Amsterdam: Pasta alla Norma + Radish and Arugula Salad

(Recipe for two)

Lucas and I spent the morning at Amsterdam's Noordermarkt in Jordaan. I got there with a craving for pasta but I still wasn't entirely sure what kind of sauce to make. When I saw some eggplant at one of the stalls, the answer became obvious. I looooove eggplant and I looooove pasta alla norma. This dish is almost as simple as making tomato sauce, but it includes one extra step - either frying or roasting some eggplant. I usually roast the eggplant, but since we don't have an oven in our apartment here in Amsterdam, I fried up a small-medium sized eggplant (diced) in a little bit of olive oil instead. When the eggplant had softened after about 10-15 minutes, I remove it from the pan. Next, in the same pan, I added in a little more olive oil and 3-4 chopped up garlic cloves along with some chili (as much as you'd like, it really depends on how spicy the chili is to begin with because they can be veeerrry unpredictable).

Before the garlic turns brown, add in either a can of tomatoes or about 8 medium sized diced fresh tomatoes (you can remove the skins if you want by blanching them for about a minute. After blanching, the skins should peel off easily). I used fresh tomatoes but I did not remove the skins because I was lazy and I was not trying to impress anyone. We were drinking some red wine so I poured in about a glass full and let that boil off. I also had a little bit of thyme in the fridge so I threw in a sprig or two. Make sure to season with salt along the way. I let the sauce simmer for about 30-40 minutes and adjusted the acidity with some sugar when it was needed (depends on the tomatoes). When the sauce had reduced to a much thicker consistency, I added in the cooked eggplant and simmered the sauce for another 5-10 minutes. At this point, I removed the thyme stems and added in some fresh basil. I cooked the pasta until al dente and then mixed it in with the sauce.

For the salad - I haven't bought any vinegar here so I've been making salad dressings with lemon and olive oil. This time, I added in a little honey too. I sliced up a few radishes and tossed the salad together with a few handfuls of arugula at the last minute.

Ricotta Macaroni and Cheese with Asparagus and Leeks

First I cooked up a large leek in some olive oil and after about 3-4 minutes I added in the asparagus. These only took a few minutes to cook, and it's best to under-cook them a bit so they don't get too mushy when the whole casserole gets baked.

I made a béchamel sauce with 2 tablespoons of butter, two tablespoons of flour and 2 cups of milk. I chopped up a large clove of garlic and threw that in. Once the mixture thickened, I added in about 2 ounces of cheddar that I had in the fridge, along with a bit of feta that I had left over from the eggplant caponata toast that I made a few nights ago. I stirred in about 3/4 of a container of ricotta, grated in some nutmeg and added in a large pinch each of cayenne pepper, mustard powder (both of these are always good in mac and cheese) and dried tarragon.

When the pasta was cooked (I used orecchiette) I stirred everything together in a nice glass baking dish. I sprinkled on some chopped up parsley and chives and topped that off with panko breadcrumbs and a few drizzles of olive oil. The whole thing baked in the oven at about 375 degrees until the top was golden! I served it with another little sprinkling of fresh chives. This was delicious!

P.S. I picked up some chives at the farmer's market yesterday and I've been using them in everything! This morning I made the best scrambled eggs ever with a fresh red chili, shallots and tons of chives! YUM

Deborah Madison's Pasta with Chickpeas and Parsley

My mom has been making this dish forever and it's always been one of my favorites. It takes less than 20 minutes to prepare so it's always a great fall-back meal for a busy night.

First, chop an onion and sautée it in about 1/4 cup of olive oil for 2 minutes. Add in 2-3 minced garlic cloves and however many chili flakes you'd like, cook on medium-high heat until the edges are golden. In the meantime boil water and cook pasta (I usually use orecchiette). Chop 1/4-1/2 cup of parsley (Deborah Madison also calls for sage, but I didn't have any). I also use thyme when I have it on hand. Rinse a 14oz can of chickpeas and fry them up with the onions at the last minute. Mix everything together, add some reserved pasta water if need be, and top with parmesan!

Cannelloni Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta

I like to make cannelloni with fresh pasta sheets from the supermarket because its so much easier than trying to spoon the filling into dried pasta tubes (I don't have a piping bag), but since I have my lovely pasta rolling machine, I figured it would be a lot cheaper to just make it myself! I filled the pasta with a classic mixture of spinach, ricotta, nutmeg, pepper, salt and an egg. I covered the little rolls of stuffed pasta with tomato sauce and baked the whole thing in the oven for about an hour (much easier to bake it for longer than it is to par-boil all the pasta). I had a ton of dough left over so I ended up cutting it into pappardelle and freezing it... turned out that I could have just refrigerated it because Lucas and I ate it with pesto two days later!

Pesto, Spaghetti and Bread Crumbs

I made pesto again, (here's the last pesto post) but this time I made it with toasted buttery bread crumbs instead of roasted potatoes. I could probably be happy eating this meal, lasagna and salad for the rest of my life.

Spinach Spaghetti with Cream, Dried Porcini, Fresh Portabellos and Lots of Parsley

Over the holidays I procured over a pound of dried porcini mushrooms - possibly my favorite cooking secret. I came back to New York this week, excited to make one of my favorite pasta dishes! I had some spinach spaghetti on hand so decided to try it out. The sauce was super simple to make.
First I sauteed some onion in butter and olive oil, then added in the sliced mushrooms. After cooking the mushrooms super briefly I took them out of the pan. Put the pan back on the heat, poured in some cream, a little bit of vegetable broth and a few spoonfuls of my porcini powder. When the pasta was ready, I mixed the mushrooms back in and threw in a toooonnnn of parsley. On the side, (sadly no pictures) I made a super sour salad with sherry vinegar, dijon and olive oil. It was a nice hearty meal.

The last picture looks kind of weird, but I thought I should include it anyways.

P.S. Sorry about the ugly lighting in these pictures. Unfortunately my kitchen does not get nearly as much light as it does in Topanga.