As the first cool evenings in over four months descended upon the subtropics I call home, and the weariness of the long summer began to lift, a box of casareccia I had sitting in the pantry caught my eye. I had never actually used that cut of pasta before, but came across a De Cecco brand box in one of those "surplus" stores. In my opinion, De Cecco pastas are the premier brand of dried pasta, and always snag as much as I can when I find it on special. Anyway, the box had been calling to me from the pantry, and with the slightly cooler weather, I decided it was time to put it to use. Casareccia is Sicilian in origin, and is a twisted, tube shaped pasta, which I thought would lend itself to a brothy type sauce. So off to the market I headed, armed only with a vague idea of what I wanted to make.

On the drive to the market, I started thinking sausage, but wasn't in the mood to drive to a proper Italian market for it, so I knew immediately I was going to be taking a risk. I so rarely have been getting the urge to be creative in my cooking, I didn't want to squash the urge by a going on a long foraging run. I simply opted for our local chain grocer's "Green Wise" (for those who are familiar with Publix) spicy Italian (as it turned out, they were quite flavorful and sufficient for this dish). These were the large links, not small rope. Either way, I knew I was going to be cutting them into smaller chunks raw, and building the sauce from there. A note to vegetarians – this dish would we equally good without the sausage, or substituted with a commercial vegetarian sausage product like the Boca™ brand Italian sausages.

My next instinct was rapini, but alas none to be had in the produce section. I did a quick walk through, and nothing really jumped out. For a brief moment I had some broccoli flowerets in my basket, but quickly returned them. I often enjoy beans with my pasta, and decided to grab a can of cannellini beans. Knowing I didn't have any broths/stocks to speak of, I opted for a box of Swanson's organic vegetable broth. I knew I could build a lot of flavor with the sausage, and didn't want to over power the dish with chicken broth or worse, beef. (This proved to be a great decision.) I then headed back to the produce section to round out the ingredients so I could head home and cook.

I still wanted something green, but still nothing was jumping out at me, until I saw a bag of organic baby arugula. A nice big vine ripe tomato seemed to be perfect final touch. By this point, the dish had materialized in my head, so a quick mental inventory of what I knew I had at home (sweet onion, butter, and pecorino cheese), I knew I was ready to start cooking.

I'm sure I've written about it before, but I always like to put my pasta water on before i start the rest of the dish. This accomplishes two things. First, if I have any vegetables to blanch, I can use the water for both. Nothing will hurt cooking pasta in some water that's had a few green vegetables in it first. Second, this way, you're not having to wait around, or precook the pasta. In this instance, I wanted to peel and seed the tomato before using it. Certainly one could use can tomato for this, but I didn't want a lot of tomato, and there's nothing like fresh tomato. So I went ahead and cored the tomato, and scored the bottom so when the water came to a boil, I'd be ready.

As I mentioned, I wanted to cook the sausage from a raw state to build a base for the sauce. I wasn't looking for bulk sausage, rather, manageable, almost bite sized (after cooking) pieces. So I heated my trusty enamel coated cast iron dutch oven over medium heat with about a tablespoon of olive oil (just enough to help get the sausage started, there's enough fat to render out to provide the rest). I also julienned about a quarter of a large sweet onion and minced 3 cloves of garlic while the pan was heating.

I began to brown the sausage first, and as it began to brown, added the onions. I wanted a little caramelization on the onions, but not too much, thus I didn't add them at the beginning. As the onions and sausage browned, I added the garlic. Again, the same principle, I didn't want to brown the garlic, but didn't want it raw either.

At this point, I turned the heat up a bit, and deglazed the pan with about one and a half cups of the vegetable broth. If any bits of the sausage or onion are "stuck" to the bottom of the pan, gently scrap them with a wooden spoon to loosen. This really is where the foundation of the flavor comes from. Reduce the heat to low, add the can of cannellini beans, and by now the the pasta water should be at a boil, and you can put the tomato in.

If you've never peeled and seeded a tomato before, you are basically blanching the tomato until you see the skin begin to lift away from the flesh. Remove the tomato with a slotted spoon, allow to cool a bit, and then you should be able to easily peel away the skin. Cut the tomato in half around it's equator, and gently squeeze the seeds out. If you were doing a lot of tomatoes for a fresh sauce, or gazapacho for instance, you might squeeze the seeds out over a strainer and reserve the liquid to add back into your dish. In this instance, I only wanted to concasse (the "flesh"). Rough chop the tomato and add it to the sauce.

Add roughly two cups (or in my case, two big handfuls) of the baby arugula, again, not to early in the cooking process, as you don't want to cook it to mush, just wilt it. To give the sauce a nice rich, velvety consistency, I finished it with a big pat of whole butter and a couple tablespoons of grated pecorino cheese. Adjusted the seasoning (a pinch of salt, a few twists of fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of oregano was all it needed for me), and tossed with the cooked and drained pasta.

Again, the goal is a bit of a brothy sauce, so bear in mind that pasta will continue to absorb liquid, so if you aren't planning to serve this immediately, you might want to hold off on tossing it until just before serving. You can always warm the pasta in the sauce if necessary, among other techniques, all of which have their proponents and detractors.

Some freshly grated romano, some crusty bread if you so desire, and a glass of red table wine would make a perfect meal, perhaps rounded out with a simple garden salad.

After sleeping in today and then checking my daily feeds/tweets/email, I saw Chris had made an omlette, I got the hankerin' for one too. Besides, since Sean turned me onto the lightbox concept, any excuse to play with the camera is a good one.

A quick glance into the fridge, and I quickly assessed that a Greek omlette was in order. Feta cheese, red onion, kalamata olives, and spinach ( I passed on tomato), 3 free range eggs, a pat of butter and I was set.

I prefer to give my vegetables a quick sauté before starting my omlette. I've seen omlette's made a million ways, and more turn out to be a frittata than an omlette in my opinion, where the "filling" is cooked in the pan, the eggs poured over and cooked until set, and then just folded over. Again, to me that's not an omlette. Once the filling is cooked, I remove it from the pan, add the pat of butter until it melts and bubbles (this is the water and impurities, think of it as a quick clarifying). The next secret to a great omlette is to whip the eggs as much as possible. Some people add a bit of milk or cream, I tend to skip that step, but it doesn't hurt anything, and may help smooth out the eggs when whipping. I've even seen people put the eggs in a blender before making the omlette. The more you whip the eggs, the more air you incorporate, and the fluffier the omlette.

Once the butter is melted and stops bubbling, pour the eggs into the pan, and let set for a minute or two. The eggs should start to firm up on the edges. This is where the next trick comes into play. As the edges set, gently lift up on an edge, and tilt your pan so that the still liquid egg setting on top drains under the set egg. You can do this on several edges. This also helps get that fluffy omlette-ty goodness, vs the flat, dense thing you often get in road house diners.I failed to pay attention to the utensil I was using, so the big black spatula I was using doesn't show up well in the picture, hopefully you get the idea of lifting a corner.)

Once you've tilted and drained the whipped eggs as much as possible, you can now add your filling just off to one side of the pan. You don't want to put it in the center, as you are going to fold over your omlette, and you don't want it to break. You also want an even coverage, as folding it over will help warm your filling, finish cooking the little bit of egg that didn't set, and if using cheese, melt that too.

I like to let it cook a couple of minutes on one side, then flip it over and cook the other side a few more minutes, depending on the amount of filling, the size of the omlette, etc. If you don't have a big spatula to flip your omlette, a secret is to put plate over your pan, put your hand on top of the plate and hold it firm against your pan. You can then invert the plate and pan together, in essence "flipping" the omlette over onto the plate. You can then slide the omlette back into the pan to finish cooking. It may take some practice, and works best with smaller pans, but it beats trying to do it with a tiny spatula or flipping it in mid air if you're not practiced, and watching the whole thing hit the floor for the dog to eat up. Pour your self a big glass of Florida OJ, (heck maybe even make a mimosa) and enjoy.

Seems I forget to activate a plugin that would auto post my food links from diigo, so here's a quick wrap-up of recent links.

• Mr. Weber, Meet Mr. Brinkmann
• Mama Meera's Cookbook - a Mac OS X cookbook software project
• Rouxbe
• Food Blog Log

With my love across the Atlantic, I was slipping into bachelor mode – fast food, sandwiches, lots of eggs. So walking into the kitchen to make yet another sandwich, I fought the urge and fish stew quickly came to mind. I made a quick assessment of the pantry and fridge. Garbanzo beans, a can of whole peeled tomatoes, a bulb of garlic and not much else for such a dish, I decided to make a quick trip to the market to round out the ingredients.

A pound of firm white fish, a nice fennel bulb, a bunch of organic celery, a green pepper, sweet onion and a large can of whole baby clams later, I head home to throw together a big pot of fish stew to hold me over until the little lady returns, and stave off the fast food.

The baby clams were as much for background flavor as anything, certainly if you have some seafood stock stashed in the freezer (I have shells from shrimp and lobster in the freezer, just haven't made any stock yet and wasn't feeling that adventurous) certainly you could just use that. I've never had any luck with commercial fish bouillons, but if you have one that works for you, certainly that can augment the stew as well. Bottles of clam juice can be used in a pinch as well. Likewise, additional seafood could be added. Certainly shrimp or squid would lend themselves to the flavors of this dish as well.

I diced the onion, green pepper, half the bulb of the fennel, 3 stalks of the celery (including tops) and 4 cloves of garlic and tossed it all in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in my trusty enamel coated dutch oven. I big pinch crushed red pepper, and a few bay leaves round out the first phase.

Saute the vegetables over medium high heat until the vegetables are softened, but not mushy. Next add the tomatoes. I prefer to drain off the juice first into the pot, then crush the tomatoes by hand. I also like to add some filtered water to the can and swish it around and add that to the pot as well. Finally add the whole clams and their juice to the pot, as well as the garbanzo beans (I added roughly a cup and a half) bring to a simmer, cover and cook another 15-20 minutes to let the flavors develop and finish cooking the vegetables.

After 20 minutes or so, you can cut the fish up into chunks, depending on the type of fish, I tend to cut mine into pieces about the size of a die. This way, they will cook through, but hold their shape. I prefer chunky, and since it's more a stew, chunks seem more appropriate. However, again, we are improvising, and it's all about your tastes and preferences. There is no right or wrong. Just keep in mind, the smaller the pieces, the less time the fish needs in the stew, otherwise it will disintegrate anyway.

Before adding the fish, check for seasoning. Certainly salt and pepper, salt will be dependent on the type of stock, broth, bouillon clam juice, etc. I also like to add a little acidity to help round out and balance the flavors. A little dry white wine, or in my case, a few splashes of sherry vinegar, and some fresh ground pepper was all I needed.

Lower the heat on the stew, add your fish, and chop a few tops of the fennel, roughly 3 tablespoons, give or take depending on your tastes. I'm a fennel addict, and like the contrast of the slight anise flavor of the fresh tops, especially with tomato and fish. The bulb tends to sweeten as it's cooked, so the fresh tops round the flavors out nicely.

Depending on the size of chunks you cut your fish in, 5-8 minutes should be sufficient at low heat. Recheck seasoning, and your stew should be ready to serve.

A stew like this on a warm summer evening could certainly be served by itself, with a simple salad or some crusty bread, or some combination there of. If I were to pour a glass of wine, I'd probably opt for a viognier, or a light pinot noir.

These Wasabi Soy Almonds have to be the single most addicting snack I have come across in a long time. If you are a big sushi lover, and bastardize it like most Americans by mixing copious amounts of wasabi with your soy sauce before dunking your sashimi or maki, then you know this flavor all too well. I've long been a fan of wasabi peas, but this is just completely on another level.

And nutritionally speaking, they're not the worst ever, though the sodium is a bit high, however, compared to many other snacks, they aren't that bad. 115g of sodium per ounce of nuts (they say that's about 28), which is roughly five percent of an average daily allowance, so even if you eat a few handfuls, you'll be OK, plus the added benefit of a protein boost. Also, from my education, "good" fats like that found in nuts are a great hunger suppressant, so eating a handful or so of nuts is always better than scarfing down a big bag of chips, etc.

disclaimer - though the link is to their site to purchase a case of these, it's not an affiliate link or paid review, just the only link on their site I could find