Family Feast January 2013

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January 19, 2013
Richmond

Bruschetta with Pesto, Chutney, and Roasted Red Peppers

Mushroom Lasagna
Peas with Pancetta
Cippolini Onions
Roasted Vegetables

Figs with Walnuts, Yogurt, and Port











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Cookbook #47: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

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Adapted from Cookbook #47:  Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (1992) Recipe:  Ravioli Stuffed with Parsley and Ricotta in Tomato Sauce with Heavy Cream Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays.  Every year the husband and I trundle on over to his parents' (one of three pairs) house for dinner.  The crowd has ranged from an intimate eight to an overwhelming twenty.  But every year we congregate around 3 p.m., sip wine and snack on some fantastic appetizer, and then gather around a big table and laugh and laugh. Some highlights have included: the best salad ever.  A simple pear, goat cheese, and butter lettuce salad with a divine, tangy, peppery dressing.  Which was later revealed in some secrecy to be Girard's Champagne Dressing ; the most, umm, interesting and Midwestern salad ever: a pear poached in red hots (yes, red hots , those cinnamon hard candies) served atop iceberg lettuce--let us not speak of this again; a porcini...
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Pappardelle with Wild Mushrooms

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I could move to Seattle. Since moving to California, I have learned the following lesson again and again: I love the water. I love the crash of waves while I walk on the beach with a cup of hot chocolate, the splash of sidewalk puddles (especially when I am wearing my polka-dotted rain boots), the penumbras of light from streetlights in heavy fog, the ping of rain on the roof of my car, the rush of fog over the Berkeley and Oakland hills, the sweep of the Bay as I round the curve on 24 just heading west from the Caldecott Tunnel, and most recently the stillness of the surrounding Delta while hundreds of ducks dip beneath the water's surface for food. However, we just ended the driest January on record here in the Bay Area. As in, literally no rain whatsoever during the wet season: the first time since 1850 that no rain has fallen in January. Yikes. I miss the rain. And I miss the mushrooms that come with the rain.  The other day, I had planned to mak...
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Half-Blistered Tomato Pasta Salad from Food52

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Stop what you're doing. Fire up your oven. Boil a pot of water. Grate a ripe tomato. You won't be sorry.  Mostly because there are tomatoes--lots of them--in this new take on that old summer standby of a pasta salad with raw tomatoes. As you may have noticed, I have been on a salad kick (see here  and  here . Oh, and here .). It's summer. Produce is at its peak (or getting close to it), and all I want are tomatoes. And more tomatoes. Lucky for me, there are a plethora of tomato salads out there, and this one from    Food52    is a hit because this summer-time staple of pasta salad with tomatoes brings you tomatoes three ways. Well, actually it technically brings it to you only two ways, but I made some adjustments to the original recipe.  Let me detail all of my modifications below, including that additional hit of tomatoes: (1) I got inspired by another salad in the Mighty Salads cookbook: Corn-Barley Salad with Tomato Vinaigrett...
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Ottolenghi's Lemon and Eggplant Risotto

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Risotto is such a delightful dish. Comforting, creamy, simple, stable.   And I am a huge fan . As in, I will make me a risotto any chance I get, with any sort of ingredient you can imagine. It doesn't matter--any season.  Spring--lemon and peas;  Summer--tomato and parmesan;  Fall--mushroom;  Winter--butternut squash and pancetta.  If it's in your fridge, you can put it in this Northern Italian rice dish. However, you will want a very specific kind of rice--a high starch, medium- or short-grain rice--in order separate this delicacy from any other rice dish. The high starch means that as you cook it, it releases its starch, making that requisite creamy smoothness to risotto. The most popular risotto rice in the United States is, hands down, Arborio rice. This short-grained rice isn't as starchy as some of its popular Italian counterparts, but it is the most easily procured. However, a...
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Vanilla Citrus Marmalade (Liberally Adapted from Marisa McClellan's Three Citrus Marmalade)

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I love a good challenge and the husband loves a good marmalade.  This is a match made in heaven. Marisa McClellan from Foo d in Jars has set forth a  Mastery Challenge , and I could not resist. Her intention? Get as many people as possible canning and preserving and get them feeling confident about it. And so, for the next year, she set forth this calendar: January – Marmalade February – Salt Preserving March – Jelly April – Quick Pickles May – Cold Pack Preserving June – Jam July – Hot Pack Preserving August – Low Temperature Pasteurization September – Fruit Butter October – Drying and Dehydration OR Pressure Canning November – Fermentation December – Fruit Pastes Aren't you excited? I know I am. While I am growing in confidence with fermentation, see here , I still feel like a novice in all other categories. And while I have been trying to up my canning game (see here , here , here , and here ), I definitely could use some gentle direction, ha...
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