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Recipes that include tomato paste

Lon’s Ragu

Monday, July 20, 2009

A long time ago I worked in south Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay) in the back of a charity, in a small room that barely fit me and Theresa, a hardcore Italian-American. She was a great person, but had a harsh (typical Brooklyn) personality; she had a raspy voice and didn’t take BS from anyone; especially about “gravy” vs. “sauce”. If you’re thinking “gravy” is something brown you pour over steak, move on, you’re not ready for this.

Theresa explained that a tomato-based sauce without meat in it (like marinara), is “sauce.” If it contains meat, then it is not a “sauce” it’s “gravy.” So what is the premier gravy? Ragu.  (p.s. I do not agree with her assessment, this is sauce).  Also, this is another checkpoint, if you think I might be referring to the bottled sauce, you are on the wrong web site.

Seriuos Ragu 1

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Lamb Pizzaiola

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Inspired by a recipe for Wine-Braised Lamb Shanks on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (prepared at Giusti’s Place), I created this recipe for lamb shanks. A little bit of spice and acid go a long way in my version. Their idea to serve the lamb with sauced, wet polenta inspired me to serve with a grilled polenta cake.

Lamb Pizzaiola over Grilled Polenta 1

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Wine-Braised Beef Shanks

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Jessica bought some beautiful, large beef shanks and we needed to sneak in at least one more hearty meal before the weather gets warm. So I found an interesting sounding recipe for Wine-Braised Beef shanks, which was taken from the Sept 19, 1995 issue of Family Circle. Sadly, the recipe was written poorly and didn’t make a lot of sense. My instinct is that it was the web-translation from the paper magazine that caused the problem.

Fully Dressed Plate

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Cascabel Ground Beef Sauce & Spaetzle

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

If you paid me a million dollars I wouldn’t be able to truthfully tell you where the inspiration for this dish came from. Jessica asked me a dozen times while cooking what I was making and repeatedly I answered “dunno.”

Cascabel Ground Beef Sauce over Spaetzle

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Make Ahead Black Bean Soup

Sunday, February 1, 2009

This black bean soup benefits from being made a day ahead so that the flavors can really come together. It’s always great to have these kind of recipes around because sometimes you want to get some of the cooking out of the way early, so you don’t have to rush day of.

Black Bean Soup (2)

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Beef and Spinach Lasagna

Monday, January 12, 2009

Lasagna is the ultimate comfort food and it’s probably one of the first things I learned to make. My mom (a fabulous Chinese cook) and I just followed the instructions on the side of a box of dry lasagna sheets, using jarred sauce. These days, I always make my own sauce, and after several variations, I have to dub this one my favorite, Beef and Spinach Lasagna. This is still a fairly classic tasting lasagna. It’s just that I like mixing spinach into the cheese mixture. Isn’t it wonderful when the healthier twist tastes better?

beef and spinach lasagna 6

*Update 9/23/09: My mom asked me to make her this lasagna so while I’m at it, I figured, I’d take new pictures, better pictures! (The first two and last picture are new.) Also, I wanted to note that Hungry Crasian pointed out that you don’t need to buy “no boil” lasagna sheets. I tested it out this time and she’s right, the regular kind does work fine. (Remember to cover the lasagna in aluminum foil before baking.)

fork full of lasagna 3

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Braised Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas and Dried Fruit

Thursday, January 8, 2009

This dish is inspired by Moroccan flavors, which I love. The use of fruit brightens up the rich and heavy flavors of lamb. Although this dish does require some work, with so many ingredients, it is all very simple considering the restaurant quality meal you’ll be able to present.

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Conch Fritters

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Back in college, I went to the Bahamas with my girlfriends for spring break. Everywhere you go, they serve conch fritters. As much as I loved them in the beginning, I couldn’t look at another conch fritter by the 3rd day. You don’t see conch fritters much in NY (I probably never have), so I was ready for conch fritters again. I looked up several recipes but I didn’t have the standard ingredients so we improved a bit and ended up with non-traditional but very good conch fritters. How bad can any deep fried batter be, right?

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Home Fried Potatoes and a Cousins’ Brunch

Sunday, August 3, 2008

My cousins came for brunch today and I asked Lon to make (and write the recipe) for Home Fried Potatoes. My only requirement was that I wanted him to use tomato paste. We agreed that it was a nice touch, adding both flavor and color to the dish. It turned out pretty spicy too but everyone loved it.

Home Fries.jpg

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Beef and Poblano Empanadas

Monday, July 28, 2008

I had exactly 1 pound and 7 ounces of ground beef left from Lon’s birthday BBQ. It was just as good a time as any to practice making Empanadas, which Lon loves. I tried an empanada dough recipe from epicurious.com and made-up my own filling.

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