Semper Pasta

I made a couple of pasta dishes in the past week that I thought I should share. The first is carbonara, a fairly typical pasta dish, usually associated with Rome. In fact, I believe this may have been the first real Italian food I ever ate, in Rome, when I traveled to Italy with my high school Latin club (yes...Latin club. Semper ubi sub ubi. What?). Being a stupid sixteen year old, I think my reaction to it was, "Pasta with eggs and ham? Seriously, what are they trying to pull?" In my defense I was probably irritable because of severe jet lag and, authentic though, I realize now, the food may have been, it probably was not very good. Being part of a low rent tour group and all, we ate a lot of substandard, buffet-style meals. But anyway. I have since discovered that this dish can be delicious, if made well.

I haven't been able to track down the exact etymology of "carbonara," but a lot of sources render it "coal miner's style" pasta in English. I have also seen claims that it is called this not because it was the traditional lunch break fare of Italian coal miners, but because the black pepper gives it the appearance of being sprinkled with coal dust. Wikipedia claims these speculations are apocryphal, and that in fact there are no known recipes for the dish dating from before WWII. The Oxford Companion to Food claims that Romans invented the dish to incorporate the bacon and eggs they received from US troops as a supplement to their war-time rations. In any case, carbonara is a tasty and economical pasta dish that delivers satisfying creaminess without as much fat as a cream- or butter-based sauce like Alfredo. The primary ingredients are spaghetti, bacon (to be more fancy you could use specialty Italian-style bacon such as pancetta or guanciale, but regular bacon will suffice), eggs, cheese, salt and pepper. I also like to add peas, a common American twist.

This recipe is slightly modified from Leite's Culinaria. Now. This is fairly straightforward and easy once you get the hang of it, but this dish takes a little bit of practice. It is essential that you time things correctly and have all your ingredients ready to go when you need them. When the pasta is done cooking, you need to be ready to throw it back in the skillet right away. You want the pasta coated in sauce that is thick and rich, not pasta with scrambled egg in it. Don't worry that, because the sauce is viscous, the eggs are not fully cooked. They are, through some chemistry-related process that I cannot explain, but that Alton Brown probably could. By the way, I love Alton Brown. He's like the Bill Nye of cooking (I also love Bill Nye).

1/2 pound of spaghetti (about 1/2 a package)

4 strips of bacon

3 eggs, beaten

1 cup grated Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese (or Parmesan if you can't find/afford the other stuff)

1 cup frozen peas, thawed and drained

salt and pepper to taste, plus extra cheese for garnish

Fry the bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Remove from skillet and drain off most of the excess grease. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water heats up, chop the bacon into small pieces. When the water boils, at the pasta to the pot and remember to check the pasta frequently for doneness, instead of relying on package directions. When the pasta is almost done, turn the heat on under the bacon skillet to low. Remove the pasta from heat and drain, reserving a little of the pasta water. Return the pasta immediately to the skillet. Pour the eggs and over the pasta, adding the hot pasta water as needed to thicken the sauce. Toss the spaghetti well to coat with the egg and cheese; return the chopped bacon and peas to the skillet and cook until warmed through. This makes three to four servings.

The second pasta dinner I made combines the classic triumvirate of sausage, peppers and onions with rigatoni for a hearty meal. I think of sausage, peppers, and pasta as a totally Italian thing, but I could not learn much about the origins of this combo. The nifty blog Almost Italian sheds some light on it, suggesting that, while Italian restaurants might serve this dish under glamorous-sounding names like Pasta alla Napoletana or Pasta alla Calabrese, the fact is it was probably thrown together in some Italian-American immigrant's kitchen for no other reason than that's what they had to work with. It is no less Italian--or American--for all that.

This is one of those meaty dishes, by the way, that can translate to a faithful vegetarian or vegan approximation. While I'm not crazy about a lot of meat-substitute products, I have found that there are a lot of meatless sausages out there that are quite good, both in terms of flavor and texture. At Avanti we had wheat-based meatless Italian sausage that was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. Unfortunately I don't know the name of the brand, but I know good options are out there.

Rigatoni with Italian Sausage, Peppers, and Onions

1/2 pound rigatoni (about 1/2 a package)

2 sweet Italian sausage links, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds (If you substitute spicy sausage, omit the red pepper flakes)

1 large onion, pie sliced

1 and 1/2 bell peppers, seeded and sliced into thin strips

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1/4 cup of beer or red wine (I used Fat Tire Amber Ale)

1/4 cup crushed tomato or tomato sauce

2 tsps red pepper flakes

1 tsp each salt, oregano, basil, black pepper

Grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet. Cook the sausage over medium heat until well browned on both sides. Meanwhile, start heating a large pot of water for the pasta. When the sausage is fully cooked, remove it from the skillet and set aside, and drain off excessive drippings. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook until it starts to turn golden. Add the onion and cook until it starts to soften. Add the peppers, beer (or wine), tomato and spices. Cook until the peppers begin to soften and the liquid reduces. When the rigatoni is done, drain and rinse and add to the skillet. If you have a small stove and a less capacious skillet, as I do, I suggest that you remove everything to a large bowl and then throw only as much pasta and sausage mixture back into the skillet for one serving. Although I suppose it's not strictly necessary that it goes back in the skillet, I like to do this because it kind of cooks the sauce to the pasta and improves flavor and texture in my opinion. Toss everything together until well combined and serve. This makes four large servings.

Anyway, I should really get back to my reading and stuff now. I'll catch up with again in a few days, depending on how my schedule goes.

Delicious Dal

This is going to be a brief post, but I just had to share the recipe for the "Dal Nirvana" I made for dinner, because it was quite tasty and pretty easy too! This is a really simple, healthy, vegetarian Indian dish you can make if you are craving Indian food. I followed Beth M's recipe on Budget Bytes (a blog I'm in love with!) to the letter; the only thing I did differently was I halved the recipe. I also made Beth M's naan, a type of Indian flatbread, which was a little more complicated and time consuming, but worth it if you have never made homemade bread like this before. You will feel awesome, and the result might not be restaurant quality the first time around, but it will be better than anything you buy premade at the store. It is a bit tricky, but not as hard as you might think, so don't be intimidated. I also followed her recipe almost exactly (the only thing I did differently was I added lowfat plain yogurt instead of Greek yogurt. I think they are similar enough that it didn't make a huge difference.) That's it for tonight, blog-followers.

Grocery Day? Already??

I tell you what. The month of October is not shaping up to be super for the Sexy Divorcee. My reading load has gotten ridiculous, my students are taking up all of my energy, my house is a mess, and there are so many damn birthdays and parties and things going on! I haven't had a break since the month started, and I'm not likely to get one any time soon. It's getting to be a "clean all the things?" kind of situation over here.

So I was chagrined to realize that, oh my god, two weeks have gone by and I'm running out of food. I have to go to the grocery store today; I don't have time to do it tomorrow, and anyway I am out of coffee, and what is the point of living if there is no coffee? So I made up my plan for the next two weeks, and headed off to the store. I don't know how this happened, but the bill was a little pricey this week, almost $90. Luckily I just got paid, but yikes. I did buy some staples that I was running out of that are a little more expensive--olive oil and stuff--but jeez. An 8 oz bag of frozen peas was like, $3 or something. That seems like a lot. I found myself wandering through the store going, "wow, that seems like a lot," well, a lot, this morning. But anyway, my shopping is done, so I can get back to all the other things I need to do.

Before I get into my list and plan for the next two weeks, let's rank and review my last plan. Take a look at this post to learn more about my ranking and review criteria. I am adding a new one: good-for-you-ness. This criterion (like the rest of them, honestly) is kind of sketchy, since I'm not a nutrition expert or anything. It's mostly based on my sense of things.

1. Sweet and Sour Pork

Convenience: 3

Deliciousness: 5

Value: 3

Leftover-worthiness: 4

Good-for-you-ness: 4 (good balance of protein and vegetables, and the sauce isn't fatty or anything. It might be a bit on the salty side to be considered truly healthy)

2. Tony Rigatoni

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 4 (the sausage is really the only thing here that is a bit more expensive)

Leftover-worthiness: 3

Good-for-you-ness: 3 (the sweet potato and arugula are full of vitamins; the sausage, unfortunately, is full of fat)

3. Chicken mole enchiladas

Convenience: 2

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 3

Leftover-worthiness: 3-4 (I would say this is a solid 4 if you have a microwave; I don't, and reheating them well is a bit tricky for me)

Good-for-you-ness: 3 (I'm going to go ahead and call this moderately healthy, even though the chocolate, nuts, cheese, and cooking oil add fat. The sauce is vegetable and vitamin rich, chicken is lean, and the corn tortillas are whole-grain.)

4. Chana Masala

Convenience: 5

Deliciousness: 4

Value: 4

Leftover-worthiness: 5

Good-for-you-ness: 5

5. Chicken with Roasted Vegetable Pilaf

I realize have not posted a recipe for this one. I simply didn't have time. I'll get around to it eventually.

Convenience: 3

Deliciousness: 3

Value: 4

Leftover-worthiness: 3

Good-for-you-ness: 5

6. Yellow Split Pea and Sweet Potato Soup

I also haven't posted a recipe for this, but I pretty much used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan, substituting arugula for kale.

Convenience: 4

Deliciousness: 2-3 (My version of this didn't taste bad, it was just kind of boring and disappointing. It would have been better if I had used the whole spices instead of substituting ground, and if I had an immersion blender than I could have used to smooth it out a bit. On the upside, it is totally vegan, and fat free.)

Value: 5

Leftover-worthiness: 4

Good-for-you-ness: 4

I also made tuna melts and tomato soup, but because they were not part of my original plan, I won't rank them.

So here's my plan for the next two weeks. New recipes are in italics:

Dal nirvana x 3 (once again, this was on my last plan, but I haven't made it yet)

Butter chicken and rice x 4

Rigatoni with sausage, peppers and onions x 4

Fried rice x 2

White bean and chicken chili x 4

Shrimp tacos x 2

Pasta carbonara x 3

Cuban black beans and shrimp x 2

And here's my shopping list:

Frozen peas

Unsalted butter, 1 lb

Skim milk, 1 quart

Black beans, 2 cans

Great northern beans, 1 lb dry

Crushed tomatoes, 28-oz can

Diced green chiles, 1 can

Low sodium chicken stock, 1 quart

Extra virgin olive oil

Vegetable oil

Corn tortillas, 1 dozen

Coffee beans, 1 lb

Parmesan, bulk wedge

Bacon, 1/2 lb

Chicken breasts, package of 3

Frozen Baja shrimp, 1 lb bag

Red onions, 3 lb bag

Garlic

Napa cabbage

Roma tomatoes, 1 lb

Cilantro, 1 bunch

Bell peppers, 2 green, 1 red

1 avocado

2 mangos

2 grapefruit

4 bananas

I don't think any of the recipes I've chosen for the next two weeks are particularly complicated, and I've thrown a couple in there that are really fast and and easy; fried rice and shrimp tacos. I wanted to make things relatively easy, knowing that my work load isn't going to let up any time soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Irma, You Done Done It Again

I had some leftover roasted yam from when I made "Tony Rigatoni" the other night, and this morning, as I looked into my somewhat bare fridge that was not offering up any appealing breakfast options, I thought, "Hm, I wonder if I can put that yam that into a quick bread or something." So I consulted my trusty Joy of Cooking, and what do you know, the exact thing I had in mind was right there in it's venerable pages: yam muffins! I'm enjoying a couple right now that I just took out of the oven. So spicy and sweet and warming; perfect for the fall weather that has FINALLY decided to come to Tucson. Thanks, Irma Rombauer.

One thing that I love about the Joy of Cooking (if you don't have a copy, you should really look around for one at a used bookstore or something. Get a classic edition; mine is a modern reprint of an edition from the '70s. Some of the recipes are dated, but it's just a charming all-purpose cookbook) is that it's not just a bunch of recipes. There is a lot of great practical information scattered throughout the chapters that help you understand what you're doing when you're cooking. Anyone can follow a recipe, but understanding why you are going through the steps in a very specific way is what makes you a cook or a baker. Rombauer includes one of these helpful tidbits for baking muffins, and it's so interesting (to me, anyway) and written in such a quaint, grandmotherly way that I have to include it with the recipe. It might make the difference in the quality of your muffins.

"Muffin batters are easily made. To mix, add in a few swift strokes the beaten liquid ingredients to the combined dry ones. The mixing is held to an absolute minimum, a light stirring from 10 to 20 seconds, which will leave some lumps. Ignore them. The dough should not be mixed to the point of pouring, ribbonlike, from the spoon, but should break in coarse globs. If the batter has been beaten too long, the gluten in the flour will develop and toughen the dough; and the grain of the muffin will be coarse and full of tunnels.... Good muffins should be straight-sided and rounded on top...the grain of the muffin is not fine but uniform and the crumb moist."

Isn't that lovely? There's actually a drawing included of what the cross section of a poorly-made muffin looks like, and what the top will look like if the oven temperature is wrong. Anyway, if you follow this advice, your muffins will be better for it, and you will be a better baker.

I made a couple of substitutions to the J of C recipe. I didn't have quite enough cooked yam, so I smashed it with a couple overripe bananas that I had been saving, and that worked out fine. I also did not add the extra 1/4 cup of sugar the book recommends. I figured the banana would provide enough sweetness, and in my opinion it did. If you were just using sweet potato, or canned pumpkin, I think the extra sugar would be necessary. I also used chopped walnuts instead of pecans--equally tasty either way, I think.

Joy of Cooking Yam Muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 1/4 cups flour, sifted

1/4 cup sugar (increase to 1/2 cup unless you are using banana)

2 tsps double-acting baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

3/4 tsp salt

Optional: 1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts--and it doesn't have to be a full cup)

Wet ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 cups milk

2 tbsps melted butter

1 cup cooked mashed yams, OR 1 cup canned cooked pumpkin, OR a combination of yam and banana

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients well in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and melted butter. Pour the mashed yam mixture into the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients over. Combine quickly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, following the recommendations above. Drop the batter from the spoon into greased muffin tins; each cup should be no more than 2/3 full of batter. Bake for twenty minutes, or until a knife inserted into one comes out clean. Irma says they are best right out of the oven.

Holé Molé

So I made some molé sauce from scratch and turned it into chicken enchiladas. No big deal.

Actually, I'm really proud of myself because molé is a little complicated, and I haven't been able to find two recipes out there that are remotely the same. Most include onion, some kind of dried chiles, and unsweetened chocolate. Some have peanuts, some don't, some have tomato sauce, some don't, the spices and amounts vary wildly...you get the idea. So I looked at three or four recipes that had some basic elements in common, and tried to combine them to approximate what molé, in my mind, should taste like.

I guess I should say what molé is. Since I've lived in Arizona and California my whole life, I've maybe had more exposure to it than a lot of people. Don't quote me on it, but I don't think you can get anything molé-related at Taco Bell, for instance. This is understandable; it's less accessible than a lot of Mexican dishes because the spicing is pretty unique. It includes chocolate as a spice. It's unsweetened, but still. A lot of people think reflexively of chocolate and meat mixed together as some kind of abomination that is probably prohibited in the Bible. To my knowledge, it's not, but even if it were, I would trust my own taste buds over the word of God in this case. I ignored what God had to say about eating shrimp and shellfish, and I have yet to regret that. Anyway.

Wikipedia says that molé (which is really spelled with out the accent, but saying I made "mole" sauce is just confusing/gross) is really just a generic word for sauce that comes from the Nahuatl "molli." When we talk about molé in the US, what we're usually talking about...well, it's ambiguous. It could be mole poblano, named for the state of Puebla from whence it comes, or mole negro, which comes from Oaxaca, and is similar but, apparently, as the name would suggest, darker because it contains additional spices. In any case, turkey or chicken with molé is typically a celebration thing that you might have for weddings or holidays. I think what I ended up making was maybe closer to mole negro? But I'm not sure. It was pretty tasty, though. Better, I feel confident in boasting, than the molé chicken I ate at El Charro here in Tucson. So there.

Some of the items you might have better luck finding in a specialty market, but I think most supermarkets have an area, usually in the "Ethnic Foods" or whatever they call it aisle, that sells Mexican spices. If you can't find Ibarra-brand chocolate, just get a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate. I got some Ghirardelli's and it worked fine.

Molé

4 dried pasilla (aka ancho) peppers

15 almonds

2 Tbsps pumpkin seeds

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

1 whole clove

1 whole allspice

1 corn tortilla

1 yellow onion, diced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

2 Tbsps orange juice

1/2 cup canned crushed tomato

1 cup+ water (I continued to add water little by little as I went along to get the right texture. I suggest you follow the same policy)

1 oz unsweetened chocolate (1/4 of a 4 oz bar), grated (Grating the chocolate is messy! Do thison a large plate with a rim to catch the excess

2 tsps sugar

salt to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil; pour the boiling water over the dried chiles and let sit covered until they soften, 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour. Meanwhile, toast the almonds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, whole spices, cinnamon and cumin in a skillet over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. When the sesame seeds start to turn golden, remove from heat and grind into a fine powder--I cleaned out my coffee grinder really well and used that; if you want to be old school I suppose you could use a mortar and pestle. Cook the corn tortilla in a little oil until it softens, then tear into pieces and set aside. Cook the onion in the same skillet until it begins to soften, then add the garlic and cook a little longer.

Drop the nut-seed-spice powder, tortilla pieces, chiles, cooked onion and garlic, tomato, orange juice, and water into a blender or food processor and process until you have a smooth paste, somewhat thicker than ketchup. If it is too thick, add more water. Pour the sauce back into the skillet and cook over medium low heat until it starts to bubble. Add in the chocolate and sugar, stirring well to incorporate. By the way, you should taste the sauce as you go to decide if you think the seasonings need tweaking. You may want it to be sweeter or spicier than mine ended up being. There you go, there's your molé. This makes about 4 cups, I would say, but I don't know how much water I ultimately ended up using. You can use it right away, either as a sauce for chicken or turkey, or for enchiladas, or you can freeze it. If you use it for enchiladas, you may want to dilute it with more water.

Mole enchiladas

2 chicken breasts, cut in 1-inch cubes

8 corn tortillas

Mole sauce

Cooking oil

1 cup shredded jack cheese + more for garnish (optional)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the chicken and cook until cooked through, 15 minutes or so. You don't have to worry about overcooking the chicken in this case. Drain the cooked chicken and, after it has cooled, shred it. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Mix half of the mole sauce with the shredded chicken and the shredded cheese. Reserve the other half for coating the tortillas. Now, before you get ready to cook the tortillas, make sure your workspace is organized. Have your bowl of mole sauce, your baking pan, and your bowl of enchilada filling lined up in that order for efficient assembly. Enchiladas are easy to make once you get the hang of it, but you need to plan well. Over medium heat, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet until an edge of corn tortilla dipped in bubbles on contact. Carefully place one tortilla in the skillet. After just a few seconds, flip it with your tongs, and then place it in the bowl of sauce. Be careful not to get sauce on your tongs, or you will cause the oil to sputter and possibly burn yourself when you go to flip the next tortilla. Coat the tortilla well in the sauce and place in the baking dish. Scoop about 1/3 cup of the enchilada filling into the middle of the tortilla and wrap it it up tightly, being careful not to rip the tortilla (not that it will matter much once it's baked, but still). Repeat these steps until you have eight happy little enchiladas tucked into the dish. Pour any remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle with additional cheese. Bake for about 15 minutes. This makes about 4 servings. ¡Olé!

This meal is labor intensive, and messy, I'm not going to lie. Stupidly, I was not wearing the apron my dear mother gave me, and at one point I zinged hot sauce all over myself slasher-movie style and nearly ruined my favorite white shirt. But if you have the time and the energy, I highly recommend that you try this, because you will feel accomplished for having done it...and you will have yummy food in your fridge.

Odds & Ends

I came home today after a five-hour grading marathon with no will to cook anything complicated for dinner. The solution: tuna melt and tomato soup.

Now, a tuna melt is like, cooking 101-type stuff, right? Well, I don't know; tuna melts, like pancakes and omelettes, are simple in theory but take some time and practice to master (or at least they did in my case). Also, anyone can open a can of tuna, mix it up with some mayo, slather it on some wonder bread and call it a tuna sandwich. But it doesn't have to be that way. The tuna/mayo base is easy to fancy up, and usually you can do it with whatever you have on hand. To cut fat and add a little extra kick of flavor, I usually substitute a little Dijon mustard for some of the mayo. Some things I commonly add to tuna salad include (not necessarily together, mind you): sliced green olives, red onion, green onion, celery, diced apple, capers, nuts, cilantro, pickle, etc, etc. In this case I had a bunch of celery left over from when I made red beans and rice, and some chopped green onion that I kept forgetting to garnish my leftover sweet and sour pork with. I dumped this into my tuna, along with about a 1/2 tablespoon of capers for tang and some chopped almonds for crunch. A good sprinkling of fresh ground black pepper is a must for my tuna salad; sometimes I add a little dill as well.

To make a tuna melt:

Melt a pat of butter in a wide skillet over medium-low heat. Add your bread to the skillet and rub it around a bit to get some butter on it, then flip it over and rub it around again. Let your bread toast on one side until it starts to get golden. Flip it over and carefully spread your tuna mixture over one of the slices. I usually add something on top of that, like sliced onion or tomato or some baby spinach. Because I have arugula right now, I threw a handful on top of the tuna. Place your slices of cheese (I used Monterey Jack this evening) on top, close your sandwich, and press it down gently with the flat of a spatula to smoosh the different layers together. Reduce the heat to low and cover. When the cheese has started to melt, carefully flip the sandwich. I use two spatulas or other utensils to do this, sliding one under the sandwich and pressing the top down with the other. Cook on the other side until the cheese is nice and gooey.

For me, a tuna melt isn't really complete unless there's a side of tomato soup to go with it. If you have canned soup, that's fine, but I almost never get canned tomato soup because it is so easy to make, and homemade is much better. It's also better for you, because you can control how much salt goes in. Even the low-sodium soup brands have a lot of salt in them. Tomato soup is one of those gloriously minimalist foods. All you really need to do to make tomato soup is take a little can of tomato paste, mix it up in about two cups of water, season with salt and pepper, and heat through. I like garlic so I usually add some garlic, which I saute in a bit of olive oil before pouring the liquid in the pan. Beyond that, you can add pretty much whatever you want to your soup. I had extra grilled onion from my dinner last night, so I chopped that up and threw it in, and spiced it up with some cumin and paprika. Instant comfort food.

Tony Rigatoni

...That's "tony" as in fancy, or posh. You wouldn't think that a chunky tubular pasta could be glam, but I think this recipe is. Not only that, but it's easy, and relatively cheap, too! I drew inspiration from two sources to come up with this dish. One is a simple, fairly standard Italian recipe that consists of a chunky shaped pasta, like rigatoni or orecchiette, tossed with chunks of Italian sausage and broccoli rabe. Broccoli rabe (or raab, or rapini), if you don't happen to know, is not related to broccoli, but is actually a type of mustard green. It gets its name from the broccoli-like green buds it sprouts. It has a strong bitter flavor that pairs really well with rich sausage. I don't know what this dish is called, but I have seen it in a lot of places. I got it once at Ciao Italian restaurant in Newport Beach, one of my favorite Italian restaurants ever, and it was so good I've been meaning to make it ever since.

The second source of inspiration came from a pizza topped with garnet yam, arugula, and artichoke pesto on the menu at Avanti Cafe in Costa Mesa. I worked at Avanti for a while, and a lot of what I know about preparing food and being creative and efficient in the kitchen comes from working with those lovely people. Fun times. Anyway, those may sound like weird pizza toppings, but the salty-sweet-bitter combination of flavors balance each other really well and the overall effect is light and delicious. I thought roasted yam would pair similarly well with spicy and salty Italian sausage, and arugula is a bitter salad green that has a very similar flavor to broccoli rabe. So I decided to mix all these things together, and I was quite pleased with the result. The yam really makes the dish seem special, even though it's one of the easier pasta dishes I think I've made. There are a few prep-intensive steps involved, but they are not complex. Also, if you've never roasted yams before except to make that Thanksgiving casserole with the marshmallows on top, you are missing out. Roasted yams are an easy vegetable to prepare, they are extremely good for you, they are delicious, and surprisingly versatile. I recommend you add them to your repertoire of easy vegetable sides if you haven't cooked with them before.

Tony Rigatoni

Olive oil

1 large yam, unpeeled

2 large garlic cloves, sliced

1/4 - 1/2 pound Italian sausage* (one or two largish links), casings removed

4 loosely-packed cups arugula (This seems like a lot, but it will cook down to about a quarter of its volume.)

1/2 pound rigatoni or similar pasta

kosher salt, black pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Scrub the yam well, dry, poke with a fork on all sides, and rub all over with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Incidentally, the salt is not for seasoning, but aids cooking by drawing out moisture. This technique is ideal for flaky baked potatoes as well. Cook the yam on a foil-covered baking sheet until a fork can be inserted easily into the center; half an hour to an hour. When the yam is done baking and has cooled for a bit, the skin will come off easily. Chop the yam (or use a large spoon or melon baller to scoop it out of the skin) into bite-sized chunks, and set aside. Put pasta water on to boil. Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for a few minutes. Add the sausage, using the side of a wooden spoon or spatula to break it up into small chunks. Allow the sausage to cook for several minutes, stirring occasionally, until it is thoroughly cooked and well browned on all sides. Add the arugula to the skillet and cook in the sausage drippings until it is just wilted. Remove from heat. Meanwhile, cook the rigatoni, testing frequently**. When the pasta is done and drained, toss everything together and serve immediately, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper and topped with a little fresh-grated Parmesan cheese. Four servings.

*I used sweet Italian sausage, but in the future I might try spicy. A little more spice would kick this up a notch, as Emeril Legasse might say.

**Mushy, over-cooked pasta is unacceptable to the Sexy Divorcee. Something I learned at Avanti: When cooking pasta, NEVER trust the cooking time given on the package. Cooking times for different kinds of pasta vary widely, so you should always test your pasta frequently as it cooks until you get a piece that is just slightly undercooked. By the time you turn the heat off and drain your pasta, it will be perfectly al dente. Rinse the pasta in cold water to stop the cooking. Even if you find that your pasta is a little too al dente at first, it will soften up when it sits in the fridge and your leftovers will be a nice texture instead of soggy, like leftover pasta can tend to be.