mmm...burrata!

I LOVE burrata!!! (and I don't think I'm alone)

And I really love this burrata from Gioia Cheese Co in Los Angeles...

It is sold in one pound containers so, depending on how many people I am cooking for I often end up with a bit left over...such a problem to have!

I think I may have found my new favorite way to use it up...

...the other night I made myself this simple pasta...I was looking in the fridge for some parmesan to grate over the top when I noticed that container of burrata...oh joy!  I simply alternated spoonfuls of the pasta and bits of the burrata...

...some of the cheese melted into the sauce, the rest stretched into long gooey strands...as good as any lasagna and it can be made in the time it takes the pasta water to boil...

...building a base flavor for the sauce...

...absolutely perfect dry farmed early girl tomatoes...so concentrated in flavor...

...excellent quality pasta...

...don't skimp on the basil (and no need for chopping)...

...the finished sauce...

what's so wrong with simple?

I saw a post on facebook today about this "great" new product meant to save time and space in your tiny kitchen...

Here is the immediate vision that popped into my head when I saw it...and I would predict the same level of frustration in using either...(maybe the designers sensed this as well, after all they did decide to leave the tomatoes on the vine)...Oh, and the CLEANUP TIME!

photoshoot with Relic Wines and serendipitous timing...

A while back I did a photo shoot with the fine folks at Relic Wines.  


I first met Mike Hirby and Shatzi Throckmorton (the proprietors of the winery) when we had the chance to collaborate on a winemaker dinner for one of my clients a couple years ago. 


Recently they were looking to update their website with new images and I was looking for subjects to shoot.  We decided to make a trade...I would provide them with the images and they would provide me with their wine.  If you have had their wine (and if not you NEED to) you will realize that I made out on the deal!


Soon after the shoot they were contacted by Wine Spectator who indicated they were working on a piece about Rhône style wines and asked if they had a photo of Mike (the winemaker)...great timing, indeed.


Here is the shot that ran with the article in the March issue. 

You can see a few of the other shots I took on their website here.  And here is a shot of Schatzi from the same day...

My first on page photo credit! (albeit dwarfed by peppercorns)

nowhere to hide

When you put just a few ingredients on a plate they better be good...

This is a dish that is a work-in-progress and will likely take many forms this spring but is based firmly on my favorite new-to-me ingredient.  A couple of weeks ago at the farmers market I decided to try this clabbered cottage cheese from the great cowgirl creamery.  WOW!  (mind you, I haven't eaten cottage cheese since I was a toddler)

It cannot get much simpler...I just roasted the asparagus in olive oil and topped it with a mixture of the cottage cheese, great olive oil (this one from soul food farms...yum!), a chiffonade of sorrel and some fresh ground pepper.  There was already enough salt in the cheese.  Sorrel can be hard to find, but if you plant it in your garden it is hard to make it NOT grow...and I love the vibrant lemony zing it provides!


Fava beans are just about here, so I'm thinking a few of those and a sprinkling of some crisp-ity chruch-ity sourdough breadcrumbs will send this one over the top.

winter in four parts...

... celery root soup, crisp pancetta, fried sage ...

  

... little gem salad, beets, tangerines, mint, toasted pepitas ...

... crisp duck confit, du puy lentils, braised savoy cabbage, black pepper gastrique ...

... olive oil/almond/citrus cake, crème fraîche, candied mandarinquats ...