March Round-Up

Kitchen Hacks, Podcasts, A Pasta Recipe, and More

Hey, everyone!

I’m preparing for a big trip to Italy this month (it will be my first time there), and I’ll be spending most of my time in Florence, Bologna, and the surrounding area. If you have any recommendations for me— food or otherwise— please feel free to pass them along!

Myles

What I’m Watching

I loved this behind the scenes video from Ilis, a new restaurant in NYC. I don’t aspire to cook in restaurants ever again, but if I did it would be at a place like this. A lot of restaurant cooking involves repetition— you’re cooking the same things over and over again and seeking to deliver those perfectly. Ilis is different— the menu is constantly changing based on seasonal availability and the creative whims of the chefs. You can really feel the love of the craft and the joy that Chef Kane Sorrells brings to the process. I can’t wait to eat there next time I’m in NYC.

A Podcast On The Basics Of Cooking

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to join Dr. Jed Wolpaw on his podcast. It’s not a cooking podcast— he is a doctor whose show focuses almost entirely on medicine. We got connected through a mutual friend, and he thought it would be cool to do a podcast focused on some really practical tips for how to cook healthy food at home without too much effort. The target audience was busy doctors and medical school students, but the information is useful to anyone who wants to cook more often and more easily at home.

This is one of my favorite podcasts I’ve ever done because we focused entirely on actionable, practical advice. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.

An Underrated Way To Serve Meat

I’ve been doing this a bunch recently when making meat dishes.

Instead of a sauce, pile a bunch of fresh herbs over the top and dress it with a little bit of flakey salt, some really good olive oil, and a splash of some lemon juice or vinegar. I love the flavor of fresh herbs, and it ends up being something like a cross between a salad and a sauce. Just don’t call it deconstructed chimichurri.

On the left: breaded chicken thighs served over whipped ricotta with arugula, parsley, cilantro, Calabrian chiles, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. On the right: chile-crusted steak with cilantro, lime juice, and olive oil.

A Quick And Easy Pasta

I recently whipped together this pasta dish on the fly, and I loved it. Super delicious and flavorful, and it came together in less than 30 minutes.

Start by finely dicing a couple of shallots and a couple of cloves of garlic. Cook down the shallots in olive oil until they’re translucent, and then add in the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add in a tbsp of chopped Calabrian chiles, and 1/2lb of ground beef. Once the beef is cooked through, add in a cup of crushed tomatoes and reduce that a bit. Finish with about a quarter cup of heavy cream.

Toss in the pasta and coat it with the sauce. Finish with a shaving of parm or pecorino, some broccoli microgreens, and a drizzle of your best olive oil.

I’ve shouted them out before, but I love Seggiano for dried pasta. They are an Italian brand that does things the right way— organic Italian wheat, bronze cut, slow dried— and they’re pretty widely available. Someone also recently recommended Pasta Mancini, which makes their pasta with heirloom wheat sourced entirely from a single farm. I’m looking forward to trying them soon.

Spice Blends As A Kitchen Hack

I think that spice blends are one of the most useful pantry hacks. You can easily add big flavor to a bunch of different dishes and explore various flavor profiles with almost no added effort.

The key is to buy high-quality blends from companies that make them fresh. Even though they’re shelf-stable, spices are a fresh product that degrade over time. A lot of grocery store blends are old and flavorless. If you buy online from good sources, you’ll get some really high-quality stuff.

My favorite sources:

• Burlap & Barrel

• La Boite

• Oaktown

• Spicewalla