I miss your soup and I miss your bread....

and a letter in your writing doesn't mean you're not dead.
oh why hello there.

Did you think the Joys of Cooking had left town? Well, we haven't.
I seem to be the only one cooking anything from the book...but let's put that aside for now.


The other night I made Creamy Pasta with Chard and Tomatoes, page 328.


There is no picture because, frankly, it was kind of gruesome. ...I think because I used red-stalked chard. The brilliant redness of the chard seeped into the cream, and dyed the creamy sauce and stained the pasta. The result was kind of pinkish-bloody-looking. mmmm! It kind of reminded me of an accident at sea. Although I'm not sure why--since the sea wouldn't be creamy. It made me think of white whale meat--like an attack between a shark and a whale (which I'm fairly sure doesn't happen in real life--but that's what my brain thought).

That unpleasantness aside, I give it high marks. It was quite good.

If you hate all things creamy--or maybe you like cream, but don't like to think about it too much--you might think "gross! I could never use cream in a dinner-recipe!" as I did before trying this. But to be honest, if you just try it, it's not a heavy cream sauce: you can tell yourself to forget about the way the superthick, viscous, so-very-white liquid fat slowly poured from its tiny carton into the measuring cup, and then you'll later marvel that the sauce actually seems light! Impressive, Joy of Cooking!

The bit of red pepper gives it a hint of heat, which is nice.
The Parmesan added at the end really makes the sauce what it is.

Next time I will try it with not-red-stalked chard! I might also substitute spinach for the chard. I think that I will also use a little less cream than the recipe demands--and more tomatoes.

The hardest part for me? the pasta! I'm a mess with pasta. I added salt to the water...I added a little oil...I didn't overcook it. but still I ended up with clumpy chunks of fettuccine. sad. Nothing makes you feel less competent than bad pasta. Time to read "About Cooking Pasta, p320."!