Rotini with Spicy Italian Salami

This is week is the first week that I have worked "outside the home" in a long time. I have a corporate client -- yay! -- and I had to video tape a users conference and produce some testimonial videos for their web site. It feels so great to be working a little bit and this kind of job is perfect. While it is serious and professional, it is not incredibly high stress like the Times jobs tend to be sometimes. And really, at the end of the day, it is just nice to go out and talk to people about things other than babies, even if it's about a programming software I know very little about.

Don't get me wrong, I could talk about babies -- my baby -- all day long, everyday. But, sometimes when I work, I am reminded that there is still another side to me and even though it is work, it's rejuvenating. It awakens a side of my brain that doesn't get quite as much exercise these days.

So thank you to Questionmark for a good shoot week and for inspiring me to get back to things like this blog and new recipes.

As for today's recipe, well, I wish I could say I loved this one, but it was just okay. I'm going to share it anyway because I think others might like it more and I think with a few adjustments, it would be better. I got if from a cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas. It's a Curtis Stone cookbook, the hot Aussie who I have often seen flirting with Kathie Lee and Hoda on the Today show. It's very simple and can be made in about 20 minutes. He uses Rigatoni. I used a whole wheat rotini which could have been one of the reasons I didn't think it was so great.

Anyway, here is the recipe, straight from the source - The "Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone - Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood" cookbook.

Rigatoni with Spicy Italian Salami, Baby Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
20 cherry tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes and they were the best part)
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
8 ounces spicy salami, such as Sopressata Vicentina, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced (I crushed them, of course)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
1/4 cup extra fine capers
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (which I thought I had, but didn't so it was not included in my recipe)
8 to 10 ounces rigatoni pasta

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a baking sheet, drizzle the tomatoes with 2 teaspoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven for about 8 minutes or until the skins start to split. Remove them from the oven and let them cool a bit.

Boil a large pot of salted water for the pasta.

While it's coming to a boil, heat up the tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the salami and cook for 30 seconds on both sides, until light golden in color. Remove from the pan and reserve.

Return the pan to the heat and add the garlic. Saute for a minute and then add the tomatoes and saute for 3 more minutes. Add the wine and simmer for 3 minutes or until the wine has reduced by half. Add the olives and capers and toss gently. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the salami and parsley.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente. Drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce.

We served it immediately and sprinkled freshly grated parmasean cheese on top. Again, it was fine, but not great. I think next time I will add a little bit of butter at the end. I just felt the sauce was too light and the ingredients didn't really come together the way I had hoped. But, because of that "lightness" I think people who are a little more health conscious might appreciate that. I'm almost 6 months pregnant -- I need richness. Plus, it gave me heartburn.

And I know, I have to try and remember to take pictures. I'm just getting back into the swing of things here....

Cosmopolitans and Turkey Sausage Penne Alla Vodka

Last night I looked in my freezer and all I had left was three one pound packages of Verde Farms Organic ground beef, a huge Costco pork loin and a package of turkey sausage. I guess the turkey sausage was the only thing that looked reasonable to me so I had to figure out something to do with it.

I was craving a little vodka sauce, but we'd run out of vodka after the last batch...okay, and there were maybe a couple of dirty martinis involved one evening during a sunset on the beach. I hadn't been out of the house all day because I am still working on my video, and so I decided that maybe going to the liquor store was just the outing I needed! I put Baz in the stroller and off we went.

It was worth it. I plopped the sausages into a frying pan and browned them in a couple drops of oil olive. I took them out of the pan and sliced them before returning to the pan so that they would cook faster. At this point Damien came home, noticed the fresh bottle of vodka and asked me if I knew how to make Cosmopolitans. I didn't, but I sure wouldn't mind finding out!

This is what we discovered:

Cosmopolitans alla Damien (makes 2 servings)
3 ounces vodka
1 ounce Cointreau or Triple Sec (we used Cointreau)
2 ounce cranberry juice
1 lime

Pour all liquid ingredients in a martini shaker with ice and shake. Squeeze the juice of 1/2 of the lime into each of two chilled martini glasses. Pour contents of the shaker over the lime juice. Garnish with a wedge of lime.

You can adjust the ingredients to your taste. Apparently, there really isn't a right or wrong way to do it.

Now armed with my pre-dinner cocktail, I continued making my vodka sauce. I put the pasta in to boil and removed the sausages from the frying pan, cleaned it out and continued to make the vodka sauce like I did in my post a here.

This recipe is becoming a real favorite around here, and the sausage added a new twist. It was really tasty.

Today, I am getting ready to go on my first trip sans baby. While I am very excited for the reunion with some of my dearest friends in Denver, CO, I am also very nervous about leaving Baz behind. I know he's in good hands -- in fact, Damien has his two brothers coming in this weekend so he'll have reinforcements (even though I was sort of looking forward to him experiencing a full two days alone with the baby.) But I've never been away from him for more than a few hours. And to make matters more difficult, he has started saying "Mama" this week. Way to break my heart, baby.

Penne Alla Vodka

Usually on Sundays we have pizza, but since Damien and I had spent the day drinking beers and eating cheese and hummus while watching Juanes' Peace without Borders Havana show, we didn't feel hungry enough to place our usual order. We had a bit of risotto left from Friday night, but not enough for the two of us. So Damien suggested he'd be in the mood for Penne alla Vodka if it were simple enough to make.

I did a little investigating on the internet and figured out it is actually pretty easy. Here is what I did:

Penne alla Vodka
1/2 pound penne pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, pressed
1/2 cup vodka
14 ounces crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Parmesan cheese

Boil water for pasta. Pour in the pasta and cook to desired tenderness.

In the meantime, heat up olive oil over medium high heat until hot but not smoking in a large saute pan. Saute onion and garlic until onions are translucent and garlic is browned - bits should begin sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add vodka, scrapping pieces of onion and garlic off the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 1 minute to reduce and cook off alcohol. Add the tomatoes, stirring constantly. Stir in the cream. Add red pepper, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 or 3 minutes.

When pasta is finished. Drain and return to pot. Pour sauce onto pasta and stir to coat. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

I think next time I'd like to add a little bit of pancetta before I add in the vodka. And you can adjust the amount of cream depending on your taste. Same goes for the red pepper.

It was the perfect end to a fun day. The concert was fun to watch and we enjoyed sharing the time with our friends Casey, Arian and their son, Luca who stopped by for a little while.

Salmon and Asparagus Linguini Alfredo (aka Heart Attack in a Bowl)

Having gotten over my cooking fiasco from Friday, I jumped back into the saddle tonight with a new meal. Publix was having a sale on Coho Salmon that looked really good, so since I had to go there to buy some milk, I bought a pound and had to figure out what to do with it.

I was also craving pasta, so I decided to make the linguini I bought at the Argentine pasta shop down the block. And I thought if I could make some sort of alfredo sauce to go with the salmon and some asparagus, well, that just sounded pretty good to me.

So here is my recipe (it looks more complicated than it is; total cooking time is about 30 minutes):

Salmon and Asparagus Linguini Alfredo
2/3 pound fresh linguini
1 pound salmon fillets (although a little less would be fine too)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 small onion, diced
10-15 spears of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pint heavy cream
1/2 stick of butter
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Boil a large pot of water for pasta. But do not cook pasta until the very end.

Rinse off the salmon fillets and pat dry. Coat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Press two garlic cloves on the salmon and rub in evenly. Sprinkle with a light coat of salt and pepper.

Heat the other 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a saute pan. Add the onions and asparagus and saute until the onions are translucent and the aspargus is just tender. Put the cooked vegetables in a bowl on the side.

Using the same pan, cook the salmon fillets. Start with the skin side down. When you flip the salmon, peel off the skin and continue to cook until cooked through. This take about 8 minutes depending on the thickness of the salmon. When finished, remove from pan and set aside.

In a clean saute pan, heat up the heavy cream over low to medium heat. When it just starts to bubble, add the butter and whisk together until butter is fully melted. Add the cheese and continue to whisk until cheese is blended in completely. Add in salmon - breaking it up with your fingers as you put it in the pan - and vegetables and coat with cream sauce. Stir in fresh parsley. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.

Add the pasta to the boiling water. If using fresh pasta, cook for 3 or 4 minutes. Drain and serve in individual bowls.

Serve the salmon and cream sauce over the pasta.

Not to toot my own horn here, but it was pretty freakin' tasty. Okay, so you might have to go straight to the hospital and have your arteries cleaned out after this meal. But, before you go, don't forget to have a glass of wine. We opted for a Sancerre that we've been saving for a special occasion even though tonight wasn't a particular special occasion.

The wine was actually part of my fabulous anniversary gift from Damien (which was at the end of May.) He bought me several bottles of wine that commemorate special moments in our marriage. So, there was a pinot noir from the Anderson Valley from a weekend we spent near there when I first moved out to San Francisco. There was a Provence rose because I started drinking rose after a great night we spent out at Pearl Oyster Bar where we saw Jodi Foster drinking it and decided to try it ourselves. There was a trebbiano like the cheap, but good wine we used to get at our favorite Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, Noodle Pudding. And the sancerre, which... well, we just like Sancerre and order it on special occasions.

I guess the special occasion tonight was that Damien proclaimed the alfredo sauce the best he ever had. I'll drink to that!

Pasta with Ready-Made Pesto

Since Damien is still away, I'm gonna keep it simple tonight and just make some pasta and toss it in a ready-made pesto sauce that we always keep in the refrigerator for just such nights.

I like to use the Contadina Buitoni brand pesto that you find in the refrigerator section of the supermarket rather than the ones you can find in jars in the pasta section. It just tastes better.

But, I also should say that making your own pesto is really easy and delicious. You just need to have a bunch of fresh basil. Unfortunately, our beautiful basil did not survive our trip to New York. A few scorching Miami days and it was fried. And I'm feeling too damn lazy to run out and buy some at the supermarket.

So there.