The Man Sandwich : A Tempting July 4th Feast

{photo by Sara Remington}

My baby brother is a serious gardener. He credits me as inspiration (and I humbly accept) though he and his fiancé have far surpassed my own meager harvest at TK Farms {Tim + Karen Farms}, their sizable community plot in their burb outside of Chicago.

This week, I was home with my family. Mom, Greta and I made our annual trip to her farmer’s market. There we met Farmer Nick the meat man, who spends Wednesday mornings at mom’s market, and the afternoon 45 miles away at Tim’s farmer's market in Grayslake.

“I think you know my brother,” I said to Nick, and told him his name.

“Tim? Yes, Mr. Rib eye!”

Yep, that’s him. A good old-fashioned, steak-eating Midwestern boy. My brother. And though there hasn’t been a steak in my household since just about the day I wed, my bro and I have a lot in common in the food department. For starters, we both love a summer supper that starts in the garden and is served right off the grill.

My bro’s garden has a hefty head start on mine, and he’s already got a bumper crop of the ever-prolific zucchini. So, I thought it was high time to remind him and all the other grill and garden lovers out there about this summer sandwich I dreamed up with you all in mind. It’s got a flavor and a name I’m mighty proud of, and is as worthy of a slot on your July 4th roster as anything I know. 

The Man Sandwich is made with grilled purple onions, zucchini and merguez, a spicy lamb sausage from North Africa, but it’s just as good with any freshly made spicy sausage you can get your hands on. It turns out Farmer Nick has some pretty kickin sausages too, so I think we all know what’s on Tim's menu for the fourth.

Baby bro, this one’s for you.

P.S. {Make it Meatless}

For the Mostly Vegetarian crowd, we make a meatless version with grilled portabella, Muenster cheese and double doses of zucchini and onion. De-lish! Don't miss this one...

~

The Man Sandwich

From The Newlywed Cookbook 

In the middle of July, the prolific garden zucchini/courgette beg your creativity. Turn its bounty into a man-sized sandwich grilled alongside a coil of spicy sausage and sweet spring onions. Stack the three together into a hearty sandwich that’s a summer meal in every bite. This is guy food at its delicious best.

Serves 2

12-ounce/340 g coil spicy beef or lamb sausage such as merguez, or spicy Italian sausage

1 large zucchini cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

2 spring {bulb} onions, thickly sliced

1/4 cup/60 ml extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 slices whole-wheat or seven-grain sandwich bread

Herb Mayo {see below}

Preheat the grill or a grill pan until hot. Lay the sausage on the hottest part of the grill and cook until crisp, about 6 minutes. Turn the sausage and grill until cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes depending on thickness of sausage. Remove to a platter to rest.

Meanwhile, drizzle the zucchini and onion slices with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper.

While the sausage cooks on the second side, add the vegetables to the grill. Cook until crisp-tender and lightly charred, about 4 minutes per side. Add the bread to the grill about 2 minutes before veggies are finished and toast on both sides.

Spread Herb Mayo on 2 slices of grilled bread. Slice the sausages and divide sausage and grilled veggies between the 2 sandwiches. Top with remaining bread. Serve warm with lots of napkins.

~

Herb Mayo

{tempting}

Life really picks up when you add this green mayo to sandwiches and serve it as a dipping sauce for fries or fresh veggies. Its green comes from fresh herbs {use your favorites, in any combination} and its body from Greek yogurt, with a touch of a store-bought mayo for creamy sweetness.

Makes about 1 cup/240 ml

1 packed cup parsley, dill, mint, basil, or chives leaves, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup/75 ml Greek yogurt

3 tablespoons/45 ml olive-oil mayonnaise or regular mayonnaise

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Blend herbs, yogurt, mayo, and olive oil, in a mini food processor or blender until smooth and flecked with green. Pulse in lemon juice, adding just enough to give it the right balance for you. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

{fresh} Watermelon, Pistachio & Baby Greens Salad

It's wicked hot here, and there's only one thing on my mind. Watermelon. Sometimes you want a slice pure and simple, but when its this hot, it's tempting to make watermelon into a meal. I recommend you do. Normally, goat cheese isn't my go-to for a salad, but Selles-sur-Cher, with its musty blue-grey mold is the perfect ashy, tangy compliment to the sweet crunch of melon and young butter lettuce. Since most arugula can't take the heat of high summer, tonight's the perfect night to pick the last of yours, toss it together with your homegrown mint, crisp watermelon, goats' cheese and pistachios. While it's all crisp and cool, pour a glass of Tavel rosé {here's my new favorite} and let summer begin. 

Watermelon, Pistachio & Baby Greens Salad

From The Newlywed Cookbook 

 ~ 

Serves 2 to 4

2 small heads butter lettuce, torn

Heaping handful of young arugula/rocket

Heaping handful of mâche, purslane, or watercress

1/2 medium seedless watermelon (about 4 lb/1.8 kg), cut in wedges and rind removed

1 small handful fresh chocolate mint, peppermint, or spearmint leaves, torn

1 tsp snipped fresh chives

Coarse white, grey, or pink sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tbsp best-quality extra-virgin olive oil

2 to 4 oz/55 to 115 g tangy goat cheese, such as Selles-sur-Cher or Crottin if available, at room temperature

Divide the butter lettuce between two or four dinner plates or one large platter. Distribute the arugula/rocket and mâche between the plates, then arrange watermelon wedges on each plate. Garnish all the salads with torn mint and chives, and season liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Drizzle with your finest extra-virgin olive oil and top with pieces of fresh goat cheese. Serve straight from the garden, or crisp and cold from the fridge. 

{Newlyweds Cook} Annie + Oliver

{images courtesy of Martha Stewart Weddings}

Wedding season is upon us, and since my sweet brother and his long-time girlfriend, Karen, are recently engaged, we're all abuzz around here about wedding details once again, something I hadn't thought a lot about since my own magical day. And, since we're having a Martha moment over here, I thought it was a perfect time to share with you one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever seen, which was featured in the pages of Martha Stewart Weddings. The betrothed, Annie and her sweet groom Olly, are the sister and brother-in-law of my friend Katie, of Mom's Kitchen Handbook. When I saw their wedding, my jaw literally dropped. Annie is a couture dress designer, and her utterly romantic line Annie Sullivan | Couture Bridal,  recently launched. So it's not surprising that there were so many elegant details applied to her own wedding day. On the eve of Annie and Olly's first year anniversary, I asked Annie to recall their sweet story.

Annie says...


I have always had a fixation on all things French. I moved to France in my twenties, sure that I would fall in love with a French man and have French-speaking children who would drink hot chocolate out of little bowls and call me “maman.”  

Instead, after a couple of years on French soil, I returned to New York City and fell head-over-heels for Oliver Cobb, a hunky Englishman who was kinder than anyone I'd ever dated, French or otherwise, and had an accent that made me swoon.   

On our first date, while throwing back copious amounts of oysters and Sancerre, Olly casually mentioned his family's house in the south of France. As if I wasn't already hooked by his entirely charming self, this little tidbit was the icing on the cake. We have been together ever since.

On our first trip to Paris together, after a boozy lunch in Saint Germain, I led Olly through the teensy, twisted streets to Rue Bonaparte so he could sample what I considered pure heaven: an olive oil and vanilla macaron from the pastry shop, Pierre Hermé. We ordered several other flavors -- caramel with fleur de sel, rose, lemon, chocolate -- and stood in the square in front Saint Sulpice church with our waxed paper bag, nibbling our way through each one, warmed by Paris' afternoon sun. We were in love. 

Fast forward to our wedding. I wanted the day to feel like a spectacular European dinner party set in a far gone era.  The dessert had to be just right, and I am not a fan of English sweets. The likes of  Battenberg cake, fruit cake, bakewell tart, and something called “spotted dick," are not for me. Sticky toffee pudding is the one exception, but lacks the elegance I had envisioned. Going with French desserts seemed like a no-brainer.

We decided we would have a dessert table laden with classic French sweets, something the likes of which Marie Antoinette would have approved. Making the traditional French wedding cake, croquembouche, the centerpiece, would be the crowning touch. 

Croquembouche is essentially a tower of crème puffs or profiteroles, shaped into a tall cone, bound with spindly ribbons of spun sugar. Since pastry chef Francois Payard makes them magnificently, we asked him to do ours, along with all of the wedding desserts. 

Aside from the croquembouche, the table was laid with assorted diminutive goodies, everything from macarons to miniature lemon tarts, madelines, and petite éclairs. It was whimsical and decadent and the perfect end to the day. 

Lucky for us, Payard Pastry is a subway ride away, where we can go and reminisce about our first macaron together in Paris, and our first one as a married couple.

In the end I got what I wanted: the love of my life. I figure I can just teach our children to call me "maman."

~

{Martha Stewart} The Spring Wedding Show

We did it! As soon as it's live online, I promise to post.

{for giving} Picnic Goodies for Newlyweds

We're off to San Francisco, Andras, Greta and I, for the wedding of my darling friend Lillian. It's always exciting when one of your girls gets married, especially the one who was with me every minute of styling The Newlywed Cookbook. She's an absolute light and creative force, and I can't wait to see what her wedding weekend brings.

While I am away, I leave you with this beautiful gift idea for the newly betrothed in your life ~ a curated picnic basket full of gorgeous food-lovers treats, from Chelsea Market Basket. Available in their store in The Chelsea Market, or online, send this thoughtful gift to the brides and grooms you love to have at the ready for their first days home from the honeymoon.

I'm excited to see that the gift includes something to take back to the kitchen for the days that follow--The Newlywed Cookbook--filled with seasonal recipes and {lest the newlyweds forget to make romantic getaways a habit} even a section on picnics and other escapes. To help the recipes come to life, the gift includes some of the glamorous pantry essentials I talk about in the book, like Halen Mon Sea Salt from the Isle of Mull, hand--harvested sea salts in flavors like lavender and chamomile, a high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for finishing), aged balsamic, a crock of mustard, and coffee and tea for lazy mornings sipping side by side.

Help the ones you love start their lives together with this endlessly charming gift. Order here.

I'll be back soon with stories from the other coast.

{A Party} The Newlywed Cookbook at Pink Olive, NYC

I hate to go all girlie on you, but if you'll let me for just a second, there's something about a pretty shop and a gathering of girls that just puts me into happy fits. Next Saturday, I'll be celebrating and signing my book, The Newlywed Cookbook, at Pink Olive, on a charmed little rue in the East Village {details above}. Come join me, Pink Olive's gracious owner Grace Kang, 2h flowers, and Izze sparkling juice as we toast and celebrate the season of the betrothed. RSVP at Concierge@pinkolive.com and I promise to save you one of my Deep Dark Secret Chocolate Cookies. xo


A special thanks to....

Martha Stewart + Me

 {Photo by FRANÇOIS DISCHINGER}

Pssst....

I should be sleeping right now, but I'm going on The Martha Stewart Show tomorrow, and I'm kind of excited. Not only is Martha an impressive icon, she took things that I think have tremendous value --feeding your family,  making a home, tending a garden -- and not only made them chic, but potentially lucrative too. Things our mothers did for free. Women getting paid to make the world a more beautiful, delicious place? Amen to that.

Love her or not, if you've watched her show lately, you may know Martha has a pretty good sense of humor. And she must be a good sport, too. Imagine inviting people on your show and letting them show you how to do things you know very well how to do. Like bake cookies. See, it's really quite generous. She gives us our chance to shine. And for that, well, Martha, I think you're the bee's knees.

I'll be sure to let you know the air date! But for now, night night. Time to get my beauty rest. 

xo

Sarah 

A Giveaway from Ice Milk Aprons

Okay, I'm officially declaring this southern love month. And one of my absolute favorite things to come out of the south since the buttermilk biscuit is heirloom designer Ashley Leckey Schoenith's Ice Milk Aprons. They are elegant, lady like and just plain pretty. And who doesn't want to feel pretty when they are cooking?  In celebration of the launch of The Newlywed Cookbook and as a treat to all the brides-to-be this summer and spring, Ashley's graciously offered her beautiful Vanilla Churned Sugar apron for one lucky reader {bride, bride-to-be, or not!}. 

And in the spirit of southern hospitality, Ashley is also hosting a giveaway of The Newlywed Cookbook on her site today too. Once you're there, I know you'll want to stay. Not only does Ashley has impeccable taste, she has the most charming spirit. The way she treasures family traditions, heirlooms and the sweet moments in life come right through the screen, and you'll soon wish yourself a part of your world. 


If that wasn't sweet enough, she's featuring my Grandma Copeland's Brown Sugar Pudding on her Heirloomed blog later this week, too. This is one seriously special recipe to my family, a true heirloom. Granddad brought it home from a boarding house in Missouri where he stayed not long after he and my grandmother were secretly married. He gave the recipe to his young bride, who I'm told would make it for him just as often as he wanted for the rest of their lives. Grandma and Granddad were married almost 70 years {I know, amazing!}, and were the definition of forever newlyweds. They were always lavishing each other with love and tenderness, which in Grandma's case often came in the form of good southern cooking. 

About marriage and love, Grandma always said to us, "learn to make his favorite things." 

To lavish the ones you love with good cooking, you need a special apron, one with a story, one that makes you feel especially lovely while you're learning to make your beloved's favorite things. Brides, beauties, passionate cooks and anyone who treasures a handmade heirloom, here's how to enter to win: 

Post a comment with a story about either your favorite food from the south, the best thing you learned to make or bake from your mother or grandmother, or what and how you learned to cook your beloved's favorite thing. Then, if you tweet, follow Edible Living and Ice Milk Aprons on twitter and RT I just entered to win @icemilkaprons Vanilla Churned Sugar apron on @edibleliving http://bit.ly/icemilkgive. Then come back to tell us about it! Follow either of us on Pinterest {Ashley's pages are to die for} and come back to enter again! Three chances, now that is generous, southern hospitality for y'all. * {only U.S. residents eligible to win} *

This is one prize you'll want to keep in your family for generations to come.  

xo

Sarah

Bubbly + Books {A Book Signing for The Newlywed Cookbook}

i'm over the moon excited to be toasting and signing books tomorrow night at Chelsea Market Basket, and guess who is invited. why you, of course!

{you're invited} The Newlywed Cookbook Valentine's Tour, and a Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

{photos by sara remington}

It's Thursday, which means there's still plenty of time to go out and buy loads and loads of bittersweet chocolate before the weekend. That's a very good thing, first, because it's February, the month of Valentine's! And second, it's the start of the official Valentine's launch party for my new book, The Newlywed Cookbook. And where there is a Valentine's party, there will be chocolate. 

Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I dream myself in an airy Soho loft, where I'd invite you all to come for slender slivers of my Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Smoked Sea Salt and a glass of pink champagne. We'd celebrate in high style, we would. But as I write from our snug new york city studio {we are newlyweds, after all}, it's hard to imagine more than two or three of you here at once. Still, our hearts are big and full of the love and joy that always precedes a feast among friends, so, feast we will!

For the next thirteen days, many talented writers, some old friends and many new ones, will be cooking from The Newlywed Cookbook,  sharing their story of food and love along with one of my recipes for you on their blogs! We, whether married two years or twelve years or not-yet-married-at-all, are toasting to the spirit of newlyweds ~ to the the joy and curiosity and abundant love that is at the heart of this book.

The menu, if I do say so myself, is quite delightful, and includes all the major valentines food groups. On it you'll find....

Rise and Shine Muffins ~ Oatmeal Yogurt Pancakes with Blackberry Crush ~ Ricotta Silver Dollar Pancakes ~ Multigrain Pancakes with Chocolate Shavings ~ Roasted Beets with Ricotta and Pistachios ~ Two-For-Two Cheese Souffle ~ Halibut with Coriander and Carrots ~  Grilled Lamb Chops with Melted Polenta ~ Cast Iron Skillet Steak ~ Dowry Dinner Rolls Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding ~ 1000-Layer Chocolate Cookies~ Olive Oil Cake with Tangerine Marmalade

We invite you to come taste these recipes and hear the stories of these talented writers and friends here...

Dorie Greenspan ~ Diary of a Locavore ~  Aida Mollenkamp ~   Just A Little Organic ~ E.A.T. ~ Mom's Kitchen Handbook ~ Spoonful of Cake ~ Nancie McDermott ~ Farmhouse ~ Lucid Food  ~ Crumbs On My Keyboard ~ Dessert-o-Licious ~ Dallas Food Nerd ~ The June Cleaver Blog ~ Cherryspoon ~ Healthy And Happy Hour

To show our love for our readers and hopefully inspire some loving feasts in your home, each of us will be giving away a copy of The Newlywed Cookbook to one lucky reader. Kindly leave me (and them) a comment and tell us your story of food and love for your chance to win.


Meanwhile, while I regret that I can't cook you my Bittersweet Chocolate Tart myself, I'm so happy to share the recipe with you. I promise that your skill-set in the pastry department is of no matter; this is one simple, sensational valentine's treat you and your love won't regret embarking upon. 

Come, bring your beloveds, bring your friends as we toast to love. May your hearts and tables be filled!

xo, 
Sarah

Bittersweet Chocolate Tart with Smoked Sea Salt

~

Despite its handsome finish, this tart couldn’t be easier. The crust gets its tenderness from sugar and melted butter, pressed in instead of rolled for ease. It is completely simple, and sinfully elegant. The flavor comes from the chocolate and the cream, so splurge on the highest quality of both you can find.  Your loved ones are worth it.

Serves 12
{Crust}

1/2 cup/115 g unsalted butter, melted

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pinch of fine sea salt

1 cup/115 g all-purpose/plain flour

{Filling}

1/2 cup/120 ml heavy cream

1/2 cup/120 ml whole milk

2 tbsp sugar

Pinch of fine sea salt

7 oz/200 g high-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped {1 heaping cup}

1 large egg, beaten

Smoked sea salt {optional}

Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180°C/gas 4.

Make the crust: Whisk together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the flour and stir until it feels like damp sand. Press the dough evenly along the bottom and up the sides of an 8-in/20-cm square or 9-in/ 23-cm round tart pan/flan tin with a removable bottom {which makes it much easier to remove the tart in one piece. If you don’t have a tart pan/flan tin, you can make this tart in a springform pan; press the dough evenly across the bottom and only about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 in/3 to 4 cm up the side of the pan}. Use wax/greaseproof paper or buttered fingers to even out and press the dough tightly into the corners. Prick the crust all over with a fork and chill in the fridge until ready to bake, about 30 minutes.

Set the pan on a baking sheet/tray and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Make the filling: While the crust bakes, bring the cream, milk, sugar, and salt to a simmer in a medium saucepan over low heat. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Let it sit for about 2 minutes, without stirring. Starting in the middle of the pan, whisk together until the chocolate is evenly melted and the mixture a smooth and a shiny dark brown.

Whisk the beaten egg into the chocolate filling and pour the filling directly into the hot crust. Decrease the oven to 300˚ F/150˚C/gas 2 and return the tart to the oven. Bake until the filling is set, but still a little wiggly in the center, about 12 to 15 minutes (temperatures vary from oven to oven, so the visual clue is more important than time}. Set your timer for 12 minutes. If it looks mostly set at that point, test it by opening the oven door a crack and carefully jiggle the tart pan/flan tin with the edge of your oven mitt. Only the center third should wobble. If it wobbles all the way to the edge, close the door quickly and continue baking about 2 to 3 minutes more.

Remove and cool the tart completely on a rack at room temperature. Just before the tart cools and sets completely, sprinkle a few large flakes of smoked salt on the surface, or leave plain.

Remove the tart from the pan sides and carefully transfer to a platter before serving. Let it cool just until it slices easily. It melts in your mouth when served slightly warm, with a dollop of crème fraiche, if you wish, for extra decadence. Or cool completely, and serve by itself. 

P.S. The deep, smoky flavor of smoked sea salt is a fine complement to the rich chocolate, but this tart is just as elegant with big flakes of white sea salt, or if you’re a chocolate purist, no salt at all. 

{a date night show & tell} The Newlywed Cookbook Trailer

it's not supposed to snow in october. not when there's still tomatoes and zucchini at the market. not when the table's set for two on the little cafe table out back. but it did. just a few days after our anniversary. so we had our picnic anyway, on the living room floor. it was one of the best date nights we've had in ages.....

{tremendous thanks to our friends jim & iri, of brakethrough media and panforte productions, who were there too, with their cameras, to give you a peek into what lies inside the pages of The Newlywed Cookbook}

The Newlywed Cookbook ~ a preview

{photos by Sara Remington}

I'm so excited, honored and grateful for all the calls, emails, tweets and posts from friends and family whose copies of my first book, The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other, landed on their doorsteps in the last few days, just in time for Christmas. We didn't expect the pre-orders to arrive until the last day of December, and books to hit the book stores  until the first of January.

Surprise, they are here! In bookstores {like Barnes and Noble}, online {Amazon} and wherever books are sold, as they say. I'm overwhelmed and beyond delighted by all the people who've told me they've found the pages to be beautiful, delicious and inspiring.

My New Year's wish and hope is that everyone who loves to cook ~ whether they be a newlywed, oldywed, almost wed or never wed, a twosome or a family ~ could have their own copy to dig into {this book is about so much more than cooking; it's about really living!}. In the meantime, here, a preview of a few of my favorite spreads and recipes, to wet your appetite. Please, enjoy, share and treat yourself to something truly satisfying with someone you love.

{get dirty, get growing and get green!}

{farm fresh. in every color, shape and size you dream of}

{a fat stack you won't soon forget}

{a luscious egg sandwich, pretty please}

{swirls of spaghetti, darling? Just one of the ways to treat the ones you love}

{well hello there. you're not quite like any other chocolate chip cookie I've ever seen}

 {let's run away together, just for the day}

 More previews, recipes and a schedule of when and where I'll be signing books to come.

xx

Newlyweds Cook: Luisa + Max {Date Night in Berlin}

Around here, Friday is date night. It's always given the end of the week a special sparkle, stealing away to the ladies room to put on lip gloss before András picked me up Friday from work, or slipping the secret ingredients for his favorite meal into the fridge for a surprise supper at home. It's a harder date to keep since baby girl arrived on the scene, but this sweet, sweet story from my friend and brand-newlywed Luisa Weiss, reminds me how important it is to keep the Friday fires burning. You might know Luisa as author of the well-adored blog The Wendesday Chef, but I'm guessing to one man, she's better known as the hightlight of each week, authoress of a superb plate of Spaghetti all’Amatriciana Tedesca, beloved wife. Join me in welcoming Luisa and Max home from their honeymoon in Greece and on with the rest of their joyous life together! Here is their story.  

 {photo by cinzia bruschin}

Luisa + Max
Berlin, Germany

Just a few months before my husband and I were married, he was offered a job, the kind of job that’s hard to refuse. Good news, you would think, especially in this day and age. And indeed, we were thrilled. But the offer was contingent upon one crucial thing: that Max move to another city, one in western Germany, just a little too far away for a daily commute from Berlin, which is where we live together.

Plenty of Germans, especially Berliners, commute elsewhere for work, since our city – as vibrant and beautiful as it may be - holds little in the way of employment for people in industries other than the creative one. In fact, Max’s father has this very life, working Mondays through Fridays in a town about three hours away from Berlin and coming home to Berlin and his wife, Max’s mother, only on weekends. A number of Max’s friends do the same dance each week.

It wasn’t ideal, we agreed. But it was doable. The commute would be just under three hours each way. And once a month, I’d go to see him, so Max wouldn’t have to travel every single weekend. The hope was (and is) that after a year or two, he’d be able to put in for a transfer to an office in a town just on the outskirts of Berlin and he’d move home. Our fingers are crossed.

Max and I are no strangers to long-distance love. In fact, in our early twenties, we spent five years in love while I lived in New York and he lived in Germany. We were too young and stupid for that relationship to ultimately flourish (and frankly, that amount of distance was, over that amount of time, the true killer). But after having found each other again in our early thirties and after I made the huge step of moving back to Berlin from New York, in part so we could we be together, the separation between Berlin and Kassel feels like a piece of cake.

After all, we are in the same time zone these days. The same country, too. We are each other’s wake-up calls and good night calls. I can hop on a train or get in the car if I really need to see him. Just knowing that he’s that close goes a long way. Every Saturday, we wake up together. Every Sunday evening, I drive him to the train station and we wave to each other, again and again, as he walks towards the tracks. And every Friday night, barring a train delay, Max comes home in time for dinner.

That first meal together on Friday evening, after five days of not seeing each other, is always special, no matter where we go or what we eat. Sometimes we make cheese sandwiches and munch on quick cucumber pickles on the living room couch. Sometimes I make us a simple pot of spaghetti with tomato sauce (a sauce Max learned to cook so well that I had to include that fact in our wedding vows). Sometimes I put on lipstick and heels before I go pick him up and we drive straight into the city from the train station, settling in at the bar at our favorite sushi restaurant, where we watch the sushi chef work furiously behind the bar, fingers flying. Sometimes, rarely, just as a guilty pleasure, we get currywursts from a street vendor, piping hot and sweetly spicy, and eat them in the front seat of the car, the way we used to do years ago, before we had any idea how our story would end. Or, really, how it would continue.

“But you're newlyweds!" people sometimes howl when they hear of our living arrangement. "Isn't it haaard?" And I don't think it's always easy for Max. He's the one with the weekly train rides, the new city to adjust to, the homesickness. All I do is miss him, but from the comfort of our home and our city, I don't think I really get to complain.

Plus, the upside of our arrangement is that our weekends together feel sacred and romantic. From the activities we choose to do, the people we see and the meals we share everything is done more deliberately, with more care and thought. The time we have is precious. We don’t want to waste a minute.

~

Luisa generously shared her favorite restaurants in Berlin to hide away with Max which you can find here, but since most of us can't get to Berlin tonight {poor us!}, here's her recipe for your date night. 

~

 Spaghetti all'Amatriciana Tedesca

When no restaurant holds the appeal that a home-cooked meal can, we stay home and I make spaghetti. These days, with summer gone and the cold nights of Berlin’s autumn stretching into daytime, we need fortification from our spaghetti sauce; a simple tomato sugo spiked with basil won’t do. In heavy rotation around these parts lately is what I like to call Spaghetti all’Amatriciana Tedesca. Instead of using guanciale or pancetta in the tomato sauce, I use German Schinkenspeck, which is the very lean part of a cured ham (it has a thick cap of fat, but I cut that off and the meat below is entirely lean). I like to buy a thick slice from the butcher at my favorite market on Saturday mornings and then use it all week long, cut into tomato sauce or diced finely in potato salad. It has a much stronger flavor than pancetta or guanciale, but it works incredibly well with the sweet onions and tomatoes and the kick from the chile. It’s hard not to eat the sauce straight from the pan while cooking.

 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

A 4-by-4-inch chunk of lean Schinkenspeck, cut into large dice

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

1 14-ounce can whole tomatoes

1 small dried chile, broken in half

Salt to taste (optional)

200 grams dried spaghetti (I calculate about 80 grams for me, 120 grams for him)

serves 2

1. Put the olive oil in 10-inch sauté pan over medium heat and add the diced Schinkenspeck and onions. Let cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and fragrant, about 7 to 10 minutes. Do not let the onions brown.

2. Pull the peeled tomatoes into long shreds with your fingers and add to the onions. Reserve half of the tomato puree; you don’t want this sauce to be too gloopy. Add the broken chile and stir to combine. Let the sauce simmer while you put a pot of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti.

3. The tomato sauce should simmer for about 20 minutes, about the time it will take you to boil the pasta water and cook the spaghetti until al dente. If you find the sauce getting too dry, add a spoonful or two of the tomato puree and let simmer. Taste the tomato sauce for seasoning just before serving; if needed, add some salt to taste. But between the chile and the Schinkenspeck, you probably won’t need much.

4. Drain the spaghetti, reserving some of the starchy pasta water. Put the drained spaghetti in the pan with the tomato sauce and stir to combine. Add some of the starchy water to loosen the mixture, if necessary. Serve and eat immediately.