The JP Special

Last week I prepped a bunch of ingredients one evening in order to put together vegetarian nicoise-style salads for lunches.  This included par-cooking string beans, boiling small red potatoes, chopping parsley, hard-cooking eggs, making dressing, and getting olives, tomatoes, capers, etc to the ready.

While the salad was tasty and nutritionally complete (with a hunk of whole-grain bread on the side), like most people who live alone and do a lot of cooking, I have a hard time eating the same thing 5 days in a row.

Knowing that the life of my hard boiled eggs and potatoes were nearing their end, I decided to put both to use for breakfast today, after a tough run in the cold morning air.  While I rarely make a warm breakfast on a weekday, let alone eat 2 yolks in one day, this was the kind of grey cold day calling for a good, hearty breakfast.  Two whole eggs give the bowl body, a creamier texture, and enough protein and fat to get me through what will be another long day and night.  This recipe is easy to double, treble, or multiply out by however much you need.  I actually think it’d be really nice for brunch as much can be prepped ahead of time.

Hasty Tasty Potato Bowl with Boiled Eggs:

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 boiled small (2-3 inches long)  red (or new) potatoes, sliced into 1/2” rounds with skins intact

2-3 small scallions— whites and greens, sliced

2 hard cooked eggs, shelled and roughly chopped

1/2 t. finely chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat.  Add sliced potatoes and scallions and heat through 6-8 minutes, letting the scallions soften and sweeten and the potatoes brown a wee bit.  Season with salt and pepper.  Transfer to bowl, sprinkle with parsley, and top with eggs.   Toss very gently and serve immediately.  Serves 1 if you’ve gone running on a very empty stomach or 2 if you feasted the previous evening.

Tonight, my motorcycle helmet got stolen out of the locker room at my school. I was not pleased. I will tell you that having the foresight to par-boil some chunked butternut squash last night was truly prescient. I had leftover kale and spinach from other recipes so thought it’d all work nicely together. It did. In fact, it’s one of the best on-the-fly meals I’ve ever made. It’s low carb (not if you have it with a beer, like I am, mind you), high protein, packed with lovely vitamins and not insignificantly, makes a pretty plate in the end.

Behold:

Butternut Squash Ragu with Vrapple, Greens, and Shallots with Egg. Poached eggs: the best topper of all time. Goat cheese, a dollop of fresh ricotta, mascarpone, or yogurt would be acceptable substitutes. Not equal. Substitutes.

1 T. olive oil

1/2 T. butter

1/2 butternut squash, diced (parcooked the day before for quickest cooking)— about 2-3 cups [I’ve frozen the other 1/2 of the squash, also parcooked for a barley risotto I plan to make after Turkey Day but if you wanted to double this and use the whole thing, god speed.]

2-3 ounces vrapple (or your favorite crumbly sausage), diced

1-2 cups chopped kale

2-3 cups chopped spinach

1 large shallot, minced

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste

4 eggs poached (poaching: bring water to gentle boil; slide egg into water 1 at a time out of a small ramekin or prep dish; cook 1-2 minutes)

Cooking:

Heat large skillet over medium heat. Add oil and butter. Add butternut squash, a sprinkling of salt, and cook over low-medium heat 5 minutes (10 minutes if starting with raw squash). Add vrapple and shallots. Break up vrapple (or sausage) with spoon so it crumbles and distributes through the dish nicely. Once the vrapple cooks down a bit, season with salt and pepper. Crank to medium heat. Add in greens; let them start to wilt. Add cider, cover, let everything stew till cider cooks off over medium heat. Once greens are wilted, squash is a little creamy, etc, add cinnamon off heat and stir gently.

In bowl, put in heaping spoonful of ragu and top with poached egg. Serves 4.

Final note: except for the olive oil and the butter (from Vermont) this meal was a totally local feast, most items within 65 miles of Philly, the rest within 100. Our farmstand rules. So does Sarah, my officemate, Vrapple visionary.

Since moving to greater Philadelphia, I have the good fortune of a longer growing season than that in New England. As such, I have continue to enjoy local nectarines, eggplant, summer squash, and tomatoes. To say nothing of the amazing corn here. You could swap the arugula for spinach if you like— just use a very tender green that wilts on contact with heat. This recipe is meant to let the corn shine. The sweetness plays off the peppery arugula and salty pecorino beautifully. Enjoy while you can.

Penne with sweet corn, arugula, and Pecorino Romano

3-4 ears sweet corn, husked and cleaned, whole

1 lb penne pasta

4 T unsalted butter, cubed into small pieces

2 c roughly chopped arugula

1 c finely grated Pecorino (or Parmesan)

1/2 t. finely ground pepper

sea salt to taste

Bring a large pot of water to boil; add corn and cook 3 minutes or until heated through. Retain cooking water. Remove corn from water to cool. Keep water in pot boiling, add pasta.

Put butter into large mixing bowl. When cool enough to handle, cut corn off cob and toss with butter and a small pinch of sea salt.

When penne ready, reserve 3/4 c cooking water and drain pasta. Add pasta to corn / butter mixture and toss to coat. Add a bit of arugula, toss. Add a bit of pepper, then a bit of pasta water and toss. Add cheese, toss. Repeat till mixed and pasta coated. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately.

Inspired by clampants’ post to find out the #1 song on my birthday. It was “Rich Girl” by Hall and Oates, which is kind of great considering that’s a band from Philly, the general neighborhood of my youth.

Unfortunately, many years of working at my parents’ pharmacy means I was exposed to more soft rock than any teenager ever should be. I want to love the cheese-factor of H&O, but have never been able to reconcile having been made to work after a track meet (I can assure I never got to choose the nights I worked; choice was for non-related employees), at night, behind the counter, answering phones and ringing up customers, while trying to do calculus homework with “Rich Girl,” playing from the speakers on a seemingly endless loop.