What We Eat When We Eat Alone Part 4

SALSA.

1. Warm a skillet large enough to hold a tortilla over medium heat. Add the tortilla when you start to cook the eggs. Keep an eye on the tortilla as the eggs cook and turn it once so that it heats on both sides.

2. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with a few pinches of salt and a tablespoon of water. Melt the b.u.t.ter in a second, smaller pan. Once the b.u.t.ter has ceased to foam, turn the heat to medium low and pour in the eggs. Cook, stirring slowly but constantly, until the eggs are almost as done as you like, then throw the cheese over the top and remove them from the heat.

3. Slide the tortilla onto a plate, mound the eggs on half of the tortilla, and add salsa, if using. Fold in half or roll it up. Eat with warm beans.

Additions to Make a More Substantial Burrito Sauteed spinach or other greens Diced, then fried or steamed potatoes Roasted potato wedges with red chile Pinto beans doctored with additional chile and Cilantro Roasted Asparagus with Chopped Egg, Torn Bread, and Mustard Vinaigrette This rustic asparagus Polonaise is so very good that two pounds aren't too much. But we'll go with one pound here (preferably thick asparagus) for those who don't want leftovers. You can always double the recipe if you do. It's not hard to polish the whole thing off for dinner.

1 POUND ASPARAGUS, RINSED.

OLIVE OIL.

SALT AND PEPPER.

1 PIECE OF SOURDOUGH OR OTHER COUNTRY STYLE BREAD.

1 OR 2 EGGS.

The Vinaigrette 1 TEASPOON COa.r.s.e MUSTARD.

1 TABLESPOON RED WINE VINEGAR.

SALT.

3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL.

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Rinse the asparagus and peel the stems if thick. If thin, snap them off where they break easily, then trim the ends. Toss with a teaspoon or so of olive oil to moisten, season well with salt and pepper, and lay in a baking dish. Roast, turning once every 10 minutes, until tender and colored in places, 25 to 30 minutes.

3. While the asparagus is cooking, put the bread in the oven to crisp, then tear it into small pieces. Put the egg(s) in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. After 1 minute turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let stand for 6 minutes. Drain, then peel and chop.

4. Whisk the mustard with the vinegar and 14 teaspoon salt, then whisk in olive oil. Taste and correct for tartness.

5. Lay the asparagus on a plate. Cover with the egg, scatter the bread and spoon the vinaigrette over all. Finish with cracked pepper.

Asparagus to Eat All Week The important thing in the idea of this asparagus salad is to keep the dressing away from the asparagus until you plan to eat it, otherwise the vinegar will turn it an increasingly dull shade of green. Make the same dressing as in the previous recipe, only doubling the amount since you'll be eating it longer. Put it in a jar so that you can shake it up each time you use it. Or skip the dressing and instead drizzle olive oil and squeeze a lemon over the asparagus.

2 POUNDS ASPARAGUS.

SALT.

OLIVE OIL.

MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE (FROM THE PREVIOUS RECIPE).

1. Rinse the asparagus well and peel the stalks if they are thick; otherwise, snap the stalks where they break first, then trim the ends.

2. Bring a large skillet of water to a boil and add salt. Add the asparagus, or as much will fit comfortably, and cook at a gentle boil until a piece tastes done when you cut it, anywhere from 4 to 8 minutes depending on its size.

3. When the asparagus is done, put it on a clean towel to drain, then put it in a dish and toss it with oil to coat lightly. Cover and refrigerate. When it's time for that asparagus salad, take what you want to eat, shake the jar of dressing, and drizzle it over the asparagus.

Saved by Sardines, Rescued by Pasta.

"I take a tin of sardines, mix it with lemon juice and mayonnaise, and make a sandwich. That's dinner."

A Ta.s.sajara workshop partic.i.p.ant.

One December we put two cans of sardines and some crackers in the glove compartment of the car, a suggestion from one of our interviewees, and took off for a two-week road trip to California. When we got back to New Mexico, I returned the sardines to their place on the shelf and crumbled up the crackers for the birds.

Years earlier the same thing had happened when Marion Cunningham and I took a road trip from California to the Southwest and found ourselves unable to resist the roadside attractions. Although we had the option of eating those wholesome sardines we had brought along for lunch at roadside rest stops, they couldn't compete with the lure of warm hearth breads and hand pies baked in the native clay hornos, and those cold Heath Blizzards offered every so many miles on I-40. Once home, the sardines were returned to the cupboard.

Actually I do like sardines, but not enough, apparently. Still, they would be good to have on hand in an emergency, which is why we had them in the first place.

But what kind of emergency? Say you've ended up in Austin, Nevada (population, a few; location, remote), on New Year's Eve after the only cafe has closed. Or, you've dropped your keys in the mountain stream where you were fly-fishing, and you have nothing to eat while you wait for the tow truck except that can of sardines you found tucked away in your knapsack. Or you're on a long road trip, just like we were, and you hunger for an alternative to the usual roadside options. Situations like these are sardine-warranting emergencies and, of course, so is being snowed in and having eaten through everything else in your cupboard. In fact, sardines, along with pasta and canned tomatoes, are three trusty cupboard foods that are good to keep on hand.

Sardines are also good to know about when you're a hungry student on a modest budget. Having burned out on sardines when he was in art school, Patrick won't go near them, but there are many who turn faithfully to these and other canned fish when rustling up their solitary meals. One woman explains her approach like this.

"I take a tin of sardines, mix it with lemon juice and mayonnaise, and make a sandwich. That's dinner." And it's actually pretty good, especially on toasted rye bread.

An Ohioan dictates her sardine recipe as follows: "Open a can, pour in balsamic vinegar, sprinkle over herbs and dip bread into it. It's delicious." While a third woman creates a whole meal with sardines at the center of the plate. "Take canned sardines," she says, "they must be boneless and skinless, add lemon juice and olive oil, and serve with sauerkraut and parsley potatoes."

Sardines, by the way, along with herrings, mackerel, salmon and other fish in a can, provide an extremely affordable way to consume fish that's rich in those sought-after Omega-3s. And if you eat the soft little bones, you get calcium, too.

Recently I was on a panel with Paul Johnson, the author of Fish Forever and one of the most knowledgeable people around when it comes to fish. Someone from the audience who knew of this project turned the tables and asked all of us what we eat when we eat alone. Paul was visibly sheepish about his answer, which, he finally announced in a confessional tone, "Sardines. On rye crackers." When I asked him later why he was embarra.s.sed by his answer, especially given that sardines were one of the most frequent responses to the eat-alone question, he said, "Because they aren't fresh!"

And I guess if you're in the fresh fish business, you might feel a little awkward about eating canned. Who knew? But then, that's how I feel about vegetables: frozen won't do, although I'm pretty sure I have some peas somewhere in my freezer.

Sardines on toast is what I turn to, although smoked herring might end up the same way. I toast a hefty slice of whole-wheat or sourdough bread, lay the fish over it, gently press it into the toast, then add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, some sea salt, and coa.r.s.e pepper. If they were packed in water, I drizzle some olive oil over the fish and add a little minced parsley to freshen it. I cut the toast into quarters and savor each one. Pickled onions are good here, too, and you can easily make a slew of them to have on hand to make all kinds of foods lively and pretty.

When it came to fish in a can, salmon was mentioned only once, when Marsha Weiner talked about making her grandmother's salmon cakes. Due to a special, I had quite a few large cans of salmon in my cupboard that I hadn't gotten around to using until Marsha sent us her grandmother's recipe. Although the idea of eating canned salmon did not, understandably, go over well with a bunch of chef friends from Seattle with whom I enthusiastically shared the recipe, I can tell you that a salmon cake is a great eat-alone item. Once again, if you want to eat wild rather than farmed salmon but can't always find it or pay its hefty price, canned Alaskan salmon is very affordable, is wild, and doesn't go bad. But be warned, it's not always very pretty stuff, especially the cheap kind. It's not particularly pink (though the more expensive brands are), it doesn't necessarily come in distinct, big chunks like tuna does, and you will no doubt find some tiny little vertebrae when you turn the fish into a bowl. But don't let any of this stop you. Just pick out the bones and know that by the time you've a.s.sembled your cakes and got them crusty and golden in a skillet, none of this will matter in the least. They're delicious.

Tuna, not surprisingly, is also a common answer to the solo dinner question-canned tuna, that is. More serious cooks and eaters go for fresh, which takes very little time to cook but is fairly costly. People we met in Europe frequently mentioned tuna in olive oil as the backbone ingredient of their meals, as do friends in the U.S. One cook was especially enthusiastic about his bean and tuna dish. After making it clear that he never does the same thing twice, he avowed that he liked what he had recently cooked so much that he would do it again. What he did was heat a tin of borlotti beans in a pan with olive oil and garlic, squeeze in a bit of tomato paste for color, and add a small dollop of the spicy Tunisian chile paste, harissa, for flavor. Then he flaked a small tin of Spanish tuna over the beans and added a sc.r.a.ping of Parmesan cheese.

"Rich, filling, and interesting" was his a.s.sessment. Of course this brings to mind those Italian salads made with canned tuna in oil and borlotti or cannellini beans mixed with thinly sliced onions, capers, and vinegar. Such salads also make a good solo meal, albeit not a warm one but a good option for summer.

Tuna and chile appear in one fellow's (yes, Dan the monk's) tuna sandwich, in which the canned fish is mixed with lots of chopped jalapenos and cilantro as well as capers, plenty of mayo, and, though this is optional for some reason, celery. All of this gets heaped onto a large slice of toasted levain bread. More simply, you can puree tuna (and water-packed will be fine), with mustard, mayonnaise, capers, and not too much garlic, and eat it on crackers for a meal, or before one. I learned to make tuna spread when I cooked for a much older woman who thought that a tuna spread made a terrific c.o.c.ktail canape, and it does, especially when you need a tasty little spread at the last minute. Spread it on toast or a cracker, add extra capers or a sliced pimento-stuffed olive, and it can pony up to a martini or a salad of sliced tomatoes, green beans, and a hard-cooked egg.

Regardless of what fish is in the tin, it's best when it comes packed in olive oil. It's much tastier than water and, for that matter, canola or soy oil. Mustard sauce isn't necessary, although some sardines come that way. You can always add mustard later to your toast or cracker. But the olive oil is good. As it also picks up the flavor of the fish-or sh.e.l.lfish- it can even be used to dress that other staple food that rescues lone eaters from hunger on a regular basis, and that is pasta. One fellow shared his method for making a meal of linguini with the oil remaining from smoked oysters.

"When I've eaten a tin of smoked oysters," he says, "I save the oil in the can. The next day I cook up linguini using the al dente taste test, then drain it. I leave the can on top of the hot pasta for a minute to extract the entire yummy oyster flavor, then pour it over the noodles."

Taking a tip from him, one night I found myself pouring the olive oil from a can of Spanish sardines over a salad of potatoes (left over from Patrick's seven-at-once fuel-saving effort), celery, hard-cooked egg, and green olives. A good dish. And the sardines went on toast for an appetizer. Another solo cook, who didn't save his oil, downed his canned oysters, oil and all, with Tabasco sauce and beer. But this was an appetizer. Pasta came later, or so he claimed.

Dried pasta has already been made for you. That's the big time-saver. But water has to come to a boil, the pasta has to cook, and during this interval you might as well do something-open that can of tuna, chop herbs, dice tomatoes, separate a head of cauliflower into little florets. Pasta offers a good compromise between cooking everything from scratch and not cooking anything at all. But despite the ease with which this can happen (and pasta's short but popular history in America as a standby dish), it wasn't mentioned nearly as often as we thought it might be. Perhaps it's the carbs.

Spaghetti with tuna, however, is a dish that draws upon these two basic cupboard foods-canned fish and noodles. "I keep a small can of Mediterranean tuna on hand," writes the author of this recipe. "You bring water to a boil, add salt, and drop in boxed pasta-spaghetti or linguini. While it cooks, put tuna in a skillet and break it up. Add chopped fresh garlic and hot pepper flakes. A minute before the pasta is cooked, put chopped arugula in the skillet to wilt. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with plenty of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Have it with cold white wine or rose. A good summer dish."

When it did come up, though, the approaches to a box of spaghetti were generally wholesome and good. That is, vegetables were included and often in quant.i.ty. One clear winner is green penne with potatoes and broccoli recommended by a bachelor who cooks, whom we met on one of our food trips.

"In more or less equal portions, you're going to cook penne rigate (the quills with grooves running the length of each noodle), broccoli, and potatoes. You're going to cut the vegetables into bite-size pieces and throw everything simultaneously into boiling salted water. You're going to break up anchovies (another tinned fish), and heat them in a skillet with olive oil, freshly chopped garlic, and pepper flakes. Then you're going to toss it all together. You get a green coating on everything. Add grated Parmesan and you have a great dinner."

This is an excellent dish. And so is hungry man's pasta proposed by another traveling acquaintance. "What I do when I'm really hungry is I cook Rusticella pasta. It's pasta Abruzzi style. I put jarred arugula sauce-it's got arugula, almonds, and anchovies in it-and add olive oil." If you can find some of this sauce, you will be well advised to do the same. If not, you can make the sauce with ease.

Joe Simone, another fellow traveler through Puglia in south-eastern Italy, who is also a chef, described pasta as a trustworthy standby food. His approach is to toss pasta with cauliflower, toasted breadcrumbs, chile pepper, and plenty of "good olive oil." Admittedly, we were in Puglia with a lot of others on a quest for good olive oil, but Joe would always want to use good olive oil no matter where he'd be cooking. Indeed, it makes everything taste better. He adds, "This is a great dish for anyone, and it doesn't have to be eaten alone. In fact it's better shared, but then, a lot of things are."

Our affable neighbor, Ken Khune, regularly devotes an hour or two to cooking dinner for himself and his wife, but when he's eating alone, he reports that pasta is likely to be his number one fallback food. "Most of the time I just toss spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes, plus black olives, capers, parsley, lots of garlic, and, of course, good olive oil. But you can add sauteed shrimp for a little extra pizzazz," he suggests. "Yeah, baby!"

Similarly, an importer of rare Chinese teas also turns to simple pasta with robust and fiery attributes. "As I'm batching it these days," Sebastian Beckwirth writes, "I often do the quick and delicious penne or linguini arrabiata with plenty of chili, garlic, oregano, and olive oil!" And finally, Cliff Wright, again, who commands an enormous repertoire of complicated culinary possibilities, says, "When I eat alone and I'm not eating a combination of leftovers, the two kinds of dishes I like to make for myself are spaghetti with a little bit of meat, like pancetta or leftover something, or spaghetti tossed with finely chopped vegetables, maybe an egg or some Parmigiano tossed in."

I imagine that the simplicity of such pastas as Cliff's would be a comfort to a person who is constantly cooking what are often very complex dishes. What a relief to turn to something so straightforward as hot pasta tossed with an egg and some good cheese. Have a sardine on a cracker with a clump of watercress while the water is boiling, and you've got a real meal.

Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised, but only one woman said that she cooked pasta when eating alone, and this is a woman who says she always has three vegetable dishes at dinner. Sylvia Thompson, a garden-centric cook and writer, says, "Now that I'm mostly vegetarian, I'd say it's pasta twice a week. Lots of mushrooms and pasta. Cheese and pasta. Herbs and pasta." Describing her most recent pasta meal-saffron fettuccine sauced with a saute of sliced mushrooms, kalamata olives, and leaves of fresh baby spinach, loosened with canned crushed tomatoes-she adds, "I might not have added the spinach," she said, "but it was going to be lost if I didn't cook it tonight. Actually, the little green flags in the dish were quite nice, but essentially it's mushrooms and olives with the crushed tomatoes."

So it appears that with the exception of Sylvia, pasta, with all its carbs and happy affinity for (good) olive oil, and despite its affinity for vegetables, is now a man's food.

Sardines on Toast It needn't be sardines, you know. There's also canned herring, smoked trout, mackerel-all kinds of fish that come in cans. Here's one way to enjoy them. The bones are a good source of calcium, they say, but sardines do come without them.

1 OR 2 PIECES OF RYE OR WHOLE-GRAIN BREAD.

MAYONNAISE.

MUSTARD.

1 CAN OF SARDINES OR OTHER FISH.

PEPPER.

HALF A LEMON.

PICKLED ONION RINGS (BELOW) OR A FEW THIN SLICES OF SWEET ONION.

Toast the bread. Spread it lightly with mayonnaise and a little mustard. Lay sardines over the toast and gently press them into it so they'll stick. Grind pepper and squeeze the lemon juice over all. Cover with pickled onion rings or thinly sliced sweet onions, slice into quarters, and eat.

Pickled Onion Rings Pickled onions can be ready in 15 minutes, keep for days, and bless all with their cheerful color (if they were red to start with) and vinegary tang. Their texture softens a little each day, so you don't want to have too many on hand if it's just you.

1 RED OR WHITE ONION.

12 TEASPOON SALT 1 TEASPOON SUGAR.

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR OR RICE WINE VINEGAR.

Peel and then slice an onion into thin rounds. Separate the rounds and put them in a bowl. Toss with the salt and sugar, then pour vinegar over to nearly cover. Add water, about a fifth of the total amount of liquid, to cover. Swish the onions around to dissolve the sugar and salt. It will take about 15 minutes for them to color up. Store in the refrigerator.

Marsha's Salmon Cakes Canned salmon can sit on your shelf and wait patiently for you to get it into view. One small (712-ounce) can makes 2 good-sized salmon cakes or 3 pretty-good-sized ones-too many for most people at one sitting, but you can have them several meals apart. Once I put a leftover cooked salmon cake in the fridge and found it a few days later. It was good, even cold. I had it that way with a spritz of fresh lemon juice, horseradish, and pickled onion rings over a bed of lightly dressed arugula.

1 (712-OUNCE) CAN SALMON, ABOUT 1 CUP 1-12 TABLESPOONS MINCED SCALLIONS OR ONION 2 TABLESPOONS CHOPPED PARSLEY.

12 TEASPOON GRATED LEMON ZEST 1 TABLESPOON MAYONNAISE.

12 TO 1 TEASPOON MUSTARD SALT AND PEPPER.

1 EGG, SMALL IF YOU HAVE ONE.

12 CUP PLUS 2 TABLESPOONS BREAD-CRUMBS, FRESH OR DRIED OLIVE OIL FOR FRYING.

1. Open the can of salmon, pour off its liquid, then turn it into a bowl. Break it up with a fork and pick out any little bones. Add the scallions, parsley, lemon zest, mayonnaise, and mustard, and mix everything together lightly with a fork. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir the egg into the fish with a fork, followed by the breadcrumbs.

2. Heat a cast-iron or nonstick skillet and coat it with a film of oil. Shape the salmon mixture into patties. Slide them into the hot pan and cook about 5 minutes on each side. They should be brown and crisp on the outside, soft and moist within. Serve on a bed of arugula with lemon wedges, horseradish, mayonnaise, or sour cream.

Two Variations 1. Add 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro (instead of, or along with, the parsley) and 12 minced green jalapeno chile. Serve with jarred or homemade tomatillo salsa.

2. Replace the lemon with lime and serve with sour cream and lime wedges on a bed of thinly sliced napa cabbage.

Tuna Spread with Capers This makes a nice change from the usual tuna spread. Water-packed tuna is fine here, as you will be adding olive oil.

1 CAN TUNA, DRAINED.

1 SMALL GARLIC CLOVE, COa.r.s.eLY CHOPPED.

2 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL.

3 ANCHOVIES.

1 TEASPOON MUSTARD.

2 TABLESPOONS MAYONNAISE.

SALT AND PEPPER.

ZEST AND JUICE OF 1 SMALL LEMON.

1 TABLESPOON CAPERS, PLUS EXTRA FOR GARNISH.

A FEW PINCHES CHOPPED PARSLEY, THYME LEAVES, OR SNIPPED CHIVES.

Drop the first 6 ingredients in a food processor and pulse until well blended. Add a few pinches of salt, lemon zest, and a teaspoon of lemon juice, and pulse to combine. Sc.r.a.pe the spread into a bowl, stir in the capers, and season it to taste with pepper. Spread the tuna over toast or crackers and garnish with the additional capers and a pinch of fresh green herbs.

Spaghetti with Tuna and Capers It's waiting for the water to boil that takes longest in this very satisfying pasta-just time enough to throw together a salad or cook a vegetable. Half of a 7-ounce can of tuna in olive oil will make an ample dish for one. Use the second half for a tuna salad, spread, or sandwich. Crisp breadcrumbs are scattered over the pasta at the end to give the dish a nice crunchy finish.

BREADCRUMBS FROM ONE SLICE OF BREAD.

2 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL, IN ALL.