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February 19, 2010
Not all pesto is created the same.
I've been eating pesto with pasta since I knew how to boil water. That dense, fragrant, herb-y concentrate tossed with hot noodles -- it's magic. Even when I had no idea how to cook and bought pesto in a jar, it was wonderful and my favorite dinner. It provides that burst of freshness in the middle of February, and it's delicious enough that the flavor stays in my brain for days.
The only problem I've ever had with pesto...
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October 29, 2008
Blake visits the Eternal City for one night only.
Our white wine was, for this unexperienced wine drinker, an absolute knockout at 17 euros: just barely more dry than sweet, fruity, and crisp as anything. We asked for their help in choosing the Ribolla Gialla after their bible-sized wine list (below) scared us silly (it is a famous list, apparently full of great wines at bargain prices).
We began with a simple buffalo mozzarella salad.
And for the pasta course Elin opted for a...
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The other Italian bacon.
It took me almost a month and calls to half the butchers in New York before I could get my hands on a pair of pig jowls. Here’s the problem: they want you to order the whole head. And while I had a wonderful time watching pot-roasted pig heads go ferrying by my table at the Spotted Pig, when it was under the tutelage of British chef Fergus Henderson, the thought of lugging a 40 pound hunk of decapitation around the city...
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January 24, 2008
From his memoir Heat
My favorite passages from Bill Buford's Heat are set in the Babbo kitchen, when he describes with fear and awe the wonder that is a busy restaurant kitchen at dinnertime-- tickets flying, steam vaporizing, oil popping. Orders arrive faster than they can be made; you are perpetually behind. The heat, of course, is unbearable-- like a shimmering wall when you enter the kitchen. Sweat pours down. Timing is everything. A mistakes can...
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January 15, 2006
This recipe loses the cream altogether, replacing it with white wine.
Pasta Carbonara
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 small onion, diced
3 thin slices bacon
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 pound farfalle pasta
4 egg yolks
small handful chopped Italian parsley
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup of pasta cooking water
Serves 4.
Recipe adapted from Cucina Rustica
Get a huge pot of salted water boiling right away--you can always turn it off...
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