I know it’s the very tail end of ramp season, and most of you have moved on to stone fruits and strawberries, but I didn’t want to let another year slip by without posting this recipe for ramp carbonara. It’s nothing revolutionary, just a simple spaghetti carbonara dressed up for spring. Spaghetti carbonara is one of my favorite meals, rich with eggs and cheese. I probably make it more often than I should, given how indulgent it is, but I love it.

I’ve never seen a ramp growing. They have sort of a woodsy mystique about them, one of the first spring edibles to hit the markets, gathered in wild forests some unknown distance away. I picture them growing in quiet, verdant groves, their dark green leaves waving gently in filtered forest light. Perhaps they’ll be the next on the list of foolhardy things we are trying to grow in our little urban backyard. Although, like asparagus, they need several years to establish themselves. I’m not sure we have the patience.

I loved the idea of the long, thin ramp leaves winding through the pasta like noodles, so the first time I tried this, I left the ramp leaves whole. While it was beautiful to look at, it left me chewing (and chewing and chewing) big mouthfuls of ramp, which wasn’t particularly pleasant. So this time around, I treated the ramps with a bit more finesse. I sliced the leaves into thin strips and just barely cooked them, keeping their texture crisp. It worked out much better.

This came out lovely. While spaghetti covered in cheese is always good, there’s a big difference between a good carbonara and a great carbonara. This one was great. I thickened the sauce with a little bit of mascarpone so it was truly creamy. Instead of parmesan alone, I used a mix of parmesan and pecorino. Of course the ramps, swirled into the noodles, made it garlicky and a little special. And the finishing touch – a shower of meyer lemon zest – brought it all together.

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More Ramp recipes…

Ramp, Cheddar, and Bacon Buttermilk Biscuits

Polenta Pizza with Wild Mushrooms and Ramp Pesto

Quinoa, Cauliflower, and Ramp Cakes

Ramp Carbonara

Spaghetti carbonara with a spring twist – whole ramps, pecorino cheese, and meyer lemon zest.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 3-4

Ingredients

• 8 medium-sized ramps
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 4 oz. pancetta, cut into 1/4 inch dice
• 2 eggs
• 2 oz. grated pecorino cheese (about 3/4 cup, packed)
• 2 oz. grated parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup, packed)
• 1/4 cup mascarpone
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• zest from 1 Meyer lemon
• 1/2 lb. spaghetti

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
2. Prepare the ramps by washing thoroughly to rinse away any dirt, and gently patting the leaves dry. Separate the round white bulbs from the leaves. Trim any stringy white roots from the bulb and discard the roots, then finely dice the ramp bulb. Slice the ramp leaves into very thin strips, then set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the diced pancetta and saute until it is crispy and brown all over, which should take about 6-8 minutes. After 3-4 minutes, add the diced ramp bulb to the pan. Keep a close eye on the pancetta and stir frequently – pancetta takes a while to start browning but can go to under-cooked to burned in a very short period of time.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pecorino cheese, parmesan cheese, and mascarpone until smooth. Stir in the black pepper, Meyer lemon zest, and the cooked pancetta. Set aside.
5. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to package directions, until just al dente. Drain, leaving just a few tablespoons of the cooking water in the bottom of the pot with the pasta. Add the hot pasta and reserved cooking water to the egg mixture and quickly toss with tongs to create a creamy sauce from the eggs and cheese. Do this immediately after adding the pasta to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Add the ramp leaves to the pasta and toss a few times just to wilt the leaves. Serve immediately.

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I’ve been trying to perfect some of my pasta recipes. In my kitchen, pasta is both a luxury and a staple, giving it a unique place in my repertoire. It’s easy to make, and it’s what I crave when I’m exhausted and can’t think of anything else to make. But it’s also a treat – I usually go heavy on the cream and the cheese. So when I make it, I want it to be really good. And too often, it’s just OK. Why indulge in a giant bowl of pasta that’s just OK? I want my pasta to be great.

The first recipe I tackled was a fresh heirloom tomato sauce. It took a few tries, but now it’s pretty much the only thing I want to eat when I’ve got an excess of fresh tomatoes (and you can find the recipe here). Next up, mushroom cream sauce. I’ve been making a variation of this for ages, but it’s never quite what I want, which is: golden brown and crispy mushrooms; a thick, luxurious sauce that covers each and every bite of pasta; the right balance of mushrooms and pasta; and plenty of cheesy flavor in every forkful.

So here’s what I’ve learned over the past few weeks in my efforts to make the perfect bowl of creamy mushroom pasta. First, there’s never enough sauce. What looks like a huge amount of sauce becomes dwarfed by half a pound of pasta in no time. As a corollary, you need more mushrooms than you think you do – I weighed my mushrooms this time, thinking there would be way too many and wanting to give you accurate measurements. But a pound of mushrooms quickly cooks down into just enough for half a pound of pasta. You already know this one, but don’t crowd your mushrooms – give them lots of space in the pan so they turn crisp and brown. And last, my secret pasta weapon: mascarpone. A spoonful stirred into hot pasta makes all your pasta dreams come true, thickening the sauce just enough to luxuriously coat each noodle.

I know that many of us are trying to watch the indulgences this month – saving room for all the cookies and wine and Christmas treats. But it’s all about balance, right? And sometimes you just need a bowl of pasta. When you do, make it a good one.

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More perfect pasta recipes:

Heirloom Tomato and Sweet Onion Pasta

Rigatoni Bolognese

Butternut Squash Carbonara with Fried Sage

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original recipe. Serves 2-3.

• 3 TBS butter
• 2 shallots, peeled and sliced into thin rings
• 1 lb of mixed wild mushrooms, thinly sliced (I used an equal mixture of criminis, shiitakes, and chanterelles)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 lb. spaghetti
• 2 oz. freshly grated parmesan cheese (about 3/4 cup packed)
• 1 cup of pasta cooking water
• 1/4 cup mascarpone
• black pepper
• sea salt
• 2 TBS minced fresh parsley leaves

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Let boil while you prepare the sauce (don’t add the pasta until the sauce is almost ready).
2. Melt the butter in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced shallots and saute until soft and translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add one variety of the sliced mushrooms in a single layer, being careful not to crowd the mushrooms to ensure good browning. Let the mushrooms cook undisturbed until they are golden brown on one side, about 2-5 minutes depending on the mushroom variety, then flip and cook on the other side. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a plate, then repeat with the remaining varieties of mushrooms. Once all the mushrooms are cooked, add them all back to the pan and lower the heat to medium-low.
3. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook until barely al dente, 1 or 2 minutes less than the package directs.
4. Add the heavy cream to the pan with the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms have absorbed most of the cream, about 1-2 minutes. When the pasta is just al dente, use tongs to transfer the noodles directly into the pan with the mushrooms and cream. Add a ladleful of the hot pasta water to the pan as well (about 3/4 to 1 cup), along with the grated parmesan cheese. Use the tongs to toss the pasta with the mushrooms until the cheese is melted and a smooth, luxurious sauce has formed. Cook one to two minutes longer if needed for the sauce to thicken. Remove from the heat. Stir in the mascarpone and parsley until they coat the noodles. Season generously with black pepper, and to taste with sea salt, and serve immediately.

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I have the perfect recipe for your last heirloom tomato – I hope you’ve been saving it. When all of our beautiful, Striped German tomatoes ripened seemingly simultaneously at the end of September, I was sort of at a loss for what to do with them all. I like tomatoes but I don’t love tomatoes, at least the way some people do. You will probably never catch me eating a tomato like an apple. I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit it but you might actually find me picking the tomato out of a sandwich now and then, if it’s a particularly bad tomato. So I was a bit stressed by the idea of using up 12 pounds of beautiful homegrown tomatoes before they went bad.

I was flipping through my favorite cookbooks, looking for tomato-inspiration, when I came across a recipe for Spaghetti with Heirloom Tomatoes, Basil and Bottarga Breadcrumbs in Sunday Suppers at Lucques, which is my very favorite cookbook, at least currently (all of Suzanne’s recipes are so spot on, and seemingly timeless, given that the flavors still sound incredible over 10 years after the book was published). While I wasn’t looking for anything as complicated as making homemade breadcrumbs flavored with cured tuna roe on this particular evening, the other flavors in the recipe sounded just right, so I made a few quick modifications and tried it. It was good, but not mind-blowing. But I loved the idea of the dish, and there were elements that were really strong – I loved the mellow sweetness of the onions melding with the tangy-sweet tomato, the way the rosemary fried in olive oil seemed to perfume the whole dish, and the process of cooking the spaghetti in the sauce so it would soak it up. It just needed more body and more salt. So I kept trying the recipe, adding a spoonful of capers here, toning down the chile heat, and finally, the move that sealed the deal, stirring in a generous spoonful of mascarpone cheese, which transformed the sauce into something silky and luxurious that coated every noodle.

Now that it’s perfect, I want to eat this spaghetti every day. Which is why, although I considered it, I couldn’t wait until next tomato season to share this with you. I want you to be able to try it now, with those last tomatoes. And after this I promise that it’s going to be all soups and roasts and dumplings and pumpkin-y things around here.

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Heirloom Tomato and Sweet Onion Spaghetti

Inspired by Sunday Suppers at Lucques. Serves 2-3.

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 TBS chopped fresh rosemary leaves
• 1/2 small red chile, seeded and finely minced OR 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 large sweet onion, peeled, halved, and cut into very thin half-ring slices
• 2 large heirloom tomatoes (about 2 pounds total), cored and cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 lb. spaghetti
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 TBS capers
• 1/4 c. mascarpone cheese
• 10 leaves fresh basil, rolled and julienned
• 2 TBS chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 oz. parmesan cheese, shaved into flakes with a vegetable peeler

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the rosemary leaves and the minced chile or red pepper flakes. Saute until fragrant and sizzling, about 60 seconds. Lower the heat to medium-low, add the onion slices and saute, stirring frequently until very tender and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. Add the tomato pieces and stir. Cook, stirring frequently, until tomatoes have softened into a sauce and the sauce has thickened, about 10-15 minutes.
3. When your sauce is almost ready, add the spaghetti to the boiling water. Cook until it is almost al dente – drain the pasta about 1-2 minutes before it is done (you are going to finish cooking it in the sauce). Transfer the hot pasta to the pan with the tomatoes and toss to coat. Add the butter and capers and toss with the pasta and sauce. Cook for 1-2 minutes longer then remove from the heat. Stir in the mascarpone cheese until it has coated all of the pasta. Sprinkle the sliced basil and parsley over the top of the pasta and stir to mix. Divide the pasta between 2 or 3 plates and top each serving with some of the flaked parmesan cheeese. Serve immediately.

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There are pros and cons to a travel schedule like mine. On the one hand, I get to fly all over the world for work, experiencing new cultures, meeting new people, trying all kinds of different foods, and exploring major world cities. It’s an amazing opportunity and an incredibly cool part of my job. On the other hand, as anyone who travels a lot can tell you, it can be exhausting and make it difficult to maintain a routine at home. After a long trip like my most recent one, I’m all but brain-dead for the first few days that I’m home, sleeping way more than I normally would and mostly just focused on getting an enormous amount of laundry done. Travel as a lifestyle is a skill, and it’s one I’m still working on.

One challenge of going on longer trips is prepping all my blog posts beforehand – not a whole lot of opportunities to cook in hotel rooms. This can mean that the weekend before a trip is totally consumed by cooking and photographing and preparing posts for a two week period. Sometimes even my best intentions fall short though, and that’s when I turn to my archives – recipes I’ve made and photographed but have never written about. I’m actually home now – I arrived Thursday night – but I still haven’t found the wherewithal to think about cooking anything other than eggs, toast, or reheating leftovers from the freezer. so today’s post is one of those archive ones – my favorite spaghetti and meatballs recipe. It’s another one from Franny’s Simple Seasonal Italian, the same book that inspired my recent bolognese recipe. These meatballs are the best homemade ones that I’ve ever had, super-flavorful and tender. I don’t think there’s any one trick that makes these so good, it’s every element of the recipe added together that does it: the lemon zest, the generous amount of chopped parsley, the parmesan cheese, the mixture of beef and pork, and the crusty chunks of bread soaked in milk in the place of traditional bread crumbs. I like to make a big batch of these and pop half of them in the freezer for nights that I need a quick fix – like the day after arriving home from a long trip. Even if you have a favorite meatball recipe, please give these ones a try, too – they really are delicious.

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Perfect Spaghetti and Meatballs

Recipe adapted from Franny’s Simple Seasonal Italian. Serves 4-6.

• 4 oz. day-old country-style bread
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 lb. ground pork
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 c. finely grated parmesan chese
• 1/3 c. finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced
• 1 TBS kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb. pasta, prepared according to package directions
• your favorite tomato sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Cut the crusts off the bread and then cut the bread into 1/4-inch cubes and place in a large bowl. Pour the milk over the bread and toss to coat. Set aside and let soak for 10 minutes, or until the bread has absorbed all of the milk.
2. In a large bowl, gently fold the beef, pork, onion, cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon zest together until evenly mixed. Stir in the soaked bread crumbs. Try not to over-mix the meat mixture, but to leave it relatively loosely combined.
3. Roll the meat into ping pong sized balls. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and place the meatballs an inch apart on the sheet. Brush the meatballs lightly with olive oil and then bake, turning once or twice, until meatballs are golden brown on the outside and cooked through, about 12-15 minutes. Serve on top of the pasta and tomato sauce.

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We’ve been back from Italy for about two weeks, and I’ve finally made it through the first half of my pictures and thoughts about the trip to share with you here. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I have a few notes about where we stayed and ate and adventured, in case you’re interested (or lucky enough to be going to Rome or Florence in the near future).

We spent the first two nights of our trip in Rome, then after a quick (and slightly nauseating) train ride, we spent two nights in Florence. In both cities, what we did the most was walk. We’d wake up, open up the map, circle the places we wanted to see, then set out for the day until it was time for our 4PM siesta. After siesta, we’d go back out in search of dinner. A pretty good daily routine; I’d happily live every day that way.

Rome was a bit of a jet-lagged whirlwind, but I liked the city much more than I remembered. The last time I was there, I was 14, and Rome seemed far too loud, overwhelming, and dirty. This time, for the most part we stayed away from some of the main sights, and even after two days I was starting to get the sense of the thriving city underneath the throngs of tourists. We stayed at the perfect inn/apartment, La Finestra Sul Colosseo, which checked off everything on my list – it was spotlessly clean, spacious, quiet, comfortable, and modern. We slept like rocks. A highlight of our trip was spending Sunday morning on a food tour with Irene from Vino Roma. It was a bit of a splurge for us, but great to wander more pointedly and have Irene there to teach us about local food culture, both past and present. She took us to a truly local farmer’s market, where I was thrilled that no one spoke English, meaning we had to stock up on fresh fava beans, bread, truffled sausage, cheese, and the tiniest, sweetest strawberries of all time using our terrible Italian and a lot of pointing. We ate porchetta sandwiches and drank local beer, then meandered through the Jewish Quarter where we tried a truly remarkable “burnt” sweet bread from a tiny store with no name and an incredibly long line. We wrapped up with a cheese and wine tasting for a memorably tasty morning. Two other highlights from Rome: one, dinner at Cuoco & Camicia, where everything was delicious, but the carbonara-stuffed tortelli and the fillet of beef with foie gras and pumpkin cream were astounding. Two, our Sunday evening stroll/marathon – we walked from our hotel near the Colosseum, to Piazza Venezia, to St. Peter’s, and finally to the hill above the Piazza del Popolo where we soaked in the view and picnicked on our market finds. It was a solid 5 mile walk, and it felt good to see so much of the city before moving on to Florence.

I was less enamored with Florence, perhaps as predicted by Steve and Michelle. Given the small size of the city, and the large number of visitors, every corner we visited felt overrun with tourists. With this came an abundance of overpriced food, tacky “authentic” stores, and a lack of real charm. So, I didn’t love it, but we still had some great moments. Walking up the hill behind the Giardini di Bardini and finding ourselves in the midst of an olive grove felt kind of magical, as did being in the city for the Bianca Notte festival, during which all of the major museums were open for free all night, and bands and performers roamed the streets into the wee hours – it was a huge party, and the only time it felt like a living city. While walking through the Palazzo Vecchio that night, we happened to walk through an upper corridor as a horn concert began below us, and we watched/listened to the entire performance while standing in the center of that majestic building – that was a once in a lifetime experience, and it was incredible. We also ate at one good restaurant, Il Santo Bevitore, where dinner was delicious, if slightly dampened by the incredibly loud and rude Texans sitting next to us. (No offense meant to Texans in general, just these two in particular). And we found venison prosciutto and wild boar speck in the Central Market! So, so tasty. We might try and make some ourselves, just a warning.

So maybe I lied about the pictures doing most of the talking – I guess I had more to say than I thought! It’s fun reliving our adventures. It may be another week or so before I get my act together on the second half of our trip, but the last four days, which we spent in the Maremman countryside, were easily my favorite, so hopefully it’s worth the wait! In the meantime, I cooked up some Cacio e Pepe with English Peas for you. Cacio e Pepe is a classic and delicious spaghetti dish coated with a rich cheese sauce and a healthy sprinkling of black pepper – it tastes like what I always want mac’n’cheese to taste like. I had a version in Florence served on a black bean puree, which I re-imagined here using a spring pea puree instead. Buon appetito!

Cacio e Pepe with English Peas

Serves 3-4.

• 1 1/2 c. fresh English peas
• salt to taste
• 1/2 pound spaghetti or bucatini
• 2 TBS butter
• 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more for garnish
• reserved pasta water
• 3/4 c. freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for garnish
• 3/4 c. freshly grated Pecorino Romano
• 2 TBS sour cream

1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Fill a large bowl with ice water, and set aside. When the water is boiling, add the peas to the water and boil for 1-2 minutes, until bright green and floating at the top. Use a skimmer to remove the peas and immediately plunge into the ice water to stop the peas from cooking. Set aside.
2. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions. When the pasta is done, remove to a bowl with tongs and set the pasta water aside.
3. In a large frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the black pepper and stir until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add 3/4 c. of the reserved pasta water to the pan and bring to a boil, then add the cooked pasta and all of the cheese. Stir to melt the cheese until the pasta is evenly coated with a creamy sauce, adding more pasta water if necessary.
4. Take 1 c. of the cooked peas and place in a blender with the sour cream and 1/4 c. of the pasta water. Blend until smooth, then season to taste with salt. Mix the remaining 1/2 c. of peas into the pasta.
5. Place a circle of the pea puree on each plate. Top with a pile of spaghetti. Finish with freshly ground pepper and freshly grated cheese.

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At the end of April, Trevor and I are headed to Italy for a ten day vacation. I am beyond excited. It will be my first time abroad since returning from Prague in 2009 (unless you count two whirlwind days in Madrid for work last summer), and I’ve been daydreaming about the trip since we booked the tickets in January. I’ve also been practicing my Italian, drooling over hotels in Rome and Florence, and thinking about what, exactly, I want to eat and drink while I’m there. So the arrival of these two regional Italian cookbooks – Venezia in Cucina: The Flavors of Venice and Sicilia in Cucina: The Flavors of Sicily – could not have been more timely for me.

I have to start off by telling you: the pictures in these books are incredible. Not just pretty, stunning. Many times while reading these books I’ve stopped to linger for several minutes over one image or another – an explosion of red and green paper confetti in front of an ornate church; a man mid-jump off a cliff into a serene ocean, the sky pink and a smoking volcano in the background; an earthenware bowl of spaghetti on a sun-dappled table. These books are full of art, and it’s art that brings another culture to life on the page. Although I received review copies, I would have bought them for the photography inspiration alone.

As for the food, the recipes are authentic and the instructions are simple – oftentimes, there are no ingredient amounts listed for anything that could be considered seasoning. It will simply say “season with lemon, salt, parsley” or “dissolve 3 TBS tomato paste in hot water.” While I could imagine this being a deterrent for an inexperienced cook (how much lemon? how much hot water?), I felt that it added to the over all… Italianness of the books. I like that it gives you the freedom to add flavor as you go and taste for seasoning, and I also like the feeling that that’s how an Italian grandmother might tell you to do it – “you know, add parsley until there is enough parsley. Bene, basta.” The recipes from Venice focus heavily on seafood, with only a few non-fish dishes to be found. You’ll find plenty of pasta – tagiolini pasta with spider crab and cherry tomatoes – antipasti – scallops au gratin with tomato – and mains – baked turbot with summer vegetables. The recipes from Sicily are still influenced by the sea, but there’s more variety. High on my list are the fried cheese balls with chili-honey sauce, lamb stuffed with potatoes and pistachio pesto, and spaghetti with ricotta and fresh pecorino. Both books also have dessert chapters, as well as sections spotlighting local wines and unique regional ingredients.

A final point – I love that everything, from the section intros to the ingredients to the cooking instructions, is in both English and Italian – it totally indulges my inner language-learning nerdiness.

These books are like a travel advertisement in the best way possible. But they are also useful in the kitchen, as a cookbook should be. To test out the two books, I made three recipes for a large and indulgent Saturday lunch/ as food to welcome Trevor back from his week-long business trip. I’m sharing the first two recipes today – spaghetti in a tomato-anchovy sauce with breadcrumbs, from Sicilia in Cucina, and mini Parmesan meatballs, breaded and fried in olive oil to make them extra savory and crunchy, from Venezia in Cucina. Both recipes were simple, tasty, and filling, in a rustic sort of way. I’d make them both again for a quick dinner any night. The third recipe was an apple-custard tart which I could have eaten all of in one sitting – but you’ll have to wait a few days for that recipe.

The bottom line: These two books – Venezia in Cucina and Sicilia in Cucina – are a beautiful glimpse into the food and culture of two specific areas of Italy. I would happily have bought them for the photographs alone, as they depict far more than just beautiful food and create a gorgeous visual tale of life in another place. The recipes are simple, regional, and authentic, although in some cases the lack of specificity in the instructions may be a deterrent to a beginner cook. The fact that these are dual language books in both English and Italian was icing on the cake for me – now on my upcoming trip, I’ll be ordering dinner like a pro. I’d recommend these two books for anyone who daydreams about Italy, foodie or not.

Disclaimer: Ammo Books, the U.S. distributor of these books, sent me free review copies of both Venezia in Cucina and Sicilia in Cucina. I was not otherwise compensated for writing this review, and all opinions are my own.

Spaghetti with Breadcrumbs

Adapted from Sicilia in Cucina. Serves 4-6.

• 1 lb. dried thick spaghetti or bucatini
• 3 TBS olive oil, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 anchovies
• 4 TBS tomato paste
• 1 c. hot water
• 1 c. fresh breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper

1. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions, until just barely al dente.
2. While the pasta is cooking, heat 1 1/2 TBS of the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add the garlic and anchovies and saute for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant, breaking up the anchovies with the back of a wooden spoon so they dissolve. Mix the tomato paste with the hot water in a small bowl until they have an even texture, then add to the anchovies and garlic. Let simmer on low, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes.
3. In a separate pan, heat the remaining 1 1/2 TBS of olive oil. Toast the breadcrumbs in the oil until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes, then sprinkle with salt to taste.
4. Remove the spaghetti from the pot as soon as it is al dente and drop straight into the simmering sauce. Turn off the heat and toss the spaghetti with the sauce. Add about half the breadcrumbs and stir to coat. Divide the spaghetti between bowls and top each with a handful of the remaining breadcrumbs

Fried Mini Meatballs with Parmesan

Adapted from Venezia in Cucina. Makes 25 1-inch meatballs.

• 1/2 lb of ground pork
• 1/2 lb of ground beef
• 1/2 c. of grated parmesan cheese (about 40g)
• 2 TBS of flour
• 1/4 c. of finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 c. breadcrumbs plus more for frying
• 2 large eggs
• salt and pepper
• olive oil

1. In a large bowl, mix together the pork, beef, cheese, flour, parsley, 1/4 c. of breadcrumbs, and eggs until they form a smooth mixture. Season generously with salt and pepper, and stir to combine. Cover, and let stand for 1 hour to allow the flavors to meld. If it’s going to be any longer than 1 hour, refrigerate while you wait.
2. Heat 1/2 inch of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Form the beef-pork mixture into meatballs about 1 inch in diameter. Spread a generous amount of breadcrumbs on a plate, and roll the meatballs in the breadcrumbs to coat. Test the temperature of the oil by adding a few breadcrumbs to it – if they sizzle and fry up quickly, the oil is hot enough. Fry the meatballs in batches, using tongs to rotate every few minutes to ensure that they cook on all sides. When they are browned all over, check inside to ensure they have cooked all the way through. If they have, remove to a plate covered with a paper towel to drain. Serve hot, with tomato sauce for dipping.

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It’s funny, before I really cooked much cookbooks were a single category, filed in my brain under “types of books.”  Now, when I open a cookbook, I instantly start checking off characteristics: single-subject, informational, restaurant tribute, DIY… the list goes on.  It’s kind of like buying a couch.  Before you’ve ever bought a couch, you think – “couches, they’re pretty simple, the only difficult part of this will be having so many to choose from!”  Then you start shopping for couches, and slowly you start checking off things you like and don’t like – skirted couches are out, no plushy cushions, definitely not leather.  Before you know it, your couch-shopping-brain is saying “structured couch, must have arms, wooden legs, a blue-gray linen but not too finely woven, curved back, three cushions not two” and your problem has become that you can’t find the couch of your dreams.

Anyway, couches are not the point.  The point is, cookbooks are all different.  This one, La Cucina Italiana: The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking, very much fits its title.  Before anything else, it’s instructive. It’s not a book that I’d be likely to turn to for spur-of-the-moment inspiration, but it is one that I would reach for when I had a question – how do you make homemade tomato puree?  Why should you purchase bronze-cut spaghetti? What is the classic preparation of Pasta All’amatriciana?

This book was created by the editors of La Cucina Italiana magazine, and covers 21 categories of Italian cuisine in its 450 pages, including fresh pasta, dried pasta, garden vegetables, beef, pork, poultry, lamb, seafood, and desserts. Many of the recipes are photographed step-by-step, making it visually simple to understand the preparations.  Aesthetically, I’m not usually a big fan of this sort of photography, but here it’s entirely appropriate, and very useful.  Folding tortellini, making couscous by hand, peeling and coring celeriac – these are things that aren’t very intuitive the first time around!

One trade-off for having all of this useful information packed into one book?  You lose the personal voice and story.  Many of my favorite cookbooks are my favorites precisely because I can hear the author’s thoughts through their words, because their recipes are accompanied with stories that ignite my imagination. This book is missing that element, but it does make a great reference for preparing the most classic Italian dishes.

I have to mention one thing that really frustrates me about this book – the recipe layout. The introduction explains that there are several types of sections in this book – ingredient guides, which cover basic information about the taste and varieties of various ingredients; feature recipes, which are laid out like a traditional recipe, with an ingredient list and numbered steps; and essential methods, which are basic recipes using the ingredient in question, and are laid out paragraph style. The majority of the recipes in this book come from the “essential methods” sections, and while I understand what they were going for with the layout, I find it somewhat irritating not to have a separate list of ingredients and amounts available when I’m writing a grocery list or planning a menu. It may just be personal taste, but I think it would make using these sections of the book a bit more challenging for beginners.

However, overall this book is a well thought-out, thorough, and useful guide to Italian cooking. Because this book focuses on traditional cuisine, I wanted the first recipe I tried to be a classic, so I went with the most classic one I could find – spaghetti bolognese. The preparation was very simple, and after two long hours of the ragu simmering on the stove and making my whole house smell like the North End, Trevor and I finally dug into huge bowls of spaghetti topped with the tender, flavorful sauce and some good Parmesan. The sauce was spot-on, exactly what you might have in your favorite Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant when you were craving comfort food. Next time I’m definitely making a double batch to freeze!

The bottom line: La Cucina Italiana: The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking is a great learning book for both beginning and advanced home cooks. While it’s not the most inspiring cookbook I own, its practical information and detailed step-by-step photographs will make it a book that I turn to when I need to know the basics of a classic Italian recipe. The recipes themselves are fairly traditional, and they are well-tested and clearly explained.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free review copy of La Cucina Italiana by the publisher, Rizzoli New York, but I was not otherwise compensated to write this review and all opinions are my own!

Classic Spaghetti Bolognese

Recipe from La Cucina Italiana: The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking. Serves 3-4.

• 2 oz. pancetta, minced
• 1 carrot, peeled and minced
• 1 stick celery, minced
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 c. dry white wine
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 3/4 c. whole milk
• salt to taste
• 3/4 to 1 lb. spaghetti, cooked according to package directions

1. Add pancetta to a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until pancetta begins to crisp. Add carrot, celery, and onion to pan, and cook, stirring the whole time to prevent burning, for another 8 minutes, or until beginning to soften.
2. Add ground beef to the pan and brown, chopping up into small bits with a wooden spoon. Cook until mostly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the white wine, stir to incorporate, and raise heat to bring to a boil. Cook until it has almost completely evaporated.
3. Add the tomato paste to 1 1/2 c. warm water and stir to dissolve. Add this to the pan, and stir to incorporate. Reduce heat to a low simmer. Place the milk in a pourable container. Add a small splash of the milk to the pan and stir to incorporate. Cook the ragu at a low simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding a small splash of milk and stirring every 10-15 minutes, until you’ve used up all the milk. Season with salt to taste (do this at the very end so you don’t over-salt it). Serve ragu over spaghetti with a generous grating of parmesan cheese.

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Before I tell you about this book, I have to tell you about something else. This recipe. We finished the last bowl of leftovers over a week ago and yet I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s venison ragu. On cocoa-infused spaghetti. Venison. Cocoa-infused spaghetti. You heard me. If venison weren’t obscenely expensive (seems ironic given the deer population, no?), I would make this, er, have Trevor make this, at least once a week. The spaghetti is earthy and workable and tender, the venison rich and lean and just amazing. I had no idea I even liked venison. But now I’m a convert. Anyone with extra deer on their hands in Massachusetts?

Now, back to the book that provided us with this amazing recipe – SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine. As I cracked open the cover of this book and turned through the first pages of this book my mind immediately went something like: “Oh my God, this is a beautiful book.”   Full page spreads of the Italian countryside, hands carefully harvesting grapes, bottles and bottles of wine, freshly picked artichokes, all in muted browns and greens that are calming and serene.  Cookbook checklist item #1: beautiful photography?  Instantly checked off.

Flipping through the recipes in this book is like browsing a high-end restaurant menu where I want to order everything. Spiced Ricotta Fritters with Smoked Maple Syrup? Yes, please. Baked Polenta with Beef Cheek Ragu, Eggs, and Fontina? OK, I’ll try that too. Fava Bean Agnolotti with Mashed Black Truffle? If only it were fava season already! Now, you  might be able to tell from the names alone that these recipes are not simple. In fact, this is probably the most “advanced” cookbook I own, with recipes that require you to do everything from roll your own pasta, to sous vide a stuffed rabbit roulade, to clean and cure your own pig ears, and beyond. It’s more of an “I have all weekend to prepare a dinner party” book than an “it’s 8pm on Wednesday what’s for dinner” book. So, obviously, not for everyone. But I’m totally digging it – and if you’re also the kind of person who likes devoting a Saturday afternoon to preparing a venison ragu or brown-butter crepes filled with goat cheese and orange-caramel sauce, I’m pretty sure you’ll dig it too.

A few more tidbits: organized by region based on 8 major thoroughfares from Ancient Rome, each section has not only inspired recipes, but a wealth of information on the grapes and wines of that region. While I don’t claim to know much about wine, I’m excited to dig into the detailed grape descriptions – maybe I’ll even find something to order that I know I’ll like besides Merlot. I also think the overall look and feel of this book is – in true Ten Speed Press style – really gorgeous. It’s the kind of book I find myself flipping through just for the sake of daydreaming (sort of like Ripe, and Tender).

The bottom line: Perfect for the adventurous cook looking for new ways to challenge himself (or who wants to truly impress their guests!), SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine is packed with recipes for restaurant-quality dishes that will excite even jaded diners. The book also offers detailed information on grape-types and wine producers for each region of the country, as well as truly stunning photographs that make me want to hop on the next plane to Rome. While the challenging nature of the recipes in this book means it’s probably not for everybody, I can tell it’s going to become one of my new favorites.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary review copy of SPQR from Ten Speed Press, but all opinions are my own.

Linguine al Cocoa with Venison Ragu

Recipe adapted slightly from SPQR: Modern Italian Food and Wine. Serves 6.

For the soffritto:

• 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 1/2 celery stalks, sliced
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

For the linguine:

• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 1/4 c. “00” durum flour
• 1 TBS plus 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 5 TBS warm water

For the ragu:

• olive oil
• 13 oz. ground venison, preferably shoulder meat (we couldn’t find any ground, so used finely chopped loin)
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 1/4 c. soffritto (recipe below)
• 1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp chile oil (omit if unavailable)
• 1 1/2 c. red wine
• 1 1/2 c. chicken stock
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 1 sprig sage
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/4 c. heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp quatre epices
• 2 c. baby spinach leaves
• 1 to 2 TBS butter
• Parmesan cheese, for serving

Make the soffrito:

1. Combine the carrot, onion, and celery in a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped. Heat olive oil in a large pan over low heat. Stir in the ground vegetables and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until all oil has been absorbed, about 45 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. This will make more soffritto than you need for this recipe – save the rest in the fridge for another use.

Make the linguine:

1. Sift together flours, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and water. Slowly drizzle the liquid into the flour, whisking as you do. Knead the dough for several minutes – the dough will feel firm and dry. Flatten the dough into a rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap, and leave on counter for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the dough using a pasta machine – roll it to the thinnest setting possible. Use the pasta machine to cut into linguine noodles (if you don’t have a noodle cutter attachment, you can cut out thicker noodles by hand). Toss the noodles with a little bit of flour to keep from sticking and set aside.

Make the ragu:

1. Heat a thin film of olive oil in a large sauce pot over medium-high heat. Stir in venison and brown well, cooking for about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is soft, about 3 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, soffritto, and red pepper paste. Cook for a few minutes, then add chile oil (if using), and red wine. Bring to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes. Fill a sachet (or improvise with cheesecloth and cooking twine) with the thyme, sage, peppercorns, and cloves. Add the sachet and the chicken stock to the ragu and simmer to reduce liquid by half, about another 30 minutes. Stir in cream and the quatre epices. Simmer until thick and velvety, about 15 minutes. Season to taste. Remove the sachet.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When at a rolling boil, add linguine and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add noodles and about 1/4 c. of the pasta cooking water to the ragu. Add the spinach to the ragu. Cook for 2-3 minutes longer, just to wilt the spinach and cause the ragu to stick to the noodles. Finish with a pat of butter. Serve hot with grated parmesan cheese.

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I’ve been waiting for this meal for a long time.  Since February, to be exact, from the moment I put the first seed in the first pot to sit in my bedroom window absorbing the weak winter sun.  And by this meal, I don’t mean this dish exactly – I just mean the first meal where all of the produce (well, except the garlic, we don’t get to plant that until September) could be fresh-picked from the garden, moments before preparing it.  Accomplishing this was just as satisfying (and delicious) as I thought it would be.

The garden has been far more successful than I expected.  Our random assortment of pots with store-bought dirt have turned into a lush array of greenery, and I’m so happy about it.  The highest tendrils of the watermelon are beyond arm’s reach, the cucumbers have climbed all the way up the porch and threaten to overrun the grapes, the tomatoes (started from seed!) are turning red one at a time, and the kale finally battled off the last of the cabbage moths and could provide at least 5 batches of my favorite kale soup.  Even the lemon tree has made a comeback and is covered in new leaves (!) after losing almost all of them this winter.  (This lemon tree seriously toys with my emotions.  After all my painstaking work nursing it back to health from the mealybugs, it rewarded me with over a hundred blossoms – not a single one of which managed to turn into a lemon larger than a quarter before shriveling up and falling off the tree.  No lemons this winter – any citrus experts out there have advice for me?)

This is less a recipe than a suggestion for how to use whatever’s good in your garden now.  The basic process is this: gently cook your vegetables until they’re crisp tender, then toss with pasta, or rice, or leave them by themselves.  Smother the veggies with herbs, heated only for a moment or two just to release their flavor.  Then dress the dish – I went the luxurious route, with cream and cheese, but a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkling of salt would have an equally wonderful effect.  Maybe pour yourself a glass of white wine, and, if it’s a nice night, take your dinner out to the garden and enjoy all the goodness summer has to offer.  It can’t be beat.

I can’t wait to share more garden-inspired recipes soon!  Especially when the watermelons (and the figs, and the grapes) are ready.  Stay tuned.  And enjoy your weekend!

Creamy Spaghetti with Summer Squash and Tomatoes

Serves 4-6

• 1 lb. spaghetti
• 3 TBS butter
• 2 small summer squash, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 20-30 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/3 c. packed fresh parsley, thinly sliced
• 1/3 c. packed fresh basil, thinly sliced
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1/3 – 1/2 c. packed grated parmesan
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• sea salt
• black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil.
2. Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until melted.  Add the sliced squash and cook until tender and beginning to turn golden brown, about 7-10 minutes, flipping with a spatula once or twice over this time period.  Add the minced garlic and cook for 2 minutes longer, until garlic is very fragrant but not browned.  Add cherry tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring.
3. Add the spaghetti to boiling water at about this point.  Cook according to package directions.  In an ideal world, you want the sauce to be ready as the same time as the pasta, but life doesn’t always work out like that.  If your pasta is done first, rinse with cold water or drizzle with olive oil to prevent it from sticking.
4. Lower the heat on the sauce and cook vegetables for 2-3 more minutes, stirring.  Add cream, parsley, and basil to vegetables, and cook, simmering gently, for 2 minutes.  Turn off heat, and stir in lemon juice and parmesan cheese.  Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary.
5. If your spaghetti is just finishing, add a few TBS of the pasta cooking water to the sauce, then drain the spaghetti and immediately toss with the sauce.  If your spaghetti has been finished for a while, add as much of the spaghetti as will fit to the saucepan and heat over low heat for 2 minutes, tossing spaghetti with sauce.  When spaghetti is just heated, add it all back to the pot to mix thoroughly.  (The goal here is to get the sauce to adhere to the spaghetti and both to be hot when served).
6. Serve hot with additional grated parmesan.

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