Sprout & Pea

This is a very belated hol­i­day post, but it’s a recipe that can be made year round! Last year, a Christ­mas Eve tra­di­tion began. As I and two of my won­der­ful friends are often the only folks left in Brook­lyn on this Hol­i­day, we’ve begun spend­ing the whole week­end together. Con­ve­niently, they hap­pen to live next door. Last Christ­mas Eve, we went to the movies and spent the late part of the evening get­ting the royal treat­ment in an empty bar around the cor­ner. The night was cozy and per­fect. Read more:

 You know those days where every­thing in your tiny lit­tle world seems to stand still for just long enough to take it all in? Those days where you just feel grate­ful for it all? Sat­ur­day was one of those days for me, and it was a sim­ple day too. I woke up, met my cousin for brunch and we enjoyed some deli­cious poached eggs with herbs and cheese out­side on a rare 60 degree day in Brook­lyn. We caught up, walked around, did a lit­tle shop­ping, and explored neigh­bor­hoods by foot. On our walk, I received a phone call from one of my most favorite peo­ple– just to say hello and that he was think­ing of me as he biked around where the wind took him on this unbe­liev­ably beau­ti­ful day. Read more:

I love nights when spon­tane­ity takes over and before you know it you’re sit­ting down enjoy­ing a big home cooked meal and a mil­lion laughs with a few of your clos­est friends. Sun­day was one such night, and I wanted to make some­thing spe­cial for the won­der­ful folks gath­ered around my table, so I decided to get fancy and break out the truf­fle oil. I also had a big but­ter­nut squash lay­ing around that I had for­got­ten to include in a veg­gie roast the other night, so I wanted to fig­ure out a way to incor­po­rate it into the meal. Read more:

I love farro for its tex­ture, specif­i­cally the nut­ti­ness it adds to a dish, but I don’t love it for its price tag. It’s also not exactly gluten-​​free, so it has become an ingre­di­ent that I enjoy once in a blue moon when the mood really strikes. Well, the other night the mood struck. As I was walk­ing through the isles of my local mar­ket with arugula in my bas­ket, crav­ing some­thing refresh­ing for din­ner, I hap­pened to notice a bag of farro on the shelf. It’s rare that my local mar­ket has this delec­table grain in stock, so after a bit of brain churn­ing, and a lit­tle drool­ing over fresh herbs that I spot­ted in a nearby isle, I tossed the farro into my bas­ket. Read more:

I attempted red wine pasta once before and while the dish came out tasty, I found no trace of a red wine fla­vor when it hit my mouth. Last night, after an after­noon spent brows­ing for recipes, I decided that I wanted to try this again. I had also acci­den­tally left half a bot­tle of Mal­bec open in my kitchen overnight, so I thought I would put it to good use and incor­po­rate it into my meal. After read­ing many many red wine pasta recipes, I set­tled on cre­at­ing my own.
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