Hi, hello.
“There's not and will never be a "I like to unwind from watching an armed insurrection on live TV by roasting chicken." There's no "Wow, really, they didn't see this coming? Welp, let's go slice some cabbage!" There's no, "I cannot believe the force with which police responded to peaceful protestors last summer in comparison to what I saw yesterday but my kids demanded I stopped yelling at Twitter long enough to feed them anyway."
But I am here, in the same place as the rest of us, angry and worried. And also, I still need to make dinner. Hope you get to refuel with something delicious tonight; we all need it.”
Deb said it best. I hope you’re caring for yourself and your people as best you can, and that — if you want to — you get the chance to throw yourself into making something delicious this week. If it’s too much, there is always pizza.
What I made for dinner
I have a handful of dishes on rotation for weeknights that follow the same basic formula: noodles + vegetables blanched and (mostly) blended into a sauce = dinner.
Recipes like kale sauce pasta, rigatoni with Roman broccoli sauce and creamy cauliflower shells with pecorino and breadcrumbs. I didn’t grow up in a household with strong attachments to vegetables so yes, I do employ tactics here that are usually reserved for parents trying to get their toddlers to eat their dinner. But it’s not entirely like you’re putting one over on yourself. The vegetables here are just made all the more enjoyable riding on the coattails of pasta.
That’s why I was happy to find a recipe for shells with artichoke sauce and spinach in Jenny Rosenstrach’s new Dinner A Love Story newsletter last week. Rosenstrach’s recipe repurposes an artichoke dressing from Amy Chaplin’s book “Whole Food Cooking Every Day” and pairs it with pasta.
This can be made vegan if that’s your cup of tea (no parm) or gluten-free with the right kind of noodles. If you want more protein, add meatballs, tinned sardines or a scoop of cooked white beans. Is this essentially a bowl of noodles coated in Applebee’s Spinach and Artichoke Dip? Yes, so lean into it.
Shells with Artichoke Sauce and Spinach
Source: Adapted slightly from Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach
Serves 4
1 pound pasta (Rosenstrach calls for shells, I used and am partial to pipe rigate)
2 14-ounce cans artichoke hearts, drained
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 shallot, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or grated on a microplane
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
a few handfuls of baby spinach or 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
Grated parmesan, for serving
Cook the pasta in a large pot of generously salted water, following package instructions to get it to your preferred level of al dente. Save one cup of the pasta water before draining and then hang on to that pot.
While your pasta is cooking, whiz the artichokes, the 1/3 cup of olive oil and lemon juice in a blender or food processor until everything is saucy and resembles a smooth hummus (you’ll probably have to scrape the sides down once or twice). Taste and adjust to your liking with salt and pepper.
Set the pot you used to make your pasta back over medium heat and, once hot, add the 2 remaining tablespoons of olive oil. Toss in the shallot, garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes and cook, stirring occasionally, until everything is soft and slightly golden, about 2 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-low and slowly add the artichoke mixture to the pot. Keep stirring to get everything acquainted. Once your shallots and garlic disappear into the sauce, pour in your reserved pasta water a bit at a time, continuing to stir until the sauce is warm and reaches your preferred consistency. Turn the heat to low and then add in the shells and spinach, stirring until spinach wilts, about 2 more minutes.
Serve in bowls topped with parmesan.
Other things I made for dinner:
Pressure cooker Indian butter shrimp. This turned out a bit soupy and we weren’t blown away by the spice profile. I don’t think we’d make it again. I have Urvashi Pitre’s “Indian Instant Pot Cookbook” on order and I’m really looking forward to giving that a go instead, given Pitre’s cult following and nickname “the Butter-Chicken Lady.”
Green shakshuka with avocado and lime. This recipe has you nest your eggs in swiss chard instead of the traditional shakshuka base of tomatoes. I would bump up the amount of greens next time or add a scoop of refried beans to the finished product because the amount of chard called for didn’t make it as much of a meal as I would have liked. I did like the tip they provided about how to make a lid out of foil if your skillet doesn’t have one. Maybe after dinner you can can repurpose that foil for hats and act out the couch scene from Signs (but without Mel Gibson, he sucks).
What I’m reading:
Richard Olney’s “Simple French Food”: I made an honest woman out of myself and became a paid subscriber to Paula Forbes’s Stained Page News earlier this month. Paid subscribers get access to the SPN Cult Cookbooks Club, where the plan is to read and cook through a different cookbook every two months. This book is our first pick so expect some recipes from this in the coming weeks!
Refreshing the recipe rules of L.A. Times Cooking: A thorough explainer on how and why the L.A. Times is making changes to their recipes.
“As anyone who has watched “Schitt’s Creek” can attest, the directive to “fold in” an ingredient is not as easily understood as those of us who write recipes may think.”
Other ephemera from this week:
I love Cooking with Lynja.
A final note, for those of you patient enough to stick around until to the end: if there’s ever a recipe mentioned here that is either A) inaccessible to you because of the source website’s paywall or B) from a book that you don’t have on hand, give me a shout and I’ll get it to you.
See you next week!