#96 - Spaghetti with Peas, Pancetta, and Spring Onions

We made the tuna and white bean bruschetta as an appetizer, but the main course tonight was this pasta dish from Chef Obi Wan, Jonathan Waxman.

Spaghetti with Peas, Pancetta, and Spring Onions

From Italian My Way This is a pasta with a cream sauce, with peas, spring onions, and - you guessed it - pancetta. Jonathan Waxman had a recipe for homemade pasta, but when we tried it, the dough never came out right, so we went with Plan B, and used some Barilla spaghetti. If you're not making your own pasta, this is a pretty simple recipe. You cook the pancetta in some unsalted butter, then you add the cream and greens, and you top it with some Gruyere cheese, and you're done. This was a really good alternative to your standard Alfredo sauce. When we want a simple pasta, we usually whip up an Alfredo and add whatever we have laying around - ham, peas, rotisserie chicken, whatever.

But this shows what you get if you plan out ahead of time. The pancetta goes really well with the peas and green onions, and the Gruyere cheese adds a different dimension than what we're used to.

Simple and delicious. That's what Chef Kenobi does. Make this, and you'll be pleased.

Ingredients

• 1 lb spaghetti
• 2 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup pancetta, diced
• 2 cups spring peas
• 3 spring onions, diced
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Preparation

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add the pancetta and cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the peas, spring onions, and cream and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.
5. At the same time, cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
6. Drain the pasta
7. Toss the cooked spaghetti with the sauce and Gruyere cheese and serve.

#93 - Arugula and Parmigiano Flatbread

For Emily's birthday, the Becks came down from New Jersey, and we went out to eat with both sets of our parents (and Dan and Dee) to Lia's in Chevy Chase. One of the appetizers we had was a flat bread with arugula and burrata cheese. For recipe #93, we took our inspiration from that appetizer to have another Hungry Hundred Original.

Arugula and Parmigiano Flatbread

A Hungry Hundred Original Recipe We're kind of in an arugula phase right now, but maybe that's because arugula is delicious. Other than that, all you need is some pizza dough, Parmigiano cheese, and a few other things. So we start out by rolling out the pizza dough and cooking it with just a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and some sprigs of fresh rosemary. You're going to want fresh rosemary, so you can remove the sprigs once the dough comes out of the oven. Then you dress the arugula with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper. Once you take out the dough from the oven, you discard the rosemary, cover it with the dressed arugula, and top with the Parmigiano. And that's it. So this is a pretty good little appetizer. For being so simple, it's really tasty. It's light and flavorful, and - this may not sound like a good thing, but we mean it in a good way - it's kinda like a salad pizza. This is so simple, you should give it a shot next time you have some pizza dough.

Ingredients

• 1 lb pizza dough
• Olive oil
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• Arugula
• Balsamic vinegar
• Parmigiano cheese, sliced

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Roll out the dough on a working surface using a small amount of flour and your hands.
3. Transfer the rolled dough to a pizza stone.
4. Using a pastry brush, cover dough with olive oil.
5. Salt and pepper the dough.
6. Place full sprigs of rosemary on the dough.
7. Bake until lightly golden, about 25 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and discard rosemary.
9. Place the arugula in a medium bowl.
10. Add enough olive oil and vinegar to coat lightly.
11. Add salt and pepper and toss to combine.
12. Cut flatbread into small slices.
13. Top each slice with a small pile of arugula and a piece of Parmigiano cheese.

#92 - Arugula Salad with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts

It's December, and we're winding down the 100 recipes! This one is #92 so after today's salad, there'll only be eight more recipes to go!

Arugula Salad with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese, and Candied Walnuts

From Bon Appetit We saw this recipe in Bon Appetit and had to try it. It's a salad with candied nuts on top. That's right, salad with candy. Like with the Caesar Salad we made a few months back, the first step is to make homemade croutons. Yet another thing that makes this recipe awesome. Then you caramelize the walnuts, caramelize the onions, and put it all together, topping with some goat cheese. So how was it? Well, let's just put it this way. We may never make another salad again.

This was so tasty with the bitterness of the arugula meeting the sweetness of the walnuts, combining with the flavors of the onions and goat cheese, and the crunch of the croutons. What's not to like? Here's what you need to do to make a salad that everybody you know or care to know will enjoy.

Caramelized Onions

Ingredients

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

1. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onions and saute until golden, about 18 minutes.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Sprinkle with the vinegar and stir to blend.
5. Season with salt and pepper.

Candied Walnuts

Ingredients

• 1/6 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/8 cup water
• 1 Tbs butter
• Large pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup walnut halves

Preparation

1. Combine sugar, water, butter, and salt in a medium skillet over medium heat.
2. Bring to a boil, whisking.
3. Boil for 1 minute.
4. Add the walnuts and stir.
5. Toss until the syrup forms a glaze on the nuts, about 3 minutes.
6. Transfer the nuts to a sheet of foil and quickly separate nuts with forks.
7. Cool completely.

Croutons

Ingredients

• 2 cups 1/2-inch cubes crustless country bread
• 1 1/2 Tbs olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Place the bread cubes in a large bowl.
3. Drizzle with the olive oil, tossing to coat evenly.
4. Spread the cubes on a rimmed baking sheet.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Bake croutons until crisp, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.

Salad

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 5-oz package baby arugula
• 1 5-oz package soft goat cheese, broken into 1/2-inch pieces, chilled

Preparation

1. Whisk olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place the arugula in a large bowl.
4. Drop in onions, tossing to distribute evenly.
5. Add nuts, croutons, and goat cheese.
6. Toss with enough dressing to coat lightly.

#91 - Parsnip and Apple Soup

As he did with the Sorrel Soup back in September, Farmer Randy helped us out with a new recipe by giving us this parsnip and apple soup recipe and providing practically all the ingredients.

Parsnip and Apple Soup

From Star Hollow Farm This soup has parsnips and apples (as the name suggests), and the cumin-corriander-spice combo we've used three other times. You start out by chopping your apples, parsnips, and onion, and then you plop them in a pot with some melted butter. Then you add the spice mix and stir it all together. Then you add some chicken stock and let it simmer for about half an hour. Eventually you puree the whole thing and add some cream.

So this is a weird one. As you're cooking it, you're smelling that spice mix, and you're adding chicken stock. But when you eat it, it is not as savory as you might expect. The apples really cut through it, and it's very balanced and tasty. Again, as you're cooking it, you don't think that coriander and cumin and curry powder would go well with apples, but that was the best part.

So, different, but delicious. And we probably prefer this one to the sorrel soup, which if you remember we liked quite a bit. So there. If you find yourself in the possession of parsnips, try this:

Ingredients

• 1 Tbs butter
• 1 lb parsnips, thinly sliced
• 1 lb apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Chives, chopped

Preparation

1. In a large soup pot, heat the butter over medium heat.
2. When butter is foaming, add the parsnips, apples, and onions.
3. Soften them, but do not let them color.
4. Add the curry powder, cumin, coriander, coriander, and garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring well.
5. Pour in the chicken stock slowly, stirring until well mixed.
6. Cover and simmer gently for about half an hour, or until the parsnips are quite soft.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. Using a blender, liquidize the soup.
9. Add the cream and reheat, without boiling.
10. Serve garnished with the chopped chives.

#85 - Pancetta, Cherry Tomato, Burrata, and Scallion Pizza

Apparently Borders went out of business. So when we saw signs outside for like 100% off, we went inside and found some cookbooks for super cheap. One of them was by Jonathan Waxman, the Obi Wan of Top Chef Masters, and we snatched it right up.

Pancetta, Cherry Tomato, Burrata, and Scallion Pizza

From Italian My Way The recipe is a pizza with burrata cheese, an extra creamy mozzarella. If you can't find any at your grocery store, normal mozzarella will work, and it'll only be a little different than intended. Besides the burrata, the other main ingredients are cherry tomatoes and scallions. So chop and mix. Then you roll out the dough (we used some from our favorite New Jersey bakery, but Waxman's got his own recipe for that too), and then add chopped pancetta, the tomato-scallion mix, and the burrata. This was a bizarre pizza. The burrata makes the whole thing soupy - in a good way - and the green scallions, which don't look like the most appetizing pizza toppings, go really well with the pancetta and tomatoes.

So the recipe, despite its eclectic ingredients, is actually really good. Our biggest issue was that we didn't cook it just right, so the bottom of the crust was a little underdone, but that was our fault. If you can find burrata, you might wanna try this. Just make to sure cook it through.

Ingredients

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1/2 lb burrata
• 1 lb pizza dough
• 1/2 cup pancetta, diced into small pieces
• 1/4 cup Parmigiano cheese
• 2 Tbs olive oil, plus extra for greasing the pan

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Slice the tomatoes in half on the equator and place in a bowl.
3. Mince the scallions, add to the tomatoes, and toss well.
4. Dice the burrata into small pieces.
5. Lightly brush the bottom of the pizza pan with olive oil.
6. Roll out the dough on a working surface using a small amount of flour and your hands.
7. Transfer the rolled dough to the greased pan.
8. Sprinkle the dough with the pancetta, then the scallions and tomatoes, and finally the burrata.
9. Spread the Parmigiano evenly over the pizza and drizzle the oil on top.
10. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden on the top and bottom.
11. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

#81 - Chicken Pot Pie with Savory Topping

Mama Beck sent us this recipe to try out because she said it was a pretty good chicken pot pie. Let's see.

Chicken Pot Pie with Savory Topping

From Cooks Illustrated We're not big celery fans, but whenever we have a recipe that calls for a little bit, we struggle to find the right amount. Normally celery comes in quantities designed for a family of ravenous rabbits. So what we find ourselves doing is buying little snack packs that come with celery, baby carrots, broccoli, and a little ranch dressing. That way we have the right amount of celery, and we can snack on some other vegetables while we cook. This is a little unusual chicken pot pie because it's not really a pie. You put the filling ingredients in a casserole dish and crumble a pie crust-like topping on top. This is kind of a one pot meal. You'll actually need a pot and a bowl because you cook some ingredients in the pot, pull them out and put them in a bowl, and put more ingredients back in the pot. Well, you'll need a pot, a bowl, and that casserole dish we talked about. And an oven. And some sort of timing device. So yeah, you'll need a little more than just a pot. Ooooooh. This was amazing. The filling was super creamy and earthy, the crust topping had a really nice flavor of Parmigiano cheese to it, and the whole thing was just delicious. Good call Mama Beck. Get one pot, a bunch of other things, and make this one. You'll thank us.

Savory Topping

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 6 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and chilled
• 1 oz Parmigiano cheese
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs heavy cream

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 450 and adjust tack to upper-middle position.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a large bowl.
3. Sprinkle butter pieces over the top of flour mixture.
4. Using fingers, rub butter into flour until it resembles coarse cornmeal.
5. Stir in Parmigiano and mix to combine.
6. Add cream and stir until just combined.
7. Crumble mixture into 1/2 to 3/4-inch irregularly-shaped pieces and place onto a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.
8. Bake until fragrant and starting to brown, about 10 to 13 minutes.
9. Set aside.

Filling

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 2 small celery ribs, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 10 oz cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps wiped clean and sliced thinly
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 4 Tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 Tbs fresh parsley leaves, minced
• 3/4 cup frozen baby peas

Preparation

1. Bring chicken and broth to simmer in a covered Dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Cook until the chicken is just done, about 8 to 12 minutes.
3. Transfer cooked chicken to a large bowl.
4. Pour broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a measuring cup and reserve.
5. Heat 1 Tbs vegetable oil in the Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering.
6. Add onion, carrots, celery, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.
7. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
8. While vegetables are cooking, shred the chicken into small pieces.
9. Transfer cooked vegetables into the bowl with the chicken and set aside.
10. Heat the remaining Tbs oil in the empty Dutch oven medium heat until shimmering.
11. Add the mushrooms, and cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms have released their juices, about 5 minutes.
12. Remove cover and stir in soy sauce and tomato paste.
13. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently, until liquid has evaporated, mushrooms are well browned, and dark fond begins to form on surface of the pan, about 5 minutes.
14. Transfer mushrooms to bowl with chicken and vegetables and set aside.
15. Heat butter in empty Dutch oven oven medium-high heat.
16. When foaming subsides, stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.
17. Slowly whisk in reserved chicken broth and milk.
18. Bring to simmer, scraping pan bottom with a wooden spoon to loosen browned bits, then continue to simmer until sauce fully thickens, about 1 minute.
19. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
20. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and 2 Tbs parsley.
21. Stir chicken-vegetable mixture and peas into the sauce.
22. Pour mixture into a 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
23. Scatter crumble topping evenly over the filling.
24. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet until filling is bubbling and topping is well browned about 12 to 15 minutes.
25. Sprinkle with remaining Tbs parsley and serve.

#78 - Butcher's Ragu with Fusilli

Looking through Food & Wine magazine, we saw this recipe for a ragu by Mario Batali. Since we have his Dutch oven, and we like ragu, we thought we'd give it a shot.

Butcher's Ragu with Fusilli

From Mario Batali Now this isn't any ordinary ragu - it's Butcher's Ragu. That means it has like 10 types of meat. Well just three really, ham, pancetta, and ground beef. So you have your carrots, celery, garlic, and onions, and then you add the three meats to it in Mario Batali's Dutch oven, or whatever big pot you have at home. Once that's browned, you have the next slightly unusual part of the recipe. There's no tomato sauce, it's just made with tomato paste. So when you're done, the sauce is a lighter version that gets its liquid from the browned meat, some milk, white wine, and water. The verdict for this one? Not bad.

The things that made it unique were probably the parts we liked the least. There probably was a little too much meat, and the sauce wasn't as saucy as we'd like.

So was it tasty? Yes. Would we make it again? Probably not. Here's the recipe for you, if you feel like a meaty pasta.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 medium carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 medium celery rib, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 4 oz pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 lb baked ham, cut into 1/4-inch dice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup water
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 lb fusilli
• Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese, grated for serving

Preparation

1. In a large dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add the carrot, celery, onion, and garlic and cook until softened but not browned, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the pancetta and ground beef and cook until no longer pink, about 8 minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until shiny and rust-colored, about 10 minutes.
5. Add the ham, milk, white wine, and water to the pot and simmer the ragu over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until it is thick and saucy, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
6. Season the ragu with salt and pepper.
7. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the fusilli until al dente.
8. Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce.
9. Stir well to coat the pasta.
10. Serve the pasta right away with grated Parmigiano or Pecorino cheese.

#77 - Chicken Breast with Fontina and Prosciutto

Wow, three recipes in two and a half days. Not bad. This one's a chicken dish.

Chicken Breast with Fontina and Prosciutto

From Bon Appetit This is a chicken breast, stuffed with prosciutto, fontina, and boursin cheese. Yes, Johnny had a say in this one. Basically, you mix the two cheeses, the chopped prosciutto, and some basil together in a bowl, and then you stuff it under the skin of the chicken breast. You saute that in some butter, and then you make a little Marsala sauce to top it all off with. This dish was alright. We had some trouble stuffing the skin, cooking the chicken, and flipping it to the other side without everything spilling out / overcooking, but that's probably 50% the breasts' fault and 50% us not having too much experience with anything like it. We do have some experience with Marsala (fail), and we did much better with that this time, but it still was not 100% right. So the flavors are good, the idea is great, but our execution wasn't that great. Maybe you can make this better than we could.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Fontina cheese, coarsely grated
• 1/6 cup (packed) Boursin cheese
• 1/6 cup (packed) prosciutto, chopped
• 1 Tbs fresh basil, chopped
• 2 large boneless chicken breasts with skin
• 1 Tbs chilled butter, divided
• 3/8 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1/4 cup dry Marsala
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 300.
2. Combine cheeses, prosciutto, and basil in a small bowl and season with pepper.
3. Run fingers under the skin of the chicken to loosen.
4. Spread the stuffing under the skin.
5. Season both sides of the stuffed chicken breast with salt and pepper.
6. Melt 1/2 Tbs of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
7. Add the chicken, skin-side down, and cook until brown, about 3 minutes per side.
8. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until chicken is cooked through, turning once, for about 10 minutes.
9. Transfer chicken to a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven to keep warm.
10. Add broth and Marsala to the skillet.
11. Bring to a boil and cook until the sauce is reduced to 1/4 of a cup, scraping up browned bits, 3 to 4 minutes.
12. Remove from heat and whisk in 1/2 Tbs butter.
13. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
14. Place chicken on plate.
15. Add any juices from the baking sheet to the sauce.
16. Spoon sauce over the chicken and serve.