Pasta Recipes

One of my most memorable Christmas Eve dinners was at La Peche in NYC, eating the Feast of Seven Fishes prepared by the amazing Chef Tien Ho of Momofuku fame. We sat family style & enjoyed Chef Tien's fantastic menu, unlike anything I had ever had at our Italian family feasts... It's easily one of the top 10 best meals of my life! We had lunch earlier at Marea (absolutely fantastic)... I was Culinary VP at Campbells at the time & presenting a short demo on the Today Show on Christmas morning... so my family & I were treated to a few, very special days in NYC before the Christmas show.

One of the many recipes new culinary students learn to prepare is duxelle. It's a delicious mixture of sweated shallots, garlic, minced mushrooms/stems, herbs, seasoning and often cream. It's cooked to almost a paste like consistency. Duxelle can be used to stuff chicken breasts or veal chops, vegetables and I especially like shiitake duxelle stuffed mushroom caps.

My first job in the restaurant business was as a dish/pot washer at a local diner. I was encouraged to get my cleaning done quickly so that the owners could teach me to prep and even cook. I was interested in learning. The chef owner's dad had been a cook in the army. One of the many dishes he taught me to cook is lasagna and it's the recipe I have always used.

I remember learning to make crepes at the CIA using a small, square of pork fat with a slit cut into the skin for my finger to slide in & hold the fat to oil five crepe pans at a time. I remember being very hot & having very burnt fingers when I was done... but very proud. Crepes a la Reine was the first crepe recipe I learned as a young, CIA student in 1980's... we didn't eat many crepes growing up in New Jersey...