Finalist on food52!

photo by Sarah Shatz

If you regularly read this blog, surely you've heard me talk about food52, the great community that's creating a crowd-sourced cookbook. Well, I'm excited to report that my recipe for Roasted Bagna Cauda Broccoli is a finalist on the site this week! If it wins, the recipe will appear in the upcoming food52 cookbook.

Roasted Bagna Cauda Broccoli combines the nutty toasty flavor of roasted broccoli with the complex flavors of anchovies, garlic, butter, olive oil, fresh lemon juice parmesan, and toasted almonds. Don't let the anchovies scare you -- they melt into the sauce and offer rich depth of flavor.

So, if the spirit moves, take a look at food52, and if you like the recipe, vote for it. Check out the slide show and video of site founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs cooking the recipe.

And, even if you don't vote, stay a while and check out the site -- and maybe you'll be inspired to enter a recipe!

Thanks, A&M!

food52 Editors' Pick -- Antipasto Couscous Cakes

Recently, food52, one of my all-time favorite food sites, selected couscous for one of their weekly contest ingredients.

I've enjoyed many couscous dishes over the years, but thought it was time for me to try something a little different. So, I decided to take the best components of an antipasto platter, mix in a little couscous and fry them up into little crispy cakes. I used kalamata olives, parmesan cheese, roasted tomatoes and sopressata, toasted pine nuts and, the kicker, red wine vinegar. The strong, salty flavors mingle with the mellow cheese, and the red wine vinegar adds a tangy bite. You can serve these Antipasto Couscous Cakes as appetizers, on top of salads or as a main dish.

I was pleased and excited to see that the dish was an Editors' Pick on the site, which is kind of like an honorable mention. Thanks, Amanda and Merrill!

Even better, my friend Abbie's recipe for Cedar Plank Grilled Loup De Mer is a finalist on the site this week! If she wins, her great dish will be featured in the food52 cookbook. So, please take a moment to go to the site and if you like her recipe, and I think you will, vote for her! Abbie is an excellent, creative cook and never fails to inspire me.

Antipasto Couscous Cakes

Serves 8-10

1 cup grape tomatoes
2 cups couscous, cooked and chilled (I prefer whole wheat couscous)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/3 cup diced sopressata
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
1.5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
2.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
olive oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place tomatoes into a large plastic freezer bag, drizzle in olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, then arrange tomatoes on a parchment or Silpat-lined cookie sheet, and roast for 20-30 minutes. Cool and slice in half.

Toast pine nuts over medium heat in a small pan, then cool.

Put couscous into a large bowl. Mix in garlic, sopressata, parmesan, olives, roasted tomatoes, red wine vinegar, pine nuts, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper.

Beat egg and egg yolk with a fork, the fold into couscous mixture. Gently add basil and sprinkle in flour, stirring until well combined.

Chill couscous for at least 30 minutes. Heat a large skillet over medium flame and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom. Scoop couscous with a 1/4 cup measure, press firmly into cup, then tap gently into your hand and mold into cakes with your hands. Place carefully into oil.

Repeat. Add more oil only if needed.

Fry couscous cakes until golden and crisp on both sides, drain on paper towels, let cool a few moments and serve. These are tasty at room temperature, as well.

Pasta with Lamb Sauce

When it comes to lamb, I've arrived to the party fashionably late. I've really only grown to appreciate it in the last 10 years. But today, I adore lamb chops, roast lamb, lamb ragu, and my latest concoction: pasta with lamb sauce.

Pasta with lamb sauce is really a simpler, cleaner tasting ragu -- I omit the tomatoes, celery and carrots. The end result is essentially pasta with ground meat, but it's so much more than that.

Lamb's rustic assertiveness, combined with the sweet shallot and earthy rosemary, makes this a flavorful dish I crave regularly. Its simplicity is its beauty; as much as I love a ragu, I find the tomatoes can mute the aromatics, herbs and the lamb, and lend a certain heaviness. With this version, every flavor bursts through brightly. Give it a try.

Pasta with Lamb Sauce

2 T olive oil
1 cup thinly sliced shallots
4 cloves minced garlic

Kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste

2 T minced fresh rosemary

1.25 pounds ground lamb

1/2 cup dry white wine

Pasta cooking water, if needed

Freshly grated parmesan

3/4 pounds short-cut pasta, such as penne or fusilli (plain, whole wheat or brown rice)

Boil pasta in salted water to al dente. Drain and save up to 1 cup pasta water. Meantime, heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium. Add shallots, cook for several minutes until soft, then add garlic. Continue to saute a few more minutes until shallots are lightly browned; add rosemary and stir well to combine.

Add ground lamb and break up to combine. Turn up flame to medium high. When the lamb is slightly pink, deglaze with white wine and allow to reduce for a few minutes. If pan seems dry, add a little pasta water. Add cooked pasta to lamb and combine well. Serve with freshly grated parmesan, a glass of red and a vegetable such as broccoli or asparagus.

Yellow Tomato Sauce

Cool weather has led to a tomato blight, so while the season hasn't been the best, I've been blessed with a nice crop of yellow tomatoes that reseeded themselves from last year.

So, I recreated a recipe from last summer - yellow tomato sauce with garlic and basil.

Roughly chop about 10 ripe yellow tomatoes of various sizes, mince six cloves of garlic and thinly slice a red onion. Heat about 1/4 cup of olive oil, add the onion and saute until very soft. Add the tomatoes and after they break down for few moments, add the garlic. Season well with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes over medium heat. Next, add a big splash of good white wine and a handful or two of sliced fresh basil. Then, add a parmesan rind. Simply cut the rind off of a blog of parmesan cheese and throw it in. This is what makes the sauce special. 

Cook for as long as you'd like - hours if you have the time, and stir occasionally. It will reduce and become sweeter and the flavors will concentrate the longer you cook. 

Serve over pasta, as a bruschetta spread or as a base for fish or chicken. Enjoy!

Chicken with Basil "Pesto"

This meal was a good concept gone slightly awry. Grilled skinless, boneless chicken breasts marinated in garlic-infused olive oil and topped with pesto ingredients: fresh basil from my garden, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, toasted pine nuts and a squeeze of lemon.

Sounds good, yes? Yet, in the end, it was just ok. It was tasty enough, but not special. Less flavorful than I'd hoped. I was reminded that there's a reason you blend pesto ingredients together... the flavors mingle and meld and get all delicious and friendly-like.

Luckily, I had great tablemates: my mom and stepdad (husband is on the road this week). We paired the chicken with a nice green salad with tomato, avocado, basil, pine nuts, more parmesan (echoing the chicken) and balsamic vinegar, and ended the meal with fruit salad. And, we cooked and ate our meal at one of our beautiful lakefront parks, in the company of the sailboats and freighters.

I'm all for riffing on an original, and I'll keep trying until I get this one right. Next time, I'll experiment with mixing some of the ingredients before cooking the chicken instead of just layering them on separately once it's off the grill. Do you ad lib in the kitchen? Would love to hear about your successes and mishaps.

Sunday Supper

We usually eat Sunday supper with my family. This weekend, for a variety of reasons, we found ourselves alone on Sunday evening, opening up a whole new world of culinary opportunity.

Frankly, we were tempted to order pizza. Busy weekend and all. But I needed to hit the corner food market for a few items, and saw some beautiful rib-eye steaks on special. A few minutes later, I had a plan.

Steak is rarely part of our repertoire but it felt right on a crisp, sunny spring evening.

Sunday Supper Menu:

Grilled rib-eyes

Roasted local asparagus with extra virgin olive oil, parmesan shavings and lemon zest

Roasted baby sweet potatoes

Roasted cipollini onions

Sautéed portabellas and shittake mushrooms with shallot and local garlic

I dusted it all with a bit of fresh rosemary. We split one steak and saved the other for sandwiches or a salad later this week. Quick, easy and satisfying.