Day 1 - Pasta alla Puttanesca/Italian Pot Roast on Polenta

I have been rereading "Julie & Julia..." a fun little book, soon to be a "major motion picture", that started as a blog, in which the author Julie Powell spends a year cooking thru Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". As I read it, I thought to myself, if she, a marginal cook but good writer could blog about cooking, then I, a marginal writer but good cook could blog about eating. And so here we go.

Breakfast

This morning for a change I followed my own advice about never skipping breakfast, and sat down with my son to a bowl of bran flakes and mild, along with a large cup of Sunday morning coffee. I had already been thinking about the blog and wanted a good start. Afterwards, I poked my head out the door and when the 90 deg heat and humidity hit me, decided against mowing the yard, and lost out on an opportunity to exercise.

Lunch -  Pasta alla puttanesca

For lunch I had a small bowl of leftover pasta alla puttanesca, one of the most decadent tasting but extremely healthy dishes I know of.  Legend has it that the dish originated in the Naples area, and was prepared in brothels, and its strong savory aroma would to entice sailors inside, as if they needed any additional encouragement. (puttana is italian slang for prostitute).

I had made it the night before after surveying the pantry and noted that I had all the ingredients. In addition, my wife was out of town and does not care for one of the chief ingredients, olives.

My recipe last night was simply 2-3 tbs olive oil heated in a pan, 1 can anchovies, a small handful of ripe olives pitted and chopped, a large spoonful of capers, 2 chopped garlic cloves, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes and half a jar of generic spaghetti sauce (I usually use a can of tomatoes). This was simmered a few minutes and a cooked box of pasta, in this case penne was added to the sauce for a couple more minutes until the extra moisture was absorbed by the pasta. 15 minutes total prep time and most of that was boiling the pasta.  Don't worry about the anchovies, they only add richness and salt and virtually no fishy taste. 

This dish is loaded with Omega 3s, antioxidants, etc, and all of the fat calories are good ones, that is, ones that increase your HDL or  "good cholesterol". 

My error however was to cook such a large amount, when I was the only one eating - my 5 year old has not developed such a debaucherous palate yet.  I therefore made the mistake last night of dipping into the leftovers while watching TV - one of the things I specifically advise my weight loss patients against. (Studies have shown we overeat if the TV is on during meals/snacks, therefore best not to eat while watching. If hungry, eat in the kitchen before resuming couch potato activities). So I ate 3/4 of the total dish from dinner to bedtime, which was at least 1500 calories. (1600 cal per box of pasta - 8 servings). 

Today, I did better and only had 1 bowl of the still delicious pasta for lunch, probably 4-500 calories. 

I ate a handful of popcorn during the afternoon as I cooked dinner for my wife. I should note that as I love to cook and she loathes it, I am the head chef in the family, though she probably puts as many meals on the table as I do, given the amount of time I am away at work. More times than not, the kids prefer mom's meals to mine as well!

Dinner - Italian potroast on polenta/grits with spinach

I found some  chuck roast in the freezer that I had bought on sale and decided on making a pot roast. 

To save time, I simply placed the still frozen meat in a heavy enameled cast iron pot, along with some olive oil and set to med heat to brown on each side. This worked pretty well, but I did need to pour off some of the juice the meat gave off, so that it would brown and not just boil. After both sides were done, I removed the roast and tossed in a coarsely chopped large onion and red bell pepper and sauteed them a few minutes. I then added 2 cloves garlic, a bay leaf and some fresh oregano from the garden (grow your own herbs  - its easy and MUCH cheaper), and the remainder of the jar of tomato sauce from last night. The meat was returned to the pot and simmered on lowest heat about 3 hours. 

Continuing on the Italian theme, I cooked up some polenta, otherwise known as grits in these parts, with a little bit of chicken stock added to the water for flavor. We are lucky enough to have a local old fashioned stone mill, so these were stone ground yellow grits, which I believe are the exactly same species as polenta. Most grocery store grits are a bit different, but are better than nothing. Just avoid the instant type.

To green things up, 1 pack of frozen spinach was simmered in 1/2 cup water and seasoned with nutmeg and a pinch of salt. (Buy nutmegs whole and they keep a long time. Just run them over a grater  - much better than the preground stuff, which loses its potency almost immediately.)

I served a 4 oz portion of the meat on top of the "polenta" along with the sauce and veggies, and a nice big spoonful of spinach on the side. Easily a $12.95 dish at a decent restaurant, as Jacques Pepin would say, and total ingredients were less than $10 for at least 6 servings. (I make this point, since we are all looking for ways to conserve nowadays, and I am a big believer in cooking something special from a cheaper cut of meat.)

Most importantly for me, I did not go back for seconds, despite how good it tasted, and refrigerated the leftovers immediately to reduce the temptation. I must admit, I am still a bit hungry as I write this 2 hours later, but I think blogging about it will help me make it to bedtime without ruining my diet for the day.