Food Without Borders

Ok, so if you live in Hous­ton, please don’t tell my mama that I made backed mac­a­roni and cheese with­out using yel­low cheese. We South­ern­ers love our mac ‘n cheese. So much that you will find it on the menu of many high-end restau­rants — of course it will be made using truf­fles, aged Gouda  or some other type of arti­san cheese. Tip: In Texas, if you make mac­a­roni and cheese with processed cheese, you are not allowed to call it mac­a­roni and cheese or mac ‘n cheese; you have made “cheesy pasta”. I digress.

This my is first attempt at some type of arti­sanal mac n’ cheese so there I did not include the tra­di­tional yel­low ched­dar. But I love yel­low… it brings back mem­o­ries of my col­lege days , mak­ing it off of $25/week in gro­cery. I needed some yel­low.. ahhh dry mus­tard. So here’s the dish. I hope you enjoy.

8 oz. Pipette Rigate or Pipe Rigate (I found that the smaller pipette will be cheesier)

Pipe Rigate

4 oz but­ter
1/8 tsp nut­meg
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp. black pep­per
1/ tsp dry yel­low mus­tard
2 tbsp. sour cream
6oz milk
3 oz aged Gruyère
3 oz sharp ched­dar
1/4 cup panko

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large saucepan to boil. Add a 1/4 tsp salt and tea­spoon of oil. Add the 8 oz of rigate and cook until al dente, about 11–12 minutes.

In a sep­a­rate bowl shred the 2 cheeses and mix together.

In a sep­a­rate bowl, add but­ter, sour cream, nut­meg, salt,  black pep­per, and dry mus­tard. After the pasta is cooked, drain it, then add it to the bowl. Gen­tly mix in the pasta.

Add a layer of pasta to an oven safe pan. Add 1/3 of the cheese over the layer. Add another layer of the pasta and cover with the remain­ing cheese, then shake panko over the top. Put in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.

After 10 min­utes, switch the oven to broil at 450 degrees and broil for 5 min­utes. Remove from oven allow to cool. Serve and enjoy

I talk with a lot peo­ple who are unsure what to do with ground bison aka buf­falo. Ground bison is well known as being a leaner and often an organic sub­sti­tute for reg­u­lar ground beef. Beyond this, bison does have a dis­tinct taste that is dif­fer­ent than it’s beef coun­ter­part; it just needs to be coerced out a lit­tle bit. Here is a dish that does just that. The flavour of the bison blends well in this sim­ple fusilli pasta dish.  I used fusilli pasta since it has the advan­tage of pick­ing up more sauce in the skil­let than other types of pastas.

8 oz uncooked large fusilli
3bsp. extra vir­gin olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 minced clove gar­lic
1 1lb. ground bison
1/2 cup water with 1/2 tsp beef bouil­lon
1 cup no salt tomato sauce
2 oz Parme­san reg­giano
1 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
12 cherry toma­toes cut into halves
4 tbsp goat cheese crum­bles
black pep­per, crushed red pep­per and salt to taste

Tip: For restau­rant style pasta , work on the sauce while the pasta is boil­ing so that the pasta can be added soon after the sauce is ready.

Heat a pot of water with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Boil the tagli­atelle for 8–9 min­utes until al dente

Add 1/2 tsp beef bouil­lon to 1/2 cup hot water, stir, dis­solve and set aside.

Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil on medium in a large pan or skil­let. Add onions, gar­lic, and cook for 2 min­utes. Add ground bison and cook until meat is almost com­pletely browned. Bring heat down 1 notch and add oregano, thyme, beef bouil­lon, then tomato sauce. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add drained pasta, and stir in. Then add Parme­san reg­giano and stir in. Plate, then add cherry toma­toes and goat cheese crumbles.

Add black pep­per, crushed red pep­per and salt to taste

While vis­it­ing Tokyo and Kyoto I made every attempt pos­si­ble to only eat Japan­ese food. After a week or so this can become a daunt­ing task. I was very happy to find “Japan­ese spaghetti”. Usu­ally it is made with a cheesy mari­nara. The meat is often pork or tuna. I like to make this dish at home since it reminds of my vis­its to Japan and mostly because it’s a quick cook dish that is very nutri­tious and deli­cious to both adults and kids. It has a sub­tlety sophis­ti­cated enough, yet sim­ple enough to appeal to a wide range of taste buds.

8 oz uncooked spinach tagli­atelle
3 tbsp. extra vir­gin olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
1 minced clove gar­lic
1–2 chopped toma­toes
1 tbsp. capers
12 oz. canned tuna drained or 8 oz cooked tuna (bro­ken up)
1 1/2 cups mari­nara sauce
4 oz. grated sharp ched­dar
black pep­per and salt to taste

Heat a pot of water with 1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Boil the tagli­atelle for 8–9 min­utes until al dente

Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil on medium in a large pan. Add onions, gar­lic, and cook for 2 min­utes. Add chopped toma­toes, mari­nara — cook for 1 minute, then add capers and stir. Stir in tuna and bring heat down 1 notch. Add pasta to pan and toss.

Add grated ched­dar and stir in. Serve