Almost Weekly Foodie Faves – A Friday Blogette: My Sprinkles Cabinet

The holiday season has landed on my calendar with a thud. It’s not even December and already I’m knee-deep in Christmas cookies. But in this kitchen that I designed myself (at least mostly), the cookie-making and cookie-decorating are so much easier, I really look forward to the process.

Back in New Jersey, when I first got into the sprinkles mania, decorating cookies meant several trips down to the basement where I kept the box with my collection of cookie cutters and two more really large and heavy plastic bins for the sprinkles and icing. Halloween cookies – for which I have only half a dozen shapes and use little more than white and black and yellow and orange – required the same effort as Christmas cookies, for which I have nearly 20 shapes and use as many colors as I can manage.

Then one Christmas in the middle of the construction process, I sent a batch of cookies to my builders. They were wowed – naturally! – and there ensued a discussion of where to store my vast and growing collection of cookie paraphernalia. The solution they came up with allows me to be the envy of all my cookie-baking friends.

In one wall of my kitchen is a door. Not an obvious door, and with a clever use of paint, we did what we could to make it disappear entirely. It’s held closed with a magnetic touch latch, so when you push on the door where the latch is, it opens to reveal this:

The cabinet is 28 inches across, and the shelves are 4 inches deep, which allows room for the cookie cutters to stick out from the pegboard. I keep spices on the lower shelves, and my sprinkles on the upper ones. The shelves have little ledges to keep the sprinkles and spices from sliding out onto the floor. And with such complete visibility and easy access, I can pull out just what I need in a matter of minutes. What fun!

Now I have to head back to my decorating station – notice the TV remote on the left-hand edge of the photo below. Friday isn’t a particularly good day for the mindless programming I prefer, but here in my office, I can hear the opening tones of the CSI theme, so it’s not a total bomb.

Enjoy the weekend!

A Taste of Holiday Greens

There’s nothing quite so disheartening as coming up with what you think is a totally new idea and discovering that half the world already knows about it. But that will not stop me from telling you about my latest Kitchen Goddess creation. It turns out that my ego can withstand this assault.

Ever since we arrived in Texas, I’ve been trying to branch out from the endless parade of dinners featuring broiled chicken, broccoli, and rice, or some variation on the broccoli/rice bit. It was a perfectly satisfactory dinner for all those years when our sons were at home and I was still working; in fact, it was more than satisfactory. But once you get the kitchen of your dreams, you really need to branch out.

Our trip this year to Italy opened my eyes to the versatility of pasta. We’d been to Italy before, but mostly to areas in the north, where the cuisine is less pasta-centric. This time, we were in Campania, where the menu is heavily weighted toward fish and pasta. Not only is pasta versatile, it’s much more of a one-pile meal, as my friend Joy would call it. You can add a salad, but with the right combination of ingredients, you can get all the basic food groups – except for chocolate – into a single dish. And unless you insist on Alfredo sauce – which I also love, but really... – it can be not only delicious, but healthy.

So when my husband left for a four-day golfing trip in November, I decided to experiment a bit. On the way home from the airport, I stopped at Central Market, a grocery store here known for good produce, and bought everything that looked good and interesting. Artichokes, kale, celery, pomegranates, haricot verts, carrots, parsnips, radishes, arugula, and baby red potatoes. Even broccoli. And for the next four days, I managed every meal from that stash.

I mixed the pomegranate seeds with my yogurt and honey for breakfast, made broccoli soup for lunch, roasted carrots and parsnips for dinner. I braised the celery and made a casserole of it with cream and Parmesan cheese. I pickled the radishes, and turned the haricots verts into roasted sesame green beans; then I mixed up a really nice green goddess dressing to go with the artichoke and the asparagus. (I saved the red potatoes for Thanksgiving and will tell you about that yummy experiment in another post.)

The last night on my own, I had run through much of my veggie collection. The kale had been staring at me – taunting me – every time I opened the frig, but I hadn’t figured out what to do with it. My original plan had been to do a raw kale salad and see how I liked it, but the weather had turned cool, and I needed something warm. What to do with the kale? Bacon. Yeah. It always seems so evil, but it’s soooo good. Maybe if I cooked it with the kale. My grandmother always used to throw bacon into her collard greens, and kale is a similar food, so I jumped in. And what I found was so amazing that I made it again for my hubby once he returned home. He loved it so much that I made it again just this week for my son and daughter-in-law, and they raved. So here it is.

Kitchen Goddess notes:
(1) The only messy thing about kale is that you really have to chop it up, and the little curly edges get all over the counter. But be brave. Once I’ve cut out the tough stems, I stack it into bundles as thick as I can manage, and slice away.
(2) In my efforts to eat more healthily, I’ve switched to whole wheat pasta, which takes longer to cook than regular pasta, but tastes pretty much the same, and is really more nutritious. I prefer either fusilli (spirals) or farfalle (bow-tie), and when no one is looking will use some of each. 
(3) This is really such a flexible dish, you should feel free to mess around with it. More or less of any one ingredient shouldn’t hurt – so, for instance, if you really love sun-dried tomatoes, add extra. If you prefer sausage to bacon, give it a try (and let me know!). If you can’t find kale, try Swiss chard or collard greens – just adjust the cooking time, as chard will cook faster, while collards will likely take longer.

Pasta with Kale and Bacon
Serves 4.

1 pound whole wheat pasta (farfalle or fusilli work equally well)
6 slices bacon
½ cup onion in ¼-inch dice
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bunch kale (at least 1 pound), thick stems removed and leaves sliced in ½-inch ribbons
1 cup well-flavored chicken broth
3 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, sliced in ⅛-inch strips
juice from ¼ lemon (about 1½ teaspoons)
salt/pepper to taste
optional garnish: grated Parmesan cheese

Directions: 
Heat salted water for pasta, but do not add pasta yet.

In a large sauté pan (one that has a lid), cook bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove bacon to paper towels. Once the bacon cools, crumble it.

Reduce heat to medium. Add onion to bacon fat and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook one more minute, stirring. Turn heat down slightly if necessary to keep the garlic from browning.

Add kale and fold gently in the sauté pan, to distribute the fat throughout. The kale will just about overflow the pan, so you may have to add it in two batches; but it will cook down quickly, so keep folding it over itself. Pour in the chicken broth and simmer the mixture, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

At about the same time as you cover the kale, add the pasta to the boiling water. Cook pasta until al dente or to taste.

When the kale is beginning to get tender (after about 10 minutes), stir in the sun-dried tomatoes and the lemon juice. Cover again and allow to simmer gently another 5-10 minutes until the kale is tender.

Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. If the pasta is ready ahead of the kale, save ½ cup of pasta water, adding it back to the pot with the drained pasta. Cover the pot until the kale is ready.

When both the pasta and the kale are ready, add the kale mixture to the pasta, and crumble the bacon into it. Stir well to combine, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (if using), and serve immediately.

Please, Not the Jingle Bells Just Yet

Whew. The long weekend of thankfulness is over, leaving me with that bittersweet gratitude that it only lasts the four days. One son left Saturday to drive back to St. Louis where he’s in his third year of medical school and had to be ready bright and early this morning for pediatric rounds. The other son left today, taking his wife and baby on the airplane back to New Jersey.

I cleaned up last night from the 25 people we invited over yesterday afternoon. I’m not sure why I thought I had to pile more entertaining on top of the family visits, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to show off our 10-month-old granddaughter.

And now the house is finally quiet. I’ve gathered the towels from the bathrooms, noting with amazement – but not for the first time – how many my sons manage to use in such a short period. I’ve put away the high chair and the stroller and the Pack ’n Play, gathered up the handful of items the new parents left behind, and reassembled my desk and computer from its temporary occupation by my older son.

Then I made lunch of the party leftovers (dip, chips, and gazpacho) and ate it stretched out on the couch while I watched reruns of “Castle.” It felt almost like a vacation, at least until tomorrow when I have to start on a double batch of Christmas cookies for the neighborhood holiday party.

So as we gird our loins for the rest of the holiday season, I have an easy, healthy, and delicious recipe for pasta with kale to get you started. But not until tomorrow. I told my husband we’re going out to dinner. I hope you will have the good sense to do the same.

Napkin Folding and Other Obsessions

I’ve been obsessing this week, and that’s not good. I can’t even concentrate on what to serve for Thanksgiving because I can’t decide what the table should look like.

Of course, it’s my own fault. In addition to my wedding china and the good china I inherited from my grandmother, I’m sort of a dish junkie, with sets of plates I inherited from my mother and plates I just couldn’t resist from catalogues or estate sales here and there. These random sets of plates – wood, pottery, glass, porcelain – weren’t expensive, which is how I convince myself that buying them is a good idea. And while I’m not necessarily a napkin junkie, I do think I may have more than my share. Also of glasses. These are just little weaknesses I have.

So I started experimenting. Here’s my first pass. I found the garland at Party City, and – on the theory that everything looks better with some glitter – I picked up gold glitter hair spray and used the entire can on the leaves. The candles are artichoke shapes – more fun than pumpkins, and better color. And I stuck in some cool water glasses I bought in Italy this fall. I like using these napkins on a large scale on the plates.

But that was just playing, as we’ll have five for dinner, and I only have four of those ochre plates and the water glasses. Ah, well.  So I went for a simpler setting, using pottery that I have plenty of, with different candles and my standard wine glasses. It seemed nice, but in the end not fallish enough. This is another fun way to do napkins: just roll them all the way across on the diagonal, then tie them into a single knot.

In search of inspiration, I went outside, where I noticed that the possomhaw holly was covered with bright red berries and hadn’t yet lost its leaves. I cut off a couple of big branches and – after much struggle and a fair amount of cursing – managed to get them stable in a big glass bowl that I then filled with cranberries. It’s gorgeous on my dining room table, so I set it with my wedding china and alternating dark and light green napkins, with beaded napkin rings. Added an assortment of large foil leaves I had in my workroom, and I think this will do nicely.

In the middle of all this, my cousin called and said she’d love some napkin-folding ideas, so here goes.

The most basic technique is just to fold them in half and roll them, then tie them with some cool ribbon. The ribbon I’ve used here is copper, and was almost nothing at Michael’s, since all their Thanksgiving stuff is on deep discount. I had some sweet-gum tree spurs that I spray-painted gold, and have tucked one into the knot. By the way, it’s a good idea to always have spray paint on hand, in gold and silver and copper – you can never tell when it’ll come in handy, or what you might want to paint. I once spray-painted the trim for some curtains.

Here’s a fun folding technique that produces a nice fan effect that stands up. Start by laying the napkin out flat and making two soft pleats – like a Roman shade. Here’s the first:

And here’s the second:

Then working in the direction perpendicular to those folds, pleat the entire napkin like an accordion.

 Stuff the thinner end of the accordion fold into either a glass or a napkin ring.

Here’s a fold that adds a bit of formality, and works really well with a napkin that’s got a strip of color along one edge. Start by folding the top and bottom to meet in the center.

Then fold each end toward the center.

Fold the right end over to reach about 2 inches from the left.

Do the same thing again with the new right end. I like laying this style of fold on the plate.

 


Now that you’re a pro at napkin folding, here’s one that resembles the Sydney Opera House. This is an elegant shape, but only works with a dinner-sized napkin, and is best with napkins that have some stiffness to them. Start by folding the napkin in fourths, like so:

With the corners of the napkin pointing toward you, fold the napkin in half along the diagonal, to form a triangle with the corners pointing away from you.

Turn the left and right ends of the triangle down, so that the folds meet in the center and the napkin shape resembles a kite.

Tuck the bottom parts of the kite underneath and, with one hand pinching the bottoms together, lift the napkin corners – which are now a the top of the kite shape – to stand up individually. Set the folded napkin on the plate.

 So here's how my kitchen looked at the end of this activity. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Almost Weekly Foodie Faves – A Friday Blogette: Thanksgiving Favorites

I know it’s not Friday. Does it count that I started this post on Friday?

I’ve been consumed with thoughts of Thanksgiving lately, as, I’m sure, have many of you. We’re all trying to decide which of our many fabulous recipes to cook. But maybe you’re tired of the same old same old. Maybe you’re just hankering for something new and delicious. Or maybe, in spite of having paid assiduous attention to this blog, you have missed a few of the posts. Maybe you were sick that day, or had to rearrange your closet, or feed the cat.

Well, good news – the Kitchen Goddess has come to the rescue! In accordance with the theme of Friday Faves, herein you will find a nice, tidy list of the Kitchen Goddess’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes, with links to the original posts where they appeared. Here goes:

First, you must remember that every good celebration can use a little alcohol. Even better if it’s champagne. So in my house, we like to kick things off with Champagne Cosmos. Lighter and a bit less alcoholic than your basic Cosmo, these are bound to make even grumpy Uncle Larry thankful.

You’re on your own with the bird, but here’s a great stuffing recipe that, because of the fruit, will help keep the bird moist: Cornbread-Sausage Stuffing with Apples and Grapes. As it happens, I hardly ever stuff the turkey, preferring to cook the stuffing separately, in which case I guess we should call it dressing. Stuffing or dressing, this one is the bomb, as my son would say.

While I’m thinking about turkey, I must add a note about my favorite cranberry sauce: Cranberry Sauce with Pinot Noir. OMG, ladies and gentlemen – this stuff will make you swoon. Just be sure to use a decent Pinot. The Kitchen Goddess’s rule is that if you don’t want to drink it, you don’t want to cook with it.

Thanksgiving is such a carbfest, and I really object on so many levels to those sweet potato recipes with the marshmallows. If you like sweet potatoes, here’s one that’s not so teeth-clenchingly sweet: Sweet Potato Ginger Soufflé. It’s also light (though not as light as, say a chocolate soufflé – remember, it’s made with sweet potatoes), and you can assemble it ahead of time, cover it with Saran Wrap, then on the big day, take it to room temp and bake.

More carbs, I know, but somehow it’s not Thanksgiving without rolls. Or maybe you’ll want to make them for the day after, when you can stuff them with leftover turkey and dressing. Here are two choices:  Cochineal Biscuits (without yeast) and Aunt Marcy’s Yeast Rolls (with yeast, duh). Both are outstanding.

At last, some greens. Green beans, that is. And the best way I’ve ever had them is here: Roasted Sesame Green Beans. In fact, I made some just a few days ago, and they were so good, I’m making a larger batch tonight.

You need a salad, and one of my favorites for this sort of meal is avocado and grapefruit sections over watercress or spinach or arugula. Dress it with my best Poppy Seed Dressing or, for less sweetness, this Honey-Lemon Dressing.

Ah, dessert. My Aunt Marcy’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie has been lauded the world over. Well, maybe not the world, but absolutely every time I have served it. Absolutely. Light and airy, it delivers the pumpkin taste without the cement-like texture of the traditional pies.

Start your engines, everyone! Oh, and don't forget the candles.

Risotto Triumphant

Whew. The election’s over, and thank goodness, because I don’t have any ironing left. While we ground our way through the state-by-state assessments, I managed to press 7 shirts, 6 pairs of pants, 2 sets of king-sized sheets, and 3 dishtowels. I’m not sure which was the more exhausting activity – the election or the ironing – but I’m glad to see the end of both.

The more exciting news is that the Kitchen Goddess has once again outdone herself, in a very creditable job of replicating the risotto with shrimp I had in Ravello last month. Unlike our politicians, risotto is very companionable – it makes friends with just about anything you throw in with it. It’s best if you don’t get too crazy with the number of additions, but I’ve made amazing dinners of butternut squash risotto, shrimp and asparagus risotto, wild mushroom risotto, lemon-herb risotto, Parmesan cheese risotto, and of course, plain old risotto with some extra butter on top. It’s a really filling dish – and gluten-free for those of you who care – so all you need to add is a salad, or a nice green veggie.

The original risotto from the Hotel Palumbo in Ravello

The risotto here doesn’t really have to be served in that little mound with the shrimp so carefully pinwheeled on top, but it was sort of a challenge to see how close I could come to the original presentation. Not bad, if I do say so myself. And I must confess – it was delicious. I served it with roasted asparagus.

I made myself a little crazy by using my last lemon for the zest, and then I didn’t have one to do those neat little strips on top. After calling three neighbors and finding no one at home, I sent my husband out to the skinny little Meyer lemon tree in our courtyard, where 10 lemons were holding on for dear life while they try to ripen. I didn’t have the heart to cut one myself, but my husband has no such qualms. He was mostly interested in dinner, and this craziness with the lemon was giving him agita. So I will warn you that if you want to do that thing with the lemon strips, be sure you have two lemons before you start.

So what the heck is Caldo de Tomate, you may ask. It’s a tomato bouillon with chicken flavor, and your grocery store may put it in the soup aisle with the other broth cubes or powders, or it might be in the aisle with the international/Latino foods. Or try a grocery store in a Latino area. It shouldn’t be hard to find.

The Kitchen Goddess's risotto -- ta-da!

Tomatoey Risotto with Shrimp

Serves 4.

4 cups water
2 cubes Knorr Caldo de Tomate, or 4 teaspoons of the powdered form
4  tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
½ cup finely chopped onion (about the same as 1 small onion)
1¼ cups Arborio rice
¼ cup dry white wine
finely grated zest of one lemon (quarter the zested lemon, for use just before serving)
16 large (31-35 per pound) or extra-large shrimp (26-30 per pound), peeled and deveined, with tails on
freshly ground pepper
optional garnishes: parsley, chopped, and grated Parmesan cheese

In a small saucepan, bring the 4 cups of water to a simmer. Add the broth cubes or powder, and stir until dissolved. Cover the pan and keep the broth at a simmer.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large (4-quart) heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions; cook 4-5 minutes, stirring, until soft. Add the risotto, and stir constantly for one minute, then add the wine and simmer, stirring constantly, until the wine is almost completely absorbed by the rice.

Add ½ cup of the hot tomato broth, stirring constantly until the broth is absorbed by the rice, then keep adding broth, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly, until the rice is tender and creamy but al dente (not too soft). I used the entire 4 cups. This process should take about 20 minutes.

Stir in the lemon zest and salt to taste. Remove the risotto from the heat and cover.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a heavy skillet on medium-high and sauté the shrimp 2 minutes to a side.

Arrange four shrimp on top of each serving of risotto and squeeze a quarter of the reserved lemon over each serving. Garnish with freshly ground black pepper. If you want, you can sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley and/or grated Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Kitchen Goddess note: Don’t let the recipe bully you. Risotto is supposed to be eaten al dente, so I recommend you try it that way. But it’s a little like pasta, in the sense that you should cook it until the texture pleases you, even if that means softer than the recipe calls for. If you have used all the broth and the rice is not yet as tender as you’d like, take the risotto off the heat and boil more water, put a bit more of the Caldo de Tomate in it, and go back to ladling and stirring until the risotto reaches a texture you like.

Days of Wine and Fishes -- Amalfi Coast, Part 2

Ravello, from below

My taste buds are slowly readjusting to Texas produce and flavors – which aren’t bad, mind you – but in my quiet moments, I read over my notes from the delectable dishes we had only a month ago in Italy, and I keep thinking it shouldn’t be so hard to reproduce at least some of the tastes.

One of my favorite spots on the coast is Ravello, a tiny town (population 2,500) in the hills above Amalfi. It was founded in the 5th century, as a refuge from the barbarian invasions; in more recent times, it’s been a refuge for artists (M.C. Escher and Joan Miró), composers (Richard Wagner, Edvard Grieg, Leonard Bernstein), and writers (Virginia Woolf, Tennessee Williams, Graham Green, Truman Capote). But you must only visit Ravello if you’re in decent physical shape, because you park your car at the lowest point in the town and walk up, ...and up and up.

In the central square is the entrance to the 13th century Villa Rufolo, with drop-dead view of the coast and gardens that are almost always in bloom. This trip, we went farther up the hill, to the 11th century Villa Cimbrone, which is not as pure architecturally as Villa Rufolo, but is nevertheless charming and with even more magnificent views.

We had lunch at Hotel Palumbo, a grand old hotel closer to the center of town, where the dining room opens out to another truly stunning view of the coastline far below. I know, it seems like you’d get sort of tired – or at least jaded – with the views, but that is somehow not the case. There’s a calm that comes upon me when I stand next to an ancient stone wall looking down 1,200 feet to the coast below. The air is so pure and clean that even though my heart is generally pumping wildly after the climb, the feeling of peace and quiet (no cars, remember?) makes you want to open your arms and gather it all in. Ah yes, heaven.

But you’ll get hungry with all that walking, and the Palumbo, in addition to the view, has a really talented chef. I started with sea bass carpaccio bathed in Amalfi lemon juice, and topped with shaved fennel, pink peppercorns, and citrus segments. Are you hungry yet?

This was followed by risotto with lemon sauce and prawns. Now, I may be crazy, but I think that if you could get some sushi-quality sea bass, and maybe some Meyer lemons, you could make that carpaccio. And this week, the Kitchen Goddess is planning to tackle the risotto. Stay tuned.

Last week, I posted a picture of my rockfish with Paccheri pasta, from the Eden Roc Hotel in Positano. The food is delightful, the service exquisite, and, yes, more nice views from the 5th floor garden restaurant. The fish appeared to be poached in a simple fresh tomato-parsley-garlic-olive oil sauce, and while you might not be able to find Paccheri pasta, rigatoni would do nicely. Paccheri pasta, by the way, was developed in the early 17th century, when the Prussians closed the border to Italy in order to close off trade in Italian garlic in favor of Prussian garlic. The Italian garlic farmers were infuriated, so Sicilian pasta barons developed this shape that was designed to smuggle 4-5 garlic cloves each into the Prussian market.

The next night, looking for a light dinner, we ate at Bar Bruno, a small trattoria where outside dining is wedged between a wrought-iron railing and a narrow street halfway up the hill above the center of Positano. I wish I had a photo of my dinner, but I don’t, so I’ll just tell you that it was spaghetti tossed with sliced Sicilian olives and baby shrimp sautéed in olive oil with garlic. How simple is that? And so good I had it again as my last meal on the trip.

Lo Scoglio is the brown building on the shore.

Finally, the meal of the week was lunch at Lo Scoglio, in Nerano, a fishing village near the far eastern end of the Amalfi Coast. You can get there by car, but it’s faster and  more fun by boat from Positano, as the restaurant literally juts out into the water.

We left ourselves in the hands of the charming family who own and run Lo Scoglio, and I don’t think I’ve ever had so many wonderful dishes in one meal.











The antipasti, which seemed never-ending, included fresh sardines in lemon juice, tiny raw clams, fresh mozzarella, pomodorini with baby arugula, and an amazing platter of sautéed vegetables: bell peppers, asparagus, eggplant, pumpkin, green cabbage, and escarole – all grown in their gardens. My main course was sea bass, baked with sliced potatoes, olives, capers, olive oil and lemon juice. Be still my heart.

 The pasta course at Lo Scoglio was scialatielli – native to the Amalfi Coast and shaped like fettuccini or linguini, only thicker – with zucchini sauce. So, this week, the Kitchen Goddess has been working on that. I’m not sure I’ve achieved exactly what they served yet, but what I have got a “Very good” from my husband, who’s been warned not to say that if his heart isn’t in it. I liked it, too.

The Kitchen Goddess's take on Lo Scoglio pasta with zucchini sauce.

Fettuccini with Zucchini Sauce

Serves 2 with leftovers

½ pound fettuccini, cooked according to instructions
2½  tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, chopped fine (about ½ cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium zucchini (about 1½ pounds), cut in ½-inch dice
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 heaping teaspoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup chicken broth
¼ cup white wine
1 heaping tablespoon parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish
grated Parmesan cheese for garnish
salt/freshly ground pepper

Before you start cooking the sauce, start heating the salted water for the pasta.

To a large sauté pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil and add the shallots. Cook the shallots, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes, without letting them brown. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Stir in the zucchini for about 5 minutes, then add the oregano and thyme, turn the heat down to medium low and cook the zucchini, covered, for 20 minutes, until it’s soft.

While the zucchini is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot to stay hot until the sauce is ready.

When the zucchini is soft, add the salt, chicken broth, and wine, and cook another 5 minutes to let the flavors combine. Spoon the mixture into a blender, add half the parsley, and purée until smooth. Add salt to taste.

When the sauce is ready, you can either stir it into the pasta – keeping in mind you’ll have more sauce than you need – or serve the pasta and spoon the sauce on top. In either case, top with grated parmesan, chopped parsley, and freshly ground pepper to taste.