Pasta with Corn, Pancetta, Butter & Sage - or - Happy Puppy Dance in the Kitchen

My uncle, the Harry the Foodie, sent me a lovely gift after my last visit: The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rogers. This book is, as Harry told me, a philosophy of cooking. In sum: 1) observe everything at every stage with all relevant senses; 2) keep track of these observations; 3) keep adjusting until you find yourself doing the Happy Puppy Dance in front of the stove. In kind, my thank-you note is waiting for slightly colder weather so that I can send it happily bundled with with pork products. (I'm trying to find the good in frost warnings. It's a green tomato party, not "Crap, my plants are frozen" Day.)

I have been studying this book in what spare time I have, and beginning to apply the principles to my cooking adventures. As I was looking up approximate quantities for bird-salting, I came across the creatively titled Pasta with Corn, Pancetta, Butter & Sage. Seeing as I had everything but the corn on hand, and the grocery store is a 10 minute walk, I went for it. I halved the recipe seeing as there are only the two of us (plus the cat, but he is very small and does not need pasta - he did get some pancetta, though). There were still leftovers (about 2 full cups) that I think will be quite excellent. The bright side of the rather vast quantity of fat in this recipe (other than it tastes awesome) is that that it is very satisfying. You know your appetite better than I do. Scale accordingly.

Be forewarned: this recipe is an excuse to use butter. Go with it. Be kind to your arteries on another night, but this one...we'll just call it a sometimes food. And don't forget to do the Happy Puppy Dance. That is the best part.

You will need (for a half-recipe):

1.5 oz pancetta, minced (please see pork products, above)
~a stick of butter (we're getting all Paula up in here)
Some water
4 big and healthy sage leaves, roughly chopped (I remove the biggest stem from mine)
Freshly cracked black pepper
8 oz pasta of your choice (I used a small rigatoni, but the original calls for something fettucini-ish)
Salt
the kernels sliced off of 2 ears of the best sweet corn you can find (I'm sure this would be better in June, but it was still great in September)

Get your pasta water started. Salt approximately 1 t of salt per 1 quart of water.

Melt 1-2 T of butter in your favorite skillet (I used a 10" cast iron) over medium-low heat. Throw in the pancetta and stir/scrape until it has browned very slightly on the edges and it begins to sizzle in the fat. Kill the heat and drop in a tiny bit (seriously, tiny bit) of water to cool the pan. Add another 2-3 T butter and then dump in the sage and black pepper to taste. Swirl the pan so the sage and pepper can infuse the butter.

Your water should be boiling now. Throw in your pasta and cook it until it is al dente (did I mention that cooking is the ONE thing in life that I can successfully multitask?).

When your pasta is a couple minutes out, put the skillet back on on a medium heat. Dump in the rest of the butter and swirl until the butter is melted. Throw in the corn and stir. Cook this just until the corn is heated all the way through. (If your corn is dry, she says to add a dribble of pasta water. I didn't have this problem, so I didn't do it.) Adjust your saltiness at this point. Reduce the heat to low to just keep the corn/savories warm.

Drain your perfectly al dente pasta and toss with the sauce. Adjust your saltiness again. You should be doing the Happy Puppy Dance by this point.

She also says to serve with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. This is the only part of the recipe that I didn't think was necessary.

Public Service

It has occurred to me that the internet has insufficient pictures of kittens. Please allow me to do my part to remedy this tragedy. This is Mycroft:

This is pretty much how he spent is his first day home. Mark and I got him from the Ozaukee Humane Society yesterday (after I spent the previous 24 hours cyber-stalking a kitten, hoping that no one else would steal him from me). He is 11 weeks old and was found as a stray two weeks ago. He is a bit skittish, but very affectionate. I think he'll grow out of the former and more into the latter.

As of today, he is willing to be out from under the bookshelf while Mark and I are in the room, but he still does not like when we are standing up or walking. I think we are too big for him.

He's starting to take the high ground, and I think in a few days he will be ready to venture from the office into the rest of the house. We've got a bit of work to do to get ready for him.

Shephardish Pie

I'm having one of those days where I leave my USB drive in the lab that I don't have a key to, my code won't compile for me (but for my friend), I get distracted by shiny things, and look at kittens on the internet (I will cut someone if they adopt my kitty before I get to him). Let's hark back to times of much, much greater success.





This recipe is the result of a fridge cleaning expedition gone right. Mark and I were going to make pizza, then we didn't. Then I decided that I wanted to make pasties. Then I was too lazy to make crusts. Then I decided to make a shepherd's pie. Then I remembered that I don't like shepherd's pie. Then I threw stuff in a pan. It was awesome.

You will need:
3 small leeks, quartered lengthwise and diced
12 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 lb cooked mild Italian sausage, cooked
~1/4 c. roughly chopped sage
~1/2 c. apple cider
3 T butter
salt
pepper
1-2 potatoes, sliced

Heat the oven to ~350 deg. F (or somewhere there about)

Saute the leeks in 2T butter in a pan/skillet until they start smelling really, really good. Throw in the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have given off their liquids and are starting to caramelize. Now add the Italian sausage, sage, and apple cider. Salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer all of this into some sort of casserole/oven-proof dish. Arrange the potato slices so that they cover the filling completely. dot with the remaining 1 T of butter. Bake for ~20 minutes and then move to top rack and broil until the potatoes are starting to brown and crisp up.

This doesn't really bind to itself, so it makes a pile of food on the plate, but it makes up for relatively poor presentation by having a great personality.