Easy to eat

Along with the other cooking ahead I do during the week, I have gotten into the habit of cutting up a few red peppers and an onion and sauteeing them slowly while I'm doing something else. The results keep nicely in a plastic container in the refrigerator, and then I can scoop some out to use in a frittata, to mix in with some sauteed greens, or to use in one of the laziest and most satisfying jumbled-up lunch or light dinner dishes of all time. It does not begin to deserve to be dignified by anything so elaborate as a recipe; it is just a thing that happens in your bowl, and then you eat it.

I have written before about eating alone, and my tendency to indulge my weirder cravings on the days when I am working at home. It has been a while since I have had any of my old favorites, most particularly the infinite variations on potato soup cooked down to the consistency of mashed potatoes -- which is not exactly the same thing as mashed potatoes, you'll note -- with all sorts of green oddiments tossed in, though now that I am gardening, it occurs to me that tasty green odds and ends are goingt to be in plentiful supply.

But occasionally what I think is one of my weird lunches turns out to be a crossover hit. "It probably sounds disgusting," I confessed to mixed company, "but sometimes I eat a hard-boiled egg broken up and mixed with sauteed red pepper and onions, with feta cheese crumbled on top."

"Uh, no," said S. and everyone else, too, "that sounds very good." It is, too. It is suitable to consume in pyjamas, when you are feeling fragile, or in party clothes when you need to eat something good and quick before you dash off to the club. Some Aleppo pepper does not go amiss, either, if you're the kind of person who likes that sort of thing.

Another thing that is good: Break a cauliflower into chunks. Toss in olive oil and bake at 375° F. until toasty and soft. Meanwhile, slowly fry up some onion and garlic until they are dark gold. Put these, some ricotta cheese, some milk, and salt into your food processor and render into a puree. Put this into a baking dish and put it back into the oven to get hot again. This does not taste like mashed potatoes, no matter what some people may tell you. But it does taste nutty and creamy and worth your while.

Posted by redfox at June 02, 2005 09:10 PM (lunch) | Comments (3)

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