©2008 Harry Kenney

How I came up with this dish has an odd little road to it. A couple months ago I had friends coming over for a get together and I had my cooking itineary planned, complete with an Italian dessert. No, not one of my own. I do do other people’s recipes at times too. Sometimes I make so many changes that they end up turning into something different and my own, but this was one of those times I was going to pretty much go along with the recipe I had. (At least that had been the initial plan.)

Listen up, this will teach you the value of reading something first, and all the way through and thoroughly. I was going to make this chocolate ricotta dessert (forget what, maybe was a cake, I seem to think it was going to be one of those custard things in ramekins. I had read the recipe throught and even did the two hour prep (again this was a while back, Iwrote down the recipe, but I didn’t write down this story, so bear with my fuzzy memory.)

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What’s a great any-time appetizer and definitely a crowd pleaser? Stuffed mushrooms. Especially now, the “holidays” between Christmas and New Years when family and friends are more apt to come visit.

Want not one but two items that will not only impress guests but both are simple to make, taste delicious and can be done rather quickly? The first is Pancetta Wrapped Shrimp which can be done in under 20 minutes. And (bet you saw this one coming) the second one is stuffed mushrooms which can be made within 30 to 45 minutes.

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Whew! The last three recipes were each a bit complicated and time-consuming in terms of preparation and cooking … got to do plenty of interesting cooking things though: turned a slab of beef into steaks, pounded meat thin, made a meat stuffing, created a custard in a pot, made a ganache, took a squash apart, made a puree with the food processor, oven-roasted vegetables, got to cook some chorizo…

Time then to switch things up and do something quick and a bit more whimsical. So for today, it’s pizza for kids. Yes, I know, kids like any kind of pizza; but that said, they’ll like these even more. Moreover, you don’t have to have kids, these are definitely pizzas for the kids in us all!

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I guess if I had to choose what was my so-called signature dish this would be the one.

This recipe wasn’t inspired by anything I saw elsewhere, just the ingredients at hand. I had a lot of left over ricotta and didn’t want to make another desert with it; in other words, I’d already done sweet, now I wanted to do something savory. There was chicken on hand, and frozen spinach too. Aha, florentine. The incredible sauce came about as an after thought initially when I had made way too much stuffing. And then the sauce was so wonderful it just had to be put on something, and thus came the idea for egg noodles as I was tired of putting things atop the usual pasta or rice, and the noodles seemed to lend itself better to it. (That said, you could substitute fettucini I’m betting, but still, how often do you have an egg noodle dish? So I’d still go with the noodles as my number one choice.) It’s my very own version of a classic and so rich and tasty, I tend to even over-eat this meal at times.

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This is one of those meals I had way long ago. It was my first big vacation when I was out on my own. It fell at the end of September, top of October and my initial choice of the Bahamas looked to be too shaky with hurricane season. So I took my second choice first: Santa Fe-Taos area of New Mexico. Why? What’s not to love? American Indian pueblos, a church bell cast before the Pilgrims landed, Indian art, cowboy art, the home of Georgia O’Keefe, southwestern cooking, adobe houses, you name it.

It was also the first vacation I took solo, and learned the art of eating by one’s self. And one of the things they all suggest for dining alone is to slowly savor the food. Maybe that’s why I remember one of those meals, this one, so well. Maybe that’s in part why I became a “foodie” and then got into cooking. Anyhow, this is my best effort recreation of that awesome breakfast I had one day in some restaurant in Santa Fe. I think it turned out pretty delish if I say so myself.

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