An Omnivore’s Journey – Hungry for Louisiana

Fall flavors, Farmers Markets, One Pot, Soups

Recipe: pasta e fagioli with fresh red beans

I first got turned on to the Italian peasant soup pasta e fagioli when I took a cooking class on soups at the John Folse Culinary Institute several years ago. I was amazed at how flavorful a soup made of little more than beans and pasta could be. Now I really like to make it because it’s a favorite among my kids, and I can sometimes buy fresh and shelled red beans from Pontchatoula farmer Eric Morrow at the Red Stick Farmers Market. We also have an old school pasta shop here in Baton Rouge, D’Agostino’s, that sells handmade dried pastas. Their birdseye, shown below, is perfect for this soup.

Here’s my pasta e fagioli recipe, referenced in earlier post on fall soups inspired by farmers market ingredients. This version is lighter than many because it uses chicken stock rather than beef, and diced fresh tomatoes rather than tomato paste.

Enjoy!

Appetizers, Fall flavors, Vegetables

Homey and woodsy, chanterelles on toast perfect simple supper

The other day, my friend Anna-Karin Skillen and I were talking about chanterelles. They’re in season in her native Sweden right now, as well as in the U.S. on the northwest coast, in New England and other spots. I’ve been drooling lately watching a Facebook friend from Seattle document her family’s foraging trips, the kitchen table blanketed with fresh (and free!) chanterelles, soon be thrown in a scorching skillet or tossed in buttery pasta or noodle soup. Just this week, the Boston-based radio program, Here and Now, featured a segment on fall mushrooms, complete with easy recipes by resident chef Kathy Gunst, who had picked up several different wild mushroom varieties from Boston-area farmers markets.

Hungry for Louisiana, My Book Shelf, The book, The Writing Life

Hungry for Louisiana, A Omnivore’s Journey featured at Southern Festival of Books

Nashville is cool for lots of reasons, one of which is the Southern Festival of Books, started in 1988 by Humanities Tennessee and held every fall on the state capital grounds downtown. These days it attracts 250,000 book lovers and an impressive line-up of authors. I’m so proud to have been part of the 2015 festival, and for my book to now be carried by Nashville’s Parnassus Books, the incredible independent bookstore co-founded by writer Ann Patchett in 2011.

Breakfast, Farmers Markets, Healthy, Local, Louisiana, Strawberries

Almond-oatmeal bars with fresh Louisiana strawberries

I love to use local strawberries in homemade sorbet, on spinach salads with bacon and feta and with farmers market teacakes topped with fresh whipped cream. I also love to make strawberry oatmeal bars to serve for breakfast or as an after school snack.

My version of strawberry oatmeal bars uses fresh berries in a quick filling rather than strawberry preserves. I also like to top them with sliced almonds. And, I use white-whole wheat flour and less butter than many recipes so they’re a little healthier.

This is an easy and tasty use of the season’s bounty. Enjoy!

Hungry for Louisiana, The Writing Life

First book signing a sell-out!

Thanks so much to all who came out to the Baton Rouge Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art on the officially launch night of my book! We SOLD OUT that evening of copies of Hungry for Louisiana, An Omnivore’s Journey and noshed on some great food by Kathy Mangham and Gourmet Girls Catering. Kathy made fabulous seasonal hors d’oeuvres, including two of the book’s 18 recipes! We also enjoyed the first truly pleasant spring evening of 2015 after a long, wet and chilly winter in Baton Rouge. It was Friday the 13th, and it was awash in great omens!

I’m hearing from many folks about how much they’re enjoying reading the book and learning more about Louisiana’s irreplaceable food culture. I love feedback and would love to hear your thoughts. You can find the book through the link on this site, on Amazon and at numerous regional Barnes & Noble Booksellers, BAMs and local independents. Lots of signings coming up! Click here for Events.

Thanks again!

Maggie

Crawfish Fennel Salad with Tangy Vinaigrette, one of 18 recipes found in Hungry for Louisiana.

Hungry for Louisiana, Louisiana, The Writing Life

Hungry for Louisiana the book has been released!

So excited! My book, Hungry for Louisiana, An Omnivore’s Journey (LSU Press) is out this month. You can find it on Amazon or in regional book stores, including large chains and local independents. It’s also in some gift shops and culinary stores, like Red Stick Spice Co. in Baton Rouge.

This was so much fun to work on. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. The book includes an intro that explores how Louisiana’s food culture was local before local was cool and how there are few places in the world with such intact culinary traditions. Each subsequent chapter peers into a different food or ingredient from the state’s culinary tableau. Discover the quirks and traditions behind crawfish, jambalaya, Creole cream cheese, snoballs, filé, blood boudin, Zwolle tamales and oysters. Meet some of the people who produce these famed eats. This is breezy food writing with a few recipes at the end of each chapter.

Find out:

What Ashley Hansen of Hansen’s Sno-Bliz did when her grandfather’s famed snoball machine was on the fritz…

Why the northeast Louisiana town of Zwolle has a deep and meaningful tradition of tamale-making that is nothing like the Mississippi Delta’s…

Exactly what makes a pot of jambalaya achieve blue ribbon excellence at the annual Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales, Jambalaya Capital of the World…

And lots more.

Please keep coming back to this site for updates, additional material, photos and more recipes.

Thanks for your interest!