Posts Tagged ‘cheese’

Every once in a while, I’m lucky enough to stumble upon a new recipe and know instantly that it’ll become part of our weekday dinner repertoire. This light, flavorful baked pasta — shells stuffed with ricotta, fontina, fennel and radicchio — is one of those recipes.

It had been staring at me temptingly, all cheesy and crusty, from the cover of Food & Wine, and by last week I could no longer resist. I sautéed fennel, radicchio and onions in a large pan while boiling up the jumbo shells, and then I stuffed them individually with a mixture of the sautéed veggies, fresh ricotta, shredded fontina cheese, eggs and parsley. While I prefer to make my…


It feels like spring today, which makes me fantasize about the yummiest salad I’ve eaten in ages. I was paging through the salon’s copy of House Beautiful a couple of weeks ago while some of my kids were having haircuts, and I stumbled upon this fresh and swoonful recipe. I made a mental note, and 24 hours later when I decided I absolutely had to make it, I had no luck finding the recipe online (it has since been uploaded). So off I went to try to track down the magazine, and luckily at my second stop, there was the lovely green cover of the March issue.

The recipe was provided by Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of…


The Best French Onion Soup Gratinée

Sure, I’ve written about French Onion Soup before, but now that there’s a slight chill in the air and people are feeling sort of “autumny,” I couldn’t resist revisiting one of my favorite recipes. If I could have video’d the cheers and excited hugs last weekend when I announced I would be making my soup for dinner, you would’ve thought I’d told the boys that it had all been a huge mistake, and the Red Sox really were going to the World Series! But let’s not go there.

As I wrote previously, the inspiration for my soup is Thomas Keller’s recipe in the Bouchon cookbook. I cheat a little by using store-bought beef stock, but I…


If macaroni and cheese conjures the vision of a blue box with a packet of powdered cheese that results in a big bowl of orange slop, be warned: this is not a dish for you. Mind you, I’ve eaten more than my share of the Krafted-in-a-food-lab version. Until, that is, I discovered the rapture of real macaroni and cheese.

Begging your pardon, but the Reiser princes have unanimously proclaimed the Lobster Mac & Cheese at Bobby Van’s to be the ne plus ultra of lobster mac & cheese. It’s at once crunchy, crispy, lusciously creamy, exquisitely cheesy, and it’s loaded with delightful plump chunks of fresh, sweet lobster. (I know…I’m bordering on food…


Barefoot Contessa Parmesan Chicken

A few very cool things have happened as a result of this Barefoot blog:

• I’ve gotten to spend some time in the kitchen teaching each of my boys a bit about cooking

• I’ve gotten more disciplined about planning meals in advance so dinner isn’t always a last-minute nightmare

• I’ve gotten to write every day!

• I’ve gotten to work on improving my pitiful photography skills

• I’ve gotten a HUGE compliment from Eli Zabar, who tasted my brownies and proclaimed them even better than Ina’s originals (he said it had to be the chocolate, and he was actually going to…


It’s a cool, rainy day here on the East End and to me there’s nothing cozier than sitting down at our long farmhouse dining table and enjoying a splendid mid-afternoon family lunch. Inspired by the French influence of the tarts, I picked up some of those glamorous glass bottles of sparkling French lemonade and even made a special Hotel Costes playlist to add to the ambience. I don’t want to make you jealous or anything, but this was, quite simply, the finest lunch of the summer!

It was also the most time-consuming Barefoot recipe I’ve made all summer. Nothing remotely complicated, but a bunch of steps. But let me be quick to add: it was more than worth…


There was a modicum of ambivalence about this dish. I mean, here you have these breathtaking, ripe, juicy heirloom tomatoes. You have a perfectly lovely dressing made with delectable, pungent Roquefort cheese. And somehow, it seems like lily-gilding to smother the splendid fruits with anything other than a simple sprinkling of fleur de sel and a drizzle of good olive oil (and a little fresh basil if you like). It’s the culinary equivalent of donning a darling little black dress, and then accessorizing with Giuseppe Zanotti crystal platform heels, chain-stripe hosiery, diamond chandelier earrings, elbow-length black gloves, stackable bangles, opera-length pearls, and a tiara.

On the other hand, if you’re ever going…


If you’re lucky enough to have a bounty of zucchini in your garden or from the farmer’s market, this is a quick and tasty way to enjoy a bunch of it. Fresh zucchini is satisfyingly sweet, and Ina cautions not to crowd the pan here because you really want to sautè the veggies rather than have them steam. The onions add an extra burst of sweetness, and when you toss everything with grated parm, the result is a delicious, succulent side dish.

We ate this alongside one of the best entrés we’ve had all summer…but you’ll just have to wait til tomorrow to hear about that!

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Parmesan & Thyme Crackers

Talk about high reward for no work!

These are simply savory shortbread cookies, and the six ingredients pack a really flavorful punch. My only issue was that the dough was a bit too crumbly to be able to roll into a log—twice. I’m always hesitant to add water to shortbread dough and sacrifice some of the crumbliness, but I had to scoop the bits back into the mixer twice and I ended up adding close to a tablespoon of ice-cold H2O to get the dough to even remotely stick together. Once I managed to get it into a log, though, all I had to do was refrigerate, slice and bake. Doesn’t get much easier

With their rich, cheesy, herbacious…