What's "Cooking With Dynamite"?
What's "Cooking With Dynamite"?
The Dynamite Shop's new weekly recipe newsletter, this week starring our go-to winter pasta!
Hello Dynamite Friends and Families!
Welcome to the very first installment of our newsletter, Cooking with Dynamite! Our DNA is about teaching kids to cook, but this newsletter is for adults who want a little dinner inspiration each week from fellow parents who happen to be food writers. That’s us!
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Keep getting it for free: Because you are on our mailing list, you’ll get an email every Tuesday with a dinner recipe you can make on your own, or with young people you might have in your life. These are recipes we’ve taught to hundreds of kids aged 6-17 throughout the last few years at The Dynamite Shop. They work!
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Your support means everything to us, especially as we go into our third year of pivoting to our students’ and families’ evolving needs. Your subscription will allow us to keep sharing new recipes and developing new lessons.
You can read more about Cooking with Dynamite here! Know that we will talk about the occasional glass of wine, process pandemic frustration, ponder cooking and parenting in this wild time, and share the ways we find joy in the kitchen, often with our kids.
We’ll do it with some oomph and some heat; there will be room for humor and tears. It’ll be dynamite.
xo,
Sara Kate & Dana
Issue 01: Riffing on Pasta and Other Seasonal Cooking Lessons
How scavenging for seasonal ingredients and pantry helpers makes you the best cook
from Sara Kate’s Kitchen
To tell you how we like to teach pasta is to tell you how we like to teach cooking in general. Be prepared, but be loose. Follow a few rules, but know when to break them. Respect the seasons. Expect the unexpected.
One of the first recipes we taught when we opened The Dynamite Shop to hundreds of summer campers in 2018 was how to cook a big bowl of pasta improvisationally. The mission: to create a beautiful, peak-of-season pasta sauce with whatever ingredients you have on hand or discover at the market, without spending more than $10.
It was summer so the bounty was deep, and our campers—five groups of five students each week—were challenged to spend their cash wisely. Of course, we never saw the same dish twice and the creations were always dazzling.
Some splurged on special ingredients, like sugar snap peas or heirloom tomatoes; others would allot a portion of their budget to a bit of sausage or bacon to season their sauce. Summer in New York City means almost every kind of vegetable, herb and leafy green you can imagine is available so we gently urged the kids to be as veg-centric as possible.
While each group’s pasta was different from the next, everyone started off with the same formula to follow and from there they improvised with their unique combination of ingredients. The basic steps are: start by cooking the meat, if using, using the rendered fat to then saute the aromatics (onion and/or garlic) then add in the vegetables and cook until tender but al dente. Add the cooked pasta and a bit of the starchy cooking liquid to make a sauce, then top with some kind of crumbled or grated cheese.
Now, winter is another story and this one has been a doozy. “In season” produce is a challenge, especially in the north where our fields are buried under blankets of snow, or at least a few inches of ice and mud. When the farmers’ market isn’t as bustling, I rely on root vegetables like onions and fennel, year-round (cultivated) mushrooms, and hard winter squashes, plus hearty greens like kale and collards.
Here is a handy interactive guide on what’s in season according to US state. It leaves out what might still be “cellared” for those of us stuck in colder climates (apples! carrots! onions!) so don’t forget those jewels.
I’m also not afraid to tap my pantry; I throw in a few other helpers like breadcrumbs and anchovies to amp up flavor. Citrus zest helps bring brightness to this dark time, and even some soaked currants or raisins provide a nice sweet side flavor to certain combinations. A handful of toasted nuts (crushed or chopped if large like walnuts) goes a long way. The trick is to figure out what “goes together” - individual flavors, like pieces of clothing, can work better together for some than others. Just like when you get dressed in the morning, you are going by your own personal style (we hope!) and the same goes for improvisational cooking. This concept is a great one to get kids involved in making dinner. Let them express themselves! Tell them “It’s up to you!” That kind of encouragement can be incredibly empowering.
Speaking of empowering… behold Julia Chlid and Jacques Pepin! Pepin was one of my teachers in culinary school and I love revisiting him thanks to YouTube. While this video isn’t about pasta, it is about winter produce and I absolutely love watching his rapport with Julia Child.
My recipe below is more of a rough map than a specific recipe. Start with a blank slate, then I want you to use what you have and explore what flavors and textures you like.
And don’t worry, spring is around the corner and we’ll revisit this seasonal pasta topic. And just wait for the summer and fall edition! For those feeling a little lost, here are a few of my favorite winter combinations.
Fennel, yellow onions, orange zest, golden raisins, anchovies, pine nuts
Kale, red onions, red pepper flakes, pancetta, walnuts, Parmesan
Broccoli, yellow onions, lemon zest, bread crumbs, ricotta salata
Up-to-You Seasonal Pasta (Winter Edition)
Serves 4 to 6
1 pound dried pasta (I prefer short-strand shapes like penne, cavatappi, fusilli, and ziti)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
1 -2 medium yellow or red onions, thinly sliced
A few anchovy fillets (optional)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
2-4 medium cloves garlic, minced
Large pinch of crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 to 4 cups total chopped, diced, or sliced fresh mixed vegetables and/or de-stemmed and thinly sliced sturdy winter greens, like kale or collards
1/2 - 1 cup vegetable, chicken or beef stock (optional; you can use pasta water instead)
A few cracks freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated or crumbled cheese (such as Parmesan, Grana Padano or ricotta salata, ricotta, or goat cheese), plus more for garnish
Optional add-ins: crumbled cooked sausage (pulled out of casing), bacon, prosciutto, or pancetta (2/3 - 1 cup); lemon or orange zest (1 tablespoon); dried currants or golden raisins (1/4 cup, preferably soaked in hot water or stock), toasted pine nuts or walnuts (1/3-1/2 cup), toasted bread crumbs (1/2 cup), shredded fresh herbs like Italian parsley or basil (about 1/2 cup)
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water (it should taste like the ocean) to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until very al dente (a few minutes shy of the package instructions). If you aren’t using stock in the recipe, using a large measuring cup or a mug, scoop out a cup of the pasta water and reserve. Drain the pasta, put it in a large bowl, toss with a generous drizzle of olive oil, and set aside.
If including meat, cook it in a little olive oil until slightly browned, 1-5 minutes depending on the meat. Heat the olive oil in the pasta pot over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and cook, stirring often, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to low and continue to cook, stirring often, until beginning to darken, another 5-10 minutes. Add the anchovy filets if using and mash up into the pan to break them apart. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, if using, and cook, stirring, until aromatic, about 1 minute.
Add the mixed vegetables or leafy greens and cook, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the vegetables. If the pan looks dry, add a tablespoon more olive oil and 1/4 cup reserved pasta water or stock, and toss to coat.
Cook, covered, until a sauce forms and the flavors come together, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.
Add the cooked pasta to the sauce, stir, and add more stock or pasta water if the sauce is too dry: it should coat the pasta without being too soupy. Heat over medium heat, stirring, and adding a little more liquid if the sauce gets dry. After about a minute, test one of the pieces of pasta. If it is cooked through without being mushy, remove from the heat. Otherwise, keep cooking and adding liquid, if necessary.
Add any optional add-ins plus the 1/2 cup cheese and adjust the seasonings to taste. Serve immediately, topped with more cheese, if desired.
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