Winston's Pasta Puttanesca

For those of you who have seen my menu plan for the week, you will recognize this recipe as dinner from Monday night. It's one I've had in my repertoire for years, and it is fast, easy, and delicious. In fact, that's where it gets its name: puttanesca, because it is fast and easy, just like the ladies of the night! I love that fun food fact.

And since it comes from my dear friend Winston, who is another one of my food heroes -- he could saute napkins and I'd eat them, he's THAT GOOD -- it is sure to be a gourmet take on a classic, and always a crowd-pleaser. I've made this many times when we've had people over for dinner, and coupled with a yummy salad, it is a perfect dish to serve and impress.

Winston's Pasta Puttanesca
Serves 4
1 pound whole-wheat organic pasta (or whatever pasta you prefer)
2 or 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly or minced (or less if you prefer -- we just like garlic in our house)
1 shallot (or red onion if you don't have a shallot), diced
1/4 cup capers, drained
1 28 oz. can diced or whole tomatoes, with juice (if you use whole, you'll need to dice them)
1/2 cup olives, any kind and variety you like
1 1/2 tbsp Italian seasoning (or oregano if you don't have Italian seasoning)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or a few diced anchovies if you are into that kind of thing)
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan, grated, as garnish


Cook pasta. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. When it shimmers, toss in garlic and shallot and let them cook a little. When the garlic is fragrant and the shallot is near to translucent, toss in the capers and sprinkle Italian seasoning and let the seasoning bloom, about 1 minute.
Add tomatoes and let the sauce simmer for a bit, about 2-3 minutes. Add olives, vinegar, and stir, then let it simmer just a bit more, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn off heat.
Drain pasta, add to sauce, salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Serve with grated Parmesan on top.

Megan's Miso-Glazed Scallops (or Tofu) with Soba Noodles

My friend Megan is one of those people who always brings her lunch to work. Because she is a good, good person. And whenever she heats up her food, you can smell it and it just makes your tummy growl. She's also an adventurous cook, which I adore about her, and isn't afraid to try new things. A lot of her leftovers make their way into her lunches and you're always so jealous that you weren't there at dinner with her the night before.

In honor of our current theme of quick & easy go-to meals, Megan submitted one of hers, with credit to one of her favorite food magazines, Eating Well:

Miso-Glazed Scallops with Soba Noodles

Megan's note: If you don't like scallops, you can easily substitute tofu, shrimp, or your protein of choice, and it is still easy to make and very tasty.

Makes 4 servings

8 ounces soba noodles or whole-wheat spaghetti
3 tablespoons white miso (see Ingredient notes)
2 tablespoons mirin (see Ingredient notes)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pound dry sea scallops (see Ingredient notes), tough muscle removed OR tofu
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup sliced scallions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles, stirring occasionally, until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.

2. Meanwhile, whisk miso, mirin, vinegar, canola oil, ginger and garlic in a medium bowl. Add scallops and stir gently to coat. Let marinate for 5 minutes (scallops will begin to break down if marinated longer). Using a slotted spoon, remove the scallops, reserving the marinade for the sauce.

3. Heat olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the scallops and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Add the reserved marinade to the pan and cook over medium-high heat until brown, about 1 minute. Pour the sauce over the noodles, add scallions and toss to coat. Top with scallops and serve immediately.

Ingredient notes

Miso: Fermented bean paste made from barley, rice or soybeans used in Japanese cooking to add flavor to dishes such as soups, sauces and salad dressings. A little goes a long way because of its concentrated, salty taste. Miso is available in different colors, depending on the type of grain or bean and how long it's been fermented. In general, the lighter the color, the more mild the flavor. It will keep, in the refrigerator, for more than a year.

Mirin: A low-alcohol rice wine essential to Japanese cooking. Look for it in the Asian or gourmet-ingredients section of your supermarket. An equal portion of sherry or white wine with a pinch of sugar may be substituted for mirin.

We prefer cooking with "dry" sea scallops (scallops that have not been treated with sodium tripolyphosphate, or STP). Scallops that have been treated with STP ("wet" scallops) have been subjected to a chemical bath and are not only mushy and less flavorful, but will not brown properly.

Kate's Creamy Mushroom Polenta

The woman who is my boss, who leads the organization for which I work, is an amazing woman in many, many ways. She runs and leads a national non-profit organization and has a family with two small children. And she leaves work at the end of each day to go shopping so she can cook dinner for her family. I am constantly in awe of her, for so many different reasons. One of which is that the woman can cook! I have tasted some of her dishes and man they are GOOD. So I am thrilled that she submitted a recipe, which I am very excited to make. This is what she cooked for her partner last night.... And to those who say food has nothing to do with love or romance, I say you've never eaten like this before.

Kate's Creamy Mushroom Polenta

Serves four to six

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion—diced
3 cloves garlic—minced
1 to 2 pounds of your favorite mushrooms
½ cup Madera or red wine
1 pound baby or regular French green beans—bite sized pieces or cut in half
2 tbsp each fresh thyme and oregano—chopped
1 ½ cups dried polenta, or a mixture of 1 cup polenta and ½ cup corn meal
1 cup Parmesan, Monterey Jack, or Fontina cheese—grated

Bring six cups or so of salted water to boil—add polenta, stirring frequently.

Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft and beginning to brown. Add in wine and cook another minute or so. Add green beans and herbs and good salt and fresh ground pepper. Cook until beans are tender, 4-5 minutes or so.

In the meantime you are stirring the polenta—add a tablespoon or so of butter or olive oil. The polenta should be creamy and smooth; add more water if it gets too thick. The polenta should be done in around 15 minutes. Add cheese, reserving a handful, when polenta is nearly done, with another tablespoon of butter or oil and mix thoroughly and quickly.

Spoon polenta into bowls and top with mushrooms. A bit of the reserved cheese can go on top.

It's the little things....

This is a recipe exchange. And that is mostly what I'll be posting here. But occasionally there will be things I'd like to post that aren't about a recipe per se. Or at least not directly.

Like today, driving to BART on my way to work, I heard a story on NPR that just stuck with me. Because it's about the way the little things and the big picture are all related. And it just made me sad. Are we really going to continue not changing our behavior (collective and individual) so as to propel ourselves further into a world where maple syrup is extinct? It's not life-or-death, I fully realize. People and lives will go on if we aren't able to get real maple syrup anymore. But what else will be affected if the sugar maple isn't able to survive? What else is at risk of disappearing? And really, what is the world coming to when maple syrup is in danger of becoming a relic of the past? I ask you.

For today, I take small solace in knowing that Vermont is still 74% wooded, and New Hampshire is 80%. Those are odds in our favor.

Climate Connections: Signs
In New England, Concern Grows for Sugar Maple
by Ketzel Levine

Morning Edition, October 29, 2007 · Consider the color of fall leaves on a sugar maple tree: peach, orange, lemon, mango. It's an autumn delicacy, a thunderhead of foliage.

The species is also quite long-lived. In the Carlsons' forest in Sandwich, N.H., a few date from the 1700s. Martha Carlson has a number of favorite trees, with stories to tell about each one.

"I was tapping the trees right beside my house, and it was early in the season," Carlson says. "It was 34 degrees, and the sap was just pouring out. Then a cloud went over and the sap stopped. You could almost hear the tree click off."

An exquisitely sensitive tree, shuddering at the slightest chill, the sugar maple has a wide variety of residents, ecologists and scientists worried about how it will fare should Northeast temperatures rise as projected during the next century of climate change.

Read More....

My Menu Plan for the Week

And here's what we're eating at Casa Dena this week....

• Sunday: Greek Salad with sauteed veggie Italian sausage on the side


• Monday: Winston's Pasta Puttanesca


• Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers with side salad


• Wednesday: Moroccan Sweet Potato Chicken with Quinoa


• Thursday: My Husband's Favorite Dinner (aka Cornbread, Black-eyed peas, and sauteed Greens)


• Friday: Homemade Indian Take-out (Tofu, Cauliflower, Potatoes & Spinach in a Masala Simmer Sauce)

What are you having for dinner this week?

101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less

You gotta love The New York Times' Minimalist, Mark Bittman. 101 10-minute meals? HELL yeah!

I've included some of my very favorites here:

9. Pan-grill a skirt steak for three or four minutes a side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, slice and serve over romaine or any other green salad, drizzled with olive oil and lemon.

18. Stir-fry a pound or so of ground meat or chopped fish mixed with chopped onions and seasoned with cumin or chili powder. Pile into taco shells or soft tacos, along with tomato, lettuce, canned beans, onion, cilantro and sour cream.

21. While pasta cooks, combine a couple cups chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon or more minced garlic, olive oil and 20 to 30 basil leaves. Toss with pasta, salt, pepper and Parmesan. (Dena's note: I make this all the time in the summer when the tomatoes are to die for. Yum!)

33. Sauté 10 whole peeled garlic cloves in olive oil. Meanwhile, grate Pecorino, grind lots of black pepper, chop parsley and cook pasta. Toss all together, along with crushed dried chili flakes and salt. (Dena's note: this is one of my husband's all-time favorite comfort meals. We mince the garlic and use Parmigiano Reggiano, though.)

I had to stop posting any more after #33.... I was literally starting to get too hungry to go on. YUM!

Let me know if you try any of these and how they work out for you!

Andrea's White Wine Chicken and Pasta

So far, I am loving this blog because I am getting some great dinner ideas from folks! A friend of ours, Andrea, who is of Italian descent and grew up in San Antonio (so she's got GREAT food in her background!), submitted this recipe, which I am dying to try. It's one of her go-to meals -- you know, the meals you make when you need dinner to happen quickly but also deliciously.


Andrea's White Wine Chicken and Pasta

Andrea's notes: I threw all of these ingredients in a pan one night in hopes of making a different recipe. After getting half-way down the ingredient list, I realized I was missing an ingredient (even though I was so sure I had everything I needed to begin with). The modified result wasn't too shabby. It's simple, quick, and can be as flavorful as desired, so it's something everyone can enjoy.

Ingredients: chicken breasts, pasta, white wine, garlic, oregano, parsley, ground pepper

Step 1:
On medium heat, warm 1 or 2 cups (depending on how many servings you desire) of your favorite white wine (something smooth, not incredibly fruity so that you avoid blending contrasting herbs with fruit. One of my favorites is a 2003 Andretti Estate Chardonnay. It has a low alcohol taste. Andretti is very crisp and light. I'm sure you could also do this with a dry wine or a red wine of choice).

2. Add crushed garlic and season to taste with oregano, parsley, and fresh ground pepper.

3. Add in chicken breasts and turn as needed. Keep on medium heat so as not to boil/thicken the wine.

4. Bring a pot of water to boil, add pasta and cook until al dente .

5. Once the chicken is done (for me, this is about 12 -15 minutes), pour wine sauce and chicken over pasta.

Goal: as the chicken cooks, it will absorb the wine creating a moist, flavorful chicken.

Considerations:
Serve with bread and side salad. Use whole-wheat pasta, or organic ingredients including a semi-organic wine.

Tomato Side Salad: The Taste of Summer

I am one of those people who cannot eat fresh tomatoes nine months out of the year. I just would rather not eat them at all than eat the (scarily toxic) things that pass for tomatoes for most of the year. And I rarely eat them when I'm at a restaurant, unless I know they've obtained them locally.

But the three months when tomatoes are in season? Pure heaven. Nothing signals, embodies, and imbues one's being with the essence of summer like a vine-ripened fresh tomato. Seriously.

And I recently discovered the best tomatoes I have EVER eaten, even better than the ones my husband grew in our garden when we had a yard two years ago. Even he agrees! If you live anywhere near the Bay Area, do yourself a huge favor and make sure you taste one of these before the season's over. Their taste may very well last me through to next season. Each bite tastes like the essence of ripe summer tomatoes intensified by 100. I'm not kidding. They really are that good.

Inspired by these amazing tomatoes, I took a hint from one of my favorite food blogs and made my Tomato Side Salad to go with the burgers I made last Sunday night. Grass-fed beef from only 50 miles away and tomatoes from 75 miles away -- a summer Sunday dinner doesn't get better.

Dena's Tomato Side Salad

As many dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes as you are in the mood for, sliced

1 sweet Italian onion, sliced paper-thin

salt and pepper to taste

Arrange the onion over the tomatoes and add plenty of salt and pepper. Eat and be blissful.

Robin's School Garden Salad

In light of the hot weather we've got here (81 degrees in San Francisco today!), I am scrapping my original plan for dinner tonight (which was black beans and rice) and going with one of our hot weather favorites -- what we like to call around here "Robin Salad."

It has that name because it is a deelicious recipe given to me by my dear friend Robin, who is a stellar cook. She's one of my cooking heroes. She also runs a seed-to-plate program for kids in East Palo Alto -- you know, where they teach kids how to grow food in a garden, harvest it, eat it, compost it, and grow it again. Also, she teaches them the basics, like lettuce is alive, a rock is not, and a tree.... A TREE IS ALIVE. (I'm not kidding; her kids thought trees were not alive. Like rocks.)

I have to preface this recipe, though. You need to know that this dressing is extremely addictive. It is insanely delicious. In fact, the greens and "salad" part of it are really extraneous -- you could put this dressing on cardboard and it would be good. That's why this recipe is for a large quantity of dressing: you will want leftovers of it. So just beware.

So, without further ado:

Robin's School Garden Salad

Dressing:
1 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup stone ground mustard
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (I actually always use 3 or 4, but that's how we do garlic in my house)
1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a large bowl or jar. If using a bowl, mix dressing vigorously to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. If using a jar (my preferred method), put the lid on and shake shake shake.

Salad:
Any greens you like, but the ones that stand up to this dressing best are the assertive ones, like romaine, red cabbage, chard, etc. Also add carrots, radishes, and whole wheat croutons. To turn this into a main course/dinner, I also add in some chopped up baked tofu.

Toss and serve and enjoy!

Dena's Quinoa Pilaf

First, a word about quinoa in case you've never heard of it (with thanks to South Beach Diet online for the following information):

Move over couscous — there's a new grain in town, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa). Actually, quinoa isn't new at all — it's been grown for thousands of years in the Peruvian Andes and has been a staple in some South American diets for centuries. North Americans are just beginning to discover quinoa's unique nutritional makeup and versatility.

Quinoa grains are the seeds of a leafy, spinach-like plant. The Incas referred to quinoa as the "mother grain" because of its high protein content — the highest amongst the grains — and because it's a great source of vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium, the B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, and copper.

Quinoa is as easy to make and use as rice, but cooks in half the time. To cook, rinse grains and combine one-and-three-quarters parts water with one part quinoa, bring to a boil, and simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve it up as a side dish, as part of a one-pot meal, or as an addition to soups and stews. Any uncooked leftovers can be stored for several months in an airtight container.

Since quinoa is still relatively new to the American marketplace, at the moment you may only find it in specialty food stores or very large supermarkets. And though it can be expensive, keep in mind that besides its many nutritional benefits, it increases about three or four times in volume after cooking, which gives you more bang for your buck.

The recipe I like is below, but I also totally use it as a rice substitute on occasion.

Dena's Quinoa Pilaf

1 ¾ cups water or chicken stock
1 cup quinoa
½ cup shelled unsalted pistachios
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, finely diced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 small tomato
½ red onion
2 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt & freshly ground black pepper

(To turn it into a main course, I add sauteed veggie Italian sausage or diced chicken.)

Heat oven or toaster oven to 350 degrees F. Rinse quinoa with a fine-mesh strainer.

Combine water (I use chicken stock to give it that nice rich flavor – low sodium and low fat, of course) and quinoa in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and place in a mixing bowl.

While quinoa is cooking, spread pistachios on a baking tray and bake until lightly browned and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Cool and roughly chop (I actually leave them whole).

Heat 1 tsp of oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and red onion until they become fragrant and softened. Then add bell pepper, tomato, and scallion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add to quinoa, along with pistachios, vinegar, and remaining oil; stir to combine. If making it a main course, add protein. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Welcome to my recipe exchange

If you've made it this far, you're at least curious about my dorky idea of a recipe exchange. So thank you for visiting. And I hope you'll read on and participate!

I started this recipe exchange blog to gather and garner recipe ideas - and, on occasion, meal and menu planning ideas - from friends, family, and fellow foodies. I hope you'll join in the exchange by offering your own recipes for posting and by using some of the posted recipes.

How to post a recipe? Email me (denasrecipeexchange at gmail dot com) with:

1. the recipe
2. your name
3. any credit when credit might be due
4. and whether you'd like me to attribute the recipe to you or not.

OR you can just submit your recipe by adding a comment to a post. I'll get it either way.

Each Saturday or Sunday I sit down to plan out what my husband and I will eat for the week, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and any snacks. While I love having this kind of intentionality about what we eat, and I love cooking, sometimes the creative juices (so to speak) aren't flowing like they usually do. Sometimes I have to do a little online research to get inspired. And sometimes my inspiration comes from talking about food with my friends -- or seeing what they've brought for lunch or made for dinner. So I thought I'd just collect all this inspiration in one place that will (hopefully) be an ongoing source of inspiration when the creative cooking and menu idea well runs slightly dry.

I'll definitely post my own recipes to inspire you, and will also throw in a theme or two to help focus the recipes.