Roasted Sweet Potato and Cranberry Beans with Ricotta

This is a River Cafe dish that's become a staple in my kitchen. I love making it with fresh cranberry or Borlotti beans when they are in season because it speeds up the cooking process, but it's just as good with dried beans soaked overnight. The beans are cooked with sage, garlic and a tomato, and the sweet potato is cut into chunks, tossed with olive oil, marjoram, and chili flakes, and roasted at 400 degrees for about a half hour. Fresh mozzarella is amazing with this dish but I didn't have any... to be honest, the ricotta just wasn't the same.

Truffle Cake aka The Second* Easiest Cake in the World

This is a combination of two different River Cafe "truffle cake" recipes- one had a more mousse-like filling that used egg yolks and butter with the chocolate on top of a hazelnut praline crust, and the other was simply chocolate and cream, or 100% ganache. I opted to make the praline crust with the simple ganache on top and the combination was perfect. I used Mission almonds instead of hazelnuts, which my mother doesn't like. Aside from an hour of chilling in the fridge, this cake came together in about a half hour and required almost no effort at all, and only five ingredients, all of which I had in my pantry. I served it with whipped cream and it was such a huge hit at our Passover meal that I will definitely be making it again.

2 C Mission almonds (or hazelnuts)
6 Tbs Demerara sugar (you could also use Turbinado or brown)
1/2 C butter (I used salted and I thought it was a nice compliment to the bittersweet chocolate)
450 g dark chocolate (70% is recommended)
10 oz heavy whipping cream

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 9" springform pan, line with parchment, and butter the paper as well. Roast the nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes, and then pulse in a food processor until coarsely ground.

Melt butter in a saucepan and add sugar, letting it boil until a light caramel forms (not very long). Add the nuts and stir for a couple of minutes so that everything sticks together. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and spread into an even layer while still hot. Let cool.

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Heat the cream and then stir it into the chocolate until combined. Pour on top of the praline crust and refrigerate for at least an hour until you are ready to serve.

When you are ready to serve the cake, wrap a towel soaked in hot water around the sides of the pan for a few seconds to melt the ganache slightly so that the ring will come off smoothly. When serving, dip your knife in warm water between slices for super clean cutting.

* the easiest cake in the world is Icebox Cake.

Pluot Galette

Inspired by a tart I had at Chez Panisse last month, we served this with rosewater whipped cream, which really brought out the fragrance of the pluots. (Pictured below with our favorites from the River Cafe books: Chocolate Walnut Torte and Pear Almond Cake)

Tagliatelle with Roasted Tomatoes, Olives, Capers, and Arugla

Inspired by River Cafe, as always...

Pear Almond Tart with Custard

Another River Cafe recipe, made with Warren pears from my dad's orchard, and served with warm vanilla custard... yummmm.

Whole Halibut Baked in Salt

We made this using a combination of instructions from Jamie Oliver, River Cafe, and an episode of Two Fat Ladies. It was a little scary at first but turned out amazingly!

Buccatini with Oregano

When Erik picked this recipe out of one of our River Cafe cookbooks, the first thing I thought of was "Veronica, I made your favorite- spaghetti with lots of oregano!", so of course we watched Heathers while we ate. I must say that this recipe- which calls for 1/2 cup of dried oregano plus "two generous handfuls" of fresh oregano, tossed into the pasta with a bit of olive oil- was a bit much for me. This is only the second River Cafe recipe we've tried and disliked (I know, I really should change this blog's title to "Recipes from River Cafe and Jamie Oliver")... really it was just too much oregano. The pasta was bitter and woody (why did it need the dried oregano?), and desperately needed something to balance it out like some ground pine nuts or walnuts maybe, or even some cream or butter. The fresh cherry tomatoes from my garden were a nice, sweet reprieve, but I definitely did not go back for seconds. Oh, well...

ADDENDUM: We figured out that the problem arose from using Mexican dried oregano instead of Italian! The Italian variety comes in big, leafy bunches, whereas the Mexican is ground up and includes lots of stem pieces.

15 Minute Cake

This is yet another flourless chocolate cake from River Cafe and the richest yet! No sugar, just eggs, dark chocolate (70% cacao), and butter. Yum!

Chocolate Walnut Cake

From River Cafe, like a giant, buttery brownie. Mmmmm.....

Penne with Tuscan Sausage Sauce

From the River Cafe "Italian Country" cookbook. I made this with some delicious fennel sausage from Cafe Rouge, and tomatoes from my garden.

Lentils with Duck Sausage and Homemade Peach Mostarda

The sausage came from Cafe Rouge, and I made the mostarda following the River Cafe recipe for Pears in Mustard Syrup, using peaches instead of pears and mustard seeds and powder instead of "mustard essence," which I couldn't find. I also added some thyme from the garden.

Roasted Chicken and Lemon Potatoes

When Erik decides he wants to eat meat, I never hesitate. We roasted a chicken with these fantastic potatoes from River Cafe- you just slice up lemons and toss them with the potatoes, garlic, olive oil and herbs. Delish!

Boysenberries with Mascarpone Custard

Another from the River Cafe. We baked the berries with the custard on top until it turned golden. Perfect for a summer evening!

Linguine with Crab and Fennel

I'm repostng this because I finally got a good picture of it. The original post was March 24, and we've made this dish a couple of times since then. It's always delicious!

We found a copy of the second River Cafe cookbook on sale today, and were drooling over this recipe (which originally called for linguine, but we had spaghetti and it worked just fine) when we passed by our local fish market and saw fresh crabs in the window. It was fate! We bought the crabs pre-cooked and cracked and then pulled the meat out ourselves.

1 lb Spaghetti
Crab meat
1 Fennel bulb
1 Garlic clove
1 tbspFennel seeds
2 Dried chillies
1 Lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil

Remove the tough outer part and stalk of the fennel. Slice the bulb as finely as you can across the grain. Keep any of the green tops. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Crush the fennel seeds and crumble the chilli. Grate the zest of the lemon, and squeeze the juice.

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a thick-bottomed pan, add the garlic, fennel seeds and chilli, and cook to soften. Add the crab, lemon juice and zest, and season. Stir through, just to heat up the crab.

Cook the linguine in boiling, salted water for five minutes, then add the fennel slices and cook together until al dente. Drain the pasta, keeping a little of the water, and add to the crab mixture. Stir thoroughly to combine, adding a little of the reserved water to loosen the sauce if necessary. Serve with olive oil.

If cooking crab yourself, buy them live and choose one or two large crabs - it will be much easier to pick the meat out from them than from many small ones. Cock crabs (males) have larger claws and a higher proportion of white meat. Spider crabs are very sweet and good for this recipe, though it takes longer to pick out the meat than from the common crab, as the meat-to-shell ratio is lower.

Chocolate Nemesis

I see Chocolate Nemesis on a lot of restaurant menus, but usually what you get is not much different than your average flourless chocolate cake. The original Nemesis at the River Cafe is almost mousse-like and not at all cakey, and notoriously difficult to make. But somehow Erik and I (ok, mostly Erik) managed to pull it off! The trick: following the recipe exactly, even when it seemed wrong. Of course in all our excitement we forgot to take pictures of it, so these are by our friends Megan and Jess. Thanks, guys!

Chickpea, Pasta and Tomato "Soup"

Another not-so-soupy dish from River Cafe (courtesy of Erik), but much prettier this time.

Pasta with Figs and Chilis

Yes, yes, it's another River Cafe recipe...

Borlotti Bean Soup with Papardelle

I have to admit that this River Cafe dish is probably the least appetizing-looking thing I have ever cooked. The picture really doesn't do it justice- it is sort of a vomit-gray paste with pasta. In order to make it more soup-like, we added a bit of pasta water, and have dressed it up here with some olive oil and herbs. In spite of its appearance, it was rather tasty. I think if I made it again I would fry the pancetta first (instead of boiling it and pureeing it), and leave the beans whole (instead of pureeing them with everything else), and serve everything tossed together as more of a pasta dish than a "soup" (which this was not exactly anyways).

Sea Scallops with Borlotti Beans, Arugula and Hot Chilis

Another River Cafe recipe, made with Rancho Gordo beans.

Buckwheat Pasta with Red Snapper, Roasted Tomatoes and Olives

This dish was inspired by a recipe from River Cafe Two Easy, and we broke the rules to make it, as tomatoes are not even close to in season. It was pretty tasty though, and I plan to make it again this summer when I have tomatoes coming out of my ears. The original recipe calls for Red Mullet, but since they are an East Coast fish, we substituted filets of Red Snapper instead. We just roasted the tomatoes with thyme and olive oil for about a half hour (I might give them an hour next time so they get caramelized), smashed the olives, and roasted the fish for maybe 10 minutes before tossing it all together with the pasta.