Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Well hello dear readers! Nice of you to join me here, at this oft-neglected blog of mine. Work has taken a turn for the busier, and I've not been posting as much as I'd like. The craziness will likely continue through the end of the month, but then I'm home free and will post much more! Meanwhile, thanks for hangin' in there. And you'll be handsomely rewarded for your patience -- I have a couple of smashingly delicious recipes in the queue.

As you may have noticed, it's pretty smokin' hot these days. For those of us city folks without a porch, grilling isn't much of an option, but nonetheless, I try to minimize indoor cooking as much as possible during summer months. This orzo salad requires no oven time, and just around 20 minutes of stovetop cooking. It can also be tweaked in any number of ways; as usual, the recipe I provide here is entirely a function of what was in my fridge when I made it, and you should listen to your fridge's innards just as carefully.

The lovely thing about orzo salad -- how can I pick just one! -- is that it's the perfect picnic dish. Part side, part main, nutritious, tasty at room temperature, it really behaves itself on the gingham tablecloth. I served this a couple weeks ago for lunch alongside mini crustless mushroom quiches (delicious, though I've no pictures to prove it). However, it's just delightful on its own, as well.

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

• 2 1/2 cups orzo
• 1 bunch kale, de-stemmed and chopped
• 1/2 cup sundried tomatoes*
• 1 block feta cheese
• 1 can of cannellini beans
• 1/2 a yellow onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

*If sundried tomatoes are packed in oil, roughly chop them. If they are dry, soak them in a bit of warm water for 10-20 minutes to reconstitute.

Cook orzo according to package directions. Strain water, reserving just a bit to prevent clumping. Set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat a few Tbsp. of olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion, and cook slowly until it begins to caramelize, about 15 min. When the onion is translucent and has begun to turn golden, add chopped kale, some salt, and a splash of water, and cook for about 5 minutes until kale has wilted. Remove from the heat and add immediately to orzo, tossing to combine.

Add beans and sundried tomatoes; stir to incorporate. Chop feta into cubes, and add just before serving. Taste the salad; if it needs some acidity, add some red wine vinegar. I ended up adding about 1/4 cup. Add salt and pepper as needed, and finish with a scant drizzle of olive oil.

**Ideas for tweaking (and beyond): - spinach, feta, cherry tomatoes, basil - rainbow chard, pine nuts, goat cheese - cucumbers, red peppers, feta, mint - mushrooms, goat cheese, fresh thyme - pears, gorgonzola, walnuts

Sweet-Tart-Crunchy Skirt Steak Salad

If you haven't noticed, we at NDP eat almost all vegetarian food. Meat and poultry rarely make their way into our weekly diet, and I personally couldn't be happier. I can't say the same for my co-habitant, but who makes the food? I do. That's right. An important distinction: I am NOT a vegetarian. No, no, no. That would never be. Every once in a while, I really, just really really need some meat. When that happens, I like to humor D with a little beefy deliciousness.

I've been seeing skirt steak everywhere lately, from other blogs to Top Chef and beyond. It's a summer favorite because it cooks up in minutes, and it's lovely on salad. It also happens to be particularly flavorful, which can't hurt. We picked some up on our way home this afternoon, and my usual patient self decided to make it right away. I'd tagged an epicurious recipe for skirt steak with wine sauce, which I imagine was intended to serve as a main dish, but as I had a hankering for spinach salad tonight, I plopped the saucy steak on top of a bed of leaves.

Not to sound like a broken record, but you can make a thousand variations of the salad I made tonight. In fact, I've probably made spinach salad at least 30 different ways during my measly 25 years. Granted, not all varieties would go well with wine-flavored skirt steak, but lots would. I happened to have some plump dried cherries that D's mom sent me a while back, as well as my favorite "crunchy mix" consisting of sesame seeds, sliced almonds, and raw crushed-up ramen noodles that I'd toasted. I threw both of those in with the spinach, dressed it all with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a few drops of pomegranate syrup, and laid slices of steak on top. So long as your skirt steak isn't loaded with fat and connective tissue as mine was, I guarantee you'll have a delicious dinner.

Sweet-Tart-Crunchy Skirt Steak Salad

1 1/2 lb skirt steak, cut into 4 pieces 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 3/4 cup dry red wine 4 fresh thyme sprigs 1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Pat steak dry and sprinkle all over with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook steaks, turning over once, 5 to 7 minutes total for medium-rare. Transfer to a platter.

Pour off fat from skillet, then add wine, thyme, bay leaf, sugar, and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil, scraping up brown bits. Continue to boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add any meat juices on platter, then remove from heat and discard bay leaf and thyme. Slice steaks thinly, drizzle with pan sauce, and serve.

Sweet-Tangy-Crunchy Spinach Salad

3/4 cups loosely packed spinach 1/2 cup dried cherries (or substitute cranberries, raisins, black currants, etc) 1/8 cup sesame seeds 1/4 cup sliced and/or slivered almonds 1/2 cup ramen noodles, raw and crushed

2 Tbsp good olive oil 4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 Tbsp pomegranate syrup salt and pepper to taste

In a 350-degree oven, toast noodles, almonds and sesame seeds until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely. Aside from that, you know the drill -- combine the dressing ingredients; drizzle over the salad ingredients; eat.

Whole Wheat Leek and Onion Tart

File this under "unexpectedly delicious." When I developed the recipe for this tart, I purposefully avoided making the center quiche-like. I wanted a cheesy filling laced with caramelized leeks and onions; a quiche, eggy and milky, is a whole different thing. That said, eggs make things hold together and puff a bit in the oven, so I was concerned that my eggless tart filling would be dense and soggy, and might even disintegrate once sliced. Not so, my friends, not so. This was truly an unanticipated success, and perhaps the best thing on my dinner table last Friday night.

The key was caramelizing the hell out of onions and leeks; I'm talking half an hour over low heat, first covered, then uncovered, so that the onions shrunk into a big ole' pile of sweet brown goo (gosh, that sounds appetizing) and the leeks also emitted their natural sugar. This step was the longest and most annoying, as it essentially consisted of watching a pot, but I got to stir every once in a while to keep from falling asleep.

After the onions and leeks were fully caramelized and cooled, I added them and a bunch of chopped herbs to 2 cups of soft, curded cheese. My preference is a mix of farmer cheese and ricotta (mostly farmer cheese). If you use ricotta, you may want to set it in a strainer lined with paper towels for 1/2 and hour or so, to let some of the moisture drain out. Since farmer cheese is essentially drained cottage cheese, it's relatively dry.

As for the crust, I used a recipe for basic pie dough, and altered it so that 1/2 the flour was whole wheat. Overall, the crust tasted good and had the right flaky-crunchy consistency; however, even though I blind-baked it before adding the filling, the bottom of the crust got a bit, uh, less-than-crunchy by the time I served it. You'll be happiest with your results if you fill the crust just before baking and serving it. But do make this one, because it won a fan base quickly and I imagine I'll be making it again soon. Friday night guests, stay tuned.

Whole Wheat Leek and Onion Tart serves 8

For the crust(adapted from a recipe on chow.com):

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small pieces
• 4 to 5 tablespoons ice water

Combine flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender, stand mixer, or your hands, cut butter into flour until the butter is dispersed throughout and the mixture is in pea-sized bits.
1. Add 4 Tbsp. ice water and mix just until dough comes together; only add the 5th Tbsp. if you need to, and do not overwork the dough or it will become tough.
2. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

For the Filling:

• 2 medium white onions, chopped
• 2 medium leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced lengthwise and chopped into half-moons
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme (or half tsp. dried)
• 2 tsp. fresh marjoram (1 tsp. dried)
• 1 Tbsp. fresh parsley (1/2 Tbsp. dried)
• 2 cups soft curded cheese, drained if necessary
• salt and pepper

1. Caramelize onions and leeks in a fair amount of olive oil (enough to generously coat a heavy-bottomed skillet) and a bit of salt, over low heat for at least 1/2 an hour. Start with them covered, which allows them to soften from the steam; after 20 minutes or so, uncover them and stir regularly, until they have shrunk considerably and have turned caramel-brown.
2. After cooling the onions and leeks, add them and all the herbs to the 2 cups of cheese. Salt and season to taste.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the crust: remove from the refrigerator, and roll on a floured surface until the dough is about 1 1/2 inches wider than your tart pan.
4. Wrap the dough over the rolling pin, transfer to the tart pan, and carefully lay it inside.
5. Delicately press the dough into the crevices of the pan, and use a knife to trim the edges of the crust.
6. Fill the crust with uncooked rice or beans, pie weights, or another pie dish, and bake in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes.
7. Set out on a counter, uncovered, to cool completely.
8. Before serving, fill the crust with your cheese mixture, bake at 350 for 15 minutes, and serve immediately.

Pasta Puttanesca

I am notoriously bad at making decisions. When we eat out, I always order last, often oscillating between two or three choices to the very last second. "What do you want to do tonight?" is my least favorite question. I'm not gonna tell you that it's different in Italian restaurants -- i still take forever to make up my darn mind -- but when in doubt, I unwaveringly choose pasta puttanesca. It may even be the benchmark by which I judge an italian joint. For D, that's gnocchi; if the gnocchi is bad, the place ain't worth it. But I'd happily forgo plump, soft gnocchi anyday for a solid bowl of homemade pasta and that delightfully salty and spicy puttanesca sauce.

Puttanesca is ideally eaten with penne or another tubular pasta that holds the sauce nicely. I happened to have cavatelli from Vace, a fantastic Italian market and pizza shop nearby, so I used that. Cavatelli are small disks of pasta that have been rolled from both ends to resemble miniature hot dog buns; when cooked, they're unctuous and toothsome -- fantastic for really biting into.

Pasta Puttanesca serves 2-3

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, mashed or chopped
• 1/4 of a large onion, chopped coarsely
• about 5 anchovies in salt (preferably) or oil (will do)
• a healthy tsp. chili flakes, more if desired
• 1/2 cup kalamata or other black olives, chopped (or whole if you're an olive fiend as I am)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp. capers
• 2 cans good canned tomatoes or 3 cups of your favorite homemade tomato sauce

1. Add the olive oil to a heavy-bottomed pot, and saute the garlic and onion over medium heat.
2. Add the anchovies and chili flakes and stir until the anchovy starts to break down, about two minutes.
3. Add canned tomatoes or tomato sauce, and stir to combine. Let simmer for -- oh, about two seconds, just until the flavors introduce themselves to each other.
4. Add to fresh, just-boiled pasta, toss to combine, and eat up!