Recipe Abbreviations

  • tbsp = tablespoon
  • tsp = teaspoon
  • lb = pound
  • oz = ounce
  • pkg = package

Crouton’s To-Do List

  • Swiss Chard w/Feta
  • Marinated Flank Steak
  • Slow-Cooker Pork Chops
  • Grilled Leeks
  • Eggs Benedict
  • Dutch Baby

What’s On the Stove?

Pasta alla Putanesca, that’s what!

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Crouton’s Quick Fettuccini Alfredo w/Shrimp

Ingredients

1 lb fettuccini 3/4 stick butter 1/2 cup half & half 4-5 cloves garlic, sliced 12-24 large shrimp (21/25 count), deveined, heads & tails removed dried parsley flakes white pepper grated Parmesan cheese #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: [...]

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Crouton’s Cafeteria Chili Mac

Ditalini put me in charge of the kitchen last night, and I decided to indulge myself in some good old comfort food. We’ve both been away, things have been hectic and disorganized, and a simple one-dish hot meal seemed like just the right thing. Remember the chili mac they served you in the school cafeteria? [...]

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Crouton’s Fettuccini Alfredo

This is a great side dish for richly-flavored meat dishes, like scallopini al limone, veal marsala, or grilled Italian sausage.

Ingredients

Ingredients

1/2 cup heavy cream 1/2 stick butter white pepper grated Parmesan cheese fettuchini fresh parsley if desired

Directions

For the Alfredo sauce, melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add [...]

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Ditalini’s Linguini w/White Clam Sauce

Ditalini made her version of linguini with white clam sauce tonight, based on a Food Channel recipe that has long been one of our favorites.

Ingredients

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil 1 tsp red pepper flakes 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped 1 small can anchovy filets 2 tbsp fresh thyme (1 1/2 [...]

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Italian Family Barbecue Revisited

Here’s the original recipe, if you want the details.

Grilled artichoke, polenta with onions & peppers, Italian sausage

A few variations this time around. We recently bought a new gas grill, and in my zeal to protect it and make it last forever, I’m using grilling pans and sheets. You can see them in [...]

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Back in the Saddle

Crouton’s Chicken & Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo

Home from vacation and restaurant meals, back in the kitchen and hard at work. Tonight’s dinner? Crouton’s Chicken & Shrimp Fettucini Alfredo. Fast, easy, and satisfying.

It’s good to be home.

[...]

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Crouton’s Pasta alla Puttanesca

This is my interpretation of spaghetti alla puttanesca (whore’s spaghetti), a simple yet robust pasta dish that’s easy to make with around-the-house ingredients (well, our house anyway). Don’t be squeamish about the anchovies . . . they add flavor to the dish, but without the strong salty taste people associate with anchovies on pizza. You [...]

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Apparently, Whoring Runs in the Family

Twenty years or more ago I started making a simple pasta dish for those nights we wanted something light and basically meatless: I’d fry some garlic and anchovies in olive oil, then mix it with spaghetti. At some point I thought it would be more flavorful with a little onion. In time I began to [...]

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Grilled Polenta, Italian Sausage, & Peppers

Yeah, I know, I’ve posted about these things before, here and here. But I felt like photoblogging last night’s dinner and, this time around, presenting it in recipe format. My method is to put the peppers on the grill first, since they take the longest to cook (about 15 minutes), then the sausage (about 5 [...]

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