Dinner last night was two days in the making, Craig Claiborne’s “Boeuf Bourguignon I” from Amanda Hesser’s The Essential New York Times Cook Book. Mike did the honors, lovingly prepping slices of bacon and Aquidneck Farm chuck, with bits of carrots, onions, shallots, mushrooms, and garlic, layering them in our Le Creuset, then anointing them with Cognac and rich red Burgundy wine. The whole thing cooked over high heat, then low, then it cooled and sat overnight before Mike brought the pot and its contents back up to temperature while I traveled home from work, also preparing some buttered and parsley-ed egg noodles to serve as a base for the rich stew.

We’ve cooked plenty of versions of this dish, but this was pretty spectacular, the meat coming apart in shreds beneath the tines of our forks, the sauce both light and concentrated. Buy the book, go to page 516, and make this dish, preferably a day before you plan to serve it. You’ll be happy you did.

We love a good pot of chili, and our kitchen has turned out dozens of variations over the years. Mike is partial to a meaty, Alton Brown-style version, while I tend to favor a chili with lots of beans and sometimes no meat at all. With the weather turning colder I decided to make chili my next project, and set out on Sunday to come up with a version that would satisfy both of us.

For the meat, I used Aquidneck Farm beef short ribs, boned out, trimmed, and cut into chunks. I made a puree of chiles and spices, added fire-roasted tomatoes and some rich dark beer, and let everything cook low and slow for the better part of the day. I added some crushed tortilla chips for texture and a hint of toasty corn flavor, and a hit of fresh lime juice at the end for brightness and balance. And after my pot of chili had cooked for the better part of the day, I cooled it down and let it sit overnight. We ate it on Monday with a bevy of garnishes, and I have to tell you, it was so worth the wait. You can get my recipe at food52.

Warm nights in early June really call for something like a Pimm’s Cup.

It’s a nice thing to sip while you’re prepping tiny matchstick potatoes, and getting a fire ready to grill some burgers made from great local beef.

This night, our beef came from Aquidneck Farm.

Oh, and about those matchstick potatoes?

Be VERY sure you dry them well. Even better than you think you have. (Several rounds of towel drying, after much time in a colander draining. Rub rub rub, dry dry dry.) A pass with a blow-dryer might even be in order. Because they can. not. be. too. dry. before they go into a high-sided pot of very hot oil filled not even 1/3 of the way up. Trust me. I damn near burned the house down.

That said, these might have been worth the new patch of grey hair I sprouted overnight.

You might recall that I recently came up with a meatball recipe that we really love, but in the interest of changing things up a bit, I decided to try a different spin. The “Swedish meatballs” I grew up on were simply meatballs browned and then simmered in canned mushroom soup, and the grey and rainy weather we had this weekend got me craving just that sort of dish.

I haven’t bought canned soup in years, so I’d have to build the mushroom sauce from scratch, and I decided to swap out a few of the seasonings in the meatballs themselves to bring them more in line with a traditional Swedish-style meatball. I rolled them smaller, ending up with 36 orbs rather than the two dozen in my original recipe. I also decided to brown them in the oven rather than on the stovetop, a method that worked really well and a great option for those of you who are averse to frying.

Creamy and comforting, served atop a pile of buttered parsleyed egg noodles, these meatballs were just the thing to chase the chill away on Saturday evening. Held in a crock pot, I’d imagine these or my original red-sauced version would be a great dish to serve at a casual party or potluck.

Truly Tender Meatballs in Creamy Mushroom Sauce

1 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
¼ to ½ cup milk
½ cup fresh ricotta, drained if very wet
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2-3 teaspoons Kosher salt
½ teaspoon each Colman’s mustard, ground allspice, ground white pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg
1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork

Preheat oven to 400.

Place the breadcrumbs in a bowl and moisten them with just enough milk to cover them, pressing gently. Remove the breadcrumbs from the milk, squeezing out the excess liquid, and add to a large mixing bowl. Add the egg to the bowl and beat lightly. Add the ricotta, salt, mustard, allspice, white pepper, and nutmeg and mix until well combined. Add the beef and pork and, with clean hands, mix gently until the ingredients are evenly incorporated.

Scoop or pinch off small amounts of the mixture and roll into meatballs, placing them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Creamy Mushroom Sauce

1 oz. dried porcini + 2 cups boiling water
¼ cup unsalted butter
8 oz. fresh crimini mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
Kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons tamari
½ cup each heavy cream + crème fraiche (or sour cream)
½ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Soak the porcini in the boiling water until very soft. When the mushrooms are soft, remove them from the liquid. Set the liquid aside and chop the mushrooms.

Melt the butter in a wide skillet until foaming, then add the porcini and crimini mushrooms. Season with salt and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Add the flour and cook briefly until it no longer has a raw flour smell, then add the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, being careful to leave any grit behind. Add the tamari and bring just to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the meatballs to the sauce, stir in the heavy cream and crème fraiche or sour cream, and cook until reduced and thickened. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then add the parsley just before serving, reserving a bit to sprinkle on top.

I’ve been searching for the perfect meatball recipe for what feels like forever, and though I’ve turned out some satisfying versions in the past, none of them have really knocked my socks off – until now. I was recently interviewed for an upcoming piece on easy but romantic dishes for Valentine’s Day, and I kept thinking back to that classic scene in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp: two wide-eyed pups, one big plate of spaghetti and meatballs, a kiss, so sweet. Romantic? Definitely.

This gave me the perfect opportunity to revisit my template meatballs and sauce recipe, and the result was so good Mike and I had to stop “testing” lest we leave nothing for dinner. The meatballs were light and super tender, and the sauce got a depth and sweetness from the port, as well as a bright fruitiness from the wine added near the end. We fell hard for these meatballs – I hope you will, too.

Truly Tender Meatballs
makes about 2 dozen

1 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
¼ to ½ cup milk
2-3 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup loosely-packed picked fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram leaves
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup fresh ricotta, drained if very wet
2-3 teaspoons Kosher salt
1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork
oil for frying (I use a mixture of ¼ cup olive oil for flavor, plus ¼ cup grapeseed, a neutral oil with a high smoke point)

Place the breadcrumbs in a bowl and moisten them with just enough milk to cover them, pressing gently.

Place the shallots and herbs into the small bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Scrape the mixture out into a large mixing bowl and add the egg. Remove the breadcrumbs from the milk, squeezing out the excess liquid, and add to the bowl. Add the ricotta and salt and mix until well combined. Add the beef and pork and, with clean hands, mix gently until the ingredients are evenly incorporated.

Scoop or pinch off small amounts of the mixture and roll into meatballs, placing them on a plate or platter. Heat the oil in a wide skillet until shimmering, then fry the meatballs in batches, turning them to brown them well on each side, and draining them on paper towels.

Rich Tomato Sauce

1 28 oz. can whole peeled imported Italian plum tomatoes with juice
1 baseball-sized onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Kosher or sea salt
1 tablespoon double-concentrated tomato paste
a pinch of red chile flakes
¼ cup port wine
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme and/or marjoram
¼ cup dry red wine

Place the onion, carrot, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the chopped vegetables and a pinch of salt and stir through, cooking until the vegetables are soft. Clear a spot in the bottom of the pot and add the tomato paste, allowing it to toast briefly before stirring it through the vegetables. Add the chile flakes and port, and cook for a minute or two before adding the herbs and the tomatoes with their juice, breaking the tomatoes up with your fingers or a spoon.

Add the drained meatballs to the simmering tomato sauce, cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce is nicely thickened and reduced (about 30-45 minutes).

Add the red wine and stir through, then simmer for an additional 15 minutes, tasting and adjusting the salt if necessary.

To serve, remove the meatballs and place them in a serving bowl with a bit of sauce still clinging to them. Toss 1 lb. of hot cooked pasta (spaghetti or rigatoni work well) in the sauce to coat it, adding a splash of the starchy pasta water if necessary, and serve the dressed pasta and the meatballs separately, passing additional sauce at the table. Garnish with plenty of freshly grated cheese and a sprinkle of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley.

Let’s say you made short ribs recently, browning them and braising them with a copious amount of red wine and aromatic vegetables. You have, of course, saved not just the uneaten meaty bits, but the rich liquid and tender vegetables as well.

So you shred the meat off of the bones (tossing the bones into the freezer for future stock-making) and toss it into a pan with the leftover braising liquid and vegetables. You add half of a big can of San Marzano tomatoes (squished up), with the juice, and a splash of olive oil. And when everything is warm and soft, you pass about 3/4 of it through a food mill. You put it all back in the pan, taste it, adjust the seasoning, add a palmful of fresh herbs (thyme and marjoram leaves, in this case), and let it continue to cook and reduce while you make the pasta.

One cup of flour, a good pinch of salt, one whole egg plus one golden yolk. You stir, then knead, then roll out sheets, then slice into imperfect, rustic ribbons. You toss them with a bit of flour so they don’t stick together, then you boil them ever so briefly in salted water. They’ll cook quickly, because they’re so thin.

Scoop about half of your ragu out of the pot, put it in a container, and freeze it for another meal. Then take your barely cooked pasta ribbons and add them to the pot of sauce, ladling in a bit of the starchy pasta water for good measure. Toss to coat. Turn off the heat. Add a generous amount of freshly grated cheese. No green cans allowed. Add another sprinkle of fresh herbs if you’re feeling sassy.

Plate up some for your sweetheart, and then for yourself. Sit, clink your glasses, sip, taste, smile. Leftovers do not have to be boring.

I got a major craving for pasta with meat sauce yesterday, but a long-simmered Ragu Bolognese was the last thing I needed to get started on at 7 p.m. I usually keep a supply of sauce portioned out in the freezer, but we ate the last of it ages ago, and it’s not exactly the sort of thing I cook during the summer months. I decided to make a quicker meat sauce instead, using a mixture of beef and pork, and deepening the flavor by including richly flavored ingredients and caramelizing the heck out of them.

I used lots of onions, a generous pour of red wine, and a good amount of double-concentrated tomato paste as well as my usual canned whole San Marzanos. An hour and a half of cooking left me with a rich, meaty sauce that was just about what I had hoped for, but I think I’ll still call this a “work in progress.”

I know, I know, Mexican again. I’m feeling overwhelmed by life this week, and when that happens inspiration goes out the window and I just want something comforting and familiar.

These are comprised of the other half of a hunk of beef bottom round I bought over the weekend, marinated with lime, seared, and sliced paper thin, then topped with diced tomato, avocado, jack cheese, red cabbage, scallions and lime crema. I had some leftover Rancho Gordo pintos in the fridge, to which I added some of my pickled serranos for a little extra punch. Good enough for a Tuesday.

Some nights it’s nice to just not cook at all. Thanks to Farmstead, Seven Stars Bakery, Red Fire Farm and Kimball Fruit Farm for some truly delicious goodies.

I had expected yesterday to be cool and rainy, so when I picked up a porterhouse from Spring Brook Farm at Thursday’s Boston Public Market, I figured we’d grill it for Friday dinner. But with no rain in sight and the evening a bit warm for the soup I had originally planned, we decided to put off Thursday’s dinner until tonight, and Mike grilled the steak instead.

I brought home more green garlic which we decided to grill as well. I rubbed one cut clove over a couple of slices of grilled sourdough from Olga’s, and then pureed the rest to make a dressing with lots of basil and fresh lemon juice.

We sliced up the grilled steak and served it on top of a big salad of red oak lettuce, crisp radishes and cucumbers, and chunks of tomato. I shaved shards of Gouda Pittig cheese over the top of our salads and served the grilled bread on the side.

I can’t tell you how nice it is this time of year to have a steak dinner in which the meat is more an accent than the main event – it’s a lighter way of eating we really look forward to after the long winter.

Providence-area readers, don’t forget that tomorrow is the first day of the Hope St. Farmers’ Market, which has relocated from Hope High to Lippitt Park. There will be a lot more room and plenty of new vendors (as well as returning favorites), and Mike and I plan to be there bright and early. Hope to see you there!