tortellini in brodo cremoso

Another of my wife's favorites. The combination of cream, parmesan, and nutmeg is reminiscent of northern Italy. It's simple but satisfying. Serves 4-6.

6 cups low-sodium chicken broth (homemade or swanson organic)
2 cup heavy cream
2 bay leaves
2 cups dried tortellini (barilla brand - any variety)
1/4 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg
fresh black pepper and grated parmesan cheese to taste

1. In a 3-4 quart saucepan, bring the broth, cream, and bay leaves to a boil. Reduce heat so that the broth is just simmering.

2. Add the dried tortellini. Boil for 10 minutes (according to package directions).

3. Off the heat, add the nutmeg. Stir.

4. Serve in soup bowls with pepper and cheese to taste.

If you want a creamier soup, you can either increase the ratio of cream to broth (up to 1/2 and 1/2) or add a slurry of 1 TB cornstarch in a bit of water about one minute before the pasta is done.

mulled wine cranberry sauce

Tried changing some things up for Thanksgiving. This struck me as a good idea. The end result was spectacular!

3 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup red wine (chianti, merlot, or pinot noir -- nothing oak-aged)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes (make sure all alcohol is cooked off). Remove the cinnamon stick, pour into a heat-proof bowl, and let cool to room temperature. It will thicken as it cools.

Serve with turkey (what else?), duck, or roast beef.

no-knead bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

spiced pumpkin bread

I live in Florida, where we only have two seasons: hot and not-quite-as-hot. While my friends and family who live north of the Mason-Dixon line are enjoying fall foliage and beautiful autumnal colors, I am sweating in 85 degree heat. To remind myself that fall is actually here, I make this quick bread. It does the trick.

This recipe can easily be turned into muffins (approx. 24) -- just reduce the baking time to about 35 minutes.

1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling -- that has sugar/spices already in it)
2/3 c water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into a large bowl. Whisk the ingredients together to ensure that they are evenly distributed. Set aside.

In a blender, mix the pumpkin, sugars, water, vanilla, and eggs. While the blender is running, drizzle in the oil. Pour this on top of the dry ingredients, making sure to scrape out as much of the pumpkin mixture as possible.

Gently fold the wet into the dry until no more streaks of flour are present. Be careful not to overmix, as this will toughen your final product. Split the batter into two greased 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pans (9x5 will work in pinch, but your loafs will be shorter). Bake for one hour. Remove the bread from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes on a rack. Remove the loaves from their pans and allow to cool for another 45 minutes.

If desired, drizzle the loaves with an icing made of 1 cup of confectioner's sugar and 3 tablespoons of real maple syrup. Alternatively, you could leave out all of the spices but the nutmeg and add one cup of chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans) and 1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter for a chocolate-studded pumpkin nut bread.

Enjoy!

dark chocolate cupcakes

After making several chocolate cupcake recipes and reading conflicting information from some of my trusted sources, I decided to try making a recipe on my own. Some decisions I made while I was formulating the recipe include:

• no "strange" ingredients like mayonnaise, etc.
• use a modified creaming method to assemble (for improved texture)
• use cocoa powder instead of bar chocolate (more chocolatey and 1 less bowl to clean!)
• use dutch cocoa (for the most intense chocolate taste)
• cook only 12 cupcakes at a time (for even baking)
  

I'm confident that these cupcakes will be your new favorites (at least your favorite chocolate ones). If you want, the recipe will make one 9-inch round cake. Doubled, it will make two 9-inch rounds, three 8-inch rounds, or a 9 x 13-inch sheet cake.

6 TB butter, at room temperature (3 ounces by weight)
1 scant cup of granulated sugar (6 ounces)
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda (not powder!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (4.25 ounces)
1/2 cup sifted dutch-process cocoa powder (sift then measure -- 1 ounce by weight)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup plain lowfat yogurt (6 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, cream together the first 5 ingredients until it is fluffy and noticeably lighter in color than when you began. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, mixing for approximately 20 seconds after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add all of the flour mixture to the butter and mix on low until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides again, add the yogurt, and mix on medium for one minute.

Prepare the pan you will use to bake with (muffin liners for the cupcake pan or butter/flour for the others). Distribute the batter among your prepared pans. Bake according to the following chart (give or take a couple of minutes due to differences among ovens):

• cupcakes - 23 minutes
• 8-inch pans - 30 minutes
• 9-inch pans - 33 minutes
• 9 x 13-inch sheet pan - 35 minutes

Begin checking about 3 minutes before the time is up. Remove from the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not over-bake, as this will destroy the taste and texture of the final product. Frost with a home-made buttercream or simply dust with powdered sugar.