easy baked penne with chorizo and cheddar

We recently discovered a local farm that produces ridiculously delicious chorizo, and have been enthusiastically exploring things to do with it. First we made tacos with it, and then scrambled it with eggs. Then we made chorizo sandwiches, and sprinkled it on salads. Finally, we were thinking it might be nice to try it with pasta, imagining something reminiscent of this, when I happened upon a recipe for a spicy pasta and sausage bake from America’s Test Kitchen. With a few tweaks, the dish became an amazing way to enjoy chorizo, pasta, and all the spicy, cheesy warmth of a good casserole.

kitchen basics: how to roast fresh chiles

As the weather cools down, we all find ourselves drawn to more warming foods. Lately we’ve been making things like chiles rellenos casserole and burritos, as well as tossing strips of roasted peps into stews and other warming Mexican dishes, and consequently I’ve found myself roasting up anaheims and poblanos more often than usual! Roasty pepper strips are actually pretty versatile (try topping a burger or sandwich with them!), so I thought I’d share a little basics post to document the ropes. If you have any favorite recipes using roasted chiles, let me know in the comments, and I hope to share our recipe for baked chiles rellenos soon!

kitchen firsts: lime-chile-herb steak tacos + quick pickled onions

There are, again, two kitchen firsts this time around. The first is the making of something pickled! I mean, I guess we made kimchi before, but that hardly seems to be in the same category as these quick red onions. I normally have a pretty so-so reaction to pickled red onions– they strike me as a little slimy and boring, neither a detriment nor an asset to whatever I might eat them with, but these quick pickled ones from America’s Test Kitchen were totally amazing. They had that all-important pickly, briny vinegar flavor, but with just enough sweetness to appeal to people that usually don’t like pickled things. They had a little heat from some jalapeno, but not too much, and they managed to be softened from the pickling liquid but still keep a little bit of crunch! They are so good I could snack on them plain, but I won’t, for the sake of my breath. Also, they are much better on tacos.

The second kitchen first is me deigning to allow a foul, nasty ingredient into my kitchen. Cilantro! Cilantro seems to be a very polarizing ingredient in the food world, and while I’ve heard that you can train your palate to accept cilantro, I have no desire to do so! That is, except for the times that I’m trying to enjoy Mexican or Thai food and cilantro sneaks in to mess up my otherwise delicious meal, or the fact that, despite my undying love for mangos, I have never been able to enjoy a mango salsa due to the ubiquitous sprinkling of cilantro. So actually, maybe it would be in my interest to at least be neutral about cilantro…I guess if anything can accomplish that, it’s these steak tacos.

kitchen firsts: sonoran enchiladas

Last weekend, we borrowed a copy of The Border Cookbook from Stephen’s mom, and I couldn’t wait to get it home and pour over it. Twenty minutes after opening it, I had scanned the whole thing and you could hardly see the cover but for the sticky notes marking must-try recipes on every other page.  It was hard to decide what to make first, but the idea of Sonoran Enchiladas was just too enticing to wait for.

I had never heard of a Sonoran enchilada before, but I learned that it is essentially a thick fried tortilla made from corn flour, cheese, and potato that you smother with red sauce, sprinkle with cheese, bake until cheesy gooey, and garnish with yummy stuff like avocados, shredded lettuce, and green onions. We made them within an hour and they turned out delicious! Kind of like little mexican corn cake pizzas! I’m not sure why they’re allowed to be called enchiladas, as there is no rolling and filling of anything (it seems more like a thick tostada to me), but once we started eating them I didn’t really care what they were called.