The Bitten Word

Corn Salad with Hazelnuts, Pecorino, and Mint

Bon Appétit (July 2016)

"You haven't been to All Purpose?"

"OMG how have you not had the fried chicken at Maketto yet??"

"Surely you guys have done the tasting menu at Kinship?"

"Conosci? Kyirisan? Convivial? Masseria?"

"Pineapple and Pearls? You haven't even been to Pineapple and Pearls???" 

No.

We haven't been to any of these buzzy Washington, D.C., restaurants.

Here's why.

Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic

Cook's Illustrated (September/October 2015)

In these waning days of summer, we're finding ourselves a little clingy with produce.

Like hoarders at a going-out-of-business sale, we're scarfing down all the tomatoes, corn, eggplant and beans that we can. We're getting it from our CSA, the farmers market, the supermarket and our own backyard garden. (How veggie-crazy have we been? When a friend posted on Facebook this week about his bumper crop of tomatoes that he wanted to give away, we had a brief moment of "should we??" --despite the fact that we already have more tomatoes than we know what to do with.) 

In particular this year, we've had a lot of summer squash in our house, but no thanks to our own garden. Our garden squash has struggled (we have yet to harvest more than one, and whatever we harvested wasn't what we'd planted!). Our CSA, though, has given us big piles of squash and zucchini each week. 

But here's the deal with late-summer produce: It's easy to fall into a rut.

That tomato salad that tasted amazing the first time you made it can seem a bit bland after a half dozen meals. So we're all about keeping it fresh and trying the new, even in the final days of summer. 

Case in point: these beautiful Sautéed Summer Squash with Parsley and Garlic, which instantly became a summer classic for us. 

Grilled Eggplant with Fresh Hot Sauce and Crispy Eggs

Bon Appétit (August 2015)

Egg and eggplant. There's something about that pairing that strikes us as funny, but also a bit revolutionary. Egg. Eggplant. How have we never before put those together in a dish?

Well, our long national nightmare is over. Because this dish pairs eggs and eggplant -- and it's delicious.

Garlic-Herb Spaghetti Squash

Food Network Magazine (February 2015)

Are you eating a lot of spaghetti squash?

No, we mean, like, right now. Are you eating spaghetti squash right this minute?

Because you could be. It's that easy to make.

This recipe from Food Network Magazine shows just how quick and simple it is to prepare a spaghetti squash side dish.

But this recipe, in our opinion, could also use a little tweaking.

Spinach and Spaghetti Squash Fritters

Vegetarian Times (October 2014)

 

The word "fritter" is a beautiful thing.

Apple fritters. Corn fritters. Zucchini fritters.

Don't all those sound absolutely divine? A bit crunchy? Satisfying and, oh yes, fried? 

We've had a little crush on Spaghetti Squash this fall. Ever since the first one of the year showed up in our CSA haul, we've been tinkering with recipes (if you have a favorite spaghetti squash recipe, we're all ears!) and so this one leapt off the pages of Vegetarian Times. 

Spinach and Spaghetti Squash Fritters? You had us at spaghetti squash. You sealed the deal with fritters. 

Charred Broccoli and Red Onion Salad

Food & Wine (June 2014)

Pound for pound, we probably eat more broccoli than any other vegetable.

Sure, we're indulging in the great summer produce that's (finally!) showing up -- lush greens, beans, squash. But year-round, broccoli is our go-to. It's tasty, it's packed with fiber and nutrients, and it's easy to prepare and pack for work lunches.

We typically make broccoli one of two ways. Either we'll roast it in the oven tossed with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and red pepper flakes. Or we'll steam it, either on the stovetop or in the microwave. We'll make a big batch at one time, giving us enough broccoli for a few meals.

So we're always on the lookout for good broccoli ideas, which is why we wanted to try this Charred Broccoli and Red Onion Salad.

Dinner with Margie | Ottolenghi's Chickpea Sauté with Greek Yogurt

Recipe from Plenty: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi
  

Some dishes can skate by on looks alone. 

C'mon, take a close look at this Chickpea Sauté, with its vibrant rainbow of Swiss chard and carrots, studded with chickpeas and topped with yogurt and olive oil. It's a stunner, and one of the most colorful dishes we've made in a long time. 

But before we get to that, in some ways, this was the Ottolenghi dish we were least excited about for our dinner with Margie. We had a tart, beautiful beans and an excellent salad, but felt that we needed a fourth dish to round out the main course.  

Like shoppers lured in by something shiny in the window, we saw this rainbow of colors in Plenty and that was all we needed. Even if it wasn't great, at least it would be pretty. 

Dinner with Margie | Ottolenghi's 'Very Full Tart' from Plenty

Recipe from Plenty: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi

As we mentioned earlier this week, when we were planning a menu with our contest winner Margie, we knew that one of the guests was vegetarian. Rather than consign her to having just a salad and some side dishes, we decided to do a fully veggies-only meal.

We love vegetables, but we always fret a little about a vegetarian dinner. How do you keep it from just being a progression of side dishes?  Will it be filling enough?  What's the main course??

This so-called "Very Full Tart," from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty was our savior.

Dinner with Margie | Na'ama's Fattoush Salad from Jerusalem

Recipe from Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Ottolenghi and Tamimi

Way back in February, to mark the beginning of the seventh year (!) of The Bitten Word, we did a giveaway for dinner for six at our place. It was the best way we could think to mark our blogiversary. Meeting and hearing from so many of you over all these years has truly been the highlight of writing this blog (yes, it does thrill us, still, when you comment). Inviting a reader and his or her friends over for dinner sounded like a ton of fun.

Longtime reader Margie, who lives out in Virginia, won the random drawing for dinner. It took us a few months to get our schedules worked out, but in mid-May Margie came to dinner with three friends in tow.

Congrats, Margie!  

We pitched three dinner ideas to Margie in the weeks leading up to the meal:

• A Thai feast, based on what we learned at a Thai cooking school (we know, we know....we're delinquent in sharing those recipes with you).

• A grilling extravaganza. Warm temperatures had just arrived and we were itching for some food from the grill.

• An all-Ottolenghi meal, featuring recipes from the popular cookbooks Plenty, Jerusalem and Ottolenghi, all by London-based, Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi and his business partner Sami Tamimi. 

Margie chose Ottolenghi -- which is what we were secretly rooting for. We have previously made one Ottolenghi dish -- Soba Noodles with Eggplant and Mango -- and have been eager for an excuse to make more. Plus, one of the guests coming with Margie was vegetarian, and Ottolenghi is a master of vegetable side dishes and vegetarian mains. 

In the end, we selected five recipes from the books. We're going to share them all over the next week or so, starting with the first course of our dinner with Margie, Na'ama's Fattoush Salad. 

Cover to Cover 2013: Main Dishes (Pasta and Vegetarian!)

Today happens to be our three-year wedding anniversary. 

Three years! How is it possible that our wedding was three years ago?

We're happy to mark the occasion on the blog by writing about pasta, a subject near and dear to our hearts. Word of warning: Prepare to get hungry.

When we first read the September Bon Appetit, we were lusting after the pasta dishes. On the page, they're stunningly beautiful. And we melted upon seeing the Orechiette Carbonara with Charred Brussels Sprouts.

A (somewhat lengthy) sidenote about carbonara:

We'd always like carbonara perfectly fine, but then we caught an episode of Nigella Feasts called "Solitary Sensations." It is an epic 30 minutes of food television. In the episode, she makes carbonara, chocohotopots, a delicious pea puree and a "back from the bar" snack that will make you want to go out drinking just so you can come home and cook. Each dish looks amazing, but the carbonara is out of this world. We used to keep a recording of this episode on our DVR -- it was equivalent of a TV hug. But then our DVR went caput, and with it, the episode. Watch for this episode. You will thank us!

Back to the task at hand....

If you're a pasta fan, today's Cover to Cover dishes are not to be missed. 

Enjoy -- and thank the chefs by leaving a comment!

 

PASTAS

• Fresh Pasta
• Orechiette Carbonara with Charred Brussels Sprouts
• Pasta with Chorizo and Chickpeas

 

VEGETARIAN PASTAS

• Orecchiette with Squash, Chiles, and Hazelnuts
• Strozzapreti with Spinach and Preserved Lemon