White Bean Lasagna
Think that thick lush-looking white sauce cascading over the lasagna stack is a heavy cream-based bechamel—rich beyond words? Think again. The sauce here doesn’t have a speck of dairy, let alone the...
View ArticleBorder Beans and Pasta: flageolets, ditalini, May garden veggies, pancetta
Several years ago, Bill and I spent a week in Menton, France, a small town on the French Riviera. Like many places dotting the Cote d’Azur, it is both port, and tourist destination. Part of the...
View ArticlePaulette’s Fett! Real Roman Alfredo
I stopped eating Fettuccine Alfredo years ago. The once-beloved dish had become, to my tastes, a cream-laden tangle of starch, flat in flavor and leaden in the belly. I had pretty much dismissed it as...
View ArticleRicotta Gnocchi, Dressed in Red
Post-holiday drab winter funk settled in my kitchen…with an unsettling inertia. I’ve had as much resistance to picking up a knife and a whisk, as my market shopping bags. It’s been an odd feeling,...
View ArticleLemons to the Rescue
My friend Allison confessed that she was becoming a hoarder. Not in the Crazy Reality TV way–thank goodness. More like in the Fill the Pantry with Good Food way. She had been buying big crates of...
View Article(Surprisingly Wondrous) Zucchini Sauce, pasta, peppery watercress pesto
I wish that I had a clever name for this dish. Pasta with Zucchini Sauce seems rather lackluster, a ho-hum title that belies its subtle garden-green flavors, its whipped up creamy texture–with nary a...
View ArticleFrom (Under) an Escarole Leaf
On fleet and chilly foot, this year is surely making its exit. I trust that your holidays have been full of joy and camaraderie, and good food shared with those you love. Ours have been exceptional,...
View ArticleLittle Lasagna Rolls, spinach-ricotta-speck filling, red pepper-tomato sauce
The old saying for March, “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” isn’t faring well this year. It’s lion all the way: blustery cold, temperatures skirting the freeze point at night. The threat of snow...
View ArticleGarlic Scape Pesto, and first impressions of Rome
Overseas flights haven’t gotten any easier over time and experience. On our overnight to Rome I slept a little. But I was ill-prepared for the shock of day as we emerged out of straight-jacket seats,...
View ArticlePasta “Lecce”
When Bill and I were in Rome last month, the weather–by Roman claims–was unseasonably cool and somewhat rainy. We decided, at a certain point, to rent a car and follow the sun. That trip took us first...
View ArticleSage Praise
Dear Friends, Almost an entire month has past since I last visited with you here at Good Food Matters, but be assured that I’ve been busy-busy, hands-on: making good—and beautiful—-food for the...
View ArticlePan-seared Potato Gnocchi with parsnips
In the case of potato gnocchi, I have felt like I’m on a quest for something elusive. Once, a long time ago at a restaurant that no longer exists, I had a sumptuous plate of hand-formed dumplings,...
View ArticleIndonesian Bami Goreng and a giveaway
Many years ago, I lived in Holland–a few months as an exchange student with a family, and the remaining time on my own. When I arrived in the country, I was an avowed picky eater. But that changed...
View ArticleMolé! Olé!
You never know how or from what place cooking inspiration will come. Today’s dish arose from an unexpected find: a 10 pound box of loosely packed dried guajillo chiles in our food bank’s warehouse....
View ArticleCookie Trials
Yes, I realize that it has scarcely been a month since the holidays, ever a cookie fest. No matter. It is always a good time for cookies, especially ones that have noble aspects about them without...
View ArticleFeed a Child, Nourish a Mind
Creamy peanut butter, spread to the bread’s edges, a layer of blackberry jelly, capped with another slice of wheatberry bread. A quick double-cut into triangles, then a wrap and tuck into the...
View ArticleGastrique Mystique
Gastrique. What is it? Over the past several months, I have come across the French term on menus and recipe sites. I knew that it meant a kind of sauce, but in my years of cooking, I’d never made a...
View ArticleFresh Starts: Sourdough and Spring
It is officially Spring, and I feel certain that most of you feel the same as I do—Bring It! This winter has felt long. Despite the emergence of hyacinths, daffodils, and profuse blooms on my weeping...
View ArticleSpring Supper: Fennel braised Pork, Beets-and-Blue Salad
One Sunday last spring when we were visiting our friends in Rome, we had the good fortune to accompany them on an outing to the small municipality, Pisoniano, a fifty minute drive east of the Eternal...
View ArticleLemon Lemon Lemon Chicken
One afternoon, on my way home from the food bank, I stopped by my friend Teresa’s house for a visit. Teresa is a food stylist and recipe tester, also author of the beauteous blog Food on Fifth. This...
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