As discussed here previously, we’ve been attempting to reconfigure our favorite recipes in a meatless style. Last week we did further testing on veg adaptations of baked rigatoni with béchamel.

In this attempt, we removed the half-pound of prosciutto (as before) and replaced it with

• about a quarter pound of cremini mushroom caps, cleaned and thinly sliced
• a jar of roasted red bell peppers (about four medium peppers), drained and cut into thin strips
• a whole lot more salt and black pepper

Results were very promising. The roasted peppers shone through, accenting the flavor of the cheeses and adding a piquant note to the overall aroma. The mushrooms were quite a bit more subtle in their flavor and aroma, but they added quite a bit of depth to the sauce, and their texture was a welcome variation in the otherwise-consistent chewiness of the overall dish.

I would definitely do this combo again, though further refinement is necessary. I think I may add more mushrooms and use a somewhat saltier cheese (perhaps a nice Parmesan or Romano mixed into the sauce alongside the other cheese[s]). We could also try this with a different type of mushroom — maybe button, maybe morel, definitely shiitake.

More posts on this as the experiments continue.

(Also: heh, I got to use the word “piquant” in a food post.)

Over the weekend Fred and I finally celebrated our first wedding anniversary by going out for a nice dinner. We arrived at the restaurant and perused the drink menu, with my eye immediately landing on “Cucumber martini” with Hendrick’s listed as the first component. I am a gin boy, and I enjoy Hendrick’s, so I figured the other components would enhance the cucumbery goodness therein.

I should have read more. I got a martini glass full of cold neat Hendrick’s with a ribbon of cucumber in it.

Folks: If you don’t put anything else in it, then it isn’t a martini. It’s just gin. Don’t call it a martini if it isn’t a martini.

Last night was the first attempt to re-do some of our favorite recipes in a more vegetarian style. I think this’ll probably work best if you can see where we started — my adaptation of Giada de Laurentiis’s baked rigatoni with béchamel.

Baked Rigatoni with Béchamel, non-veg style

Béchamel — makes four cups
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 small onion, peeled, trimmed of ends, and halved
• 1 dried bay leaf
• Pinch nutmeg
• Pinch pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

Before we begin: YOU CANNOT ALLOW THE MILK OR THE FINISHED SAUCE TO BOIL IN ANY PART OF THIS PROCESS. If you do, then the sauce will not work!

In a small saucepan over low heat, warm milk, onion, and bay leaf for 30 minutes or until rather warm (100 degrees F or so). Discard the onion and bay leaf and reserve the warm flavored milk.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, add flour and whisk for 3-4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and pale blond. Slowly add the warmed milk and whisk continually for about ten minutes or until the sauce is thickened and velvety. Remove from heat and add nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Everything else — serves six ordinary people or three people with my appetite
• 1 lb dried rigatoni
• 4 cups Béchamel sauce (as above)
• 1 cup shredded cheese that melts well — Asiago and Fontina work beautifully here, by themselves or together
• 1/2 lb prosciutto, sliced thin then cut into thin strips
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Grated Parmesan or Romano for the top

Preheat oven to 425 F. Use the olive oil to grease the bottom and sides of a 13×9″ glass or ceramic baking dish.

Warm Béchamel if it is not already there. (Remember - don’t let it boil.) Add half the shredded cheese and all the prosciutto and whisk until the cheese is melted and the prosciutto is well-mixed.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt liberally and add rigatoni. Cook for a few minutes less than the package directions; we’ll finish cooking in the oven. (It should be chewy, but not al dente.) Drain.

Combine the partially-cooked pasta with the enhanced Béchamel and pour into greased baking dish. Top with the remaining shredded cheese, dust that with some grated Parmesan or Romano, and dot the whole thing with the softened butter. Bake for 25 minutes or until the sauce bubbles and the cheese on top turns golden brown. Let cool for five minutes, then serve either on its own or with a green salad.

It’s a little more labor-intensive than we normally do, but the effort is well worth it, especially on cold rainy/snowy/icy/blah nights like we had last night. You can also assemble everything, then cover it and stash it in the refrigerator for a few hours before uncovering and baking.

Since we’re doing without pork at home now, we substituted 1 red bell pepper (cored, seeded, and cut into very thin strips) for the prosciutto. It was pretty good, but kind of bland. I think I didn’t compensate enough for the prosciutto’s saltiness, which was just enough to make the other flavors stand out. Also, in retrospect, I could have sliced a couple rings from the pepper and put them on top of the dish for presentation’s sake. (Then again, it was a very tasty pepper on its own, and I probably would have eaten several rings before they made it onto the dish. As it was, I ate quite a few strips while the pasta was cooking.

I think the next time I may either add more salt; melt a saltier shredded cheese into the Béchamel; or try a different vegetable or combination of vegetables. (I don’t want to make this into “Lots of Vegetables with a Little Pasta and Cheese Bake”, though; the pasta and sauce are the stars here.) Mushrooms would be pretty good with this. A jar of roasted red peppers or quartered artichoke hearts may also do nicely, if they’re packed in brine. I wouldn’t do olives here, though.

First, the big news: we’re in the process of slowly moving to a vegetarian kitchen (specifically ovo-lacto). It’s primarily for personal-health reasons, and I promise that neither of us will become militant about it.

Outside of the home, Fred’s going to try sticking to vegetarianism, but I am free to carnivorate (new word, ha) as the urge strikes. As a result, members of my family should note that uttering “oh, Jim, I thought you were a vegetarian, what are you doing ordering the ribs?” in a mocking tone will earn you the “what kind of inattentive moron are you?” look.

Fred had the original veg idea, but the gradual transition is my idea. I tried quitting meat cold turkey (sorry, bad pun) when I was in high school, and it wasn’t too long before my body said “Seriously, WTF?!”. (It didn’t help that I had little control over my options then.) As a result, I suggested that we eliminate one type of meat at a time, take a month or so to adjust, then re-evaluate. We took our first step at the beginning of February by striking beef from the shopping list. (Health-wise, it looks like we timed it sort of well.) So far I think it’s gone well, so we’re on track to eliminate pork at the beginning of March, with seafood and poultry later down the road. Fred’s already a bit concerned about having to give up chicken, but I don’t think we’ll think of ourselves as failures if poultry is still occasionally found in our refrigerator or freezer.

As the veg experiment continues we’ll tinker with our favorite recipes to see if we can find suitable alternatives. I already have a few ideas in the baked-pasta realm, which I hope to work on soon (mostly because baked pasta just doesn’t work in July).

One unexpected bonus of the no-beef experiment: our grocery bill is noticeably cheaper. It’s only a couple bucks per week at the moment, but that should add up faster as we phase out other meats. (That’s also a few extra dollars we can devote to other things, like cookies. Mmm, cookies.)

More on the veg front as things develop.

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I’ve been baking lately. A lot. To the extent that we’ve stopped buying bread with our other groceries, because I’m baking it instead. (Well, OK. I have mechanical assistance, but still.)

There’s something mystical, almost alchemical, about baking bread. I can’t help but think that I should be chanting or invoking Ceres or something as I carefully measure out the flour, or thump a fresh loaf to test its doneness, or enjoy the steam escaping from the first cut.

+++

Still doing lots of pasta, because

1. it’s cold out
2. it’s really dry inside (boiling water -> steam -> humidity -> skin no longer itches)
3. pasta is fast
4. pasta is easy
5. pasta is inexpensive
6. pasta is tasty
7. pasta is very versatile

[Gluten-sensitive persons are probably all shuddering right now with all this talk of bread and pastas, but I feel obligated to note that we aren't just doing traditional semolina-based pastas. Many modern stores have pastas based on non-semolina flours, and some are rather good. Trader Joe's has good brown rice pasta, as long as you don't overcook it.

Bread-wise... well, we're still working on technique with the regular stuff, so we haven't gotten to gluten-free yet.]

Anyway. Sauce-wise, we’re experimenting a bit. I’ve been working more on my Béchamel, warming the milk gradually with onion and bay before whisking it into the roux, and I think that the improved texture and extra flavors make it work better (especially as a base for a cheese sauce). We’re also digging through cookbooks for things we haven’t tried yet, especially if they involve pancetta or prosciutto or bacon.

And yes, we do just crack open a jar of store-bought sauce from time to time. As an inveterate fiddler, though, I usually wind up adding something to the mix. Historically that has been ground beef or bulk Italian sausage, but sauteed mushrooms also work beautifully in just about every sauce I can think of.

Not much to say tonight. Now that the tooth is no longer inflamed, we can do the holidayish stuff that we had skipped a week and a half ago. This includes shopping, which is actually better right after Christmas IMHO (lower prices, lower incidence of drama).

We’re staying in tonight. The bubbly is chilling in the fridge, and tomorrow’s breakfast (pain au chocolat) is about to start proofing (it needs nine hours). As long as the weather holds, the in-laws are coming over for a belated Yule, with an extra-special dinner ingredient (we may be exchanging gifts, but it’s still New Year’s Day). Since said in-laws don’t care for the taste of black-eyed peas, we’ll be making a chicken spezzatino but with black-eyed peas in place of the usual kidney or cannellini beans.

Met up with bastique and his beloved last night as they passed through. (they’re moving from St. Petersburg to San Francisco, and driving the whooooole way.) Couldn’t stay long — they were trying to overnight in KC, and it was early-dinner-hour when they arrived in STL — but it was nice to actually put a physical presence to the username. (Plus, I got a stack of Wikipedia stickers.)

Crunching kernel on the “bronze” Powerbook G3 I mentioned here earlier. Yup, I got it free, with an AC adapter and second battery to boot. It needs a name, and unfortunately the one that keeps coming to mind is “rupaul”. (Word heard often today was “super” and in researching specs I kept seeing “model”; in installing Portage I had to go for a “snapshot”; lots of going “back to my root[s]” [partition]; and, of course, the translucent keyboard is quite fierce.) Perhaps I should figure out where this laptop’s booty is and put a star on it…

Time for me to stop blogging and gear up for the stroke of midnight and the onset of another election year. Remember: no matter what happens in the days to come, the long arc of history swings upward. (it’s just sometimes too long for us to see its true direction.)