White bean chowder

 

White powder outside? Time for white chowder inside. It helps counter the -1 showing on the car thermometer as I ran errands.

Best-ever white bean chowder
Adapted from "Betty Rosbottom’s Cooking School Cookbook"

Ingredients
1½ cups dry white beans
6 cups water
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
¼ cup chopped onions
¼ cup chopped carrots
1 ham hock, ham bone or ham shank
¼ teaspoon dried savory
1 sprig fresh rosemary
3 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
5 cups broth
¾ cup whipping cream
Chopped parsley or fresh rosemary leaves for garnish

Method
Put beans in a large heavy pot. Cover with the water. Bring to a boil and boil 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let set for an hour. Drain beans well.

In a cheesecloth bundle, tie up savory, rosemary, parsley and bay leaf.

Melt butter in a large heavy pot. Add garlic, onions and carrots and cook several minutes until softened. Add drained beans, ham hock, herb bundle and broth. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for about 1 hour or until beans are tender.

Remove herb bundle. Remove ham hock. Take any meat of the bone and set aside. Spoon up to half of the solids (beans and vegetables) into a food processor or blender and puree. Return to pot along with shredded ham. Stir in cream and heat through Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with herb of choice.

Rating: This benefits from being made a day ahead. I made this on a weekend to have during the week. A first taste didn't blow me away. But having it for lunch on subsequent days made me quite happy. Rather a nice texture, and very nice flavor. I used a half a ham shank, since that's what I had on hand, so there was more meat than there might otherwise have been, but it would be good flavor even without putting the meat back in. Definitely making this again during this nasty cold snap.

 

Butternut squash pasta

 

It only looks like it's loaded with Cheddar.

Butternut squash pasta
Adapted from “The Healthy Carb Diabetes Cookbook” by Jennifer Bucko and Lara Rondinelli

Ingredients
1 pound rotini or rotelle or other short pasta, preferably whole wheat
1 large butternut squash (about 2 pounds), sliced in half lengthwise, seeds removed
Olive oil
8 ounces ricotta cheese
¾ cup skim milk
4 ounces light cream cheese, cubed
¼ cup grated Parmesan, plus more for optional garnish
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Sage leaves, optional garnish

Method
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Drizzle cut sides of squash with some olive oil. Place cut side down on baking sheet and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until soft. Remove flesh from peel, mash and set aside. (This step can be done ahead.)

Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain, reserving pasta water to be used as needed.

In a large deep pan, combine ricotta, skim milk and cream cheese until cheese is melted. Add squash, Parmesan, cayenne, black pepper, nutmeg and salt to taste. Cook until heated through. Stir in drained pasta and enough reserved cooking liquid to make desired level of sauciness.

Serve topped with additional grated Parmesan and sage leaves if desired.

The original recipe calls for whole wheat pasta, which I did not have on hand, and for low-fat options of the dairy products. Probably the main way they make it be healthy is by indicating that it serves 9. More realistic human proportions would indicate it serves 6-ish.

Rating: We both had the same thought upon first bites: This is just like eating macaroni and cheese. I get that it is pasta with cheese, but the color from the squash makes it look like you're eating something much more akin to cheddar than you really are, and adds a bit of richness. Also like many macaroni and cheese recipes, it's pretty low key in the flavor department, but I put this in the keeper pile just because it can be a fairly fast fix, if you preroast and smash the squash, and it's another decent way to use up butternut squash.

Thai butternut squash soup, butternut soup with coconut milk

Lunds had a great price for two cans of coconut milk recently, so this happened. These are both recipes I'd clipped from Cooking Light years ago meaning to try during squash season. For more butternut squash soup inspiration, they have a gallery of ideas here.

It's always interesting to see how two fairly similar soups compare and what makes a winner and one less so. I prefer the second of these two butternut squash soups involving coconut milk, but they're both nice in their own way.

Thai butternut soup
From Cooking Light, March 2013

Ingredients
1 teaspoon canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
2½ teaspoons red curry paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 cup broth
2 teaspoons brown sugar
4 cups butternut squash (peeled and cubed)
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1½ teaspoons fish sauce
¼ teaspoon salt
Cilantro leaves for garnish
Lime wedge for serving (optional)

Method
Heat a large saucepan over medium low heat. Swirl in oil. Add onion and cook until softened. Add curry paste, garlic and ginger and cook briefly until garlic is aromatic.

Add broth, brown sugar, squash, coconut milk, fish sauce and salt. Bring to boil then reduce heat to a simmer and cook until squash is very tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Let soup cool slightly and then puree. Adjust seasonings and serve garnished with cilantro with lime wedges on the side. Serves 4.

Rating: Nice, fast enough, repeatable.Decent flavor although for some reason that flavor doesn't have as much depth as I might have expected.

 

Butternut soup with coconut milk
Adapted from Cooking Light, April 2013

Ingredients
1 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chopped shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
½ tablespoon ground ginger
1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk, plus 1 can of water
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
24 ounces cubed butternut squash (half of one 2-pound butternut squash, peeled and seeded)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
Cilantro for optional garnish

Method
Heat olive oil in a large heavy pot over low heat. Cook shallots until soft. Add garlic and ginger and cook a minute until fragrant. Add can of coconut milk. Refill empty can with water and add to pot along with salt, red pepper and squash. Cook at a simmer until squash is tender, about a half hour. Cool slightly and puree. Stir in lime juice and heat through. Garnish with cilantro if desired. Serves 4.

Rating: This is a warm soup in more ways than one, with just a nice background hint of heat. Good texture, fairly fast to fix. It's just nicely balanced and creamy without being heavy.

 

SpaghettiOs revisited

 

These are SpaghettiOs, grown-up style. I didn't grow up eating those, but we did occasionally get their culinary cousin, Chef Boyardee ravioli, so I have tangential nostalgia for that flavor profile.

A bonus for this recipe: You know how every recipe that calls for tomato paste seems to call for just 1 tablespoon out of the can and then you have to be sure to freeze the rest in useful portions before it goes bad in the back of the frig? This recipe uses up the entire remainder of the can perfectly. I may never freeze tomato paste again so long as I keep small round pasta on hand. 

Additional bonus: The pasta cooks in the sauce, so one less pan to clean. Sold.

This is still a pretty simplistic dish, but if you want to try a more sophisticated version, this one from Bon Appetit looks like it might be worth a try.

Grown-Up Tomato Parmesan Pasta
Adapted from “Half Baked Harvest Super Simple” by Tieghan Gerard

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 minced garlic cloves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
Crushed red pepper flakes
6 tablespoons tomato paste
7 ounces short tubular pasta such as anellini (rings in Creamette lingo), anelli or ditalini
2 tablespoons dry red wine
5 cups water
⅔ cup shaved Parmesan cheese
Fresh basil leaves for garnish

Method
In a large heavy pot, heat olive oil over low heat. Add garlic, rosemary and a generous sprinkle of crushed red flakes and cook until garlic is fragrant. Stir in tomato paste. Add wine and water and raise heat to high to bring mixture to a boil. Add pasta and a generous seasoning of salt. Cook, stirring often, until pasta is al dente and the liquid has nearly reduced to a sauce. Stir in Parmesan cheese and adjust seasoning with salt and additional crushed red pepper flakes. Serve garnished with basil leaves.

The pasta package says it serves about 3½, which is what I’d say this dish does, at least as a main course serving.

Rating: It's got a lot of the flavor profile of anything Chef Boyardee made, but it's got a few more subtle seasonings that elevate it a bit. Creamy comfort food for the family, made from ingredients you're likely to have in hand, and a pretty fast fix for a weeknight.