Stuffed Shells with My Marinara

Since I posted about my marinara, I wanted to show you a fun way to cook with it.  Stuffed shells is something a didn’t grow up eating much of but when I had it, I loved it.  I adapted a recipe from Bon Appetit using my anchovy-fied marinara.  If your marinara is already made, this…

Green Ziti

Green Ziti?  Sounds a little off-putting, no?  I am so used to hearing ziti paired with a red sauce that a sauce of any other color just sounds criminal.  The other night when I wasn’t feeling too hot and wanted to zip up something relatively quickly, I decided to try Ziti with Roasted Green Peppers…

Cooking on the Fly

The other night, a few of my least favorite things happened in the kitchen.  I came home and noticed three things: I was missing a few ingredients for what I had plan to make for dinner I had forgotten to thaw meat needed for dinner Produce that I had purchased at the farmer’s market (outside…

Inspired by Tuscany: Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes & Anchovies

I became obsessed with many things while we were in Tuscany.  The wonderful wine, the intoxicating smell of jasmine perfuming the warm breeze rolling over the hills and, of course, olive oil. I never really appreciated good olive oil until visiting Italy and now wonder how I lived without it.  It’s amazing how many Americans…

Gemelli with Peach & Tomato Pork Ragu

Lazy Sundays are meant for making a rich dish to enjoy for dinner before you have to head back to the hustle of the weekday grind.  The kind of Sunday where you can just put a big hunk of meat in the oven and let it cook low and slow for hours. This past Sunday,…

celebrating with pasta [& kale]

On busy work nights, when I get home a bit later than I planned and didn’t have anything in particular in mind to cook, I usually wind up cooking some sort of pasta. During the growing season, it becomes even more exciting to add different types of fresh vegetables into the mix and change things…

fava beans [without the liver and chianti]

This past weekend I told my mom I was planning to make my brother and sister-in-law a version of pasta primavera with the asparagus and spring onions that came in our bushel.  She quickly inquired about what else would be in the pasta. As soon as I mentioned fava beans she started to shiver. She…

using your scraps: turnip greens pesto edition

I didn’t know much about the tops of beets or carrots or turnips before I started getting involved with local produce and learning how to store it to last.  My first lesson with this part of root vegetable was that you should always remove the green tops before storing  the “meat” of the vegetable as…