links: recipes

Our meals this week were all inspired by recipes/articles I found on the internet. I thought I'd pass along links to the best of the bunch.

• Rasa Malaysia's steamed tofu. Quick and satisfying. My meatless take: Steam a slab of soft tofu (5 minutes). Next, saute chopped ginger, chopped garlic, sliced birds eye chiles, a big handful of sliced shitakes, and half a bunch of chopped scallions. A splash of soy, a splash of oyster sauce, some water, and a bit of cornstarch to thicken the sauce. We ate this with steamed rice and a mess of stir-fried green beans.

• THE best spiced cauliflower dish I've ever made (and, believe me, I've made a lot). This had great flavor and texture. I omitted the potatoes, cut back on the oil to compensate, and it was excellent - the first time in history that Mark fought me for the last bite of cauliflower. We ate this with whole wheat chapatis, lime pickle, kidney bean curry, and cilantro raita.

• I read an article in which Rick Bayless talked about how well lime and cilantro complement salmon. I have been using his cilantro-lime vinaigrette to dress salads for forever but, once I read that, I couldn't stop thinking about how good it would taste drizzled over Alaskan sockeye salmon filets! Well, Rick was right. (He usually is.) I also learned you can make decent quinoa using a rice cooker. 1/2 cup quinoa: 1 cup water.
  

• Korean vegetable pancakes. Packed with vegetables (shitakes/scallions/onions/jalapenos/grated carrot/grated zucchini), these made a nice Sunday lunch along with a salad and some kimchi. Sort of like a Korean frittata.

• I made ricotta on Saturday (using this excellent Serious Eats recipe). Then, Mark and I made lemon ricotta pancakes while we were watching the Olympics. Deelicious. Light and fluffy from the whipped egg whites, with slightly crisp edges and a wonderfully creamy interior. Instead of topping these with lemon curd, I added the zest of a lemon to the batter and topped them with warm blueberry sauce.

cooking for 1 + harira

Mark was invited to give a talk at a conference in South Carolina so I've been enjoying being on my own these past few days. (No offense, Marky Mark!) I love making dinner with/for Mark but sometimes ... I miss cooking just for me. Cooking for 2 or more usually means compromise: I love roasted broccoli and cauliflower but Mark is lukewarm about it. He loves bread; I prefer rice. I could eat soup every day, while he tires of it after a day. One of my favorite things in life is cooking with Mark and cooking for others -- but, still, there is something nice, even indulgent, about cooking/eating only to please your own tastes.

When I'm out of town, Mark invariably turns to pasta: a jumble of spaghetti tossed with olive oil+garlic+chiles, showered with good parmesan and cracked black pepper, and topped with a glistening fried egg. When Mark is gone, I go crazy for soups. This week I made a chunky Puy lentil soup; potato and leek soup; a spicy shrimp broth with julienned zucchini, cilantro, and scallion; and a hearty, warming, vegetarian harira, using a recipe from our friends Robin and Ilan.

(Also perfectly fine: those nights when dinner is a hunk of baguette, eaten over the sink -- saving a plate and catching the crumbs!-- and whatever knob of cheese is hanging out in the refrigerator. Then, parking yourself on the couch. Olympics! I'm obsessed!)


And a final note is that we decided to go pescetarian during Lent this year. We love our burgers, porky dim sum, chicken broth, and Marcella Hazan's insanely delicious beef ragu but don't intend to touch meat until Easter. I've been busily making a list of vegetarian/pescetarian meal ideas but would be grateful for more! Also, I'm totally curious about everyone else's "alone" meals so please indulge my curiosity and share. My sister told me about a great book called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant on this subject. Must read!

Harira (Moroccan-inspired vegetable/chickpea/lentil soup)

Harira is traditionally eaten during Ramadan to break the fast. I first tried harira at a Moroccan restaurant in Paris, and their version was rich with lamb, tomato, chickpeas, and egg noodles. This version is quite a bit lighter, though it still has nice flavor. It has especially nice, spicy flavor if you swirl in a dollop of harissa, which is Moroccan chile paste.

Notes: Homemade vegetable stock is such a cinch and I think everyone should make it. I save vegetables and trimmings -- carrots, onions, leeks, celery, tomatoes, parsley-- in a big bag in the freezer. When the bag gets full, add these to a soup pot with water to cover, along with a bay leaf and some fresh herbs, simmer and strain. If you need a recipe, this is a good one. Otherwise, Imagine is a reliable brand.

I'm obsessed with Puy lentils and rarely use anything else, but you could certainly use regular brown lentils here. To get 1 cup of cooked lentils: in a pot, add 1/2 cup of lentils + enough water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to a boil and simmer 20-25 minutes, or until tender. Drain.

1 cup chopped onions
4 cups vegetable stock
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup undrained canned tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 cups diced potatoes
pinch of saffron
1 cup cooked lentils
1 cup drained chickpeas
1 to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and ground black pepper to taste
lemon wedges

In a soup pot, simmer the onions in 1 cup of the stock for 10 minutes. Combine the cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, and cayenne in a small bowl and add 2 to 3 tablespoons of the hot liquid to form a paste. Stir this paste into the hot pot along with the carrots, celery, and the remaining stock. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and potatoes and continue to cook, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Crumble in the saffron. Stir in the lentils, chickpeas, lemon juice. Add a fat pinch or two of kosher salt and a few grinds of ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover, and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with lemon wedges and cayenne pepper or harissa for an extra kick.

curry, friends, and talking heads

I just got back from a last minute trip to visit my best friend Julia in Alabama. So nice! It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Julia and I could be trapped in a cave in Afghanistan and we'd still have a ridiculously good time together. Luckily, we weren't in a cave; we were chez Julia and John and we had all sorts of things to keep us pleasantly occupied, like talking, knitting, Rock Band, and cooking. I still have Talking Heads/Psycho Killer running through my head...

(Mark really missed out. We were planning a trip to Dallas but then work intervened. He is extremely busy right now.)

Julia and I made this Goan-style curry for dinner on Sunday, using chicken, yellow Dutch potatoes, carrots, and green beans. Think of this dish as slightly exotic comfort food: fragrant, warming, colorful, and lots of pleasing layers of flavor and textures.

Thanks for hosting me, J & J! Love you guys.

Goan style chicken and vegetable curry

This recipe calls for curry powder so, while it may not be strictly authentic, it is easy and quick to make. I kind of want to say Basmati rice is a must here, but I'm a rice snob so feel free to ignore me. Just do yourself a favor and start a pot of rice before anything else.

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• 15-20 tiny yellow Dutch potatoes (about 3/4 to 1 lb), cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 lb French green beans, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
  
• 3 large carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
  
• Kosher salt
• Ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus extra if you like it spicy
  
• 1/4 cup canola/grapeseed oil
• 4 dried red chilies
• 1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 cups canned chopped tomatoes, with juice
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
  

1. Place cut chicken in a small bowl and add 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/8 teaspoon black pepper and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne. Mix well and set in the refrigerator until later.

2. Place a pot of water on the stove to boil over medium-high heat. One vegetable at a time, parboil or steam the vegetables until just tender. You want to make sure the vegetables are cooked through, but not mushy. You can use the same pot for all the vegetables: as the potatoes finish cooking, use a slotted spoon to remove the potatoes to a separate bowl. Repeat for the carrots and then the green beans.

3. In an enameled cast iron pot or similar vessel over medium heat, combine oil and chilies and stir 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and cook for 1 minute longer. Add ginger, onion, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt and sauté until onion is soft and translucent, 5 to 8 minutes. Add garlic, ground coriander and turmeric and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes. Stir, scraping sides and bottom of pot, for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.

4. Stir in curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil, and add chicken. Simmer steadily until chicken is cooked through completely. Add all vegetables. Garnish with cilantro.

Yield: 6 generous servings.

O, Canada

Mountains. I'm obsessed with mountains. I think British Columbia will do that to you. I must have felt this way 2 years ago, and then the year before that, when Mark and I were in B.C., but I guess I just forgot how much I love being in the mountains and what real winter feels like. Crisp, clean air. Pine trees covered in snow. Cold noses and hands. The sound that snow makes crunching under your feet. It makes me feel like a kid again, giddy and invigorated and alive.

The Sea to Sky highway, which you take from Vancouver up to Whistler Blackcomb, is beautiful in a my-heart-is-smiling-ear-to-ear kind of way. I think, on a clear day, this has to be the most spectacular drive in North America (though I've done some drives in California that come pretty close).

And then, obviously, Whistler itself is pretty incredible. Not so much the resort part, with the blah food and dumb après bars where the likes of Paris Hilton hang out (sick). But, the mountains, man. The mountains are ridiculously beautiful. The last day, we took the gondola up to the midpoint of Whistler mountain. It was sunny and snowing at the same time, and the snowflakes were actually glittering as they swirled in the air.



Just so no one gets the wrong idea: sometimes, it gets cloudy. I didn't mind that so much, though. Neither did Mark.



Also, this was my first extended visit to Vancouver and I have to say that I ♥ Vancouver intensely. I mean, there are the mountains and ocean in the distance, so it has that going for it. And there is beautiful Stanley Park, where I spent an afternoon walking, taking pictures, and peeping on crazy wildlife.



A brief aside: I thought I found a real, live PENGUIN in the middle of Stanley Park. It turns out it was actually a Great Blue Heron, who totally fooled me with his slouchy posture into thinking he was a penguin very, very far from home. Crazy birds!



Back to Vancouver and why I like it so much. There are all the distinct, interesting neighborhoods, kind of like NYC. And then, and then, there is the food. The food scene is insane; I think we tried something completely new and remarkable at every meal. Pristine wild sockeye salmon sashimi. Miso marinated sablefish and eel tempura at a really funky izakaya. Crab xiao long bao. Black vinegar pork ribs. Spicy hand pulled Shanghainese noodles. And we were only there for 2 and 1/2 days.

To wrap it up, we had a really fab time, with the skiing, the eating, the exploring, and the family time with Mark's parents. (I think it's safe to say that I had a slightly better time than Mark, owing to the fact that he had a lot of work to do.) Even the traveling part was not so bad. A 2 1/2 hour delay on the flight there was mitigated by the fact that we both got upgraded; and a long, late flight home was mitigated by another double upgrade and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (is there anything better than Alan Rickman as Snape??). Here is to ending 2009 travels on a very, very good note!

Happy birthday, Mark!

Happy 28th birthday to my husband (ok, yesterday). He would like me to point out that 28 is a perfect number. I think that means 28 is going to be pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

We pre-celebrated on Sunday night with a feast of chicken biryani, red onion pickle, cucumber raita (all from Madhur Jaffrey’s An Invitation to Indian Cooking), and my espresso chocolate chip brownies for dessert, by special request.

We celebrated again on Monday night, with a bottle of cab we bought on our trip to Napa Valley and serious man food (dry aged ribeye steaks, gratin Dauphinois, and garlicky spinach). And I gave Mark my gift: a bottle of 1993 Lagavulin 16 year old Scotch from Islay. Honestly, I usually have trouble coming up with good gifts for Mark but I was pretty psyched about this one. The gift came with a detailed explanation of how, to get it, I had to brave a sea of well-intentioned but aggressive Scotch aficionados at Spec’s pushing $350 bottles on me. (It was rough.)

And, actually, I think his birthday is going to stretch one more day since we plan to celebrate with friends tonight. Check out Mark, way back in 1989!


Excepting the tooth situation, I think he looks exactly the same, no?

P.S. We're off to Vancouver and Whistler in a few days for almost 2 weeks of fun in Canada. Not that we update that often anyway, but I think updating will be sparse for awhile. Things I'm looking forward to: seeing Mark's parents, spending more time exploring Vancouver, eating lots of seafood, finally learning how to get up when I fall skiing, and being in the mountains!

tarte aux pommes

These days, I've had a major thing for fruit desserts. My main squeeze, chocolate, is slowly being edged out. Same with my man on the side, aka anything with heavy whipping cream.

It all started with this sugar plum crumble. And then we made a slew of double crusted pies using Washington State fruit Mark's parents picked and canned just for us. (Are we lucky or what?) And then, last weekend, we made an old favorite: a French apple tart. Tarte aux pommes, if you will. And I will.

You start by making a shortbread crust. It takes a good chunk of time, with the freezing and pre-baking and cooling, but I find this sort of a relaxing way to spend a Sunday morning or afternoon so I'm okay with the time investment. Plus, your house will smell like unadulterated butter and that is just worth it.

Then you'll need to make a simple apple compote by cooking apples, brown sugar, and a dash of vanilla until soft. You spread the compote over the crust, along with a layer of apple slices and a light swipe of apple syrup. Bake. Then, bliss.

This is my favorite apple dessert of all time. Something about the contrast between a very buttery, crumbly crust and the sweet note of apples. Oh, it's good. And it feels fancy, so I like to use our good silver when I'm eating it. But, in reality, it's one of those things that can just as easily be enjoyed standing over the sink before you leave for work (ahem, Mark!). I love it as much as I love the song "Old Man" by Neil Young, which is a lot, like, the type of obsessive love that has been going on since high school, where I listen to the song on repeat, over and over. Tarte aux pommes, I can't quit you.



Tarte aux pommes
(Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Normandy Apple Tart)

Notes:

• Jonagold are my gold standard for both the compote and the sliced apple topping. They aren't too sweet, they keep their shape, and they have a slight spiciness that greatly appeals to me. However, Dorie Greenspan recommends "mealy" apples like Empire, Cortland, or McIntosh for the compote and firm apples like Golden Delicious for the topping.
  
• We think pastry flour (i.e. a combination of all purpose flour and cake flour) is best for this crust, but you can also use ALL all-purpose flour, in which case you can substitute 110 grams all-purpose flour and 48 grams cake flour for the 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour.
  
• Dorie recommends a glaze using apple jelly and water. Not having apple jelly, this is what I did last time: I threw all the apple peels and cores into a small saucepan, added enough water to cover, and cooked everything down. After 20 minutes or so, I strained out the apple trimmings and returned the liquid to the stove along with a few tablespoons of white sugar. Simmer, thicken and voila: apple syrup.
• Finally, instead of making apple compote, you can use a premium quality, store bought apple sauce, as long as it is not too sweet and not too watery. It should be smooth and moderately thick, Dorie says, mounding softly on a spoon.

For the pâte sablée:

• 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (188 grams) * see note # 2
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar (55 grams)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons or 128 grams) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg yolk

1. Place the flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt into a food processor bowl. Pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition.
2. Once the egg has been added, process in long pulses -- about 10 seconds each -- until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. [Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change.] Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
   
3. Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
   
4. To partially bake the crust for the tart: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Patch the crust if necessary, using the dough you reserved earlier, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keeping it in its pan).

For the applesauce:

• 2 pounds (about 6 medium) apples * see note #1 above
• 1/4 cup water, or more
• 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
• 1-4 tablespoons white sugar (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)

For the topping:

• 2 medium apples * see note #1 above
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1/2 teaspoon water, for egg wash

For the glaze:

• About 1/3 cup apple jelly * see note 3 above
• 1 teaspoon water

1. Peel and core the apples, cut into chunks, and add to a medium saucepan. Stir in the water and brown sugar, cover the pan, and put it over medium-low heat. Stir from time to time to keep the apples from scorching and, if the water is boiling away quickly, add a little more. When the apples are soft enough to be mashed with a spoon - 15 to 20 minutes - remove the pan from the heat and pass the apples through a food mill or press them through a sturdy strainer into a bowl.
2. If the apple compote seems thin (if liquid accumulates around the edges), return the sauce to the pan and let cook, stirring constantly, for a few more minutes, until the compote is thick enough to sit up on a spoon. Remove the pan from the heat and return the sauce to the bowl. Taste, adding granulated sugar if you think it needs it (traditionally this sauce is not very sweet) and vanilla, if you like. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate until no longer warm. (The apple compote can be made up to 4 days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered.)
3. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Fill the tart shell almost to the top of the rim with the applesauce and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
   
4. Peel the apples for the topping, cut them in half, and remove the cores. Cut each apple in half lengthwise in half again and, still working lengthwise, cut about 7 slices from each of the quarters (the slices will be very thin). Arrange the slices in slightly overlapping concentric circles on the applesauce, starting at the edge and laying them down so their tips are against the crust. Using a pastry brush, paint the egg wash over the sliced apples.
   
5. Bake the tart for about 50 minutes. The apples should be golden, a little burnt on the edges and soft enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack.
   
6. For the glaze, bring the jelly and the water to a boil (or see note #3 above). When the jelly is liquefied, brush a thin layer of the top of the tart with a pastry brush. Return the pan to the cooling rack and cool until it is just warm or at room temperature.
   

past, present, future. and pasta.

Mark is slowly but surely getting his ducks in a row to finish his grad work and beyond: he has been writing papers nonstop, traveling to conferences, applying for grants, preparing to teach a class next semester, and talking to profs at other schools about postdoc and faculty positions. I have such mixed feelings! On one hand, I'll be sad to move on from this phase of life -- these past few years have been so, so amazing. We have constructed a really nice life for ourselves in Houston, where I have a fun and stimulating job, good friends, and the happiest memories of our undergrad, our wedding, and everything else. Mark and I get to eat lunch together every day, we live in a beautiful neighborhood, and our city's food scene pretty much rules, especially if you want access to every kind of specialty ingredient and almost every kind of cuisine, especially the spicy, complex, exotic ones we favor.

And, besides all that, we have been ridiculously lucky to be able to spend so much time traveling the world together, from Vietnam and Japan to Europe and all over North America. (Mark's awesome advisor has been one of the major reasons for this; bless that man for sending Mark on so many fab trips and thank goodness we've been in the position to fund our not so inexpensive passion for travel.) For a lot of reasons, if Mark told me he was going to be a grad student for 6 MORE years, I would be completely happy about it. And yet... we're both excited about something new. I'll always have a very special place in my heart for Houston for all the reasons I described above -- but I'm also dying to get away. The idea of having a new place (a new city? a new country, maybe?) to explore and to make our own? It just sounds so good.

I was thinking about all this tonight as I was making dinner, while Mark worked on another paper. We have so many things we like to make as a direct result of our travels and people we've met during these travels. This is one of them, something we fell in love with in Italy and is now one of our absolute favorites. Sugo all'amatriciana is a tomato-based sauce for pasta (traditionally, bucatini, or thick round noodles with a hole through the center). In Rome, they make it with onions, garlic, olive oil, pepperoncini, tomatoes, and guanciale, which is delicious, fatty, cured pork jowl. I use the recipe from the Babbo cookbook, though I have to admit that I Americanized it: I use good, thick cut bacon in place of the guanciale and I eat it with al dente spaghetti. Spaghetti is my favorite pasta, for the record, and I don't care if anyone says that is pedestrian. I also don't really care that subbing bacon (which is smoked) for guanciale is an affront to the purists. Anyway, the whole dish is flat out delicious, I promise, especially if you use Mario Batali's recipe for basic tomato sauce, which is redolent of thyme and slightly sweet from the addition of grated carrot, as the base.



Spaghetti all'amatriciana (adapted from Mario Batali's restaurant Babbo and its eponymous cookbook)

Notes on ingredients:

• My favorite canned tomatoes are organic whole Muir Glen tomatoes. I also like La Valle San Marzano tomatoes, though they are hard to find. I'm picky about canned tomatoes but generic are probably going to be fine. You may need to adjust cooking times/seasonings for watery or bland tasting tomatoes, though, which is not a huge deal.
  
• I always use fresh herbs and scratch tomato sauce, though technically you could sub prepared sauce for the recipe here. I can't really speak for how good it will be with dried herbs or jarred tomato sauce though. Who knows? It's highly possible the world will not end. Let me know what you find out.
• Notes on bacon/guanciale/pancetta: Someone really intent on authenticity would seek out the freaking guanciale. Someone mildly concerned with authenticity would use pancetta. Someone who wants to be able to make really good pasta with what she has on hand would just make it with bacon and be happy. Another thing: 3/4 pound of pork product is kind of a decadent amount. Some nights, when I'm feeling reasonable, I cut that amount in half and it still tastes good. However, you should try it with the normal amount, at least for the first time.

For the tomato sauce (makes 4 cups):

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 Spanish onion, chopped in 1/4-inch dice
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
• 1/2 medium carrot, finely grated/shredded (I use the small holes of a box grater)
  
• 2 (28-ounce) cans peeled whole tomatoes, crushed by hand and juices reserved
• Salt and sugar, to taste

1. In a 3 quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium to low-medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and light golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Add the thyme and carrot and cook 5 minutes more, until the carrot is soft and melting into the onion mixture.
   
3. Add the hand crushed tomatoes, with their juices, to the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Lower the heat and simmer until as thick as hot cereal. (Babbo says this should take 30 minutes but this step takes me more like 45 minutes to an hour.)
4. Season to taste. I add a large pinch of kosher salt (or two). You really have to taste your sauce. For instance, sometimes I find that my tomatoes are really acidic, in which case I will add a teaspoon of sugar.

For the spaghetti all'amatriciana (makes approximately 1 1/2 cups, enough for 4)

• ¾ pound guanciale, or pancetta, or good bacon
• 3 garlic cloves
• half of 1 red onion, sliced ½-inch thick
• 1 ½ teaspoons hot red pepper flakes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 ½ cups basic tomato sauce
• 1 pound spaghetti (or bucatini)
  
• Flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
• Pecorino Romano, for grating

1. Being 6 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons of salt.

2. If using guanciale or pancetta, thinly slice. If using bacon, stack a few slices on top of each other and slice in half, length-wise, before cutting into small chunks. Place the guanciale/pancetta/bacon in a 12- to 14-inch sauté pan in a single layer and cook over medium-low heat until most of the fat has been rendered from the meat. Turn occasionally. Remove the meat to a plate lined with paper towels and discard half the fat, leaving the remainder in the pan.

3. To the pan, add the garlic, onion slices, and hot pepper flakes. Return the guanciale/pancetta/bacon to the pan with the vegetables, and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, or until the onions, garlic and guanciale are light golden brown. Add the tomato sauce, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water according to the package directions, until al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the simmering sauce. Add the parsley leaves, increase the heat to high and toss to coat. Divide the pasta among four warmed pasta bowls. Top with freshly grated Pecorino cheese and serve immediately.