#thisweeksmeals — Public Fediverse posts

Last Week's Meals: Pasta Alla Puttanesca

Totally spaced on posting this last week. This week was the oddly named Pasta Alla Puttanesca. Most tomato sauces for pasta are a bit too sweet for me, but with anchovies, olives and capers, this one is fairly salty, exactly how I like it. The sauce ended up fairly thin, so I might cut the amount of spaghetti if you like a lot of sauce.

No meals this week due to lack of time instead of lack of money for once! Soon, though. SOON.

Title: Pasta Alla Puttanesca
Yield: 6 servings
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Category: Entree
Cuisine: Italian
Rating: 4/5 stars
Source: The Italian Family Kitchen

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Ingredients
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3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic (crushed) (with skin)
4 whole anchovies (in oil)
20 whole Kalamata Olives (pitted) (chopped)
2 tbsp capers (diced)
14 ounces whole peeled tomatoes (canned) (crushed)
salt
12 ounces spaghetti
parsley (chopped)

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Instructions
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1 - Put a large pot of water on to boil.
2 - While the water comes up to temperature, begin cooking the sauce.
3 - In a large pan, heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat.
When the garlic starts to sizzle, remove and discard it.
4 - Reduce the heat to low and add the anchovies. Stir until they
completely dissolve in the oil, then increase the heat to medium
again.
5 - Add the olives and capers to the pan and cook, stirring
frequently, for 1 minute.
6 - Add the crushed tomatoes, bring the sauce to a simmer, and season
with salt. Let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, for at. least
5 minutes, or until it thickens slightly.
7 - Turn off the heat while the pasta cooks.
8 - When the water comes to a rolling boil, salt it generously and add
the pasta. Cook it for 2 to 3 minutes less than the recommended al
dente cook time on the package.
9 - Use tongs or a pasta fork to transfer the cooked pasta to the
tomato sauce, along with a few spoonfuls of pasta water.
10 - Stir everything together over high heat until the excess liquid
has thickened and the pasta is al dente to your taste. If the sauce
thickens too quickly or too much, thin it with some more pasta water.
11 - Serve immediately topped with chopped parsley.

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Notes
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Makes 6 servings at about 50g carbs per serving.
Calories 306
Total Fat 8g
Total Carbohydrate 46g
Protien 8g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #PastaGrammar

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal #1 - Appulian Broccoli Pasta

Once I go through all my cookbooks, I start looking at my online cooking shows to see what I can pull off them. I'd wanted some pasta for a while, and this looked pretty simple. And it was!

It's funny how much flavor you can pull out from just a few recipes. Some of my recipes are GIGANTIC. But this is simple, tasty and sticks to your ribs.

If you get broccoli withj a lot of stem, I'd highly suggest cutting it up into small pieces before adding to the sauce.

# Appulian Broccoli Pasta

Pasta Grammar
8.0 servings

3.0 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
7.6 ounces Italian sausages (casings removed) (crumbled)
1.0 cup white wine
1.0 tbsp tomato paste
10.0 ounces broccoli
salt (to taste)
12.0 ounces orecchiette pasta

1 - Boil the broccoli in a large pot of salted water for about 15 minutes, or until it is slightly tender but not completely cooked. 2
2 - Drain and set aside for later.
3 - Put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta and salt it generously.
4 - Meanwhile, heat the olive oil a large pan over medium heat.
5 - Add the sausage and sauté until browned, breaking it up into a crumble as it cooks.
6 - Add the white wine and stir in the tomato paste.
7 - Reduce the heat, bring the wine to a simmer, and cook until the smell of alcohol has dissipated—about 2-3 minutes.
8 - Add the broccoli into the pan and ladle in just enough of the pasta water to get a simmer going (if the wine doesn’t already provide enough liquid).
9 - Cook the broccoli until it is very tender, then mash it into a paste with a fork. If needed, add more pasta water as necessary to maintain moisture.
10 - When the pasta water comes to a rolling boil, add the orrecciette. Boil it for 2 minutes less than the recommended “al dente” cook time.
11 - Meanwhile, salt the broccoli sauce to taste.
12 - When the pasta is cooked, transfer it into the sauce with tongs.
13 - Stir all together over medium/high heat until the pasta is al dente to your taste. Ladle in more pasta water if the sauce is too thick.
14 - Serve immediately, topped with a drizzle of olive oil.

Makes 8 servings at ~37.5g carbs per serving

Calories 327
Total Fat 13g
Total Carbohydrates 37g
Protein 8g

Normally yields 4 servings

#cooking #thisweeksmeals #pastagrammar

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Texas Chili

I'm genuinely surprised at how simple this recipe is, since it leans heavily on the chili powder as well as how much of this is fat versus water. Takes a while to make, though, almost 2 1/2 hours for me although most of it is just simmering to stew the meat. It's very good, though, if you want a hearty stick-to-your-ribs stew. Mine needed a dash of salt but otherwise was pretty darned good.

I am now officially a San Antonio Chili Queen (Claimant in Exile).

I wasn't able to find tallow locally, and didn't want to drive into town to a meat market, so I substiuted more lard for the tallow. Also, I used some generic Chili powder istead of Gebhardt's since it's what I had in the pantry. Might be why it didn't seem as hot as Max's did on his YouTube video....

# Texas Chili

Tasting History with Max Miller
5.0 servings

2.0 pounds boneless chuck beef
2.0 tsp salt
0.25 cup tallow
2.0 tbsp lard
1.0 cup onion (minced)
3.0 cups water (hot)
3.0 tbsp chili powder
2.0 tbsp garlic (minced)

1 - Chop the meat into small cubes, about 1/2 inch.
2 - Mix the beef and the tallow together, then add the salt and mix.
3 - Melt the lard in a pot over medium heat and add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring so they don’t burn.
4 - Add the meat mixture and cook, turning the meat frequently. Once all the meat has some color, continue to cook stirring every few minutes.
5 - Once the juices have cooked off and the meat is left frying in the fat, add the hot water. Make sure the water is very hot, almost boiling.
6 - Add the chili powder and garlic and stir until everything is mixed well.
7 - Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer with the lid off for 1 to 1 ½ hours. The time will depend on the heat and the cut of meat you’re using. Mine took an hour for the meat to get nice and tender. You shouldn’t have to add any more water, but keep an eye on it because if the water all boils away, the chili will burn.
8 - After the chili has simmered and the meat is tender, serve it forth and transport yourself back to the plazas of San Antonio when the Chili Queens reigned.

Makes 5 servings at ~400 calories
Calories 425
Total Fat 22g
Total Carbohydrate 6g
Protein 6g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #TastingHistory

This Week's Bread: Globi

I've always had an interest in ancient cooking particularly Roman cooking. One of my fave omlettes is an ancient Roman recipe (eggs with honey and pepper!) But recently I've come to find out that the book I had been using for decades was inaccurate when it came to recipes with cheese.

This week's bread comes from Max Miller's Tasting History book, and is a recipe that's also in my other book, Mark Grant's Roman Cookery. And it shows the innacuracy of Grant's book: The recipes are roughly the same except Miller's book uses Ricotta Cheese. Grant's uses Cheddar.

I picked up Grant's book before the internet got big, so it was my only source for adapted Roman recipes so I didn't know any better...but the flavors with Cheddar were odd. Later, after more adaptions became available, I learned the roman cheese was more like ricotta or cottage cheese. Which is what Max Miller's recipe for Globi uses.

Anyways, Globi is pretty good. A little weak in the flavor department, coming across as a sweet version of a hush puppy. Makes for a nice little snack, but might be too mild for out tastes. It's not authentic, but dusting this with powdered sugar would be fantastic.

# Globi

Tasting History with Max Miller
6.0 servings of 4 balls

1.0 cup ricotta cheese
1.0 cup spelt flour
1.0 tbsp spelt flour
canola oil (for frying)
0.3333333333333333 cup honey
poppy seeds

1 - Mix the ricotta and flour in a bowl until it becomes a dough.
2 - Form the dough into 1 inch balls
3 - Heat the oil in a pot to 350°F (175°C).
4 - Fry the balls a couple at a time for 60 to 90 seconds.
5 - Turn them every 10 to 15 seconds to make sure they’re cooking evenly
6 - At 60 seconds, take one out to check its color. You want them to be a nice deep golden brown.
7 - When they’re done, set them on a wire rack to drain over some paper towel. Repeat the process until all the globi are fried.
8 - Once all the globi have been fried, heat the honey just until it thins a bit.
9 - Dip the globi into the honey and coat them evenly, then sprinkle them with poppy seeds.

Yields 6 servings of 4 balls at ~37.5g carbs per serving
Calories 232
Total Fat 5g
Total Carbohydrates 38g
Protein 9g

#thisweeksmeals #cooking #tastinghistory