Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]

Linguine with Tomato-Almond Pesto [Pesto Trapenese]Adapted from Gourmet

3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed. Serve this lukewarm, or at room temperature, with a glass of wine, after you get the baby to bed.

Mashed Potatoes

Serves about 4

• 6 smallish Yukon Gold potatoes (I just take the 6 smallest I find in the bag since they are annoying to use for baked potatoes or oven fries)
• 1/4 - 1/2 stick of unsalted butter (only have salted? well, just use less salt when you are mashing! The yukons have a buttery taste so you don't need as much butter as you think you might.)
• milk (I couldn't tell you how much - I just add it until the texture is right)
• kosher salt - to taste (I use a few pinches)

Peel the potatoes (or don't - trufax: the peels contain potassium and vitamin A) and chop them into pieces about 3/4". This is not an exact science so don't break out a ruler - just keep them roughly the same size so they cook evenly. Put them in a pot on the stove with enough cold water to cover and then bring them to a boil on med/med-high heat. Let them go until the potatoes are fork tender (about 20-30 minutes.)

Drain potatoes, put them back in the pot and toss in a few Tablespoons of butter, a pinch or so of salt and a splash of milk. Some people say you need to heat the milk and the butter before adding them, but I am lazy and have found that mashing room temperature butter with the still-steaming hot potatoes is just fine. Mash all of that together, then take a taste. Too bland? Add salt. Not creamy enough? Add butter. Dry as hell? Add milk. Repeat until you love them (though when you get to half a stick of butter in the pot, you migyou CAN freeze mashed potatoes. Leave about 1/2" head room at the top of the container and they can keep in the freezer for about a year. (But seriously, they are so easy to make that there is no need to make a lifetime supply at once - I try to make enough for one meal plus leftovers.) To use frozen mashed potatoes, just heat them on the stove with some butter and milk and stir nearly constantly until warm and wonderful. You can reheat refrigerated ones like this too, but when I am reheating mashed potatoes I tend to also be reheating meat and veggies as well - I put the oven on 350, put everything into a brownie pan/round cake pan/pie plate/whatever is handy, cover with foil and bake 15-20 minutes. It is helpful to kind of stir things up a bit halfway through.ht want to knock it off - too much of a good thing and all.)

Carrot Soup

Serves 4-6:

• 1(+) Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1(+) lb. carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1(+) Tbsp fresh grated ginger
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Most recipes call for heavy cream, sour cream, etc. but I will try it without – I mean, my red pepper and tomato soup calls for 2 cups of heavy cream but it tastes really rich and satisfying (to me) without adding a drop! I have some 2% milk in the fridge … if I decide that its seriously lacking in the dairy department I will add a touch more butter and some of the milk.

In pot over medium high heat, melt the butter, add the onions and stir them/cook them until soft. Add broth, carrots and ginger – cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until carrots are tender. From here, use your immersion blender, regular blender or food processor until the soup is smooth – remember, the soup is hot and it would be dumb to fill your blender or work bowl more than halfway – do it in batches. Or get an immersion blender – that thing is awesome!

From here you can add heavy cream and what have you – this is also where you add the salt and pepper. But taste it first! Add only what it is missing! You might find that nothing is missing and you love it as is or you may start cursing me and have to run back out to get heavy cream because you prefer it really creamy. But either way, make it your own! (Note: I wound up adding honey to this - a good healthy squeeze! - it was kind of bland. It actually seemed to improve as it sat, looking forward to trying it as a leftover to see if it has further improved. The pepper and ginger were the saving graces - the heat mixes well with the sweet!)

Oven Fries

Serves 2:

• 2-3 good sized Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into wedges – about 6-8 wedges per potato
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil (enough to coat the potatoes)
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• Salt, Pepper, Seasonings (I usually use a few pinches of kosher salt, about 5 grinds from the pepper mill, tonight I am going to toss in some thyme or rosemary (or both) and maybe even some grated parmesan)

Preheat oven to 450, mix all ingredients. I lay a sheet or parchment paper on a cookie sheet (because Princess haaaates messes) and then lay the wedged potatoes out on the cookie sheet. Its nice to leave a good ½” between them, but trust me … so long as they aren’t actually touching (or really, so long as they are a single layer) you are fine … just might be a bigger pain to flip them. Pop them in the oven for about 30 minutes until they are browned and gorgeous and tender – flip them about halfway through cooking time! (Note: I used oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme, but skipped the parmesan. I put the potato wedges into a zip top bag along with the oil, etc. and mixed them up like that - very easy, works well and no cleanup! The cooking time and temp were perfect, the fries came out great!)

Applesauce

Serves 3 (plus leftovers)
6 Macintosh apples, peeled, cored, 1/2 inch dice
1/4 Cup Water

Pork Wellington

I love the sight of pork in the morning! There is the tenderloin, basking in light from my window, already cut in half lengthwise and flipped so that skinny end matches up with fat end on both sides - the pile of yuck is the silver skin and fat - you must trim these off or you will be sorry!

Here we have slices of prosciutto that have been layed out and pressed together - isn't it beautiful?!?!?
Here is the tenderloin laid on top of the seasoned prosciutto, stuffed with cherries - I used slightly more than an ounce of dried cherries and chopped them coarsely with my mezzaluna.







This is what that gorgeous thing looked like all wrapped up in the prosciutto. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the puff pastry spread with the whole grain mustard and then wrapped around the pork, but I didn't. For I suck. you brush that beautiful thing with egg wash, toss it in to oven for a half hour and it comes out browned and perfect! It wasn't until after we had all served ourselves that I realized I had no picture of the finished product! So please excuse the slices - wish I had a pic of the whole thing. You can see the home made apple sauce to its left, the metal bowl has the mashed potatoes (or what is left of them at this point) and out of the frame to the right is the broccoli which took a lot longer than usual to cook, but was worth every second.


Scott and the ex were pleased! I was ecstatic! One thing to note though - the inside of the tenderloin will look very red (scary like its raw) if you use cherries, even if it has gone over the safe temp (140) - prevailing theory in my household is that it is the juice from the cherries staining it. because it is most certainly done! So, if yours looks golden on the outside and a bit pink in the middle, just double check with a thermometer - chances are it is done!

Roasted Asparagus

I simply washed a bunch of asparagus, broke off the woody ends of the stalks, tossed in olive oil and baked on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a 400 oven for about 20 minutes - tossing and turning twice.