No images? Click here Bacon and Egg Mazemen What if you took pasta carbonara but made it with alkaline noodles instead? That sounds great! But what if, instead of just subbing in ramen for spaghetti, you took the idea further, offering a carbonara-ish flavor profile but added in some flavors that are more identifiably Japanese: soy sauce, mirin, and the savory, smoky shaved flakes of fermented, smoked, cured, and dried bonito? Well, then you'd be some kind of ramen genius. Ingredient rec Katsuobushi (Shaved Dried Bonito Flakes) Katsuobushi is a Japanese pantry staple, but it isn't strictly necessary for this recipe. However, it does add a smoky, savory complexity that makes the dish especially delicious. More uses for those ramen noodles |
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
What to do with your ramen noodles
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Easy pasta with spicy tomato sauce
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 |
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 |