Tag: side dishes

Barefoot Contessa Recipe 42: Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts

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This recipe can be found in How Easy is That?, page 195.

Even though Salmon with Melting Tomatoes had a built-in side dish, I still needed one more thing to truly round out the meal. Enter: Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts.

I still had some pine nuts from when I made gremolata a few weeks back. At least that’s where I think I used the pine nuts originally. I can’t really remember. So many recipes. But I wanted to use them up since I didn’t really know how long they would “keep.” I was storing them in the fridge since they are nuts, after all. And since nuts have oil, they can spoil! (Thanks Rachael Ray)

Luckily this recipe used them all up. Sadly, I will have to buy them again at some point and fork over almost $10 for like 5 ounces of nuts. But that’s a story for another time.

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Barefoot Contessa Recipe #33: French String Beans

Published on by RJ5 Comments

This recipe can be found in Barefoot in Paris, page 160.

The side dish I made to go along with the Panko-Crusted Salmon last Friday was something that took no time at all in the kitchen! Ina’s French-inspired French String Beans turn up the flavor on otherwise pretty bland veggies.

Sadly since it is February, I did not get the chance to truly enjoy the full potential of this recipe. I had to use frozen regular “American” string beans instead of the thinner, slightly longer French ones. But, I still think it turned out well enough for me to get a sense of what Ina was going for with it.

In the recipe, you pair the string beans with a mixture of peppers and a red onion. You roast the onion and peppers in the oven for about 15 minutes. I did this, but upon eating the meal I think they need another few minutes in the oven. The peppers were okay, but the onion could have used a little more “roasted” texture. To be honest, I’m not really sure what I’m trying to describe here. It seemed like another two to three minutes in the oven would have made things a bit better.

Despite this, the recipe produced a flavorful side dish that was pretty easy to make. That’s a win for me!