Hearty And Hot Meals

This is the type of weather that requires calorie rich meals to keep you warm. There's something about a soup or pasta that's not only comforting but also fortifying . What's great is when they're homemade with familiar ingredients.

Melissa Clark , and Yotam Ottolenghi know this and made  soup and one pot pastas the theme of their columns in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Ms. Clark devoted her A Good Appetite to lentil soup. This is an easy cook, as most soups are.It's minimal and straightforward yet complex with addition of rosemary and garlic. Onions are  first cooked in olive oil in a medium pot. It's then taking any kind of stock, chicken, beef or vegetable along with the lentils and thyme to simmer. The fun part is pureeing it all with an immersion blender until the desired consistency. It can be thick and chunky or thin and satiny. Another fun part is topping it. Ms. Clark  suggests radicchio tossed with some olive oil and parsley.However if greens aren't your thing, then crumble bacon on top. A dollop or sour cream or Greek yogurt would work well. Into crunch? Then try toasted pumpkin seeds, dried seaweed or anything crisp. You can also have browned veggies such as browned leeks or onions. It can be good just left unadorned, with slices of toasty Italian bread and a small green salad on the side.

Another cold weather must eat is Yotam Ottolenghi's one pot wonder dishes. These are recipes that use a roasting pan in a whole new light. His may not be the easiest to make, Chef Ottolenghi wants to create flavor and texture bombs that add components in different stages.It's playing with temperatures, or scattering a garnish or a salsa at the end to liven it up. The recipe is a one pan pasta with harissa bolognese. This combines both North African and classic Italian. Harissa is a combination of tomato paste married to a variety of spices such as cumin, caraway, coriander and hot chiles, It will give the dish a more arrabiata vibe.Chef Ottolenghi adds more cumin and coriander for a really intense taste. Onion, tomatoes, and carrots are blitzed in a food processor and added to the meat , Pecorino Romano  and Parmesan cheeses harissa and tomato paste. The oven is first set at a scorching 475 degrees F for the meat and then it's dropped to 375 F after the first twenty-five minutes.It's then breaking the meat apart with a spoon and adding both chicken broth and heavy cream. The pasta is added. This is coarsely chopped manicotti or canneloni. Push as much pasta as you can under the surface and bake twenty five minutes more , until the pasta is tender. Stir in parsley and  more Parmesan and Pecorino Romano until the top is crisp about eight minutes more.

These frigid times demand hearty and hot dishes. Warm up with a fragrant lentil soup or a spicy harissa pasta bake. They are perfect for chasing away the effects of this polar vortex.