Well, I must’ve liked it because I made it again 
Circling back to say that the base is very adaptable.
Tonight I added some harissa instead of chilli flakes, roasted the garlic first and then mashed it into the oil with the anchovies and harissa. Skipped sautéing a green and added arugula which wilted down into the pasta.
I ate it with the roasted artichokes and mushrooms from the book last night, tonight I roasted butternut squash and onions and put those on top.
So different, but so good.
So sorry to hear you two were ill! Take care.
I am so sorry that you and LLD were both unwell. I hope that Lulu escaped? I also hope that your cases were mild and soon over.
Here, me, my 89 yo mother, and her helper, all got Covid though vaxxed and boosted - some inconsistent masking I suppose. We had mildish cases that were still 4 days of awful symptoms especially for mother. Got through and are recovering now, though will be dealing with some coughing and fatigue for awhile. Glad that’s over and no worse than it was.
Lulu stayed healthy! We were extremely careful the moment LLD started feeling iffy, all in separate areas of the house, masked when not, texting each other to stay away, etc. Fairly mild but the fatigue is no joke. Double vaxxed and double boosted. We think a flight he took back from LA, on which he was only one of three people wearing a mask was the problem. Stay masked everyone.
I’m sorry you had to go through it too.
This was such a comforting dish. Lulu went for the optional Parmesan, we didn’t.
FISH FINGER BHORTA
I’d never had bhorta, but this sounded good. I made 1 1/2 x the recipe to feed 3, added yogurt and naan. Made the onions, which I didn’t love - I kept wishing I’d made the ones from Season with the coriander seeds or just skipped them. LLD and I were going nuts for this. He couldn’t stop raving about it. I was too busy eating. Really tasty, and I will definitely be making this again.
CHICKEN IN A POT WITH LEMON & ORZO
I made this last year in May and a few times since then. Nigella previewed this on her website, as well as giving Food and Wine rights to publish it as part of publicity for COOK, EAT, REPEAT’s release. It is definitely a comfort food kind of casserole. The flavors are subtle; you can dial up intensity with more or different herbs, as well as how much lemon juice, lemon zest, Parmesan, and/or red pepper flakes you want to add to taste at the end. I don’t have a large enough casserole in which to brown and cook this, so I needed to brown it and then transfer the chicken and other ingredients to a large disposable pan to get the rest of the job done in the oven (after bringing the water to a boil separately and pouring it carefully in) covered in foil.
You can substitute maftoul or a similar pearl style couscous in place of the orzo.
SMOKY SQUID (shrimp) AND BEANS p. 63
Nigella says you can substitute different seafoods for the squid, and various different beans, and I did so. I used shrimp and canned great northern beans, and made 1 1/2 the recipe to feed 3 people. This is delicious, and feels very Spanish. You let the squid/shrimp sit in sherry for a bit while you work on the beans. Sauté garlic and lemon zest, add crushed red pepper and smoked paprika, then tomato paste and then the beans and stir and let warm up. Remove this mix from your pan and add the shrimp minus their juice until just about cooked, then add the sherry and let it get all mingled. Mix the shrimp in with the beans. Deliciously garlicky, lemony, smokey. I served with a slice of toast and a salad. That’s 3 really good recipes from the book for me this week.
Was looking for my list, so linking that and @RainyRamone’s list too, which it turned out were on the voting page.
Well, I made this yet again.
This time I ended up with a delicious vegetarian version because I discovered I didn’t have any breaded fish in the freezer – but I did have hash browns, so that’s what I used.
The potato was a great foil to the tangy, mustardy profile. Greens tonight were arugula.
Getting closer… or further away, depending on which ingredient 
But every riff so far has been really delicious.
October voting is happpening!
GLUTEN-FREE BANANA BREAD WITH CHOCOLATE AND WALNUTS - p. 78
I put this on my to-make list primarily because I wanted to make the banana peel curry on p. 35. But the bananas reaching the super-ripe stage coincided with me needing to travel for a few days, so just before I left I peeled the bananas and put the flesh in the freezer. And tossed the peels. So much for that curry. I finally got around to making the banana bread, through. This recipe is gluten-free as written, but not vegan. The flours called for are a mix of almond flour and rice flour, although the option of an all-purpose GF flour is given in place of the rice flour. I decided to make it with the almond and rice flours, because I wanted to see how well it would work. For the two eggs called for, I used an egg replacer that consists of starch, leavening, and psyllium.
This bread was fine. I should caveat that I don’t particularly like banana bread. Or bananas. This didn’t taste very banana-y, because the chocolate overwhelms all the other flavors. There was quite a lot of chocolate in this, which some mind think is a good thing, but I’m not that big on chocolate. It also made it really hard to tell when the bread was done, because the cake test just came out covered in chocolate. The bread was supposed to bake for 50-55 minutes at 325F, and my bread was underbaked after 55 minutes. I did notice some weirdness with the metric conversions. For example, the recipe calls for “6 ounces (150 g)” of chocolate. But 6 ounces is 170 grams. That’s a significant error, and might be why my bread was so chocolate-laden. There was also 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in this recipe, which I didn’t feel helped anything. The bread came out kind of oily. All in all, I didn’t like this version of banana bread enough to want to make it again. I have other versions in my repertoire that I much prefer.
MINE - ALL - MINE SWEET AND SALTY CHOCOLATE COOKIES
These were so quick and easy to make and tasted beautiful. They were very chocolatey and the salt amount was perfect. The texture was great too, nice and sandy around the edges and very soft and chewy in the middle. I couldn’t fault it.
Join us in voting for October Cookbook of the Month! Voting closes at 10:00 p.m. PST (U.S.) on Sunday, Sept. 25.
SPAGHETTI WITH CHARD, CHILES, AND ANCHOVIES - p. 18
I made it according to the recipe except I did add some arugula in addition to the chard. I also doubled the crus red pepper.
I liked it. I made it on a night it was just for me. I didn’t finish it but I did put a dent in it.
We have a winner for October Cookbook of the Month:
(post deleted by author)
this looks really enticing, think I will give it a try!
SMOKY SQUID AND BEANS
Much better than expected, even the bean hater H asked for more after he finished his dish. Agreed with @LulusMom1 , I think it’s Spanish origin. I didn’t have sherry and replaced with sauvginon blanc and lemon juice. Simple to make and will repeat.
