Orecchiette with Broccoli Ricotta Puree

Aside from my salsa mishap, I had a wonderful weekend! I saw two different sets of friends on Friday that I hadn't seen in forever and Job came back in town for a fun visit. We all had a blast and enjoyed having our old crew together:

I was also completely excited because my sweet friend, Abbey, gave me my late birthday present! She got me 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child and I'm just psyched to get into the meat of that book. The techniques are tough but I have no French cookbooks and there isn't a better one to begin with, in my opinion. I want to make cheese souffle immediately. 

It was sort of a deja vu weekend since Allison and I had another race (finished in 36 minutes this time!) on Sunday morning so I decided to have her over for dinner again on Saturday night. I was originally thinking of doing grilled pork tenderloin with homemade hoisin sauce but I failed to get the grill pan last week that I'd planned to buy. So, I decided to create my own recipe and break out the food processor since I don't use it as often as I'd like. I tossed some ideas around and decided on orecchiette with broccoli ricotta puree.

I blanched the broccoli in the pasta water while I sauteed plenty of onion and garlic in olive oil. I made my trusty garlic oil with lots of crushed red pepper but used half of it to cook my chicken in and the other half to coat the pasta, as usual. I tossed the broccoli and onions together in my food processor, added the ricotta cheese, and a generous amount of salt and cracked black pepper. I processed that all together with a light stream of olive oil:

I combined the mixture with the chicken and hot orecchiette, a little more black pepper, and it was such a springy and fresh looking dish:

Overall, it was super tasty but there was something a little off. It just wasn't a star like you need a "sauce" to be if it's going to be the main thing served over pasta. Allison had a terrific suggestion (that I think is completely right on) that it would be great as a crostini topping. I agree totally with some finely diced balsamic tomatoes on top perhaps. I'll certainly make this again and see if it works better that way. I love coming up with recipes though and I was happy with this one!

We both ended up having a terrific run on Sunday finishing faster than last week and we got to spend the day with our lovely friends, Kristine and Camille. I finished off the weekend with delicious Indian at Brick Lane with Job and Mailande and it was off to bed early for me. Now, I'm just counting down for Brant to get here this weekend, weeee!

One Down, Three To Go!

Races, that is! I ran the JP Morgan 4 Miler this past Sunday and I happily beat my last time by 5 minutes. I ran it in 38:02 so I'm getting faster, very slowly but surely, which makes me happy. This was the first of four races I have coming up so I'm practicing different types of preparation to see which works the best for my body. For shorter runs, not much prep is necessary but I like to figure out which combinations seem to fuel my body the best. It's like a little game I play with myself.

Anyway, I stayed home on Saturday night and had Allison (she was running too) over for dinner so I could cook a new pasta dish. I decided on gemelli pasta with escarole and pancetta. As I progress toward hopeful chefdom, I'm making it a rule that my cooking involve a new ingredient weekly at the very least. I'd never cooked with pancetta before which even shocks me! So, I chose this as something new and to get in my carbs before race day.

The dish is from a Food Network recipe I saw recently and it was delicious. I didn't go the route of using the breadcrumbs, only to eliminate extra carbs, but I didn't miss them. I loved the punch of the jalapeno vs. crushed red pepper. I often don't think to cook with jalapeno because my Italian roots don't steer me far from my beloved red pepper flakes. It worked nicely in this dish, though. I started by toasting the pine nuts with fresh cracked black pepper and salt while I sauteed the jalapeno, garlic, onion and pancetta:

I combined all the ingredients while the pasta cooked. One trick I like to do with pasta is to always "season" that first. I'll usually make an infused oil of some kind to toss the noodles in because every layer in cooking should be seasoned, especially with a bland ingredient like pasta. With this dish, I made garlic oil (just toss some minced garlic and salt in 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of olive oil and warm on super low heat so the flavors combine) so I tossed that with the hot pasta and then added everything else. It was absolutely delicious:

I loved the crunch of the escarole, the saltiness of the pancetta, and the pine nuts added that last creamy texture that tied it all together. I don't think I would have liked the dish as much without my garlic oil trick but that's just me. ;)

Oh, by the way, this dish wasn't the best for my run the next day because it was on the heavier side with the pine nuts and pancetta. That's what experimenting is for though, right? I still enjoyed every bite and now have a new (terrific!) recipe to add to the books!

I'm Still Full...

I mention a lot in things I write that time passes so fast and I'm certainly feeling that way today as Thanksgiving is just about a week behind us. I think part of why I get stuck thinking about this is because I've got this huge desire to do something great and make a difference in this world somehow and I feel like the days are going by too quickly to make that happen. Ok, that would be a post for another time. Let me stay on track with talking about how tremendous Thanksgiving was this year!

Allison and I stuck to tradition totally and it proved to be yet another delicious feast. This was our 8th year cooking together and both of us agree that this was our best yet! I had gotten out of work early the day before so, after a two hour phone date with Amanda, I finally got the rest of our errands done and went over to Allison's to spend the night. I made quiche for dinner (really so we could have leftovers for breakfast to expand our stomachs for the day, of course), we drank wine, and talked about things we are thankful for this year. Come Thanksgiving morning, we were up early to get the turkey in the oven and begin the day:

You see all that garlic on the outside? He's also stuffed with it underneath the skin and it turned out freakin' delicious. We were quite proud of the turkey this year. I won't be over the top in uploading food pictures (even though I want to) but take a look at that bird:

Yum yum! We had this awesome goal of eating early so we weren't too stuffed for pumpkin pie but that so didn't happen. We didn't make pie last year either because we were so full and I swore that would never happen again, since pumpkin pie is one of my favorite things. Wellll...it went the same way this year, boooo! Anyway, we did our usual menu consisting of turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, and stuffing - everything homemade of course - and it was just so good. I love the joy that comes from Thanksgiving dinner and honestly the comfort of tradition. Growing up in my house wasn't the easiest thing but we established traditions early on for Thanksgiving and Christmas that I absolutely cling to every year. I think that's because those were two times in our house that were truly happy and I equate the holidays with laughter and love, probably more than the average person would. At any rate, the tradition Allison and I have of cooking with one another is so very special to me and I know one day it will have to end (should I ever get married in this lifetime) so the two of us just hold dear the memories we make and the blessings that come from it. So, another Thanksgiving down and onward we head towards Christmas! I go home to GA in less than three weeks and I'm so excited, I might just explode. I'm ready to sit by the fire, drink wine, and be with my family, dog, and dear sweet friends. :)