themanhattanfoodproject

[themanhattanfoodproject]

It’s been years since I’ve made any socca--a chickpea flatbread made with a broiler, a cast-iron pan, and a dream--but when I had the thought of making some small plates last Friday for dinner after a lovely week in Miami and Miami Beach, it felt like a nice, light snack. Rebekah Peppler’s À Table has a great recipe with a suggested pairing with chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano and drizzled with an oil made with piment d'espelette, but I used Aleppo pepper instead because I have a lot of that in my spice drawer. I also treated myself to a chunk of the Herbes de Provence BellaVitano cheese, as it’s a Parmesan-cheddar hybrid and it’s my favorite American cheese brand. I’ve tried so many different iterations of this cheese, and they are all bangers with no skips. 

Making the socca itself needs another go for me before this goes back on the main blog, but I’m determined to get better at this to make this something that I can show my nephews how to make for themselves (with parental supervision). 

Practice makes perfect with recipes like this, and I definitely need some practice! But the results are fun to eat. 

#food #cooking #socca #chickpea flour #cheese #bellavitano cheese #snacks #home cooking

[themanhattanfoodproject]

On revisiting and revising my main fresh pasta dough recipe.

My pasta game has improved greatly. Ever since I acquired Marc Vetri’s Mastering Pasta, I’ve largely relied on his basic nine-yolk dough recipe for my weekly pasta exploits. For a while I could get a dough that would yield to 454 grams (or a pound), but I started noticing about a year or so ago that I wasn’t getting that consistency anymore. This isn’t me trying to start some conspiracy theory,…

View On WordPress

#00 flour #egg yolks #extra virgin olive oil #semolina flour

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Slowly roasting and/or drying tomatoes over several hours in a low oven is one of the best ways to make out-of-season tomatoes really tasty, and this tomato tartare that I adapted from Vegetables Unleashed by José Andrés (which is an adaptation of the tomato tartare from El Bulli) is going to be almost as good now as it will be in September or October because you add in other classic tartare ingredients to the tomatoes, including Worcestershire sauce and Savora mustard, which is basically Dijon mustard turned up to 11. (Like, if President Obama had called out this brand as his favorite, I’m pretty sure if he had name-checked this mustard, every head at Fox News would have exploded.) 

Instead of an egg yolk in the center, I finished this with a nice dollop of sambal mayo and a sprinkling of pancetta cubes. The latter is very much a nice-to-have--I had a chunk of pancetta that needed to be used, but between the slow-dried tomatoes and all of the sauces that go into the tartare, the umami flavors will be absolutely intense.

Bread might be the traditional accompaniment, but I personally love some kettle-cooked potato chips myself. 

Recipe coming next week on the blog!

#food #cooking #home cooking #tomato tartare #quasi-vegetarian food #pescatarian #tomato goodness #potato chips

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Over the last few months, I’ve been subtly tweaking my master pasta dough recipe--specifically for when I cut rolled pasta into strands. It’s heavily based on the original recipe I’ve used for years from Marc Vetri’s Mastering Pasta, but I’ve also incorporated some subsequent techniques from Evan Funke’s American Sfoglino and the Not Another Cooking Show channel on YouTube, which is a great one to follow if you love Italian food. 

Instead of babbling on about it in a specific pasta recipe, I wanted to give it its own post to use as an easier reference point and to share my thought process on what ingredients I’m using these days to help achieve similar results.

Post launching tomorrow!

#food #cooking #pasta #fresh pasta #homemade pasta #pasta dough

[themanhattanfoodproject]

I’m actually really glad that it hasn’t gotten too warm too quickly this spring, because it means I still have excuses to fire up the oven to full-blast and make pizzas on a Friday night if we’re chilling out at home. I really liked this sausage, red onion, and basil pizza, but for the life of me I don’t know why we put the sausage on before the cheese--I’m going to blame the fact that we were too eager to get all of the toppings on before the dough had the chance to potentially stick to the peel…

#food #cooking #home cooking #homemade pizza #sausage pizza #pizza

[themanhattanfoodproject]

This is the second time I’ve made this pizza, and after learning the lessons from my first attempt that I wasn’t really happy with, I’m feeling much better about this version. The issue was making the pistachio cream that is largely under the prosciutto but I also drizzled on top for both color and extra flavor: the first time I made it the consistency was too runny and I didn’t add any cheese, so this time I was very judicious with adding olive oil and added in some grated parm and the consistency was much better. 

This all sits on a bed of more Parmigiano-Reggiano and some mozzarella di bufala cheese, both which tend to be easier on the stomach as the former has very little lactose thanks to the aging process and the latter is lactose-free. 

More to come on this one soon.

#food #cooking #home cooking #pizza #homemade pizza #mozzarella di bufala #pistachios #prosciutto

[themanhattanfoodproject]

The addition of Pasta by Missy Robbins to my cookbook collection has been such a boon for my Sunday night pasta dishes, because her recipes are chock full of inspiration that push me to do some fun variations. This is trenette with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, oregano, and saffron that needs some tweaking (they all do before they get published), but I’m really pleased with it because it’s light and tasty and there needs to be more dishes that call for saffron.

Granted, I specifically use American saffron, or safflower, because it’s significantly cheaper and therefore you can afford to use hefty pinches of it. It’s not nearly as good as Spanish or Iranian saffron, but for a dish like this, it works. I’m also absolutely on a pink peppercorn kick right now, and I absolutely love it in mascarpone cheese because it adds a lot of zest to an otherwise pretty mild cheese.

#food #cooking #home cooking #fresh pasta #pasta #trenette

[themanhattanfoodproject]

The Rite of Spring, a tequila-rhubarb cocktail.

The Rite of Spring, posed with my rhubarb-print robe from IKEA that I got last year. My original intention was to publish this last week, but then I woke up last Tuesday to the news that the Key Bridge here in Baltimore was destroyed due to a collision with a cargo ship, and it was all just so surreal and terrible that it felt really wrong to babble on about a cocktail in the immediate wake of…

View On WordPress

#lime #luxardo maraschino #maraschino liqueur #rhubarb #tequila #thyme

[themanhattanfoodproject]

I’ve written about pepperoncini shrimp, but lately since bay scallops have been on sale, I’ve had M go to the store on Sundays to pick up some of them instead, and we’ve been messing with the recipe to make it work for these little beauties.

Also, I make pepperoncini martinis all the time, and I don’t think I’ve ever officially written about them, but they are so delicious and are the other reason why I keep jars of these neon green peppers in my fridge at all times.

#food #cooking #scallops #bay scallops #pepperoncini #pepperoncini martinis #cw: alcohol

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Something I’ve been resorting to when I don’t have a grand plan for a protein is that I’ll do two smaller dishes with protein, like getting a small pack of wings to roast them in the air-fryer. My husband and I riff on these all the time, and lately he’s been enjoying a mixture of salt, pepper, and black garlic seasoning, and this time we made our own sambal mayo to go with them.  The mayo is awesome (it’s inspired by the much-missed Num Pang chain), but we’re still working out a proper rub for this amount of wings as a simple appetizer, one that will include ground lemongrass because I feel like that would absolutely make these particular wings even better.

#food #cooking #home cooking #air-fryer wings #air-fryer #chicken wings #black garlic #chili mayo #sambal mayo #num pang nyc #num pang

[themanhattanfoodproject]

I was going to post this cocktail recipe this week, and then the Key Bridge here in Baltimore collapsed in a tragic, disastrous accident, and it felt so damn awkward to try to write about both of them in the last few days? I also was dealing with an injury that made sitting and typing a literal pain in the ass, so my planned week of productivity was completely sidelined. 

Anway, this recipe will be coming up this coming week, and I promise to have more recipes coming. I’ve been busy behind the scenes with some recipe development.

This one has tequila and rhubarb, and rhubarb is just coming into season so the timing is pretty perfect.

#cw: alcohol #cocktail #tequila #rhubarb #cocktails

[themanhattanfoodproject]

I’m pretty excited with this pasta dish: linguini with pancetta, pecorino cheese, and pink peppercorns. It’s not cacio e pepe, but it’s inspired by some of the ingredients you find in both that dish and pasta alla gricia (though, to be clear, the original version of that dish uses guanciale and not pancetta). It’s been a comforting dish to dive into for lunchtime leftovers all week--look for the recipe soon.

#food #cooking #pasta #fresh pasta #homemade pasta #home cooking #pink peppercorns #garlic

[themanhattanfoodproject]

I’ve been spending the last few weeks testing some ideas for dishes, with the knowledge that they will need some tweaks before they officially end up on the blog. This lasagnette with mushrooms, miso, and Parmigiano-Reggiano is one of them: while I made this on the first day of DST, I didn’t finish it in time to get good-quality natural light photos on Sunday evening. When I tried to reheat and redo the photos later in the week, I lost the glossiness of the miso-butter sauce. 

This needs a little more tweaking to get it right in any case--I want to bump up the heat from the Calabrian chiles, for one, because the spice wasn’t as present as I would like, so hopefully this will show up sooner rather than later because it was also really, really good.

#food #cooking #pasta #fresh pasta #miso #mushrooms #lasagnette #fresh noodles

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Turmeric-cumin cauliflower soup that’s perfect whether chilled or hot.

Turmeric-cumin cauliflower soup Last September, I waxed poetic about this chilled cauliflower soup recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, and I declared that I would be making it frequently over the colder months as a way to enjoy cauliflower more frequently, with sometimes swapping out this beet gazpacho I first enjoyed at Jaleo in December. I’m pleased to say that I actually did keep this promise to…

View On WordPress

#butter #cauliflower #celery #chicken stock #cumin #garlic #grains of paradise #shallots #sumac #turmeric

[themanhattanfoodproject]

If there is only one technique I could recommend someone to master in the kitchen, it would be making a French-style omelette. I love a good plate of scrambled eggs as much as the next person, but flipping an omelette onto a plate and pairing it with some salad and a glass of wine as a simple dinner makes me personally feel a little more accomplished as a home cook. It takes some practice to get right, but once you do, the options are seemingly endless, and when you find yourself figuring out what to make for a Sunday brunch, you always have an ace in the hole.

This was a simple iteration: two eggs, tarragon, extra sharp cheddar cheese, and salt, and it hit the spot perfectly for me as I was dealing with an injury and not doing my normal weekend lifting workouts. I used to think that I was terrible at making these because no matter what I did, the eggs would always stick to the pan--it turns out, it was my pan that was crap, and not me!

I’m not the biggest fan of nonstick pans for most cooking applications, but a good one will make cooking eggs an absolute breeze. This OXO pan (affiliate link) has been a total game-changer for me, and it’s held up well over the last couple of years I’ve had it. Saving it only for egg dishes has helped preserve the nonstick coating, as well as not heating it to a terribly high temperature.

#food #cooking #omelette #home cooking #nonstick pans #how to make better omelettes #omelets #omelet

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Since we’re in that shoulder season where it’s technically spring but it’s still cold enough to justify running the oven, I’m trying to make some pizzas at home. This one was the creation of my husband, as he had the idea to do a fresh take on the classic tomato pie that you find in Philadelphia and its immediate suburbs. Tomato pie is usually made on a thicker, Sicilian-style crust and it’s slathered in a robust tomato sauce with only a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese on top, and if it’s made right, it’s outstanding. 

I marinated cherry tomatoes with some roasted garlic with some salt and olive oil for at least an hour, and then they were drained thoroughly to avoid getting any unnecessary liquid on the dough itself. This baked in a hot oven on a Baking Steel, and just before it was finished I decided to sprinkle on some fresh oregano (so it wouldn’t otherwise burn in the oven) and then finished it with a flurry of Parmigiano-Reggiano while it rested. 

I feel like this one needs one more go to get it right, but M is definitely onto something with this!

#food #cooking #pizza #homemade pizza #home cooking #tomato pie

[themanhattanfoodproject]

Tomato and tequila go so well together--I know I prefer a Tía Maria over a regular Bloody Mary myself--and I had some leftover juice from a can of tomatoes recently that begged to be made into some sort of cocktail. Instead of going with a Bloody Mary variation, I kept it a little more simple with some tomato juice, pepperoncini brine, dry vermouth, and tequila, and…the result was really good and then made better with a sprinkling of Tajín and some grasshopper salt.

A little unconventional, but still a great way to get a savory cocktail without having to go to too much trouble.

#cw: alcohol #cocktail #tequila tomato martini #grasshopper salt #tajin #tomato juice #dry vermouth #home cocktails