Pizza With Caramelized Onions, Broccoli Rabe, and Goat Cheese

 This pizza was inspired by a recipe over on Smitten Kitchen, and it's remained a perennial favorite in our house, particularly in the winter. It's the kind of pizza that makes a well-rounded meal, and the hearty greens are enough to convince you that you can eat pizza and be nutritionally virtuous at the same time.

The bitterness of the broccoli rabe, the sweet caramelized onions, and the tangy goat cheese become more than the sum of their parts, and when some chewy pizza dough and some garlic oil are thrown into the mix, this pizza makes a just about perfect meal.

I know that some people are turned off by the bitterness of hearty winter greens, but I assure you  when the broccoli rabe is joined by its culinary companions, the bitterness becomes an asset and gives the whole pizza a delicious balance. Plus, whereas some hearty greens benefit from a long cooking time, the broccoli rabe cooks in just a few minutes. Also a nice benefit is the fact that this pizza requires no fresh herbs. So if your herb garden has died, or you don't feel like buying expensive fresh herbs, you're in luck.

Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Broccoli Rabe, and Goat Cheese

• 1/2 recipe pizza dough
• 2 medium onions
• 4 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Kosher salt
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch broccoli rabe (also called rapini)
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• A couple pinches sugar, or a squeeze of agave nectar
• 3-4 ounces goat cheese
• Very good extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

Optional:

• 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese
• Lemon, cut into wedges

While the pizza dough is rising, slice the onions. In a skillet, heat 2 teaspoons canola oil over medium heat, and add the onion. Cook until very soft and caramelized, about 30 minutes. If the onions start to dry out, add a tablespoon of butter. Salt to taste while cooking.

While the onions cook, combine the minced garlic and the good olive oil in a little bowl. Set aside. Cut off the bottom inch or two of the bunch of broccoli rabe, so that the dried-out, tough parts of the stem are removed. Chop the rest of the bunch into small, bite-sized pieces. Wash thoroughly.

In a large skillet, heat 2 teaspoons canola oil over medium-high heat. Add the broccoli rabe (it's okay if there is still some water clinging to the leaves). Add salt to taste, and a pinch of red pepper flakes, and saute until tender, about 7 minutes. Taste the greens. If they are very bitter, add the couple pinches of sugar or the squeeze of agave nectar. Remove from heat.

When the dough has been rising for about 45 minutes, preheat the oven (with a pizza stone in place) to 500 degrees.

When the dough has almost doubled in size (about and hour and a half), stretch it out into a 12-inch circle. It helps to take your fingertips and make divets all over the surface of the dough, then spread with the palms of your hands, pushing outward. Repeat until the dough is the desired size.

Spread the garlic oil over the surface of the pizza, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Using a peel or an inverted pizza sheet, slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Cook until the dough is getting firmer and is taking on a teeny-tiny bit of a golden color, about 5 minutes.

Remove the pizza from the oven, and close the oven door. Spread the onions over the surface of the pizza. Spread the broccoli rabe over the onions, and cover the whole thing with the goat cheese. Return to the oven and cook until the crust is golden brown and the goat cheese is melted a bit.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a bit of salt, the Monterey Jack if you're using it, and the very good olive oil. Sometimes this pizza benefits from a sprinkle of lemon juice, and sometimes it doesn't need it, so perhaps serve some lemon slices on the side. Cut into wedges and serve.

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes

I'm never happy about the end of summer, but this year I'm rather looking forward to stews and braises, squash and sweet potatoes. Growing up, I was not a fan of the sweeter tuber, but it's grown on me. Not only is a sweet potato tasty, I learned, but a sweet potato will keep you fuller longer than its white counterpart will, and it has a lower glycemic index.

Health benefits aside, I can see why some people remain less than fond of sweet potatoes, and my theory is that the potato's very sweetness is the problem- a lot of adults just don't want such a sweet side with their entrees.

This preparation, however, nicely dispatches with that complaint. The potato, of course, remains a bit sweet, but the garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes carry it from the realm of the saccharine to the savory, and it's a very satisfying transformation. Plus, the potatoes get a bit crispy on the outside, while the inside becomes meltingly tender and soft. Just be careful, because the soft, almost creamy centers can also be molten.

So if any of you people out there have friends or family members who claim to not like sweet potatoes, then I encourage you to try this side dish. You just might change their minds.

Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes(From Epicurious)

• 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch-thick rounds
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1/3 cup fresh thyme leaves, plus 6 thyme sprigs for garnish
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 450°F. In large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and toss. Arrange potato slices in single layer on parchment-lined heavyweight rimmed baking sheet or in 13x9-inch baking dish. Place on top rack of oven and roast until tender and slightly browned, about 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with thyme sprigs.

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

This is one of our old-school recipes. It was one of our first forays into the world of from scratch, whole foods cooking, and we thought that we were the bomb. In a way I suppose we were, because this recipe is still awesome, 8 years later.

Simple enough to throw together for a weeknight dinner, this dish is also nice enough for company. It's especially delicious served with grilled meats. The potatoes become golden brown and crispy on the outside, with fluffy, soft interiors. The garlic sufficiently perfumes the potatoes, but if you have some hard-core garlic lovers dining with you, encourage them to squish the garlic out of the skins--they'll be left with a delicious roasted garlic paste. Your house will smell delicious after you make this recipe; your breath might be another story.

(Sorry that the pictures are of the uncooked potatoes-there was no more natural light available by the time dinner was ready.)

Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

• 1/2 pounds thin-skinned red potatoes
• 1/2 head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 

Cut the potatoes into a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch dice, and spread on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. (If you don't have parchment, foil will work, but you may have a little bit of sticking.) Drizzle the olive oil over the potatoes, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. I would suggest starting with 1/2 teaspoon salt and a 1/4 teaspoon pepper. You'll have an opportunity later to taste and adjust for seasoning. Toss well.

Spread the garlic cloves and rosemary springs amongst the potatoes. Cover with foil and seal tightly. Slide into the center of the oven and cook for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, the dish should be smelling strongly, and when you check the potatoes, they will be soft and easily pierced with a fork. If not, re-cover with foil, and cook for a few more minutes until the aforementioned characteristics are achieved.

Remove the foil and stir the potatoes (a spatula works well). Cook for and additional 15 minutes, stirring every once in a while, until the potatoes are golden brown on the outside and fluffy-soft on the inside. At some point, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. 

If you like, remove the garlic and rosemary to serve, or just inform your companions that the garlic cloves are there. Cooking times will vary based on the age and variety of potato, and the size of the dice. These general cooking guidelines work nicely, though.

Texas-Style Barbecued Baby Back Ribs

Last week was a major fatty-fat week. We ate, and we ate, and we ate some more. So this week, we were going to be healthy. Chicken breasts and vegetables, fish and plain rice, no cheese before dinner, fruit for dessert. That's why we bought ribs at the grocery store.


Well, we meant to be healthy. There's always next week.


We used to use a recipe for bourbon ribs from Epicurious, but as it calls for apple butter and apple cider, it's really more of a Fall-ish desert. Daniel Boulud had the answer, though, in the form of his Texas-Style Baby Back Ribs. Now, there's really nothing barbecued about these ribs. They're not slowly cooked and smoked over low, indirect heat after being rubbed with a variety of spices. These ribs are in a barbecue-style sauce, but they're not even supposed to see the grill. What can I say?-- he's French.

And honestly, we're not worried about authenticity. We actually like recipes that call for braising ribs because it results in succulent, falling-off-the-bone-tenderness. In order to accomplish this with dry heat, we would have to cook the meat at a very low temperature for a very long time. This wasn't appealing on this particular day for a number of reasons, so we figured we would braise the ribs and finish them on the grill.


Daniel's recipe had all of the elements we were looking for--a yummy sauce, no seasonally inappropriate ingredients, a wet cooking method, a cooking method that didn't require having the grill on for 5 hours, etc. We figured we'd throw the ribs on the grill for a few minutes at the end and we'd have just what we were looking for.


Now, one of the best things about eating ribs is the fact that it's perfectly acceptable to eat them with your hands. Everything is better when eaten with the hands--crabs, cake, etc. So we wanted a side that was also finger-friendly. For a veggie we came up with green beans, which are another post, and oven fries. Meat and potatoes, we love you.


Our all-time oven fries are the Bistro French Fries from Epicurious. They're tasty without being too unhealthy, and the best part is the way they're tossed with garlic and parsley when they're fresh out of the oven. The sharp tang of the garlic with the soothing green of the parsley are the perfect counterpoint to the crispy brown exterior and fluffy warm interior of the fries. They've become a part of the regular rotation in our house, and if you try them you'll see why. I especially love them with some apple cider vinegar.

Texas-Style Barbecued Baby Back Rib

(Adapted from Daniel Boulud's Braise)

For the Ribs:


-2 racks (about 4 pounds) baby back ribs, each cut in two pieces.
-1 onion, peeled and halved
-1 leek, white part only, split in half and cleaned well
-1 stalk celery
-1 carrot
-3 juniper berries
-1 tablespoon coarse sea salt or Kosher salt
-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


For the Rub:

-3 tablespoons smoked Spanish paprika

-1 tablespoon cumin seeds
-2 teaspoons regular oregano or dried Mexican oregano
-1 tablespoon black peppercorns
-2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
-2 tablespoons chili powder
-2 teaspoons garlic powder
-2 teaspoons onion powder
-2 teaspoons dry mustard
-Finely grated zest of 1 lemon




For the Sauce:


-1 large onion, peeled and diced
-4 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
-1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
-Splash of chili sauce, to taste
-1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
-1/4 cup molasses
-1/4 cup cider vinegar
-Small pinch freshly grated peeled fresh ginger root
-1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or Kosher salt
-3/4 cup espresso or strong coffee
-1 tablespoon canola oil, for searing the ribs




Place the ribs in a large pot with the onion, leek, celery, carrot, juniper berries, bay leaves, salt, and black pepper and pour in enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the ribs to a plate and pat dry.


Strain the liquid in the pot through a fine-mesh sieve. Return the strained liquid to the pot, bring it to a boil, and cook, skimming the fat from the surface occasionally, until the liquid has reduced to 2 1/2 cups. This might take a lot linger than you would anticipate--as much as 45 minutes. Remove from the heat.


To make the rub, grind all the rub ingredients together in a spice grinder. Rub 2 tablespoons of the mixture over the ribs.


To make the sauce, combine all the sauce ingredients with the reduced poaching liquid.


Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees.


In a large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven over high heat, heat the oil. Add the ribs (in batches if necessary) and sear until browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the sauce and bring to a simmer. Cover the pot, transfer it to the oven, and braise until the ribs are meltingly tender, about 1 hour 45 minutes.


Carefully remove the pot from the oven and transfer the ribs to a plate. Preheat the grill.


Reduce the sauce until it is the proper consistency for barbecue sauce and slather it on the ribs.


Cook the ribs quickly over the flames--just enough to caramelize the sauce without burning. Remove from the grill and serve, with extra sauce on the side if desired.

Bistro French Fries with Parsley and Garlic 

(Adapted from Epicurious)

-4 medium russet potatoes (about 2 pounds), roughly peeled
-1 teaspoon peanut oil
-1 teaspoon canola oil, more if fries are not coated
-1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
-3 garlic cloves, minced
-Coarse salt




Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 425°F. Cut potatoes lengthwise into 1/3-inch-thick slices, then cut lengthwise into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Submerge potatoes in large bowl filled with hot water and allow to soak for 10 minutes.


Remove the potatoes from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Combine potatoes and oil in large bowl; toss to coat well. Divide potatoes between 2 large parchment paper-lined baking sheets; spread in single layer. Bake until potatoes are golden brown and soft in the center, turning and rearranging potatoes frequently, about 50 minutes.


Transfer potatoes back to the bowl. Toss with parsley, garlic and coarse salt.