Homemade Hummus - surprisingly easy

As strange as it may seem I have never before made hummus from scratch. I usually buy one of the many great options available on the supermarket shelf and give it a homemade feel by adding some good olive oil, yogurt and lemon. It's easy and no one is the wiser...that is, until my mother-in-law Dede came to visit! As we are getting ready for a dinner party during her last visit I am setting out a few pre-dinner snacks , one of which is hummus. Dede turns to me and says, " I'm surprised you don't make your own hummus - it couldn't be easier" I instantly felt like a 5th grader who'd been caught cheating on a test and vowed to pick up a few cans of chickpeas at my next visit to the market.

The chickpeas sat in my pantry for a few weeks and it wasn't until we had a surprise visit from our friends Kristin and Tara that these canned goods truly came to good use and rescued the day. I usually am pretty good about having some snacks and light hors d'ouvres always ready to go - but on this sunny Saturday my options are limited and so I reach for the canned chickpeas.
Dede is right - the recipe couldn't be easier. You basically put all the ingredients into a blender and pulsate until you get a smooth paste. The flavor and texture does depend on the ingredients you use though...

I add the chickpeas with some of the juice from the can and zest and squeeze juice from a lemon (I like my hummus quite tangy). Then I run into a roadblock - I have no tahini in my pantry. But Kristin and Tara are at the door so I substitute with some creamy Greek yogurt and add some extra garlic and salt and pepper for flavor.

Then, using the Alessi olive oil taster my friend Bente gave me on her last visit, I swirl, smell and taste my way to the best one I have in the pantry which I generously pour over the chickpeas before giving it all a swirl.
The result is a silky smooth and perfectly well-balanced chickpea paste that works great with crackers and vegetables. Now that I've made hummus once I'll definitely do it again - but I have to admit, I still pick up a few containers of the pre-made kind at the market as well... Hummus - Christina style

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
• zest and juice from 1 lemon
  
• 2 tablespoons greek yogurt
  
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
  
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil

Preparation:

Drain chickpeas and set aside liquid from can. Combine remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. Add 1/4 cup of liquid from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until thoroughly mixed and smooth.

Place in serving bowl, and create a shallow well in the center of the hummus.

Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of olive oil in the well. Garnish with parsley (optional).

Pasta, cheese and more cheese - with a few greens in it

Last week Hoby sent me with a link to a recipe in Bon Appetit. The subject line said "I want this!". I know he doesn't spend his day scrolling through online food magazines but when I opened the link to a picture of buttery pasta crusted with golden flakes of parmesan cheese I forgot to ask him how he stumbled upon this whammy of a dish full of glorious cheese, cheese and more cheese. Instead I decided to dive in and add it to the dinner party menu.

It's a fairly straight forward recipe and when all is said and done this decadent take on mac 'n cheese takes about 4 cups of grated cheese. So the first thing I do is put Hoby to work grating. After all, he is the one who put in the request.

There truly is cheese in every part of the dish. Even the pan - once buttered don't dust it with flour - no this recipe calls for parmesan cheese. And it doesn't stop there....

The white roux that binds the pasta tubes together is a creamy mix of milk, butter and again, lots of cheese.There are some greens in the dish, but I think this is just a feeble effort at making you feel better because the few peas and arugula leaves are more for color than nutritional value. Admittedly, arugula does have a spicy flavor and does add a little something but let's be honest, it's all about the melted cheese.

Everything gets mixed into a big gooey cheesy mess that you put into a cake pan and cover with another layer of parmesan.....and then you pop it in the oven......

30 minutes later you'll see the top starting to turn golden and a crispy layer of parmesan covers the buttery creamy pasta noodles.

The recipe calls for the "pasta cake" to sit for 30 minutes before you unmold and slice it. Which is recommended but I can assure you it is difficult to hold back with the smell of toasted parmesan cheese s

lowly taking over your kitchen and hungry diners hanging over you....

Paccheri and Cheese with Peas and Mint
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter plus more for pan
• 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan, divided (about 3 1/2 ounces total)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups whole milk
• 1 cup shredded Fontina cheese
• 1 large egg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound paccheri rigati or rigatoni
• 1 cup shelled fresh or frozen peas
• 2 cups coarsely chopped arugula
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh mint
• 1 cup ricotta (about 9 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Preparation

• Butter pan. Dust pan all over with 1/3 cup Parmesan. Melt 1/4 cup butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour; whisk for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking often. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, whisking frequently, until sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in Fontina and 1 cup Parmesan. Add egg; whisk to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cover sauce and keep warm.
• Arrange a rack in upper third of oven; preheat to 375°. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until almost al dente (pasta will continue to cook while baking). Using a large slotted spoon, transfer pasta to a large bowl. Add peas to pasta water; cook until just tender, about 1 minute. Drain peas; add to bowl with pasta. Stir in cheese sauce. Add arugula, 1 cup parsley, and 1/2 cup mint to pasta mixture; mix to evenly incorporate.
• Transfer half of pasta mixture to prepared pan. Mix ricotta and lemon zest in a small bowl; dot half of ricotta mixture over pasta. Spoon remaining pasta mixture into pan and dot with remaining ricotta mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan.
• Bake pasta for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Bake pasta until top is golden brown, about 10 minutes longer. Let rest for 30 minutes; remove pan sides. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. parsley and 2 Tbsp. mint and cut into wedges.

Nutella Bliss Cake with Almoncello for Dede

What better excuse than a birthday to make a decadent and sinfully delicious cake? My mother-in-law, Dede, joined us in Miami for a pre-birthday celebration weekend and I jumped at the opportunity to dive into Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess for her Torta Alla Gianduia. Or as I affectionately call it - Nutella bliss cake with Almoncello.

Admittedly, I love this cake is not only because it looks beautiful and tastes amazing, but I very much enjoy being able to lick the Nutella jar clean and sip on some ice cold Almoncello while I'm whipping up the egg whites and melting the chocolate.


Growing up my friends in Norway would have "sjokolade pålegg" (chocolate topping) on their breakfast open-faced sandwiches. Somehow it was believed that the dairy in the chocolate made it a good option - I guess it's not much different than having cocoa puffs as a breakfast cereal. But my parents never fell for this so "sjokolade pålegg" was never part of our morning ritual- thus making it all more enticing when I could sneak in a spoon of it here and there....

Now that I am an adult I guess I could technically have Nutella on my breakfast toast if I wanted, but old habits die hard so with the exception of the rare Saturday morning treat where I spread it on some fresh bread topped with some sliced bananas, my breakfast topping is much more "sensible".

But I digress - back to Dede's decadent birthday cake. The beauty of Nigella's cake is that it is, like so many of her recipes, quite simple to make. Granted, it does require a few pots and pans for whipping, blending and melting, but nothing is actually difficult - just a bit time consuming.

The key is to whip the egg whites into big fluffy peaks

and separately blend the butter, cream and chocolate.

Then carefully mix it all together until you have a dense and gooey mix that tastes just as good eaten right out of the bowl (this, of course, is not recommended).

But what makes this cake party-worthy is the chocolate ganache topping and white toasted hazelnuts that cover the top. You toast the hazelnuts in a pan for a few minutes, until the aroma permeates throughout the kitchen and you see the skins peeling away from the edges. Be careful not to let them burn though, so make sure you keep shaking the pan a bit to keep the nuts moving.


Once they've cooled a bit, take the hazelnuts in a dish towel and rub off the skins until you are left with beautiful white nuggets that look like golden cream drops.
Once you've covered the cake with the ganache, place the hazelnuts on the cake. I tend to get a little carried away here and focus on the symmetry so a step that should take 5 minutes ends up dragging on a bit for me....but that's just me....

The cake is nothing short of heaven as the dense morsels of flourless chocolate cake melt in your mouth. Made even better with a nutty crunch from the toasted hazelnuts.
But as with any birthday celebration what we really remember is the company. And this year, as what has now become a tradition, the serenade to the birthday girl provided by none other than Bambi LaFleur with her oversized glass of chardonnay.
Nutella Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

Cake:
6 large eggs, separated
pinch salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce container Nutellla
1 tablespoon rum or Frangelico (here I use Hoby's Almoncello)
1/2 cup finely ground hazelnuts
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and
cooled

Ganache:
4 ounces whole hazelnuts
1/2 cup half and half (she calls for heavy cream but I was out, half and half worked well)
1 tablespoon rum or Frangelico (here too I use Hoby's Almoncello)
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter a 9-inch springform pan. In a large bowl (preferably metal),
whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff. In another bowl, cream the butter and Nutella, then add
the rum or Frangelico, egg yolks, and ground hazelnuts. Fold in melted chocolate.

Add a blob of beaten egg whites to the chocolate batter, and mix gently until well-combined. Fold in the remaining whites, one-third at a time, very gently but thoroughly. Pour into springform and bake for 40 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting tester, which should come out mostly clean; lightly pressing finger into top to check for a slight bouncing-back; and observing edges beginning to separate from pan. Let cool completely, in pan, on a rack.

Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet, or toaster oven shaking them around frequently. Do it for about 4 minutes, or until they are lightly browned, then let cool completely. If hazelnuts came with skins on, put them in a towel after toasting and rub around; this will remove most of the skins.

Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with half and half and rum over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface, and apply hazelnuts all over.