a match made in foodie heaven

Parmesan pasta with balsamic roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli

Oh, y'all.  There are things I dearly love: pasta with parmesan and butter, roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli and balsamic vinegar.  Put those together and you wind up with this glorious gastronomic goodness.  And it is so easy.  Have I told you how I discovered my love of roasted vegetables?  My "cooker" as they call them in Belfast was, er, antique and persnickety.  Basically the oven only heated from the top, so baking or cooking meat thoroughly was tricky.  But, heating from the top, that ol' cooker roasted beautifully.  And it turns out that roasted veggies is the nicest way to treat them: the flavors intensify and caramelize until they're divine.  Let's get started on this hearty supper (this makes enough for 2).

       

Peel one large sweet potato.  I find using a knife to be the easiest way to peel things.  Cut your tater in half, place flat side down and work a sharp knife along the curve of that spud.  Easy.  Cut the sweet potato into small cubes (about 1/2" size).  

Make a quick balsamic glaze: in a small saucepan simmer together 2 T of butter, 1 T of balsamic vinegar, 1 T of dark brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a fair amount of pepper.  Simmer for about 5 minutes on medium until it begins to thicken.

Cut or break half a head of broccoli into small florets.  Toss the sweet potato and broccoli in the balsamic glaze until well coated.  Spread evenly on a baking sheet and roast (yipee) for about 20 minutes at 400ºF/204ºC, giving it a stir halfway through.  They're done when caramelized and the sweet potatoes are tender.

In the meantime, make your pasta.  I actually used the same saucepan I used for the glaze, just boiling water in it and keeping all that balsamic flavor there.  I realize Ina would tell me it is way to small a saucepan to be cooking pasta in.  Ina, dahhling, feel free to mail me a hand-crafted copper pasta pot hammered by French nuns!  It worked fine, and before I drained my al dente pasta, I saved 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water.  It's amazing what that cloudy water will do for a sauce!  Drain pasta, put empty saucepan back on the heat, add 1 T of butter (Julia would approve), that cooking water and simmer for a few minutes.  Add in the cooked pasta, season with a bit of salt and pepper and 1/3 cup (or as much as you please) of freshly-grated parmesan.  Toss together and there you have the easiest, most flavorful pasta to go with your roasted veggies.

Normally, when making pasta, I mix the pasta and veggies/sauce together and let them get to know each other for the last few minutes of cooking.  But, if you do that here, you wind up making those delightfully crunchy vegetables mushy.  So, don't mix 'em together, just let them hang out next to each other.  Top with a few shavings of parm and there you have it!  Tangy and sweet with the balsamic glaze, peppery from the pasta, creamy from the parmesan and butter and crunchy  with hearty vegetables, it's just so good.

Bon appetit!
Lilrevchef

table for one

image via http://ordtolax.wordpress.com

There's a particular culinary phenomenon that only occurs with us single folks: not wanting to go to the trouble of cooking only for ourselves.  Working in churches, I often chat with wonderful women who cooked all the time for most of their lives, but now that it's just them, they don't want to cook anymore.  This makes sense in a lot of ways...it's certainly fun to cook for someone and eating alone can be a daunting thing after being so used to company at mealtimes.  There are also people a bit closer to my age who just happen to be single and find cooking to be way too much trouble and recipes only geared for family cooking (i.e. "serves 4-6").  

To both groups of people, I share a bit of wisdom from my great friend Ashley.  We were having a discussion (via text, actually...which is sometimes my generation's version of a heart-to-heart), and I was saying that I was cleaning house for my friend coming to visit.  I commented that I only seem to really clean when I have a friend coming over.  She concurred, and then said something profound: "I wish I'd be my own friend and clean just for myself!"  As minister-folk tend to say, "that'll preach!"  

The same could be said of cooking.  Yes, it's a lot of effort to tailor recipes to a single portion. Yes, eating alone can be lonely and cooking can remind you of that fact.  Yes, it can be more rewarding to cook for others than ourselves.  But, you know what?  You're worth cooking for, all by your lonesome.  So, I encourage those of you who find yourselves flying solo, embrace it.  Be your own friend, cook things only you like and make any regular weeknight special by treating yourself to a nice homemade meal. 

 I'll share my craving and creation tonight.  It's really simple.  As my random stream-of-consciousness would have it, it rained today, which of course reminded me of Belfast.  I immediately craved tea and through a Facebook chat with a friend over in that wee dote of a town, champ was suggested for dinner.  Champ is a staple of Irish cooking with (you guessed it), potatoes.  It's essentially mashed potatoes with lots of scallions.  But that thought reminded me of something I would make on particularly rainy, sleepy nights in Belfast.  I would simply make some divine mashed potatoes with whatever yummy vegetables in them I felt like.  (It helped that a green grocer stand was seconds from my door.)  I'd also add a bit of bacon or proscuitto.  I'd call that mashed masterpiece a meal, get a glass of wine and be all set for a little solo supper.  Today's rain awoke that memory in me and so I decided to make it.

Broccoli looked great at my grocery store (and you can buy broccoli in one teeny head: very solo-dining friendly).  I also used a small onion, 3 potatoes (Yukon gold I think) and 3 cloves of garlic. *A little tip on produce purchasing, especially if you're just cooking for you: it's nearly always cheaper to buy loose produce than the pre-bagged/packaged stuff.  And let's be honest, do you really need a 5 lb bag of potatoes?

Having procured my produce, I trimmed up my little trees nicely...

And sliced my halved onion...

...and tossed them with the garlic, some evoo and salt and pepper.  I roasted it, turning every 5 min or so, for 20 minutes at 400ºF/204ºC.

Here the veggies are all golden and roasted.  Try to resist eating them all right off the baking sheet (though, when I roast brussels sprouts, they rarely all make it to the plate from the baking sheet!).

While those veggies were roasting, I chopped the potatoes in large pieces (I never peel potatoes when making mashed potatoes...I like the skin on them).  I boiled them for about 15 minutes, until fork-tender. 

I drained the potatoes and then returned them to the hot pot for a few minutes, so all the extra water evaporated (soggy, gluey mashed potatoes are no way to treat a friend, and remember, you're you're friend).

I mashed 'em up...

...adding 3T of butter and about 1/3 cup of milk (but adjust as needed to get them as creamy as you want them).  Now, dreamy fluffy mashed potatoes with roasted veggies in them are divine just on their own.  But, I tend to think that bacon makes everything better.

I crumbled two slices of bacon.  Mmm.

Then, I added the roasted veggies, bacon and a combination of smoked gouda and parmesan (as much as you like, whatever cheese you happen to have) to my mashed potatoes and incorporated it all together until it was one cute little pot of love-yourself-happy.  It made enough for a generous serving for me and leftovers for another meal (it's fantastic as leftovers, I promise!).

All it needed was a nice little pat of butter melting silkily on top...

...and a crisp pinot grigio to wash it down with!  Now, that's a way to dine solo, friends.

Bon appetit,
lilrevchef

here's to the little guys

              

Oh broccoli, how I love you.  When I was little (more little than I am now that is) I used to call broccoli "little trees." Well, here we have the amazing union of "little trees" and "little ears", which in Italian is orecchiette.  Go ahead, impress your friends at a party with your knowledge of Italian.  "My what orecchiette you have!"  For some reason I can't fathom, recipes involving broccoli and pasta almost always call for using orecchiette pasta.  Whatever the reason, it's tasty.  Here, I'm going a wee bit traditional: just pasta, parmesan, broccoli, garlic and red pepper flakes. 

You'll need 2 smallish heads of broccoli or 1 large one.  Cut the florets into bite-sized pieces (and I also do the same with about 1'' of the stalk).  

Toss on a baking sheet with 2 cloves of roughly chopped (so it doesn't burn) garlic and about 1/4 c of evoo (you need a bit more than you think because you don't want those precious little trees to dry out roasting -- like every tree in Texas is right now).  Also add about 1 T of salt, 1 tsp of pepper and maybe 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes (see pic).  You can add more of this if you like a little extra heat.

Roast at 400ºF/204ºC for about 20 minutes, until tender and a bit caramelized, giving it a little mix halfway through.  While your little trees are all happy in the oven, get workin' on those little ears.  Add about 12 ounces of pasta (3/4 of the package) into salted boiling water, stirring to prevent sticking and cook until very al dentre (firm to the bite), about 10 minutes.  Before you drain it, be sure and reserve about a cup of the starchy cooking water. You'll be amazed what it'll do in making an easy sauce.

Now comes the fun part!  Toss your pasta, roasted broccoli and garlic together with about 1/3 c parmesan cheese (it's okay, you can grate it this time).  When adding the cooking water, add about 1/2 c first and then more if it needs it to form a light sauce.  And for a bit of decadence...

 ...throw in 2 T of butter.  Taste and season with more s&p and pepper flakes as needed.  I definitely needed a bit more salt & red pepper flakes (but I like a little kick).  Because my pasta was so al dente, I was able to keep it cooking with the broccoli, cheese and butter for about 5 minutes, which just intensified the flavor.

 That's it!  You can have it as a nice simple supper with some extra parm shaved on top or...

 ...you can have it with quick pan-seared tilapia like I did.  Either way, it's fantastic.

Bon appetit!
lilrevchef