Pasta and beans

The weather is still mild but autumnal enough to make us seek comfort in these Italian dishes. After all the turkey and stuffing, a pasta e fagioli dish from Domenica Marchetti's The Glorious Soups and Stews of Italy was just the ticket.

This recipe, in her winter section, used the heirloom Christmas lima beans I bought recently at La Cuisine in Alexandria. She just calls for the soaked beans to be dumped in the pot along with the finely chopped onion, chopped pancetta (though I used some leftover ham steak), chopped celery, and a paste of three garlic cloves and rosemary -- no sautéeing or anything -- and then 1/2 c. olive oil and 8 c. water.

You cook this for a couple of hours, then purrée half the soup, bring it to the boil again and add 8 oz. spaghetti or fettucini (had a package open) broken into 1-inch pieces and cook for another 20 minutes. You drizzle "your finest olive oil" over the soup when you serve it.

The dish was delicious, though I would make a couple of adjustments next time. I used too little water because I was afraid it would be too watery (and my package of beans may have been more than the 2 c. called for, I forgot to measure). The pancetta would probably add more flavor than my ham substitute. And I would try it without purréeing any next time. The beans themselves are prettier, even when cooked, than the mushy purrée and it would be soupier.

Other recent dishes have included two great standbys from Marcella Hazan -- the cauliflower with penne, where you break up the cooked cauliflower in oil and dress the pasta with that, along with red pepper and parsley (she uses anchovies as well but they are banned in our household); and the ever-good shell pasta with ricotta, bacon and peas.

Cast iron skillet

A couple times this week I've pulled out the trusty old cast iron skillet and been able to make such tasty meals I wonder why I don't use it more often. Maybe it's the pulling out part, from the cabinet underneath the range.

The first time was our second go at the lovely chicken with apples and escarole, this time substituting endive for the unobtainable escarole. The whole point of this recipe by Sara Jenkins is to let the flavors accumulate by cooking everything in the same skillet, and I think they accumulate much better in the cast iron skillet.

The next day was simply to fry some hamburgers. First, however, I sauteed onions in the skillet and then transferred them to a smaller skillet for reheating and fried the hamburgers in the same skillet. I used a couple of James Beard's tricks -- flavoring the oil with a crushed garlic clove and folding some creme fraiche into the center of the patties. With a little salt and the onion and garlic flavors from the skillet, the hamburgers came out delicious, served with the onions on a toasted bun with ketchup. Hard to beat.

America Eats Tavern

What's happened to Jose Andres? This blatantly commercial attempt to gussy up American classics is too precious by half. The food tastes good -- Andres would not serve bad food -- but who needs overpriced Buffalo Wings seen through the eyes of a Spaniard?

After seeing the price creep at Jaleo, the mediocritzation of Oyamel and now this pretentious act of hubris, one can only conclude that Andres has sold out. They want $6 to have some of their precious bread and there are very few wines on the list under $100 a bottle. Who but lobbyists on expense account are going to spend $386 for a half bottle of Chateau d'Yquem with their dessert.

We spent $100 for two people and got at best what could be described as a light supper. Thanks but no thanks. We'll explore other eating options.

Catering a book party

Andrea and her brother Henry operated a catering service for a couple of summers in Rehoboth, back in the day when they could name their service SABU for spinster aunt, bachelor uncle. Both are happily married now, but they revived their collaboration to cater a book party for my new novel, The Grand Mirage, and the food was terrific.

Andrea baked hundreds of small biscuits, only about an inch in diameter, that were flaky and buttery and light. She sliced each one in half and Henry put on some cranberry-pear chutney with roast pork tenderloin on half of the biscuits and a mustard sauce with roast turkey breast on the other half to make delicious little sandwiches.

Henry also experimented with grilled skewers of winter vegetables -- Brussels sprouts, beets, parsnips, shallots and others -- to make a refreshingly different vegetable finger food. Andrea made some light, buttery tuiles that she topped with a smoked salmon tartar and creme fraiche. She also made a goat cheese galette that resembled a small pizza with a great crust and a white cheese mixture that included ricotta and mozzarella with the goat cheese, then cut into thin slices. For light snacks, she had savory biscotti with aged gouda and shallots, spiced almonds and dates stuffed with blue cheese.

Did I mention that the food was terrific? Virtually everything was gone at the end except some of the biscuit sandwiches because they had made truly a boatload of those. As Andrea said, if every guest had eaten just one more biscuit, they would be all gone.

For the wine, I experimented with Paul's and was very happy with the 2007 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone and the 2008 Macon-Villages that we got from there. We also had some wonderful fresh apple cider from the farmer's market and chilled San Pellegrino. Simple and perfect for a fall afternoon.

Still grilling

As the days get shorter and the weather gets colder, it's clearly less inviting to grill something up for dinner. Usually about this time of the year, I swap out some of the grill cookbooks on the kitchen bookshelf for those focused on braising, slow cooking, stews -- the good winter stuff.

But we enjoy grilled food so much -- whether it's the pork chops from our 1/8 of a pig or salmon fillet from The Fishery or asparagus or eggplant -- that I still find myself out there once or twice a week. Last year, I covered the Weber and Big Green Egg ahead of a snowstorm and they stayed that way for a couple of months. We'll see what the weather brings this year, but maybe we'll be grilling in January!