Scallion Gratin

This tasty springtime side will have you craving seconds

Spring is prime time for scallions. Fresh local ones are available in farmers’ markets. And you can grow them easily in a home garden.

So why not give them a starring role at the table? This creamy, cheesy Scallion Gratin makes a great side dish for poultry, meat, or seafood.

But it’s so good, you may be tempted to double or triple the recipe – and make a meal out of it.

Kentucky Hot Brown Sandwich

This legendary dish is the perfect home for leftover turkey

Thanksgiving dinner is grand. But then come the leftovers. Turkey again?

No worries. Give those stray slices some swagger in this scrumptious sandwich.

The Kentucky Hot Brown (aka Hot Brown, aka Louisville Hot Brown) is an open-faced turkey sandwich smothered in tangy, cheesy Mornay sauce.

It’s quick and easy to make. So you can get out of the kitchen in plenty of time for those Black Friday sales.

Baked Jalapeño Popper Dip

Liven up your next party with this easy and zesty dip

That Super Bowl thingy is coming up soon. Party time! And what’s a party without dip?

This Baked Jalapeño Popper Dip would be perfect for game day. You can put it together quickly, then socialize while it bakes. Score!

Not in a Super Bowl party mood? Then just call this dinner.

Green Chile Cauliflower 'n Cheese

A slimmed down, kicked up twist on mac ‘n cheese

We love mac ‘n cheese. And it loves us back. So if we eat too much, it sticks to our ribs. Like, permanently.

So sometimes we make a healthier, less fattening version by substituting cauliflower for macaroni. The cheese keeps this dish from being truly low cal, of course. But you get the idea.

And this dish tastes great! Spicy green chilies love to snuggle with cheese, and both blend happily with cauliflower.

This dish makes a great side for a weeknight, or even a fancy weekend dinner. Plus, it’s hearty enough to serve as a main – just add salad for a complete meal.

And if you’re looking for a new dish to accompany your Thanksgiving turkey or ham? You just found it.

Easy No-Stir Oven Polenta

Serve this gluten-free goodie as a side, or as the bed for a saucy main

Polenta is the food world’s shape-shifter. Essentially cornmeal porridge, it’s a dish that can be served any number of ways, any time of day. All good—except you have to cook it first. And traditional recipes are labor-intensive, calling for nonstop stirring for 30 minutes or more. How exciting.

So imagine our delight when we discovered a foolproof way to make polenta that requires little more than measuring out the ingredients. And that cooks virtually unattended. All the great flavor without any of the tedium. Sign us up for that.

Serve this dish at your next dinner party, and the guests will think you spent hours slaving in the kitchen. We won’t tell if you won’t.

Italian Pork Ragu for Pasta or Polenta

Think of this as Italian Pulled Pork

Cooler weather has arrived in our part of the world, so we’re looking for heartier fare. Like this luscious meat ragu.

In Italian, “ragù” refers to a meat-based sauce. In the US, we mostly use beef for Italian Pasta Sauce. But pork makes a tasty change.

Serve this ragu by tossing it with pasta or ladling it over creamy soft polenta. But be sure to wear ear protection when you dish this up. Because once your guests taste it, their cheers will be deafening.

Winter Squash Gratin

A hearty dish for fall and winter

When autumn arrives, grocers start to feature colorful, thick-skinned winter squash. Their variety seems endless:  hubbard, acorn, kabocha, butternut, turban. And of course pumpkin (a name many people use generically for winter squash, though here in the US, “pumpkin” refers specifically to the big orange-hued squash that we use to make Jack-o’-lanterns—and pie).

You can often use the various types of winter squash interchangeably. Although their flavors and textures may differ somewhat, they all bear a close family resemblance. Certainly all of them work in a dish like this savory gratin, where the deep flavor of squash combines well with sharp Gruyère cheese.

This dish is almost a meal in itself, but it also makes a terrific side for roast fowl or baked ham. So it’s a handy recipe to have on hand when you start planning Thanksgiving and Christmas menus.

But you might want to prepare this dish right away—just to test it out, you know. You’ll be glad you did, because the flavor is wonderful. And you can pat yourself on the back for planning ahead.

Shaved Artichoke and Mushroom Salad

Welcome Spring with this Fresh-Tasting Raw Salad

Artichokes need some taming before they’re kitchen ready.  That’s because they’re actually thistles.  The mature plant has an inedible choke and sharp thorns.  So we need to trim them.

Then we need to cook the artichokes before we consume them.  Usually. 

Would you believe you can eat artichokes raw?  Well, you can, although you have to prepare them properly.  Which means slicing them thinly (i.e., shaving them) so they’re easy to eat.
 
Why bother, you might ask, when a cooked artichoke is so delicious served with melted butter or Hollandaise Sauce? Well, because it’s nice to have variety. Besides, you’ve never really tasted an artichoke until you’ve eaten one raw — the flavor has a whole ‘nother dimension.

Toss a shaved artichoke with some mushrooms, lemon juice, and extra virgin olive oil, and you have a salad fit for royalty.

That’s you, right?

Chopped Kale Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing

This Caesar-Style Salad Is Perfect for Fall and Winter

Kale tastes better after it’s been exposed to frost — which is why we see so much of it in our markets starting in October and extending into winter.  Its peak flavor and growing season arrive just when other locally grown greens become scarce. 

Though kale is typically cooked, it can also make a terrific raw salad.  The trick is to finely chop or “shave” the fresh kale. 

Because kale has big, bold flavor, you need to use a dressing that is equally rambunctious.  What could be better than a riff on the classic Caesar dressing?  Here I use extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice to mellow sharp Dijon mustard and pungent anchovies.  This combo creates a dressing that, when tossed with kale, creates a lively flavor combo that dances on your tongue.  Add some sharp cheese and you’ll be blissed out, guaranteed.

This salad is easy to make.  And it’s equally at home served with soup and bread, or as the first course of an elegant meal.  With fall and winter entertaining season here, this is a timely dish you’ll soon learn to love.

Easy Cheese Straws

Make ‘em Long, Short, or even Round — This Traditional Snack Is Perfect for Entertaining

Looking for an easy-munching snack that delivers better flavor than anything you’d buy in a box?  Something that works as an appetizer or at a cocktail party?  Something casual, but special?

How about Cheese Straws — a traditional Southern snack that wins lip-smacking plaudits at summer festivities and fall celebrations alike?

You can buy these in tins or boxes at upper-end groceries or through mail-order gourmet establishments, but you’re paying big bucks for what is essentially grated cheese mixed with butter and flour.  Something that you can mix together in minutes at far less cost.

And when they’re freshly baked?  We’re talking mouth paradise.

Once you learn how to make these, you may never buy a supermarket snack again.

Pesto Pasta

Fresh Basil in the Market Means Pesto Season Is Here

Have you been seeing a lot of fresh basil in farmers’ markets lately? Have the basil plants in your garden become lush and abundant, seemingly overnight? Yup, that means warm weather is here to stay — and basil is in season.

Basil is an extraordinarily flavorful herb, useful in all sorts of recipes. But it’s the diva in Pesto, where it conspires with olive oil, pine nuts, a hint of garlic, and (almost always) Parmesan cheese to form a substance so addictive that it would be banned if it wasn’t so wholesome. And you can make it in about 5 minutes.

If you have another 10 minutes or so, you can make Pesto Pasta, a stellar main course dish. What’s not to like?

Gratin Dauphinois

French for Fancy Scalloped Potatoes

OK, there’s a slight difference:  Scalloped Potatoes often are sliced more thickly, and the dish can be made without cheese.  Gratin Dauphinois always contains cheese — which helps make it rich and creamy.

But if you know how to make Scalloped Potatoes, you already know how to make Gratin Dauphinois.  And even if you don’t know how to make Scalloped Potatoes, no worries:  This is an easy dish.

When you bring your Scalloped Potatoes Gratin Dauphinois to the table and tell your guests what you’re serving, they’ll be impressed.  What a fancy dish!  French, too.  Who knew you were such an accomplished cook? 

But just wait until they taste it.  You’ll want to cover your ears, because their cheering will be that loud.

Spinach Salad with Parmesan

Freshly Grated Cheese Makes This Dish Sing

Although an elaborately constructed salad can be a great main course (think Salade Niçoise), most of us prefer to use salad as a light starter that sharpens the palate for the rest of the meal.

The best salads often have only a few well-chosen ingredients. Mixed together expertly, however, they can deliver a distinct, clear taste that lingers agreeably on the tongue.

A great example is this Spinach Salad — a simple dish that delivers superb flavor and takes only a few minutes to prepare.

Fettuccine Alfredo

A Perfect Dinner for Two — or for Entertaining Special Friends

Fettuccine Alfredo appears frequently on Italian restaurant menus, particularly those that concentrate on northern Italian food.  The really pricey places might shave fresh white truffles over the pasta, sending an already sumptuous dish into the stratosphere.

Restaurants with a high “snoot” factor used to prepare it tableside.  That’s rarely seen these days — maybe because it’s a bit over the top.  But it’s also authentic.  Alfredo di Lelio, the inventor of the dish and proprietor of the Roman restaurant now called Alfredo alla Scrofa, used to do the same. 

His eatery was a hit with tourists during the Jazz Age.  Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks reportedly visited Alfredo’s restaurant in 1927 and took a liking to his signature dish.  According to Wikipedia, they presented di Lelio with “a golden fork and spoon”— which he then began using to serve his fettucine.

Despite its aura of elegance and luxury, Fettuccine Alfredo is actually a simple and quick recipe.  Once you have your pasta-cooking water at a boil, you can prepare and be eating this dish in under 5 minutes.

And you don’t need a gold fork and spoon.

Pasta Puttanesca

This Classic with the “Naughty” Name is a Great Summer Dish

Although I enjoy Pasta Puttanesca year round, it always seems particularly wonderful this time of year. That’s because the dish is best when cooked for only 15 or 20 minutes — ideal when you don’t want to heat the kitchen with a long-simmering sauce.

And the naughty name? I’ll get to that.

Pasta Cacio e Pepe

Romano Cheese & Black Pepper Combine in this Easy-to-Make Classic

Cacio e Pepe is an extremely popular pasta dish in Rome. Cacio is Italian for “cheese” and pepe means pepper. Combined with pasta, they form a deceptively simple dish that delivers big flavor.

The cheese of choice is Pecorino Romano, an Italian cheese made of sheep’s milk. It’s similar to Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano), but has a more rough and robust flavor that is also saltier.

Black pepper is an ingredient we all know. Freshly ground pepper, and lots of it, is a large part of what makes this dish delicious.

And the best part of all? Pasta Cacio e Pepe is extremely fast and easy to make. It’s a great dish for a quick dinner — or as a snack after a night on the town.

Old-School Macaroni & Cheese

Traditional Flavor Worthy of Grown Ups 

Macaroni and Cheese may be the ultimate comfort food.  There’s just something pleasing and satisfying about pasta enrobed in a rich cheese sauce, baked to golden goodness.

But the versions of Mac ‘n Cheese we usually eat in the United States are “quick” dishes with less than full flavor.  Harried cooks generally prepare them from a “blue box” or use one of the myriad stovetop recipes available on the internet.

Those versions can be good enough, and many are kiddy favorites.  But they simply can’t compare to the traditional (and somewhat more time-consuming) recipe presented here, which involves making a cheese sauce.

I suggest making this traditional Mac ‘n Cheese on a night when you have an extra 20 minutes or so to spend in the kitchen.  The deep flavor this recipe delivers is so good that I’d proudly serve the dish to company, complete with a nice bottle of wine.

When you think about it, macaroni and cheese isn’t all that different from Fettuccine Alfredo (both contain pasta, butter, milk/cream, cheese — and little else).  And who wouldn’t serve fettuccine on a special occasion?

My Mac ‘n Cheese is so good your guests will come back for seconds.  And probably lick the serving dish clean.

Pasta with Quick Tomato and Bacon Sauce

Combining Two Italian Classics

Two of the more famous tomato-based pasta sauces can be found in pasta all’arrabbiata and pasta all’amatriciana.

Pasta all’arrabbiata — which means “angry” pasta — features a sauce that combines tomato, olive oil, and red pepper flakes (the “angry” part).  Many recipes add garlic.  This sauce traditionally is served over spaghetti, though other pasta shapes often substitute.

Pasta all’amatriciana, which originated in the Italian town of Amatrice, adds guanciale or pancetta and (usually) onions to the mix.  But it leaves out the garlic.  Guanciale is salt-cured pork jowl and pancetta is salt-cured pork belly — it’s like American bacon, except that it’s unsmoked and contains no sugar (which often is added to bacon).  The traditional pasta for all’amatriciana is bucatini.  This shape is similar to spaghetti, but has a small hole running down the center of the pasta strand.

Both of these sauces are excellent and quick cooking, and either one makes a great topping for pasta.  But I like to mix the two recipes together to form a sauce that (to me at least) is even tastier.

Red Pepper and Onion Frittata

Most of us don’t have time for the traditional American breakfast of bacon and eggs these days. We’re busy, so we often grab something quick and easy before rushing out the door. Besides, eggs have taken a bum rap the last couple of decades. They’re nothing but little cholesterol bombs, we’ve been told — to be avoided at all costs! For some, they’ve become a forgotten food.

Fortunately for food lovers everywhere, medical research now shows that eggs eaten in moderation have no negative health effects (see here and here). (Of course, I’m no medical expert. So if your cholesterol runs hot, you will want to discuss your diet with your doctor.)

Eggs are full of healthy protein and carry a modest caloric cost (a large egg has only 70 calories). But where to fit them into our diet? Breakfast seems the logical choice, but we still have that time issue.

Enter the frittata — a quick, delicious dish that is perfect for dinner. Add a salad or a hunk of French bread (and perhaps a glass of white vino) and you have a complete meal.