Crouton’s Pasta alla Puttanesca
August 23, 2021This 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 can make the sauce with or without tomatoes. If you want to make a fancier meal, serve it with salad on the side. Notes Ditalini and I have prepared this dish with all kinds of pasta (that’s fettuccini in the photo). If you don’t like tomatoes, just…
Crouton’s Cheesy Shrimp & Grits
We’re not Southerners, and until a few years ago knew not of shrimp & grits … or even grits for that matter. But we were exposed one night at a restaurant in downtown Tucson, and last night I decided to…
Ditalini’s Sautéed Scallops & Spinach Over Bucatini
This is one of our favorite one-dish meals: sautéed scallops & spinach over pasta, enhanced w/garlic & bacon.
Ditalini’s Grilled Chicken & Romaine Salad
Ditalini adapted this dinner salad from an Americas Test Kitchen recipe, using ingredients to hand and sizing it for two. It was filling and tasty, and a welcome addition to our repertoire of grilled veggies.
Securing Crouton’s Kitchen
A reader comments: “I think for a buck or two you can display the secure wwws.irl heading, making many of us more comfortable.” It took Crouton a minute to figure out what the reader was getting at. When it clicked…
Improving Crouton’s Kitchen
This morning I, Crouton, finally finished adding a line of code to the recipes on this blog. I don’t know about you, but when I look up online recipes I like to cut & paste the important bits … the…
No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread
... may I say how much I hate food and recipe bloggers who make you scroll and scroll to get to the information you came for; namely, the ingredients and instructions? Crouton's Kitchen readers, I promise to give you want…
Crouton’s Pasta with Italian Sausage
Here’s another easy pasta dish anyone can make. It tastes as good as it looks. Notes I’ve tried this with both kalamata olives and canned black olives. The strong flavor of the kalamatas overpower the bell pepper and broccoli, so…
Ditalini’s Goulash
This is the Czech version of goulash, as served at the Tábor Restaurant in Portland, Oregon, modified by Ditalini. Traditionally it is served with dumplings, which I’ll include in the recipe, but we serve it with pasta, as shown. The…
Future Projects Photoblog
Today, a photoblog. These are all things for future Crouton’s Kitchen posts. Pizza w/bread machine dough Ditalini preparing lumpia & wonton soup Lumpia & wonton soup Truffle deMenthe’s jambalaya Ditalini’s egg sliders Crouton’s Fortress of Smoke™ Fried polenta w/eggs There.…
Crouton’s Fortress of Smoke™
A while back I added an equipment & technique section to this blog. This post is the first entry in that section, and describes my method for setting up and using a Weber Smoky Mountain cooker (aka Crouton’s Fortress of Smoke™). This post…