Spaghetti with Oil and Bacon Jam

First off, let me say I'm sorry. It's been almost four months since my last post. I know I've managed a YouTube video, some FaceBook content and a couple live streams, but nothing of real value. Granted, you could still make that claim when I posted a lot. Regardless, as I've mentioned before, it seems that parenting takes up quite a bit of time. However, I have had the occasional moment of inspiration. A couple of friends of ours regularly come by for dinner and games. They are the epitome of gracious guests. We have never asked it of them, but they always arrive with some assortment of food related gifts for us. Recently it was a jar of Trader Joe's Uncured Bacon Jam. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a sweet bacon spread. We've had it on toast and it was pretty good. Desperate to use up some leftover spaghetti, it became a key ingredient in a new and amazing recipe. Mind you, if you don't have access to this jam, I'm not sure what you're going to do. I have no idea how to replicate it. Best of luck. As always, notes are in blue.

Spaghetti with Oil and Bacon Jam
(Recipe makes 2 servings, or one if you're a fat bastard like me)

Ingredients

• 8 ounces spaghetti
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (use as many virgins as you'd like)
• 3 tablespoons bacon jam
• 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon dried, minced onion
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (add a little more if you'd like a bit more kick)
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Cook pasta until aldente. Set aside to drain.
2. In a large pan, on medium-high head, melt butter and add olive oil. 
3. Add the onion and stir for a minute or two.
4. Add the bacon jam. Stir until jam breaks down into the butter/oil mix.
5. Add the garlic powder and pepper flakes.
6. Add the pasta back to the pan. Toss until the pasta is totally coated with the sauce.
7. Add the cheese and toss again.
8. (If you feel the dish could use some color, feel free to toss in some chopped parsley)

Good times!

Baked Pasta Frittata

     I really like the idea of baked pasta, but it's just not something we do much in our house. I'm not sure what came over me to decide on this recipe. I think I was looking for some sort of pasta casserole and saw this. I had most of the ingredients in the house and had solid substitutions for the ingredients that were not on hand.  The result was not bad. The smoked sausage gave it a nice savory flavor. I think this would be good if I swapped in some spinach or kale. It was a touch on the heavy side and made for a very filling meal. I'll try it again, but I have the feeling this will be one of those recipes I'm endlessly swapping parts on. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Baked Pasta Frittata 
via The Essential Pasta Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 oz butter
• 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 6 eggs
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped (the Wife's not a huge fan of green peppers, so we used a yellow bell pepper)
• 4 oz ham, sliced (we decided we had a surplus of smoked sausages in the freezer, so we used a 7 oz smoked sausage, halved and sliced)
• 1 cup cream or milk (we went with heavy cream)
• 3-1/2 oz spaghetti, cooked and chopped (amazingly enough, we did not have spaghetti in the house. We used rotini instead)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan (right. Freshly poured out of the jar of Parmesan is more like it)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly brush a flan dish with oil or melted butter (flan dish? Didn't have one on hand. I must have left it in the trunk of my Rolls Royce when I had the butler take it to be serviced. Please. I used my trusty cast iron skillet)
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the mushrooms and cook over low heat for 2-3 minutes.  Add the pepper and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the meat. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly. 
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, cream and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the pasta, parsley and mushroom mixture and pour into the prepared dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Good times!

Spaghetti with Olives and Capers

     We had someone over for dinner last weekend who has started trying his hand at cooking. He seemed to be lacking confidence, so I let him pick a recipe out of a The Essential Pasta Cookbook and I would show him how to make it. He wound up picking this recipe, which is good because it is very simple. It's a good lesson to see that it only takes a few good ingredients to put together a great meal. Granted, I have a hard time relinquishing control in the kitchen. I did let him chop the tomatoes. He did a fine job. We served the pasta with my wife's Zucchini Boats and had a delicious dinner. As always, any changes or notes will be in blue.

Spaghetti with Olives and Capers
via The Essential Pasta Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (true story: I tried to explain what "extra virgin" meant regarding olive oil to my wife. I told her that most olive presses are worked by a single virgin. When they want to get the last, choicest drops of oil out, they bring in an extra virgin to work the press. Needless to say, she didn't believe me.)
• 1-1/2 cup fresh white bread crumbs (believe it or not, we didn't have any white bread. We used a scant 3/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs from the cardboard tube.)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1-1/2 ounce can anchovies, drained and finely chopped, optional (anchovies are never an option for me. I only used a few though, as I wasn't sure how everyone else would like it. They seemed pretty grossed out when I started eating them straight from the can.)
• 10 oz black olives, finely chopped
• 6 Roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped (we still had some tomatoes with basil and garlic we canned last season. We just used a whole quart jar.)
• 2 tablespoons tiny capers (in the interest of full disclosure, I will admit my capers were not tiny. They were simply below average.)
• 1 lb spaghetti

Directions

1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium frying pan. Add the breadcrumbs and cook, stirring continuously, until golden brown and crispy. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool completely (yeah, totally didn't do that. I took the jar of bread crumbs out of the pantry, took the lid off and poured out the amount I planned on using.)
2. Add the remaining oil to the pan and heat for 1 minute. Add the garlic, anchovies and black olives and cook over medium heat for 30 seconds.  Add the tomatoes and capers and cook for 3 minutes (since I used my own canned tomatoes, I let it cook a little longer than that to get out some of the excess moisture.)
3. Cook the pasta in a large pan of rapidly boiling water until al dente (I went to school with an Al Dente. Nice guy.) Drain and return to the pan. Add the tomato mixture and breadcrumbs and toss to combine. Serve immediately, with herbs as a garnish if you like.

Good times!

Monday Recipe: Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

     Ah, the much maligned anchovy. So few people understand you. When you say anchovy, "EEW! Slimy fish!" or some approximation is normally the response you get. Some misinformed people think pizza is the natural habitat of the anchovy. They turn their head and will not condescend to eat anything with this salty little devil lurking about in it.
     My wife is one of those people. I have tried and tried again to get her to eat an anchovy. It wasn't happening. Then I realized what I was doing wrong. I needed to trick her. I needed to add anchovy to something she is powerless to resist. I laid one across my manly chest. Nothing. Then I realized I'd be better off putting them in some sort of pasta. I'm convinced she loves pasta more than me. I think she loves me because I make pasta for her to eat. Whatever works. I started digging through my Italian cookbooks until I found this little gem in World Food Italy by Linda Doeser. The recipe from the book calls for linguine, we only had spaghetti in the house, so there you go. How can you possibly go wrong with a recipe that literally translated, means "Whore's Style Spaghetti?"

Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
(via World Food Italy by Linda Doeser)

Ingredients

(for the sauce)

• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 10 anchovy fillets, drained and chopped 
• scant 1 cup black olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 tbsp. capers, rinsed
• 1 lb. plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (we used tomatoes we canned from our garden)
• pinch of cayenne pepper

(remaining ingredients)

• salt
• 14 oz. dried spaghetti
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf pasta (which I totally forgot to use. Oh well)

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottom pan. Add garlic and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes.
2. Add anchovies and mash them with a fork. Add olives, capers and tomatoes and season to taste with cayenne pepper.
3. Cover and let simmer for 25 minutes.
4. While sauce is simmering, bring pot of salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.
5. Spoon sauce over pasta and toss. Garnish with parsley. 

This makes about 4 servings.

Good times!