Eat Bang Us

Consider this the anti-classic sweet potato side dish. Yes, it's filled with that squash-y yammy sweetness, but without the marshmallow intensity you'll find with most side dishes. Subtly spiced and all about the vegetables, this kabocha squash, yam, and celery root soup, with hints of smoked paprika, cumin, and coriander, is the perfect Thanksgiving appetizer. Enjoy!




1/4 cup olive oil, plus two tablespoons
2 onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon chile powder

Henry and I have officially started a tradition. Well, we've done it twice, so that counts, right?

It's called Pizza Night, and though I make pizza for the fam at least a couple of times a year (or at least whenever Henry badgers me about it), its big moment is on Christmas day.

After presents and breakfast Henry and I make the dough, and while the family is out to the movies, it rises. Everyone picks out their toppings and we stand around the kitchen eating our piping hot pizza. This time around (for the inaugural Christmas Day pizza, click here) I took the leftovers from my Christmas Eve pasta and some inspiration from my favorite Italian Classics. The results were delicious:

1. Cherry Tomato Margherita with Lemon Zest and Truffle Salt
2. Broccoli Rabe with Hot Sausage
3. Pasta Pizza (Roasted Butternut Squash, Sunchokes, and Fennel with Walnut Pesto, finished with Brown Butter and Crispy Sage)
4. Roasted Radicchio with Balsamic vinegar and Chevre

Enjoy!

NOTE: All of the pizzas use the same dough recipe.

Pizza Dough
For 4 10-12 inch pizzas

3 cups high gluten flour (I use King Arthur's Bread Flour), though All Purpose is fine too.
1 teaspoon yeast (half a pack)
1 3/4 cups warm water (about 70-80 degrees, not too hot or you'll kill the yeast)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil

In a the bowl of your electric mixer, combine all of the ingredients except for the olive oil. Stir gently to combine. Attach the dough hook to your mixer and on the second highest speed (8 on a Kitchen Aid) knead the dough for 15 minutes, or until it has formed a ball on the hook and has completely pulled away from the sides of the bowl. The best test to see if it's elastic enough is to pull off a tablespoon of dough and stretch it into a square. You should be able to pull it thin enough to see light through it without it tearing. It is tears knead it for another minute. When it's ready, knead on the highest level for an extra two or three minutes. Lightly oil a container with olive oil, add the dough, and cover with a lid (or plastic wrap if using a bowl). Mark or mentally note where the dough is, and note where it should be for it to triple in size. Set aside in a warm spot (on top of the fridge is great) and let it ferment for 3 1/2 to 4 hours or until tripled in size.

An hour before making the pizzas set your pizza stone in the center of the oven and crank it up as high it can go for at least an hour.

When the dough is ready, scoop it onto a floured counter (it'll puddle out) and cut into four equal pieces. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes. When ready, pick up a piece of dough and stretch at the edges, moving the dough through your hands in a circle. It doesn't have to be perfect, just get it as thin as you can and put it on a flour baking peel or rimless cookie sheet. Add your toppings and bake for 7-8 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!









Cherry Tomato Margherita with Lemon Zest and Truffle Salt

For 4

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tsp lemon zest
2 balls bufala mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
4 pinches truffle salt, or a few drops truffle oil, or you can buy cheese with truffle in it.
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons basil, chiffonade (thinly sliced into ribbons)

On one stretched pizza dough on the floured pizza peel (or a floured baking sheet if you don't have one)smooth 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce onto the pizza, covering the whole thing, save a 1/2 inch around the edge. Top with a quarter of the cheese (there should be a lot of space around each slice) and dot with the halved tomatoes. Sprinkle with lemon zest and truffle salt and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 8 minutes and top with a little basil. Slice and enjoy!












Broccoli Rabe with Hot Sausage

For 4

1 lb broccoli rabe (rapini)or a head of broccoli if you can't find it
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp chili flake
1 pinch lemon zest
8 oz taleggio grated (or mozzarella)
4-5 fresh hot Italian sausages
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Grated Parm, optional

Break the broccoli rabe into 1 inch chunks. In a large pot of boiling salted water, blanch the broccoli rabe for 1 minute and the stick in an ice bath. Blanching the rabe makes it sweeter and turns is a gorgeous bright green. You can skip the step if you prefer a more bitter flavor, just saute it for a little longer.

Strain the broccoli rabe and dry completely on a towel. In a saucepan, heat up a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and chili flake and cook until the garlic just starts to toast (careful that it doesn't brown). Add the broccoli rabe and saute for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, push the sausage out of its casings and in a pan over medium heat with a little bit of olive oil, saute it until the bits are completely brown and cooked through.

On one stretched pizza dough on the floured pizza peel (or a floured baking sheet if you don't have one)smooth 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce onto the pizza, covering the whole thing, save a 1/2 inch around the edge. Top with a quarter of the cheese and sprinkle a quarter of the sausage and broccoli rabe. Top with some parm and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 8 minutes. Slice and enjoy!









Pasta Pizza (Roasted Butternut Squash, Sunchokes, and Fennel with Walnut Pesto, finished with Brown Butter and Crispy Sage)

For how to prepare the vegetables and walnut pesto, check out this recipe.

For 4
8 oz roasted butternut squash
8 oz roasted sunchokes
4 oz roasted fennel
1/2 cup walnut pesto
8 oz grated mozzarella
Grated Parm, optional
4 tblsp unsalted butter
12 sage leaves

On one stretched pizza dough on the floured pizza peel (or a floured baking sheet if you don't have one)smooth 2 tablespoons of walnut pesto onto the pizza, covering the whole thing, save a 1/2 inch around the edge. Top with a quarter of the cheese and sprinkle a quarter of the roasted vegetables. Top with some parm and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 8 minutes. In the meantime, melt the butter over medium heat, add the sage leaves, and continue cooking until it turns golden brown and starts turning nutty. Drizzle a quarter of the brown butter and sage leaves over the pizza. Slice and Enjoy!











Roasted Radicchio with Balsamic vinegar and Chevre

For 4
1 head radicchio, or small red cabbage, quatered
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, plus more for drizzling
8 oz fresh chevre (fresh goat cheese)
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 425 F. In a small oven-safe pan, drizzle each quarter of radicchio with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 10 minutes, or until the leaves start to wilt. Turn up the oven to broil and broil until the edges start to brown. Take the radicchio out, slice into 1 inch sections, and immediately cover with balsamic, turning to dress.

On one stretched pizza dough on the floured pizza peel (or a floured baking sheet if you don't have one) smooth 2 tablespoons of sour cream onto the pizza, covering the whole thing, save a 1/2 inch around the edge. Top with a quarter of the cheese and sprinkle a quarter of the radicchio. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for 8 minutes and finish with a drizzle of balsamic and some ground pepper. Slice and enjoy!

Christmas Eve dinner sort of popped up out of nowhere this year. We usually have a little more of a to-do, but by the time the 26th rolled around my mom and I could build a bridge we were so over it. So what's an easy, relatively "make ahead" dish that could feed everyone and leave left overs for days? A massive "kitchen sink" style pasta.

I say "kitchen sink" because I put the entire contents of the fridge in this pasta. Chopped butternut squash? Sure! Leeks? Why not? Kale? OK! It's kind of ridiculous. But the lovely thing about this pasta is that it all works together. Winter vegetables are just meant to be roasted and combined: fennel caramelizes like candy, and we all know about butternut squash. Kale adds a bit of crisp texture and sunchokes bring some earthiness to the party. In the spring asparagus and pea tendrils could make an appearance and in the summer fresh corn and artichoke hearts with a basil pesto would be delicious. The idea is to just put them all together, and let them do their thing.

You also might have noticed that the pesto isn't...pesto-y. It's not even green! This is because it's about the walnuts. Combined with the garlic, nutmeg, and milk, this sauce takes on an alfredo quality but without the heft. It's just really awesome. Enjoy!

Note: This is the PERFECT dish for vegetable leftovers because the walnut pesto goes with practically everything. So add and combine away!







Walnut Pesto
yields 1 1/2 cups pesto, or more if thinned out
1 1/2 raw walnuts
3/4 cups cubed bread
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 cup milk, or however much you need to cover the bread
1/4 cup Parmiggiano, freshly grated

Soak the bread in enough milk to cover the cubes, and soak the walnuts in enough hot water to cover them for 15 minutes. The bread should be soft and the walnuts should have turned the water a brownish hue. In a food processor, add the walnuts, drained with the liquid reserved, the bread and milk, and the other ingredients. Pulse to combine. Add a 1/4 cup of the walnut water and pulse until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. If you want a thinner, sauce-ier pesto, add more of the walnut liquid.

For the Pasta

For 4
2 cups butternut squash, chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups sunchoke (aka Jerusalem Artichokes), chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 bunch kale, vein removed and roughly chopped
1 leek, cleaned and chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
2 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of chili flake
1 tablespoon lemon juice
olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 lb pasta, such as penne
3/4 cup walnut pesto, more if you like more
Toasted breadcrumbs, optional

Preheat oven to 425 F

On a baking sheet, drizzle the butternut squash, sunchoke, and fennel with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast the fennel for about 15 minutes, or until the edges turn brown, and remove from oven. Continue to roast the sunchoke and butternut squash for another 20 minutes, flipping once. You want them to be really caramelized so if they need to get a little browner, leave them in for another 5 minutes.

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and then the leeks. Season the leeks with salt and pepper, and after 5 minutes add the garlic. Cook for another 5 minutes until wilted and browning and add the kale. Stir in the kale so that it's coated, add more olive oil if necessary. Add the chili flake and lemon juice and cook until the kale is just wilted.

Meanwhile, heat up a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta. In a small saucepan heat up the walnut pesto over medium low heat.

Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the sauté pan with the kale, add the roasted vegetables, and add the walnut pesto. Stir to combine and coat. Garnish with a sprinkle of breadcrumbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Enjoy!