Pasta, Risotto, Gnocchi

Meatless Spaghetti Sauce

Taking a break from what has become the Summer of Salmon, this is my go-to summertime pasta sauce recipe. A mix of fresh or preserved tomatoes, lots of fresh fennel and a little bit of anise-flavored liqueur brighten up this sauce for warm days.

Mushrooms

Morel Mushroom Risotto

I make a lot of risotto, but I love mushroom risotto most of all. This is what I do when life gives me a basket of pretty fresh morels, and life's been good to me this season.

Pasta, Risotto, Gnocchi

Spaghetti with Crab Sauce

I first ate this astonishing spaghetti sauce in Massachusetts; my brother-in-law made it with lobster. This is my West Coast version, done with crab.

Italian

Authentic Bolognese Sauce

I make all sorts of Italian pasta sauces, but an authentic Bolognese sauce is something else entirely. It make look like any other meat sauce, but it isn't.

Pasta, Risotto, Gnocchi

Nettle Pasta

It's nettle season here in Northern California, and as I am on a pasta jag lately, I thought I would make pasta dough with stinging nettles. Seemed like the right thing to do.

Italian

Crab Risotto

We're in the thick of our Dungeness crab season here in California, and crab risotto is one of my favorite things to do with them.

Recipe

Arrowhead or Wapato Pasta

Wapato, arrowhead, katniss, duck potato: Sagittaria is an aquatic tuber of American marshes said to be the equal of a potato. I have never found it. But a friend sent me some, so I got my first tantalizing taste.

Recipe

Wild Turkey Risotto

Today is a day for leftover turkey, domestic or wild. Whichever kind you ate yesterday, this risotto recipe is a great way to use leftover bits.

Recipe

Duck or Goose Ragu

Duck seasons are opening all over the country now, and this rich, bolognese-style pasta sauce is a great way to use legs and wings of wild ducks and geese.

Recipe

New England Mushroom Bonanza

My family never hunted mushrooms when I grew up. But after an epic mushrooming trip on Cape Ann yesterday, they may well become mycophiles in a hurry.

Recipe

Sicilian Tuna Meatballs

Some days you remember forever. Last week I spent a couple days with a boatful of new friends, 40 miles offshore in search of tuna. We found them. Oh yes, people, we found them...