Spinach Pasta (leftover pureed spinach baby food)

Babyfood. Last thing you'd think would make good leftover grub. But our 2.74 year old has proved a remarkably tough critic. According to her, we are quite possibly the worst cooks on earth. (A certain Chef Boyardee sets a standard we could never hope to equal.) This has left us with a wide range of pureed products to fashion into something edible. The class of these so far is this simple frozen spinach pasta.

Spinach Pasta

1 lb defrosted frozen spinach
6 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts
3-4 tablespoons dried Italian spices (Any Italian seasoning works, as does even amounts of dried oregano and basil, with a generous pinch of garlic powder.)
pasta (We find rotini to be perfect for this)
olive oil

1. Puree spinach in a food processor. You might need to add a touch more water to get a smooth puree. Remove from processor.
2. Process cream cheese plus enough extra water to make a creamy mixture. Remove from processor and keep separate from pureed spinach.
3. Toast pine nuts in a warm pan and set aside.
4. Cook pasta. Before draining, reserve about a cup of cooking water.
5. While pasta is cooking, heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a shallow, deep skillet. Add spice mixture and stir to toast for about 15 seconds. Add pureed spinach and a sprinkle of salt and cook for a few minutes, until it loses its bright green color.
6. Add cream cheese mixture. Stir to combine and cook for a few minutes. Add pine nuts.
7. Add cooked pasta to skillet, along with as much of the pasta cooking water as is needed, until the sauce-to-pasta ratio is correct (which is to say, it is how you like it.) Adjust for seasoning and serve with grated cheese.

Carrot Soup with Herbs de Provence (leftover carrots)

It never ceases to surprise us how you can make great food by using a small amount of the least interesting ingredients. Though this couldn't sound more boring, the texture and flavor of this soup—a version of which can be found in a thousand cookbooks—are great. Herbed foccacia helps too.

Carrot Soup with Herbs de Provence

1-2 lbs carrots (whatever is left over in your bag), peeled, chopped roughly
2 potatoes, peeled and diced, and placed in a bowl of water. Type does not matter, though russet is preferable.
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp herbs de Provence
Parsley, chopped (optional)
Salt to taste

1. Heat a large saucepan and add the olive oil and butter.
2. Add carrots, and cook over medium high heat for about 15 minutes, or until slightly browned. If you burn them, order pizza.
3. Add the onions, lower the heat, and stir until onions are slightly yellowed.
4. Add potatoes and the water they came in. Fill the rest of the pot with water until the vegetables are covered.
5. Cook for about 1 hour, until everything is happily mushy. Add water if necessary.
6. Using an immersion blender, turn everything into a smooth, silky texture (add water if it's too thick). Add some salt and continue until well seasoned.
7. Add some of the herbs de provence, cook for a minute or so, and taste.
8. Continue adding herbs de provence until the flavor is perfect. (Since we don't know how many carrots you had, or how big your potatoes were, we'll have to trust your judgment).
9. Add water or salt as necessary to adjust seasoning.
10. Serve garnished with parsley and sea salt.

Sliced Apples and Satay Sauce

A handy little appetizer that makes the most of fall apples and pantry items.

One apple, cored, halved and then sliced into "chips"
1½ tbsp peanut butter
Soy sauce
Lemon juice
Sugar
Water
Sriracha sauce (optional)

1. Add the peanut butter to a bowl.
2. Add about 2 tsp of soy sauce, 1 of lemon juice, 1 of water, and a pinch of sugar.
3. Using a fork, mash the liquid into the peanut butter. This takes time, and it's tedious.
4. Depending on your texture, continue adding water and soy sauce until you mash into a smooth sauce.
5. Taste and adjust, adding either lemon juice, sugar, Sriracha, or water.
6. Serve as a dipping sauce for sliced apples.

Roast Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup

Fall is here and winter squash has appeared in the farm markets. Our favorite is a big rural stand that works on the honor system. You select, bag, and weigh your own produce, calculate your total using a pad and golf pencil, and then place your money in a rusty iron box. A sign asks you not to peel the corn before buying it (this is a very stupid thing to do, btw.). If you get a bad ear, take a free one next time.

Butternut squash and sweet potatoes both love chipotles, so here's an easy, tasty soup that goes terrific with cornbread.

Roast Butternut Squash and Chipotle Soup

1 large butternut squash, cored, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
½ chipotle pepper and extra adobo sauce
Stock (chicken/vegetable)
Parsley for garnish
Olive oil

1. Heat oven to 400. Put butternut squash on a sheet pan and toss with enough olive oil to coat
2. Bake about 20 minutes, flipping occasionally. Do not burn. It's done when it's soft.
3. Fry onions in oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring often for about two minutes or so.
4. Turn down the heat and add a pinch of sugar, continuing to stir until lightly carmelized.
5. Add the roast squash, chipotles and adobo, some salt, and cover with stock and water (about half and half. For a more delicate soup, you could just use water).
6. Cook about 20 minutes.
7. Puree and adjust seasoning (that means to add more salt if it needs it).
8. Serve garnished with parsley. If you're looking to make friends and impress people, you could puree your parsley with sour cream and water, and drizzle their initials on the soup. But a nice hunk of coarsely chopped parsley tastes good too.

Tortilla de Papas (leftover baked potatoes)

Our sister decided to have an extremely quiet wedding this weekend—and invited us to be witnesses. We were surprised when she also requested one of our simplest leftover dishes for the after-ceremony brunch: a humble tortilla de papas (potato frittata).

You can find many recipes for tortillas de papas; ours is based on a simple contrast: we love crispy potatoes but usually dislike browned eggs. Most recipes call for cooking the frittata halfway on the stovetop, and finishing it in the oven. If you do this, the frittata does have a nice puffy texture, but the bottom of the eggs is browned and rubbery, and you lose a lot of the delicate flavors.

Our version is a bit of a high wire act. We make the potatoes like homefries, separate the eggs from the pan like an omelet, and then flip them using a dinner plate. For the brunch, it happily worked and matched excellently with a Moet et Chandon Blanc de Blancs (what doesn't?).

Tortilla de Papas

4 eggs
1 leftover baked potato (you can also microwave one), cut in half and then sliced into 1/3 inch slices.
½ medium onion, sliced thin (optional)
Salt
Chives (or parsley)
Olive oil

1. Heat a good nonstick frying pan (10 inches or less). Add oil, then spread out the potatoes in a single layer.
2. Cook over high heat for several minutes. Try not to move the potatoes at all. That way, they'll brown nicely.
3. Once they are brown flip them over, and sprinkle the onions in. Lower the heat.
4. Allow the onions to wilt, by this point, the potatoes should also be a little brown on the other side.
5. Did we mention not to salt anything. It's very important not to salt for two reasons: salt will make the potatoes less crispy and it will turn the eggs gray.
6. Whip eggs with ¼ cup water until combined.
7. Pull the pan off the stove, toss the potatoes and onion and allow to cool slightly.
8. Add eggs. Reduce heat to low and return pan to burner.
9. Now, shake the pan nearly continually (this will help the eggs separate from the bottom). Meanwhile, scrape and lift the edge of the eggs from a pan with a spatula. Then tilt the pan, allowing liquid egg to swirl around the edge of the pan again, and repeat the scraping and lifting with the spatula.
10. When the eggs are mostly set, add salt. Then, when the eggs are sliding free from the bottom of the pan, you're ready to flip.
11. Take a dinner plate and place it over the frying pan like a cover. Hold it tight and flip the pan over so that the eggs fall on the plate.
12. Now, slide them back into the pan, wet side down.
13. Finish cooking for 2-3 minutes and remove. Garnish with herbs and serve with ketchup or barbecue sauce.

Tortilla de Papas with Sausage and Cheese.

To create this, simply add crumbled cooked sausage one minute after the onion. When the onions are nearly cooked, add grated cheddar or other semisoft cheese and allow it to melt around the potatoes before adding the egg.