Cacio e Pepe Slow Scrambled Eggs

Cacio e Pepe Slow Scrambled Eggs with Roast Asparagus and Crisp Prosciutto
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I don’t have a specific memory but I’m willing to bet money that scrambled eggs were one of the first things I learned to make. Well, the first thing using the stove. I’ve been spreading peanut butter on bread for what feels like my whole life. But scrambled eggs were definitely the first form of eggs I ever tackled. And it makes sense, scrambled eggs are easy to make, difficult to mess up, and don’t require fancy spatula work. Keeping the yolks intact while frying an egg still gives me trouble. Scrambled eggs may be easy but they’re hardly a, um, exhilarating dish. So let’s inject a little excitement into the ol’ scramble with these Cacio e Pepe Slow Scrambled Eggs. 

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Guanciale Chickpea Salad with Preserved Lemon Dressing

Guanciale Chickpea Salad with Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette
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This Guanciale Chickpea Salad is a play on an Italian Antipasto Salad. It features crisp gem lettuce, olives, sliced red grapes, pickled shallots, torn fresh mozzarella, and chickpeas tossed in a preserved lemon vinaigrette and topped with seared slabs of guanciale and hard-boiled eggs. This salad may seem a little disjointed and it certainly does have a lot going on. But I think you will find that each forkful makes a certain sense. This dish hits all the notes: salty, sweet, savory, sour, tart, and meaty. No two bites are the same. And while this dish has a lot of moving parts, it is a cinque to make. This salad isn’t a side or a starter, it’s definitely a main course.

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Bangers and Butter Beans

Bangers and Butter Beans with Jammy Onions and Dill Pistou
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I have a small confession to make. I developed today’s recipe because I liked the way its name sounded. The phrase Bangers and Butter Beans randomly strolled into my mind one day and I fell for the sonic romance of it. It sounded like something a Roald Dahl character would tuck into. It’s funny, you never know what will set a recipe in motion.  I think most people would imagine a recipe’s name would be the final touch rather than the starting gun. And it is true, this is more an exception than a rule. Sometimes a recipe is born from a particular detail in a restaurant meal or a dish of little consequence featured in a movie or TV show. Sometimes it’s as simple as finding an abundance of one ingredient at your local grocery store. And let’s not forget the OG food muse – seasonality. 

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BLT Pappardelle

BLT Pappardelle
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Okay, I realize today’s BLT Pappardelle might be a tad controversial. Admittedly using a sandwich as a jumping-off point for a pasta dish is a little eyebrow-raising. I mean, for some strange reason the BLT makes sense as a salad even as a pasta salad, but a pasta fresh from the skillet? It’s also a pasta that isn’t remotely Italian, which the Internet generally hates. And there is the question of hot lettuce – is that really something we need in our lives? All of these are valid points and reasonable reasons not wanting to make this BLT Pappardelle. But I have one counterargument –  this dish is freaking delicious and well worth the rule-breaking. And I promise the lettuce is introduced after the pasta has been taken off of the heat. 

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