As fall closes in on winter, the cold weather greens and warm, filling grains figure more in our cooking. A lazy weekend day meant I had time to make polenta the slow way instead of using the quick cooking (but not instant) de La Estancia brand. I followed Marcella Hazan's "no-stir" method, which really isn't …
Farro, chanterelles, and King apples
Chanterelle mushrooms are one of those magical ingredients which speak of fall, like asparagus in spring, or tomatoes in late summer. Sauteed, they pack a ton of flavor and there really is no substitute. My friend Will recently gave me a few beautiful King apples from his tree, and immediately I …
Julia Child’s 100th birthday is coming up on 8/15/12, and PBS has been doing this very fun #cookforjulia event to commemorate her. When they asked me to contribute a recipe, I knew right away that I wanted to do something with crepes. Julia and I go back a long way. I only have two cookbooks from my …
Pumpkin ravioli with a simple vegetable broth and white beans
I made these pumpkin-filled ravioli after reading Paul Bertolli’s astounding Cooking By Hand (which I reviewed last week). I made so many that I ended up freezing half and eating them three times. The first time, we ate them with a simple brown butter sauce and …
Spaghetti with lobster mushroom
I found this enormous lobster mushroom at our neighborhood co-op last week. You can see it in the picture at the bottom, next to my 8" chefs knife. It had "ears" but they broke off. The whole thing weighed just over a pound! That’s a big parasitic ascomycete. A say what? Well …
Grilled butternut squash taco filling
Last week was Sarina’s birthday, and she requested a Mexican feast for her celebration. These tacos, filled with achiote-rubbed butternut squash were the highlight. I grilled both the squash and some poblanos, then tossed them with crema and cilantro and served them on soft corn tortillas with red onions, queso panela, …
Summery risotto with corn, zucchini, and tomato oil
One of the great things about risotto is that it is a blank canvas on which you can paint the produce of any place and season. Restaurants tend to make the same stereotyped combinations over and over again, but don't let that limit your options!
I needed a light …
