Katie Stew

This recipe is based off of one of my favorite pastas that I cooked in my Italian cooking class this summer. It is absurdly easy and simple and just wonderful. I used fresh pasta in this particular preparation, but you can use dry and it will be just fine.

Basically, this is just mushrooms sautéed in butter with herbs and tossed with pasta. What’s not to like about that? One of the most surprising things that I learned in my classes, was the art of simplicity. I expected to go to Italy and learn all the wonders and secrets about a perfect red sauce. I thought it would be complicated. I thought it would be surrounded in mystery. But 90% of the red sauces we made in cooking school consisted of canned plum tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. The secret to great Italian cooking is to use as few ingredients as you can get away with and to let each one shine.
This recipe is about mushrooms. They are simply prepared and served tossed with noodles in a light butter sauce. And it is magical. Especially now that the weather is changing, it just feels like the kind of thing you should eat a big bowl of curled up on your couch in your slippers. But at the same time, despite its simplicity, it makes a fabulous centerpiece for a dinner with friends. It is casual, not fussy, and delicious, while still looking really elegant.

Or maybe it is all about the fact that buttery noodles are just about the best thing ever.

MMMMmmm… buttery noodles….

Isn’t the shot below fun? My photographer friend said she didn’t know why this one turned out like this. Maybe a burst of steam from when I lifted up the pasta with the tongs, or maybe some magical play of light at that moment. It makes it look like some magical, mystery pasta.

You can use any kind of mushrooms you want in this. Example, for this photo shoot/eating session, I used white button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and baby bellas. The great thing about a simple preparation like this, is you can use inexpensive mushrooms, but still get great flavor. I love the variety you can get with mushroom flavors. The more expensive ones have a richer, woodier flavor, but mushrooms like white buttons just work as a sponge for whatever great flavors you throw at them. Mix it up! If you want to be fancy, throw in some porcinis or something more exotic.  Whatever you use, it will be delicious.

Like mixing up the mushrooms, you can mix everything about this recipe. Use it as a base to explore. If you have more mushrooms on hand, use them! If you just want a few and mostly want a bunch of buttery noodles, that’s cool too!

But I will say, I highly recommend a nice shaving of fresh parmesan on top. But hey, that’s just me.

Simple Mushroom Fettuccine

• About 2.5 cups of sliced mushrooms, or about 3 8 oz packages of various mushrooms, sliced
• 2 TB thyme
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 pound pasta

In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes.  Sauté until the butter is all absorbed. Add the white wine. Let cook until mushrooms have released and reabsorbed their liquid. Add additional butter to melt.

Cook the pasta to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water before draining. Mix the pasta with the buttery mushroom mixture, adding pasta water as needed to make a nice saucy texture. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve and eat!

Photographs by Jessica Yager.

It is hard to get much simpler or more comforting than cornbread.  When it is cold and rainy out, doesn’t a big slice of hot cornbread covered in melted butter sound just perfect? … Now this is all I’m going to be able to think about for the rest of the day.

My dad always makes the most magical cornbread. I don’t know what the trick is really. Probably it is just mostly that it is made by him and that makes me happy. That and I think he always has perfectly seasoned cast iron to cook it in. I found this particular recipe for cornbread in one of those weird little collections of recipes that come in a spiral bound book from a local church or community group. Those tend to be some of my favorite recipe books because the food is always practical, simple, classic, and delicious.

I’m pretty sure my Dad’s awesome cornbread recipe comes from the back of the paper sack of cornmeal, but don’t worry, this one isn’t any more complicated than that. And that probably means that you don’t actually need a recipe for cornbread, since you can get it from the back of the sack, but on the other hand, I don’t know if that recipe uses bacon, so I think it is worth your time to keep reading.

I love cornbread with chili in the wintertime, slathered in butter and dunked in the soup. I like it with a big pot of beans or collard greens. Cornbread is basically a fast and easy way of making a bread item to sop up whatever delicious, soupy, juicy thing you are having for dinner.

Though some people like it fresh out of the oven slathered in butter and drizzled with honey. And you know what? That’s all right by me too.

Buttermilk Cornbread

Recipe from Betty England from the Made In Arkansas recipe collection.

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 TB sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp soda
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 TBs bacon drippings

Combine egg and buttermilk. In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients and mix well. Heat 4 TB bacon drippings in 8 inch iron skillet. Pour 1/2 of the bacon grease into the batter and mix well, then pour batter into the hot skillet. Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes.

Now obviously from the photos, I did not use a skillet. I had a cute little set of cast iron molds shaped like ears of corn. I followed the same plan with bacon drippings and getting the pan hot, but it takes less time to cook. If you aren’t using the skillet, keep an eye out so you don’t burn your cornbread.

If you don’t want to use bacon for some reason, you can also heat up some Crisco. It works very well for this purpose also.

Enjoy!

Photographs by Jessica Yager.

For Christmas this past year, my aunt sent me a copy of The Gourmet Cookbook, edited by Ruth Reichl. This 1,008 page cookbook is monstrous and sports over 1,000 recipes. It is big. It is heavy. It is probably the only cookbook you actually need to be able to cook everything.

When I first flipped through it, I was overwhelmed. Where to start? And so, I went back to my aunt, because I know she and her husband use this book often. My uncle was kind enough to sit down and write me out a list of his favorite recipes from the book, including page numbers, by hand. It was then mailed to me. I now have that precious piece of paper tucked away in the pages of the massive tome.

That is how I found this recipe. I found it on his list, strained as I lifted the gigantic book, and used a fork lift to lift the cover and find the page. What I discovered was a surprisingly simple recipe (which I didn’t follow exactly, but details on that below). I’m often intimidated by cooking fish. I just haven’t had a ton of experience over the years (since I didn’t eat seafood for the first 2/3+ of my life). But this was delicious. The spices were unique and simple, a combination of fennel and lemon. And the warm, garlicy beans with the arugula was just divine.

I mean really, there is a lot to love in this recipe. Healthy, delicious, and beautiful. It would be a great dish to throw together for a dinner party. It’s not hard and it would make you look really accomplished and impressive…. And now guests know what they are getting next time they come over.  Pop open a bottle of wine, fire up the grill, and enjoy this lovely dish.

The original recipe has you cook the beans from dried, but I shortened cooking time here by using canned. If you would like to view the original recipe, you can find it here.

Grilled Tuna with Warm White Bean Salad

From The Gourmet Cookbook– Edited by Ruth Reichl

• 2 cans great northern beans
• 2 cloves garlic- one smashed to simmer with the beans, and one finely smashed and chopped into a paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 oz arugula
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 TB chopped flat leaf parsley
• 3 TB fresh lemon juice
• 4 TB olive oil
• pepper
• 4 6 oz tuna steaks, 1/2 in thick
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, crushed with bottom of a heavy skillet
• lemon wedges for serving

Drain and rinse 2 cans of beans. Put them in a medium saucepan with one cup of water and one garlic clove, smashed. Heat over medium heat with salt and pepper for 15 minutes.

Prepare the grill for high heat. Put tuna steaks on a plate and drizzle with remaining 1 TB each of lemon juice and olive oil, turning to coat both sides. Sprinkle both sides with fennel seeds, salt and pepper.

Make the white bean salad. Reserve 1/4 cup cooking liquid from the beans. Then, drain the beans. Add 1 TB olive oil to the pan and sauté the red onions until soft. Take 1/2 cup of the beans into a small bowl and mash them. Add whole beans, smashed beans, reserved liquid, fresh garlic, salt, half of the arugula, parsley, 2 TB lemon juice, 2 TB oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and keep warm over very low heat until tuna is ready.

Lightly oil grill and grill fish, uncovered, turning once, until barely cooked through. About 6 minutes. Arrange bean salad on a platter with remaining arugula on top. Top with fish. Serve with lemon wedges for the fish.

Eat and enjoy!

Photographs by Jessica Yager.