aj12754's Reviews
28 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 28Sort by: Title 
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
Deb at Smitten Kitchen calls these scones "October on a parchment-lined baking sheet" and I think she's nailed it. These are wonderful and dead-easy.
Perfect for a late afternoon snack. Or as an accompaniment to a fall soup and salad meal (e.g. the butternut squash and apple soup from Fine Cooking magazine and the salad with wild mushrooms in the Barefoot in Paris cookbook).
10/15 -- Served with a "clean out the produce drawer" pasta and bean and veggie soup. Also a salad of shaved fennel and mushrooms on a bed of mesclun with a lemon vinaigrette.
useful (4)
This is super-quick and easily made ahead of time. Equally good for a weeknight meal or for casual entertaining. Adapted from a Mario Batali recipe.
As good as this is, I have to give the edge on artichoke crostini to the recent recipe in Cook's Illustrated (Sept./Oct. 2010) which I reviewed earlier.
useful (1)
This was really good and really rich as it is finished with cream and butter. It has more going on (sage, rosemary, porcini, garlic) than the Julia version I made a few weeks ago. Julia's is lighter and tastes more home-made, while this version is more gourmet-y.
Deb at Smitten Kitchen modified the Balthazar recipe some (e.g. used thyme rather than rosemary, etc.) but I stuck with the Balthazar version this time around.
Served with a salad of romaine, apple and aged cheddar with an apple cider vinaigrette based on one in Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.
Wine was a glass of Cotes du Rhone that went well with the soup.
useful (3)
This dish made me long for the days of ladies' luncheons. It is a delicious savory tart that is perfect for sharing with your best friends over a long lunch. Served with a simple green salad (mine was just some baby lettuce dressed with the vinaigrette from Barefoot in Paris -- but I wished I'd had some of the heirloom cherry tomatoes that I used the last of last night to add -- that pop of tomatoey goodness would have been a nice contrast flavor- (and color-) wise to the creamy cheesy goodness of the tart.
It is quite time-consuming to make (especially if you make the tart crust from the recipe rather than use a store-bought pie crust). The crust recipe is a little tricky (mine threatened to never come together into a dough but I beat it into submission -- actually -- added a few drops of water) so if you have a favorite tart crust you are already using, I'd go with that. This recipe would have gotten five stars from me had I not encountered the crust problem.
The tart has to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes but does not need to be pre-baked before filling (it will need to be pre-baked if you are using a store-bought crust however). The onions need to be sauteed thirty-to-forty minutes (getting to a lovely golden brown) and the cauliflower roasts for about 25-30 minutes. When I remake this I will get the onions going first, make the tart crust next (although I will probably search for and make one of Martha Stewart's tart crusts -- she tends to be fool-proof with stuff like that), then roast the cauliflower. While that's roasting, you can blend mascarpone, Gruyere, cream and eggs. And make your favorite vinaigrette for the salad. The tart itself takes 40-50 minutes to cook (keep an eye on it those last 10 minutes or so) and rests another 15 to set up. Start to finish you need about two hours.
Served with a white zinfandel that turned out to be a better pairing than the sauvignon blanc I'd originally planned on.
useful (4)
Excellent weeknight dinner. The sauce here is the show -- lots of flavor with minimal effort; start-to-finish about 35-45 minutes depending on what sides are served with this.
useful (2)
Rainy, misty, chilly days are perfect days for serving soup and a sandwich -- so this was perfect for last night's dinner. This soup is a bit more work (seed removal and then roasting the canned tomatoes after sprinkling them with brown sugar) than my usual recipe (from Great American Food without Fuss) and I am not sure it is significantly better than that recipe. But it is a good recipe and a good soup.
Like Deb, I kind of lost patience at the end and simply used my hand blender rather than strain the soup a 2nd time. Then I added the cream and -- off heat -- two tablespoons of sherry (which is a definite and welcome departure from my usual recipe).
Next time, I think I'd start with the Muir Glen Fire-roasted tomatoes and skip the roasting step. And I'd put the tomatoes through a food mill right up front rather than a strainer to get rid of the seeds. And next time I'll try the brandy option Deb suggests.
Like most soups, it has improved with time and made a fine dinner tonight as well, this time with a BLT instead of the grilled cheese sandwich.
I agree with BeckyL about the addition of some fresh herbs -- I am thinking a bit of thyme tossed in with the shallots. And basil later in the summer.
useful (1)
I did not actually make the toasts.
Instead I used the base recipe here to create a sauce to toss with pasta. I doubled the amount of every ingredient to make enough sauce for a pound of pasta. The toasts were supposed to be rubbed with garlic, so I added chopped garlic (doused with EVOO) to the roasting eggplant about halfway through the 25-30 minute roasting time.
The flavor of the sauce that resulted (a combo of roasted eggplant, roasted garlic, feta cheese, a couple of scallions, and a dash or two of red wine vinegar) was really nice ... subtle. At first I wondered if something was missing, a spice maybe or some tomatoes. But the flavor actually grew on me with every bite and the eggplant got to be the star of the show.
useful (3)
Oh my ... I loved this! Different and delicious. And very pretty. I used both green and purple frisee, and endive. Per Deb's suggestion, I added shavings of a hard Italian pecorino romano and really ... perfection. The lemon-y fennel dressing is just great with the bitter lettuce.
I was a little worried that the salad would be too bitter but even my husband -- not generally a fan of bitter lettuces other than arugula -- ate every last leaf.
This salad is a real find.
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This salad is oddly compelling. My husband and I both cleaned our plates and yet neither of us could really say we loved this. There just seemed to be one (or more) too many things going on. I thought maybe it was the green onions or possibly too much mint. My husband thought the over-the-top element was the pomegranate seeds. The balsamic vinegar was the right choice with the prosciutto and pomegranate. Will probably play around with this a bit more -- or use it as the springboard to take this salad in another direction,
Possible modifications:
Maybe leave out the seeds and try a vinaigrette made with that bottle of pomegranate molasses in the pantry that I bought months ago and have never once used. Other thoughts -- some diced shallot in the vinaigrette rather than green onion in the salad. And cut back on the mint.
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I was working with the very last red onion in the house so I had a little less than the two cups of thinly sliced onions that the recipe called for. The onions are caramelized with a little light brown sugar and then deglazed with some balsamic vinegar -- which results in a lovely onion jam. I ended up with a little less than I wanted but still enough to make a pretty tasty pizza.
Deb starts by making fresh ricotta using Michael Chiarello's -- but I went ahead with ricotta from the grocery store and, while I am sure Deb's fresh ricotta would have been fabulous, I was still pretty happy with my results.
I used the very serviceable pizza dough recipe from The New Basics. Not the best dough ever, but pretty darn good for the minimal effort involved.
Served with simple salad of mixed lettuce, sweet yellow cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers and a honey mustard vinaigrette. Served with an Australian Shiraz that complemented the balsamic onions really well. Although a beer would have been great too.
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We really enjoyed this. The combo of the sweet grapes (I used red instead of Concord) and rosemary, with coarse sea salt and coarse sugar (I used turbinado) was new to me and delicious.
And easy dough to make and work with; should start 4-5 hours before you plan to serve. It paired really well with a white wine. And I suspect it would pair equally well with a lighter-bodied red.
Next time I run across some Concord grapes, I will be making this again.
I did end up cooking mine closer to 25 minutes rather than the 15 minutes called for in the recipe ... and I think I could have left it in the oven even another 2-3 minutes.
10/19 -- Recipe makes 2 focaccias and we had the second paired with a red wine and liked that pairing even better. This focaccia was surprisngly good on day 2.
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This was just delicious. You need about an hour's lead time to let the onions pickle. I used the thin haricots verts and followed by the ice bath option (Deb gives the no-ice-bath option too). The dressing on this salad blends the pickling liquid and EVOO.
In addition, following Deb's lead, I roasted the almonds at 350 for about 8-9 minutes prior to frying them and was glad I did. The almonds really put this salad over the top. Just yummy and healthy.
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So delicious and so easy. And easy to prep the few components (toasted bread, leek confit, and crumbled blue cheese) ahead of time. Along with a salad (lettuce, raw red and golden beets cut into matchsticks, and clementine sections with a fruity vinaigrette), this made a very nice light lunch for "soupereasy" and me. And a consolation after my oven conked out in the midst of cookie-baking.
We served this at room temperature and it was just great.
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I read the review of this pizza by peckish sister around 4 pm and headed immediately to the grocery store, completely blowing off the soup and sandwich dinner I had planned.
This is genuinely delicious -- a great flavor profile and would easily have been a five had I even the remotest gift for making a decent pizza dough. I can't wait to try this with a tart dough or some puff pastry. A great treat for a light dinner or ladies lunch.
I served this with a recreated version of a raw beet salad I had when I went out to eat last week. I used red and golden beets sliced into matchsticks (thank you once again Kyocera slicer!!), tossed with a tangerine vinaigrette, with tangelo sections and toasted walnuts added. Made a very nice color contrast with the green and yellow of the pizza.
Paired very well with a crisp Sancerre.
One of our favorite meals from a presentation and flavor standpoint. Although I am still in search of the perfect pizza dough.
useful (3)
This was great. I served it to guests who ate every bit of it up. I used cherry tomatoes of various colors and broke the feta up since I was using a shallow harvest gold baking/serving dish and thought it would be easier to serve and eat that way. It was a very pretty presentation when the dish came to the table.
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Q-S is right -- the miso dressing is pretty awesome and we really liked it with the roasted sweet potatoes.
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I love a pantry meal that doesn't taste like a pantry meal -- and this is quick (about 15 minutes starts to finish), healthy (I added chopped spinach instead of the arugula the recipe called for), and very tasty. It's one of those recipes for all seasons. Great if you have company at the last minute.
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This recipe is a Smitten Kitchen adaptation of a Rachael Ray recipe. I know there are folks out there who are not RR fans -- but the girl knows pasta. This is a wonderfully balanced sauce and quick and easy to pull together on a week-night.
The original name of this recipe was "You Won't Be Single For Long" pasta. If my husband's reaction to this dish is any indication, I won't have to worry about being single again any time soon.
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This is the first ratatouille I have made and it really is delicious and easy...although mine was not as beautiful as the one baked in the Smitten Kitchen. I needed to ballpark amounts because my pan was larger than the recipe called for but this is a recipe that is very forgiving of that kind of improvisation. I also forgot the parchment paper cover but I didn't miss it. Served as a side to Barefoot Contessas's roast chicken.
This was good enough to send me on a search for more ratatouille recipes (Keller, Pepin, Child, Wells, etc.) since this is a great option (taste and presentation-wise) for fall entertaining.
August 2011 -- A second go-around with this recipe and just as delicious this go-around. Served on top of couscous with a nice dollop of goat cheese.
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Loved the colors and flavors of this dish although I ended up using it as a bruschetta topping rather than a side salad, grilling bread, topping it with fresh mozzarella and putting the peppers on top.
I also put some of the peppers on top of the grilled chicken paillards that were on the menu the same night and wasn't sorry at all. It would be great as well on spice-rubbed grilled or baked fish.
I have a bit of a quibble with the method Deb uses to roast the peppers -- whole peppers spend an hour in a 400 degree oven, turned every 15 minutes, then cooled, and skins and seeds removed. I thought this was pretty cumbersome compared to cutting up the peppers into quarters beforehand , removing seeds, etc., and then putting them under the broiler for a few minutes.
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This was really easy and delicious. I used kumatoes because they looked beautiful at the market today but any kind of tomatoes would be delicious here.
I made a half-recipe which is just right for four people.
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This is pretty awesome as pizzas go. My husband referred to this as a "perfect recipe" and from an end-result point of view I have to agree.
I didn't find using the recommended vegetable peeler to shave the asparagus to be very effective. In fact, I found it frustrating and after two stalks, I switched to the smallest, sharpest paring knife I have, and found it much easier and quicker.
I also made the dough one day before, let it rise, and then punched down and refrigerated over night. It turned out really well -- a great thin crust.
The chopped scallions sprinkled on top after the pizza comes out of the oven are just the right punch up to the flavor.
I followed the recipe and used parmesan and buffalo mozzarella but this is a recipe that invites experimentation with other cheeses.
This is a nice light lunch but it might also be interesting, cut into small pieces, as an appetizer. Either way, a pinot grigio is a nice pairing.
useful (3)
This is a very nice recipe --- and very adaptable to personal tastes -- especially on a day when you might -- for whatever reason feel "cooked out". Also brings a hint of summer in the dead of winter when roasting can bring out the flavor of maybe less-than-perfect tomatoes. And not much clean-up at all.
I was fortunate to find some really good grape tomatoes at Costco. Halved and tossed with EVOO, fresh thyme (dried would be fine too -- or whatever herbs you like), unpeeled cloves of garlic, and salt and pepper. Then into a 225-250 oven for 2-3 hours.
The end result was a little chewy, very tasty jewel of intense tomato flavor.
I tossed mine with spaghetti, added a bit of additional EVOO, some grated parmesan, and a scattering of chopped parsley. Simple salad of romaine and blue cheese on the side.
I'd rate my execution a 3 (but the recipe a 4-5) since I was interrupted by a phone call and some of my tomatoes were maybe a touch or more overdone -- and I ended up having to throw out the brown rather than golden garlic instead of adding it to the pasta. Still, the dish had that garlicky perfume so not a total loss.
Next time, I might add some diced fresh mozzarella or a splash of an aged balsamic vinegar to finish. Summer I'd do basil rather than parsley or maybe a mix of the two. Also, I'd add some garlic bread and drink a Chianti rather than the remainder of the Sauvignon Blanc we had open in the fridge.
A nice "comfort food" meal for winter house guests when you'd rather spend time with them than in the kitchen.
Note: The overdone tomatoes were not bad -- just dense and chewy with a lot of tomato flavor, almost raisin-like in texture. And they gave me an idea. Since I have about a pint of the grape tomatoes left, I will use them to try a recipe (link below) for "tomato raisins" -- think they would be great in a salad with pine nuts and shaved parmesan. Or pressed into a homemade foccacia dough just before baking.
http://jessthomson.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/tomatoraisins.pdf
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My kind of a weeknight meal -- so simple to make;
Grind some pepper...
Grate some cheese...
Get a knob of butter and pour a little EVOO
Boil water ... add pasta ... add the above.
Yummm. Really good. Really fast.
useful (1)
I liked this pasta quite a bit although I definitely see the point made by both Deb and the first reviewer about maybe having more sauce. I liked the balance of pasta to sauce, but my husband wanted more of the latter.
I substituted fresh for canned tomatoes because I had fresh ones on hand. Other than that, I followed the recipe as written. A good pantry meal ... substantive enough that I didn't bother with a side salad.
I have another pasta with chickpeas dish that I make fairly regularly (I think I got it from some Italian cooking magazine 4-5 years ago) that is equally delicious and completely vegetarian. It calls for chickpeas and Swiss chard, but leaves out the preliminary step of putting some of the chickpeas in the food processor. Next time I make it, I will follow the directions for this recipe and do the food processor step first as it definitely creates more of a unified flavor. Leaving all the chickpeas whole -- as I have always done with the other recipe -- often means that the pasta and chickpeas don't come together texturally even though the flavor combo really works. In fact, with both these recipes, I might put ALL the chickpeas in the food processor before adding them to the pasta.
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These strike a perfect balance between sweet and spicy and are very quick and easy to do.
The instructions say to separate the nuts after they come out of the oven using a fork but I found it easier to just use my hands and the nuts were not so hot that it was hard to do.
Perfect addition to a salad or as part of a holiday buffet. These would be nice as part of the roasted butternut squash salad with apple cider vinaigrette in one of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks.
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Easiest tomato sauce in the world -- can of San Marzanos, 5 T. butter and an onion --- simmer 45 minutes and the result is a lovely, fresh-tasting, velvety-textured sauce. The write-up at the website and the comments give some interesting background on the origins of this simple delicious sauce.
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Oh yumm. Simple and delicious. Good on their own or with ice cream. And the smell in the kitchen while the pears are roasting is simply wonderful.
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