Mark and I haven’t been on the same page in a while. His Wednesday Minimalist columns just haven’t tickled my culinary curiosity. And it hurt.

But this week, I’m happy to report, we reconnected through recipe ESP. Last Sunday, I bought a bowl-full of October tomatoes, destined for a pot of pasta all’Amatriciana. And in yesterday’s Minimalist column, Mr. Bittman supplied his readers a simple pasta sauce recipe that makes the most of the season’s last tomatoes. In contrast to his back-to-basics recipe, I augmented my late-season tomato sauce with lots of bacon and onions, but our hearts were in the same place!

Traditionally, pasta all’Amatriciana is prepared with guanciale (an Italian bacon made from pig cheeks), onions, tomatoes, Pecorino Romano cheese, and bucatini (long, thin, tubular pasta). The dish originated in the tiny town of Amatrice outside of Rome. And the latter, larger city is where William and I first sampled the dish on a gut-busting evening at a casual hostaria. William has since requested the dish, but his cries for bacon, tomatoes and onion have been denied until now.

Although I can get guanciale in New York, I Americanized the dish and used thick-cut bacon. If I were making this for a dinner party, I would splurge and get the real thing. For a weeknight meal, I opted for what I had on hand. I also used fresh linguine instead of bucatini—similar shape, no tube. Lastly, recipes for pasta all’Amatriciana call for canned tomatoes (here’s one from Babbo and another from Food and Wine), but using fresh tomatoes lightens the dish and gives it a new sweetness. The tomato flavor is more subtle but it tastes like real tomato—the last gasp of summer that’s been smothered in bacon.

Pasta all’Amatriciana Americana
2 pounds tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup diced thick-cut bacon
1 onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound linguine
Pecorino Romano cheese

Instructions
To prepare the tomatoes, bring a large pot of water to a low boil. Core tomatoes, and cut a shallow X into the bottom of the fruit. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 10 to 15 seconds. Remove the tomatoes from the water with tongs or a slotted spoon, allow them to cool, and pull off the skin. (You can omit this step if you don’t have time, but you need hot water for pasta anyway. And you can get this step going while you cook the bacon and onion.) Reserve water for cooking the pasta. Roughly dice the tomatoes, and set aside.

Heat olive oil on medium in a large frying pan. Add diced bacon, and cook until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon, leaving fat in the pan (all of it, unless you’re counting calories). Add onion and cook until browned, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle in red pepper flakes, and cook 1 minute more. Pour in tomatoes and their juices, and cook 10 to 15 minutes, until they break down and the sauce begins to thicken. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring the pot of water back to a boil. Salt the water, and cook pasta according to package instructions.

Drain the pasta, toss with sauce, and portion into bowls. Top the pasta with bacon and grated Pecorino Romano.

Serves 4 (main course) or 6 (first course)

With eggplant from Redland Organic’s summer sales, William and I went on a two-day eggplant binge, starting with Moroccan Chicken with Eggplant, Tomatoes and Almonds from epicurious.com. We’re not big chicken fans, but the dish’s spice-heavy liquid (tomatoes + paprika, turmeric, coriander, fennel seeds, pepper, cumin and ginger) simmered once-bland chicken thighs in a seductive Middle Eastern bath. In my beautiful but underused tagine, I made a half batch of the recipe with double the eggplant and crunchy, toasted almonds. We had more than enough for four heaping portions.

This meal is low-fat (by my standards, at least) and light. We paired it with simple piles of couscous for dinner and big hunks of bread for sopping the next day at lunch.

On day two, I made a massive pot of Eggplant Pasta with Gorgonzola based on a recipe from thekitchn.com. The velvety sauce is imbued with an unmistakable funk of blue cheese. An Occasional Omnivore first, I  used less cheese than the original recipe called for. A little gorgonzola carries a ton of flavor weight, and I didn’t want the eggplant to get lost in a cheesy mess.

The eggplants in this dish are roasted instead of fried, which cuts prep time and clean up. And the underdog of the meal is a garnish of chopped parsley. It does more than sit pretty for photos. By sprinkling it on at the end, the grassy herb serves as a fresh foil to the rich gorgonzola.

If you’re looking for a quick, quirky alternative to pasta alla norma or eggplant parm, this is it.

Eggplant Pasta with Gorgonzola
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 medium eggplants
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 ounces cremini mushrooms, diced
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup packed basil, thinly sliced
1 pound fettucine
Salt and pepper
6 ounces gorgonzola, crumbled
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°. Toss eggplant with 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Spread the eggplant onto a large, rimmed baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast until eggplant are tender and light golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salty water to a boil. Also, heat remaining olive oil in a large pot, add onions, and cook 8 to 10 minutes, until they begin to caramelize. Add garlic, cook 1 minute more. Stir in mushrooms, crushed tomatoes, red pepper flakes, and basil. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add pasta to boiling water, and cook according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, add roasted eggplant to sauce, and continue to simmer, at least five minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Add water to the sauce, along with pasta and gorgonzola. Toss the pasta to coat it with the sauce. Divide pasta onto plates, and sprinkle with parsley.

Serves 5 to 6

I’ve had Mark Bittman’s Paella with Tomatoes recipe stashed away in my mental recipe file for more than two years. Last week, I finally pulled it out for a mid-week dinner. The verdict: We loved the inclusion of smoked paprika, and bites with tomato and a pea shoot salad topping were tasty.  Otherwise, it was a plate full of rice. William and I both would have enjoyed hunks of Spanish chorizo and maybe the fresh garbanzos that I bought at the Coral Gables farmers’ market (we ate them steamed, like edamame, instead … they were veggie crack). For the time it took to prepare this meal (minimal), it’s worth tweaking. I’ll keep the amended recipe on file.

I also borrowed this Pasta with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage recipe from Real Simple. The combination is far from novel, but since it was my first time cooking broccoli rabe, I chose to stick with a classic. My only changes: using lots of local green garlic and onion and subbing vegetable broth for chicken. I would make this again with more greens and red pepper flakes and less broth. I had to reduce the sauce for close to eight minutes to prevent a soupy final product.

Beets and goat cheese are a classic, if not cliché, combination. So for a weeknight, it doesn’t take much brain power to slap them together and make a delicious dinner.

For this pasta, I roasted beets in the morning before work. An when I returned home, all I had to do was peel the beautiful red bulbs and slice and saute them along with scallions and garlic. I chose to chop the beets into fairly large hunks, because I wanted big earthy bites rather than a homogenous sauce. Ample butter, pasta water, olive oil and goat cheese, coated the noodles, which took on a vibrant magenta hue.

Beet Pasta with Goat Cheese
1 1/2 pounds red beets
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
1/2 pound dried spaghetti
1/4 cup pasta water
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces soft goat cheese

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400°. Clean beets, and remove stems and greens, reserving for another use. Wrap each beet in aluminum foil, and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until they can be pierced easily with a knife. Allow beets to cool. (This step can be completely a day in advance.) Remove beet skins, and chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Lightly brown butter in a large frying pan. Add garlic and scallions, and cook until garlic is light golden. Add beets, and cook 8 minutes.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, begin cooking pasta according to package directions. Drain cooked pasta, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water.  Add pasta, pasta water, and olive oil to beets. Toss to coat.

Divide pasta and beets into bowls, top with crumbled goat cheese, and serve immediately.

Serves 4

William isn’t a huge anchovy fan. But he opened his mind and mouth to pasta puttanesca when I began making it (or buying a prepared version) a few years ago. The sauce, punctuated with varied salty accents, is one of our favorites. And it’s simple enough to whip up on a weeknight. 

This recipe calls for crushed rather than diced tomatoes. The sauce better clings to the pasta when it has a few less chunks. Also, I used basil here instead of traditional oregano—but either herb would do. My only other advice is to use fresh pasta. It costs more than dried pasta, but if you’re forgoing a hunk of meat for the evening, the splurge is justified and most certainly worth it. 

Pasta Puttanesca
1/4 cup olive oil
1 2-ounce can anchovies packed in olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons capers, drained and coarsely chopped 
1 pound fresh linguine  
1/2 cup basil, cut into thick ribbons 

Instructions
Heat olive oil and 2 tablespoons oil from anchovies in a 4-quart pot.  Chop anchovies and add them to the oil, along with garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until garlic is a pale golden color and fragrant. 

Add crushed tomatoes, olives, and capers, stirring to incorporate oil. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salty water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook al dente. Drain pasta.

Toss pasta with puttanesca sauce and top with basil. 

Serves 4 to 6

For my birthday on Sunday, William almost made me Mark Bittman’s Pasta with Beans and Mussels. With a little help debearding the mussels and coordinating cooking times, he produced for me a lovely pasta dish that tasted like the sea.

The secret sauce for this recipe: The pasta finishes cooking in the murky, salty liquid left behind by the bivalves. Add in sweet mussels, starchy beans and grassy parsley for a singular, simple meal. And to my surprise, I truly relished the leftovers (always a sketchy proposition with seafood).

We stuck pretty firmly to the recipe—just using a heavy hand with the olive oil and wine. 

Thanks love.

William and I love pasta. And it’s a no-brainer for a mostly vegetarian diet. But as satisfying and filling as a pasta dishes can be, I sometimes worry we’re not getting the protein we need from a pasta main course.

With leftover navy beans (again, stashed away from posole), I searched online for a pasta and bean recipe to ease my fears and fill our bellies. And I found the specified combination at Cooking Books.

With a few modifications, our version came out quite macaroni-and-cheese-like. Creamy beans and ricotta clung to the pasta shells. Tomato and zucchini provided summer veggie love, and the pesto added umph.

This recipe will be fun to play with—different beans and vegetables, maybe a stronger cheese, nuts in the pesto. I’ll keep you updated when we try it again.

Navy Bean Pasta Bake
3 cups shell-shaped pasta
3 cups cooked/canned navy beans
1/2 cup bean liquid
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
4 plum tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 cup julienned zucchini
2 cups packed basil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup parmesan cheese, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°. Bring a pot of water to boil, salt, and cook pasta until al dente (or just before). Meanwhile, toss zucchini with a sprinkle of salt, and let it drain in a colander, at least 10 minutes. Drain pasta, and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Combine pasta, beans, bean liquid, tomatoes, zucchini and salt and pepper to taste. 

In a food processor, pulse basil, garlic, 1/2 cup parmesan, and olive oil with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. 

Pour pasta mixture into a greased, deep 9×13″ baking dish. Spoon basil pesto over top, pressing pesto into the pasta with clean fingers. Top dish with remaining 1/2 cup parmesan. Bake 30 to 40 minutes, until golden and bubbly. 

Serves 4 to 6