A Hungry Bear

chicken and mushroom ragu

Monday, November 10, 2008

My bolognese sauce is my favorite accompaniment for pasta, but I don’t always have 2 hours to let it simmer. For another protein-rich option, I tried this 20 minute option for chicken “ragu” from October’s issue of Gourmet. Next time I won’t pulse the mushrooms in a food processor - maybe chop them [...]

mario’s chicken parmesan

Sunday, September 7, 2008

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I never eat chicken parmesan, never order it, never crave it. I think when I was younger, the only times I would run into it would be at some Olive Garden type of place, where “chicken parm” is just a vehicle for grease and low-quality cheese. But when I saw this picture in [...]

wild mushroom crostini

Thursday, September 4, 2008

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The same great article in Bon Appetit (“Molto Americano” - new Italian restaurant recipes) that featured the SPQR lamb cacciatore also had a recipe for the side dish I made that night: wild mushroom crostini, from Baltimore’s Cinghiale restaurant. All that was involved was toasting some slices of bread, sauteing some wild mushrooms, and topping with [...]

lamb cacciatore

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

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Ah, one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is SPQR. I originally read about it in Food & Wine magazine, and took my little brother there for his birthday. We were fortunate enough to get seats at the “chef’s counter” - basically a bar setup over the kitchen, where you can watch [...]

sausage, peppers and fresh mozzarella pasta

Sunday, August 31, 2008

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I have a coworker friend who told me about a great sausage and pepper recipe that his family loves which I’ve been thinking about for some time. I intend to try his actual recipe very soon - it sounds perfect for football Sundays. If I understood him correctly, he takes up to 6 [...]

why have I not heard of this? rich tomato sausage pasta with olives

Sunday, July 27, 2008

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I was looking for a baked pasta recipe on epicurious the other day - I wanted to find an easy-ish recipe that I could make, divide into 2 batches and freeze half of it for future use. I came across this recipe as the most reviewed, highest rated baked pasta in their archive, from [...]

grilled salmon with basil aioli

Monday, June 30, 2008

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What I’m about to tell you is a true story, and hopefully no one will get in trouble for it… The other day my neighbor, who works for a major airline here in Atlanta, knocked frantically on my door. She was holding a plastic bag and practically jumping with excitement. What’s was [...]

green 3 cheese ravioli + tomato sauce with garlic and basil (”alla carrettiera”)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

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In Marcella Hazan’s “essentials of classic italian cooking”, she talks about the “only” 2 ways to EVER make fresh pasta dough: basic egg pasta (covered numerous times, albeit imperfectly, on this blog), and “green” pasta. Green pasta incorporates fresh spinach right into the dough - and why did I think I needed even more [...]

is it summer in atlanta or winter in northern italy?

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

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This is what I made for dinner last night: roast beef braised in red wine and artichoke risotto. Makes perfect sense for a 93 degree day in Atlanta…?? Let me explain. Last week I was in Sri Lanka (yes, I sandbag my blog posts sometimes), and although the food was delicious, I [...]

tagliatelle with spinach

Monday, June 16, 2008

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This is a simple recipe from The Silver Spoon, a huge cookbook that proclaims itself “Italy’s best selling cookbook for 50 years” (I don’t know if this is true, but it the several of the 2000+ recipes I’ve tried so far have been great). I’m always looking for new ways to dress up fresh [...]