Posts Tagged ‘meat’

I love and loathe spring. The flowers and thawing is all well and good, but the flip-flopping weather is enough to drive anyone mad.

We had 90°+ temperatures last week only to have it plummet to 40° this weekend. It’s cold salads and iced coffee one day, oatmeal and hot cocoa the next.

Dinner like this, however, seems to fit in any weather. The thing that grabbed me the most was the use of anchovies in the sauce – one of my favorite and most underused ingredients out there. The crisp peppers and fresh rosemary make the whole dish very refreshing with the delicious briny sauce, and by putting it on thick, cheesy polenta, it’s still rich and satisfying. Half spring freshness, half hearty winter fare: perfect for our split personality weather right now.

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Happy Birthday, to me!

Well, yesterday at least.

As much as I adore going out to eat (which I did plenty of during my little vacation home), cooking one of my favorite things for my own birthday sounded just as satisfying, so that’s exactly what I did. Few things please me more than big ol’ bowl of pasta with really really good sauce, and that’s what this is.  One of the best damn bolognese I’ve ever tasted (if I do say so myself).

This sauce is called Sunday Bolognese because it’s an all day, hover-over-your-stove affair. Once you kick things into gear, you better be ready to stir the sauce every 20 minutes for over 3 hours, and that doesn’t include the 90 minutes of prep and pre-cooking before that. To some, that’s a horrible way to spend your birthday. To me, it was perfect. I coddled and loved this sauce into perfection, and was so proud to present it in front of 6 guests at a lovely dinner outside on our patio, it was like a birthday gift to myself. Thick and velvety and just so layered with flavor and texture,  it’s just damn good.

Serve it with some great garlic bread and if you’re really lucky, finish with some fabulous birthday hummingbird cake. (I was very, very lucky).

I love discovering new ingredients to play with. Part of the reason I find cooking so exciting and challenging is that there is an endless ocean of cuisine, recipes, ingredients, and food out there to sail though, and although sometimes the waters are choppy, it’s always a fun adventure.

I tried bison meat for the first time recently via it being on sale at my local grocer, and I was amazed by the taste. It really wasn’t gamey as I had expected it to be, but had a very rich, meaty flavor with a great natural earthiness to it. And then I found out it has half the calories and 1/8 the fat as normal beef, plus it’s always free-range. I was in love.

So pondering what to do with a pound of ground bison… meatballs naturally popped into my head. Spaghetti and meatballs is one of those comfort foods universally loved, like pizza or mac n cheese. So why not take on a classic. The meatballs are unbelievably tender and moist despite using such a naturally lean protein (something I was worried about), and the flavor is classically garlicky with parmesan.  My recipe for simple tomato sauce is one of those great things that you can make with pantry staples and it barely takes any time or attention. Plus it always tastes better than the jarred stuff – I guarandamntee it.

Panko.

Meatballs!

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