Easy to scale up or down for any number of people, from one to a crowd. The recipe below is for 2 medium size portions, or a pretty large one with a bit leftover. Spaghetti is traditional, but I like egg noodles. Adapted from Marcella Hazan.
3 slices of bacon, cut in 1″ pieces
about 4 oz (1/3 of a package) egg noodles, or other pasta
1 egg
1 T creme fraiche (optional, or substitute sour cream or plain yogurt)
2 T parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
fresh ground black pepper
2 T chopped parsley, or other fresh herb
Brown bacon in a small pan, until crispy. Reserve drippings. Meanwhile, cook egg noodles per directions. While pasta cooks, beat together the egg, creme fraiche, and parmesan cheese. When pasta is done, reserve a little bit of the pasta water and drain. Return the pasta to the pot, and toss with the egg mixture. (Since the pasta and pan are hot, the egg gets most of the way, but probably not completely, cooked, making a rich and delicious sauce.) If it seems too dry, add in a bit of the reserved pasta water. Toss in the bacon, herbs, and some of the drippings. (I only used about half the drippings, but my bacon was pretty fatty.) Garnish with more herbs and parmesan cheese.
I know this hardly counts as a recipe. But, I just really love the combination sweet and savory from the cinnamon and paprika seasoning, so I’m sharing it anyway.
1 package Trader Joe’s sweet potato fries (these aren’t just frozen sweet potatoes, since they are already coated in some kind of oil or something, and maybe pre-fried)
1/2 t cinnamon, or to taste
1/2 t smoked paprika, or to taste
1/2 t salt, or to taste
1 T olive oil
Preheat oven to 400 F. Toss (still frozen) fries with cinnamon, paprika, salt, and olive oil. Bake until crispy and browned, about 8-10 minutes. I like to eat them with barbecue sauce.
One of Matt’s favorite desserts is lemon squares, but when I made them this time, I decided to change it up and use lime juice instead. I also added some ginger, again going for that ginger-lime combination I use for sherbet a few weeks ago. This time, I again didn’t add enough ginger though, so if you want that to come through, add more! Fresh ginger in the filling might help, too.
Everyone enjoyed the flavor of these with lime instead of lemon. In fact I think I might like them even better than the original! The extra tang from the lime just seems particularly summery. Read the rest of this entry »
Sorry, Daring Bakers…if you’re here looking for my post that was due yesterday, unfortunately it’s nowhere to be found. Life has been just too crazy this month! But by all means, everyone should check out the success of everyone else’s mallow cookies and milanos here. Wish I could’ve joined you — they look delicious!
I have a weakness for the juice/smoothie case at Whole Foods, and last weekend when we stopped in to get a few things for dinner, I found a new flavor I hadn’t tried before, called Red Ginger Lime. I can’t remember who made it, but it was delicious — a sharp bite from the ginger, a tart kick from the lime, and a little bit of sweetness from some blood orange juice (which also turned it a lovely shade of deep magenta). I was eager to try the ginger-lime combination again, and I’ve been wanting to break out the ice cream maker, so I made sherbet a few days later. We had some watermelon that needed to be eaten too, so I used it to cut the sourness of the limes a bit. (I’ve got something else with the ginger-lime combo cued up for later this week…)
The difference between a sorbet and a sherbet is the addition of dairy — sorbet is generally all fruit juice, while sherbet has some milk or cream. I wanted this to be a bit creamy, so I opted for sherbet, which I think also lasts a little longer in the freezer before becoming icy, from the extra fat I guess. I also wanted a very tart sherbet, which I got, but it’s maybe a little on the edge of too tart. If you don’t like your mouth to pucker, I would definitely suggest adding more sugar or honey, or a little less lime juice.
Finally, it’s not quite gingery enough, honestly, and I think this to some extent depends on how strong your fresh ginger is. But I found that the ginger flavor seemed more muted when frozen than before, and that the tartness of the limes was more pronounced after it was frozen, so that should help guide you to add more or less ginger and honey.
