Serious Eating

I've been reading a lot more of Serious Eats lately. It's become part of my daily required reading along with The Kitchn. Both of them focus on simple but delicious home cooked food, and are really helping to inspire me more. Instead of going to a recipe website where I had to know what I was looking for, I am going to a site that brings up new ideas and offers an example. Then I can go to a recipe database and find the perfect version of a dish.

The first recipe I tried from Serious Eats was admittedly a failure (see my lentil and sausage dog food) but this blog has a lot of contributors. I wasn't put off by my first attempt. I found this simple recipe for Orecchiette with Broccoli, Anchovies, and Chilies and tried it tonight. I know...anchovies? I'll freely admit that that was what caught my eye. I love anchovies. My mom likes them and when we were young we used to go to this Italian restaurant and order an antipasto salad that they served with optional anchovies. My mom always asked for them (but on the side, my dad won't touch them), and I started eating them with her. I really like the fishy saltiness, it has such a bite, but I get why some people don't like them straight up. But this dish used anchovies in an Italian way, cooked into a sauce, that I'd only seen a few years ago on cooking shows. When you chop up the anchovies and let them slowly cook in olive oil, they break up and almost completely disintegrate. They just blend into the sauce and become deeper and nuttier. You don't really know they are in the dish, you just taste a deep flavor. My mom started doing this a few years ago and has always raved about it.

The recipe obviously calls for orecchette (little ears) but I used whole wheat penne instead. I tried whole wheat pasta a while ago and didn't like it - I didn't cook it enough, though. This time I barely noticed the difference, I recommend trying the better kinds they have now. I melded the anchovies with the oil, garlic, and chili flakes, and added frozen broccoli (the fresh didn't look that good, I didn't notice a difference). It was simple and light, and you really did get the little bump of hidden flavor from the anchovies. It had just the right amount of heat. This dish is one of the better ones I have made lately and it is so easy.