After we sat down, Charismatic Waiter complimented my dress and launched into the specials of the day. I picked the capellini special with pesto, butternut squash, and prosciutto because those flavors are great on their own, but when combined, I imagined they’d create a Voltron of deliciousness. And boy, did they. The chunks of prosciutto were just the right level of salty and fatty, the butternut squash sweet and tender, and the whole thing was covered with a fresh basil pesto with parmesan.

I tried to recreate the dish in my kitchen last night and it was a success overall. The only issue was that I bought prosciutto pre-cut into tiny cubes, while the original dish had larger chunks. If you decide to try this recipe, I recommended buying a small piece of prosciutto and cutting it yourself at home. If you’re a vegetarian or don’t feel like dealing with meat, you can make the dish with just squash and it’ll still be good.

First, peel and dice half of a butternut squash into into 1″ by 1/4″ chunks.

Next, heat a little olive oil in a pan and cook the squash for about eight minutes, or until tender.

Once tender, set the squash aside in a bowl and add the prosciutto to the pan. Cook until browned.

Meanwhile, put a pot of water on to boil. The capellini only needs about two minutes to cook, so don’t throw it in until your prosciutto has been browned and set aside.

Once the pasta is drained, combine the prosciutto, squash, and your favorite homemade (or store-bought) pesto.

Capellini with Butternut Squash and Prosciutto
Serves 6 with a salad on the side

• 1 lb. capellini
• 1/2 cup prosciutto, cut into 1″ by 1/4″ chunks
• 1/2 a large butternut squash, also cut into 1″ by 1/4″ chunks (about a cup and a half)
• Pesto to taste (I use about 3/4 cup, but you can add more or less to your liking)
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese (optional)
• Olive oil

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. Add a dash of salt.

2. Heat about 1 tbs. olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add the squash and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 8 minutes, or until tender enough that a fork can easily piece the squash, stirring often. Pour the squash into a bowl and set aside.

3. Reheat the pan to medium-high heat and add the prosciutto. Cook until browned (but not too crispy), about five minutes. Remove the prosciutto with a slotted spoon and set on a paper towel to drain.

4. Once the water is boiling, add the capellini and cook according to the box directions. (It should be done in about 2-3 minutes.) Drain and return the pasta to the pot. Add the squash, prosciutto, and pesto to the pot and stir until everything is evenly coated with pesto. Serve with a few Parmesan shavings, if desired.

Get ready for a behind-the-scenes tidbit: My kitchen doesn’t get any natural light. Well, that’s not 100% true. There is a tiny window behind the sink that overlooks a concrete patio and dozens of cinder-block walls that separate tiny brownstone backyards, but it only gets direct sunlight for about an hour everyday and that light shines right into the sink. Not the ideal situation for a woman who wants to take photos that aren’t washed out or strangely orange. Good ol’ fashioned sunshine makes my antiquated point-and-shoot camera look pretty good.

To my improve photos, I decided to put a few surfaces in the well-lit living room to use while I made a quiche for breakfast today, including the coffee table, dining table, and very chic radiator cover. Behold, a bowl of eggs and dishtowel on my coffee table:

Yes. This quiche was off to a good start. I pulled together the other ingredients except for the half-and-half, salt, pepper and crust. Instead of using strips bacon as you would in a traditional Quiche Lorraine, I turned to cubes of pancetta and got to work.

Pancetta Quiche

• 1 9″ pie crust (make your own favorite crust without sugar or purchase a quality frozen crust at the grocery store)
• 3/4 cup pancetta, cut into 1 cm cubes
• 4 oz. Swiss cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 tbs butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°.

2. Place pie crust in a 9″ pie pan. Cover with foil and wrap around the edges. Pour in dry beans or pie weights, place the pie pan on a baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 3 minutes. Set aside and reduce heat to 350º.

3. While the crust is baking, heat butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Add diced onion and cook for an additional 7 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, beat eggs lightly. Mix in half-and-half and a dash of salt and pepper.

5. Use a slotted spoon to move the pancetta and onion mixture to the bottom of the pie crust, allowing some of the fat to drip off. Top the pancetta and onion mixture with an even sprinkling of the grated cheese. Pour in the egg and half-and-half. (The three photos below were not taken with natural light.)

6. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let set for 10 minutes, slice, and serve.

When the packs of runners tapered off, Ramsey and I walked up to the farmers’ market where we spotted our local dog celebrity, The Lazy Dachshund. I bought kale and apples, Ramsey bought a tub of pickled vegetables, and we were back in the apartment by noon. I was ready to cook.

My menu for the day included my favorite carrot soup for lunch, and then kale, applesauce, and spiced pork chops for dinner.

The carrot soup only called for few ingredients: chopped carrots, onion, rice, chicken stock, butter, oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

More photos after the jump…

Once the onions were tender, I added the chicken stock, covered the pot, and got to work on the applesauce. Cue apples, spices, a quarter cup of sugar, and cider.

After the apples were mashed and tucked away in the refrigerator, I took a break for a bowl of my finished carrot soup. I pureed it with a hand blender right in the pot (a risky move in the Le Creucet, but I was careful) and topped it with a little parsley.

The rest of the soup was divided among single-serving containers. Some went in the refrigerator for lunches this week while others went in the freezer.

A few hours of reading and internet surfing later, I started on dinner. Two bunches of rinsed kale went in the salad spinner.

(I am very sensitive to onion fumes. Yes, I have a pair of onion goggles. No, I am not ashamed. Yes, I asked Ramsey to take a photo.)

I also roasted a few baby sweet potatoes and learned a valuable lesson. If you always remove the skin on sweet potatoes, roasting six small ones instead of two large ones is just more work. Don’t fall prey to adorable vegetables.

The final meal: kale with sauteed onions, sweet potatoes with a little butter, applesauce, and boneless pork chops with a cumin, chili powder, brown sugar, black pepper, and salt dry rub. The chops were broiled about 5 minutes per side until internal temp was just over 140°.

My friends Angela and Sean hosted a small gathering Sunday afternoon to celebrate an a match made in culinary heaven: grilled sandwiches and beer. They gathered an impressive array of meats, cheeses, mustards, and more, and were ready with some fantastic combinations. More photos and combos after the jump

Angela made the first batch of sandwiches. They included ham, Swiss cheese, thin-sliced Roma tomatoes, and mustard. The secret ingredient? A light spread of cinnamon applesauce on each slice of bread.

They were the perfect match with a Belgian wheat beer.

Sean made the next two varieties. The first had thin-sliced granny apples, red onion, bacon, and cheddar sandwich with mustard.

Sean assembles the magic:

The final was a dessert sandwich of brie, granny smith apples, and cranberry pepper jelly. I don’t have a photo of the final sandwich, but I do have one of a lot of slow-cooked bacon. Mmmm.

In short, grilled sandwiches + beer + Sunday afternoon = WIN.

I did some dumpling-related freelance writing recently and was left with an abundance of the pork and mushroom variety when I was done. After enjoying a dozen dipped in soy sauce, I decided to make a simple dumpling soup with shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, and scallions. This is a perfect meal to make if you have leftover dumplings that you’ve made yourself or that you have in the fridge from your most recent Chinese food delivery. The best part is that it only takes fifteen minutes to make.

Leftover Dumpling Soup
-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
-2 tbs. scallions, thinly sliced
-1/3 cup thin carrot slices
-3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced into 1/2″ strips
-1/2 cup Napa cabbage, cut into thin strips
-1/2 tsp. sesame oil
-2 tsp. soy sauce
-Salt and pepper to taste
-12 steamed or boiled dumplings

1) Pour broth into a large pot and add carrot slices, scallions, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Just as it reaches a simmer, add mushrooms and cabbage.

2) Once the broth reaches a boil, add the dumplings. Cook 5-6 minutes or until the dumplings are heated through. Try the broth, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Remember the classic children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, about a town where food falls from the sky for each meal? I found out recently that they’re turning it into a computer animated movie. Although the creators of “Clone High” have written and directed it, I highly doubt it will satisfy a generation for whom the book carries such strong feelings of nostalgia. I don’t know about you, but for me the book inspired many crayon drawings of houses and trees covered in a variety of foodstuffs. (I also understand they’re aiming for the twelve and under set rather than the jaded twenty-somethings in my peer group. The studios are betting we’ll all just go see the film version of Where the Wild Things Are, drawn in by a Dave Eggers screenplay, Spike Jonze’s direction, and a trailer that includes an Arcade Fire song. They’re betting right in my case, but such is life [link probably NSFW].)

Looking up information on a movie about meatballs falling from the sky naturally led me making meatballs in my kitchen. I’ve made meatballs only once before and while they turned out okay, they were far from great. After seeing a number of recipes around the web that combined ground beef with a number of other meats, I decided to try mixing ground beef and pork to create a more flavorful meatball. An additional twist was my use of whole wheat breadcrumbs instead of the traditional Italian breadcrumbs, which I believe added a very subtle nutty and sweet flavor. The recipe and more photos after the jump. Warning to vegetarian/vegan readers: raw meat photos ahead.

Basic Meatballs
-1/2 lb. ground beef
-1/2 lb. ground pork
-1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
-1 cup homemade whole wheat bread crumbs (white bread is also fine)
-2 tbs. fresh parsley, chopped
-2 tsp. dried oregano
-1 tsp. garlic salt
-1 tsp. kosher salt
-1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
-1 egg, lightly beaten
-2 tbs. olive oil

1. Mix together all of the ingredients except the olive oil together in a medium bowl. Use your hands to create the meatballs, making them just a bit larger than a ping pong ball.

2. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan over medium heat. You’ll use this pan later to create the sauce and simmer the meatballs, so make sure the sides are tall and that it has a cover. Carefully place the first batch meatballs in the pan using a set of tongs or long wooden spoon, leaving ample room around each meatball. Turn each meatball every few minutes, or until fully browned, for a total of approximately 10 minutes. Place the cooked meatballs on a plate covered with a paper towel.

3. Once all of the meatballs are cooked, pour out the oil, but don’t clean the bottom of the pan. Start the sauce.

Sauce
-2 tbs. olive oil
-1 small yellow onion, diced
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-12 oz can pureed tomatoes
-12 oz can whole, peeled tomatoes
-4 tbs. fresh parsley, chopped (2 for sauce, 2 for garnish)
-1 tsp. kosher salt
-1 tsp. black pepper
-sprinkling of red pepper flakes
-dash of sugar (optional)

1. Heat the olive oil in the saucepan over medium-high heat, then add the onion. Saute until translucent (about 5 minutes), then add the minced garlic and stir until fragrant (about 30 seconds).

2. Add the can of whole tomatoes with their juice and mash them in the pan using a wooden spoon or potato masher. Mix in the pureed tomatoes, parsley, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and sugar (if desired), and bring to a boil.

3. Add the meatballs to the sauce, gently stir to coat them, and turn down the heat to a bare simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes.

Pasta
-1 lb. spaghetti

1. While the meatballs are cooking, make the spaghetti according to package directions.

2. Serve the meatballs and spaghetti topped with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.

Polenta seemed to be everywhere I turned this week. Mark Bittman made a breakfast pizza with it, Anthony Bourdain came across it in one of his travels during a late-night marathon of No Reservations, and an unopened bag of cornmeal was sitting in my kitchen, originally intended for a cornbread that never happened. This creamy cornmeal dish, similar to grits, is a blank canvas for a wide range of flavors. I decided to go the simple route since it was my first time making it, choosing to flavor it with chicken stock and parmesan cheese. I then paired it with maple pork loin chops and collard greens for a plate of serious comfort food.

Polenta
-2 cups chicken stock (you can substitute vegetable stock or water for a vegetarian version)
-2 cups water 
-1 cup fine ground cornmeal
-4 tbs. butter
-1/4 cup parmesan cheese
-Salt and pepper to taste 

1) Bring broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Whisk in cornmeal in a steady stream and continue to whisk for two minutes. Add butter and stir until incorporated.

2) Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Stir every five minutes for about 30 seconds and recover. Continue this process for 30-35 minutes. 

3) Add parmesan cheese, stir until incorporated, and then add salt to taste. Serve. 

Collard Greens
-1 lb. collard greens
-2 tbs. bacon fat (you can substitute butter for a vegetarian version)
-1 tbs. unsalted butter
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-Salt and pepper to taste

1) Fill a large saucepan with water and put on to boil.

2) Tear or cut the leaves from the bitter white stems. Discard the stems and chop the leaves into 1″ by 1″ pieces. 

3) Once the water is boiling, add the chopped greens and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

4) Drain in a colander and press down to remove as much water as possible. 

5) Heat bacon fat and butter in a large skillet, then add minced garlic and stir until fragrant, no more than 15-20 seconds. 

6) Add greens and cook over medium-low heat for 8 minutes, stirring often. 

7) Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. 

Maple Pork Loin Chops
-2 pork loin chops, 1 1/2″- 2″ thick
-1 cup chicken stock
-1/4 cup maple syrup
-1 tbs. dijon mustard
-2 tbs. olive oil
-Salt and pepper

1) Rinse chops and pat dry, then season with salt and pepper. 

2) Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat and then add chops, searing on each side for about 2 minutes. 

3) Reduce heat to medium and cook chops for an additional 5 minutes or more, depending on thickness. They’re done once their internal temperature reaches 140º.

4) Place finished chops on a plate and cover with foil. Add chicken stock to pan and turn on heat to medium-high. Add maple syrup and dijon and stir occasionally until the sauce become thick and syrupy. Be careful not to overcook or the sugars in the syrup will begin to stick to the pan. 

5) Pour over chops and serve.

When it comes to my routines at home, I am a creature of habit. Just as I like to go grocery shopping at the same time every week and enjoy my late night TV watching schedule (Stewart, Colbert, last half of Letterman, and most of Conan, if you were curious), I tend to cook meat in a similar fashion every week.

Pork is one of my worst offenders. I almost always create a marinade, bake for 45 minutes at 350º and serve. I decided to try something a little different this week and break out of the marinade rut by creating a recipe with a little Moroccan flair.

Pomegranate Pork Chops
-2 boneless pork chops
-1 tbs. cumin
-2 tbs. corriander
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1 tsp. black pepper
-Pinch of salt
-1 1/2 tbs. olive oil
-1 small shallot, finely chopped
-3/4 cup pure pomegranate juice
-1 tbs. honey 

1. Mix the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, salt, and pepper together in a small bowl.

2. Rinse the pork chops and pat dry. Rub the spice mixture on both sides of the chops, taking care to not allow any contamination of the bowl of spice mix with the raw pork. I recommend spooning the mixture into your hand and then applying the rub. You can then store any leftover spice mix in a small, airtight container. 

3. Heat olive oil in a skillet and add pork chops. Move slightly to ensure they don’t stick and then allow to cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness. Your best bet is to have a meat thermometer handy to get the chops to an internal temp of about 150º. 

4. While the chops are cooking, mix the pomegranate juice and honey in a medium bowl. (You’ll also want to put the water and peas on to begin heating in a small saucepan for the couscous. See recipe below.)

5. Once the chops are done, place on a plate and cover with foil. 

6. Add the shallots to the same skillet with a touch of olive oil if it looks like there is less than a tablespoon or two. If there is more already in the skillet from the chops, pour a bit out. Cook the shallots over medium heat until tender, stirring often to avoid burning. 

7. Add the pomegranate and honey mixture to the skillet and stir, scraping up and remaining brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, and reduce by 1/3, or until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. 

8. Spoon pomegranate sauce over chops and serve. 

Mint Couscous
-1 cup couscous
-1/2 cup frozen peas
-1 1/2 tbs. finely chopped fresh mint
-1 1/2 tbs. fresh lemon juice
-1 tsp. olive oil 

1. Bring recommended amount of water from your respective couscous packaging, frozen peas, and olive oil to a boil.  

2. Add couscous and cover tightly. Remove from heat and keep covered for 5 minutes. 

3. Uncover and add lemon juice and mint. Stir with a fork and add pinches of salt and pepper to taste. Serve.