recipe | The Spamwise Chronicles

Fresh Cavatelli with Cauliflower, Almonds and Breadcrumbs

November 23, 2015 by Stan Santos

I lived in New York City from 1988 till about three months ago, and in all that time, I’d been in only two apartments where the kitchen was bigger than my bathroom. Like many New Yorkers who love to cook but who are strapped for space, I adapted by being economical about kitchen appliances (e.g., no microwaves) and by curtailing my ambitions. That’s one reason why you don’t see many recipes for anything involving dough and/or baking on this here […]

Categories: autumn, food, food photography, San Francisco, vegan, vegetarian • Tags: autumn, food photography, fresh pasta, Italian food, Lidia Bastianich, recipe, vegan, vegetarian

Spaghetti with Scallops, Parsley and Hot Pepper

November 9, 2014 by Stan Santos

A friend of mine once described her favorite childhood meal as a plate of fried pork chops, served with rice and sliced ice-cold tomatoes. Her mom would fry the chops in a cast-iron skillet, using bacon drippings and little else other than salt and pepper. They were always perfectly cooked, with a crust that would shatter into tiny, crisp bits whenever she took a bite. She’d alternate a forkful of rice with a bit of tomato, and another of pork, […]

Categories: food, food photography, Italian food, recipe • Tags: dinner, food photography, Italian food, Marcella Hazan, pasta, recipe, writing

Zucchine Alla Parmigiana

November 2, 2014 by Stan Santos

When someone asks me “What do you like to cook?”, I almost invariably answer “Italian”. If pressed for detail, I sometimes answer “Mediterranean-style vegetable-focused cooking, with a strong preference towards Italy and occasional side trips to Spain, the Middle East and India”. In fact, I cook Italian food so much that I sometimes wonder if I lived in Italy in a previous life. When I buy Italian cookbooks, the first section that I turn to is the section on vegetable […]

Categories: cooking, food, food photography, Gluten-Free, Italian food, recipe, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cookbooks, food photography, foodblogs, gluten-free, Italian food, Memorie di Angelina, recipe, summer, vegetarian, zucchini

Polpettine all’Umbra

September 2, 2014 by Stan Santos

To most Americans, meatballs are made to be paired with spaghetti or some other type of pasta, typically served in a concoction known as “Sunday gravy“. In the annals of Italian-American kitchen lore, this is a long-simmered sauce that most often than not, contains a variety of pork cuts, aromatic vegetables, tomatoes and wine. However, in Italy, meatballs are another creature altogether. They can be cooked in a simple tomato sauce, or rolled in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. Occasionally you may […]

Categories: cooking, food, food photography, Italian food, recipe, summer • Tags: cooking, dinner, food photography, Italian food, meatballs, recipe, summer

Mejadra, with Yogurt and Cucumber

July 31, 2014 by Stan Santos

Rice and beans (or peas, or lentils) is a tradition in just about every region I can think of, from the American South (red beans and rice), to India (chana masala, dal and rice), to the Caribbean (Puerto Rican arroz con gandules, Jamaican rice and peas) and points beyond. You can make it with or without meat. It seems to me that if people use meat in this way, it’s more typically used as a flavoring or as a way […]

Categories: cooking, food, food photography, Gluten-Free, recipe, summer, vegetarian • Tags: cucumber, food photography, gluten-free, lentils, Middle Eastern food, onion, recipe, summer, vegetarian, Yotam Ottolenghi

Chicken with Mustard

July 15, 2014 by Stan Santos

A few months ago, I bought “My Paris Kitchen“. It was roughly around this time that I decided to change my habit of rarely cooking directly from cookbooks to more frequent usage. I’ve started to buy more of them. Then I discovered that buying and collecting cookbooks is just like eating French fries in some ways. You can’t stop after just one. Like Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook, I’ve been cooking from David’s book for some time now. French cuisine is not […]

Categories: cooking, food, food photography, French food, LGBT, recipe, summer • Tags: chicken, cookbooks, cooking, dating, David Lebovitz, food photography, French food, LGBT, recipe, relationships

Basmati and Wild Rice with Chickpeas, Cranberries and Herbs

July 10, 2014 by Stan Santos

I hardly ever cook directly from cookbooks, but lately that hasn’t been the case. My newest acquisition is I’ve been cooking from this book for a few weeks now. It’s a book that I’ve been wanting to get for a long time. My partner, B, has Yotam’s vegetarian cookbook Plenty which came out in May 2010. I had considered buying that but it didn’t “grab” me the same way that this one did. While I’m not a vegetarian, I do […]

Categories: food, food photography, recipe, summer, vegan, vegetarian • Tags: chickpeas, food photography, Jewish cuisine, onion, Ottolenghi, recipe, vegan

Chermoula

April 27, 2014 by Stan Santos

If there’s an herb in my pantry that would qualify as an MVP, it would probably be flat-leaf parsley. I go through at least 1-2 bunches a week. I use it in just about everything I make — as part of a battuto, as a garnish, and lately in, chermoula. Chermoula is a condiment of North African origin, and is made with a variety of green herbs, cumin and olive oil. Most people favor it as a marinade, but I […]

Categories: cooking, food, food photography, Gluten-Free, photography, recipe, spring, vegan • Tags: cilantro, condiment, gluten-free, herbs, mint, North African cuisine, parsley, recipe, spring, vegan

Ramp Pesto

April 11, 2014 by Stan Santos

I have a confession to make. I am one of those people who adores ramps. I go crazy over them when they appear. Their presence at the market says that spring is really here. I try to cook with them in as many ways as possible, because they’re only around for a brief window of time. Blink, and you’ll miss ’em. Ramps, or Allium tricoccum for the botanically inclined, are wild leeks. Normally available from mid-March to late April or […]

Categories: American cuisine, cooking, food, food photography, general, Gluten-Free, recipe, spring, vegetarian • Tags: American cuisine, cooking, food photography, pesto, ramps, recipe, spring, vegetarian

The Spamwise Chronicles

A blog devoted to the beauty of food.

Tag: recipe