Pasta al Pomodoro

O.m.g.

Who else got the fabulous May 2011 bon appetit Italy Issue? This is the pasta on the cover, from an amazing article called "Pasta Perfect: a BA cooking manifesto." bon appetit, this is what you should be doing every issue: putting together an article based on skills the home cook can use to elevate the featured dish to restaurant quality. One of my favorite quotes: "It's a unified, flavor-packed dish, not a bowl of noodles with a bunch of sauce dumped on top." So true! Why have I never noticed that I dump at home, but restaurants blend sauce and pasta together?

And the gushing continues: never again will I underestimate a simple pasta with pomodoro sauce. The sauce, made with only olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes, crushed red pepper, basil and parmesan, was simple and classic, yet also tangy, spicy, creamy and fresh. The sauce took a bit of time to put together, but for me, from now on, this is it. No cheating, no substitutes.

Next up from this article? The cacio e pepe. Can't wait!

Penne with Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella

Week 1, day 2. (Are we done yet? Almost.)

From here on out I am referring to this recipe as deconstructed eggplant parm. Not sure why I didn't pick up on this from the ingredients-- tomato, eggplant, mozzarella, pasta, olive oil, garlic-- but I didn't, and it was a total surprise when I took my first bite. Yum! Just a smidge lighter than classic eggplant parm; summertime eggplant parm, if you will? The mint leaves help add to the freshness.

Since I wasn't on board yet with the final form this would take, you could understand my confusion about what to do with the mozzarella cubes. Should they go in the hot pasta? Or should it cool a little so they could maintain their shape? The answer is the former, as the gooey mozzarella strings really connect this dish. One note, although my husband disagrees, if you've bought a block of mozzarella that is 0.6 pounds, instead of 0.5 pounds, don't just throw the extra in; it's too much cheese!

Maple-Glazed Pork Chops with Toasted Pecans

From Food & Wine's Thanksgiving issue last year, a new pork chop favorite: Maple-Glazed Pork Chops with Toasted Pecans. I can't really add description to the name: these pork chops are simply grilled, covered with a glaze for the last few minutes of cooking and sprinkled with toasted pecans. The recipe makes 12 (!) but is fine cut into fourths for those of us not running ski lodges in Vermont (I think that was what the associated article was about).

I don't have much more to say about this recipe, except that it reminds me of this maple-glazed chicken my mom used to make. She went out of town once and I tried to recreate it for my dad and brother using the recipe and it tasted nothing like hers. Come to find out, she'd thrown out the recipe and just started covering chicken breasts with straight maple syrup and baking them. Her version was better. (But I wouldn't try that instead of these! The mustard, cider vinegar, rosemary and Sriracha provide a real enhancement to the maple syrup flavor.)

Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Thai Coconut Sauce

The first time I made this grilled mahi mahi from Bon Appetit's July 2010 issue I almost chickened out midway through. Clam juice does not smell good; neither does fish sauce. Also, the "Dinner in Half an Hour" tag is a lie, and it became painfully apparent that my rice had cooked past the point of eatability while I was prepping the first seven ingredients. But! I perservered, and I would like to tell all the clam juice-hating commenters on epicurious.com to try this recipe again as written. Give the sauce the full amount of time to reduce (8 to 9 minutes wasn't enough for me; try 12-14) and you will be rewarded with a complex, spicy, authentic Thai-style sauce that wakes up the mellow mahi mahi and rice. Their cooking time for the mahi mahi was also accurate for my grill pan on medium high; both times I've made this I've wanted to take it off early, and then realized the center of the fish hadn't quite cooked through. 2 teaspoons of serrano chile is very spice; I think I'll try 1 1/2 next time. If you want something mild, I'd try 1/2 teaspoon instead of the full teaspoon. Another note as to proportion: because the sauce is so yummy, I prepare this as a two-serving meal, using the same sauce measurements but 14 to 16 ounces of fish. I know this sounds gluttonous, but per Bon Appetit's measurements, 2 servings of the recipe as prepared is only 438 calories, and my version with a smaller portion of fish would be slightly less than that (plus calories for rice, obviously, but still not a bad dinner count).

Red Currant-Glazed Chicken with Spinach

Week 2, day 3. (I'm nearing the end of this series... should have a wrap-up post in the next few weeks!)

Easy variation on roast chicken. I didn't blog about it the first go-around because I used a rimmed baking sheet, as directed, and cleaning up the baked-on redcurrant glaze was a nightmare. It's actually good that I didn't write about it then, because I've experimented a bit on this recipe after 2 more tries. Now I use a ceramic baking dish, covered in foil. I also use Bonne Maman redcurrant jelly, which was recommended separately in this issue of Real Simple; 1 jar will work for 2 of these recipes. Use a full teaspoon of the red pepper flakes if you'd like to taste the red pepper flavor. Instead of chicken pieces, I buy a whole roaster so I can save the rest for stock. I find that 10 ounces of spinach is woefully inadequate for 4 servings-- try 2. Next time I really need to remember that, and also that I need to buy a new basting brush, since my husband left ours outside on the grill for 3 weeks. Once discovered, that went straight in the garbage.

Hello Dolly!

"Well, hello, Dolly...."

Can't help singing that tune when I make these cookie bars from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook :) (also known as 7-layer bars, due to their 7 ingredients). These are ridiculously easy, especially if you cheat and buy graham cracker crumbs pre-done like I did. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm kind of shocked that you can't buy a mix for these. Just add butter!

Next time I want to try peanut butter chips instead of butterscotch-- the recipe doesn't use the full bag, and I've got nothing else to use the butterscotch chips for.

Slow Cooker Curried Chicken with Ginger and Yogurt

(In which I consider whether to rename this blog, "I Cook the Recipes from Real Simple").

As a preface, since I'm preparing another slow cooker meal for tomorrow, I usually only do slow cooker meals if my husband is working from home, as he sometimes does. I find it incredibly stressful to put something together in the morning, and usually 7-8 hours is nowhere near the length of my normal workday, so I end up combining what ingredients I can the night before and leaving him instructions to start around lunchtime. For this recipe, I combined all of the non-chicken ingredients from step 1 and put them in the fridge next to a plastic bag of chicken thighs (I only used 8-- I wanted a little less protein). I then handled steps 3 and 4 when I got home.

Anyway, I'm always kind of amazed when these recipes work, but lo and behold, thick gravy, incredibly tender chicken and a gentle spice. I happen to really enjoy jasmine rice, and it was perfect here.

Sweet Potato and Brie Flat Bread

Week 4, day 4.

First I just have to say: I appreciate the sophistication of the word "flat bread," but I'm pretty sure California Pizza Kitchen would call this a pizza. And if you would have handed me a slice of this and told me that it came from there, I would have believed you.

Second I would add: this recipe is kind of embarrassingly easy, but it can be made even simpler with 2 important tools: a knife specially made for slicing soft cheese (with holes in the middle, so the cheese doesn't stick) and a mandolin for thinly slicing the sweet potato. Note to self: buy a mandolin.

Third thing? Some third-party endorsements: my veggie-skeptic husband asked for seconds, and when I reheated at work the next day, two randoms stopped me to say how good it smelled.

Fourth, since this was the fourth recipe of the fourth Real Simple week, I finally researched the question of whether "one shallot" was the whole thing, or just one section. Apparently, it's the whole thing-- about 3 tablespoons.