Becco replica

Recently I took a little trip to New York for the JFR Lerner Fellowship. There were some fabulous meals and snacks to be had in an entire new part of the city that I had not explored (the Upper West side around Columbia). One of the restaurants that we ate at was called Becco. It is located just off of Broadway in the Theater District.

The outside of Beco

All in all the food was very good a Becco. We were a large group so we had a preset menu, but at one point I looked at the rest of the restaurant and it looked as though the entire restaurant may be preset. One thing that automatically made the meal wonderful was excellent conversation with the Croatian teachers that came to the fellowship whom we tried enthusiastically to teach how to be Southern/Texan. I was a bit envious of the friend next to me who ordered a glass (or two) of Prosseco. I really enjoy the Italian sparkling wine and it would have matched well with the variety of food we had. I do not remember much about the anti pasta we were given. It was marinated artichokes and red bell peppers and marscapone cheese with some sweet glaze that I felt would be better suited for dessert. The salad was mixed greens in a typical house dressing even though we were supposed to have Caesar until too many people complained about anchovies in the dressing not realizing that most Caesar dressings have anchovies. On to the unlimited (yes I said unlimited) servings of pasta. There were three types and I do not remember much about one of them. The other two were mushroom ravioli and oreichette with cauliflower. The ravioli was good and had a very nice sauce that complimented the dish well, but for me the real winner was the oreichette with cauliflower. All of the pasta was homemade and some of the shell shaped pasta had a tendency to stack together making a larger pasta filled bite (which I loved). The cauliflower was a little soft, but had good flavor when tossed with a really light and smooth tomato sauce. Topping all of this off with a good dose of Parmesan really made the dish come together. I rather enjoy the way that Parmesan acts as a last minute "binder" for lighter pasta sauces. I came home and duplicated what I ate!

We try to eat a lot of veggies and this was a new way to prepare them. I took zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots and using my vegetable peeler cut slivers of veggies. This was all sauteed with finely sliced red onion, garlic, olive oil, and a bit of fresh ground black pepper! Really good and fresh tasting.

I boiled the pasta (I used rigatoni at Matt's request) and used the steamer basket to steam chopped cauliflower. I took the cauliflower after it was "al dente" and sauteed in a little olive oil and garlic.

All real pasta dishes need lots of fresh basil. We roughly chopped this and tossed it when we were mixing all of the pasta together. The basil will wilt just enough from the residual heat of the pasta and sauce. We have found that it tastes a lot fresher and makes the basil much more noticeable when not cooked in the sauce.

For the actual sauce I took a shallot and half a red onion diced and sauteed that with a couple cloves of chopped garlic. When everything was translucent I added one large can of diced tomatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of Italian seasoning. After letting it mellow and blend a bit, I tasted and adjusted my seasoning. We like sauces like this sometimes because it is super fresh and almost raw in that it is not your all day simmered marinara or meat sauce. It is great for the summer time!

We tossed it all together with Parmesan and topped with sauteed chicken (this is when you add the fresh basil)!

A word about your chicken. Mattie and I sometimes buy vinegar based salad dressings that we end up less than thrilled about. When this happens, we keep it in the fridge and use it for a quick marinade on our chicken. Just because you don't like it on your salad doesn't mean that it won't impart wonderful flavor on your poultry!

Pasta E Fagioli

One of my favorite modified recipes is my recipe for Pasta E Fagioli. Pasta E Fagioli is pasta with beans and is often served in soup form. If you order this at Olive Garden you will get a soup tasting very much like chili. It is good, but a little less authentic than the recipe I modify. For the soup: In olive oil sautee one diced onion and two to three diced carrots. If red, yellow, or orange bell peppers are on sale I throw a finely diced bit of that in too. When the veggies are well on their way to being tender you can toss in some chopped garlic. I then drain three or four cans of Cannolini beans and rinse those to remove some of the salt and starchiness. I usually let those soak in some of the veggie-ness for a bit in the pot as well. This next step is up to you: you can add in a bit of tomato paste or canned diced tomatoes. I would not add a lot, just enough to add a bit of flavor. Top everything off with water or chicken stock. At this point I usually season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, fresh rosemary and some Italian seasoning. Sometimes I also add a bay leaf or two (it is soup after all). Once the soup is to a full boil add ditalini or some other small shaped pasta. Once the pasta is cooked you are ready to stir and serve.

You MUST top this with a drizzle of good quality olive oil and parmesan cheese. Optional is browned Italian sausage (removed from the casing). With Mattie the carnivore, I must add the sausage!

Serve with salad and toasted bread or combine the two and serve with bruschetta!

Ole for Burritos

This is a method I learned from my dad. We would eat this fairly regularly and seeing as it is so easy and delicious, Mattie and I have it probably once a month or so. The concept is simple...you take a frozen burrito and spice it up to your liking. We always choose to bake our frozen burrito in the oven, but from what I understand the frying method is even better. While the burritos are baking and getting toasty we heat up refried beans and canned (or homemade) chili. We also shave some lettuce, dice tomatoes, avocado, and onions and grate some cheese. When the burritos are ready we put down a layer of beans, a layer of lettuce, the actual burrito, spoon a generous serving of chili on top, cover in cheese, avocados, and tomatoes and get ready to enjoy. My favorite part about this dish is that after the burrito is done, you usually have a little miniature taco salad left on your plate from all of the toppings and burrito guts. We have a neighbor who took this same basic concept and put all of the hot stuff (beans, chili, burritos, and cheese) in a casserole dish for easy transportation. This is a very simple meal, but sure to please and if people can find frozen burritos in other parts of the country or world, a nice way to remind them (fairly closely) of some good texas flavor!!!

Summer time means fruit galore!

Just a quick post to write about the glories of summer time fruit! We love this time of year when HEB and Kroger vie over customers with ridiculous weekly specials on otherwise expensive fruit. We find ourselves perusing the grocery store ads to see who has Strawberries for less than $1 or cherries for a cheap amount per pound. The plethora of fresh fruit means that Mattie and I tend to stay away from traditional dessert and opt for fresh fruit with a bit of sugar, cut up over our favorite light ice cream (Dreyers Slow Churned Vanilla Bean...you cannot tell it is lower in fat...I swear), or as a topping to angel food cake. It is a dessert or snack that you can feel really good about. We rather enjoy sweet strawberries that can be eaten as we cut them up in preparation for a dessert later in the day. We also like blackberries and raspberries that merely need to be washed and popped in your mouth for that burst of flavor. When we can get some good peaches or nectarines I will break out the ice cream maker for a nectarine/peach and raspberry sorbet. Lastly, we like to add cut up berries and granola to yogurt for a snack or breakfast (my favorite combo is a blackberry, cinnamon granola, apple turnover yogurt concoction). The picture was a fruit salad that Matt commissioned after he bought kiwi, strawberries, nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, it was a delicious and light end to a wonderful meal.