The Pasta Man

Pizza with mussels and green garlic

Most cooking is easy.  Pizza requires skill.  I grew up in the best pizza state in the universe, Connecticut, so my standards are high.  Delicious toppings are the easy part.  You can one-up the delivery chains with just a little foodie hipster smackdown.  Two-up them.  Seven-up them, even.  (Hey, just got that one.)  But a perfectly cooked crust, crispy but chewy with flavor and char, that takes work.  Talent.  Awesomeness.  Even if you buy the dough already mixed from Whole Foods.

I’m working on it….

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Classic beef tacos

With rice pilaf, charred corn, refried beans.  The meat has some sauteed onions and jalapenos as well as a basic spice mixture.  Tex-mex, I guess.

Edamame-miso pesto

It’s wedding season, and if there’s one thing that’s better than true love, it’s passed appetizers.  I was recently at a wedding event catered by the Rickshaw Dumpling truck, and holy sign-of-the-times, Batman, the vegetarian dumplings were the best of the bunch and absolutely delicious.  If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then stick a chopstick in me, I’m soy.

And that’s not even mentioning the crazy umami from the miso…

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Roasted chicken and potatoes, roasted beets with sour cream and chives

Chicken chicken chicken beet beet beet potato potato potato, chicken chicken chicken beet beet beet…..