Pi Day

[hudebnik]

Didn't make a savoury pie; I had a green pasta puttanesca recipe I'd wanted to try for a while, and yesterday's weather Felt Like Spring so we made that last night.

(Note to moderator: there's no "pasta" or "noodles" tag.)

Recipe modifications: Couldn't find green garlic, so I followed the recipe's alternative instructions using regular garlic. The spouse had some qualms about the anchovies (since she generally doesn't like things that live in water), but I cut them up small before cooking. The spouse doesn't like green olives, so I used up some black olives in the back of the fridge, then made up the difference with green olives, cut up small before cooking. I thought we had capers in the house so I didn't buy them the last time I went to the grocery, but we didn't, so I left those out completely. And the fresh spinach I found came in 8-ounce bags, so I used 16 ounces rather than 11 -- after all, it cooks down a lot.

Verdict: Tasty, with an unctuous-but-not-too-much mouth feel. The extra spinach didn't seem to be a problem. Spouse was surprised that the recipe didn't call for throwing all the sauce ingredients into a blender to homogenize (as in the previous puttanesca recipe we had made), so she bravely tried to avoid seeing the chunks of green olive as she ate. Might try this again in the future with a "blending" stage. Which could happen either before or after adding and wilting the spinach.

For those who can't see the recipe behind a paywall...

PASTA WITH GREEN PUTTANESCA

INGREDIENTS
Kosher salt, to taste
1 pound spaghettini or spaghetti
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
10 anchovy fillets
1/4 cup drained capers
1 cup pitted and sliced green Cerignola or Picholine olives
10 fat green garlic cloves, peeled, sliced 1/4-inch thick or use 8 regular garlic cloves
1/3 cup chopped scallions including greens
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
12 cups baby spinach leaves (11 ounces)
1/2 cup torn basil leaves

PREPARATION
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until it is not quite al dente, 5 to 8 minutes. Reserve a cup of cooking water, then drain the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking, warm 1/4 cup of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the anchovies and capers. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the capers start to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup oil, olives, garlic, scallions and red pepper flakes; increase heat to high if using green garlic (leave it at medium high for regular garlic) and cook until garlic is golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the pasta and toss for 1 minute. Add a splash of pasta cooking water if the pasta seems dry. Season with salt, if necessary. Toss in the basil leaves.

But we couldn't let Pi Day go by without some kind of pie, so we made a chocolate-pecan-bourbon pie for dessert. We'd made this recipe before (so it doesn't qualify for the Cookbook Challenge, but I'll copy it below anyway), and it was as good as we remembered.

Note to self: There are many places in cooking where "more butter, more better". Pie crust is not one of those places. I've made lots of pie crusts in my life, but this time spaced on the distinction between (U.S.) "stick" and "cup", so there was twice as much butter as there should have been. Things seemed sorta odd as I rolled it out and pressed it into the pie pan, and even more so when it had been in the oven blind-baking for a few minutes and produced a lake of melted butter over the top of the pie weight. I took it out, rescued the hot greasy pie weight, scooped the rest of the sodden mess into a mixing bowl, added another cup and a half of flour, mixed it together into two equal-sized balls, and stuck it into the fridge for an hour. I knew it wouldn't end up as a flaky crust with microscopic layers of butter separating microscopic layers of flour, since the butter had already melted, but hoped it would at least hold together. And it sorta did.

KENTUCKY DERBY BOURBON PIE

1 stick butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. flour
pinch of salt
2 T. Kentucky Bourbon (or 1 t. vanilla)
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. chocolate chips
1 9-inch pie shell, partially baked

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugar.
Add beaten eggs, flour, salt, and Kentucky
Bourbon (or vanilla). Add chocolate chips and
nuts. Stir well. Pour into partially baked pie
shell and bake for 30 minutes, or until center
is set. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.