It’s fall! You have probably noticed that where your grocery store’s corn bin used to be, there are now flats of apples and pears. You now have my permission to start eating pumpkin things, and baking pie and busting out those holiday spices. It’s time to embrace the season, and maybe even go beyond the pumpkin spice/cinnamon apple realm of fall foods. Like maybe into pear territory – and maybe for dinner.

I’m a big fan of the way pears pair with savory flavors. If you cook them in butter and salt them up, they take on a mildly sweet complexity that doesn’t feel at all out of place on a dinner plate. A couple of years ago I blogged about a sandwich stuffed with pears and brie and mustard (it’s awesome by the way, and the mustard and brie offer a perfect foil to the sweetness of pears). This recipe uses gorgonzola dolce to steer the fruit solidly into entree territory.

I’m way too lazy to make my own pasta dough, so I used store-bought wonton wrappers. It totally works, and Giada does it too so I don’t feel bad.

This recipe makes too much ravioli for one dinner (unless you are feeding a pile of teenagers) so I recommend cooking up as many as you can eat in one day, and freezing the rest. Spread them out on a baking sheet to freeze them, and when they are solid throw them in a plastic bag for long-term freezing. When you’re ready to serve them again just whip up some sauce and drop the ravioli into boiling water straight from the freezer. They’ll be ready to eat in about 5 minutes.

Pear and Ricotta Ravioli with Gorgonzola Sauce

Ingredients:
-2 pears, diced
-1 onion, diced
-2 Tbsp butter
-1 lb. tub of whole milk ricotta
-a pinch of nutmeg
-1 tsp honey
-1/4 tsp lemon zest (approximately)
-1 tsp lemon juice (eyeball it)
-salt and pepper to taste
-fresh, store-bought wonton wrappers
-1 1/2 cups heavy cream
-about 1/2 cup gorgonzola dolce, cut into pieces
-parsley, for garnish

Method:
1. Sauté pears and onion in butter over medium high heat until pears are soft and browned.
2. Make ravioli filling by mixing ricotta with the cooked pear and onion mixture, nutmeg, honey, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Taste the filling and season with salt and pepper. You want the mixture to be balanced between sweet and savory. The gorgonzola sauce will bring a lot of salt to the dish, so be sure to keep the filling balanced.
3. Assemble ravioli by spooning about 1 1/2 tsp filling into the middle of each wonton wrapper. Wet the edge of each wonton wrapper with water, and press the edges together, checking for any little gaps and closing them up with a pinch. Do your best to keep the filling away from the edges, because it will prevent the ravioli from sealing along the edges. Make as many raviolis as you can with the filling, and set them aside on a baking sheet or plate.
4. Make the gorgonzola sauce by putting the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Allow the cream to reduce slightly until it is somewhat thicker than when it went in the pan. Take the pan off the heat and add the gorgonzola cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted, returning the pan to very gentle heat only if the cheese doesn’t fully melt. Taste the sauce – it should be quite salty from the cheese alone, but add more salt and pepper if you feel it’s needed.
5. Cook ravioli in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes, or until the ravioli is heated through and floats to the top of the water.
6. Serve ravioli with gorgonzola sauce, and garnish with parsley.

This is another one of those dishes that makes good use of late summer/early fall produce while still feeling cozily satisfying when the days cool off. My local supermarket just wrapped up their annual Hatch chile extravapalooza or whatever, so I used them to make the pesto, but I think poblanos or Anaheim chiles would be equally delicious.

That little smattering of chile pesto floating in the soup looks pretty, but if I’m honest I added another tablespoon of the stuff before I ate it. I’ve also discovered that this pesto is awesome on eggs…and sandwiches. It’s just snappy enough to be interesting without being totally mean heat-wise. I’m thinking of making a massive batch with the last of the summer’s crop to see me through the winter.

Potato Cheese Soup with Green Chile Pesto

Ingredients:

Soup:
-1 medium onion, diced
-a splash of olive oil, to cook the onions
-2-3 large baking potatoes, peeled and diced
-1-2 cans chicken broth (or vegetable if you prefer)
-a good scoop of sour cream (probably 1/3 cup)
-about 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
-salt and pepper to taste

Pesto:
-2-3 green chiles
-4 green onions
-1 clove garlic
-1 handful cilantro
-1 tsp white wine vinegar (lime juice would also work)
-2 Tbsp olive oil (you may need more, you want the pesto to be thick but pourable/spreadable)
-salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Sauté diced onion in olive oil in a medium-sized soup pot over medium heat until onions are translucent. Add diced potatoes and cover with chicken broth (about 1 1/2 cans, but just use enough to cover the potatoes). Simmer over medium-low heat until potatoes are cooked through.
2. Use an immersion blender to puree cooked potatoes and onions in broth. Add more broth if the mixture is too thick (it probably will be). Remove soup from heat and stir in sour cream and cheese until the mixture is smooth and the cheese is melted. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.
3. Char whole green chiles over a gas burner, on a grill, or under the broiler until they are blackened in spots and somewhat softened. Remove seeds and stems from charred peppers.
4. Make the pesto by combining coarsely chopped green chiles, green onions, garlic, cilantro, vinegar, and olive oil in a food processor, and pulsing until combined and all the ingredients are nicely minced. Add salt and pepper to taste. Adjust texture by adding more olive oil. (You can chop everything by hand if you don’t have a food processor. The pesto’s texture will be rougher but it will taste great.)
5. Serve soup by pouring potato cheese soup into bowls and topping with pesto and maybe some black pepper. Crusty bread is recommended. Add salad to make it a meal.

I have a problem with recipes.  I think people place way too much confidence in them. Most people don’t realize that recipes are subjective. It doesn’t matter how many times it has been tested, how well it has been written, a recipe can still fail you. But it’s not necessarily the recipe’s fault, or even the recipe writer’s, because they can’t be in the kitchen with you. They don’t know if your oven is lying (it probably is), if your garlic is abnormally pungent, how your kitchen’s altitude or heat level or humidity will change cook times, or if your olive oil has gone rancid. The only one who can know this crap is you.

This level of responsibility can be kind of scary, especially when you’re first learning the ins and outs of cooking. But it’s also kind of empowering if you think about it, because it means that your palate and your opinion is valid. So if your recipe says “sauté for 5 minutes” and your veggies still aren’t as done as you’d like, you can (and should) keep cooking. If a recipe tells you to “add one teaspoon of salt” but it still tastes bland, add more. If your soup recipe calls for green beans but you hate green beans, use something else. Because the whole point of cooking is to feed yourself, and if you don’t like the taste, that’s really your problem isn’t it?

If you are going to cook, you need to taste. Everything. All the time. This is the only way you’ll learn just how spicy you like things, which brands of mustard are the strongest, how done you like your eggs, and how to generally make food you will actually enjoy eating.

Whenever I’m about to serve a dish I typically stand over the pan and taste, sometimes four or five times, adding salt or acid or sweetness until I’m happy with the flavor. I never measure salt or pepper (or most things) in my recipes. Just add and taste and add and taste. Witnessing the evolution of a dish from unseasoned to finished and balanced teaches me a lot, and makes it possible for me to get a dish to taste as good as I know how to make it before it hits the table.

I’m a proponent of the idea of “doctoring up” prepared foods when you are a brand new cook. It’s a little less intimidating to customize a jar of pre-made spaghetti sauce or bowl of ramen than it is to make your own from scratch. The ultimate goal will obviously be for you to be able to make your own everything from raw ingredients, but if you find cooking overwhelming, doctoring up pre-made food is a good way to learn how different seasonings effect your food and just what you like. Experiment with salt levels, pepper levels, adding tabasco, lemon juice or honey (even to something savory), extra garlic if you like it, fresh herbs – anything you want. Taste it before you make an addition and after, then make note of the difference.

Incorporating the habit of tasting into your cooking will help you discover new likes and dislikes and, without even realizing it, you’ll develop a culinary intuition that will make cooking a lot less stressful. So take your recipes with a grain of salt from now on, and trust your taste above all else.

Risotto is one of those dishes that’s known for being labor intensive, but the “labor” part of risotto-making is just stirring, which is really sort of meditative and intuitive and definitely nothing to be afraid of. You don’t even have to measure your ingredients, just stir and watch and take a few tastes when you think the rice is getting close to done.

The main thing to know about risotto is: use the right rice. I tried making this the first time about eight years ago with basmati rice. Because I was an idiot. The end result was decidedly not risotto. More like a rice ball. Arborio and carnaroli rice are the classic Italian picks for risotto, but I’ve used Japanese rice successfully, because it’s short-grained and similarly starchy. The other thing to keep in mind is that your cooking liquid is going to reduce while it’s cooked into the risotto, so any seasoning you add will be concentrated. Keep a light hand with the salt until the risotto is almost done, or you’ll risk over-salting. That’s it though: the right rice, and a low-salt broth.

It’s a weird thing for me to admit, but this is the first risotto I’ve made that I didn’t want to embellish with cheese. I needed this to taste like corn on the cob – just buttery and sweet. And I think cheese would have drowned out the delicate corn flavor. Yes, I spiked it with green onion, (for brightness) but overall this is just sweet butter and corn in a luscious little belly hug.

Also probably the whitest corn ever grown. Not so easy to photograph. Can you even tell it’s corn?

If you’ve never made risotto before, I think it’s helpful to watch a video to see how simple the adding liquid/stirring process is. Here’s a video for “golden risotto” on saveur.com. I love that the only way to really know if risotto is done is to get in there and taste it. No timing, no measuring, just pour and stir and pour and stir and taste.

Fresh Corn Risotto

Ingredients:
4 -5 ears fresh corn
1-2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp butter, plus half a stick (4 Tbsp)
one small onion, diced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup white wine
scallions, chopped
parsley, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Cut raw corn from cobs and reserve in a bowl. Put leftover cobs in a pot and cover with water (about a quart, a little more is ok). Add 1-2 cloves smashed garlic and simmer, covered, for about two hours to make corn cob broth.
2. When broth is finished, remove garlic and corn cobs and scrape any cob pulp into the broth with a spoon or butter knife. Season lightly with salt, and keep on low heat. This liquid will reduce as it’s added to the risotto, so be very careful not to over-season the broth.
3. Sauté onion in 1 Tbsp butter over medium heat in another pot. When onion is translucent, add arborio rice and stir until rice is lightly toasted.
4. Begin by pouring white wine over rice and cook, while stirring, until the wine is mostly absorbed. Then, start adding corn cob broth a ladle or two at a time, stirring constantly. Allow the broth to absorb almost completely (there will be some creamy starchy sauce surrounding the rice) before adding another ladleful. Keep adding broth, stirring, and letting the liquid absorb in turns until the rice is al dente (not crunchy, but with a pleasant chew – it shouldn’t be sticking to your teeth or anything). Stir in reserved raw corn and allow to cook another minute or two.
5. When the rice and corn are done, remove the pot from the heat and stir in 1/2 stick butter. Taste and season as necessary with salt and pepper. The finished risotto should be somewhat loose (like it would spread a bit if you put it on a plate) but creamy, not watery. Add another touch of corn broth if necessary to loosen the risotto slightly. Top with scallions and parsley, maybe a bit of raw corn, and serve.

I don’t know guys. I feel like there’s something fundamentally lame about chicken salad. Maybe I’ve had it at one too many bridal showers or “ladies luncheons”. It’s just so irritatingly…inoffensive? Honestly, I had a small crisis when I sat down to write this, because I vehemently didn’t want to be the type of person who blogs about chicken salad. I tend to over-think things to the point of stupidity. “Chicken salad blogger” is not a thing. Thankfully I got my bizarre ego in check and remembered that this chicken salad is delicious, perfect for lazy cooking days, and flavorful enough to be interesting, if not…offensive? What is my deal sometimes.

For serious chicken salad tips, I turn to Ina. Woman knows her way around composed salads, which is something I think you have to master as a deli owner/caterer (and she was! before her famous TV chef days). At her behest, I began roasting split, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts for chicken salad, and it produced such superior chicken, I  will never do it any other way again. I choose the word superior because I dislike the “m” word (that ends in -oist), though that’s exactly what this is.

“Curried” chicken salad isn’t exactly cooler than plan chicken salad, but it is seriously delicious and it makes apples and bacon and onions really happy together.

A salad fit for an innocuous lunch, that also happens to be awesome. I’m just going to go ahead and be a chicken salad blogger then.

Curried Chicken Salad with Bacon
serves 3-4

Ingredients:
-2 split, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
-olive oil (just a drizzle, to coat the chicken)
-1/2 cup mayo (you will need more if you use boneless, skinless chicken because duh, it’s dry, so taste and adjust)
-2 tsp curry powder (the yellow, American kind – embrace it)
-juice of 1/2 lemon
-1/4 cup red onion, diced very small
-1/2 cup apple, diced (I like fuji or granny smith)
-1/3 cup (or so) bacon, crumbled
-1-2 tsp of chives, chopped (sort of optional)
-salt and pepper, to taste

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F, place chicken breast on a baking sheet, coat with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. Allow chicken to cool, remove bones and skin, and dice into bite-sized chunks.
2. In a bowl, mix mayo, curry powder, lemon juice, red onion, apple, bacon, chives, and a pinch of salt. Add chicken and stir together to combine. Taste chicken salad and add more salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve chicken salad immediately (or chill it for a few hours, it’s good either way) with crackers or on a sandwich with lettuce if you like.

There’s a lot going on in this sandwich.

I know a BLT is one of those classics that people have opinions about. It’s the kind of sandwich that some say shouldn’t be trifled with. But I can’t help myself sometimes.

And so to you I submit: an excessively delicious, maybe sacrilegious, not so apologetic version of the BLT. I call it the BLT…A…E. A and E being buttery avocado and runny-yolked fried egg, respectively.

Too much of a good thing? More like another thing entirely.

Mmm hmm.

BLT…A…E
like you need a recipe, but here it is anyway

Ingredients:
-your favorite bread, two pieces per sandwich, sliced pretty thin
-ripe, summer tomatoes, two or three slices per sandwich
-your favorite bacon, 3-6 slices per sandwich
-ripe avocado, one half per sandwich
-lettuce (for texture and prettiness)
-one egg per sandwich
-mayo, as needed
-salt and pepper
-probably some chips

Method:
1. Cook your bacon as you like (though might I suggest roasting it in the oven as discussed yesterday?) and allow it to cool slightly.
2. Slice your sandwich bread, tomato, and avocado, and tear lettuce into sandwich sized pieces.
3. Assemble your sandwiches thusly: one piece of bread, mayo, sliced avocado, lettuce, bacon, tomato, salt and pepper. Leave the sandwiches open faced until you finish making the eggs.
4. Fry your eggs  sunny-side up or over easy and put one on top of each sandwich. Top with bread, cut in half (the yolk will get split and sort of act as a second sauce for the sandwich) and serve. Probably with chips.

There isn’t really a wrong way to cook bacon, but some ways are definitely better than others. When I cook bacon I want it to turn out crisp but not burned, I want to be able to walk away from it, and I’d rather not ruin a shirt or arm with hot grease splatters. It’d be nice if it was easy to clean up as well.

This is why I cook my bacon in the oven, at a relatively low temperature, for a longer amount of time than most. Low, slow cooking allows the fat in the bacon to render and become crispy, while minimizing those “turn around for two seconds and it’s charcoal” experiences. I also cut my bacon in half (for more even cooking) and use foil pretty religiously because it eliminates the need for scrubbing pans and makes disposing of the grease a non-issue.

Usually when roasting, you’re admonished to not crowd your pan if you want your veggies (or whatever) to brown up. But this is bacon, not veggies. And bacon is full of fat, not water. So go ahead and crowd the pan, I promise it will still get crispy. Plus when the fat renders out, the bacon will shrink to about half it’s original size. Bummer, but hey, bacon!

When you finish, bask in the glory of golden brown, perfectly crispy, evenly cooked bacon. And it’s all done at the same time, so you can eat breakfast with buddies instead of babysitting a spitting pan of hot fat while everything else gets cold.

Bacon, the Best Way

Ingredients:
bacon

Supplies:
aluminum foil
baking sheet
plate lined with paper towels or cooling rack

Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 300F.
2. Line your baking sheet with aluminum foil and line up your bacon end to end until the pan is filled.
3. Roast your bacon in the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until it’s as done as you like.
4. Drain bacon on lined plate or cooling rack, allow it to cool slightly, and serve.