I’m not quite sure when my love affair with amatriciana began. Maybe when I realized that I liked it’s bold, robust flavor more than carbonara’s rich-yet-delicate one? Pronounced ah-ma-treetch-ee-ya-nah (with the middle part said fast!), amatriciana is similar to carbonara with one huge, major difference: the tomato, of course! But, luckily for you, it’s just as easy to make, and in my humble opinion, way more delicious.
You start with some pork — guanciale, traditionally; pancetta, sometimes; though in my case, I totally cheated and used bacon — cook a bit of onion, and add in your tomato. That’s really the essence of amatriciana. Like so many traditional regional dishes, there are many opinions about what’s authentic and what’s not. I say forget all that. Make it so that it’s authentic to you, and probably more importantly, in a way that is quick and easy on a weeknight!
Amatriciana, in Rome at least, is often made with bucatini, which is my personal favorite pasta to pair with the sauce. There wasn’t any bucatini in sight at Whole Foods though, so I opted for some linguini instead. You could use spaghetti, rigatoni, any shape of pasta you like, really! Here’s how to make it: Read more »
Last Saturday night, Joe and I went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in the city. It’s a neighborhood kind of joint, with simple but delicious food and a warm atmosphere. Inevitably, every time we go, we order basically the same thing: a salad of butter lettuce and fried goat cheese croquettes, to start, and then some kind of pasta after. The food was so good (per usual) that come Sunday night — yes, the very next day — we were craving the exact same meal…but this time, I challenged myself to make it at home. I have to say, we came very, very close (Joe, being the good hubs that he is, said it was better).
The first course? Why, salad with fried goat cheese, of course. These little croquettes are the perfect thing to top any salad, or serve as an appetizer or hors d’oeuvres. The best part is that they’re a total fake out piece — so incredibly simple to make, and frying them takes just a couple of minutes, but they seem so fancy!
Next week I’ll share the recipe for the incredible pasta dish I made to follow the salad, but for now, here’s how to make yourself some crispy fried goat cheese croquettes: Read more »
Hello, my name is Victoria, and I’m a seafood addict. Shellfish has always been my favorite type of protein — I love it in all forms (mollusks, crustaceans, and all their ilk). I have thanked my lucky stars more than once that I am not allergic to shellfish, because this would be a gastronomic tragedy indeed.
Joe, I’m sorry to say, has never experienced the love affair with seafood like I have. Mostly for one hilarious reason: he doesn’t really love touching his food and getting his hands messy (recently, some friends of ours took us to one of those crab boil places, where they dump all the seafood out on the table and you go to town peeling and eating. It was kind of Joe’s worst nightmare).
So this past Sunday, when I was craving shellfish but knew there was no way the mister would want to indulge a peel-and-eat binge at home, I jumped on his suggestion of a seafood stew. “Don’t worry,” I told him, “No peeling required.”
I ended up making what’s probably been my favorite stew ever — it was luxurious tasting, but still somehow pretty healthy, smelled divine while cooking, and was made all the better with a cold glass of white wine. This stew would be a great thing to make over a weekend (and especially if you’re entertaining a crowd!), but really, you could also prep the base for it, reheat that part after work one day, and throw in the seafood of your choice for an easy weeknight meal. Here’s how I made it: Read more »
