Pasta al Pomodoro

By Lauren

Spicy, tomatoe-y, bucantini-y

Did you know that Pasta al Pomodoro is Italian for Tomato pasta? I think it's a ridiculous miracle that the Italians can take a few simple ingredients and come up with dishes so good, dropping the fork becomes impossible until every strand of noodle has disappeared. Effortless, clean, and so yummy is my definition of Italian cuisine which is why it is my favorite. 

Sunday I went out for an early grocery trip in search of ramps or wild leeks with my friend Erin. Later after we were snug and cozy with some sauteed ramp, brie, and radish crostini I became inspired by the cover of  of bon appetit's pasta issue lazing across her new IKEA coffee table. It wasn't until an early lunch at Rossi's deli in poughkeepsie New York that I decided I was going to put my own spin on their recipe. I had no idea that Rossi's was an Italian deli and even less knowledge that it was part specialty Italian item grocery store. Can we say 1 gallon jars of Nutella?? It almost seemed like fate when I looked down and discovered the very first package of bucatini I have ever had the pleasure of coming across in my life. Sine the Pasta al Pomodoro recipe called specifically for bucatini, I decided I had to do it.

Pasta al pomodoro

Ingedient                                Amount

Extra-virgin olive oil               ¼ cup

Onion, medium, minced         1 each

Garlic cloves, minced             4 each

Crushed red pepper               1 pinch

    Flakes

Tomato paste                         1 Tbsp.

Peeled tomatoes, crushed       1 28 oz. can

    into smaller chunks

Kosher salt                              as needed

Fresh basil leaves, chopped      1/4 cup

Bucatini or spaghetti                12 oz.

Unsalted butter, cubed             2 Tbsp.

Parmesan or Pecorino,            1/2 cup

    finely grated

1. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until soft and translucent, about 5-10 minutes. 

2. Add the garlic, tomato paste, and cook until aromatic. Sprinkle in the crushed red pepper flakes and stir for another minute. 

3. Increase heat to high, add the tomatoes, and bring to a boil. 

4. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes until the sauce thickens and develops a good flavor. Take off the heat and fold stir in the basil.

5. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil, add the bucatini, and cook, stirring occaisionally until al dente.

6. Drain the pasta and reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.

7. Warm the sauce over medium heat and add the cooking water to loosen sauce. Remove from the heat and add the butter and cheese, stir to melt. Fold in the pasta and serve with hot italian sausage.

Big beautiful basil leaves double as decor and seasonings.

Christmas in May?

By Lauren

I know it's not food related but I just had to share. The block cracked on my old van about 6 months ago and for about the third time since I first received my license when I was 16, I was immobile again. I FINALLY, finally saved enough money (thank you tax season) to buy a car about 3-4 weeks ago and it's been sitting in my driveway waiting for the tag to come from Florida to New York. I didn't want to register it here because I'm just in New York for culinary school.

Friday my mom almost over-nighted it but when she got to the court house to transfer it, she forgot my insurance ID and they were closing. So she sent it yesterday,  Monday, to be overnighted. I came home all ready to see a big shining FedEx package on my steps and to my utter disbelief-no orange and purple envelope.

Back to foot patrol/ car pooling.

A phone call later, I learned that yet another road block-this time in the form of a canceled flight-was holding up my "overnight" package. So now, tomorrow is CAR DAY! ...I hope. It almost feels like Christmas because all I want to do is go to sleep and wake up so that my tag is here and I'm back in business.

Say hello and goodnight to my cute little 4 cylinder ($4.27 a gallon for gas in NY), all wheel drive to get me through the snow, Subaru legacy:

Cute and special sunroof and leather interior. It's good not to be in a van. Everyone was mistaking me for a soccer mom. A work associate said she named her car "Baby" and I replied after a 6 months of car-less-ness I named mine "Freaking Miracle"

A Nu-tella Start

By Lauren

It’s time for The Food and the Fury to burst onto the scene and boy it’s been a long time coming! Eleven months ago I stepped on the campus of The Culinary Institute of America for the first time as a student ready to start my blog and share my food filled life with the world. I’ve learned a million things since then but probably the best thing I’ve learned to accept is that you can’t have everything you want right when you want it. Time has a way of giving and taking, and there are only so many things we humans can control. The rest I’d rather leave to fate. Trust me, if you do this, you will be happier-I promise.

About a week or so ago I met my current motivational gem, Susan, when she came to take the World Cuisine Boot Camp class we offer to food enthusiasts at the CIA. We instantly clicked and the subject of her own blog came up. When she found out I had this unfinished, or un-started rather, business she gave it to me straight. “Just do it!” she said so here I am writing my first post ever and debuting it on doughmesstic.com what a way to start!

Speaking of new starts a lot of beginnings are occurring in my life. My long time boyfriend and kitty Bearlios finally moved closer to school and our jobs (we lived a half hour away before), and went from an apartment that was 700 square feet to a whopping 1200 square feet! Ironically it took some getting used to the big space and we restricted ourselves to the smaller areas of the house for a while. I think it’s always hard to move and even harder to make it feel like home until you break the kitchen in.

So let’s get down to the food! This weekend I took a break from my work and decided to fix a random snack that turned out to be so good I couldn’t keep it to myself. Nutella and strawberry paninis on whole wheat. Before I got on I just have to say, the rich chocolate hazelnut spread and the slightly tart and sweet strawberries are truly a match made in heaven. They just go. Nutella is one of my all time favorite things in the entire universe. I usually have an $8 jar of it on hand at all times. I ate it by the spoonful this weekend at 3am, I made sandwiches with it, I mixed it into my coffee, and I even poured some almond milk into the jar and shook it up to get the last scraps before I mixed the concoction into the dry ingredients for my pancakes this morning. I can’t and never will get enough of it. But when it’s melty…

Oh when it’s melty. 

I bet you want to know how to make it, don’t you? It’s so easy you’re not going to believe it. I had a Panini press that I inherited from the gentleman who let me take over the lease at the apartment we lived in previously, but if you don’t have one just cook it in a sauté pan and weight the sandwich down with a big pot or something-who cares!

A slightly different variation on this sandwich is drizzling the bread with neutral oil and toasting it or pressing it, then smearing nutella on it while it’s still hot, and topping with fresh sliced strawberries. This way you can cut it into smaller portions and serve it as a little snack at parties and it’s beautiful.

Nutella and Strawberry Panini

Serves 4

Ingredients                                         Amounts

Whole wheat bread                             8 slices

Nutella                                                            ½ cup or as needed

Strawberries, hulled and sliced           1 cup plus more left whole for garnishing

Vegetable oil                                       as needed

Method:

1.      Lay two slices down for each serving and spread one side of one slice with 2 Tbsp. of the Nutella.

2.      Layer enough strawberries to cover the nutella and top with the other slice of bread

3.      Drizzle the outside of the sandwich with the oil and press for about 5 minutes in a panini press or weighted down in a sauté pan until the bread is golden brown and the nutella is slightly melted. 

4.      Slice on a bias and serve garnished with whole strawberries

Open-faced version: