Non-Soup Sick Food
What to eat when your illness outlives your desire for chicken noodle soup.
I have been sick for the past two weeks. It was the kind of sick that starts with a prolonged headache and cheek flush, but relents before further symptoms hit, deceiving you into thinking you have made it out on top. This feeling of good fortune was short lived. All symptoms that normally come on all at once were drawn out over the course of a week and a half — three days of sore throat, three days of congestion, three days of a lost voice, now three days into a lingering cough.
I ate soup consistently for the first week, but at a certain point I found myself wanting something that felt like soup, sans spoon. Enter this week’s Meal In: a pasta with pork sausage, peas, and a brothy, shallot-driven sauce. I used bone broth in the sauce to make it feel more hearty and healing.
Another candidate for a non-soup sick meal was made for me by my mom — tamari-glazed tempeh with sautéed kale, potatoes, and onions. Might not be everyone’s idea of comfort, but as someone who grew up eating tempeh and tofu often, it felt like a warm hug.
E.A.T. was my first post-illness Meal Out. During this time of year, two weeks out of commission felt like I missed an entire season. I entered my hibernation in early fall without a jacket, and I re-emerged into late fall in need of a proper coat. E.A.T. feels like all the best parts of New York City in the fall — cozy, nostalgic, and comforting with an art deco backdrop.
Meal In: Penne with Pork Sausage and Peas in a Shallot Sauce
To me, cooking is primarily about timeliness. It is far more important to have a lobster or blue crab in July, or a roast chicken in December than it is to have the best salmon of my life on any given Friday. Sausage is one of those foods for me that falls into the former category. I could not care less about it (likely will even avoid it) for ninety percent of the year, but right around November, I find myself buying it at the farmer’s market.
Still feeling less than great, I purchased sage, rosemary, and thyme with the thought of using it in some kind of vegetable soup with squash. When I came home to cook, soup sounded totally unappealing. Instead, I decided on a pasta, but wanted to maintain the healing benefits of the soup.
First, I chopped five shallots, a medium onion, and three cloves of garlic. I chopped the rosemary and sage, and ran my fingers along the thyme stems to remove the leaves. In a hot stainless steel pan with extra virgin olive oil, I added the shallot and onions and left them to soften. I then added the garlic, followed by the herbs. Once that had cooked down for a few minutes, I added a few tablespoons of chicken bone broth, half a tablespoon of chicken bouillon, and a few twists of pepper. I let that simmer for a few minutes while some of the broth evaporated and the onions and shallots fully softened.
On a separate burner, I cooked the pasta. I had meant to buy ditaloni, but instead bought ditalini and it was too small to pair with the sausage. Penne worked well here, but I would probably opt for something closer to ditaloni if I had the choice. You just want to make sure to use a pasta that the sauce and peas can get trapped within, so you have the fullness of flavor in each bite.
Once the pasta was cooked and the shallot sauce ready, I moved both of them to the side and cooked off my sausage. I removed the casing and added the sausage in small, crumbly pieces. I prefer smaller bits of sausage sprinkled throughout, but you could also choose to make more regular sized tiny meatballs. Meanwhile, I boiled about a cup of frozen peas.
After the sausage got color on it and the inside was no longer pink, I started combining everything. In the pasta pot, I started with the sauce, followed by the pasta, the sausage, and the peas. I added a good amount of pepper and some additional thyme. After stirring, I added a lot of grated parmesan.
I served mine with early Trevino radicchio, done in the style of last week’s puntarelle — dressed with anchovies, garlic, and a splash of sherry vinegar dissolved into olive oil.
I made enough pasta to have plenty of leftovers for the next day, but my husband ate it all later that night before I had the opportunity. I guess it is a welcome pivot from soup, sick or not.
Meal Out: E.A.T.
On Saturday morning, I woke up early and took the train up to the Upper East Side, determined to take a walk in Central Park and visit the new Violet Grey storefront. I met up with friends, and (after purchasing Leonor Greyl shampoo) we ended up at E.A.T, Eli Zabar’s restaurant, for lunch. E.A.T. is everything I love about New York. It feels like a page out of an Ina Garten cookbook meets the Odeon.
I opted for my choice of three salads — Chicken Tarragon; Avocado and Endive; Potato, Fennel, and Haricots Verts. The unexpected winner was the avocado and endive. It was a happy marriage of creamy avocado alongside bitter endive. The chicken tarragon was also outstanding, one of my favorites I have had in New York (I am a chicken salad aficionado and tend to order it whenever possible). The potato, fennel, and haricots verts was lackluster for me. The potato was unexpectedly sliced thinly and fried. It became potato chips tossed with roasted fennel and green beans. Not my favorite combo. A friend got the broccoli quiche, which was also delightful.
Upper East Side restaurants are always warm. Walking outside after our meal, I was surprised by how cold it was. I was reminded it was already November first and silently wished myself white rabbits. Coats on, we walked towards Central Park and the kaleidoscope of autumn colors on the horizon.