Whodunit? Colonel Mustard. In the Kitchen, with Pasta, Sausage and Basil...

“Almost anything is edible with a dab of French mustard on it.” ~Nigel Slater

I’ve always loved mustard. Even as a young kid. I wanted it on my baloney sandwiches, hot dogs, pork chops – especially pork chops as it was the only way I wanted to eat them. My brother could keep his ketchup. I’d take mustard at every meal and until every fingernail on my little hands were stained yellow.

And so I quite agree with Mr. Slater—and how cool is it that the first mustard quote I found was said by the person whose recipe I chose to be the first of my “Cook the 40” challenge for 2019.

Photo of the magazine cover. — Best-ever recipes? Challenge accepted!

Cook the 40

Why take on Food & Wine’s best-ever recipes from their forty years in publication? Colonel Mustard aside, and perhaps the absence of a clue, why not. I really learned a lot from my 52 new recipes cooking challenge last year (recipes followed exactly, that is.) I had fun getting out of my food comfort zone, I bulked up my spice pantry, and I added some new things to the repertoire of foods I love.

Perhaps taking on these 40 recipes would also add some fun and new favorite foods to my life. If even half of them end up being tasty, this will be a worthwhile endeavor.

52 things and 52 new recipes were a lot of fun last year. Perhaps a new 4 + 0 photo for 40 new recipes should be on my photo to-do list this year!

40 Years of Food & Wine

According to the September 2018 anniversary issue of Food & Wine, and editor Hunter Lewis, https://twitter.com/notesfromacook?lang=en, what makes a good recipe is it being delicious, of course, and (I think even more important sometimes) the best recipes “tell a story worth repeating.” Well said, Hunter.

I am not sure what kind of stories these 40 best-ever recipes will tell from my kitchen’s point of view, but I am excited to find out.

The First Recipe

I chose the first recipe based on what I was kind of in the mood for on Saturday: pasta. While not the only pasta recipe in the magazine, it was the only pasta recipe that included mustard as an ingredient. Mustard, you ask? Yes, I reply. Because I almost always reply yes to mustard.

The recipe itself is quite easy. There is no complicated sauce to cook for hours, so it’s quick to make; and because it was also quite unlike any other pasta recipe I’ve ever made or eaten, it was fun to try.

Ready for the first *Food & Wine* recipe of the year.

Let’s Get Cooking

I cut the recipe’s measurements a bit because it was only going to be me eating it (I was home alone) but that was easy enough.

The recipe’s ingredients are pretty basic: olive oil, hot Italian sausage, dry white wine, heavy cream, grainy mustard, crushed red pepper flakes and fresh basil. Well, pasta (and salt for its water) of course, but that was boiling on another burner.

As soon as I started cooking, I knew this was going to be good.

As the water was boiling and ready for the pasta, I started on the sauce by pouring olive oil in an already hot pan, and then added the sausage that was broken up outside of its casing.
This cooked for about five minutes.

Next, I added the wine (I used a dry Spanish white wine), simmering and scraping up the bits from the bottom of the pan, and reduced by half, which took another five minutes or so.

I then added the cream, mustard and red pepper flakes and simmered for about two minutes.

I timed it all so the pasta would be done just in time to drain and toss into the sauce, and then I added the freshly sliced basil. It smelled so good…

Where Was I When This Recipe Was Published in 2002!

The recipe tasted so good in fact that I wished I would have discovered it in 2002 when it first appeared in Food & Wine! How did I miss it, what was I doing?

I actually did ask myself that very question as I was enjoying the spicy creamy mustard sauce with the perfectly textured-for-this-dish-rigatoni. That thought in turn gave me an idea for my “Cook the 40” blog posts! I have been alive for the last 40 years, so maybe I should include something about me when writing about each recipe and the year it was published: How old was I? Where did I live? What was I cooking? Where did I go that year? After all, this is a blog about me, what I eat and where I go to eat it.

Seems like fun, right?

So, Where Was I?

As Food & Wine was publishing Nigel Slater’s delicious Pasta with Sausage, Basil and Mustard recipe in 2002, I lived in Chicago.

I turned 32 that year, had long hair and I believe that was also the last year I had real bangs (major life decision at the time — first world girl problems). Peter and I lived in a condo in the South Loop, near the then still-called Sears Tower. We had a very small kitchen but I remember that was the year we made beef bourguignon. That recipe was from a Cordon Bleu French cuisine cookbook and it turned out amazingly well.

(Of course, it was 2002 so I didn’t take a picture of that amazing beef bourguignon. It doesn’t make it less real, but it is a shame.)

October, 2002 with a piña colada on the beach in the Bahamas.

2002 also saw us take our second cruise vacation. We sailed on the SS Norway with Norwegian Cruise Lines from Miami for seven nights in the Caribbean. Peter bought a great export-only bottle of Maker’s Mark in St. Maarten and we had a really great lunch on the beach in the Bahamas.

A Mustard Masterpiece

The SS Norway was an old ocean liner from the 60’s and we had a great time learning its history and just relaxing on its decks. I am sure we also had many great meals on board, although I don’t remember any right now.

Meals as good as this mustard masterpiece from Nigel Slater? Well no, not even close.

Colonel Mustard himself would have a hard time finding a clue that could have helped me choose a better recipe to start my “Cook the 40” challenge.