Tiny Creamy Pasta with Black Pepper and Pecorino by Alison Roman

I really enjoy tiny kitchen things. Tiny forks for eating grapes, tiny spoons for eating ice cream, tiny knives for cutting fancy cheese, tiny cups for juice, tiny plates for biscuits, and tiny bowls for everything! (I have four of them and affectionately call them my ‘mini bowls’ in a very particular voice intonation). 

So of course I was giddy when I saw a recipe for tiny pasta! Now, GF tiny pasta is hard to find. The best I could do were these tiny pasta shells by Jovial, which let me say, were delicious. I couldn’t tell they were GF - they held their structure, toasted nicely in the pot at the beginning, and their texture was like authentic pasta, no mushiness or mealiness to be found. 

I made this warm, wintery meal for my mother and sister who came to visit me in Chicago. It was a perfect weekend together, full of Christmas-y activities, including wearing matching pajamas. After spending much of the day walking around in the cold, our final evening consisted of this tiny pasta in my apartment with the heater on blast. 

It’s a simple and surprisingly creamy endeavor. In my Dutch oven, I toasted sliced garlic (from two extraordinarily large cloves!). Soon after, the pasta joins and the goal is to toast the shells in the garlicky oil so they develop a slightly nutty flavor. Once I could smell the toasting pasta, I added salt, lots of black pepper, a cup of finely grated Parmesan (this works if you don’t have pecorino) and several cups of water. The water needs to simmer for about 22 minutes, until fully absorbed and reduced to a creamy, cheesy sauce. Alison instructs us to stir frequently, which encourages the pasta to release its starch, thickening up the sauce and turning the water an opaque white. 

I plated (or should I say bowled?) the pasta and topped it with chopped chives and more black pepper. On most days, I would have chosen to add the raw egg yolk like Alison, but on this day, I just wasn’t in the mood. I served the pasta alongside Alison’s Raw Broccoli Salad with Shallots and Peanuts — a vegetable dish that completely surprised me. That one’s coming up next. 

This pasta is like a sophisticated, slightly more complicated mac and cheese, and it still only takes 25 minutes. Let’s just say I won’t be making regular mac and cheese again any time soon.

185 recipes cooked, 40 to go.

Iceberg with Pecorino, Crushed Olives and Pickled Chile by Alison Roman

Did you also read this recipe title and think, “what? no, no thanks.” I was chatting with Margaret on the phone tonight and at one point she asked, “any standouts for the blog lately?” “Yeah!” I said, “Actually this iceberg salad with pickled chiles and olives was just incredible.” “Eh, really? Doesn’t sound incredible…” said Margaret. And to a large degree, she’s right. It doesn’t sound incredible to me, either. In fact, when I first read the recipe last January, I marked it down as one that I didn’t look forward to making. 

But if by some odd grace you’ve found yourself reading this blog post, then please, FORGET how this recipe title sounds, and BELIEVE me when I say that it is 100% worth making. So much so, that I even found myself snacking on its leftovers. 

The first step is to thinly slice the jalapeno and white onion and pickle them both in white wine vinegar and honey. Alison asks for five minutes of pickling. I gave them close to thirty, because why not? More pickling is best, in my opinion, and my guess is that Alison agrees. She probably just wanted to make this recipe seem *quick* and *not fancy,* which I get but will ignore. 

I chopped the iceberg lettuce into square sheets and scattered them with crushed olives. When it was almost time to eat, I tossed the lettuce with the pickling mix and served it up in bowls. Now here’s where I choked. I forgot the pecorino and olive oil. I didn’t miss either element because the acid and heat are so strong, but they would have been nice. That’s what I get for preparing the salad elements so far apart. I was distracted by the other parts of our meal (Alison’s Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder with Garlic, Citrus, and Cilantro and corn tortillas) and understandably let the salad be an afterthought. 

When eating the meal, the salad was anything but an afterthought. I liked it even better than the pork, and found myself picking leaves and olives out of the salad bowl after I’d finished eating what was on my plate. This is not a normal eating habit for me. I might snack off a serving bowl or plate that has chips or something sweet. But salad leaves? This tells you that the flavors - tangy, spicy, a tad sweet - work really well, and frankly work far better than most of Alison’s other salads. As we were cleaning up, Jordan said, “That was hands-down the best Alison Roman salad you’ve made.” I can almost agree. 

151 recipes cooked, 74 to go.

Raw and Roasted Kale with Pistachios and Creamy Pecorino by Alison Roman

You’ve had kale chips before, right? Well this is essentially a salad of kale chips with lemon and cheese (and nuts if you want ‘em), and it’s delicious. 

My friend Kearci, who, by the way, gifted me with Alison’s nothing fancy, raves about this recipe, and insisted that we make it as part of our All-Out-Alison meal during Friendship Weekend. (FW is a term I just made up to refer to the one weekend a year that Kearci usually comes to visit me in whatever state I’m living in at that moment. #truefriend) 

Similar to a kale chip recipe, the leaves are removed from the stems and tossed in olive oil, Aleppo pepper, salt, and black pepper before roasting them for 10-15 minutes. The key here is not to let the kale crisp to the point of browning, but rather just the moment before it starts to change color. (A little brown is okay, but we don’t want burned kale.) 

Meanwhile, we made a dressing with shaved pecorino (or parmesan, because that’s what I had on hand), olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, and salt and pepper. Once the leaves were properly roasted, we tossed them with the dressing. 

Now, I must admit that upon re-reading the recipe for the writing of this post, I realized that we left out one key element. Alison says to reserve half of the raw kale to combine with the roasted kale (hence the name of this recipe, lol). Instead, we roasted all of the greens with much enthusiasm. I have no regrets. However, I can see why the dressing has olive oil now, because that’s meant to soften the raw kale. I bet both versions of this salad are probably lovely. 

95 recipes cooked, 130 to go.