Duck Confit, the easy way.

While we were making our Duck Confit, we got a call from Andrew’s sister, Lauren, asking us how we’d describe the difference between duck and chicken.  We didn’t really have an adequate answer until we finished cooking this recipe and tasted this wonderful result.   Duck cooked this way is richer, meatier and has so much more character than a chicken leg ever could.  

Mario Batali’s Pasta Primavera

        The other day I told Andrew I wanted to cook “Pasta Primavera” for dinner.  He was a little leery and asked if the recipe didn’t call for heavy cream.  I had to admit that the original dish, when I first tasted it at the old Le Cirque, where it was invented in 1974, I seemed to recall swimming in cream sauce.  But right after he left for work, there was Mario Batali, who recently lost something like 20 lbs.,  preparing a Pasta Primavera with no cream whatsoever—just a reasonable amount of heart-healthy olive oil. It's from Mario's new and ninth cookbook "Molto Gusto:Easy Italian Cooking". And this recipe sure fits that bill.

Sole Almandine and the perfect accompaniment, Lemon Smashed Potatoes

     

         I love shopping in Chinatown.  Just coming out of the subway at Grand Street is like being transported to Hong Kong.   Except that the parts of Hong Kong I’m familiar with have a lot more Westerners than New York’s Chinatown does.  Except for Mulberry street and its plethora of red Sauce Italian places offering a free glass of wine to the overwhelmingly tourist crowd,   Chinatown has pretty well taken over what was once Little Italy. And food shopping there is a terrific experience.  If only it were closer, I could save a fortune.  The prices are simply astonishing.  How about 3 lemons for a dollar?  Or a huge knob of ginger for .70 cents? And how about the freshest Gray sole, beautifully filleted, for $3.95 a lb?  Seriously!