Linguine with White Clam Sauce

     There are some recipes that are so deceptively simple it defies logic. This linguine with clams from The Everything Quick Meals Cookbook is one of them. The flavor of this dish is outstanding and it comes from a simple handful of ingredients. I made this for my father-in-law a few years ago for his birthday and he gets so excited every time I make it. He says it's as good as his mother made. Why is that a big deal? He's Italian. His parents came from Palermo, Sicily. This is just a fantastic recipe. When I make it, I generally just double off the recipe, just to be safe. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Linguine with White Clam Sauce
via Everything Quick Meals Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound linguine
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 tablespoons white vermouth (I used dry vermouth)
• 2 6-1/2 ounce cans clams, juice reserved (minced or chopped depending on how big you like your clam bits)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I ended up just eyeballing a reasonable amount of dried)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook linguine according to directions, drain. 
2. In a large skillet, heat the oil and saute the garlic until lightly golden, not burned (I can't imagine there is a recipe that calls for you to incinerate garlic)
3. Add the flour, vermouth and juice from clams; stir, bringing to a boil. Add the clams and parsley and simmer a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Toss with drained cooked pasta and serve immediately. 

Good times!

Baked Daube Provencal via The Dutch Oven Cookbook

     Certain recipes just ask to be made. It could be a combinations of flavors.  It could be an exotic ingredient. It could just be a favorite comfort food. Or it could be because it calls for an entire bottle of wine. Not a quarter cup, not even a cup. A whole freaking bottle of wine. That is what drew me to this recipe in The Dutch Oven Cookbook. This is a very rich French beef stew. The gravy is absolutely phenomenal. We served it with some mashed potatoes and rustic herb bread for a hearty and satisfying dinner. It takes a while to cook, but it is totally worth it. As always, changes and notes are in blue.

Baked Daube Provencal
via The Dutch Oven Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 to 3 pounds beef chuck roast 
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for coating
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 strips bacon, cut crosswise into 1" slices
• 1 medium sweet yellow onion, cut into crescent slices
• 1 standard bottle of red wine (I suppose they're insinuating someone might use something non-standard, like a gallon bottle of Gallo or a big old box of Franzia. I used Barefoot Zinfandel, a dry red)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves (Don't forget to take these out before you serve. My mom always swore somebody would choke to death on a bay leaf if you left it in.)
• 2 strips of orange zest 
• One 14.5 ounce can chopped tomatoes, drained (I used a can of stewed tomatoes and chopped them myself. I'm reckless that way.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Trim the fat from the beef and cut into 2" pieces (the roast, not the fat.) Put the seasoned flour in a medium sized bowl and coat the pieces of meat with the flour mixture.
3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a 5-1/2 quart Dutch oven. Brown the meat in two batches and remove to a platter, with the juices (seriously, no draining the roast.) 
4. Add the bacon and onions to the Dutch oven and cook for 3-4 minutes. 
5. Pour in the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes (use this time to scrape up the good stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot.)
6. Add the tomato paste, bay leaves and orange zest. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Add the meat and juices back into the pot.
8. Put a piece of buttered parchment paper directly on top of the meat (I have no idea what sorcery was at work with this step, but I did it anyway). Put the cover on and put the pot in the preheated oven. Bake for 90 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and discard the parchment paper. Add the chopped tomatoes and bake uncovered for an additional 30 minutes.

Good times!

Recipe Monday: Pesto Roasted Salmon with Spinach and Orzo

     This particular meal came about as a last minute change. I had originally planned on making a very rich pasta dish for dinner. I decided to go with something lighter because I ended up going out to breakfast at Huddle House and eating two sausage, egg and cheese biscuits. That burned through about half of my allotted calories for the day. The orzo still gave me my pasta fix, which was nice. I wound up substituting a pistachio-basil pesto I canned last season for the pesto mentioned in this recipe. It came out wonderfully. I'll definitely be making this again. I do so love a nice piece of fish.

Pesto Roasted Salmon with Spinach and Orzo
(via McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook)

Ingredients
• 1 pound salmon fillets
• 3/4 cup pesto (I used a pistachio-basil pesto)
• 1 1/4 cups orzo pasta
• 5 oz. frozen, no-salt-added spinach
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon slices

Pesto
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1/4 cup freshly chopped garlic
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup Extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Combine and blend thoroughly in a blender or food processor

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. 
2. Cut salmon into 4 portions and rinse. Set aside while preparing pesto. 
3. Lightly coat baking dish with cooking spray. 
4. Pat fish dry with paper towels. Cut each salmon steak in half, removing as much of bone, cartilage and skin as possible. 
5. Coat fillets in pesto and roast for approximately 8 minutes or until the fish flakes. 
6. Meanwhile, cook orzo and spinach according to package directions. Drain pasta well. 
7. Squeeze out excess moisture from spinach then combine together with pasta. Stir in nutmeg, cheese and pepper and combine with pasta. 
8. Divide onto 4 plates. Place salmon portions on top of pasta.

Good times!

Monday Recipe: Crisp Roasted Pork Tenderloin on Farfalle

     I've been in central Illinois for about six years now and have noticed we have some signature regional foods. One is the Horseshoe. I'll get into that another day. The other is the pork tenderloin. We have a fair amount of pig farms (we have one right up the highway that you can smell if the wind is right), so quality pork products are readily available.
     Keep in mind, when you hear "tenderloin," you may not be thinking of the tenderloin I am thinking about. There is the pork tenderloin that is also known as the "pork fillet."

Pork tenderloin/fillet

     Then there is the Midwest tenderloin. This kind of tenderloin is just a thin slice of pork. It's similar to a wiener schnitzel. Tenderloins down here are generally served on a bun or horseshoe, heavily breaded and fried and drowning in a sea of gravy/cheese/mayonnaise. Mind you, that's not a bad thing.

Pork tenderloin sandwich

     Why am I bothering with this distinction? Well, the recipe for today calls for the bigger pork tenderloin, not the sandwich cut. However, I went ahead and used sandwich cuts because it was what I had in the house and I was too damned lazy and cheap to get the right ingredient.

     I managed to locate a fairly healthy pork tenderloin recipe in the McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook. Go figure I'd find a good pork recipe in a seafood cookbook. Just make sure to plan ahead for this dish; the pork needs to marinate overnight. It's a nice, light alternative to the tenderloin gut bombs that are normally offered around here.

Crisp-Roasted Pork Tenderloin 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup finely chopped green onions, both white and green parts
• 1 cup corn oil
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 4T grated lime rind
• 2T freshly grated ginger
• 2T soy sauce
• 1/2t salt
• 1/2t ground white pepper
• 2 small pork tenderloins (I used six sandwich tenderloins)
• Vegetable oil spray
• 1 1/4 cups plain bread crumbs
• 2T finely chopped fresh parsley
• 2T finely chopped green onion
• 1 pound dry fettucini, linguini, or spaghetti, (we used farfalle)

Directions

1. Combine onion, oil, lime juice and rind, ginger, soy sauce, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Lay the pork tenderloin in a baking dish and pour half of the liquid mixture over all of the meat, turning to coat evenly. Cover the dish and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Reserve the remaining mixture for the pasta.
3. Preheat oven to 450F. Lightly spray baking dish with vegetable oil spray.
4. In a pie plate, combine the bread crumbs, parsley and green onion. Stir to mix and set aside.
5. Remove the tenderloins from the marinade and wipe off the excess. Pat dry with a paper towel. Coat the meat with the bread crumb mixture. Place the pork in the prepared baking dish and roast approximately 30 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 140F (cooking time will be less if you go with the sandwich tenderloins; I nearly burned mine when I didn't adjust for the thinner cuts of pork).
6. While the pork is roasting, cook the pasta per package directions and toss with remaining marinade. Allow the pork to rest for a few minutes, then cut into 1/2 inch slices and lay over the pasta.

Serves 6.

Good times!