A Skillet, a Spatula, and a Dream Read online

  With a sharp knife, cut a few 1" slits across the top.

  Slide into 350 degree oven and bake for anywhere from 1 hour to 1 hour and 40 minutes. You want a deep golden brown outside and a fully-cooked inside.

  Let stand for fifteen minutes or so before serving.

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  PASTA PUTTANESCA

  You know the story behind this dish, don't you? Just in case you don't, this is called (among other names) harlot's pasta, whore's pasta, working girl's pasta. Legend has it that this is the dish the prostitutes of Italy whipped together when they needed quick sustenance between engagements. True or false? Who knows. It's delicious, though, that much I do know.

  NOTE: You don't really have to count your capers or black olives. Use your own judgment and make it your own. The day I actually count a caper is the day I hang up my apron!

  Ingredients

  1 pound penne (or whatever pasta you fancy)

  2 tablespoon salt

  1/4 cup extra virgin (yes, I see the irony) olive oil

  4 cloves thinly sliced garlic

  1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)

  20 capers, drained of brine, crushed (I use maybe a heaping tablespoon and mash them with the back of a fork)

  24 black olives (I use Lindsay black olives, sliced)

  2 anchovy filets, smashed into a paste (or a good squeeze of anchovy paste in a tube)

  3 cups basic tomato sauce (you can substitute crushed tomatoes or a few cups of pasta sauce)

  1 bunch finely chopped flat leaf Italian parsley

  Method

  In large skillet, place oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Cook over medium heat until garlic begins to turn light golden -- maybe 1 minute. Add capers, olives, anchovies, and continue cooking 1 minute. Add 3 cups basic tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer while you make the pasta.

  Cook penne according to directions. Drain. Pour drained pasta into skillet. Turn heat up and cook 1 minute until thoroughly mixed. Stir in chopped parsley. Add freshly grated cheese. (Everything's better with cheese!)

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  ALMOST PERFECT CHICKEN PAD THAI

  I've been on a long search for the perfect Chicken Pad Thai. So far this is the closest I've come to the wonderful take-out from our beloved Thai Kitchen III:

  Ingredients

  1 tablespoon soy sauce

  1 tablespoon water

  1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

  1 teaspoon Asian chili paste, such as sambal oelek

  3 T canola oil

  1 teaspoon minced garlic

  1 teaspoon minced ginger

  1/2 cup carrots, yellow squash, zucchini Ð whatever you like. Preferably julienned

  4 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breast or thigh, sliced into strips (similar in size to the veggies above)

  1/4 pound medium-wide rice noodles, soaked in warm water until softened and drained

  1 tablespoon light brown sugar

  1 tablespoon cider vinegar

  Chopped Romaine lettuce (makes a wonderful serving bed)

  Chopped peanuts, to sprinkle over the top for crunch and sheer deliciousness

  Method

  Whisk together the soy sauce, water, peanut butter, and chili paste until smooth.

  Heat a large wok over medium-high heat, and add canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger and let cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Be careful! Don't let it brown. Add the vegetables and chicken. Stir-fry until chicken is cooked through maybe 2 to 4 minutes. Add noodles and toss to coat. (Feel free to make any substitute what works for you if you can't find rice noodles. I've even seen this with rice or plain old Ronzoni spaghetti! Not traditional Thai by any means but whatever works in a pinch.)

  Add peanut/spice paste, brown sugar and cider vinegar to wok and toss with abandon. Heat through.

  I like to pile the chopped romaine on a big glass platter. Place the Pad Thai on top of the romaine and top with chopped peanuts. Some people enjoy a sprinkling of cilantro leaves or a splash of lime. Your choice.

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  It’s feast or famine around here when I’m on a book deadline. Either the kitchen is alive with pots of soup and rising yeast breads or else Domino’s has a delivery person assigned specifically to us. There is no middle ground.

  I was in full cooking mode today, probably because my brain isn’t working on all four burners. No matter how long and diligently I sat at the computer, the words wouldn't come . Let's face it: a writer knows she's got a problem when even her imaginary friends won't behave themselves!

  Finally, around three o'clock, I decided to take a break and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of iced tea. Who am I kidding? I went in search of chocolate! I didn't find anything suitably sinful but I did notice the fresh tortellini with sun-dried tomatoes that Roy had brought home from the Italian deli earlier in the day and I was overcome with the urge to make a batch of pesto.

  I took the paper skins off the garlic and popped them into the Cuisinart. I toasted walnuts for the pesto. (Yes, walnuts. One day I wanted to make pesto and discovered I was out of pine nuts, so I substituted and a new favorite was born. Cooking, like life, is equal parts talent and accommodation. The best recipes are usually happy accidents.) A beautiful wedge of Locatelli Romano. A huge pile of freshly-washed basil. Extra virgin olive oil. I might not have accomplished much at the computer today but I know we'll eat well tonight.

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  SALADS

  MILLIE'S FAMOUS COLE SLAW

  Ingredients

  3/4 cup sugar

  1/2 teaspoon onion salt

  2 tablespoons white vinegar

  1 quart Miracle Whip

  Celery seed

  Mix thoroughly.

  Method

  This makes a lot of cole slaw dressing. Pour it over shredded cabbage, carrots, onion, and apple. You decide the amounts. The dressing keeps nicely in a covered jar for maybe a week.

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  SPICY CHINESE PEPPER SALAD

  Ingredients

  3tablespons olive oil

  3tablespoons sesame oil

  10 large peppers (mix red and green and yellow, if possible)

  6 cloves finely minced garlic

  3tablespoons soy sauce

  1 tablespoon red chili paste (I add more)

  1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

  1/4 cup sherry or Marsala

  1 tablespoon sugar

  Lemon

  Salt and pepper

  Method

  In a large wok or skillet, heat oils until very hot. Add peppers and cook over high heat, stirring constantly, until they soften. Maybe ten minutes? Add remaining ingredients and cook until peppers are tender and the liquid reduces a bit. Lower the heat. Stir. Keep your eye on it. Don't let anything burn. This takes longer than you think. Be patient with it. Allow 30 minutes or so. The longer it cooks, the better it tastes.

  Speaking of taste, this salad is at its best room temperature or slightly chilled.

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  BANZAI SALAD WITH GINGER DRESSING

  Oh, how I wish you could have been there when Mount Fuji came to Long Island! The year was 1973, back in those dark days when fresh ginger was so rare that you actually had to either mail order it or take the LIRR into the city and go down to Chinatown to find it.

  Mount Fuji was a sprawling restaurant right in the heart of Jericho Turnpike in Huntington, a nondescript one-story building with a big parking lot. You would never know from its unassuming exterior that inside lay all the glamour and exotic excitement that Japan had to offer. Was it a Benihana rip-off? Of course it was. The long communal tables, the flashy tableside cooks with the Samurai knife skills, the regular suspects sizzling on that grill, filling the air with the luscious aromas of chicken and beef and shrimp and onions and sesame and squash and garlic.

  A trip to
Mount Fuji made us, in those pre-sushi pre-everything days, feel like world travelers. We even loved it when a certain husband, who shall remain nameless, told the hostess that it was my birthday and I had the singular experience of being lifted up and out of my seat by six singing Samurai chefs all crying, "Banzai! Banzai!"

  It was a time it was, a time indeed.

  This is the salad we loved then and love still, thirty years down the road and far, far away.

  Ingredients

  1/4 cup soy sauce

  1/3 cup peanut oil

  1/4 cup vinegar (white)

  1 six ounce can tomato paste (use maybe 2/3 of it)

  1/2 medium yellow onion

  1 nice-sized chunk of fresh ginger (maybe two inches long) - make sure you peel it

  Juice of one or two lemons (yes the squirt bottle is okay)

  Juice of one or two oranges (OJ from the container is fine)

  Method

  Throw all of the above into your Cuisinart or blender Mix wildly until it's thoroughly combined and lusciously thick and the smell of ginger is making your mouth water.

  The salad at Mount Fuji never varied and we always loved it. Why mess with a good thing. Toss some chopped iceberg (yes, iceberg) into a nice big bowl, add fresh tomato, green pepper rings, red onion, and lots of shredded red cabbage. Use as much (or as little) dressing as your taste buds require.

  Banzai!

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  GREEK SALAD A LA OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

  There were two things you could always find at any diner in our old neighborhood: a great Greek salad and a bowl of Manhattan Clam. We lived within walking distance of the Olympic Diner on Deer Park Avenue and just about every day I found my way there for a salad or a bowl of soup or even just a cup of tea and a toasted blueberry muffin.

  Their Greek salads remain the best I've ever had. They were always served on a glass plate with lots of juicy pepperoncini, anchovies (which they quickly learned to omit from mine) and two dolmades -- tender grape leaves stuffed with tangy rice infused with mint. But it was the dressing that lifted it above the pack. I tried and tried to duplicate it and after one particularly depressing failure, I asked one of the owners what on earth was in that dressing that made it so special and, God love him, he told me: tomato juice.

  This is a seat-of-your-pants salad dressing. We adore it and make it by the quart. (It lasts a full week in the fridge.)

  Dressing Ingredients

  1 6 ounce can tomato juice

  3/4 cup olive oil

  2 tablespoons Dijon

  Garlic, as much as you like

  1/2 to 3/4 cup red wine vinegar (I use almost a cup)

  Dried oregano, as much as you like

  1 teaspoon sugar

  Dump all of the above in your Cuisinart or your blender and mix the hell out of it. The owner said the secret was in the mixing and he was right. Three or four minutes won't hurt. You want it thoroughly blended until it's almost creamy.

  Salad Ingredients

  Iceberg, chopped (really, iceberg is the best for this)

  Radishes

  Pepperoncini

  Lots of crumbled feta

  Dolmades, if you like

  Anchovies (you don't have to--I won't tell!)

  Green pepper rings

  Red onion rings

  Lots of ripe red tomato

  Method

  Toss everything in a big glass bowl.

  Looks beautiful, tastes divine. Aphrodite would be proud.

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  STAYING HOME TONIGHT BROCCOLI SALAD

  We love broccoli around here. We love it almost any way you can eat it. Danielle introduced us to the wonders of Broccoli Salad back in the early 1970s and we never looked back. IT was Memorial Day, the year before she got married, and we were having a picnic in our backyard. We barbecued chicken. My sister-in-law brought the desserts. Danielle brought Broccoli Salad and a tradition was born

  The thing about this salad is -- well, it's the garlic. We use lots of it. An unholy amount. And once you use it and eat it, you'd better plan on staying home because you will be radiating eau de garlique from every pore.

  But it's worth it. This tastes great warm, room temperature, or chilled. It's even not so bad the second day, although why you would have leftovers is a mystery to me.

  Ingredients

  Broccoli, as much as you like, washed and sliced in 1" sections on the diagonal

  Splash of very plain salad oil

  Lemons

  Fresh garlic, as many cloves as you like, sliced paper thin

  Dash of salt

  Method

  Steam the broccoli until it's a half-step from the way you like it. One caveat: don't let it turn into mush, please. You want it to have a little backbone.

  Place steamed broccoli in a large shallow bowl. Lightly - and I mean lightly -- drizzle broccoli with an innocuous salad oil like Wesson. Barely enough to make a difference. So little that you wonder why you even bothered with it. Sprinkle the thinly sliced garlic all over the broccoli. Be daring! Now squeeze fresh lemon juice all over everything. (Feel free to use the frozen Minute Maid pure lemon juice in the yellow plastic bottle if necessary. Don't let the lack of fresh lemons keep you away from this salad.)Toss. You can eat it now. You can wait until it reaches room temperature. Or you can refrigerate it for a while and eat it chilled.

  If you love garlic, you will think you're in heaven.

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  PANZANELLA (BREAD SALAD TO DIE FOR)

  Words fail me. I am a salad-loving woman and this is the salad I love the most.

  One evening we were dining at a pricey Italian restaurant in a fancy hotel where they served Panzanella as an appetizer. I loved it so much that I told them to forget about my Pasta Primavera and just bring me another plate of bread salad. I could eat this every day, all summer long. It's great any time of the year, but it borders on the sublime in July when the tomatoes are fresh from the vine. Sometimes I add a healthy amount of crumbled feta cheese which turns it into Greek Bread Salad.

  I'm telling you, if you love good crusty bread and you love tomatoes and you love the way garlic and red wine vinegar and olive oil work together then you are going to love this.

  (And pay no attention to the fussy instructions. Who cares how big your tomatoes are anyway? Hack them up any old way. You can't ruin this.)

  Ingredients

  2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (I use much more)

  2 garlic cloves, minced and mashed to a paste with a pinch of salt

  Pepper, to taste

  1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (I use much less)

  4 cups 3/4 inch cubes of crusty bread (preferably with sesame seeds)

  Red onion, sliced paper thin

  1 pound vine-ripened red tomatoes, cut into 3/4 inch wedges

  1 pound vine-ripened yellow tomatoes, cut into 3/4 inch wedges (nice, but not necessary)