Pasta with Lacinato Kale & Creamy Delicata Squash

Posted on January 15, 2015 by Jasmine Nielsen

Yesterday morning I met a film crew at Walt L. Shamel Community Garden to discuss the future of food and the importance of community self-determination.

There aren’t enough layers in the world to make two hours of standing around in 10-degree weather pleasant. A full 36 hours later, I was still craving something warm and comforting. As luck would have it, my evening meeting was canceled, affording me my first night at home in over a week. Even better, kale and squash from Saturday’s CSA share were waiting for me.

Pasta with Lacinato Kale & Creamy Delicata Squash

1 delicata squash
1 small red onion
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 refreshing beer of your choice
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons crème fraîche (or sour cream or whatever other recently expired dairy products you have on hand)
1/2 tablespoon honey vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
3 ounces spaghetti or any other pasta that suits your fancy
1 large handful lacinato kale, stripped of its stems

Set the oven to 450. Cut off the tips of your squash, slice it down the middle and scoop out the innards. Toss this in a baking dish along with a sliced red onion. Drizzle on a tablespoon or two of olive oil and pop it in the oven. (Sure, you could wait for the oven to properly pre-heat but, let’s face it, you’re hungry in the way one can only be in the depths of winter.)
Crack open a beer, change into some sweatpants, and search online for a recap of Season Four of Downton Abbey because, damn, you can’t seem to remember a thing.
After 15 minutes or so, strip the rosemary and stir the needles in with the onions, give the whole pan a good shake, and pop it back in the oven. Now would be a good time to set a pot of salted water to boil.
When the squash is tender, pop it into the small work bowl of your food processor along with the crème fraîche, nutmeg, vinegar and a good dose of salt and pepper. Run the food processor, scraping down the sides and adding a little water if needed, while you tend to the rest of your meal.
When the water boils, add the pasta. Scoop the onions and rosemary into the food processor and run a couple more minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with additional salt and pepper. A few minutes before your pasta is done, add the kale to the boiling water.
Scoop the squash mixture into a small mixing bowl, add the kale and pasta along with a bit of the cooking water, and toss to combine.

Half an hour after you walked in the door, you’ll be sitting down to a healthy, hearty and seasonal meal…and Season Five of Downton Abbey.

Apple Cider-Braised Mussels with Kale & Bacon

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

Try as I might to plow through Saturday’s beef stew (including toting a container to a holiday party, which made for a rather unconventional hostess gift), I still have two servings left. It is delicious, but I am over it. As luck would have it, the seafood shop in my neighborhood decided to open on a Monday to accommodate holiday shoppers–and those of us that just needed a boost at the end of a cold, dark and drizzly day.

Apple Cider-Braised Mussels with Kale & Bacon

1 slice good quality smoky bacon, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 small red onion, sliced
1 small pinch red pepper flakes
1 small bunch kale, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 cup apple cider
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 pound mussels
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot that has a matching lid up to medium heat. Add the bacon and cook stirring frequently, until mostly rendered but not yet crispy. Add the butter, stir until melted, and then add the onion and red pepper flakes. Continue to cook for five minutes or so, allowing the onions to soften and brown in places. Stir the kale in until wilted. Turn heat to high. Add the cider, vinegar, a good pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Bring to a boil. Add the mussels, top with the lid and let cook for four minutes. Remove the lid and give a stir. If some of the mussels are still closed, leave the lid off and let boil for a minute or two longer.

Serve this in a low bowl with a hunk of Runner & Stone‘s crusty baguette to soak up the luscious broth. Be prepared to fight your increasingly aggressive cat for the last mussel.

This Is Not a Scallop (Seriously)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

Last night’s dinner was bay scallops atop a fennel, arugula, Golden Delicious and red onion salad dressed with a sesame oil and rice wine vinaigrette.

The peppery arugula and the bite of the red onion helped to offset all that sweet. But something was missing. Were I a fancy chef, one of my kitchen crew would have arrived early that morning to prepare some puffed rice to add a dry, crispy element and my sommelier would have paired it with a crisp, lemony Sancerre. Alas, I am not a fancy chef. And so I ate my salad as is, standing at the kitchen counter, with a glass of the Pinot Noir that was already open. You could do worse for a Tuesday.

I arrived home tonight bearing king oyster mushrooms that one of my coworkers grew in quart jars full of coffee grounds in his apartment.

Jorge left the mushrooms in the office fridge, inviting us to help ourselves, provided we cooked them up and reported back on how they tasted. Um, they were good. Really good.

The king oyster mushroom’s unique shape–coupled with memories of last night’s good but not great dinner–inspired me to prepare them as though they were scallops. I’d be willing to bet that this technique would work well with all manners of fancy mushrooms. But it will lack a certain surreality.

Pappardelle with King Oyster Mushrooms & Arugula (a.k.a. This Is Not a Scallop)

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small leek (or shallot), minced
8 oyster mushrooms, sliced into 1/2″ disks
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped from the stems
1 clove garlic, minced
6 ounces dried pappardelle (or other flat egg pasta)
2 tablespoons dry vermouth (or leftover white wine)
2 heaping tablespoons crème fraîche
3 ounces arugula (or however much you’ve got)
zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Set a large pot of water to boil with plenty of salt. Bring the butter and oil up to medium heat in a large pan. Add you leeks and sauté, stirring continuously, for a couple of minutes. Add the mushrooms, red pepper, garlic and thyme. Cook, flipping the mushrooms occasionally, until they are golden. Deglaze the pan with the vermouth and allow to evaporate.
Once the water boils, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Scoop the pappardelle directly into your pan, allowing some of the cooking water to transfer. Mix the pasta into the mushrooms and then turn off the heat. Add the crème fraîche, arugula, lemon zest, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir until the arugula is wilted but still bright green, adding additional pasta water as needed to keep it loose but not soupy.

This should make enough for your dinner tonight and Jorge’s lunch tomorrow. Alternately, we could all agree not to tell Jorge and keep both servings for ourselves.

Split Pea Soup for Days

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

A couple of Fridays ago I met a friend for some grownup (read: stiff) cocktails followed by some of the best Indian food I have ever had. In between, we stopped off at Kalustyan’s, where I once again failed to exercise any restraint. This is where I picked up those Jamaican Jerk Bitters that went into last weekend’s cocktail. I also purchased an excessive quantity of legumes.

Fortunately, soup season is upon us. We’re having a brilliant autumn here in New York City. The days are crisp, cool and noticeably shorter, making the bright amber sunlight all the more precious. Yesterday found me traversing Prospect Park bundled into my new emerald green Paddington Bear coat, listening (and likely singing aloud) to Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series, Volumes 1-3. ‘Twas autumnal perfection.

Today I am hunkered down at home trying to catch up on work–the perfect time for a little soup making (and a little more Dylan).

Split Pea Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 ounces slab bacon, diced
2 medium yellow onions, diced
5 carrots, diced
2 bay leaves
1 large sprig fresh thyme
1 large pinch red pepper flakes
1 small pinch ground cloves
salt and pepper

Bring a large, heavy-bottomed pot up to medium-low heat with the olive oil. Add your bacon and cook, stirring frequently, until mostly rendered but not crispy. Add the onions and continue to stir and cook until they are soft. Add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes. Dump in the split peas, bay leaves, thyme, red pepper and cloves along with 7 cups of water. Raise heat, bring to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Let cook, stirring more frequently as the mixture thickens, for two hours. Fish out the thyme and bay leaves and add salt and pepper to taste. (A little smoked salt will amp up the bacon flavor.)

This is nice finished with a little sherry vinegar. If you’re entertaining, you might throw in some frozen peas at the end, which will provide a lovely counterpoint to your delicious mush, and serve with a garnish of pumpernickel croutons. If you just polished off a large bowl of miso-poached eggs with bok choy and tatsoi and already have dinner plans, just pack the cooled soup into small containers and accept that this is what you will be eating for lunch all week. It reheats brilliantly.

Guy Lon & Cumin Lamb Stir-Fry

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

As regular readers know, I am quite devoted to Farmer Ted and the whole Windflower Farm crew.

But this week I had occasion to check out another CSA. My coworker and I visited Crown Heights Farm Share to learn about some of the innovative strategies they are using to recruit and retain low-income residents. From what I observed, the folks in Crown Heights have built a remarkable sense of community. They also have some remarkable vegetables courtesy of Sang Lee Farms, located on the North Fork of Long Island. One of the coordinators we met with was kind enough to send me into the night with a lovely bouquet of guy lon, also known as Chinese broccoli.

I made it to my own CSA, which is five blocks away, just before closing time. Good thing I did as, in addition to a delightful selection of vegetables, I picked up a pound of ground lamb that I had ordered during a bout of insomnia the week before and promptly forgotten about.

Guy Lon & Cumin Lamb Stir-Fry

1 cup long grain white rice, rinsed
2 tablespoons whole cumin seed
1 pound ground lamb
4 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns, ground
black pepper
4 tablespoons safflower or other neutral cooking oil
1 large onion, sliced pole to pole
1 red bell pepper, cut into matchsticks
1 jalapeño pepper (or to taste), minced
1 large bunch guy lon (Chinese broccoli), leaves, flowers and thin stems roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 scallions, sliced on the bias into 1/4″ pieces
1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

Bring two cups of water to boil in a medium pot. Add the rice, stir, cover, and reduce heat to low. Let simmer for 20 minutes, turn off the heat and let stand for another 5 minutes before serving. (This should be just enough time to prep and cook the rest of the dish.)
Toast the cumin seeds in a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until they release their aroma and turn a few shades darker. Gently mix the lamb with the cumin, Szechuan peppercorns, tamari or soy sauce, and a good amount of freshly ground black pepper in a bowl and set aside.
Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into the skillet and bring it up to medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, until they are limp and charred in places. Add the red and jalapeño peppers, allowing these to brown and go limp. Empty the contents of the pan into a bowl.
Place the skillet back on the heat and pour in another tablespoon of oil. Add the guy lon stems and let these cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the flowers and leaves and cook stirring constantly until the stems are bright green and the leaves are wilted. Dump the guy lon on top of the onions and peppers.
Place the skillet back on the heat and pour in the last tablespoon of oil, followed by the lamb, garlic and rice wine vinegar. Cook stirring frequently for 10 minutes or so until the lamb has released and then reabsorbed most of its juices. Stir the cooked vegetables and the scallions in, and let cook for a couple more minutes. Add the cilantro off the heat. Serve over rice, which should be done right about now.

Chilaquiles Verdes for the Working Girl

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

I am pulling some very long days as I settle into my new role. While I no longer feel clueless, each day brings unanticipated challenges. There’s an irony in spending nearly all of my waking hours (and, to be honest, most of my dream life as well) thinking about how to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to fresh, local food when I can barely find the time to feed myself.

I made it home at 9:00 tonight determined to make use of the last of the remaining Katchkie Farm tomatillos gifted to me at a work event a couple of weeks ago. Several had already gone into Wajeedah’s Black Bean Bean & Corn Salsa Verde. Even past their prime, as they were tonight, these were some delightful fruits.

Chilaquiles Verdes for the Working Girl

Bring a cast iron skillet up to medium-low heat with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.
Remove the husks from five or so tomatillos and give them a quick rinse. Chop roughly and toss into the food processor.
Add a clove of garlic and some roughly chopped hot peppers. Peppers vary in their heat and we each have our own threshold, so you’ll have to use your own judgment here. Having tasted the tip of a jalapeño and found it to be mild, I added the whole thing and also an inch or so of what I think was a serrano. The resulting dish was very spicy.
Add some salt, pepper and, if you happen to have it (which I did not) cilantro. Run the food processor for a few minutes, pour the resulting salsa verde into a small pan, bring to a boil and lower the heat so that you’ve got a nice slow boil. (You’re aiming to thicken things up a bit.)
Meanwhile, pan fry a few corn tortillas in your skillet, allowing them to get dark in spots and lightly salting them as they come off of the heat. Stack these and slice them into quarters or eighths.
Stir your quickie tortilla chips with the hot salsa verde and pour into a low bowl. Garnish with queso fresco (or feta if that’s what you have on had), sliced avocado, roast chicken (I wish), and/or whatever your little heart desires that doesn’t further delay mealtime. A fried egg would be nice.

This is not a purist rendition of chilaquiles verdes, but it gets the job done in about 15 minutes, leaving you with time to give the cat some much-needed love before collapsing into bed.

Whole Wheat Penne with Squid, Tomato & Feta

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

I started my new job yesterday. While having so much to do and so little knowledge of how to do it is intimidating (it will be a small miracle if I ever master our phone system), I am really excited about the work and the people.

I am not, however, stoked about the location. After 14 years of working in the heart of Greenwich Village, I find myself on 43rd Street and Avenue of the Americas. Yesterday’s lunch was a couple of so-so vegetarian empanadas from a cart, consumed while rushing in between meetings. Today I braved the touristic hordes in Times Square on the hunt for a healthy and delicious lunch. The place I had sussed out online turned out to be tiny and not all that. I am mystified by the lack of even a basic grocery store in the area (and really, really need to remember to bring almonds and dried fruit from home).

It seems I will be packing my lunch with far greater frequency than I have in the past. This is not a bad thing, but it will take a certain amount of forethought, particularly given that I am not much of a morning person.

I left work late but determined to cook enough of something to get me through Friday. The lovely and sustainably-minded Mermaid’s Garden was about to close up shop by the time I emerged from the subway. I grabbed a pound of their succulent Carolina White Shrimp to stash in the freezer for a future food emergency and scanned the counter for something to pair with the insane quantity of tomatoes I picked up from my CSA last night.

The squid from Rhode Island was only $5 a pound. Squid is generally economical, but this seemed too good to be true. Turns out it was not cleaned. The nice folks behind the counter assured me to that it wasn’t hard–separate the cap from the rest, slice off the tentacles just below the eyes, remove the plasticky hard thing (there’s probably a name for it) and, if you feel like it, peel off the skin. They assured me I could find YouTube videos if I got stuck and sent me on my way with a lemon (a charming touch).

I am here to report that cleaning squid is, in fact, just as easy as promised–which is a good thing since there was no way I was going to try to stream a tutorial with my hands covered in ink and guts. Less than an hour after walking in my front door, I was sitting down to this delicious dish while my lunch for the rest of the week cooled on the counter.

Whole Wheat Penne with Squid, Tomato & Feta

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 medium green pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
12 ounces cleaned and sliced squid (about 1 pound pre-cleaning)
3 large, very ripe tomatoes (or 1 15-ounce can)
1/4 cup white wine (or ouzo if you happen to have it)
8 ounces dried whole wheat pasta
4 ounces feta, crumbled
fresh herbs (if you got ’em)
salt and pepper

Place a pot of generously salted water over high heat. Bring a large skillet up to medium heat with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and browned around the edges. Add the green pepper and continue cooking and stirring until softened. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook stirring continuously for another minute or so until it smells amazing. Once your pot of water comes to a boil, add the pasta.
Slide the peppers and onions to the edge of your skillet and add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil followed by the squid. Cook stirring constantly for a minute or two until the flesh is just opaque. Turn the heat all the way up and add the tomatoes, wine and a good measure of salt and pepper. When your pasta is still a couple of minutes from being done, use a slotted spoon to transfer it directly into the squid and tomatoes to finish cooking. Remove from the heat and stir in the feta, allowing it to melt a bit and thicken your sauce. If you have some fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, basil or mint), now would be a great time to add those as well.

Zucchini, Corn & Tomatoes with Pan-Grilled Shrimp

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

I am not particularly fond of hotels. I know that I am an oddball in this regard, but the anonymity, sameness and unabashed luxury that everyone seems to find so soothing make me nervous and a bit antsy. I would rather stay someplace with charm and quirkiness that feels lived in. And I would definitely prefer to have a kitchen.

I am in the middle of a five-day trip upstate to re-center between jobs. I chose Hudson because it is nestled within the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley while offering yoga, artisanal coffee and drinking establishments within an easy walk–a DIY spa experience for the burnt out urbanite. I’ve eaten a few meals out, but have mainly chosen to treat my day trips as scavenger hunts, returning each evening to pull something together from whatever I managed to find. It helps that the kitchen in my rental is dreamy.

The key to cooking while traveling is to keep it simple and bring a handful of essentials with you. For this trip, I brought small containers of regular and high-end olive oil, red wine vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, salt, coffee, garlic and an all-purpose spice blend. I also brought two essentials that every rental seems to lack: a good knife and a proper pepper mill. The bourbon and tequila, while not essential, do add a certain something to the experience.

Yesterday I attended an afternoon yoga class and then took a hike to Bash Bish Falls (which lived up to their name when I succeeded in falling and bashing the hell out of my leg). When I got back to Hudson, I rewarded myself with a Negroni followed by what I think may have been the better part of a bottle of Vinho Verde at the wine bar down the hill from my temporary digs. It was a great opportunity to get a sense of the local scene and meet some lovely people–oddballs themselves, I was relieved to discover. Sometime well after sundown, my homing instinct kicked in, so I settled the check and stumbled up the hill. Luckily, I had half a pound of very large shell-on shrimp defrosting in the fridge and some fine Hudson Valley produce.

Zucchini, Corn & Tomatoes with Pan-Grilled Shrimp

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 large pinch red pepper flakes
1 medium red onion, diced
1 medium zucchini, cut into 3/4″ pieces
2 ears sweet corn, cut from cob
8-12 large black cherry or other small heirloom tomatoes
1/2 pound peeled shrimp
1/4 cup of whatever (white or rose) wine you are drinking
salt and pepper

Put on some Al Green and pour yourself a glass of wine.
Toss shrimp with 1 tablespoon olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. When oil comes to temperature, add onion and sauté, stirring frequently. When onions begin to brown, add zucchini. Stir occasionally until zucchini is soft and browned in places. Add corn along with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in basil and tomatoes. Empty mixture onto plate.
Return pan to heat and add shrimp along with any accumulate marinade. Cook for approximately two minutes, flip and cook for an additional two minutes. Pile shrimp on top of vegetables. Return pan to heat and add 1/4 cup of whatever you are drinking, scraping to remove any residue. Cook for one minute and then pour over shrimp.

This dish is a delicious celebration of summer–and so easy that even a rather tipsy vacationer can bang it out in about 20 minutes.

Non-Suffering Succotash

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

Tuesday’s CSA share brought plums, corn, romaine, basil, peppers, onions, eggplant, cabbage and more glorious tomatoes. The rest of the week brought a flurry of social engagements and two distinct mountains of work.

It seems the cat is finally out of the bag; after two decades working in sexual health and reproductive justice, I am making the move to food. While I won’t officially start until after Labor Day, I am already hard at work behind the scenes preparing and training for my new role as the Executive Director of Just Food. Just Food works with community leaders to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to fresh, locally grown food. To say this is my dream job is a bit of an understatement. To say that I am busy is more than a bit of an understatement.

Somehow I managed to knock off the lettuce, plums and most of the tomatoes by Sunday morning. But that left me with a whole lot of vegetables to consume. Add to that the fact that I felt compelled to buy okra, scallions and hot peppers while introducing a friend who is new to the neighborhood to the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket and the situation gets comical.

I spent my Sunday strolling Brooklyn for a series of food-fueled meetings. I had it in my head that I might indulge in a little impulse shopping along the way. While I tried on a few pairs of shoes and a vintage dress, nothing really struck my fancy–until I stumbled on Park Slope’s Sunday Down to Earth Farmers Market. It had been a couple of years since I had hit this market, which seems to now focus less on fruits and vegetables and more on all manners of dried, fermented, preserved, juiced, pickled and canned products. Tucked among the stalls was Barry’s Tempeh. I love me some tofu and I love me some seitan. Tempeh, however, has always struck me as a bit dry and dense. But one sample of Barry’s brown rice, quinoa and barley version and I was a convert. I departed with a pound of frozen tempeh stuffed into my purse.

My next meeting was scheduled to take place in a bar with a backyard, but it seems we weren’t the only ones who thought outdoor drinking on a mild August afternoon was a good idea. So we retreated to Four & Twenty Blackbirds for an afternoon “snack” of giant slabs of peach and raspberry crumble pie. By the time I got home, I was pretty sure I was done eating for the day. But by 9:00 I had miraculously regained my appetite. Fortunately, the tempeh has defrosted nicely nestled between my sunglasses and some books I picked up on the street.

Tempeh, Corn & Okra Succotash

1/4 cup or so of olive oil, divided
1/2 pound tempeh (ideally fresh or fresh frozen), cubed
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
3 cobs of corn, stripped (Freeze the cobs until you have enough to make a killer chowder.)
3/4 pound okra, trimmed and sliced into 3/4″ pieces
2 medium red tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup loosely packed basil, chiffonaded
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add the tempeh and cook until nicely browned on one side. Flip the pieces, adding a little more oil each time until they are nicely browned. (The more oil you add, the tastier and crispier your tempeh will be, so use your own judgment.) Sprinkle liberally with salt and set aside.
Add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil followed by the onions, green pepper and jalapeno pepper. Cook stirring occasionally until the onions are limp and starting to brown. Add the corn and cook for another couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper and empty into a bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the okra. Cook stirring occasionally until the pods have softened and are dark along the ridges. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper and then dump in the tempeh and the corn mixture. Cook for a minute more. Off of the heat, add in the basil and vinegar. Taste and add additional salt, pepper or vinegar as you see fit.

I made up for my afternoon drinking fail by pairing this succotash with a Sixpoint Sweet Action. For a brief moment, I forgot that tomorrow will be another 12-hour workday. Luckily, I have three additional servings of succotash to get me through the week.

Gazpacho, Calamari & Paprika Crostini

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Jasmine Nielsen

My friend Sara is on vacation in Maine this week, which means that I picked up a double CSA share Tuesday night. Hauling this quantity of vegetables plus two melons, goat yogurt, honey, eggs, granola, and a few pounds of assorted meat is no joke. It took me a good 30 minutes just to organize my refrigerator.

Between the tomatoes, onions, green pepper, cucumbers and fresh basil, it was clear what had to be done.

Farmer Ted’s Gazpacho

5 large tomatoes, cored and quartered
1/2 bulb fennel, cored and chopped
1 large green pepper, cored and chopped
1 large cucumber, seeded and sliced
1 medium white onion chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and sliced
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
3 tablespoons or so sherry vinegar
salt and pepper
1 cup packed fresh herbs (I used basil, Italian parsley and fennel fronds, because that’s what I had on hand.)

Add the tomatoes to the large bowl of a food processor and run until you have a slightly chunky tomato sauce. Add the rest of the vegetables, oil and vinegar and a good dose of salt and pepper. Run until any large chunks are gone. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional vinegar, salt and/or pepper. You can also add a pinch of sugar or a few dashes of hot sauce to balance the flavors. Add the herbs and run for about a minute more. Refrigerate for at least a few hours to allow flavors to meld.

Paprika Aioli

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 tablespoon hot paprika
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients and let sit in refrigerator for at least an hour.

The rest of this dish takes about 20 minutes to complete, so feel free to knock off for a while and grab a nap. You deserve it. (And, if you’re honest with yourself, last night’s margaritas demand it.)

Crostini

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 slices baguette

Bring a large cast iron skillet up to medium-low heat and swirl with the olive oil. Place bread in skillet and let sit until the bottom side is crisp and just a bit browned. Flip and repeat.

Calamari a la Plancha

1 pound cleaned and sliced calamari, drained and patted dry
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper
3 garlic cloves, pressed
salt and pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon

Return the skillet to the stove over medium heat. Toss the calamari with oil, Aleppo pepper, garlic, salt and pepper. Add to skillet, cook for one minute, stir and flip pieces and cook for one more minute. Remove from heat and dress with lemon.

At this point, you are ready to plate. Pour the gazpacho into bowls and nestle the calamari in the center of each. Spread the aioli onto your crostini and strategically place alongside the calamari.

Sean and I ate our supper on the roof while sipping a crisp Sauvignon Blanc and admiring the pink and orange sunset–which, now that I think about it, evoked the warm hues of our gazpacho with calamari a la plancha and paprika-aioli crostini. For dessert, we managed to polish off a whole, perfectly ripe melon with some lovely serrano ham I’d picked up earlier in the day at BKLYN Larder. A couple of hours later we trekked down four flights of stairs, walked past a handful of buildings, climbed another four flights and joined friends on a nearby rooftop for one last round of drinks before calling it a night. God, I love summer.

the drunken fig

All measurements are approximate.

Category Archives: main courses