Even when Dennis and I have spent the day working at Al Dente, the fact that we can head to the Lake House, which is only 5 minutes from our pasta factory, is an unbelievable luxury.   To top it off, as long as we remembered to grab a bag of pasta, we can have dinner ready in about 10 minutes. Last night I tossed Al Dente Egg Fettuccine with some cooked bacon, leftover green beans, extra virgin olive oil,  chives from our yard and salt that I brought back from France.    Life doesn’t get much simpler than that and, in my book, that’s what summer is all about.

photo courtesy of Jenise McLean

Sara Moulton is so cool.  I am not saying this just because we went to the same university or because she worked at the Del Rio and includes the recipe for the Det Burger in her cook book.  I am saying it because she has the most unpretentious style and is such an approachable, entertaining and engaging person.   I’m sad that I didn’t know her when she was a student in Ann Arbor but glad that I got to meet her when she was invited to University of Michigan as a guest speaker.   Yes, she is every bit as charming in person as she is on TV.

And, her recipes are wonderful.  Every now and then I like to take a recipe from a cookbook and adapt it to be used with Al Dente Pasta.  Sara used farfalle in this dish.  I use Al Dente Whole Wheat Fettuccine especially so I can prove that nearly any pasta recipe works with Al Dente.  As you all know, I love roasting cauliflower, so this recipe was right up my alley.  (Sara, I hope you’ve tried Al Dente Pasta.  It’s available at Fairway Market but of course I’d be happy to send you some!)  P.S.  I added the garlic and the parsley.

Pasta with Cauliflower and Sauteed Bread Crumbs

adapted from Sara’s Secrets for weeknight meals

Kosher salt

1 head of cauliflower, cut into florets

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 lb. pancetta or bacon, chopped

12 oz. Al Dente Pasta

1.5 cups chicken broth

parsley for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 450 F and put large pot of salted water on to boil.  Toss cauliflower wiht 2 Tbsp. oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper.  Arrange in one layer in a shallow roasting pan and roast until caramelized and tender, approx. 15 minutes.

2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add bread crumbs and garlic and saute until golden.  Transfer crumbs to a plate.  Add remaining 2 Tbsp. oil and the pancetta to skillet, cooking over medium heat until the pancetta (or bacon) is crisp.  Turn off heat.

3. Cook Pasta for 3 minutes, until tender but firm.  Drain and toss in skillet with cauliflower, chicken broth and bacon over low heat until combined.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in crumbs and garnish with parsley.

Improvisation is always encouraged so what about also garnishing with toasted pinenuts or sliced almonds.  Or, how about green olives?  Parmesan cheese is always delicious so go for it.

I’ve recently returned to Michigan after a few years in New York working in the music business…specifically as a publicist for independent record labels and artists. Part of my job is doing blog outreach—making sure writers and bloggers get records, video, tickets to shows and the like…so it seems like a natural progression for me to employ this same strategy with food blogs and Al Dente Pasta!

Recently I came across a fantastic music blog based in San Francisco called eating/sf…and coincidentally, they also post about my other favorite passion: FOOD! In fact, they create beautiful recipes then pair them up with appropriate music, which doubles the pleasure. So immediately we went ahead and sent along a case of Al Dente pasta so they could work their mojo on it.

The result of their first effort using our Al Dente Whole Wheat Fettuccine? “A Quasi Bolognese with Tomatoes.“

As for the musical pairing, here’s a link for a listen to Raphael Saadiq “The Way I See It.”

“Bolognese is a traditional Italian meat sauce for pasta. It’s awesome with linguine and papardelle–wide, long and sticky noodles that absorb the flavor of the sauce and trap bits of chunk amongst their layers. The traditional bolognese–according to my Silver Spoon cookbook, at least–does not contain any tomatoes (only tomato paste), but does include celery and carrots. When it comes to pasta sauces, I’m not one to stick to the recipe, and I tend to pledge my allegiance to tomatoes, especially in a hearty, beefy concoction.

A few weeks ago, the lovely folks at Al Dente Pasta in Michigan sent Matt and I some of their fettuccine pasta in flavors such as Wild Mushroom, Squid Ink, and Straw and Hay to try. All of the pastas cook in 3-4 minutes flat–imagine that!

One thing I managed to bring back with me from Denver was a cold, so on a particularly lazy evening, wrapped in a quasi-Snuggie, we decided to whip up a quasi-bolognese with some whole wheat fettuccine from Al Dente. The meal came together quickly–and in 1 skillet and a pot, no less. Suddenly, my kitchen table felt like a little corner in a Tuscan trattoria. I’ve only tried Al Dente’s whole wheat flavor, but now I can’t wait to give the others a go–especially the squid ink (I’m already dreaming up recipes). My bowl of pasta tasted like it had been hand-made by an Italian grandmother in my kitchen. You could use any brand of medium-wide pasta for this dish, but I especially enjoyed the nuttiness of the whole wheat against the beef.”

Click here to read the entire post.

Quasi-Bolognose with Tomatoes
* serves 2, with leftovers

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 rounded teaspoons of tomato paste
1 onion, diced
4-5 campari tomatoes, quartered
pinch or two of dried oregano
pinch or two of dried thyme
pinch or two of red chili flakes
A few leaves of fresh basil leaves, torn
1/2 pound of good quality ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
8-10 ounces of whole wheat fettuccine or pappardelle (we used Al Dente brand)
Parmesan, to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet. Start by sauteing the onion with the beef and garlic over medium-low heat. Season with salt and pepper. About a minute in, add the tomato paste and continue to saute. Lower the heat as the beef starts to brown.
2. Throw in a few pinches of thyme, oregano and chili flakes (this is really to taste).
3. Continue to saute for a few minutes. Next, add the tomatoes and toss around with a wooden spoon.
4. Let the tomatoes cook down, but not until they are completely part of the sauce. Toss in some torn fresh basil leaves.
5. In the meantime, boil the pasta for about 4 minutes.
6. Drain (don’t rinse), toss into the still warm cooking sauce. Toss to combine pasta with the sauce.
7. Sprinkle with Parmesan to serve. When I say sprinkle, I usually mean dump about a 1/4 cup of grated cheese over each bowl.

Thanks so much to Kasey and Matthew! Can’t wait to see what kind of other creations you dream up!

For many years I have had this “Cosmic Plan”—that everyone I know, at some point in time, will know each other.  When my friend, Peggy Lampman, sent me this recipe for Al Dente Pasta with Morels, she also ended up inspiring a variation on my Cosmic Plan theme.  I am calling it Cosmic Convergence.  It is when different parts of my life come together, naturally, without my making it happen.  Kind of like the way morels grow—-Magic.

Here’s how the latest dots connect.  I’ve known Peggy for 30 years.  In 1981, during the “Pasta Revolution” when I started Al Dente, she opened Back Alley Gourmet.  It was a gourmet take-out and catering company, but she also made fresh pasta.  After selling Back Alley, she started worked at  Busch’s, a local Ann Arbor retailer.

Now Peggy is spending her time cooking and being her creative self. Last week, Peggy went Up North (as in Up North, Michigan) to visit friends and go morel hunting.  Little did I know, until she sent me the recipe and photos, that Judy Harvey, the most well-loved school librarian to ever hit Ann Arbor,  was also her good friend. To top things off, Judy had in her cupboard a bag of Al Dente Wild Mushroom Fettuccine!  Just what Peggy needed to make dinner

Peggy is one of the best cooks I know, but she also has tremendous style and flair.  Needless to say, I love sharing her recipes and photos.  Here is what she sent me:

By Peggy Lampman:

“Come mid-May, my palate stings for the taste of freshly picked Michigan morels.  Many of the locals head for the forest, especially after a heavy rain, in quest of this holy grail of woodland treasures.  Our friends Jack and Judy have a secret spot in northern Michigan they promise never disappoints. For those not acquainted with morel foraging, these haunts are carefully guarded secrets shared only among the closest of friends.

At the end of May, after a heavy rain, we made the 5 hour pilgrimage to this hilly woodland grove. The landscape, dotted with snow white trillium and thick with decaying leaves, smartly camouflaged these succulents. Every seasoned hunter has their tricks for unearthing them.  Judy advised me to lie flat on the ground–looking up the hills.  She promised the morels would reveal themselves to me.

Lying prone, face down in the damp leaves, I lifted my head. My eyes crawled through decaying bark and wildflowers.  Soon enough, I saw the mushroom’s tapered, ridged cone popping through the forest floor. By day’s end, we had a king’s ransom!

What to make with our bounty?  After a day in the woods we didn’t have the energy to fuss. Judy had a bag of locally produced Al Dente Wild Mushroom Pasta, chicken breasts, a red pepper and odds and ends.  That was enough for a splendid meal!

Chicken and Morels over Wild Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, sliced lengthwise into strips
1 red pepper, membranes removed then diced
Fresh morel mushrooms (soak in salted water then slice diagonally)
12 ounce bag Al Dente Wild Mushroom pasta
1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme, plus several sprigs for garnish
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:

1.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  In a large saute pan, heat olive oil and butter to medium heat.  Add shallot and saute until transparent, about 3 minutes.
2. Lightly season chicken breast strips with salt and pepper and saute in pan an additional 3 minutes per side.  Add red pepper and sliced morels and saute an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, add pasta to boiling water and boil 3 minutes.
4.With a slotted spoon, remove chicken and morels from pan and whisk in thyme and cream.  Return chicken and morels to pan and stir.
5.Serve pasta topped with chicken and morels.  Garnish with fresh thyme.

We’ve made another new friend who loves Al Dente Pasta and is hosting a Give-Away of the Al Dente Tasty Trio which includes 2 pastas of your choice and one sauce. Visit The Funky Monkey for your chance to win this gift. Hurry, as the offer ends on May 8th!

I know, I know. People say it all the time. It’s not often that the owner of a company is still as enthusiastic and committed and willing to spend time sampling as I am, almost 30 years after starting Al Dente Pasta Company. What can I say? That’s the kind of company we are. With that said, here is my demo schedule in Chicago for the month.

May 7th. Sauganash store at 6020 N.Cicero. 5-8 for Ladies Night.

May 9th Naperville 11-3 (my sister-in-law, Jan will be doing this one)

May 22nd. Grand Opening of the new Lincoln Park/Kingsbury store. 11-3

May 23rd. Northbrook Chicago 840 Willow Road. 11-3

Al Dente Pasta Paired up with Whole Pantry Bruscetta Topping

I’m guessing on these measurements, but necessity was the mother of this invention. I had in my fridge some leftover pasta, about 1/2 bag and about 1/4 jar of the Whole Pantry Bruscetta Topping. Here’s what I did.

Serves 2 as main dish, 4 as side dish

1/4 jar Whole Pantry Sundried Tomato and Olive Bruscetta Topping
1/2 bag Al Dente Whole Wheat Fettuccine (would be delicious with any Al Dente Flavor)
4 oz. Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese
3/4 cup water
salt and pepper to taste.

Heat up the water and Bruschetta topping in a medium size pot. Stir in Cream Cheese until smooth and creamy. Add cooked pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan and season with Salt and Pepper. (add any other leftovers, vegetables, chicken, seafood, nuts, etc.)

An Official Al Dente Pasta Joke:

I’ve meant to share this joke since October, when I did my first Chicago Whole Foods demo at the Canal Street Store. As told to me by a charming customer, Graham C. Grady, which he luckily wrote on a paper plate so I could remember it forever. Thanks Graham.

“What do you call a linguine noodle that is trying to pass itself off as a fettuccine noodle?”

“An ‘impasta!”