Pasta. Parmesan cheese. Cream. Prosciutto. Four ingredients. [Ed. note: Can't get The Count from Sesame Street out of my head, "One, two, three, four ingredients heh heh heh."]

Make it vegetarian by omitting the prosciutto. Three ingredients. You're welcome.

An indulgent winter meal that reheats very well, I make it once a year for the BF and he goes clinically insane over it. [Ed. note: Do I need to concur? Folks, she doesn't lie.]

NOTES:

• Use good quality, salty parmesan.
• I halved the recipe and it served three people.
• Changes made include: upping the cream and parmesan a bit, crisping the prosciutto, and adding a touch of cayenne.
• This is not an alfredo. It will not be super saucy once baked. If you use good parmesan and season the sauce well, the pasta should look like a crispy, crunchy blanket, infused with flavor.

Adapted from: Gourmet, December 2006
Number of servings: 6 (main course) or 8 (side dish)

Ingredients

• 2 ¾ cups heavy whipping cream 
• 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano parmesan cheese (4 ounces)
• 1 pound penne
• 2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
• Pinch of cayenne (optional)

Directions

1. Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 375 °F.
2. Sauté chopped prosciutto in heavy saucepan and cook over moderate heat until lightly crisp (should not take long). Remove prosciutto and place on paper towel. Wipe pan clean with paper towel to remove grease.
   
3. Using the same saucepan, bring cream, 1 ¾ cups cheese, ¾ teaspoon black pepper, ¾ teaspoon salt and cayenne (if using) just to a boil, stirring occasionally. Taste it. It might need more salt. Remove from heat.
4. Cook pasta in a 6-8 quart pot of boiling salted water, until al dente [Ed. note: Who the bleep is Al Dente?], then drain in a colander. Return pasta to pot, stir in parmesan cream and prosciutto, tossing to coat. Transfer mixture to a 2-quart shallow flameproof gratin or baking dish (about 11 x 8 x 2 inches; not glass) and bake 15 minutes.
   
5. Stir pasta well to coat evenly with sauce, then sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cheese.
6. Turn on broiler and broil pasta 4-5 inches from heat until top is lightly browned, 2-4 minutes.

PS: A year ago we stepped it up to four ingredients to satisfy the sweet tooth with this sumptuous café au lait pudding adapted from Ashley Rodriguez's Date Night In (www.moveablefeast.me/blog/cafe-au-lait-pudding).

"Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride."
-Anthony Bourdain

My siblings and I did not grow up with macaroni and cheese. I know. It's like I have to turn in my "kid" card or something.

You see, Momala and Dad didn't exactly grow up with it either, so it never made an appearance on our dinner table. Not sorry at all, as she made the best spaghetti sauce I have ever had in my life. It took ten hours of cooking and, although it sounds odd, her secret ingredient was a cup of brewed coffee. It had a deeply exotic flavor and, as much as I have tried...never been able to replicate it.  

This particular recipe is a mac-and-cheese lover's dream. Four cheeses. [Ed. note: Turns up the porn music.] Over the years, I have made a metric ton of mac and cheese for my clients, and have over a dozen different varieties on my menus. Typically, after trying a recipe for the first time, notes sprout around the margins with any changes I personally make to the original script, i.e., "Do again," "awesome," "needs tweaking," "BF likes it," "add to client menu," or the killer "do NOT make again." On this recipe, well...

"Holy Shit! Great!!!!" [Ed. note: Take it from a guy who wrote and edited for a magazine that literally had its name, with one exclamation point, trademarked: Four exclamation points is serious.] 

Ooeey, gooey, stringy, melty goodness, with a crusty golden top and phenomenal flavor that both kids and adults adore. In fact, on my menu it's called "Adult Mac & Cheese." [Ed. note: Porn music continues.]
​
This recipe comes from the late Anthony Bourdain's Appetites. The BF and I are longtme fans of his books and television shows, and for me, personally, he had a monumental impact, instilling a great respect for food, the animals themselves, the restaurant business, and the people behind every aspect of meal creation.

A quick aside: two years ago Bourdain was on a spoken-word tour in San Francisco. On previous tours, I had tried to get tickets for the BF and I, but they had always sold out too quickly. This time, I was a redailing machine and scored the tickets. Excited as I was, my personal-chef schedule was so busy that I couldn't adjust my client for the night of the show, so the tickets ended up being given to my dear friend Maria, who of course loved it. Was disappointed that I didn't get to see him, but I assured myself Bourdain would come back to San Francisco again on a future tour.

Of course, that will not happen.

At the show, Maria was kind enough to buy me a copy of Appetites as a gift. Very thoughtful gesture at the time, but now, considering his passing, I cherish it more than ever. If you look at the picture below, you can see the ragged bookmarks and Post-It tabs demarking the dishes I have made and have yet to try. When I open it up now, I feel like hugging my loved ones a little tighter, for a little longer.

I may or may not be traveling to parts unknown anytime soon, with or without reservations, but hopefully channeling his spirit I will continue to share my table and break bread with people I love. Old friends and new. People who look, talk, dress, or vote differently than I. Am not one to want to sound as if on a soapbox, but I believe food brings people together in spite of any differences, and think Bourdain believed that, too.

Going to miss you, Chef.

​Adapted from: Anthony Bourdain, Appetites: A Cookbook
Number of servings: 8-10

Ingredients

• 1 pound dry elbow macaroni
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 ½ cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper (if making for kids, decrease to ¼ teaspoon)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 8 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated (divided)
• 4 ounces Gruyère cheese, grated
• 5 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 3 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed
• 4 ounces cooked and thinly sliced ham, julienned (optional, was not used here)
• 2 teaspoons salt, or more to taste
  
• Freshly ground white pepper to taste  (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 ˚F.
2. In a large, heavy-bottom pot, bring salted water to a boil and add the elbow macaroni. Cook according to package instructions until just al dente, then drain and set aside.
3. Make sure you have both a whisk and a wooden spoon nearby, and something to rest them on. You will be switching back and forth between both utensils as you first make a roux and then build on that to make a béchamel.
4. In the still-hot macaroni pot, heat butter over medium-high heat until it foams and subsides. Whisk in flour, then switch to a wooden spoon and stir steadily over medium-high heat, until mixture begins to turn a nutty golden brown, about 2 minutes. Do not let the mixture scorch.
5. Whisk in the milk and bring mixture just to a boil, stirring with the wooden spoon and making sure to scrape each part of the surface of the pan so that hunks of flour or milk do not stick together. Reduce to a simmer and continue to cook and stir until mixture is slightly thicker than heavy cream.
6. Whisk in mustard powder, cayenne, and Worcestershire, then add half the Parmigiano-Reggiano (you’ll sprinkle the rest over the top) and the rest of the cheeses and the ham (if using), and stir until the cheeses have melted completely. Stir in the cooked macaroni and mix well. Remove from the heat and stir in salt and optional pepper.
7. Transfer mixture to a glass or ceramic casserole, top with remaining Parmigiano, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until the top is golden brown and mixture is bubbling slightly.
8. Serve hot, or refrigerate and gently reheat.​

NOTE: This makes a large amount of mac & cheese, but it's easy to cut the recipe in half for four servings.

Today was San Francisco Giants opening day. [Ed. note: I can't  get over how Brian Wilson looks without that beard.]

Baseball fans are highly superstitious. The BF and I are no different. On game days, he wears an oh so carefully selected Giants T-shirt, while I wear my favorite black MADBUM long-sleeve fitted shirt. If we sojurn to AT&T Park, he sports his decades-old game cap with six [Ed. note: SIX.] Croix de Candlestick pins (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix_de_Candlestick). We outfit Marlowe in a Cody Ross jersey (pic at bottom) and always grill up some really good hot dogs. Not burgers or pizza–hot dogs.

Somehow after 25 years of hot dogs on opening day, I (the girl who lives for tradition) bucked tradition this year and we lost 6-4 to the Seattle Mariners. Can't help thinking it's my fault. [Ed. note: @#$*&+<?%!]

Sorry, not sorry. Sorry Giants, but not sorry that we had this light, creamy, delicious, takes-less-than-30-minutes-to-make pasta. It's one of my favorite pasta meals, and even includes a veggie, but I promise to not break tradition again and will serve this only on non-baseball-opening-day events.
 
NOTES: If you have carnovoires and vegetarians sharing the table, no problem. The pancetta is sprinkled on top of the plated pasta. Also, if you can't find pancetta in your grocery store, bacon is fine to substitute.

Adapted from: The Pollan Family Table
Serves:  4 to 6

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 8 ounces pancetta, cut into ⅓-inch cubes
• Kosher salt
• 1 pound fusilli (corkscrew) pasta
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (10-ounce) pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove excess liquid
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Line a plate with paper towels.
2. In a large skillet, heat one tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Cook pancetta until brown and crispy, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn. Using a slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to the paper towel-lined plate to drain. Discard the fat in the skillet. Let skillet cool slightly, then wipe it out with a paper towel.
3. Add one tablespoon salt and the pasta to the pot of boiling water. Cook until al dente, about one minute less than the directions on the package. Reserve ½ cup pasta water and drain the pasta in a colander.
4. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add spinach and mix well. Add the cream and stir until well heated, 2-3 minutes.
5. Season with nutmeg, ½ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon pepper. Reduce heat to low and add the cooked pasta. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the reserved pasta water. Add butter and ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, stirring to make a creamy sauce. If the mixture seems dry, add additional pasta water.
6. Transfer pasta to a serving bowl. Scatter pan­cetta over the top and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan cheese and freshly ground pepper. Serve hot.

Play ball!