pasta is yummy.

there’s no getting around it. and why would you even try? it’s filling, homey, comforting, and so versatile it’s ridiculous. you could eat pasta every day for a year and not repeat a recipe (and probably get huge and never want to leave the house, but that’s beside the point).

i usually eat pasta few times a week, either at home or out. this is not exactly intentional – as much as i love it, i should choose healthier alternatives. i prefer fresh pasta, naturally, but we always have boxes of dried pasta around for emergency situations. and sometimes, mac & cheese is really the only thing that will do when it’s 2am and you desperately need something to eat.

(and lately, i’ve had mac & cheese on the brain. i was the food stylist for a boston food blogger’s cookbook last week, dan whalen of the food in my beard, and he’s not shy about using mac & cheese in absolutely debaucherous ways. example:

you see what i’m saying. when presented with deep fried mac & cheese balls – complete with lobster – one must eat. but i digress.)

in my endless pursuit of delicious meals that won’t make me gain 20 pounds, i’ve been intrigued by this veggie pasta trend. not just for spaghetti squash anymore, chefs and home cooks alike are using zucchini, squash, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, and tons of other vegetables to mimic the shape and texture of traditional pasta noodles – but with much more nutritional value, and far less calories. i’m sure you’ve heard of this. of course, not only did i want healthier noodles, i wanted those lovely, thin,  fettuccini-like noodles – and to get those, one generally has to use the dreaded mandoline.

i’ll be honest – i’m terrified of mandolines. i don’t even own one. i watch cooking shows religiously and it seems like every time a chef pulls one of these out, it’s only a matter of time before they cut themselves in dramatic, horrifying fashion. it’s always fast, it’s always deep, and it always puts them out of the competition for at least twenty minutes.

ain’t nobody got time for that. and i like my fingers attached to my hands and injury-free, thank you very much. so i gave up the dream and settled for ordering veggie-made pasta in restaurants.

my lovely friend nicole brought these noodles up again over dinner the other night, during a lively discussion on reducing meat in our diet, reminding me of my abandoned pasta idea. there had to be a way to cut these lovely little noodles that wouldn’t put my hands in danger.

naturally, the internet provided a number of ideas. the spiralizer. the box grater. the vegetable peeler. the julienne peeler, which i need to get my hands on immediately. and if you’re not irrationally afraid of particular kitchen tools, the mandoline.

like most of my recipes, this one is infinitely adaptable. there are a million ways to make these noodles, and in the same way, there are a million ways to prepare them. play with sauces, add other veggies to the mix, top it off with cheese…or, you could always add meat. but i’m trying to lose weight over here, so i used a few different vegetables, added some regular fresh pasta, and added a light, simple sauce. i ate this with a light lentil salad on the side and was a happy (healthy!) camper.

fresh veggie pasta

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3 large carrots
1 zucchini
roughly 4 ounces fresh fettucini
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup white wine
2 tablespoons butter
salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

peel carrots and zucchini, and trim ends. use your favorite method to cut vegetables into pasta noodles – i used a vegetable peeler. peel long strips, turning vegetables around so that all strips are evenly sized. save the cores for a salad or sauce.

in a large pot, boil several cups of water, salted to taste. cook fresh pasta noodles according to package instructions. i like to do half veggie pasta and half regular pasta, but adjust according to your preferences.

heat olive oil in a medium saucepan, then add white wine and butter. when sauce starts to thicken,  add carrot and zucchini noodles. saute for a minute. stir until mixed, then add cooked fresh pasta noodles. add parsley, dried red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. cook until sauce is thickened, another minute or two, then remove from heat and put into a serving bowl. top with parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

it’s finally here.

that most delicious, wonderful, exquisite time of year when the recipes come out, grilling parties and beach festivals go wild, and the eating is amazing.

yes, dear readers. it’s tomato season.

and in honor of this most delightful fruit, i’ve gathered together some of my most popular summer recipes, many of which feature the tomato. there’s nothing quite like a fresh, just-picked heirloom tomato, straight from the farmer’s market, with just a little salt – just cut that sucker up and eat it whole. if you’re in the mood for something more elaborate, check out a few of the following:

 tomato, cheddar & basil summer pie

lentil & veggie salad

summer gazpacho

orzo salad

super fresh ceviche

fish tacos

and, from the back of the vault… the ultimate blt

what’s your favorite tomato recipe?

this post is a long time coming.

not because i don’t like meatloaf, because i absolutely love meatloaf. not because i don’t make it often, because my husband loves it and it’s often our “we only have dinner together once a week so let’s make it special by eating something fattening” meal. not even because it’s not the most photogenic dish in the world.

(it’s really not.)

to be completely honest, i just haven’t known what to say about this dish. my mother never made it. i didn’t grow up eating it. it wasn’t one of those dishes i always wanted to be good at preparing, like tomato sauce or souffle or coq au vin. it wasn’t even a dish that i frequently ordered in restaurants. i’ve wanted to write this post for months (months!) but simply haven’t known how to write about meatloaf.

but these days, boston is a bit of a bummer. there’s obscene amounts of snow everywhere, the roads are crazy, everyone in the state is cranky, and just doing everyday tasks is exhausting and frustrating.

i opened my door saturday morning, and this is what i found…

meatloaf always seemed to me like a kitchen sink sort of dish, something you made when you didn’t know what else to do and wanted to get rid of leftover veggies. not that those kinds of dishes are bad – they’ve saved me on more than one occasion – but it didn’t seem like a dish that one would master the art of, a dish that one painstakingly prepared.

dear readers, i was wrong. meatloaf may not be complicated to make. it may not be incredibly sophisticated or win you points with “high food” people. it’s probably not the dish to win over your pickier family members or friends. and honestly, it has kind of an icky-sounding name. but it is so, so good. comforting, warm, like a big hug from your oven. and when there’s this much snow, and simply going to the grocery store and then finding a parking spot is a serious undertaking (because, inevitably, your cranky neighbors will have stolen the spot you spent hours shoveling out the day before, and now you have to carry your groceries half a mile back to your house because the only available spot is on the other side of the neighborhood), the only thing that will help is something simple and delicious. and meatloaf is so easy to put together, and so completely worth the minimal effort that it takes, that there’s really no excuse not to make it. 

there are so many variations that it’s overwhelming – suffice to say, this recipe is infinitely changeable. don’t like celery? leave it out. prefer ground lamb instead of pork? go for it. wish it had more cheese? i would never, ever stop you from adding more cheese. and if you want this to be even more decadent, pull a ree drummond and wrap the whole thing in bacon.

not-quite-kitchen-sink meatloaf

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely diced or pressed
2 stalks celery, diced
1 pound ground chuck
1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chopped parsley
2 tsp chopped basil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

for the sauce:
1 cup ketchup
2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

preheat oven to 350 degrees.

in a large bowl, combine ground chuck, ground pork, yogurt, cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, worcestershire sauce, parsley, basil, salt, and pepper.

in a large saucepan, warm olive oil on medium heat. add onion, and saute until translucent, about five minutes. add garlic and celery, and saute for another three minutes. add to meat mixture. wash your hands thoroughly and use them to combine everything. it will look like a hot mess in a bowl, but once it’s baked, it will be delicious.

press mixture into a large loaf pan. (there’s no need to grease this, but i like to line mine with a few layers of aluminum foil so that i can lift the entire loaf out after it’s baked and slice it on a cutting board. you don’t have to do this if you’d prefer to slice it in the loaf pan, but a lot of fat tends to accumulate in the bottom of the pan and i find removing the meatloaf from the pan makes it easier to deal with.)

in a small bowl, combine ketchup, mustard, and worcestershire sauce. use a spoon to spread the sauce over the top of the loaf. put the meatloaf into the oven and bake for an hour. serve immediately, preferably over mashed potatoes.

**you may have noticed that the blog got a facelift over the weekend. i’ll still be tweaking the design over the next few weeks, but i’d love to get your feedback – rants, raves, snarky comments are all accepted. i’m also working on a new photography portfolio that will also be growing over the coming weeks, and i’d love feedback on that as well, if you check it out. thanks again for reading!