Blue Cayenne

Need a substantial side dish for your holiday table?

This Orzo Puttanesca might just be what you are looking for.

This is a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love. This cookbook is available from your local bookstores and from Amazon. The “shelf” reference in the title refers to a collection of recipes that you can usually make right from the shelves of your cupboard. Who doesn’t need that type of recipe now and then when a grocery store trip is the last thing you want to do?

Here’s what the authors of  Shelf Love have to say about their book: “To build up this book we have broken down our kitchens: pulling ingredients apart only to put then back together again–cohesive dishes based on kitchen finds. A bag of dried chickpeas, repurposed. A pound of onions, cooked down. Some wonky-looking vegetables, grilled. There is a “this for that” ethos here; the understanding that, in this new world, the need to improvise, to roll with the punches, is more crucial than ever before.”

“Wonky-looking vegetables.” Made me laugh. I’ve always got some of those in my refrigerator crisper.

Orzo, if you don’t use it often, is a rice-shaped pasta generally made from semolina flour. The semolina gives the little pieces of pasta density and a bump in protein. It is often used in pilafs as a rice substitute, in soups and even in salads.If you see what looks like orzo on store shelves labeled as risoni, you’ve found orzo. Risoni is the Italian name for the product.

This recipe was originally made with tuna and anchovies, but this recipe substitutes artichoke hearts for the tuna and extra capers to mimic the anchovies. We’re definitely “rolling with the punches” here–just as the authors of the book recommend.

Here is the recipe.

Wishing you and yours a happy Thanksgiving!

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. Here are a couple of Blue Cayenne’s most-requested holiday favorites: https://bluecayenne.com/two-holiday-favorites-from-blue-cayennes-archives-cranberry-relish-and-squash-apples-and-cranberries.

You don’t want to miss these great recipes…again.

Want to dive deeper into our recipe archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page: Blue Cayenne.  If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.

OK. We missed it. February 23 was National Banana Bread Day. Bummer.

Here’s a way to make up for our banana gaffe–combine bananas with your seasonal pumpkin bread. (National Pumpkin Bread Day was October 30. We missed that one, too.)

First commercially imported to the United States in the 1870s, bananas have been a staple in American kitchens for a relatively short time. Spoilage was always an issue. In the 1930s commercial leavenings–baking powder and baking soda–became widely available to home cooks and it wasn’t long until American housewives figured out that “spoiled” bananas could be incorporated into a tasty and economical cake.

The Chiquita Banana Company (originally the United Fruit Company) was a major early player in the importation of bananas to the U.S. To get their product onto American tables, the company launched an aggressive advertising campaign that included this delightful 1940s cartoon: Chiquita Banana Cartoon.  Who knew you could rhyme equator and refrigerator?

This recipe is adapted from one that appears on the Taste of Home site. You can find the original recipe here.

You can find a number of other delicious banana breads and cakes on Blue Cayenne. Just type “banana” into the search bar or click here.