blue_dolphin

If you mean, not on the pop-top type can that started this conversation, I bet it would. I don’t have the Kitchen Mama can opener but I think it’s a side-cutter. My manual side-cutter can opener works fine on pop-type cans and solves the rim issue.

Yesterday’s breakfast was green eggs & ham on a ciabatta roll, an idea I stole from Joe Sasto’s recent cookbook, Breaking the Rules which I borrowed from the library. His version is eggs, scrambled with pesto, piled on toast and topped with crisped up slices of salami. I browned a slice of Canadian bacon instead of the salami and put it on the bottom, though it’s kind of invisible in the photo. Not bad. Today, I made a bean version of the pasta with butternut squash, sausage, sage, and spicy chiles from Six Seasons of Pasta using Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans instead of pasta. I also added a big handful of baby kale. This was really good for a chilly morning. I used bean cooking broth instead of pasta water to bring things together.

When I roasted the butternut squash cubes for the last recipe, I roasted the rest of the squash and made the butternut squash purée that’s used in the pasta with butternut squash with sausage, sage, and spicy chiles on p 375. The squash/sausage/sage combo is pretty classic but the Calabrian chilies are what make it sing! After finding the roasted squash/nut ragu pasta too sweet for my taste, I was a bit wary about trying this one but the purée was made so I soldiered on and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this. I used hot Italian sausage and used Calabrian bomba sauce instead of the sliced chilies called for and suspect a variety of chiles or chile pastes would work. I also threw in a handful of arugula to increase the veg quotient. I have more squash purée left and plan to try some variations on this theme.

Aww, that’s sweet of you to say ❤️

Thanks - I’ll check it out!

Maybe they know people have different preferences and are trying to appeal to both? Unlikely, I know.

Yes, I had to try it because I couldn’t quite imagine what it would be like. Very much like a ragu made with ground meat, except it’s ground/chopped nuts! The nuts are softened from the long cook but retain some of their texture. He calls it a “delicately chunky” 🙃

Catching up with one from last week. I made the Nut Ragù on p 71 and used it to make the last recipe in the book: Pasta with Roasted Winter Squash and Nut Ragu. I liked the nutty texture of the ragu but with the roasted squash and tomatoes in the ragu, the finished pasta skews sweet for me. It was fine but could be better. Nut Ragu I’ve seen a lot of recipes for walnut and mushroom ragu but this one is just nuts - all kinds of nuts! There are almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios and walnuts. They’re all chopped and get toasted with garlic in oil on the stovetop. Fresh thyme, rosemary, chile flakes, tomato paste and crushed tomatoes are added and the pot goes into the oven for a couple of hours. A portion is blended and returned to the pot. I didn’t want it to look like nuts in sauce so I may have blended too much as, in the end, I liked the nutty texture. Between the nuts and the oil, it’s pretty rich. I’ve got those six servings of the ragu to play around with. Pasta with Roasted Winter Squash and Nut Ragu This is basically pasta, finished in the ragu, with cubes of roasted butternut squash and garnished with fried sage leaves. The texture of the nutty ragu, chewy pasta and tender squash is excellent. The book recommends serving this with ricotta salata. I tried some feta as a sub but it was a bit too rich and salty as I’d already used a good amount of salted pasta water to finish cooking the pasta. It does need a jolt of something tangy, I’d just need to balance the salt better. Edited to add that I’m thinking some pickle-y, spicy thing would be the ticket.

Rusack 2017 Ballard Canyon Estate Reserve Syrah I thought this might be over the hill but it still has a delicious balance of fruit and earthiness. Rusack has been one of my favorite wineries for years and it’s the last wine club I belonged to. I even liked their Chards which weren’t overly oaky. They closed up the club and their lovely Santa Ynez Valley tasting room last year and went to an allocation system. I missed the ordering deadline for their first allocation last month but understand the prices were quite high. Not sure what they’re up to but I’ve still got a few bottles of Syrah, Pinot Noir and Cab to enjoy.

Today, I made the Green Lentil Ragu from Six Seasons of Pasta and used it to make the Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Green Lentil Ragu. I used Rancho Gordo lentils, half green, half black for the ragu as I didn’t have enough green ones. I made a half batch as the full recipe says it’s enough for 14 servings of pasta and I’m a party of one over here! By the time my lentils cooled, they’d absorbed most of the liquid and weren’t saucy like the photo in the book. Easy enough to add some water or broth but next time I might add more tomatoes to the ragu. The pasta dish was delicious and very satisfying. I’d never thought of combining lentils and pasta but I will certainly keep it mind for the future. There’s a drizzle of balsamic vinegar at the end that really highlights the flavors of the roasted cherry tomatoes against the earthy lentils. I look forward to using the ragu in other ways but will likely repeat this one, too.

@Smithy & @Maison Rustique, if you find some nice little Hakurai turnips, you should definitely give this one a try. I was initially more excited by the recipe for Pasta with Turnips, Preserved Lemon Ricotta and Hazelnuts that I posted about a week or so ago. That one was very good but this one exceeded my expectations. Maybe my expectations weren’t very high because it seemed like a standard anchovy/garlic pasta but it was so easy and the way the flavors melded together won me over!

I have enjoyed the videos that Sohla El-Waylly and her husband Ham have made together for NYT cooking. This is a turkey day version that they made on their own and I found it quite entertaining. Sohla goes the traditional route, Ham is modernist man with a sous vide, meat glued turkey breast roll and brined, braised legs and thighs. In the end, what could go wrong does but the dog clearly wins! Worth a watch!

I will be joining my cousins for what I expect will be a traditional turk-stuff-mash-gravy situation. The cousin and his wife who usually cook the bird and host are dealing with health issues so his daughter has stepped up to host. I’m bringing Vivian Howard's Brussels sprouts (yes, LGBoD), apples, pomegranate salad with blue cheese honey vinaigrette (recipe here), and have been asked to bring a butternut squash dish, TBD. Any recommendations on that? It shouldn’t be mashed or include anything green and should hold well once cooked. The littles will eat cubes of roasted squash but they look pretty wizened after a while. I believe I’m the only family member who eats vegetables, other than potatoes, on a regular basis. I’ll probably bring a cranberry curd tart which one of the little cousins is greatly enamored of.

Sorry @rotuts, what’s “IDS”? I tried Google and got the following: Intrusion Detection System Interior Design Society International Dance Supplies Please advise.

I'm another fan of that Hasselback gratin and it’s just the right time of year to make it again. I will probably use the mini scale version I posted here a few years ago. For @rotuts, I used some kind of small potatoes and I’m sure I didn’t peel them.