If we can cook it, you can cook it!

Category: 30 Minute Dinners

The Five Biggest Food Trends for 2015 plus Fine Cooking’s Rigatoni with Roasted Cauliflower, Currants and Pine Nuts

The Five Biggest Food Trends for 2015 plus Fine Cooking’s Rigatoni with Roasted Cauliflower, Currants and Pine Nuts

         Food Trends are an annual pursuit for everyone from Bon Appetit to the BBC.  The list that intrigued me most, however, came from Pinterest, the on-line picture sharing site where anyone, anywhere can post any image at all that interests them.  “Food” makes up…

Poached Salmon with Saffron Sauce and Mussels

One night, not too long ago, Andrew asked for something light for dinner.  I shouldn’t have been all that surprised because as the blog has been laden with cold weather comfort food, so has our table. I love the indulgence of these winter recipes but…

Ina Garten’s Ode to Marcella Hazan: Sicillian Grilled Swordfish and Ina’s recipe for Confetti Corn

Ina Garten’s Ode to Marcella Hazan: Sicillian Grilled Swordfish and Ina’s recipe for Confetti Corn

Victor and Marcella Hazan There is a sad anniversary this week.  It’s been a year since the world lost Marcella Hazan, that wonderfully giving Italian food prophet with whom I struck up a friendship over the internet.  Fortunately, when you are as good as Marcella,…

Poached Cod with Tomato and Saffron from Bon Appetit

Poached Cod with Tomato and Saffron from Bon Appetit

Eric Rippert Recently, Andrew and I went to hear Eric Rippert, Fish Chef Extraordinaire  and proprietor of the perennially four-starred Le Bernardin restaurant in New York.  Chef Rippert appeared at a food forum at the YMHA hosted by Adam Gopnick of The New Yorker magazine.  …

Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus, Peas and Cremini Mushrooms

Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus, Peas and Cremini Mushrooms

         Spring has been notable here for tempting us to believe it’s actually arrived. This is followed by plummeting temperatures the next day convincing us all it has not.  In New York City, you can count on the oddest collection of outfits this time of…

Napoleon’s Chicken Marengo Two Ways: A 30 Minute Dinner and a Pasta Sauce

I love a recipe with a past and this simple and satisfying Chicken dish is a prime example.  And it may be the only time when you can say you’re serving Chicken fit for an Emperor, in this case Napoleon.  There’s a myth attached to…

Shrimp Scampi, an amazingly fast Italian American Classic and the story of the Feast of the 7 Fishes.

Shrimp Scampi, an amazingly fast Italian American Classic and the story of the Feast of the 7 Fishes.

Scampi  I first wrote this post a year ago. But I thought I would repeat it again this year because it’s a wonderful explanation of an Italian tradition that many Italian Americans will uphold again this Christmas Season. And the recipe follows my mantra for…

Gratin of Nantucket Bay Scallops and Prosciutto

                    The other day I saw the sign pictured on the left announcing the annual arrival of Nantucket Bay Scallops.  Like local asparagus, there are only a few weeks a year when these little sweet morsels make their way into our market.  It’s…

Melissa Clark’s Penne with Brussels Sprouts, Chile and Pancetta

Brussels Sprouts in Winter on the North Fork of Long Island As a boy, I cannot think of a vegetable I detested quite as much at the Brussels Sprout.  These nasty little cabbages were about as appealing to me as damp pair of socks. I…

A Fish Story: Gemelli with Spicy Scallops and Snap Peas

You might want to hide after what I turned up… read on… Here’s a food writer’s dilemma for you:  Say you discovered a great recipe so full of flavor and so easy to make, you literally jumped on your MacPro and started to extoll its…

Two Ravioli Recipes so simple, I’m almost ashamed of myself: Lobster Ravioli with Creamy Tomato Sauce and Cheese Ravioli with Black Truffles and Mushroom Sauce

Two Ravioli Recipes so simple, I’m almost ashamed of myself: Lobster Ravioli with Creamy Tomato Sauce and Cheese Ravioli with Black Truffles and Mushroom Sauce

Lobster Ravioli with Creamy Tomato Sauce Cheese Ravioli with Black Truffles and Mushroom Sauce Eataly’s selection of fresh, stuffed pasta is hard to beat. One day I hope I’ll become wildly proficient in making my own Raviolis.  For the time being however, I keep thinking…

Orechiette with Sausage and Spicy Tomato Broccolini Sauce

Orechiette with Sausage and Spicy Tomato Broccolini Sauce

         Cutting down on carbs is likely the fastest way to lose weight. Candidly, cutting down on alcohol is likely even faster but since that is not going to happen, I’ll stick with cutting carbs.  But anyone who has ever lived in Italy–never mind lived,…

Mu Shu in Moments from Gourmet Magazine

Ready to be folded, Mu Shu in a Moment!            Restaurant General Tso’s Chicken the good, the bad and the ugly. In our bid to eat healthy, Chinese food has taken quite a hit. We never order it for takeout.  And our visits to…

Stir-Fried Chili Scallops with Baby Bok Choy Adapted from Fine Cooking

When I wrote about our culinary adventures in St. Barthelemy, FWI in March, one of our readers, “Mike”, got into a spirited discussion about how the scallops I’d waxed poetic over, were not local.  In fact, he was pretty irate about seafood in general and…