Easter Feast with Seduction Spinach Gratin

Holy Week is making me long for family and spring blooms. This is a mashup of past pics of my godmother's home, an avid SHF reader, and Eric's sweet family Easter meal from a few years ago. 

Dogwoods have the most beautiful Easter story.

Redbuds always make me think of my sweet Momma. We would drive and she yells in a hello sort of whistle, "Redbud, redbud."

Jeano is the best cook. She roasted lamb a few years ago for our Easter feast, but my favorite memory was of her crab meat stuffed Rockfish. No lasting photos of that sucker sadly.

I look forward to this coming Stone Hill spring. 

We've got a few more weeks for these bright green leaves.

One of my favorite treats is creamed spinach. McCall nicknamed my mother's creamed spinach recipe "Seduction Spinach". It's bizarre I haven't posted the recipe here. I guess because it is so easy that I have it memorized. 

Seduction Spinach, KTPunks Mommy

(1) huge box of fresh baby spinach or (4) frozen boxes of chopped spinach

You can also mix a few boxes of the frozen with a few large handfuls of fresh. The stuff wilts like crazy.

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon butter

Light dusting of flour to make a roux

2 tablespoons chopped horseradish

salt and nutmeg to taste

lemon squeeze

If you are using frozen spinach, cook in a sauce pan with just the frozen blocks of spinach. Let them melt the ice and cook down the water as much as possible. Pour off water if there is too much. If you defrost the spinach box beforehand squeeze as much water out of the box by cutting a little hole in the corner. The less water the better. 

Once spinach is wilted and cooked down, remove any big stems. Add butter. Melt and mix spinach and butter. I sometimes add shallots if I have them but not necessary. Push spinach to side and add flour. Cook flour and butter mixture and add cream to make a roux. Once the roux thickens mix the spinach back in. Add horseradish and seasoning. I love nutmeg in this but you can leave it out. It should be spicy so if two tablespoons isn't enough, put in another heap and you are golden.

Ina's Spinach Gratin

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
4 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups milk
About 3 pounds frozen chopped spinach, defrosted (5 10-ounce packages)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 15 minutes. Add the flour and nutmeg and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Add the cream and milk and cook until thickened.

Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach and add the spinach to the sauce. Add 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese and mix well. Season to taste with the salt and pepper.

Transfer the spinach to a baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and the Gruyère on top. Bake for 20 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Serve immediately. 

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Follow Ina's recipes to the fraction of the ounce. She tests and retests her recipes so that they are foolproof. I truly don't know of any other cookbooks that are so well tested. I added WAY too much cheese in this recipe and it turned greasy (see last photo). I'm a glutton for Gruyere and it was a hot mess of oil. Bad Nellie. In Ina We Trust. 

In this recipe she suggests making the roux first. You know your roux is ready when you can drag a spoon through it.

Then she adds the squeezed out spinach.

I added horseradish to make it "a la seduction" spinach.

Just use the 1/2 cup of Gruyere.

This was the problem. I added at least a full cup on the top.

It was still delicious but the half cup would have been less oily and more crispy. Yum. Crispy Seduction Spinach Gratin.

Family meals at the Somerville's are always wonderful. Kim makes her famous potato salad and Aunt Barbara usually makes her 4 cheese mac and cheese. 

Good memories from a few years ago.

Sending good Easter Feast vibes your way as you plan your menus this week.

Midnight Pasta

I recently picked up Ina's new cookbook. I'm such an addict for her beautiful photography and foolproof recipes. I have every one of her delightful books. I love to read cookbooks before I go to bed. I take my sticky notes and flag the recipes I like and write a grocery list to plan. There are so many recipes that look fantastic in this book. 

The spaghetti aglio e olio was SO easy and didn't require a stop at the store. We had all the ingredients in the house. I like how she has a little story before every recipe. This is a dish that is nicknamed Midnight Pasta due to chef's making it late at night after their shifts. 

Ingredients

Kosher salt
1 lb dried spaghetti (I love to use organic whole wheat)
1/3 cup good olive oil
8 large garlic cloves, cut into thin slivers
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I will reduce this by half next time.)
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add 2 tablespoons of salt and the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package.  Set aside 1 1/2 cups of the pasta cooking water before you drain the pasta.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium heat in a pot large enough to hold the pasta, such as a 12-inch saute pan or a large, shallow pot.  Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until it just begins to turn golden on the edges – don’t overcook it!  Add the red pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds more.  Carefully add the reserved pasta-cooking water to the garlic and oil and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat, add 1 teaspoon of salt and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the liquid is reduced by about a third. (This took longer than 5 minutes for me.)

Add the drained pasta to the garlic sauce and toss.  Off the heat, add the parsley and Parmesan cheese and toss well.  Allow the pasta to rest off the heat for 5 minutes for the sauce to be absorbed.  Taste for seasoning and serve warm with extra Parmesan on the side.

Garlic 101: Smash your garlic with the back of your knife.

Make sure it pops.

This makes is so much easier to remove the paper skins.

I like big slices of garlic. Heat in the olive oil. Do not burn. I should have cooked the garlic a tiny bit longer.

Add the pepper flakes. I may use half of the suggested recipe next time. It was really spicy and I'm a wuss.

Add the pasta water and cook for five-ten minutes. Seems counter intuitive to add water to make a sauce thicker. The starches in the water reduce and somehow makes it a nice creamy sauce when you add the cheese.

Use fresh parsley.

Get your brew on.

Add the pasta and Parmesan cheese after the sauce reduces by half. Toss.

Add the parsley and serve.

 How Easy is That? Seriously easy Ina. 

It's not like I needed another cookbook.

But I'm such a huge fan and honestly I've found 10 recipes that will grace our table soon. Barefoot Contessa, you've done it again. Cheers!

Thank you Ina, for another beautiful feast for the eyes and palate. The Midnight Pasta is so simple but such a quick and easy treat on a school night. I've also made the turkey breast. It was perfect. After another busy work week this was the perfect fix. Now to find spelt pasta for next time.