pasta and white beans with garlic-rosemary oil

If you have a thing for chocolate, the world is your oyster. On this very site, 86 of the just over 800 recipes boast a significant chocolate component and entire sections of bookstores will be happy to fill in any cravings I missed. If you have a thing for bacon, the internet would be overjoyed to find you places to put it, Zillions, although Id proceed with caution before auditioning a couple. But if you have a thing for something slightly less of a prom king/queen ingredient, say, tiny white beans, well, it can be tough. Its not there are no uses for them, its just that when youre very much in love, there are never enough ways to be together. And if youre me someone who sometimes ups and makes a mega-pot of white beans just because you feel like it, presuming youll find things to do with them later you sometimes end up scrambling, yanking down nearly every cookbook in your collection but still coming up bereft of uses outside the well-trodden soup-and-salad territory.

So tell me: What are you favorite uses for beans outside the ever-popular realm of chili, tacos, soup and salad? Really, Im hankering for more inspiration. I ended up finding some but never enough in this months Bon Appetit, in a stack of pasta recipes you will find it impossible to choose among from Sara Jenkins of Porchetta and Porsena (and green bean salad, sigh) fame. I was so charmed by the short tubes of pasta with chickpeas, I made it almost immediately but maybe it was because Ive overdone it on chickpeas this month, but I kept thinking it would be nice with something daintier. And considering that it is an established fact (um, in Italy, where I suspect both my white bean and artichoke obsessions could roam free) that white beans, garlic, rosemary and olive oil are a combination sent from above, I had a hunch theyd be happy here too.

The result is a great pasta for this time of year, deeply comforting and hearty but not overly decadent. Theres no heavy cream or cheese, or dairy at all; theres no bacon (Im sorry) or even a pinch of meat. And you wont miss any of these things because, like a certain soup I have missed immensely since last week, its the finish that makes the dish in this case, a sizzling oil with not just garlic but freshly minced rosemary too. If you finish that with a few pinches of sea salt, oh boy. Youll see. Itll make a convert out of you too.

One year ago: Shortly!

Pasta and White Beans with Sizzling Garlic-Rosemary Oil
Adapted, barely, from Sara Jenkins via Bon Appetit

For the pasta, I used pennete, because I thought it nicely matched the little white beans (Rancho Gordos Alubia Blanca). Sara Jenkins called for ditalini to go with chickpeas. You can use whatever youd like short tubes, even elbows, and canned beans are just fine here.

I streamlined the recipe a bit to reduce the number of bowls and pots used, because Im having the kind of week where if I see another dirty dish, Ima run far away ahem, to make things easier.

This makes a lot of pasta, because youre using a whole pound plus two cans of beans, so its a great recipe to consider halving if you wish to finish it before spring comes.

1 medium onion, cut into big chunks
1 medium carrot, in big chunks
1 celery stalk, in big chunks
6 garlic cloves, 4 left whole, 2 finely chopped
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1/2 cup olive oil, divided
Coarse or kosh salt
2 to 3 tablespoons tomato paste
3 1/2 cups cooked, drained beans (save cooking liquid for water in recipe, if desired) or 2 15-ounce cans small white beans, rinsed
1 pound short tube pasta (see suggestions above)
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

Pulse onion, carrot, celery, whole garlic cloves, parsley, and red pepper flakes (to taste) in a food processor until finely chopped. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat and add vegetable mixture to pot. (Quickly rinse, but no need to fully wash, food processor as youll use it again shortly.) Season generously with salt. Cook, stirring from time to time, until vegetables take on a bit of color, about 10 minutes. Add tomato paste (original recipe calls for 2T but we enjoyed it with 3) and cook it into the vegetables for another minute. Add 1 cup water or bean cooking liquid and use it to scrape up any bits stuck to the pot. Let simmer until liquid has almost disappeared, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Add beans and 2 more cups of water (or bean cooking liquid) to the pot and simmer until the flavors meld, about another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente, or still a little firm inside. I know you didnt ask for one, but can I insert an argument for al dente pasta here? The thing is, you dont want your pasta to fully cook in the water. If you do, it wont have any absorbency left to drink up and become with that delicious sauce. I have really found that finishing pasta in its sauce is the single thing that most swiftly improved the quality of my pasta dishes.

Reserve 1 1/2 cups cooking water from your drained pasta.

Transfer one cup of the bean mixture to your rinsed food processor and pure it until smooth, then stir it back into the sauce to thicken it. Add drained pasta and 1/2 cup cooking liquid to bean sauce and cook the mixture together until the sauce coats the pasta, about 1 to 2 more minutes.

To serve: Heat remaining 1/4 cup olive oil in a tiny saucepan over medium-low heat with garlic and rosemary, until sizzling stops. Divide pasta between serving bowls and drizzle garlic-rosemary oil over each. If youre us, youll finish this with a few flakes of sea salt. Eat at once.

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Daily Garnish Recipes culinary arts grad. nutrition facts lover. vegetarian chef. marathon runner. country music maniac. failed dog trainer. hot yoga fanatic. cullen's mama. Cooks.com - Recipe - Roasted Chicken With Garlic, Rosemary And ... Heat oil in deep skillet, add garlic and chicken skin sides down. When chicken is browned on one side, turn over and take out garlic. Add rosemary. White Bean and Escarole Soup Recipe : : Recipes : Food Network In a soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat, add the pancetta, and saute for about 5 minutes. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set aside. Emeril's Shrimp and Pasta with Chilis, Garlic, Lemon and Green ... Toss the shrimp in a medium bowl with the Essence. Place the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large 14-inch skillet over high heat. White Bean, Bacon and Spinach Soup - Cinnamon Spice and Everything ... An unforgettable soup with smoky bacon, roasted garlic, creamy white beans, earthy spinach and a bounty of aromatic vegetables. Pasta e Fagioli con Salsicce (Pasta and Beans with Sausage) Find the recipe for Pasta e Fagioli con Salsicce (Pasta and Beans with Sausage) and other bean recipes at Epicurious.com Elena's Pasta - Homemade Italian Pastas and Pasta Sauces ... All natural Roman-style pasta and sauces, olive oils, dinners, soups, dipping sauces and oils, bruschettas, and gifts. Kid-Friendly Recipes - KitchenDaily - Recipes and Cooking ... Kid-Friendly Recipes with ratings, reviews and menus

intensely chocolate sables

Although I would hardly say that having a kid has made me wiser there have been just too many incidents like the one this morning, when not a single of the following clues piqued my concern: 3 year-old going into bathroom to bring his step-stool into another room; the sound of a cabinet opening, a fridge opening followed by a banging sound on the counter, until it was too late and a once-clean child in a once-clean kitchen was making skwambled eggs I cant help but have come to a few salient conclusions about children/life itself over the last few years that I find infinitely applicable. One, there are few things wrong that a good nights sleep cannot fix. Two, sometimes you really just need to scream and yell and have a great big noisy fuss for a few minutes and get it all out pounding your tiny, dimpled fists on the carpet is optional, but this is no time to hold back feeling all the feelings, you know? so that you can resume being sweet and awesome for the remaining minutes of the day. Finally, theres not a single person in this universe who does not need a cookie at 4 p.m. each day, like clockwork. Nobody. Not even you. Even in the month of Resolutions.

One of my great cookie loves, and the most ideal 4 p.m. mini-escapist treat, is the chocolate sable from Balthazar Bakery. I dont get it often, because that would be dangerous. I usually indulge when Ive mentally committed to walking either there or back or both (exercise!) or Im having the kind of day that only a walk to SoHo would improve (justification!). If youve ever been to Balthazar, youve probably looked right past it to ogle the pain au chocolate or burnished plum tarts because it looks plain and dull, hardly competitive with its surroundings, and I think youve missed out because alone in its 1/4-inch thick fluted round is the intensity of all the chocolate in Paris. Okay, I exaggerate but still, thats no excuse to miss it. Its bittersweet, crisp and sandy; it absolutely aches with chocolate impact and it makes me very happy.

My attempts to recreate it at home have been less so. I felt like Id tried everything in the world buying the Balthazar cookbook, only to find the recipe absent (cruel!) and then increasing the cocoa-to-flour proportion in my go-to sable recipe more and more in hopes to get that deeply rooted chocolate flavor, and failing when I one day stumbled on the chocolate sable recipe from Miette cookbook from the darling eponymous bakery in San Francisco. The ingredient list (cocoa, flour, sugar, butter, salt, leavener) was exactly like all the others, save one blessed addition: grated bittersweet chocolate. And it was in this that I unlocked the Spring Street magic that had thus far eluded me.

Well, mostly. The cookie was in fact an utter flop for me; the crumbs never came together into a dough. I spread the rubble on a tray and baked-and-tossed it until it was crisp and weve taken to spreading these cookie crumbles on ice cream which is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea if you had not eat Oreo sundaes anywhere in your January goals. Back to the drawing board, I made some tweaks grinding the chocolate (less pesky than grating), an egg yolk to bind the mixture together, slightly less sugar to approximate the bitter-sweetness of the inspiring sable, less baking soda and Dutched cocoa, with its nutty, dark properties, really makes a difference here.

They may look a little thin and flimsy, but should not be underestimated. When they come out of the oven, your kitchen will smell like theres a bubbling cauldron of melted chocolate on the stove and people who walk through your front door and inhale will have an absolutely startled reaction. Mommy. WHAT YOU MAKE ME? your kid will demand to know (broccoli, is probably not what youll reply, because youre not a smart-ass like his elders). Days later, you will open the container they are stored in and be smacked in the face with the same chocolate intensity, if anything more potent with age. And I know you could bake them up and decorate them all pretty with sprinkles and pink baubles and box them up for any of your loves. But I think you should just make them for you, because those 4 p.m. hankerings will arrive all of the days this week and for the next hereafter, and you might as well be decadently prepared.

One year ago: Buttermilk Roast Chicken
Two years ago: Chocolate Peanut Spread (Peanutella)
Three years ago: Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions and Ricotta Muffins
Four years ago: Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake
Five years ago: Fried Chicken
Six years ago: Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

Intensely Chocolate Sables
Inspired by Balthazar, adapted quite a bit from Miette

I prefer these cookies with Dutched cocoa power, which is darker and little nuttier, but if you only have natural cocoa, you can use it, although the cookies will puff just a bit more. Technically speaking, baking soda and Dutched cocoa powder dont react, but I found that it imparted a slight raised texture and better crumb than skipping it or using baking powder, so I kept it there. Besides changing the type of cocoa powder and decreasing the baking soda, I also adjusted the recipe by adding an egg yolk (so it would come together), giving you the option to grind, instead of grating the chocolate (a step I find pesky because my warm hands make a mess of it) and then, because the Balthazar cookie I fell in love with is so bittersweet, giving you a suggested reduced sugar amount. If youd like a bittersweet chocolate cookie, use the 1/2 cup amount. If youd like a sweeter (although hardly overly sweet) chocolate cookie, use 2/3 cup. I always sprinkle these with coarse brown sugar, but Im sure they could be prettied up with sprinkles or the like as well.

Makes 40 to 48 2-inch thin cookies, fewer if thicker

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) Dutched cocoa powder (see Note)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 to 2/3 cup (100 to 135 grams) granulated sugar (less for a more bittersweet cookie)
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 ounces (100 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate, grated or finely chopped until almost powdery in a food processor
Coarse sugar (turbinato/sugar in the raw or decorative) for sprinkling

Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking soda together onto a piece of waxed paper or into a bowl and set aside. (I almost always skimp on sifting wherever possible, but my cocoa is always lumpy, so this is unavoidable.)

Cream butter, sugar and salt together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla, beating until combined, then scraping down sides. Add dry ingredients and grated chocolate together and mix until just combined.

Scrape dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrap it up and chill it in the frige until just firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. No need to get it fully hard, or it will be harder to roll out. Dough can be refrigerated until needed, up to a two days, or frozen longer, but let it warm up and soften a bit before rolling it out for decreased frustration.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough gently it will still be on the crumbly side, so only attempt to flatten it slightly with each roll until it is 1/8-inch thick (for thin cookies) or 1/4-inch thick (for thicker ones). Cut into desired shapes and space them an inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle decoratively with coarse sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes (for thinner cookies) or 10 to 12 minutes (for thicker ones). Leave cookies on baking sheets out of the oven for a couple minutes before gently, carefully transferring them to cooling racks, as theyll be fragile until they cool.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks of 4 p.m. rations.

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Philippe Cambie, jedan od vodeih svetskih enologa Ni ukus ... 23. 01. 2013. 14:41: Philippe Cambie, jedan od vodeih svetskih enologa Ni ukus najboljeg vina ne prija ako ga pijete u loem drutvu (Philippe Cambie) Nicky Verfaillie Grain de Sable : Vintage Perfume Review Bois ... Looking at the discontinued vintage perfume gem Nicky Verfaillie Grain de Sable. Luca Turin called it an obscure masterpiece. Indiespensable: Past Installments - Powell's Books Powell's Books is the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. We carry an extensive collection of out of print rare, and technical titles as well as ... French Feast -- French gourmet food and specialty foods from France -- French gourmet foods & regional specialties: foie gras, duck confit, Meaux mustard, cornichons, fleur de sel, licorice, candied chestnuts, and more Chalmers Chocolate Port - Australia New Zealand Wines A singular blend of chocolate with fine old tawny port by Ballande Australia. Grapes are selected on the basis of heightened flavour profiles, good natural fruit ... in which world peace eludes me smitten kitchen [But I die and go to cookie heaven.] When Dorie Greenspan included Pierre Herms recipe for to-die-for chocolate cookies in her Paris Sweets cookbook, she called ... Gourmet Chocolate House Tour - Dagoba, Guittard, Pierre Marcolini ... On our first tour, in 2005, we visited these great chocolate producers (in alphabetical order): Amedei (Italy), Chocovic (Spain), Domori (Italy), El Rey (Venezuela ... Desserts Magazine Digital Subscription Desserts Magazine Desserts Magazine Issue 30[NEW] Gingerbread Marshmallows, Chocolate Marshmallows, Raspberry and Rosewater, Viscotti or Aunt Roses Famous S Cookies ...

lentil soup with sausage, chard and garlic

Every year around this time well into the winter season, but long after we found it charmingly brisk, as it is when you do googly-eyed things like ice skating around a sparkling tree at the holidays we get some sort of brittle cold snap in the weather that catches me by surprise. Even though we live in New York, a place where a cold snap or two a January is as predictable as being hosed by some unspeakably awful puddle of street juice slush by a car spinning through an intersection; even though Ive lived in this exact climate for every one of my thirty-I-dont-want-to-talk-about-it years; and even though I have the audacity to look forward to winter every sticky concrete-steaming summer, when I walk outside on that first 20-degree day and the wind gusts into my own face and renders it hard to exhale, the very first thing I do is audibly holler in rage and disbelief, WHAT THE WHAT? I am nothing as we joke when my sweet little son tries to clomp down the hallway in his dads massive boots and immediately falls on his tush if not Harvard Material.

Weeks like the one were having on the East Coast require their own bourbon cocktail plane tickets to someplace tropical and child-free, uh, family-friendly elixir and although Ive previously found comfort in such meal intensities as lasagna bolognese, chili and mushroom and noodles, glorified, I think this years pick a hearty Lentil Soup with Sausage, Chard and Garlic trumps them all. It hails from the new cookbook from the guy behind one of the first food blogs I ever read, and still do, The Amateur Gourmet. I think you should buy it right this very second. Why? Because in it, Adam Roberts does what he does best schmooze with great chefs and get them to spill the dirt, all in the name of making us better home cooks.

[He's also good at this with less famous, non-chefs, such as yours truly, when he got me to confess to a packed room last month my top-secret, totally-un-PC method of getting toddlers to occasionally eat what you'd like them to, not that I'd be crazy enough to let that happen twice.]

To write this book, Adam travelled all over the country to visit chefs in their work or home kitchens with a reporters notebook and jotted down everything. He learned all sorts of goodies such as why Sara Moulton says you should steel your knives before starting to chop things and how you can tell without sniffing or tasting (or crossing your fingers) whether your butter is still good. Oh, and hes just getting started. Reading this on a lazy Saturday afternoon before my son decided to start his still ongoing nap strike [our household internal dialogue is something like this right now: noooooooo], I was enrapt as I learned the secret of Jonathan Waxmans technique for tossing salad and how Alice Waters crown of fresh herbs can make even the simplest olive oil-fried eggs heavenly, plus a font of tips he picked up through observation, such as how chefs manage to use their produce before it gets forgotten and goes bad to (still shocking to me) how sparingly most of them used freshly ground black pepper.

What none of these tips delightfully, refreshingly aim to do is intensify the gap between restaurant chefs and home cooks. Theres nobody on a high horse, rolling their eyes at people who prefer to cook from recipes or who benefit from (gasp!) suggested measurements of seasonings. I had very few opportunities to take part in my own eye-rolling-at-chef-recipes pastime, such as when they expect you to use four skillets and eight prep bowls to make a single soup. No, instead this books stated goal would, in an ideal world, be the stated goal of every cookbook on the shelves, to be a prompt, a catalyst for self-reliance in the kitchen. That it also yielded one of the most delicious, hearty soups thats ever graced a frigid January day was just the cherry sizzling garlic oil on top.

One year ago: Buckwheat Baby with Salted Caramel Syrup
Two years ago: Pizza with Bacon, Onions and Cream and Baked Potato Soup
Three years ago: Poppy Seed Lemon Cake, Black Bean Soup + Toasted Cumin Seed Crema and Cranberry Syrup (+ An Intensely Almond Cake)
Four years ago: Squash and Chickpea Moroccan Stew, Vanilla Almond Rice Pudding, Light Wheat Bread, Clementine Cake, Mushroom Bourguignon, Sugar Puffs and Smashed Chickpea Salad
Five years ago: Crunchy Baked Pork Chops, Pickled Carrot Sticks and Chicken Caesar Salad
Six years ago: World Peace Cookies, Salade Lyonnaise, Artichoke Ravioli and Leek and Mushroom Quiche

Lentil Soup with Sausage, Chard and Garlic
Adapted from Secrets of the Best Chefs, where it was provided by Gina DePalma

This soup is hearty and intense and the absolutely best remedy for a brittle, cold winter day a meal in a bowl that also leaves your home smelling amazing. (I kinda wanted to eat the air.) A few other things I liked about it: it didnt require you to have broth or stock on hand; you only need to use water because the other ingredients are so aromatic and deeply flavored, its not necessary. You could easily make it vegetarian by skipping the sausage. And you could veganize it by skipping the sausage and romano cheese. What you are absolutely not allowed to skip is the sizzling garlic oil as a finish. Drizzled onto the bowls at the last minute (especially with the salty romano cheese on top), it raises the bar, unforgettably.

One P.S. I have a weird aversion to overcooked greens in soups, so only added what I needed right before serving, into the portion we were going to eat. It kept them vibrant, and I kept the leftover greens for todays eagerly anticipated leftovers.

Serves 6

1/2 cup olive oil, divided
4 large links of sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (I used half of this, preferring the sausage to not dominate the soups flavor)
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks, sliced or diced
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into half-moons or diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced (reserve half for later in recipe)
Kosher salt
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
2 bay leaves
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
6 cups water
Freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 cups shredded or thinly ribboned Swiss chard leaves or kale
Grated Pecorino Romano cheese to finish

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil (enough to coat bottom of pot) in a large pot on medium heat. When hot, add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon until it starts to brown, about five minutes. Add the onion, celery, carrots, first two garlic cloves, a pinch fo salt, and if you like your soup spicy, a pinch of red pepper flakes. Cook with the sausage until the vegetables soften a bit, another 5 minutes. Add the lentils, bay leaves, tomatoes, water, more salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and allow to cook until the lentils are tender, about 40 minutes. (It might be necessary to add more water if the soup gets too thick, though we preferred ours on the thick side.)

When the lentils are cooked, add the chard and cook until the leaves are tender, just a few minutes more. Discard the bay leaves.

To finish, divide soup among bowls, then add the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 garlic cloves to a small skillet and heat over medium until the garlic softens and hisses. Drizzle this over soup bowls, and top with fresh Romano, passing more at the table. Leftovers will keep for several days in the fridge.

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Lentil and Sausage Soup for a Cold Winter's Night recipe from Food52 This hearty one-dish-supper soup is in my regular fall-winter rotation, and has been a family favorite for quite a long time... Lentil Soup With Chard Recipes - Free Diet Plans at SparkPeople Top lentil soup with chard recipes and other great tasting recipes with a healthy slant from SparkRecipes.com. Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup - Martha Stewart Recipes Get Martha Stewart's Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup recipe. Also browse hundreds more test kitchen-approved food recipes and cooking tips from Martha Stewart. Lentil and Sausage Soup Recipe - Allrecipes.com Place sausage in a large pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Add onion, celery and chopped garlic, and saute until tender and translucent. Hearty Lentil Soup Recipe With Carrots, Tomatoes, & Smoked Sausage This healthy soup isn't gorgeous, but it tastes great Here's the perfect thing to go with your beer bread. This flavorful tummy warmer was another big hit at my Cozy ... Hungarian Hot Sausage and Lentil Stoup Recipe : Rachael Ray ... Tasty, hardy soup. Freezes and reheats well, only needing a little extra water to smooth it out. I used less Italian sausage than called for and will consider subbing ... Barley and Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard Recipe Barley and Lentil Soup with Swiss Chard Submitted by: CHEFGLORIA1030 Introduction This is a wonderfully healthy soup! It is a good healthy hearty soup that holds up ... Slow Cooker from Scratch: Slow Cooker Lentil and Brown Rice Soup ... Slow Cooker Lentil and Brown Rice Soup with Preserved Lemons and Garlic Sausage from The Perfect Pantry

gnocchi in tomato broth + more book tour

I realize that when it comes to January Food carrot sticks, soup, legumes and other things I suspect, what with it being the third week of the month, you are already tiring of gnocchi, thick dumpling-like pasta made from potatoes, hardly makes the cut. Its, in fact, not even invited to the party, having no place among the sweatband-ed, pumped up, high-topped aerobicized okay, maybe my brain went straight past earnest attempts at resolution-inspired rebalance to a Richard Simmons video, circa 1982. These things, they happen.

But a kale-apple-ginger smoothie, gnocchi is not. And yet, this dish from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is one of my favorite things to make after a month of holiday gluttony because it is both light and filling, yet warm enough for the coldest day. The thing with gnocchi is that its so plagued by a reputation of being bad for you that its presumed that if youre eating it, your arteries/girth/sense of proportion must already be doomed so lets just ladle on the blue cheese, okay? And, indeed, most restaurants will serve it with butter, cream, cheese and other rich ingredients, such as truffles, probably with more butter. Its not my thing; I think such preparations wreck the delicacy thats at the heart of perfect gnocchi, which is featherlight, dumpling-like and best appreciated in a puddle of intensely flavored broth. Its true: I turned the Italian classic of gnocchi and red sauce into a riff on matzo ball soup, and Im not even a little sorry.

Of course, waiting until the third paragraph to argue that featherlight homemade gnocchi is both doable and worth it at home is akin to burying the lede, but I insist that it is. I think gnocchi is one of those dishes that has been made needlessly intimidating to make at home by well-intentioned but ultimated head-spinning recipes. In early attempts, I too have been flummoxed by the idea that without a potato ricer or food mill and gnocchi rolling board, I shouldnt even bother and even when I did, I was still plagued by leaden, gluey globs of pasta that never cooked through. But once I got it right, I realized how easy it was and, being me, immediately had to tell the world. Im going to argue below that not only none of these things are necessary, that once you have some potatoes baked and ready to use, gnocchi is the kind of dish thats so easy to pull together, you could even have it for dinner this very evening. I dare you to argue this doesnt trump the fifth bottle of that juice cleanse you had planned.

Book Tour, Part II When The Smitten Kitchen Book Tour worked its way from Washington to Houston to Los Angeles, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto and Boston in late 2012, did you feel left out? Did you say something? Because we were listening, and decided at the earliest interval decided it would be fun to get back out there and make things right. This second tour, between mid-February and mid-March, will include eight unintentionally overlooked cities and I hope if we missed you the first time that yours is one of them. I hope we finally get to hang out. [The Smitten Kitchen Book Tour, Part II]

Nevertheless, I realize were still missing some great towns, and want to very seriously encourage those of you who live in far-flung ports say, The Caribbean, Paris, Morocco or Hawaii to lobby loud and vigorously for additional stops. For me. Ahem, us.

One year ago Coming in a bit!

Gnocchi in Tomato Broth
From The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Yield: 2 1/2 to 3 cups broth and 85 to 100 gnocchi, serving 4

Tomato broth
2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium stalk celery, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1/2 cup (120 ml) white wine
One 28-ounce (795 grams) can whole or chopped tomatoes with juices
Small handful fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish
2 cups (475 ml) chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Gnocchi
2 pounds (905 grams) Russet potatoes (3 to 4)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups (156 to 190 grams) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting surface

To finish
Fresh ricotta or shaved Parmesan, to taste, plus addition slivers of basil leaves (optional)

Bake potatoes: Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake potatoes for 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on size, until a thin knife can easily pierce through them. Meanwhile, prepare the tomato broth.

Make tomato broth: Heat the oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. One its hot, add the carrot, celery, and onion, and cook together for 5 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if they begin to brown. Add the garlic, and cook for one minute more. Pour in the wine, and use it to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, then cook the wine unti it is reduced by half, for several minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, mashing them a bit with a spoon if theyre whole, and the basil and stock, and simmer until the tomato broth thickens slightly, for about 45 minutes. Strain out the vegetables in a fine-mesh colander, and season the broth with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside until needed.

Make gnocchi: Let the potatoes cool for 10 minutes after baking, then peel them with a knife or a peeler. Run the potatoes through a potato ricer or grate them on the large holes of a box grater. Cool them to lukewarm, about another 10 minutes. Add the egg and salt, mixing to combine. Add 1/2 cup flour, and mix to combine. Add the next 1/2 cup flour, mixing again. Add 1/4 cup flour, and see if this is enough to form a dough that does not easily stick to your hands. If not, add the last 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is soft but only a little sticky, and able to hold its shape enough to be rolled into a rope. Knead the dough together briefly, gently, on a counter, just for a minute.

Divide the dough into quarters. Roll each piece into a long rope, about 3/4-inch thick. Cut each rope into 3/4-inch lengths. At this point, you can use a floured fork or a gnocchi board to give each piece the traditional ridges, but I never bother. (The ridges are supposed to help sauce adhere, but here, were just floating them in a broth so its not a top concern.) Place the gnocchi on a a parchment-lined tray.

[Do ahead: If you'd like to freeze gnocchi for later user, do so on this tray. Once they are frozen, drop them into a freezer bag until needed. No need to defrost before cooking them; it will just take a minute or two longer.]

Cook gnocchi: Place the gnocchi, a quarter-batch at a time, into a pot of boiling well-salted water. Cook the gnocchi until they float about 2 minutes then drain.

Assemble dish: Meanwhile, reheat broth to a simmer. Add drained gnocchi then reheat through. Serve gnocchi and broth together, garnished with a few slivers of basil leaves and/or a dollop of fresh ricotto or some Parmesan shavings, if desired.

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ethereally smooth hummus

For as long as I have written this website yes, even longer than it has been since I told you the wee white lie that Paula Wolferts hummus was all Id ever need I have known how to make the most ethereally smooth, fluffy, dollop-ing of a hummus and never told you. I have some nerve. But, in my defense, I had my reasons, mostly that I knew if I told you how to make it, Id be able to hear your eye rolls through the screen, theyd be at once so dramatic and in unison. From there, there would be the loud, synchronized clicks of Unfollow! Unfriend! Hide these updates, please! and the under-breath mutters of Lady, you have got to be kidding me. Because, you see, the path between the probably acceptable, vaguely grainy but borderline good-enough hummus you probably have been making and the stuff that I dream about sweeping cold, sweet carrots sticks through the January version of fresh strawberries and whipped cream has only one extra stop but most of you will argue that its at Cuckoo Farm: you see, you must peel the chickpeas.

Chickpeas, when theyre cooked, have a thin skin that sags a bit, kind of like a Sharpeis, but less cute. It hangs about them like theyre trying hard to shake it, but just couldnt. I have found that if you help them put a single chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers and press gently until it pops out with a rather satisfying soft pop, then plink! into a bowl it makes all of the difference in the texture of your final hummus. But I theorized that no sane person would ever spend their time ejecting chickpeas from their skins, because it would be such an arduous task, even reorganzing bookcases, which we did last night, would be preferable. Yet when I cautiously asked you last week if youd want to hear about a new hummus technique, so many of you said Yes, please! I figured it was time to make peace with this technique once and for all.

with a timer. The thing is, Im a slow, slow cook and even slower at prep. I dilly-dally. I daydream. Yet even at this leisurely, lazy pace of freeing chickpeas from their loosely tethered confines, only nine minutes had passed when I was done. And I got to think of all of the silly things Ive spent nine minutes each doing. I waited nine irritated minutes for a refund for something I hadnt actually bought at a store this weekend. Ive definitely waited nine bemused minutes for my little New Yorker to walk a single block. It took me no less than nine minutes yesterday eh, most days, to motivate to refill my own water glass. And yet I was convinced that spending nine extra minutes on food prep was madness. Blogga, please.

What this nine minutes buys you, however, is a world of difference, hummus that is as far from the grainy, beige beleaguered paste a lot of recipes have led me to as it can be all pillows and plumes of the softest chickpea-tahini-lemon-garlic puree. I hope it makes a convert out of you, too.

One year ago: Apple Sharlotka
Two years ago: Vanilla Bean Pudding
Three years ago: Caramel Pudding and Barley Risotto with Beans and Greens
Four years ago: Grasshopper Brownies, Pecan Sandies, Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts and Fig and Walnut Biscotti
Five years ago: Goulash and Lemon Bars
Six years ago: Balthazars Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ethereally Smooth Hummus
Recipe adapted from Ottolenghis stunning new dream of a book; technique is my own madness

This is probably where you expect me to give you a soapbox speech about why it is so important that you soak your own chickpeas. And you know, think they taste wonderful, especially if you treat yourself to some of the best. But, I also make it with canned chickpeas quite often (Goya is my favorite, for perfectly cooked, intact canned beans, each time) and its perfectly excellent. Below, Ive included instructions for both.

Makes 1 3/4 cups hummus

1 3/4 cups cooked, drained chickpeas (from a 15-ounce can) or a little shy of 2/3 cup dried chickpeas (for same yield)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (for dried chickpeas only)
1/2 cup tahini paste
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste
2 small cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 teaspoon table salt, or more to taste

Olive oil, paprika or sumac, pita wedges (brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with zaatar, or a combination of sesame seeds and sea salt), and/or carrot sticks [optional] to serve

If using dried chickpeas: There are multiple methods to cooking them, and you can use whichever is your favorite, or Ottolenghis, or mine. Ottolenghis is to put the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover them with at least twice their volume of cold water, leaving them to soak overnight. The next day, drain them, and saute them in a medium saucepan with the baking soda (which many find reduces the gassy effects of fresh beans) for about three minutes. Add 3 1/4 cups water and bring it to a boil. Skim any foam that floats to the surface. Theyll need to cook for 20 to 40 minutes, sometimes even longer, depending on freshness, to become tender. When tender, one will break up easily between your thumb and forefinger. My method is similar, but I often put mine in a slow-cooker on high with the baking soda for approximately three hours, so I dont have to monitor them as much.

Drain the chickpeas (saving the chickpea broth for soups or to thin the hummus, if desired) and cool enough that you can pick one up without burning your fingers.

Whether fresh or canned chickpeas: Peel your chickpeas. I find this is easiest when you take a chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers, arranging the pointy end in towards your palm, and pop! the naked chickpea out. Discard the skin. I get into a rhythm and rather enjoy this, but its also already established that Im a weirdo.

In a food processor, blend the chickpeas until powdery clumps form, a full minute, scraping down the sides. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and blend until pureed. With the machine running, drizzle in water or reserved chickpea cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you get very smooth, light and creamy mixture. I find I need about 4 tablespoons for this volume, but you may need slightly more or less.

Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt or lemon if needed. I do recommend that you hold off on adding more garlic just yet, however. I find that it blooms as it settles in the fridge overnight, becoming much more garlicky after a rest, so that even if it doesnt seem like enough at first, it likely will be in the long run.

Transfer the hummus to a bowl and rest it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can. To serve, drizzle it with a little olive oil, and sprinkle it with paprika. Serve it with pita wedges or carrot sticks.

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