Royal Potato Salad

 (from Plenty, by Yottam Ottolenghi)

Contrary to what the infrequency of posts lately might indicate, La Piccina Cucina is still alive and well. At least, still functioning. I've been cooking plenty, just not many new things. And I have a long list of recipes I haven't gotten around to yet, because, well, there's just an awful lot of fun, new things to do here in California. There is also a lot of incredible food to be eaten. Hooray!

Anyway, this I actually made tonight! And it was good enough that I wanted to go straight to the computer to write it up. It's from this amazing vegetarian cookbook, Plenty, which has the most beautiful, interesting, I-want-to-try-that recipes. Seriously, I want to make like everything in that book.

So first, I made this. At its most basic level, it's potato salad with pesto sauce. That already would be great. But it also adds quail eggs, and whaddya know, Berkeley Bowl sells them. And we pass by them every week, and want to buy them but have no idea what to do with them, until now.

Served this with broiled pork chops that sat in a nice sugar-salt-balsamic brine (brine recipe here) all day, then got popped in the oven with some mini lemon slices from the tree out back (eeee!!!).

For 4-6 (I halved it, ish):
15 quail eggs
1 cup petite peas (frozen)
1 3/4 lbs new potatoes, washed (I don't know what "new" potatoes means. I just bought small ones.)
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup parsley leaves, plus some extra for garnish
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
2 garlic cloves
1 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar (I completely forgot to add this, btw)
1 bunch sorrel leaves, finely shredded (he says you can also use mint, which I think would be really interesting - I couldn't really taste the sorrel)
Salt and black pepper

Place the quail eggs in a small pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Simmer between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, depending on if you want them soft- or hard-boiled. Put them in cold water; peel them when you have a pause in the action.

Start the water boiling for the potatoes. When it boils, blanch the peas in the water for about 30 seconds, then drain and run under cold water. Set them aside for now.

Cook the potatoes until they're soft, about 15-20 minutes. You want them warm, ideally, when you put them in the sauce.

Make your pesto sauce while the potatoes cook. Put the basil, parsley, pine nuts, Parmesan, and garlic in a food processor and process to a paste. Add the olive oil and blend in the processor. Pour the pesto into the bowl in which you'll serve the salad.

Drain the potatoes, and cut in halves as soon as they won't scald you to touch (this can be a good time to peel the eggs). Add the potatoes to the bowl with the pesto, and toss with vinegar, sorrel, and peas. Mix well. Salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the eggs in half and gently mix them into the salad. Garnish. Eat.

Pesto-Baked Chicken

(adapted from Saveur magazine)

I'm super-excited right now because I just ordered a subscription to Saveur magazine. I've clearly missed the fact that magazine subscriptions don't make a ton of sense in a world where you can find nearly-identical content online, but hey, why not buck the trend? I picked one up for a flight home, found a coupon for a cheap subscription, and there you go. I mean, the feature was pesto. Pesto, people! Pages and pages of pesto...

Among those pages I found this recipe for pesto-rubbed chicken. The recipe is really intended for the grill (which I do think would kick it up a notch, as they say), and they offered a baked alternative for those of us without a backyard. It's a nice variation, and an easy variation to make - just whip up some pesto, spread it under the chicken's skin, bake, spread a little on top of the chicken, bake a little more, and serve. I omitted the pine nuts, since I am just not a fan.

(The magazine also had a one-page photo and story of the Oak Park Farmers' Market donuts, which is SO awesome, because my mom and I used to ride our bikes there every Saturday morning and eat donuts and fresh raspberries on the curb while listening to the live bluegrass band. Once we even volunteered and helped to sugar the donuts in the basement kitchen!)

Also, this recipe marks Joef's and my official transition to adulthood, as we accompanied this chicken with...wait for it...brown rice. That's right, folks, we've officially made the switch. I sort of love white rice (esp. with a little parmesan cheese), but you know, sometimes you have to move on. Whole grains and all that business. Yes, it's brown rice from here on out for Joef and Julia.

So:

2 cups packed basil

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 clove garlic, quartered

4 chicken thighs

Salt

Pepper

Preheat oven to 475.

Using your fingers, loosen skin from meat on chicken and spread half the pesto in between skin and meat. Transfer chicken to a baking sheet and season generously with salt and pepper.

 

Cook chicken in the oven, skin side up, for 25 minutes; rub with remaining pesto and cook until chicken is cooked/juices no longer run pink.

Serve with brown (!) rice and arugula salad.

Arugula Pesto

I'd like to say that this is a recipe that I've been dying to try for months, and the truth is that it's more like I've been avoiding making it. I want to say I saw it at least a year ago in a Mark Bittman article, where he explained that "pesto" needn't apply only to basil, but that it could be make with many other things, including asparagus and arugula.

Now, I love arugula. I love pesto. But I really, really, REALLY love pesto made with basil (no pine nuts, please!). So the thing is, it's hard to break away. It's hard to make the decision to make pesto, and then make it with something other than basil. Plus, I was skeptical about the bitterness of the arugula. Hence, arugula pesto went unmade.

But I got back from Wisconsin (so wonderful - friends, a wedding for a wonderful couple, and meals at both Osteria Papavero and Pizza Brutta) the other night and had a whole mess of arugula in the fridge that needed eatin'. And, it being summer and all, I decided to go for it.

I'm really glad I did. Yes, it's bitter. Yes, I used waaaaay to much garlic, and it was...powerful. And I really liked it. Basil remains my favorite, but that wasn't going to change. Aside from using it in pasta, I could see using it as a sandwich spread, maybe even on pizza. I saw one recipe where the cook added chickpeas to the pesto, ground up with the arugula. So yes, I'd definitely make it again.

For one, with lunch leftovers:
1/2 lb pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large clove garlic (I used two HUGE cloves...too much)
3 handfuls arugula
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated, plus more for serving
Salt to taste

Start your pasta cooking. In the meantime, combine the arugula, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor or blender. Blend into a pasta, scraping down the sides as needed. Pour into a small bowl and add the parmesan, and stir to combine.

When the pasta is ready and drained, stir in the pesto until the pasta is coated. Add salt, if you'd like, and serve with grated parmesan (or Romano!) cheese.

Salmon with Asian Pesto

 (from Williams-Sonoma's Fish for Dinner)

I love fish and seafood. It's delicious and somehow, I feel great when I eat it. In spite of that, however, I cook very little fish. Maybe some seafood. But very little fish. This is because I have no idea how to cook it. I don't know what kinds of fish are which, I don't know how to pick it out, and I'm afraid I'm going to kill myself or, at a minimum, make myself violently ill if I cook it incorrectly. Because my wonderful husband knows all this about me, he bought me the perfect cookbook, Fish for Dinner, which not only contains all kinds of delicious recipes, but also walks you through all of these things I've been trying to figure out. I mean, the first page is titled, "Understanding Fish", so this cookbook and I were kind of meant for one another.

The next barrier to overcome was having enough presence of mind to actually plan out a meal involving fish - you know, going to the grocery store, having a recipe in mind, buying the right ingredients, and following through on actually making the meal that night. It's much less challenging with, say, chicken - if you decide you're too lazy to make it that night, you just throw the chicken in the freezer. With fish, you want it fresh. So, you know, it's a big commitment in the cooking department.

ANYWAY. As you can see, I finally was able to pull myself together and see that commitment through. And I'm so glad I did. This was delicious, different, nourishing - all that good stuff. Also, turns out salmon is really easy to cook, at least like this. I mean, really easy.

The original recipe, which I've provided below, makes four servings (four salmon filets). I made one salmon filet, cooking for just myself, and halved the rest of the recipe for the sauce. Next time, I would probably reduce the amount of fish sauce. That stuff is really salty. It definitely provides the unique flavor the recipe calls for, but wow, that stuff is powerful. Let's just say Pancake got a little too excited about the smell it made while it was cooking, which, knowing dogs, is not always a good thing.

On that appetizing note...this is a delicious recipe. And it looks fancy, too.

For four:

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 jalapeno chile, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

3 tbsp chopped fresh basil

3 tbsp peanut oil

2 tbsp Asian fish sauce (again, you could probably halve this)

Juice of 1/2 a lime (plus slivers for garnish)

1 tsp sugar
4 salmon filets, about 6 oz each

Salt and pepper

Combine the garlic, chile, green onions, cilantro, basil, and 1 tbsp water (I actually added an equal part of peanut oil) to a food processor blender and blend to make a paste.

In a small frying pan over medium heat, warm 2 tbsp peanut oil. Add the herb paste and saute for about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the fish sauce, 2 tbsp water, lime juice, and sugar. Cook, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved, about 2 minutes.

Season the salmon filets with a little salt and pepper.

Heat a large frying pan of high heat until very hot, and then add the rest of the oil (1 tbsp). Add the salmon right to the pan, and cook until golden brown on the underside, about 3 minutes. Flip the filets and do the same on the other side, about three more minutes. (The recipe wants you to keep it a little rare in the center, but I guess I'm still not 100% comfortable with cooking fish, so I just made sure it cooked through - it should get lighter in color and flaky when poked with a fork.).

Transfer the filets to plates and drizzle with the pesto. Serve it up!

Pasta Soup with Pesto

(from Loukie Werle's Italian Country Cooking)

I love re-discovering a favorite thing, and this recipe gave me two: this amazing cookbook, and pesto. It's not that I'd forgotten about those things, it's just that I haven't used the cookbook in awhile, and I don't get that much fresh basil in the winter. Pesto always reminds me of summer. Plus - combining pesto and pancetta? Brilliant! Maybe I could just add pancetta to regular pesto...

Anyway, this puts it in a soup, plus a little tomato - and that's it! Simple and delicious.

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped pancetta
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 lb pasta (I used broken-up spaghetti rigati, but a more spoon-friendly pasta may be preferable)

For pesto:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

First make the pesto. Combine the basil and garlic in a food processor with 1 1/2 tbsp of the olive oil. Pulse, adding the rest of the olive oil intermittently. Spoon into a bowl with the parmesan cheese and combine.

For the soup, add the oil, pancetta, and garlic in a pot and sautee until the pancetta renders its fat. Don't burn the garlic. Stir in the tomato, let flavors combine for a minute, then add six cups of water and bring to a boil.

Stir in the pasta and a little salt, and cook the pasta. Remove from heat and stir in the pesto, then serve!

Pesto with Chicken

Two posts today, since one is a side dish and the other is really just a variation on a prior recipe. First, the prior recipe, pesto - this time, with grilled chicken added. (You know, just like they do at Noodles and Company, hehe!) This turned out really good and was a nice way to make pesto a little heartier.

It's essentially the same recipe, only I used 3/4 lbs of pasta, and I grilled up two chicken breasts and added them in. Nevertheless, here it is again, updated:

2 oz fresh basil leaves
Garlic (2-3 cloves) (note that this makes a VERY garlicky sauce)
Olive oil (1/2 cup)
Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup grated)
2 chicken breasts, sliced into cutlets
Pasta - something with ripples or ridges to hold the sauce (3/4 pound)

Sprinkle your chicken cutlets with a little salt and pepper, then grill each cutlet until fully cooked. Slice into strips or cubes.

Cook the pasta (I used shells).

Put the garlic in the food processor first. Chop it up and scrape it off the sides as needed. Next, add the basil and do the same. Add the olive oil a 1/4 cup at a time - grind it up until it starts to make a paste, scraping off the sides as needed.

Put the paste into a large bowl and mix it with the parmesan. Add the pasta into the bowl and mix it until all the pasta is coated, then add chicken and do the same. Serve with more parmesan cheese as needed.

ALT: Noodles and Company style, with cavatappi and tomatoes!

Pesto!

Mmm, pesto makes me endlessly happy. Growing up, we used fresh basil grown in the backyard. The stuff we bought at the store worked almost as well.

You'll need a food processor for this one. A blender will work, too.

Fresh basil leaves (2-4 oz)
Garlic (2-3 cloves) (note that this makes a VERY garlicky sauce)
Olive oil (1/2 cup)
Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup grated)
Salt to taste
Pasta - something with ripples or ridges to hold the sauce (1 pound)

Put the garlic in the food processor first. Chop it up and scrape it off the sides as needed. Next, add the basil and do the same. Add the olive oil a 1/4 cup at a time - grind it up until it starts to make a paste, scraping off the sides as needed. Add salt as desired. This will be pretty potent.

Put the paste into a small bowl and mix it with the parmesan. Pour it over the pasta and mix it until all the pasta is coated. Serve with more parmesan cheese as needed.