Eat: Orecchiette with Basil Pesto

The thing about tried and true recipes like bolognese or pesto is that there are a million versions. When you decide to try a new recipe, how do you select from the thousands out there? All these years of recipe experimentation and I had never made my own pesto until just recently. I like pesto enough to eat it at home, but I was willing to settle for the Classico jarred stuff until now (for shame!). Really though... I don't find it half bad for a bottled product. But with an abundance of basil growing and slowly dying on our balcony, I wanted to use up the green manna from heaven (because basil is freaking GOLD!!!) quickly and this was the first recipe that came to mind. I flipped through a ton of cook books, comparing the different versions of pesto until I decided to make Giada De Laurentiis' sauce with some tweaks based on the Barefoot Contessa's version.

You can find the recipe here on the Food Network website. Obviously I only made the pesto and not the Tuna, but I'm sure the combo would be fantastic. My notes & modifications:

• I went light on the olive oil, closer to 1/2 cup. Use good oil here, aside from the heat generated by the blender, it is a raw sauce.
• I looked at other recipes and decided to add nearly a cup of cheese as a result. I used a 50/50 mix of grated grana padano and parmigiana reggiano.Choose good quality cheese.
• I used 4-5 big cloves of garlic. DO NOT COPY ME unless you want to stink like raw garlic at work the next day, even after showering. Next time I'd go closer to 2-3 if the cloves are that big.
• If your garlic is getting old and has a green center, it has begun to sprout. This will taste especially harsh in a raw sauce like pesto. Take the extra time to cut the clove in half and remove the green sprout if you can't replace it with fresher garlic.

I figured a good, straightforward sauce like homemade pesto deserved a special pasta as it's vehicle into my belly. For this noble cause, I chose a sexy orecchiette covered with tons of surface ridging, perfect for adhering precious sauce. (Sounds vaguely dirty, doesn't it? Good food always does!)

Eat: Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage Recipe

Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage has to be my all time favourite fall pasta. It has everything; carbs, sausage, onions, sage, cream and pumpkin - a rather unexpected flavour combination! The ingredients might actually be a little off-putting to some but I promise that when these ingredients meld, they combine to form the perfect fall comfort food. Even more surprising than the ingredients is the source of the recipe: the much reviled/loved Rachael Ray.

Now I know reactions to 'Rach' are polarized, but I got to hand it to her. My interest in cooking stems from watching her show nearly ten years ago. I owe her for that (grating voice aside). The food I cook today is a direct result of 30 Minute Meals. I will not lie, I was a terrible cook when I first moved out on my own. I didn't know any better. Cooking was not a beloved activity in my family so I didn't have much to go on. They employed more of a 'eating for sustenance' philosophy. The things I tried to put together and call a 'meal' were absolutely cringe-worthy. Luckily I discovered 30 Minute Meals when I was in my early twenties, sparing me from decades of dry over cooked pork chops and Lipton side dishes. Phew!!

Rachael Ray's show made me realize that cooking was accessible and that I could try ingredients that I was unfamiliar with. I can still remember how excited I was the first time I made sea scallops. I can't even begin to describe the self satisfaction that came with making five-spice duck breasts! Fresh ingredients and simple recipes - great building blocks for a budding home cook. Not to mention learning how to pair ingredients/flavours; until 30 Minute Meals I had no idea what flavours went well together. How amazing is it to be able to whip up a salad dressing without glancing at a recipe, thanks to a better understanding of fats/acids? Joy!I eventually discovered other inspiring chefs/cooks like Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson, Barefoot Contessa and Giada DiLaurentiis, which lead me to move on to more intermediate and advanced recipes/techniques but I still have a handful of Rachael Ray staples that will stay in my arsenal of recipes. This is the reason why I come to her defense when people jump on the "Rachael Ray Sucks" bandwagon. Anthony Bourdain can suck it; I don't see him inspiring slews of home cooks.

Without further ado, I give you Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage from 30 Minute Meals. I always make the recipe exactly as written with the following side note: use lots and lots of fresh sage. It makes the recipe sing. The last time I made the recipe I had only a small amount of sage, about 8 leaves or so. I realized afterwards that she wrote 'sprigs', not leaves. I lamented my error tremendously.