Roast chicken with lemon

A cold, rainy spring day seemed like just the right time for this classic recipe from Marcella Hazan. I'd forgotten how simple it is -- and how delicious. I used a 4-lb kosher chicken from WF with the additional step of letting it air in the fridge for a while before roasting it.

Otherwise I followed her instructions -- massage salt and pepper into the chicken inside and out, roll two lemons and puncture them (20x) with a toothpick, stuff them into the cavity, close the cavity with toothpicks and tie the legs together, put in a 350 oven breast side down for 15 minutes, turn it over for 20 minutes, increase heat to 400 for another 15 minutes. Since my 4-pounder was bigger than the 2.5 lbs in the recipe, I allowed a little longer for each phase and tested the temperature for 165. As she says, the chicken is self-basting and has no need of additional fat.

Fir0002/Flagstaffotos via Wikimedia Commons

The result was a very moist and wonderfully tasty chicken with reasonably crispy skin. It was exquisite, filling the kitchen with that roast chicken aroma and rewarding your taste buds with that unadulterated chicken taste.

I felt like lentils on a rainy day and had a small piece of guanciale I wanted to use up, so I googled "lentils pancetta" and got a great little recipe from Mario Batali courtesy of ABC's Chew. This entailed covering a 1/2 lb of lentils with water, bringing to a simmer, adding a halved onion, halved carrot, halved celery, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, and 2 ounces of pancetta/guanciale cut into strips. After cooking 20 minutes till tender, drain the lentils, saving a little of the cooking liquid, discard the vegetables, coarsely chop the pancetta and add that back to the lentils with just enough liquid to moisten the lentils. Dress with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper, and serve warm or let come to room temperature -- which Batali rightly says allows the flavors to come out.

Add a salad of baby arugula and a grenache from Spain and you've got a really great meal for a weekday -- plus plenty of leftover roast chicken!