Sometimes simple is the best. Putting a few basic foods together and having a pleasant bowl of something makes me happy. Even better is a simple dish with red wine and good conversation. Especially if you are making important observations about life, you don't want to complicate things more with an elaborate recipe. Carlos came over for a late-ish Sunday night dinner.
Although the tempature was dropping by the second, we walked over to the best wine store in the neighborhood - Slope Cellars. It's worth the chilly walk and open on Sunday until 9:00! All recommendations have been perfect, and all have ranged from $10-12. Maybe $15 if I am feeling extra fancy. This time it was a beaujolais that was smooth, lightly velvety and just...nice. I have no wine description skills yet...
I made the first dish I had ever really learned to cook - White bean, zucchini and tomato over cous cous. So simple in fact that almost all the ingredients are in the title. Except for the most important, ever aromatic, chopped rosemary. One day I will write a nice song about my love for rosemary. It's very strange.
The dish: chop some zucchini, unpeeled, so that the green skin and red tomato create a visual zap in the stewy vegetable melange. Saute in olive oil and while the zuchinni is still crisp, add a can of white beans and a can of diced tomatoes. Then add as much rosemary as your heart desires, cooking until warm and herbed. Oh, and before all that, boil some water, turn off the heat and add cous cous. If you're not talking and talking like I was doing after a glass of wine, the whole thing only takes 15 minutes.
This recipe is from an excellent cookbook called Simple Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin.
Slope Cellars
436 7th Ave, between 14th and 15th Sts
Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
718-368-7307
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