Butternut squash is one of those things that until a year or two ago I had heard about but never really experimented with.  It’s also one of those things I lament not having tried earlier.  It’s great for a variety of things and I use it in everything from soups to chili, but to stay with the year’s trend of keeping things as simple as possible I give you butternut squash in its most perfect state; roasted.

While you can roast butternut squash in just about any fat that suits your fancy, I have several favorites.  The most common are extra virgin olive oil and bacon fat, but using bacon grease overwhelms the delicate flavor of the squash and I just happened to have something a little more exotic hanging around in my fridge when I decided to make this dish.

I had goose fat.

A quick note: Halving the squash before you peel it is a real time saver as well as a convenience.  It’s much easier to hold on to the squash while peeling if you have the dimple left by the seeds to hold onto while you’re removing the tough outer skin and the squash won’t want to slip all over the cutting board while you’re halving it. Once skinned, it’s a snap to slice the squash into manageable pieces for roasting.

Now I’m not saying that here’s anything wrong with olive oil and if you’re looking for a vegetarian snack or side you should most definitely use it.  In my case, having one of the holy grails of roasting fats on hand was more than I could pass up and the flavors of the completed dish were just short of absolute perfection (see my notes as to why it was just short and not right on.)

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By Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, Author of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes>

I would like to extend my thanks to Caitlin Price of FSB Associates for making this piece available to the readers of CBSOP.  It’s a valuable article and one that I hope you enjoy!

There is no more appropriate time than now to think about how and why we cook. Food is a way of connecting with the people who surround us. Through it, we communicate emotions like love, compassion and understanding, and there is no better opportunity to communicate with our children than at the table. It’s where we can discuss our values of life that are important to us as individuals, as a family and as a part of the world we live in.

As overconsumption and greed have come to haunt us, now is a time for reflection. We should be looking back at the generations before us to understand their approach to the table. Growing food, shepherding animals, foraging for the gifts of nature is all part of respecting food. Nothing needs to be wasted. Bread can be recycled and used in soups, casseroles, lasagnas and desserts. Water is carefully conserved as in the pasta recipe I share below where the same water in which vegetables are cooked is used to cook the pasta that follows, and then that is saved for soups or for making risotto.

When one respects the food we prepare, it also leads to a more sensible and balanced intake of proteins, legumes and vegetables.

So “waste not, want not” and make it delicious!

Excerpt from Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009)

FRESH CAVATELLI WITH CAULIFLOWER
Maccarun ch’I Hiucc

Serves 6

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and I regret that many people don’t sufficiently appreciate its unique flavor and nutritional value. This is not the case in Molise, where it is cooked often and creatively, as exemplified by the following two simple vegetarian pasta dishes. The first recipe, maccarun ch’i hiucc, is zesty with garlic and peperoncino.

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for the pasta pot

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

7 plump garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1/2 teaspoon peperoncino flakes, or to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

1 large head cauliflower, cut in small florets

1 batch (11/2 pounds) Fresh Cavatelli (preceding recipe), or 1 pound dried pasta

1 cup freshly grated pecorino (or half pecorino and half Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano, for a milder flavor)

Recommended equipment: A large pasta pot; a heavy-bottomed skillet or sauté pan, 12 inch diameter or larger

Fill the large pot with salted water (at least 6 quarts water with 1 tablespoon salt), and heat to a boil.

Pour the olive oil into the skillet, set over medium-high heat, and scatter in the sliced garlic. Let the garlic start to sizzle, then toss in the peperoncino and parsley; stir and cook for a minute. Ladle in a cup of the pasta cooking water, stir well, and adjust the heat to keep the liquid in the skillet simmering and reducing gradually while you cook the cauliflower and pasta.

With the pasta water at a rolling boil, drop in the cauliflower florets, and cook them for about 3 minutes, until barely tender. Drop in the cavatelli, stir, and return the water quickly to a boil. Cook another 4 to 5 minutes, until the cauliflower is fully tender and the pasta is al dente (if you are using dried pasta, it will, of course, take longer).

Lift out the florets and cavatelli with a spider or strainer, drain briefly, and spill them into the skillet. Toss well, to coat all the pasta and vegetable pieces with the garlicky dressing, then turn off the heat,

sprinkle over the skillet the grated cheese, and toss again. Heap the cauliflower and cavatelli in warm bowls, and serve immediately.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PARFAIT
Pane di Cioccolato al Cucchiaio

Serves 6

This recalls for me the chocolate-and-bread sandwiches that sometimes were my lunch, and always a special treat. And it is another inventive way surplus is used in Umbrian cuisine, with leftover country bread serving as the foundation of an elegant layered dessert. Though it is soaked with chocolate and espresso sauce and buried in whipped cream, the bread doesn’t disintegrate, and provides a pleasing textural contrast in every heavenly spoonful.

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

8 ounces country-style white bread, crusts removed

1/2 cup freshly brewed espresso

2 tablespoons dark rum

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 cups chilled heavy cream

1 cup sliced almonds, toasted

Recommended equipment: A large rimmed tray or baking sheet, such as a half-sheet pan (12 by 18 inches); a spouted measuring cup, 1 pint or larger; 6 parfait glasses or wineglasses, preferably balloon-shaped

Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl set in a pan of hot (not boiling) water. When the chocolate begins to melt, stir until completely smooth. Keep it warm, over the water, off the heat.

Slice the bread into 1/2-inch-thick slices, and lay them flat in one layer, close together, on the tray or baking sheet.

Pour the warm espresso into a spouted measuring cup, stir in the rum and sugar until sugar dissolves, then stir in half the melted chocolate. Pour the sauce all over the bread slices, then flip them over and turn them on the tray, to make sure all the surfaces are coated. Let the bread absorb the sauce for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, whip the cream until soft peaks form, by hand or with an electric mixer.

To assemble the parfaits: Break the bread into 1-inch pieces. Use half the pieces to make the bottom parfait layer in the six serving glasses, dropping an equal amount of chocolatey bread into each. Scrape up some of the unabsorbed chocolate sauce that remains on the baking sheet, and drizzle a bit over the bread layers. Next, drop a layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using up half the cream. Top the cream layer with toasted almonds, using half the nuts.

Repeat the layering sequence: drop more soaked bread into each glass, drizzle over it the chocolate sauce from the tray and the remaining melted chocolate. Dollop another layer of whipped cream in the glasses, using it all up, and sprinkle the remaining almonds on top of each parfait. This dessert is best when served immediately while the melted chocolate is still warm and runny.

©2010 Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali, authors of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipes

Author Bio
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, is the author of five previous books, four of them accompanied by nationally syndicated public television series. She is the owner of the New York City restaurant Felidia (among others), and she lectures on and demonstrates Italian cooking throughout the country. She lives on Long Island, and can be reached at her Web site, www.LidiasItaly.com <http://www.lidiasitaly.com/>

Tanya Bastianich Manuali, Lidia’s daughter and coauthor of Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy: A Feast of 175 Regional Recipe, received her Ph.D. in Italian Renaissance art history from Oxford University. Since 1996 she has led food/wine/art tours of Italy. She lives with her husband and children on Long Island.

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Please welcome my dear friend Jill McKeever of SimpleDailyRecipes.com.  We’re very happy to have her share her recipe for Duchess Potatoes here at CBSOP.

Take it away Jill!

Duchess Potatoes is an old recipe taken from a book our grandmothers would have trusted and relied upon for their dining dilemmas. Made from leftover mashed potatoes, this recipe transforms cold, thick mashed spuds into a light, fluffy, hard to stop eating, side dish. My kids could not get enough Duchess Potatoes. You should have seen their faces when the oven dish was empty. Oh wait, you’ll see the same expression on your kids when you make this dish.

HERE’S ALL IT TAKES

3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
2 egg yolks beaten well
1/4 cup fresh cream
grated cheese for topping (optional)

Heat oven to 425ºF.

Mix the mashed potatoes, beaten egg yolks and cream well. Pile lightly into a lightly greased shallow baking dish, top with grated cheese.
Bake in hot oven until browned, 10 to 15 minutes. It’s that simple.

Recipe and photo by Jill McKeever at SimpleDailyRecipes.com

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If there’s one food that Americans have adopted from another culture and changed to their own liking it’s the taco.  In fact, most Americans wouldn’t know a real taco if it bit them.  We’ve changed them too much.  Chain restaurants have buried the simple and noble flavors under mounds of lettuce, yellow processed cheese goo and whatever else they can come up with.

In the end, that ain’t a taco.  At best it’s a Tex-Mex bastardization on a theme that can be enjoyed on its own merits.  At worst it’s steamed mystery meat and ultra processed and pasteurized atomic yellow hell sauce with added capsaicin for heat and all the nutritional value of eating waxed paper. (Which would taste better in my humble opinion).

This dish is an attempt to bring something a little closer to an actual taco to my kids’ dinner plate.  The lettuce and sour cream were simply there to make them more familiar to a pair of kids who thought Mexican food came from that place with a mission bell in the logo and summarily declared all Mexican and South American food as evil and grotesque.

These tacos didn’t stand a chance.  One bite in and my two haters of all things South American descended on them like a pack of ravenous jackals on a wounded wildebeest.  It was at once rather disturbing and very rewarding to see them enjoying something at least closely related to what real Mexican food should be. (And note… There ain’t no yellow cheese to be found!)

Please note, this is still a very much Americanized recipe, but it’s a lot closer to real Mexican-American food than my kids have ever been exposed to.  I’m using recipes like this as a stepping stone to get them acquainted with flavors before going “all the way” to authentic dishes.

But these were good.  Very good.

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

As cooks we’ve known for years that in most cases the less expensive store-brand products on the shelves above and below the big name brands were just as high in quality as their more expensive brethren.  The difference in pricing is almost entirely due to a far lower advertising budget and the ability to sell a product to multiple big chain retailers under their own label rather than to have to market the product themselves.

Store brands go through exactly the same inspection processes and quality assurance checks that name-brand products do.  All of these things are mandated.  We also have to assume that the manufacturers of these products are just as proud of their work as are the employees of major brands.  if they weren’t, they’d be out of business.

But what happens when a big company tries to tell us that their product is better?  That’s the name of the game in advertising, right? Of course it is, at least until you go too far with it.

Going too far is jut what Mead Johnson did when it ran an advertising campaign for its Enfamil® product line that also suggested that using store brand formulas might actually be harmful to your childs’ health and well being.

Needless to say, the folks at PBM Products, who manufacture store brand infant formulas for such major players as Wal-Mart and Kroeger’s were more than a bit miffed.  In th end they were miffed to the tune of $13.5 Million dollars, which is what a jury ordered Mead Johnson to pay in damages due to their ad campaign.

not only did this court case prove that store brands are nearly always equal in quality to major name brands, but that you can’t believe everything that an advertiser decides to tell you is true.  do your research, make sure that what you’re feeding your kids is just as good as you can give them… but if you can get it for half the price, why wouldn’t you?

Peace. I’m out.

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Waking up in the morning should not be a dull affair.  Anything with a copious amount of Mexican chorizo can never be dull.  See where I’m going here? why not start your day with a zesty punch of flavors that will keep you going all day long. (Or at least until lunch time.)

This dish was directly inspired by my friend Ben at What’s Cooking and his recipe for Huevos a la Mexicana. One look at that glorious image and I wanted something similar as soon as I could get it cooked.

My version relied on what I had hanging out in the house.  I’d bought some Mexican chorizo and Anaheim peppers a few days before. I had some salsa and I always have cilantro, tomatoes and seasoning blend vegetable mix in my freezer, so I was on my way to a dish that I’ll most definitely make again.

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I’m a huge fan of a simple dish that still has the ability to get my guests to “Oooh” and “Ahhh” as though I’d slaved over it for days, rather than whipped it out in a few minutes. This is one of those dishes.  Utterly simple in preparation but a great wow factor, especially for my friends who may not deal with lamb regularly.

Another great thing about this dish is the price.  I used lamb shoulder chops for this dish which cost less than half of what a loin chop or another high-end cut would cost.  Like most lesser desired cuts, these chops have more flavor for less money and sacrifice nothing except tat “lollipop” effect you’d get with bone-in center cut chops.

Lamb and potatoes are the perfect partners in this dish.  The potatoes are also simple, easy to prepare with just a little forethought and make a nice impression on the plate.  For a full course meal, go with a light citrus salad as a starter and finish with a light lime sorbet.  A perfect meal all the way ’round.

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I think I was 19 the first time I tried this dish. I think I had it at don Taylor’s Omelette Express in Santa Rosa California, but if so, it’s no longer on their menu. No matter where it was that I tried this dish the first time, I was an instant convert.

Omelets are one of my culinary weaknesses.  For me they are on the same order of obsessive magnitude that some people hold chocolate.  The very nature and versatility of the omelet is mind boggling. Whether it be the classic folded French version or the currently more popular Italian frittata, there seems to be no limit on the flavor combinations possible and I think I may have tried them all.

Even after years of experimenting, I always come back to this simple dish. It satisfies a craving for me. Even though it’s been years since I last made this it instantly took me back to a time in my life where the world was exciting, my culinary horizons were expanding and the road forward didn’t seem like it was going to be paved with as much blood, sweat and tears as it has been. Food can do that.

This one is comfort food folks.  Make it with love and share it with someone you care about.  It will make memories.

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Just a quick note to say that CBSOP turned three years old today.  I hope to be here for another three and beyond, but I wouldn’t be here doing this at all if it weren’t for all of you wonderful folks out there.

In the past three years this place has seen hundreds of posts written and hundreds of thousands of people dropping by for a dose of real food made with love, the way food should be made.  Do you have a favorite recipe from CBSOP?  Is there one stand out to you?

Have I been lax on any subjects or is there something you’d like to see covered?  If so, just let me know in the comments.  After all, this is a journey that we take together.  You have the right to give it some input as well.

Have a great day, Y’All!

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Weekend breakfasts are one of the things that my family looks forward to.  Weekdays are a grab-and-go affair with the school bus showing up before 7:00AM and three kids to get out the door, so taking the time to sit and enjoy something together in the morning is something special.

Of course that doesn’t mean I want to spend hours making that breakfast. Weekends have a way of being more work than weekdays.  There’s always something going on, whether it’s for fun or just cramming everything out hat couldn’t be done during the week.

This recipe is one of my favorites for a quick yet satisfying weekend breakfast.  It’s been a favorite of mine in restaurants for years but it’s so simple to make that I rarely see a need to spend that kind of money on it.

I will say in advance that my Mexican friends and readers will probably take offense at my use of chunky salsa over a standard warm salsa rojo. In my defense, I grew up in Northern California where the standard salsa is a Pico de Gallo, a chunky salsa, so it fits for where I am in the world, and it’s available anywhere.  The more traditional version is wonderful as well.

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