Happy New Year’s Eve! “Should auld acquaintance be forgot...” I’ll share a couple of NYE memories:
- 45 years ago tonight was my first New Year’s Eve gig playing in a band
- 35 years ago (and several other years in the ‘80s and ‘90s) I was seeing the Grateful Dead
- I think it was 7 years ago I was in a bar that caught fire! Actually there wasn’t even much smoke and damn little fire, but they moved us all outside where we watched the arrival of 3 fire engines and 5 command SUVs from 3 different departments. Then two firemen scraped at the smoldering wood with their axes for a few minutes and that was it. Our bartender was in a bad mood the rest of the night, I think somebody skipped on their tab in the “excitement”.
I diaried New Year food traditions already, but that was about foods intended to bring good luck, and to be eaten on the 1st. I’ll be cooking Hoppin’ John tomorrow, are you?
This year I’ve heard of the opposite concept, bad luck foods to NOT be eaten on the 31st, though it’s probably too late if you’ve already planned dinner.
It’s also suggested you should not eat certain things on New Year’s Eve, in order to prevent bad luck for the year ahead, such as lobster and chicken. Since lobsters can move backwards, eating them before the stroke of midnight may cause setbacks.
For chickens, the idea is similar as they can scratch backwards. Other types of winged fowl are also discouraged as your good luck could fly away.
Tonight’s recipe is a basic Italian-American pasta casserole. Tube pasta, tomato sauce, plenty of cheese, anything else is optional. This kind of comfort food is IMO always good luck.
Baked Rigatoni with Mushrooms and Sausage
Based loosely on this recipe from Food Network — serves 6
Kosher salt
12 ounces rigatoni
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
12 ounces Italian sausage, casings removed (the Italian sausages I buy are packaged 5 to the pound so this is 4 sausages, .8 lb, and I always use half hot and half sweet)
½ to 1 lb cremini or button mushrooms, sliced
1 shallot, minced, or ¼ cup minced onion
2-½ cups marinara sauce (the link has a recipe, I used sauce from a jar)
1 7-oz can sliced black olives, drained
1 cup ricotta cheese
4 cups shredded cheese (about 1 lb) (I used all mozzarella, the recipe suggests 3 cups provalone and 1 cup pecorino)
Grated Parmesan cheese, for topping
Preheat the oven to 450F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up any clumps with a wooden spoon, until brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a large bowl with a slotted spoon. Add the shallot or onion and mushrooms to the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally and reducing the heat slightly if necessary, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add this to the bowl with the sausage. Add the drained olives to the bowl.
Cook the rigatoni in the salted boiling water until very al dente, about 2 minutes less than the package directions. Drain the pasta and add it to the bowl.
Add the tomato sauce and half of the shredded cheese to the bowl and stir well to combine. Transfer half of this mixture to a 3- to 4-quart baking dish and dollop spoonfuls of half the ricotta on top. Add the remaining half of the pasta mixture and dollop the remaining the ricotta on top.Top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake, uncovered, until browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the pasta stand about 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with parmesan.
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Joan and I will be eating something that you’ll read about in my next WFD, and watching the Phish stream. What’s for dinner at your place?
What’s for Dinner? is a Saturday evening get-together where friends share recipes, talk about good food and help others answer culinary questions.
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