No images? Click here Pasta With Spicy 'Nduja-Tomato Sauce The best weeknight pasta recipes are ones that call for just a handful of pantry ingredients, involve very little prep work, but still come with a big flavor payoff. This recipe more than fits the bill. It's essentially a tomato-based meat sauce, but there's no raw ground meat to brown or cured pork to slowly render over low heat. Instead, this sugo gets its meaty richness from one of our favorite salumi: 'nduja. Nduja's high fat content, which gives it a soft, spreadable texture, also allows it to easily emulsify and meld into a quick tomato sauce made with just a couple of shallots (perfect for those of us who don't love ending up with a fridge full of forgotten half-onions), and a bottle of tomato passata, an Italian pantry favorite of puréed but not cooked-down tomatoes, which is used as a cheat code for quick sauces. The kitchen essential Minimize splatter as you combine your pasta, sauce, and 'duja with a straight-sided sauté pan, like this one by Tramontina. More quick and easy dinners |
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Easy pasta with spicy tomato sauce
The best stainless-steel skillets
Our latest equipment review. No images? Click here The Best Stainless-Steel SkilletsA skillet is an essential tool for sautéing—its curved sides and relatively light weight make it easy to stir and toss ingredients for rapid, even cooking—and it does a bang-up job roasting smaller portions of vegetables, fish, and meat—like steaks, chops, chicken breasts, and more. In a larger 12-inch skillet, you can even roast a whole bird. To clarify, we're not talking about cast-iron skillets or carbon-steel ones, and we're not including nonstick options nor the inexpensive aluminum dealios you're more likely to find in a restaurant supply store. For this equipment review, we're looking specifically at stainless-steel skillets, those nearly indestructible mainstays that, thanks to their nonreactive stainless exteriors, are perfectly suited for building pan sauces, no matter the acidity of the ingredient—not something one can say for reactive cast iron, carbon steel, and aluminum. If you're in the market for a new stainless-steel skillet, the question is, which should you get? We tested 25 fully clad stainless-steel skillets to find our favorites. Skip to the winners! Made-In's skillet heated evenly and showed itself to be responsive to changes in heat. It seared chicken breasts beautifully and was easy and comfortable to hold and toss during sautéing tests. It's a solid, no-nonsense skillet at a reasonable price. The Tramontina's sides slope up a little too leisurely, reducing the usable floor for searing, but the overall performance was still strong. The price tends to fluctuate a bit, but it generally hovers about $30 less than our top pick, making it a strong contender if saving a few Benjamins is a priority. Check out more of our equipment reviews |
Thursday, March 12, 2020
The secret ingredient for better scrambled eggs
No images? Click here 'Nduja Scrambled Eggs Recently, we've been talking up spicy, salty, porky 'nduja and how well-suited it is to enhancing quick and easy weeknight dinner recipes, like a white bean stew or a pot of steamed mussels. Here, we turn the tables and add our favorite Calabrian sausage to a no-rush weekend cooking recipe: soft-scrambled eggs. 'Nduja's high fat content, which gives it its soft, spreadable texture, also allows it to easily emulsify and meld into the creamy curds of scrambled eggs. As the eggs cook slowly and gently over low heat, they take on a vibrant orange-red hue and floral heat from the Calabrian chilies that flavor the sausage. The savory richness from the pork fat is balanced by the sausage's fermented tang, for a bright, funky finish. The next time your loved ones request bacon and eggs for breakfast, make 'nduja scrambled eggs instead. The kitchen essential A nonstick pan ensures that your curds will slide easily onto your plate without any bits left behind. More eggcellent egg recipes |