Around my French Table

No, I haven't gone over to the "dark side." I am still an Italian cook. But once in a while you need a day trip. Although having now read all of the recipes in Dorie Greenspan's sumptuous Around My French Table, I know I will be taking lots of day trips. Maybe a weekend - you know I might just stay for a week.

Last night's dinner. Healthy, easy and filled with simple, French flavor. A beautiful welcoming green broccoli soup, a festive Salad Nicoise and a mustard tart graced the table. As I am surrounded by snowy whites, the deep green of the soup warmed me. It's rich, thick broccoli-zucchini flavor brought me back to a Minnesota enveloped in summer.

The Salad Nicoise with its simple vinaigrette was a taste celebration. I added tomatoes for color and relished in the soft, pliable hard-boiled egg, the sea-tasting tuna, the crunch of the just-yielding string beans. A few salty capers and piquant nicoise olives with with mild potatoes satisfied in a way that only a properly attired salad can.

Even when it's fifteen degrees out, this salad brings solace.

Just the notion of a mustard tart warms my savory soul. The use of a smooth Dijon mustard as well as a grainy one provided zest without sharpness. Mellowing the mustard are the sweet carrots on top of aromatic leeks. The original recipe was given to Dorie by Gerard Jeannin and she describes it as "creamy and piquant, comforting and surprising." And so it is. Dorie also mentions that it is not as well known as it should be. I suspect that's about to change.

I promise you that after you make it once, a second one will soon follow. Find the recipe here.

Around my French Table contains over 300 recipes that are French or French inspired. They've been adapted to meet the needs of busy American cooks. The ingredients are accessible. When she does use a hard-to-find French ingredient, she suggests an American substitute. For many recipes there is a "Bon Idee" (I wish my computer did proper accents). It is one of my favorite parts. In that small column, she suggests other ingredients, alternative ways of making the dish and encourages you to play with the recipes.

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I chose these three recipes quite frankly because I had all the ingredients at hand. The level of difficulty for all three was easy. I expect some will be moderately more difficult although as I read the book, I did not come across any recipe that I felt was out of my grasp.

What is inspiring is the playfulness of Dorie's cooking. Fresh, artfully arranged ingredients that are elevated through nuances of herbs, seasonings and adherence to cooking methods. The broccoli soup is one of three simple soup recipes, Dorie has grouped together. Find the recipe here. (I added a shallot - I don't think Dorie would mind.)

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Each recipe provides suggestions for serving and storing. The book is a storehouse of hints and suggestions. Backgrounds of recipes are included - which always intrigues me. For every recipe is a story and Around My French Table contains a wealth of stories - to peruse, to investigate, to explore and to feast.

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Put this on your holiday wish list. It's been two years since I cooked my way through a book and that drought has now ended. For the time being I am content to live on the border between Italy and France and embrace the best of both worlds.

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I have a list of cookbooks I would like to embrace. Where do you get your cookbooks? Do you belong to a club? Buy from Amazon? Barnes and Noble? Do you haunt used book stores, cooking stores?

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And a touch of sweetness to end - I would like to thank Beth from Of Muses and Meringues for this lovely award. Beth is a writer and a cook and her delicately-named blog is indeed filled with muses and puffs of sweetness and insights. Please visit her and say hello.

The Geometry of Pasta - cookbook review

Does every pasta shape require a special sauce? Chef Jacob Kennedy thinks so and sets out to prove his theorem in The Geometry of Pasta.


Little hats, wheels, corkscrews, shells, ears and ribbons adorn the pages of The Geometry of Pasta. Written by Chef Jacob Kennedy with almost art deco illustrations by Caz Hildebrand, this cookbook published by Quirk Books delivers a smorgasbord of pasta dishes from A (Agnolotti) to Z (Ziti).
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There's pasta for every day of the year and then some. For an Italian cook, that is good news! Kennedy has done his research - giving you the history of the pasta shape, the region where it was developed and the perfect accompanying sauce that will succulently grab the sauce and never let go until it reaches your palate.
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The majority of the sauces are quite simple relying on the freshest ingredients to enhance the pasta. Fanciful cappelleti ("little hats") are paired with butter and sage or asparagus and cream. The larger, tubular maccheroncini takes on heartier sauces: chicken and prunes or eggplant and tomatoes.
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From the simplest dish (cacio e pepe) to stuffed raviolis, the pastas are paired with seasonal produce, meats, fish and in many cases simple sauces that would be an elegant first couse. Directions for creating these geometric pastas are concise and to the point. Chef Kennedy serves up his pasta with anecdotes, opinions and a wry sense of humor.
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Autumn is a busy work time, so my meals have been on the simplistic side - without sacrificing flavor. The Cacio e Pepe (Pecorino and Pepper) was a huge hit. Comforting, earthy, peppery and snuggle-into-your-seats-your-home-for-the-evening warmth was in every bite.
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Cacio e Pepe Ingredients - serves 2
(Used by permission from Quirk Books)

• 1/2 pound rigatoni (I doubled the recipe)
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 6 tablespoons of hot pasta water
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper (even with doubling, I used more)
• 1-1/2 cups freshly grated pecorino Romano to serve

The pepper flakes and grated cheese were caught on the rigatoni ridges and inside the tubes. It's what you want.
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Cacio e Pepe Preparation

1. Boil rigatoni until slightly more al dente than you wish.
2. Put the oil and half the pepper in a saute pan along with the 6 tablespoons of pasta water.
3. Add the cooked rigatoni to the pan and saute for a few minutes - until the pasta water is absorbed.
4. Serve the with pecorino cheese and remaining pepper sprinkled on top.

There were no leftovers. Sigh. Served with soft lettuces and a simple vinaigrette, I did have everyone singing for their supper.
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Paccheri con Ricotta e Pomodoro (pasta with ricotta and tomatoes)
(used by permission from Quirk Books)

Paccheri are huge thick tubes often cooked with a squid sauce. Paccheri is Neopolitan in origin and was considered a common, poor food. Paccheri was not readily available so I used one of Kennedy's substitutions: cavatappi (they resemble corckscrews) which grabbed the sauce well.

Paccheri con Ricotta e Pomodoro Ingredients - serves 4 as a first course

• 1/2 pound paccheri (I used cavatappi)
  3/4 cup light tomato sauce (recipe follows; very easy)
  1/2 cup fresh ricotta (preferably sheep's milk (I used cow's milk)
  1/3 cup grated Parmesan or Provolone (I used Provolone)
  2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  10 basil leaves
  Garnish: grated Parmesan or Provolone or ricotta; drizle of olive oil

Light Tomato Sauce Ingredients

• 5 large vine-ripened tomatoes (2-1/4 pounds)
  3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  6 tablespoons extra-virgiin olive oil, divided
  Asmall pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional - but it does add flavor)
  Generous 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Light Tomato Sauce Preparation

1. Cut tomatoes into chunks and puree (seeds and all) in blender.
2. Fry the garlic in 4-1/2 tablespoons of the olive oil for a few moments until cooked but not browned.
3. Add the red pepper flakes followed by the tomato puree and salt. Bring to a brisk boil and cook until the sauce has thickened and the tomatoes no longer look raw.
4. Season with salt and pepper and and add the remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil to finish. (Do ahead: cool, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.)
   
   *Note: No time was given but it took about 10-12 minutes of boiling.

Paccheri con Ricotta e Pomodoro Preparation

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. The sauce comes together very quickly, so wait until the pasta is in the boiling water before you begin the sauce.
2. Put tomato sauce into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Transfer to a warmed bowl (I didn't do this - I did all in the saucepan which I removed from the heat).
3. Add the cheeses and oil and whisk briefly. It will be rustic - it does not have to be completely smooth. Season with plenty of salt and pepper (taste as you go).
4. Keep warm, balanced over the boiling pasta until it is ready (if you time it right you do not need to do that).
5. Drain pasta and mix thoroughly with the sauce. Add torn basil laves. Feel free to grate with extra Parmesan or Provolone or ricotta or simply drizzle a little olive oil over all.

Pretty in pink as a first course.

Or as a side.

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This simple dish was a winner. The fresh tomatoes (still available in Minnesota) were necessary. An anemic tomato would not be flavorful enough. The sweetness of the tomato, the creaminess of the ricotta and the bite of the Provolone conspired to produce a dish rich with nuance. The sauce clung to the pasta and it was perfect fare for an autumn evening.
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If you are a novice, you might prefer a more detailed recipe: how long to boil the tomatoes, when to add the salt. If you are used to cooking according to taste, this would be a cinch. I do prefer actual photos of the finished dishes. Some of the illustrations do not entirely tell you exactly what the pasta looks like. The illustrations whimiscally charm but might confuse a novice cook.
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The high point of the book is its delving into the history of the pastas, the lore and accurately matching each pasta to its sauce. Nothing is more disheartening than preparing a sauce that simply slides off the pasta and lands in the bottom of the bowl!

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As someone who has spent her entire adult life playing "make-believe" in the theatre world, you can believe it when I say I am a certifiably allergic to math and mathematical terms. But one of the blessings of the mathematical world is - there is an answer. And that can be comforting. In The Geometry of Pasta - there are definitive answers: all pasta shapes are matched with their definite sauce.
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Disclosure: I was given a review copy of The Geometry of Pasta. I was not paid for the review - the execution of recipes and my opinions are my own.