The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all at Olde Hudson...I'm especially happy to be able to use the fresh, organic Cremini Mushrooms. They are neighbor-grown across the Hudson.

This recipe served two of us,,, happily!

Ingredients

For the pasta:
1/2 lb Rustichella Linguine
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon Sel Magique Herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon blended crushed red and black peppercorns

Pamigiano Reggiano to taste

Gently heat the Olive Oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a sauté pan and add the minced garlic cloves and minced shallot.  Sauté together until soft - - about 2 minutes.

Add the white wine and reduce.  Then add mushrooms and cook them until they soften and release their juices, then add the chopped basil.

Meanwhile cook the linguine and as soon as it is ready add it to the mushroom mixture with 1 tablespoon of butter, 1/4 cup pasta water, 1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence and 1 teaspoon blended crushed red and black peppercorns.

Toss all to combine and serve with grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

These silver-skinned, salt water Aegean fish weigh from 3/4 lb to 1 1/4 lbs and come to Olde Hudson overnight from the Aegean. Their delicate, fresh flavor marries well with the piquante chopped salad below… adding complexity to the fish with a fruit and veggie marriage.

 For the fish:

Heat your grill to medium high.  Rinse fish and pat dry then season the cavity with salt and pepper and add the sage and rosemary sprigs.  Season the skin with salt and pepper and drizzle with good olive oil.  Grill quickly on medium-high heat for 4 minutes per side.

For the Piquante Chopped Salad:

Ingredients

Finely mince the tomato, red onion, English cucumber and yellow pepper and place in a bowl. Cube the avocado and mango, chop the cilantro and add to the salad mixture.  Dress with  a squeeze of lime, La Castellina Olive Oil and Unio Muscatel Vinegar.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

This recipe is the perfect elegant and easy celebratory meal.  It relies on the quality of the lamb, the freshness of the herbs and the arrival of Spring.  I like to serve it with couscous made with caramelized onions and asparagus and I’ve included those recipes below. Add a lovely light red and the company of good friends.  This is an easily made, elegant Easter lunch and serves 6 delighted guests.

FOR THE LAMB
Ingredients
½ Leg of Lamb, bone-in—approximately 5 lbs
6 garlic cloves, sliced
3 sprigs each Rosemary, Sage and Thyme
1 tablespoon La Castellina Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

 With lamb at room temperature heat oven to 425 degrees.  While the oven is heating make small pockets in diagonal rows in the lamb and insert a garlic slice and part of each sprig of the herbs—rosemary, sage and thyme into each pocket.  Coat with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roast at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Turn the oven down to 350 and roast 20 minutes per pound  until thermometer is at 130 degrees for medium rare or longer per your preference.
Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes.  Carve and serve with

CARAMELIZED ONION COUSCOUS
Ingredients for the onions
2 tablespoons La Castellina Olive Oil
1 large red onion thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 garlic cloves peeled and minced
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup water
*
2 tablespoons Salute Sante: Grapeseed Oil
2 cups Hand Rolled Couscous
Pepper
3 cups Aneto Chicken Broth 

 Prepare the onions:Gently heat 2 tablespoons La Castellina olive oil in a medium sauté pan. Add thinly sliced red onions and a pinch of salt. Cook over low heat until onions begin to soften

Sprinkle mixture with sugar, stir to blend.  Add minced garlic and continue to cook over low heat until garlic softens-- about 2 minutes.

Add 1/8 cup water - once reduced, add the remaining water. Continue to cook over low heat until the onions have caramelized.

Set aside.

Prepare the couscous: Heat 2 tablespoons grape seed oil over low heat and add couscous, sprinkle with pepper then continue to cook over low heat until couscous is fragrant and slightly toasted, stirring occasionally,  approximately 8  minutes.

Add chicken broth and stir, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 15 minutes then toss the caramelized onion mixture into the couscous.

Asparagus sautéed with garlic and oil, salt and pepper
Ingredients
2 tablespoons La Castellina Olive oil
6 garlic cloves, crushed and coarsely chopped
2 bunched trimmed asparagus
Salt and pepper 

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

I love this dish.  I started making it a few weeks ago when our fish purveyor introduced wild-caught Red Argentinian Shrimp.  Their color is so vibrant that they immediately made me think of the bright green contrast of herbs… a green sauce with the promise of spring!  We’ve been enjoying them with the simply sautéed potatoes you see here.

Serves two very happy diners.

Ingredients

12 Wild Red Argentinian Shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ teaspoon Sel Magique, Classic Blend
¼ cup La Castellina Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and coarsely chopped
8 ounces parsley leaves
6 ounces basil leaves
6 ounces cilantro leaves
Pinch Red Pepper Flakes
¼ cup pitted French Cocktail Olive Mix – white lupine beans removed
¼ cup white wine
Freshly squeezed Juice of ½ lime
2 tablespoons Vermont Butter and Cheese Butter
black pepper, to taste

Season Shrimp with Sel Magique Classic Blend and set aside.

Gently heat extra virgin olive oil in sauté pan, add garlic and cook until it softens and turns slightly brown.

Meanwhile, add parsley, basil and cilantro leaves to mini chop or food processor and finely chop.  Add to garlic and continue to sauté on low heat until herbs soften, about 5 minutes.

Add olive mix to mini chop or food processor and finely chop.

Add to herb mixture in pan and continue to sauté until olives soften, approximately 3 minutes.

Raise heat to medium and add seasoned shrimp.

Toss to coat with the herb/olive mixture.

Add white wine, raise heat to boil and reduce for 1 minute, then lower heat.

Add fresh-squeezed lime juice, butter and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with simply sauteed potatoes, crisped in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and seasoned with Salt & Pepper.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

This is a true FLASH recipe.  Easy and fast and delicious, made with some of Olde Hudson’s favorite ingredients. The cheese surprise is Taleggio Il Caravaggio, a semi-soft washed rind cheese from Lombardy, perfectly suited to be the prize buried beneath flavor-filled veggies.  It is aromatic, yet mild with a moist/oozy texture, a strong/buttery--even meaty--flavor and a fruity finish.

Serve it as an easy light lunch with great crusty bread and perfect butter – try my Vermont Butter and Cheese Butter.  Or serve it as a first before a pure roasted air-chilled chicken or simple salmon.  How about a combined salad-cum-cheese course?  We do love happy endings!

Serves 4 grateful diners

Ingredients

½ lb Taleggio il Caravaggio cut into 4 lengthwise pieces
1 Fennel Bulb thinly sliced
½ thinly sliced red onion
2 stalks celery thinly sliced lengthwise then cut into 1 inch pieces
Fresh squeezed juice from 1 lemon
2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped
2 Tablespoons La Castellina Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste.  

Toss and serve over 2 ounces of Tallegio il Caravaggio.  

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

 How can it be possible to cook a meal that is so simple and luxuriously delicious without resorting to tortuous techniques, multiple ingredients and the drama and mystique of complicated food?

My way is to start with the best quality ingredients. In this case all-natural USDA grass-fed lamb-- the standard at Olde Hudson.  Sweet and tender and delicate without antibiotics or hormones, these lambs are vegetarians grazing happily on grass and then grain-finished.

An 8-chop rack will serve two people but this recipe is easy to double for a bigger very lucky crowd. Pictured above, the fresh salad accompaniment highlights and contrasts the divine lamb.  Another suggestion?  You can add Caramelized French baby carrots.  My recipe is below.

Pre-heat oven to 450-degrees.

Place garlic, herbs, salt and pepper in a mortar and using the pestle pound to a paste.  Season the underside of the lamb with salt and pepper and rub the herb paste on the top, fatty, side of the rack. Cover and refrigerate until 1 hour before you cook.

Place in your roasting pan and roast for eight minutes.  Turn oven down to 350-degrees and continue to roast for 20 minutes or until your fast-read thermometer hits 125-degrees for rare or 130 for medium.  Let the rack rest for a few minutes before you carve-- after all the oohs and aahs subside--along the ribs.

Pictured above I’ve served the lamb  with fresh picked mixed greens, thinly sliced red onion,  heirloom tomatoes and a simple dressing of La Castellina Olive Oil, Unio Muscatel Vinegar, Sel Magique's Herbs de Provence and crushed Pink Peppercorns. This dish can be wonderfully enhanced with the Caramalized French Baby Carrots recipe below.

Caramelized French Baby Carrots-- a perfect partner!

Heat oil and butter in a sauté pan over low heat and add sliced shallots and a pinch of salt. Cook the shallots for two minutes until they soften add carrots and a pinch of sugar and continue to cook until carrots start to soften.

Add 1/4 cup water, reduce and stir occasionally until the carrots are slightly caramelized. Add the Olivewood Balsamic Vinegar, Lavender Honey, salt and pepper to taste and continue to cook until all the ingredients are well blended and the carrots are cooked to desired tenderness.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

The warm weather made Olde Hudson’s move to new quarters on Warren Street much easier than it would have been with mounds of snow and your good wishes made me positively buoyant.  But I still needed more—more energy, more time, more pleasure and more nourishment for the job ahead.

Being who I am and what I do every day I looked for those things by doubling down on the joy of being able to cook every day with great ingredients.

My choice for the best meals often has been stew.  Maybe because stews transform familiar ingredients mysteriously into great meals.  I’m beginning to believe that they evolved to give us the happiness of place and taste and process.

So whether you call it stew or estofado, ragout or stufato we need to celebrate the time-honored marriage of meat, fish, vegetables and legumes cooking in liquid. Giving them personality and cultural context with spices and serving them in the simple manner they dictate—that’s the bonus.

So I look around at the shelves at Olde Hudson and decide if Italian or Indian, Asian or French is the accent I want over noodles or rice.  Or do I just want to add potatoes to the pot?  Beans?  Yup.  Stew saved my life!

The principles of stew are always the same but here’s a  basic Veal Stew -- a delicate welcome-to-spring offering.  It serves 4 or 2 lucky people twice.

Add oil and butter to a heated heavy skillet and then add the meat—don’t crowd it, each piece should have contact with the pan. Cook it until the meat is browned on the bottom, 4-5 minutes. Scrape any stuck pieces up and turn the meat,

Add tarragon, onions, shallots or scallions and salt and pepper and stir until they soften then add the wine or water and potatoes, if you’re using them, turn heat to low and cover. You can cook this 35-40 minutes… meat and potatoes should be should be fork tender.

Uncover, add the veggies and allow to steam right on top for another 5-6 minutes.
If you haven’t made this with potatoes serve over Jasmine rice or wide noodles.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

Surely nothing, NOTHING, beats the earthy scent of spring. This morning, as I Ieft the house to head out to Olde Hudson it made me think of Ramp Soup – a reward if there ever was one. I’ve been making one variation or another for a few years now.

Ramp season is so short-lived that we need to grab the moment. So, here’s the soup. Enjoy it with three happy companions.

Ingredients

Pre-heat oven to 425-degrees and place rack on 2nd tier from top. Place both heads of garlic on foil or in a small pan, drizzle with extra virgin Olive, roast for 45 minutes to an hour until soft, remove and let cool. 

Place the ramps in roasting pan, toss with olive oil and coarse salt, roast for 8-10 minutes, until soft, remove from oven, and coarsely chop.

Heat olive oil in stock pot, squeeze roasted garlic from the garlic heads into the pan, sauté until warm and breakable; add the coarsely chopped roasted ramps, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

Add 7 cups chicken stock, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. If there is not enough liquid add more chicken stock and bring back to a simmer. With a hand blender or in a conventional blender, purée the soup mixture until smooth. Prepare the eggs: In medium saucepan, bring water to a boil, add salt and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Gently break each egg into a cup and pour into the boiling water.

To serve: slice four pieces of crusty bread, place each on the bottom of four soup bowls, ladle hot soup over the bread, add one poached egg in each bowl, Season with additional salt and pepper and grated Parmasean Reggiano to taste.

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

 I'm renaming my Spicy Szechuan Shrimp Appetizer. From now on we'll call it ALICE'S SHRIMP APPETIZER for my friend Alice who's been making it to rave reviews since we emailed it as a flash recipe last summer.

All the ingredients are available at Olde Hudson and prep and cooking time are minimal. Result? Delicious and piquant… just the perfect appetizer to whet your guests' appetites for the meal ahead.

This will make enough for four grateful guests.  Thank you Alice!

 Ingredients

1 cup flour
3 tablespoons Teeny Tiny Szechuan Spice
salt and pepper
12 peeled and de-veined wild-caught Panama Shrimp
3 tablespoons Salute Sante Grapeseed Oil
Mae Ploy Chili Sauce for dipping

Combine flour with 3 tablespoons Teeny Tiny Szechaun Spice and pepper. 

Dredge the shrimp in the mixture and shake off excess batter. Heat the grapeseed oil to a sizzle and add the shrimp – fry until the batter crisps and the shrimp pink up.

Serve with Mae Ploy Chili Sauce. 

These ingredients can be found at Olde Hudson

A few years ago our friend and neighbor Bob Rasner shared this streamlined recipe for Swordfish Steak with White Wine and Butter sauce with me. Now it’s one of my favorites. When I go home at the end of a busy day I can take all the ingredients for this delicious dinner with me.

Bob likes to prepare this in a ribbed griddle indoors or outside on the grill. You can serve this with or without the asparagus -- or maybe choose another fresh vegetable you like to grill. Either way it quickly takes beefy, juicy fish steaks and makes a heavenly match with seasonal asparagus and an effortless sauce.

Serves 4. Thank you Bob

Ingredients

If you’re making the asparagus, brush them with oil and lay them out on the back of the griddle, you’ll need to turn them frequently.  The goal here is to heat the asparagus through and brown them a bit.  Do NOT let them get mushy!

On the front part of the griddle toss on a few scallions (or ramps if they’re in season) and let them sizzle for a minute.  Add the swordfish to the hot griddle long enough for the griddle’s ribs to create lovely sear marks on fish’s surface. Turn and repeat on the other side.
Total cooking time should be 4 minutes per side at high heat for medium.

While this is happening, in a small pan heat the butter, add a splash of white wine when the butter is hot and the parsley.  Let this bubble a bit as the fish cooks.

Serve the asparagus and the fish on hot plates.  Scrape the scallions/ramps onto the fish and pour the butter sauce over the fish.  Add capers for a finishing touch.