5 Habits of a Well-Rounded Cook — Life in the Kitchen

As my daughter tips into toddlerhood, I have been thinking about the kind of cook I want to model for her. I return over and over to one thought: I want to be a well-rounded cook. Does that sound ho-hum? I don’t think so.

Here’s why I think the five lessons for creating a well-rounded cooking life are so important for long-term happiness in the kitchen (and out of it too).

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Before & After: First-Time Home Buyers Give Their Kitchen a Facelift — Reader Kitchen Remodel

Rachel and her husband were so excited to become first-time home buyers, but they were less excited about the state of the kitchen in their new home. While the layout was perfectly functional and provided ample counter and cabinet space, the color scheme and style weren’t to their taste.

But they were able to give it a budget-friendly facelift that made it feel like a brand-new space.

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Have You Tried Nitro Coffee, the Iced Coffee That’s Served Like Beer? — Smart Coffee for Regular Joes

Have you seen people drinking coffee pulled from a tap this summer? That’s nitro coffee, and it’s currently all the rage.

We’ve already seen how the bubbles-and-coffee combination makes people go crazy with the popularity of espresso tonics, so it’s no surprise that this slightly effervescent cold drink would be a big hit. Nitro coffee uses the same concept behind draft beer, which allows coffee companies to make big batches of cold brew and store them for an extended period of time (while still maintaining freshness).

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angel hair pasta with raw tomato sauce

angel hair with raw tomato sauce

The internet might be loaded with a ga-jillion recipes, but finding the great ones can still be a little bit of a needle in a haystack. My favorite way to find new recipes is to ask a random person what their cult favorites are. Bonus points if they claim to hate cooking, because these are the people who are only going to be excited for dishes that work with airtight reliability that are unquestionably worth your time. I have found so many gems this way; Marion Burros’s Purple Plum Torte (which, if you have not made yet, shut this browser tab and get to it, please), Cook Country’s Chicken and Dumplings, Jeremiah Tower’s Raspberry Brown Sugar Gratin, this crazy simple beef braise and Ina Garten’s Lemon Cake. (If you ask me about mine, I might also up this curious tuna salad from the New York Times Magazine, this zucchini and almond saute). In more recent memory, it’s from asking around that I learned a lot people have a very deep fondness for a raw tomato sauce for a 2006 issue of the late Gourmet Magazine.

what you'll need
coring tomatoes, if you wish

I, however, had my doubts. I am very particular about pasta; I want not too much sauce and I want it to be slurped up by very thirsty al dente pasta with a splash of reserved cooking water in the last minute before you eat it, so that they become as one. I couldn’t imagine raw tomato sauce being anything but slippery, wet and probably nothing you’d see in Italy, right?

grating a few tomatoes

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