore. It truly was perfect as-is. Thanks Dad!

Bolognese has been my friend for a very long time now. We frequently hang out at the dinner table, but I admit I do most of the conversing. My friend Bolognese is quiet but spectacular, but always seems to be a little bit different every time we meet. Sometimes she’s light and saucy, other times she’s chunky and rich.

That’s not a bad thing, since I’m notorious for not measuring ingredients while I cook, but I have fine-tuned my veal Bolognese recipe to something that requires a second helping, even when I’m already bursting at the seams. I still don’t measure, but there are some secrets that I use every time to get the right formula.

Don’t be shy with the wine
I’m really not sure I could make a Bolognese that tastes the way I want it to without lots and lots of wine involved. In fact, the last batch I made, I simmered all of the ingredients in a bunch of wine, and then I added more and did it all over again. I really don’t think you could overdo it.

Less is not more — go heavy on the herbs and spices
Just like with the wine, use a heavy hand when adding your dried oregano and basil and your sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. It makes all the difference to the way the flavors all meld together.

Crimini mushrooms are a must
If you like mushrooms in your Bolognese, as we do, please spring for the extra 50 cents and get the baby Bella or Crimini mushrooms. The difference in taste is like steak versus cardboard. The rich flavor of the Crimini soaks up and amplifies the other flavors in the sauce to perfection.

Veal is a must
For some reason, it just tastes so much better than beef Bolognese to me. Veal is subtler yet richer and adds a complexity that you can’t get with beef.

The secret ingredient? Sun-dried tomatoes
I’ve only recently discovered how awesome a Bolognese can be when you spike it with sun-dried tomatoes. The sweet and tart pungency adds a vivid punch to the sauce that is pure pleasure to the taste buds.

No wait … the secret ingredient is fresh basil
Stat with 1/4 cup and just keep adding. I’m not sure you can have too much fresh basil, and the greenness and freshness that it adds to the long-simmering sauce is yet another important layer in this multi-faceted sauce.

Cream really is optional
Bolognese purists everywhere are composing hate mail to me as I type this, but for me, it’s true. There are so many delectable flavors in this sauce that the cream is incidental. It may smooth and mellow the sauce a bit and add a creamy richness, but it is is no way necessary, so if you want to leave out the calories and the hard-to-digest dairy, your sauce will still be divine.

Veal Bolognese with Crimini Mushrooms and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground veal
• 1 – 1 1/2 large onions, diced
• 6-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 4-6 cups chopped Crimini mushrooms
• about 20 ounces canned diced tomatoes
• 1-2 cups dry red wine
• about 8-10 sun-dried tomatoes, reconstituted and chopped
• 2-3 teaspoons oregano
• 2-3 teaspoons dried basil
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, or more
• crushed red pepper to taste
• about 1 teaspoon sea salt, but don’t be shy, and season twice
• lots — and lots! — of freshly ground black pepper, about 1-2 teaspoons
• freshly grated pecorino romano

Brown the meat, then add the garlic and onions and saute. You can even take the meat out if you want to brown up the veggies really well. I go for translucent, or about 5 minutes. You can add the mushrooms at this point too, but I forgot last batch and added them late and it still came out great.

Add about 1 cup of red wine and cook for a minute or so, then add diced tomatoes. Stir in dried herbs and season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then add the sun-dried tomatoes and more wine to the consistency you like, and check herbs and seasonings. Remember the secrets: I don’t think you can over-season this one, and there’s no such thing as too much wine.

Serve with the pasta of your choice; ours was brown rice penne this time and it was delightful, and sprinkle with the cheese if you like.

For another take on the Bolognese, be sure to check out Bob’s recipe for beef Bolognese, which uses stew meat and veggies.

I’m aware that I put capers in almost everything lately. There’s definitely a caper energy permeating my household these days … and why not? They add a subtle saltiness and tang to any dish and I love the complexity that capers add to something that could be humdrum without them.

That doesn’t necessarily apply to this pasta recipe, because I don’t think there’s anything hum-drum about it. I have Emeril to loosely thank for my inspiration for this dish, with his fresh seafood pasta recipe, but beyond the seafood, tomatoes and white wine, they really don’t have a lot in common.

I was going for something distinctly tomato-y, but with some unexpected flavors, and I think I accomplished that, but without offending any traditionalists with a weird taste sensation. It’s traditional with a twist and it was a big hit tonight.

Seafood Pasta with Tomatoes, Baby Spinach and Capers

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces pasta, cooked to package instructions
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound mixed seafood (we used the Trader Joe’s seafood blend with calamari, scallops and shrimp)
• 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon pesto
• 14-ounce can white beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons capers
• about 4 good-sized handfuls baby spinach
• a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (about 2 tablespoons)
• 2 pinches sea salt or to taste
• lots and lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper
• pecorino romano cheese, freshly grated

Cook the onions and garlic over medium heat in some olive oil until translucent, just a few minutes. Add the seafood and saute for about 3 minutes, before adding the tomatoes and white wine. Cook for about 5 minutes of until seafood is done. Add the pesto, capers and beans and heat through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in a drizzle or balsamic vinegar and the spinach, folding until spinach is wilted. Serve with grated cheese.

Just 1/4 teaspoon each of cinnamon and cumin and a 1/4 cup of currants or raisins would change this dish dramatically, giving it a Moroccan flair. Try it for a fun and exotic meal.

In the event that I came off as a total food snob when I referred to baked ziti as plebian (even though I think it’s completely delicious!), here’s one of our favorite recipes that most food snobs wouldn’t even consider making (because there’s canned tuna in it). We did, however, serve it to a food snob far more snobby than the likes of me, and it was a well-loved meal.

About 7000 years ago, or something closer to fifteen years, I acquired a fun little cookbook by Barbara Russo called Quick and Easy Elegant Pasta (long since out of print, unfortunately for you!). It’s all true. The recipes are so simple to make, with few ingredients yet lots of flavor, and there really is something distinctly elegant about each recipe. Whether an ingredient or a combination of ingredients, an interesting method or presentation, there’s something special about each of these recipes.

Over the years, her recipe for linguine with tuna and red wine has morphed into something revered in our household, both for the amazing base recipe Ms. Russo created, but also because we have altered it to suit our ever-changing culinary sensibilities.

Pasta with Tuna, Red Wine and Capers

Ingredients:

• 2 cans tuna in water (we use tongol)
• about 1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 large onions, thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (or to taste)
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons capers
• crushed red pepper to taste
• grated pecorino romano
• 8 ounces pasta (we like brown rice spaghetti with this dish)

Cook pasta according to directions.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, place the tuna, onion, garlic and oregano in enough olive oil to coat everything and keep it moist. You may add more olive oil at any time, or you can try using tuna packed in oil. Cover and cook over low to medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring every so often.

Add the red wine to the pan and reduce for about 5-10 minutes. Add the capers, crushed red pepper and any other seasonings you might like (always sea salt and freshly ground black pepper).

Toss sauce with pasta and grate fresh pecorino romano over the whole deal before serving.

Variations:

• Add sun dried tomatoes.
• Add roasted red peppers.
• Add some fresh chopped herbs — basil, parsley, oregano, thyme would all work well in this dish.
• Switch out the capers for anchovies or olives.
• You could probably even add some diced tomatoes if you wanted a heavier, more Italian-style sauce.

What do you think — are you too snobby to try it?

I dreamt of bread pudding last night. I call these dreams foodmares because when I realize that my food fantasy is not greeting me when I wake up at 3:00 a.m., I’m completely out of sorts. They’re cruel, these foodmares. But in my dream state, it’s utter bliss. My sweet tooth should really be called a sweet jaw. I’m certain I could subsist on sugar alone, though my growing mid-section is a clear indication I should probably incorporate some veggies into the high glycemic regime I call a diet.

When I’m entertaining at home, I love serving wonderful desserts. It seems that no matter how elaborate or elegant the main dish was, my guests inevitably remember dessert. And so I do my best not to disappoint them. I have several tricks up my sleeve. But the crowd favorite on a chilly evening, is Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce:

Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of whole milk
• ¾ cup of raisins ( I like using golden raisins, but any variety will do)
• ¼ cup of good quality dark rum
• 1 ½ loaves of stale French bread (sometimes I use croissants) torn into bite size pieces
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup of evaporated milk
• 1 ½ cups of brown sugar
• ½ cup of melted butter
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons of good vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Rum Sauce:

• ½ cup of brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons dark rum

Place the raisins in a bowl with the rum and let them soak for a few hours until they’ve plumped up and absorbed the liquid. Remove the raisins, but reserve the remaining rum for later. Put the bread in a large baking or casserole dish. In a large bowl, combine the milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter, vanilla, cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Mix well with the reserved rum from the raisins and pour over the bread. Sprinkle the raisins on top and toss the mixture with your hands making sure all parts of the bread are covered by the liquid and the raisins are evenly distributed. Let it sit for about an hour until the liquid has been absorbed.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Create a water bath by placing the baking dish with the bread pudding into a larger baking dish. Add water to the larger dish, about halfway up the sides. You will bake the pudding for about an hour. Sometimes a little more time is needed. You will have to see if the pudding has set. Use a toothpick and prick the pudding. If it comes out clean, it has set. Remove it from the oven and let it cool about 10 minutes before serving.

For the rum sauce, melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix together the sugar and cornstarch, and stir into the butter. Pour in the cream, and cook stirring frequently until the mixture is just short of boiling. Continue cooking until it’s thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and whisk in the rum. Serve it warm over the bread pudding. Eat your heart out!

If you’ve never cooked with beer, you really don’t know what you’re missing. In fact, one of our favorite beef stews has Guinness Stout in the broth. The rich and creamy Irish brew also makes a fabulous steak sauce. You can make it like that recipe suggests, or you can saute some shallots, deglaze the pan with Guinness, reduce and swirl in some butter once you remove the pan from the heat.

It’s not just us who cook with Guinness … really! Would you believe there’s a whole website dedicated to cooking with Guinness? Sure, you’ll find lots of appetizers, breads and meat dishes, but 22 desserts using Guinness as an ingredient? that’s just wild. Chocolate Porter Cake definitely couldn’t suck, and I’d be very interested in trying Irish Pumpkin Pie.

Do you have a favorite way to cook with Guinness — or any beer?

My prime motivation of laziness resulted in a brilliant discovery tonight: risotto can be made in the rice cooker. No, really. Stop — you sound like my dad. It really isn’t always about technique, you know. Sometimes the right ingredients and a little ingenuity can create an amazingly flavorful dish.

We were going to make a very simple Rachael Ray recipe for my sister and her family: Drunken Risotto with Grilled Chicken. Two things prevented me from following Rachael’s directions — I wanted to use brown rice instead of white rice, and I didn’t want to stand there for an hour, stirring the brown rice risotto, because it takes so much more liquid when using brown rice.

So here’s how I altered Rachel’s recipe to work like magic in my rice cooker.

Rice Cooker Drunken Risotto

Ingredients:

• 2 (rice cooker) cups of short-grain brown rice
• 2.5 cups red wine
• almost a whole 32-oz. container of chicken stock (I bet you could use the whole thing and it would still come out OK)
• 1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
• 2 TB finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 finely chopped shallot (or onion)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Put all the ingredients except for the cheese and butter into the rice cooker and push the button. When it’s done (in about an hour or so), stir in the cheese and butter and serve. I didn’t even chop the mushrooms like Rachael suggests.

What you’ll get is a rich, mushroom-y risotto fit for company. My sister exclaimed on her first bite, “Oh my, I feel like I am at Michael Timothy’s!” If my easy rice cooker risotto can be compared to that of an urban bistro, then you probably want to try it. And it really is that good, nepotism not withstanding….

This is one of my absolute favorite meals to make. It’s easy, it cooks for a long time, so it makes the house smell great, and people really like it. Indeed, it’s good enough to serve to company, but it’s cheap and easy enough to take left overs to work, or just eat all week for dinner.

Beef Bolognese
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound stew beef, cut into large chunks
• 1 large spanish onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced very small
• 1 large celery stalk, diced very small
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon of dried basil
• 1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley, optional
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 pound of your favorite pasta
• parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.
• Cover the bottom of a large oven safe skillet (with a cover), or a dutch oven with olive oil over medium high heat.
• Salt and pepper the meat and brown in the oil on all sides, proceeding in batches and adding more oil if necessary. Set the meat aside.
• Add more oil to the pan if it is dry. Add the onion, celery, carrot, and garlic into the dutch oven and saute until the vegetables soften and the onions become translucent, approximately 10 minutes.
• Add the herbs and season with salt and pepper. Saute for 2 minutes.
• Add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce by half. Depending on the size of the pan, more wine might be necessary. Use your discretion — you won’t over do it, trust me.
• Add the canned tomatoes, stir, cover, and place into the oven.
• Check on the sauce after about 2 hours. It is ready if the meat falls apart when pressed with the back of a spoon.
• Prepare the pasta per the packaging instructions.
• Break up the meat and tomatoes.
• Add the cream and stir into the sauce over medium low heat. If the sauce needs to be loosened, add a spoonful of pasta water to the mixture.
• Mix pasta and sauce together off the heat and garnish with grated parmesan cheese.