Jamie Oliver wants to improve Americans’ health, one meal at a time.
I’ve become enthralled with food blogs. They pop up in your inbox filled with fresh ideas, recipes, and inspiration.
Jamie Oliver
Take Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, for example—chock full of recipes, with a charmingly casual delivery that encourages you to relax about cooking. When Jamie writes, “Add a few glugs of olive oil,” you don’t know exactly how much a glug is, of course—and that’s the whole point. Jamie’s mission is to get us to eat (and cook) at home more. He shows us how cooking can be easy and delicious. One caution: many of his recipes are in metric and need to be converted, but it’s worth it!
Jamie’s Lemon Linguine
1 pound dried linguine
Juice of 3 lemons and zest of 1
6 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 to 1¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Large bunch of fresh basil, chopped
Handful of arugula (or other green)
Cook the linguine in a generous amount of boiling, salted water for about 12 minutes, then drain thoroughly and return to the saucepan.
Meanwhile, beat the lemon juice and zest with the olive oil, then stir in the Parmesan—it’ll go thick and creamy. Season and add more lemon juice if needed.
Add the lemon sauce to the linguine and shake the pan to coat pasta with the sauce (the Parmesan will melt). Finish by stirring in the chopped basil and arugula.
Dorie Greenspan
Another favorite newsletter is by Dori Greenspan, that delightful writer of French cookbooks and baker extraordinaire. After her wildly successful CookieBar pop-up store in New York last year, she did it again last month for five days of cookie heaven.
You can sign up for Dori’s online newsletter (filled with interesting articles and fab recipes) at www.dorigreenspan.com. Here’s one of Dori’s signature cookie recipes—a real stand-out, filled with four kinds of chocolate and dried fruits.
Chocolate Chunkers
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut in 3 pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped, or 1 cup chocolate chips
6 ounces premium-quality milk or white chocolate, chopped into chunks
1-1/2 cups coarsely chopped nuts, preferably salted peanuts or toasted pecans
1 cup moist, plump raisins or finely chopped moist, plump dried apricots
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.
Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the butter, bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted—the chocolate and butter should be smooth and shiny but not so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set it on the counter to cool.
Beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until they are pale and foamy. Beat in the vanilla extract, then scrape down the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the melted butter and chocolate, mixing only until incorporated.
With a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, then, on low speed, add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough, which will be thick, smooth, and shiny.
Mix in the semisweet and milk (or white) chocolate, nuts, and raisins—you’ll have more crunchies than dough at this point. Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving an inch between cookies.
Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes. When done, the tops will look a little dry but the interiors should still be soft. Carefully remove the cookies onto a rack.
If, when the cookies are cooled, the chocolate is still gooey, just pop the cookies into the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Clotilde Dusoulier
Clotilde Dusoulier, a 31-year-old Parisian living in Montmartre, shares her passion for all things food-related at Chocolate & Zucchini. She posts unique recipes (everything from Carrot Barley Galettes to Scallop Mango Tartlet to Flambé Banana Bread with Caramelized Pecans), chatty blogs about ingredients, and Gallic musings on cookbooks, tools, and restaurants. I’ve made many of her recipes and have loved every one.