tagliatelle with mushroom sauce

a plate of pasta.

loves long simmering in mixed company

don’t you feel good already?  Imagine really toothsome pasta, lavish with but not overwhelmed by a subtle sauce.  It is too early in the season for tomatoes, but not for butter.  Butter, onion and mushrooms.

thus inspired, we ate tagliatelle with mushrooms on the fire escape.  Sitting on the chipped dark green iron, amidst the pots of verdant herbs and lettuces, holding green plates of golden yellow noodle nests with earthy brown mushrooms.  A gluttonous silence fell; the sun set.  We lifted the plates to our chins and twined the pasta on our forks, shamelessly plowing mushrooms into our mouths left gleaming with butter.

fresh, hand cut pasta cannot be hyperbolized.  It wants your time and attention then rewards you lavishly.

to make enough to generously (and, really, is there any other way?) feed two, measure out a heaping cup of flour in a large, heavy bowl—one that will be comfortable for the movements of kneading—and make a hollow in the center, like a volcano.  Most Italian cookbooks seem to have extensive discussions of flour, how it varies in glutinousness and absorbency and flavor.  Interesting and tasty information; worth investigating between the pages.  For now, know that unbleached all-purpose flour works well for pasta.

carefully break 4 cold eggs over your fingers to hold the yolk back, letting the whites fall into a large clean bowl and slipping the yolks into the hollow in the flour.  Those egg whites will keep in the fridge for breakfast, or they whip up lickety-split into meringues for dessert that will slowly bake in a low oven while you’re puttering in the kitchen.  Leave all the eggs to come to room temperature.  Do something else for an hour.

whisk the egg yolks into the flour bit by bit with a fork then stir the lot together with a wooden spoon.  Add a bit more flour or egg white as necessary for the dough to come together.  When your dough is pulling into a ball, flour your hands and kneed it against the walls of the bowl, adding more flour if needed.  Cradle the bowl and press into the dough with the heel of your hand, rolling it along the sides of the bowl.  Turn the dough and repeat.  Work the dough until it becomes elastic and satiny.  Pasta dough is a bit stiff, so kneading for 8 to 10 minutes can be a challenge but have faith.  Supposedly spinach pasta is softer and easier to work, and we plan to try spinach noodles for lasagna this week (stay tuned).  Let your ball of dough rest for an hour.

using as many mushrooms of as many sorts as you have, pick the stems off and wipe their caps gently clean with a cloth.  Slice the caps and set aside.  We had a generous 2 cups cremini and maitake.  Peel and quarter a small onion, slice it fine.  Heat a heavy skillet over high heat, and once it is hot turn the heat down.  Add a chunk of butter and puddle of olive oil, heat and add the onions.  When the onions begin to sizzle and soften add the mushrooms.  Stir and toss and cook over high heat for 5 minutes or so.  Sprinkle with salt and fresh pepper.  Turn the heat down and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, for an hour.  This takes some care to carry off without scorching, so add more butter as you go and maybe a swig of white wine.  The surprisingly long cook time is a revelation in flavor, and a tip from Marcella Hazan’s Master Class in Marcella Says…

dramatic mushrooms

the untamed, bosky quality that draws you to [mushrooms’] flavor emerges with very long, slow cooking after they have completely shed their vegetal waters….  Cook mushrooms slowly in olive oil for at least an hour, longer if you are making a large amount, until they are gelatinously soft.  Hover over the pan, and when your nose picks up a scent reminiscent of a dark, leaf strewn forest floor, the mushrooms are done.

she also recommends butter-based sauces for fresh pastas, whose texture is glossed over by oil.  The loving handling of the dough, tugged and pulled, gently roughens the surface, which swells luxuriantly with a coating of hot butter.

returning to your pasta, separate the ball into two or three parts, whatever is manageable for your work space.  Lightly flour a clean counter or tabletop.  Flatten the dough into a disk then roll it out, moving from the center to the edge, turning the disk a quarter turn every few passes.  When it is as wide as works, lengthen the sheet by rolling towards and away from you without turning the dough.  As you work, stretch the dough on the rolling pin or, in my case, empty juice jar.  Starting at the end farthest from you, roll the edge over the pin towards you and hold down the sheet resting on the counter and gently pull, rolling the pin towards you.  Work the dough on the pin by moving your hands away from each other from the center out towards the edges, tugging the dough along.  Let the sheet fall over the side of your work surface and hang.  The dough can be worked so thin you can read newsprint through it.  If the dough seems too fragile then thicker pasta is still delicious.  Let this sheet rest while you roll out the next sheet.

to cut noodles, dust a rested sheet of dough with flour and roll it into a loose log about 3 inches wide.  With a sharp knife, slice across the roll to make ribbons in whatever noodle width suites you.  Ours were slightly wider than traditional tagliatelle which is slightly wider than fettuccine.  Unroll the slices and spread your noodles out on dry cloths to dry.

bring a big pot of water to boil; salt it generously.  Gently hand your noodles into the rolling water.  Stir them a few times and cook for about 6 minutes, until al dente.  Try one, you’ll know.  Drain and toss with butter, salt and fresh pepper.  Serve immediately in shallow bowls or plates topped by the mushrooms.

spring soufflé

eggs

those joyous ladies, Irma & Marion, in their 1953 edition of the New Joy of Cooking, call the soufflé the “misunderstood woman of the culinary world,” and go on to give brisk and efficient instructions along with 26 recipes for variations on the foundation.  Unfortunately, these include “Jiffy Soufflé with Canned Soup” and lead straight into to ring molds.  Le sigh.

thirty years later, American whole foods home-cooking gurus Nikki & David Goldbeck would agree that, “despite the French name and elegant reputation,” the soufflé is simple, useful, delicate, and tempting.  Even, apparently, if you put wheat germ in it.

like many French dishes that have soared into the gastronomic stratosphere, seemingly out of reach for us mere culinary mortals, the soufflé is humble in origin.  Basic foodstuffs handled with thoughtful love.  Our new friend monsieur Louis Diat exclaims:

soufflés have for so long been associated with haute cuisine that many people, unfortunately, never attempt to make them.  Expensive, they say, and difficult to make.  Quel dommage! It’s a pity—because neither fact is true.

soufflé is no more complicated or decadent than an omelet; it just has fabulous architecture.  A homey, table-scaled rendering of the flying buttresses of Notre Dame.  Baked “the French way,” it delivers a comforting, custardy center whether savory or sweet.  Although luscious, it is only inappropriately rich in taste or cost if you make it so.  Mundanely, it is a graceful vehicle for leftovers.  The only real trouble with making soufflés is the process seems to invariably dirty a lot of dishes, and i dislike washing dishes very much.

much of the magic is in the egg whites, but some of it is in the pan: a medium straight-edge casserole will hold a 5 egg soufflé and be plenty puffy.  To coax the thing even loaftier, use a smaller pan lined with a collar of parchment paper.  Butter and lightly coat your pan with breadcrumbs, cornmeal, grated hard cheese or some combination.  We used Panko breadcrumbs for this soufflé.  Heat your oven to 375°.

measure out 1 ¼ cups of whole milk and set it atop the stove to warm.  Separate 5 cold eggs: the yolks go in a small bowl and the whites in a much larger bowl and quite clean, because they will double in volume later and any grease will debilitate maximum loft.

melt 3 tablespoons of butter over low heat in a heavy sauce pan.  Whisk in scant 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour; and cook, whisking, until the roux turns golden brown.  Grate in fresh nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some salt.  Slowly whisk in the milk.  Continue whisking and just simmer, cooking until the béchamel reduces to 1 cup.  Turn off the heat; leave to cool.

onion

heat a sauté pan over a medium flame.  When the pan is hot, add a pat of butter.  Peel and chop half an onion and add to the pan.  Peel and finely chop a carrot and add to the sautéing onion.  Chop half a clean Portobello mushroom head; slice the other half and set aside.   Add the small mushroom pieces to the pan, stirring well.  Salt and pepper, adding a little more butter if necessary.  Cook until the onions and carrots are soft but not browned then set aside in a bowl, scrapping the pan well.  Toss in the slices of mushroom and sauté for about 3 minutes, turning frequently with a fork.

snap the heads off a bunch of asparagus, reserving the stalks for some other use (like sautéing lightly with red pepper flakes then storing in olive oil and lemon juice for salad).  Remove the mushrooms to the casserole dish and replace them with the asparagus, with a splash of lemon if you like and a little salt and pepper.  Cook just briefly and scatter over the mushrooms.

whisk a tablespoon or so of the just warm white sauce into the egg yolks then a bit more sauce.  Pour the tempered yolks into the saucepan and whisk thoroughly.  Stir in the chopped vegetables, and grate in a ¼ or so of Parmesan cheese.

whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, glossy but not dry.  This is one of the few times i break out the electric beater; it really angers my forearm to get to stiff peaks by hand, though it is not impossible.  If you have a kitchen friend, you can take turns.

fold about a fourth of the stiff whites into the sauce until thoroughly combined.  Gently fold in the remainder, no more than a third at a time.  To fold, use a spatula to cut through then beneath and lift the batter over and around the egg whites.  Patiently combine the two without deflating the whites.  Carefully turn the whole mess into the casserole dish.  Run your finger along the inside edge of the pan to create a groove an inch down.

bake for 25 minutes to half an hour, which will make for a firmer soufflé.  The one thing all accounts of soufflé making seem to agree on is the maxim: you wait for the soufflé; the soufflé does not wait for you.  Like all dreamy things, that spun scaffolding only holds its grand form a brief time.  And that divine, luxuriant center is at its best oven to table to dish.  Serve with excellent bread, a sourdough French is ideal of course.  Include a bright, herby salad.

the leftovers are likewise delicious, as many fallen things are.

soupe bonne femme avec faggot

“Many recipes call for a faggot.”   — Louis Diat

mais oui—everything is tastier with a dash of faggotry!  I’m not talking buggery— although many of us could use a soupcon of that too, survey says up to half of gay men never do it up the butt anyway — but the joie de vivre, the je ne sais quoi of a fabulous queen.  In the radical muffin kitchen, cooking gusto evokes a certain make-do and then some learned at the hip of sassy men who could out stomp me in their platform shoes and draw suitors to them through the din of crowded bars with their eyes.   Certainly, a femme is better with a faggot.

this is perhaps not what monsieur Diat had in mind.  No, the French born chef was the head at the New York Ritz-Carlton kitchens, where he not only trained many chefs in the U.S. but also made it his life’s work to translate French cooking techniques into English.  In Gourmet’s Basic French Cooking: Techniques of French Cuisine, published for the first time in 1961, he includes among Tricks of the Chef:

Faggot Many recipes call for a faggot.  To make a faggot, cut a stalk of celery in 2 pieces 3 or 4 inches long.  In the curve of one piece, tuck a few sprigs of parsley, folding in the ends, lay on this a bay leaf, and sprinkle with a little thyme.  If the recipe does not include carrots, a small piece of carrot is sometimes tucked in with the parsley.  Place the other piece of celery on top very firmly and secure the faggot by winding a long piece of string closely around it.  Unless you assemble a faggot firmly and bind it tightly with plenty of string, it is apt to roll apart during the cooking.

Soupe Bonne Femme is simply potato leek soup, although all the following “bonne femme” recipes in his magnum opus seem to be “with mushrooms” and how this all relates remains a mystery to me.   The soup would probably be delicious with mushrooms, but as it is or rich with cream, Soupe Bonne Femme is perfect fare for blustery March weather.

scrub clean 4-5 potatoes.  chop them and put them aside in a bowl of cold water.  Slice the greens and roots from 4 medium-small leeks, clean them well in cold running water.  Dice the white part of the leek along with 1 small onion and a few peeled garlic cloves.  Melt a tablespoon or so of butter in a big, heavy pot, add the leeks, onions and garlic, and cook until soft but not brown, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.

drain the potatoes and stir them into the leeks, turning to coat with butter; cook for about 5 minutes.  Pour in 4 cups of hot water or stock.  Assemble and bind a faggot of celery, carrot, parsley and thyme.  Add this to the soup pot along with a dash of salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for ½ an hour to 45 minutes or until the potatoes are beginning to fall apart.

serve as is or…stir in another tablespoon of butter  and 2 cups of whole milk or 1 cup of cream.  If you add the cream or milk, be sure not to return to a boil but only gently reheat.  In the alternative, to go entirely vegan, cook all the veggies in olive oil.

vol au vent mushrooms

vol-au-vent: a large shell of light, flaky pastry for filling with vegetable, fish, or meat mixtures.
origin: 1820–30; < F: lit., flight on the wind

marcella hazan writes that mushrooms are nature’s own vol au vent.
begging to be filled and bedded and baked together.
these are not flaky bottoms, no, but succulent and earthy with notes of ancient witchiness.

for our most recent feast, i translated this nonna di cucina’s cappelle di funghi ripiene recipe for the radical muffin kitchen.  so I omitted the pancetta and anchovies, but I did add the egg, which I think binds the whole thing together and is hazan’s best advice.  i also left out the parsley, only because i forgot, and it wasn’t missed.

with just a dry towel, we wiped off about two dozen mushrooms, a mix of cremini and shitake, then chose those with the deepest, sturdiest hollows for stuffing.  Any casserole of an accommodating size will work, and we had a wonderful piece: a round shallow, terra cotta casserole with a glazed interior and raw exterior.  Sweep your casserole with olive oil and nestle the mushrooms in side by side, touching but not over lapping.  You won’t use so many mushrooms – i think a baker’s dozen fit in our pan- so save some for the filling and some for something else wonderful.  Unless, of course, you have a huge pan then double the recipe for the filling and have a grand fete…

mince half a red onion and begin sautéing it in a hot fry pan with melted butter, about 4 tablespoons.  Use 1/3 cup olive oil if you want less dairy fat.  Mince and add 4 or 5 mushroom heads and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic.  Salt a bit; pepper a bit.  Find your zen.  When the onions are translucent turn off the heat and add several stripped stems of thyme.

in a bowl, mix together ¼ cup each ricotta cheese, shredded parmesan and bread crumbs.  Add a beaten egg then the cooled onion/mushroom mixture along with several shredded leaves of basil.  Pack each of the mushroom heads generously with the cheese mixture.

in a smaller bowl, mix about ¼ each of bread crumbs, shredded parmesan, and chopped and whole pine nuts.  Sprinkle this over the stuffed shrooms.  Dash with paprika if you like.  Bake at 375° for half an hour or until the top is beautifully crusted and golden.  Partway through baking, it is lovely to splash a little moscato in the pan if you are drinking it anyway.  Turn the pan at least once for good measure.  Serve to friends just out of the oven or throughout dinner; they sit fairly well.

manga manga!

Because I Love You Tuna Casserole

put your biggest pasta pot on to boil, and butter a large casserole dish that can go in the oven.  heat your oven to 375°.  When water is at a rolling boil, add a box of elbow noodles, spirals or other happy, short shape of creamy sauce holding pasta.  Cook until al dente and drain while chopping veggies or making the sauce.

gently wipe clean a pint of mushrooms then separate their caps from their stems.  Chop the heads and mince the legs.  Set aside in two little bowls; you will need 6 little bowls to set your mise en place for this recipe.  The Radical Muffin kitchen recently had a perfect set of nesting glass bowls move in so the cook is blissed out with happy, obsessive pre-chopping and arranging.  Peel and chop a medium sweet onion, yellow.  Chop three very green, delicate celery stalks.  Shred a block of white cheddar cheese on the largest opening on a box grater.  Drain two small cans or one big can and one small can of tuna – dolphin safe for heaven’s sake.

in a heavy bottomed sauce pot, melt two to three tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Add the onions and celery when the butter begins to foam, and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes.  Stir in a teaspoon or so of celery salt.  Toss in the stems of the shrooms then the caps and cook for a bit longer, until they begin releasing their juices.  Sprinkle a small handful of flour (about three tablespoons or less; I have small hands) over this cooking base and stir, cooking the raw taste out of the flour for a few minutes.

pour in ½ a cup of heavy cream and a 1 ½ of whole milk slowly as you stir.  Cook to simmering but do not boil and stir in a handful of shredded cheese.

eyeball how much of the pasta you will need to fill your casserole dish, and mix that amount with your sauce in a big bowl.  If you like, and my best friend likey-likes, stir in a package of frozen peas or fresh if you are so lucky as to have them.  You will likely have remaining pasta, for which there are 50,000 uses, and possibly sauce, which is great over broccoli, omelets, potatoes or more pasta.

in the casserole, make an initial layer of sauced noodles, about halfway.  Sprinkle with a handful of cheese, and fork the pressed tuna out of the cans and over the noodles.  Top the fish with another layer of noodles and liberally grind fresh pepper over these and sprinkle with celery salt.  Cover the entire casserole with shredded cheese and dust with paprika.

bake in the oven for about 12 minutes or until the cheese is browned and melted.  Traditionally, this is topped with crushed potato chips, which is a pleasure to be tried at least once.  Buttered bread crumbs or pink flakes also add crunch.  But for the purest comfort, I cannot help but love the gentle chewy crispness of cheese alone.

pasta and fennel meet balls

uncork a bottle of respectable red table wine. Pour a half a cup into a wine glass with a generous bowl, swirl. Enjoying your wine, read this recipe entirely:

slice two yellow onions and one red bell pepper. Smash, peel, and mince five cloves of garlic. Setting aside the rest for your sauce, two of the cloves and a handful of the onion are for your faux meat balls.

mince this onion finely. In a mortar with a pestle, crush two teaspoons of fennel seeds with 2 teaspoons of coarse sea salt. In a big bowl, add these spices and a teaspoon of black pepper to the onions and garlic. Add a handful of quick cooking oatmeal and one egg. These are made with egg in a nod toward my grandfather’s original recipe, but you can omit the egg and the oatmeal and have tasty balls (note: the oatmeal or bread or cracker crumbs, is a good extender to make more balls for cheaper). Let this all rest together while you get on with the sauce. Stick it in the fridge if you are neurotic about leaving out egg at room temperature.

in a hot pot—a large stock pot with a heavy bottom, heated over a medium flame—toast a proportion to taste of hot and sweet paprika and red pepper flakes. I used about two teaspoons of sweet paprika and one teaspoon of hot paprika and red pepper flakes. Pour olive oil into the pot, about three tablespoons, bring to hot and pour the red pepper and onion and garlic into the pot. Cover and cook over medium-high for five minutes: in a series of 3 x 5, every five minutes for a cycle of three times cook and stir and cover the spicy pepper mix. Add sea salt and black pepper.

as this base cooks down, rub clean a pound of crimini mushrooms, ranging from a quarter in diameter to fungi the size of an egg. De-stem them, and slice the heads into threes, making fat slices. Add them to the pot, and do another round of 3 x 5 cooking and stirring.

stir in three tablespoons of tomato paste. Pour in two large cans (28 ounces each) of crushed tomatoes. By all means if you come by this recipe in the heart of tomato season then boil & peel and crush a whole pile of fruit, but in early spring in Brooklyn, the cans are fine and preferable. Add a smaller can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a slow, popping simmer and cook for an hour or longer.

about half an hour before you want to eat, put a big pot of water onto boil.

add a tube of ground beef style soy “meat” to the big bowl of eggy, spicy slop, and mix it together well with your hands. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls.

heat a heavy skillet and when it is hot, add a few tablespoons of olive oil. Fry the balls until brown on all sides.

pour a few generous slugs of wine into your sauce and stir. Add your fried meet balls. Bring the sauce back to a simmer.

add a box of noodles to the boiling water: spaghetti is Italian-American classic; fettuccini is seductive; and penne, somehow, feels domestic and family-like. Cook until al dente and drain. Pile noodles on a plate or in a bowl as appropriate, top with sauce. Somewhere in this cooking, maybe put together a nice salad. Now sit down with you, and whomever you dine with if you are dining in company or family, and polish off the wine.

as it simmers, you can also read this blog:

http://thyme-for-herbs.blogspot.com/

and maybe, watch a little more labyrinth:

miso awesome soup

The amounts here are for a generous bowl for one voracious feminista yogi. This soup is quite adaptable by size – feed your feminista yogi flock!

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook a handful of udon noodles. The corner health mart carries an organic brand that comes in 8 oz packets with three bundles of noodles, and one bundle is just right amount for a big bowl. (One big bowl eating is typically friendly cooking for one eater, one broke but taste-conscious eater. Those inspired, sexy soups, pastas, and salads you whip up for dates with your one true one want a roomy, gorgeous bowl. Right now my favorite is a ceramic piece that heats up comfortingly in my lap when I sit cross legged on the couch. This bowl, runny with glaze in cinnamon, oatmeal and cream, is my flat mate’s handmade treasure. I gotta find my own perfect piece; I will let you know how the quest goes.)

Slice two or three scallions (green onions). Peel and mince an inch of ginger and two cloves of garlic. Slice three or four thin slices of chili. Chili is highly subjective; know thyself.

In a medium sized sauce pan, heat a few teaspoons of vegetable oil and sesame oil. When a flick of water sizzles in the oil, lower the heat and add the chili, garlic, ginger, and scallions along with some sea salt and black pepper. Add two to four tablespoons of tamari.

Clean off your mushrooms—any kind you like, of course. I used the smallest possible shitakes and creminis, carefully de-stemmed and cleaned with a paper towel. Sauté the mushrooms briefly in the fiery oil, about five minutes, until their heads are glistening and glossy brown.

Pour broth over the frying mushrooms, about 3 cups. Bring broth to a boil.

Halve a lemon. Snip a cup or so of watercress and add it to your bowl.

Lower heat and with the soup at a low simmer, squeeze in the lemon juice from both halves and stir in two tablespoons of miso. Bring back to a fine simmer and pour over the delicate greens.

I eat this with two tools: chopsticks and a big, shallow spoon.

tofu scramble

Press a

block of tofu

between kitchen towels under a weight (like the joy of cooking but put a plastic bag or waxed paper under it so it doesn’t soak your book).

slice 2 or 3 celery stalks into chunky half-moons and chop a small onion. Smash, peel, and mince 2 or 3 cloves of garlic.

Heat a big fry pan—like a 12 inch cast iron skillet—and add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Sauté the onions and celery for a few minutes then add the garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. How long this takes will depend on how high your heat is and the volume of veggies you are cooking. I like to cook it on high heat, stirring often, to move things along.

Crumble the tofu into the pan. I leave it in fairly big chunks; some folks like their tofu scramble in rubbley little bits. I think it is supposed to make it more “scrambled-egg like,” but I am against pretending food is not what it is and i don’t like the texture of nubbley mush. Let the tofu brown a bit then sprinkle in 2 teaspoons or so of turmeric and a half teaspoon or so of cumin. Stir in a tablespoon of Bragg’s or soy sauce.

Slice whatever mushrooms you have into similar sized parts for even cooking. For example, slice about half a dozen crimini mushrooms into three parts each; take the stems off if they are really woody but on the very small ones especially (which you can just cut in half) you can leave the stems on. Add the mushrooms and cook the whole mess for about another 10 minutes or so, until the mushrooms are juicy. You may want to cover the pan. If you have a lot of mushrooms, you may want to cut them along with all the other veggies and just set them aside until they need to be added to the pan.

***

tofu scramble—just like omelets—lends itself to incorporating pretty much whatever veggie leftovers you have around. That pile of greens you made last night with hot sauce, that half a can of chick peas in the fridge, or some of those tomatoes your neighbor brought over because his garden exploded at the end of the summer are all candidates for tofu scramble. You can serve it with that last ½ inch of salsa in the jar. Although humble and accommodating, tofu-scramble is utterly brunch-worthy, and in my opinion, stands up to a bloody mary as well as any omelet.

simple stuffed mini squash

• 3 baby acorn squash – you can use any squash, but we had these absurdly cute mini-acorn (acorn-like acorn) squash at the coop

• mushrooms – any and all sorts would be good

• fresh sage
• pine nuts – if you’ve got ‘em; try subbing pecan/walnut bits, maybe sunflower seeds
• millet
• olive oil
• sea salt
• pecorino cheese

 

heat a heavy skillet over a medium-high flame (for medium high on a gas stove – turn it up all the way then back a quarter turn; that’s about right). Toast (slightly browned; nutty smelling) 1 cup of millet. Dump into a sauce pan or pot with a lid, and add 1 ¾ cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes. When the millet absorbs all the water, take it off the heat and fluff with a fork.

toast ½ cup of pine nuts too, and put them aside.

halve the squash and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Pour a little olive oil into the hollow of each of the squash, sprinkle a little sea salt and let them hang out soaking while the oven heats to 350. Turn them over onto a cookie sheet, slide them about to oil the sheet, and bake for 20 minutes to half an hour, until soft.

chop two generous handfuls of mushrooms (about a cup and a half chopped or more; more is tasty). I picked out the smallest crimini mushrooms I can find and just slice them thin, stem and all. If you select larger mushrooms, just pop of the stems, tossing them if they’re really woody or mincing them for the stuffing if they’re nice. In the skillet over medium heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until soft.

 

shred a handful of fresh sage. Toss it with the cooked mushrooms along with a bit of sea salt. Shred enough pecorino to scatter on top of final assembly (three inches of a wedge ought to do it).

 

when the millet is fluffy, stir the mushrooms and pine nuts into the millet. Stuff your squash halves. Top with some cheese. Slide the whole shebang into the oven for quarter of an hour or until the cheese is melted.

Fancy Stuffed Squash

(from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977, 1999, 2000)

same process, but for the stuffing:

 

1 cup raw brown rice cooked with 1 ¾ cups water

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups minced onion

1 to 2 tbs honey or brown sugar

2 medium cloves of garlic, minced

2 medium sized tart apples, diced

3 large navel oranges, sectioned

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice or cloves

1 cup chopped almonds

 

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until translucent.

Add garlic, apples, oranges, and spices, and sauté over medium heat about 5 more minutes. The oranges may fall apart, but that’s ok.

Add the sauté to the rice and mix well. Season to taste with salt and honey or brown sugar.

Fill the pre-baked squash halves, and top with chopped nuts.

 

And dear, dear Mollie recommends serving with Orange-Ginger Sauce on page 90. Oh, yes:

 

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup of orange juice

2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

¼ cup of soy sauce

salt, pepper, and cayenne, to taste

 

Other Additions

½ tablespoon grated orange rind

1 to 2 tablespoons honey or dry sherry

1 scallion/green onion, finely minced

 

Place cornstarch in a small bowl (if you are using this for stir-fried vegetables) or in a small saucepan (if you’re using this for anything else).

Add orange juice, and whisk until the cornstarch dissolves. Stir in all remaining ingredients (including optional additions).

If you are using this sauce for stir-fried vegetables, stir from the bottom and add to the wok or skillet about midway through the cooking (see detailed instructions on the previous 2 pages). If you are using this for anything else, place the saucepan over medium heat, and gradually bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Lower heat to a simmer and cook, whisking frequently, until thick and glossy (3 to 5 minutes). Serve hot or warm.