LEFTOVERS AND NOT . . .

I WAS IN THE KITCHEN yesterday morning roasting tomatoes, a cauliflower and some eggplant and came upon some leftover chicken that I had cooked for Ludwig. You remember my dog, Ludwig, yes? I cook chicken for him and mix it with his kibble and you must also know by now that I share Ludwig with my sister, so he's uptown at the moment. The dilemma: what to do with the chicken he doesn't eat; it's only boiled of course and I suppose I could carry it uptown with him, but this time around, I didn't. So . . . I made chicken salad:

CHICKEN SALAD WITH ROASTED TOMATOES

Some leftover chicken (roughly 1+/- cup)

1/2 onion, chopped

2 stalks chopped celery

One chopped scallion (green part only) 

Salt and pepper

1 heaping tbs. mayonnaise

1 tsp. dry mustard

A couple of squirts of tabasco

Fresh tarragon but only a little

Finish with the juice of 1/2 a lime

Mix all ingredients together and taste for seasoning before adding the lime juice. You don't need a lot of salt if using mayo from a jar. 

ROASTED PLUM TOMATOES

Normally, I roast cherry tomatoes but I found some plum tomatoes that looked good, so I thought: "Why not?!"

Preheat oven to 400º.

Take 8-10 plum tomatoes and cut them from the stem to the bottom (the long way) into uniform slices. Line a large roasting sheet pan with parchment paper and place the tomato slices in rows in the pan (you can remove the seeds if you like but I don't). Sprinkle salt, pepper, some dried thyme and a few fennel seeds over the tomatoes. Generously drizzle some Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the tomatoes and place in the middle of the oven and roast for about 45 minutes. Start checking after 30 minutes to make sure they're roasting evenly (I turn the pan around after half an hour). Some cooks may like them roasted to the soft stage but I like them sort of caramely with crinkled skin (about 50-60 minutes in the oven). I don't mean to say that I like them burnt but just to the sticking point, when the sugar starts to dominate  the tomato. Thus is transformed a rather lackluster tomato into a thing of deliciousness.

Speaking of deliciousness, I make this pasta dish . . . 

SPAGHETTINI WITH ONIONS AND ROASTED TOMATOES

Of course, when there are roasted vegetables in the house (almost always), I sometimes get the "voglia" to eat spaghettini (thin spaghetti) with a simple dressing of olive oil, sauteed onions and garlic, some crushed red pepper flakes, parsley and Romano cheese. However, last night, with some pretty delicious tomatoes looking me in the face, I decided to add tomatoes into the equation. So, while listening to a DVD of TOSCA filmed with Domingo on location in Rome, I boiled some spaghettini (1/4 pound) and sauteed 1/2 an onion (sliced the long way) and two sliced cloves of garlic. After the onions became translucent and start to sizzle to the point that they look somewhat brucciate (burnt) at the edges, I added about 12 shakes of the pepper flake shaker and the tomatoes (4 or 5 slices is enough for one serving). By this time the spaghettini should be almost ready. When the pasta is al dente, add about 2 tbs. of the pasta cooking water to the oil and 4 tbs. finely chopped parsley. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan with the onions and tomatoes, toss, drizzle the juice of one lemon over the dish, toss again and serve immediately with Romano* cheese. 

Buon Appetito.

* I have made this dish without tomatoes many times and have added other ingredients which you can do as well. Pine nuts and raisins are a good substitute served with bread crumbs (the Sicilian way), or with crushed almonds or pistachios; olives or anchovies (yum!). Any combination will suffice, but the simplest, i.e., the Italian way — no more than 5 ingredients — is always delicious.