Dining Chair Travel and Macaroni Made by Hand

Who doesn’t love Italian food? I certainly always have, but I can’t say I had a real appreciation of the cuisine until I actually travelled to Italy. Experiencing balsamic, parm, and prosciutto at the source was amazing. But it was eating perfectly al dente, perfectly sauced spaghetti in Italy that really blew my mind. The way the Italians can transform something so simple as semolina and water into a transcendent meal is nothing short of alchemy.

I’ve been dying to see other parts of Italy ever since that trip. Until I can go again, a bit of dining chair travel will have to suffice. So I make pasta. A good plate of pasta will transport me, if just for a meal.

This labor intensive pasta, which comes from southern Italy if I’m not mistaken, seems to have countless names, including maccheroni al ferro, maccheroni al ferretto, and maccheroni inferrettati. Google Translate would have you believe that the meaning is “macaroni with underwire” *snicker*, but as far as I can tell it translates to something more along the lines of “macaroni with the iron”, referring to the traditional tool called a fusilli iron used to shape the tubes of pasta.

Fresh Macaroni “with the Iron”
Printable Recipe

16 ounces semolina
6 ¾ ounces warm water

Combine the semolina and water in a large bowl and mix until a rough dough forms. The dough will seem very dry at this point, but resist the temptation to add more water. Transfer to a work surface and knead for about 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for about half an hour.

Cut the dough into eighths. Keeping the remaining dough covered as you work, roll 1 portion of dough into a 3/8-inch thick rope. If the dough springs back as you roll it, cover it with plastic wrap and let it relax for a few minutes before continuing. Using a bench knife, cut the rope into 2-inch pieces.

Press a fusilli iron lengthwise into a piece of the dough.

Roll back and forth, applying light pressure.

The dough should wrap itself around the iron and form a 4 to 5-inch long tube.

Gently slide the macaroni off the iron.

If it’s stuck, give the iron a slight twist while easing off the macaroni. Make more macaroni with the remaining dough in the same manner. As you work, arrange the macaroni in a single layer on lightly floured parchment-lined baking trays. Let dry for a few hours.

Makes about 1 ¼ pounds, enough for 4 to 6 main-course servings. This recipe yields a relatively dry dough. Still, the trickiest part is keeping the macaroni from sticking to the fusilli iron, and you might have to experiment with the amount of pressure you apply when rolling and elongating it. If a macaroni gets stuck and you smush it removing it from the iron, never fear: simply ball it up and try again. By the way, if you don’t own a fusilli iron, a bamboo skewer will work just as well if not even better, as dough sticks less to wood than to smooth metal. Knitting needles are often used as well. Cook the macaroni as you would any other pasta, in a large pot of boiling, salted water for 6 to 8 minutes, or until al dente. It’s pictured here with Angry Tomato Sauce made with bacon instead of pancetta.

Marinades on AM Northwest

Watch my newest cookbook Marinades in action in my recent AM Northwest appearance! I demo the Lapsang Souchong Marinade. Wish you could smell that lovely smokiness!

Want more Marinades? Visit HCP Dishes! for the lowdown on the book and the Shiitake-Soy Marinade recipe and HamptonRoads.com for the Arugula Marinade and Achiote Marinade recipes.

How to Cut a Soft-Boiled Egg in Half

Have you ever gone out for a bowl of ramen and wondered how they manage to cut the soft-boiled egg in half without making a mess of the yolk? The question has certainly crossed my mind, so I seized an opportunity to ask a waiter at a local izakaya. He explained that it’s done with either dental floss or fishing line. Brilliant! But the problem is I use mint-flavored floss and I don’t fish. Besides that, the line would have to be held under tension, and I have neither a third hand nor the desire to drive a nail into my counter to secure the end of it. There must be another solution!

Enter the cheese harp, a handy little tool used for cutting soft cheeses.



Turns out it’ll do a bang-up job on bries and blues and soft-boiled eggs too.



Not a drop of yolk is spilled to mar the white, which makes for a smart-looking presentation.



So there you have it, a cheese harp is the secret to making a perfectly bisected soft-boiled egg to top a bowl of ramen.

Get your own cheese harp here. They’re also available from time to time at HomeGoods.

Marinades Release Day!

My third cookbook Marinades hits stores today!

I can hardly contain my excitement! With this book, I’m out to prove that marinades are the secret to getting amazing dinners on the table every day. From the introduction:

Wouldn’t you love knowing at the end of a busy day that something delicious and homemade is already started for dinner?

Well, with the investment of just the few minutes it takes to blend a handful of ingredients into a marinade, you can have just that. While you’re out making the most of your day, doing absolutely anything but worrying about what’s for dinner, your chicken breasts, steaks, or chops are hard at work absorbing tons of delicious flavor. Dinner practically cooks itself; you just have to move it to the grill. It’s that easy. It’s that quick. It’s that delicious, and there’s that much variety.

Could this be real? Wouldn’t it be easier to just have takeout? Trust me when I say that marinades are the ultimate in convenience cooking. And yet the flavors are bold and vibrant, as if you slaved all day. Just give it a go for one dinner, and you’ll find yourself making marinated meals night after night and feeling very clever doing it.

The book has a whopping 400 recipes! There are 200 different marinade recipes, and each one is accompanied by an additional recipe showcasing a way to use the marinade to make a complete meal. Other suggested uses are listed as well for more inspiration.

Recipes cover the gamut of cooking techniques from braising to frying to smoking. As you might expect many recipes are for grilling, which is perfect now that the season for outdoor cooking is here. Here’s a little sampling of what you’ll find inside the pages…

Grilled Baby Back Ribs with Asian Plum Marinade.

Chicken and duck are also recommended with this marinade.

Grilled Chicken Breasts with All-Purpose Tex-Mex Marinade.

This is one of my all-time favorites. I use these chicken breasts to make everything from fajitas and quesadillas to tortilla soup to chicken clubs and chicken Caesars. Other suggested uses for this marinade are steaks, fish fillets, shrimp, and scallops.

Grilled Lamb Rib Chops with Curry Marinade.

Chicken, pork, and shrimp are also recommended with this marinade.

Aside from the tantalizing recipes, perhaps what I love most about this book is how user friendly and versatile it is. Tools and marination times are highlighted in recipes in order to give you a sense of how involved they are and how far in advance to get started. A majority of the recipes are for what I call “blend-in-the-bag” marinades: ingredients are measured right into a large zip-top bag and then the food to be marinated is thrown in, making both preparation and cleanup a snap. An Index of Marinade Recipes and an Index of Suggested Use Recipes make it easy to navigate the book whether you’re in the mood for a marinade with rosemary or if you’ve picked up pork chops on special at the market.

I’m proud to say reviewers are enthusiastic about Marinades. LibraryJournal recommends it for “frequent grillers and protein eaters”, and ForeWord Reviews declares, “Home cooks who use this book will be enlightened and invigorated by the possibilities of such a wide variety of ingredients.” Publishers Weekly calls it a “snappy tome…out to prove that an herb or spice soak is more than a flavoring for meat—it’s also a means for simplifying cooking”. Reader reviews on Amazon are equally positive. Perhaps the highest praise is that Kitchen Arts & Letters deemed Marinades worthy of inclusion in their newsletter.

Want more Marinades? Watch me demonstrate a recipe from the book on AM Northwest this Friday between 9:20AM and 9:40AM. Then on Sunday, May 4, join me at the Portland Williams-Sonoma for a demo and tasting.

I may be biased, but I think you’ll find the recipes in Marinades to be inspiring and delicious as well as simple and easy to use. I truly hope you love this book as much as I do!