This meat sauce is my absolute, goto, comfort food and I love making it every time. It is the first thing my Mom taught me to make when I was 12 or 13 years old. We had a very small home in Charlotte, NC and the kitchen was tiny. I am amazed at the wonderful things my Mom and my Dad would cook in that little kitchen. They always did it with love and I would sometimes just stand in the doorway and watch as the magic would happen. One day I asked Mom if she would show me how to make the “Spaghetti Sauce” she was starting. “Sure baby, but you have to promise me one thing. You will always clean up after yourself. Don’t make a mess like your father. I don’t want to have to slap you in the head.” I took that to heart, and to this day I always “clean as I go”. I’ve developed the technique over the years and it makes for a really enjoyable meal for everyone, because no one is facing all the clean up at the end of the meal. We spent two or three hours, chopping, crushing, browning, mixing and seasoning. My Mom was a very patient teacher and she loved to cook. That love was always in whatever she made. Like my Dad, she always wanted folks to find joy in what she served. I always think of them whenever I’m making this dish.

My mother gave me this basic recipe, and my father gave me his ideas on how to change it and make it different in at least two dozen ways. This recipe makes about 20 servings. I freeze the leftovers in two serving containers. I use a 30 Qt Stainless Stock pot, with a lid and it’s just over 1/3rd full with all the ingredients. An 11 or 12 Qt pot will just hold it. Of course, you can reduce the ingredients and make less sauce. You’ll need a long spoon because you’ll be stirring and mixing a lot.

The absolute first thing you need to do, so you can get this recipe right, is open a bottle of your favorite red wine and pour yourself a glass. If you feel it’s too early in the day, at the very least, put on the CD or tell Alexa to play the “The Three Tenors”. There’s nothing like sipping a good red wine and listening to great Italian arias as you make this sauce.

Prep Time: 45 minutes – Cooking Time: 1 to 6 hours

Ingredients

5 lbs – Ground chuck or leaner ground beef. I like the sauce meaty.

2 – large onions, chopped

8 – Garlic Cloves, finely chopped, or use 4t of jarred minced garlic

4 – 28oz cans Tomato Sauce or Pureé

2 – 28oz cans Crushed Tomatoes

2 – 28oz cans Diced Tomatoes

2 – 28oz cans Whole Tomatoes – San Marzano are incredible. Us them if you can get them

2 – large cans of Tomato Paste

2 – 14oz cans of drained sliced mushrooms or mushroom pieces

1/2 – 3/4 Bottle of CRR (cheap red wine) Dry

Olive Oil – the olive oil I use comes from a shop in Hickory. The quality of olive oil in recipes makes a HUGE difference in the results. I get mine at www.naturalolivehickory.com They do ship.

Dried Basil

Dried Oregano

Red Pepper Flakes – you can leave this out and add it to your smaller servings later, if you prefer.

Salt

Pepper

Pasta

Parmesan, Romano, Pecorino – any or all of these, grated or shaved

Making The Magic

Did you pour the glass of wine yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Love the process, love the food, love the people and a little wine always helps! Add 4 to 5 T of Olive Oil. Heat the pot to Medium High and just as the oil starts to swirl, drop the onions into the pot. Let them sizzle and stir them to coat everything in your Olive Oil. Add oil if you need to. The quantity doesn’t need to be precise. Reduce the heat to Medium.

While this is cooking I like to start opening all the cans that I’ll be using.

Doesn’t Pavarroti, Domingo and Carerras sound great?

Once the onions start to soften, stir in your minced or chopped garlic. Stir a bit to let the flavor of the garlic and onions continue to infuse the oil. Salt and pepper should be added. Things should still be sizzling. If not, increase the heat slightly.

Smell the air in the kitchen! My favorite smell when cooking, onions, garlic and olive oil.

After about 3 minutes, lower the heat. In a large pot add 1T Olive oil and start crumbling the ground beef into the pot. Leave some of it in chunks. Stir and toss the ground beef so it mixes with the salt and pepper to taste. Continue as you stir in more and more of the ground beef. Cook all the beef thoroughly, removing any liquid that cooks out of the beef. I like to use a splatter screen over the top and then pour the liquid into a disposable jar. When the majority of the liquid is removed, you’re ready for the next step.

Take another sip of wine. If “Nessun Dorma” is playing, lower the heat and just stop. Listen to this incredible aria. You don’t need to understand a single word, but I guarantee you will have goose bumps and tear up, not because of the onions either.

Add your cooked beef to the pot with the onions and garlic. Mix thoroughly. Turn up the heat to Medium. Next add the 4 cans of Tomato sauce and let the heat come back up. You may want to increase the heat to Medium High until everything is added. Just mind the splattering and reduce the heat if it gets out of hand. Next add the Crushed Tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir everything in and make sure you stir deeply to bring the bottom to the top.

Okay, now you want to add the drained mushrooms and stir them in.

Add a couple of Tablespoons of dried basil. Rub the basil in your palms and crush it into the sauce. Add a couple of Tablespoons of dried oregano. Again, rubbing the herbs between your palms and crushing it into the sauce. Smell your hands. Delicious! Add Red Pepper flakes to your taste, or don’t add any at all. A tablespoon will give this enough heat to buzz the back of your throat. Not overwhelming, but enough to let you know it’s there. Stir in thoroughly and deeply.

Take another sip of wine.

Add the Diced Tomatoes and Whole Tomatoes. If you can get the San Marzano whole tomatoes from Cento, these are by far the best. Mash and break the Whole Tomatoes up. I know, why add whole tomatoes if you’re going to break them up? Well, the larger chunks add texture and the juices inside the tomatoes will add a prefect balance of acid, sour and sweetness to the flavor. Salt and Pepper to taste. Stir thoroughly and deeply.

Finally, add the Tomato Paste. Stir in thoroughly. You want to spread the thick paste through out the sauce. It helps to thicken the sauce and the intensity of the paste adds a richness to the flavor. I sometimes add more.

Add another 2 Tablespoons each of dried Basil and Oregano, following the same instructions above.

Take another sip of wine and add the final ingredient.

Pour in 1/2 bottle of wine (CRW) or more, as long as you leave about an inch or so in the pot. Stir thoroughly.

When you see the sauce start to bubble at the top, reduce the heat to low and cover. You want the sauce to simmer for at least one hour, the longer the better. I usually have mine on simmer for about 6 hours. When I give this a long simmer I will uncover the pot and raise the heat to Medium Low for about an hour, at the end. Come back once every hour or so and gently stir the sauce. Keep mixing the flavors. Love what’s going on in that pot as the acidity and flavor of all the different tomatoes, the beef, the onions and garlic, the basil and oregano, the red pepper flakes blend and build on top of one another. If you find your sauce is too hot from the red pepper flakes, add sugar to reduce the heat.

Don’t be afraid to taste it. Adjust your seasonings as you go, depending on your tastebuds.

Minutes before you’re ready to serve, cook your pasta. Just before you’re ready to serve this, put on a pot filled half way with water and add plenty of salt. DO NOT add olive oil or any oil to your pasta water. The oil coating on the pasta makes it difficult for the sauce to cling to the pasta. I learned this from my wife, Suzanne. She kept telling me for years, “Don’t put oil in the water.” I didn’t understand why until she showed me how the sauce wasn’t clinging to the pasta. Duhhh!

When the pasta is done, I prefer al dente, so the pasta has a firm texture, drain it thoroughly and plate it. Lovingly ladle the sauce over the pasta. Remember this sauce has been bubbling for 1 to 6 hours and the flavors have been blending and introducing themselves to one another, so ladle with love. Serve this with a warm, crusty bread and butter. Have the grated or shaved cheeses on the table to sprinkle as you eat. I like to add some at the beginning of the meal and pile on more as I go.

Consider restarting the “Three Tenors” CD, or asking Alexa to replay it, when you sit down to eat. You got to listen to this beautiful music while you were making your masterpiece, now share it!

Bread – I’m a miserable failure at baking bread. Baking perfect bread is a science and an art. I’ve tried numerous times and just can’t get it right consistently. I have, once or twice, but I’ve had so many failures I decided to hunt for a bread I could rely on. In late 2019 I found the perfect bread. We don’t have any bakeries here in Hickory that make the kind of bread I love. A hard, crunchy, crusty exterior and a chewy, airy interior are perfection. When I pull the bread apart I want it to tear jaggedly and irregularly and the crust crunch and pop. Crumbs need to fly everywhere! After many experiments, I found it. At Aldis grocery stores they sell “Specially Selected – Artisan Italian Bread” and “Specially Selected – Artisan French Baguette”. I keep several loaves of each in the freezer and pull one out ahead of time to let it thaw. You have to finish the baking of this bread. It is as close to what we used to buy, from a little French bakery in London, as anything I’ve found in the US. I bake it for the longest time suggested on the directions and even a little longer, sometimes. Either of these are great with this dish. The Italian one is more loaf like. The French one is a Baguette, long and skinny. You can’t go wrong with this bread!

Variations to keep it new…

You can do any of these variations with the leftover servings that you’ve frozen. That keeps the recipe basic and allows you to use it in a whole lot of ways.

Sometimes I like to pan fry some sweet or mild Italian sausage and add that to the recipe. I don’t add them whole, but cut the sausages into 1/2″ pieces after they are cooked.

I’ve also added leftover pork tenderloin, especially if I’ve grilled it with my Italian Seasoning rub. I cut it into 1/2″ thick slices and then the slices into quarters.

Leftover chicken, chopped and added to the sauce is also a great way to add texture and stretch the meal.

Use this sauce when making Lasagne. It’s awesome!

Wines we love with this…

It often depends on the mood and the variation that I make but here’s a list that we like. If you have a favorite, go with it. I would recommend a dry red. Whites won’t stand up to the acidity and spiciness of this sauce.

Barolo

Merlot

Cabernet Sauvignon

Gattinara – Travaglini is my favorite vintner of this wine, but it is hard to find and not just a table wine. This is my absolute favorite dry red of any and all reds.

Zinfandel

Chianti – Of course!

Leftovers

Unless you are feeding a really large party with this dish, you will have leftovers. I freeze this sauce in reusable containers that are large enough to hold two servings in each. A serving is 1 1/2 to 2 ladles of sauce per person. It’s always handy for when you forget to take something out for dinner, or just need some for quick preparation. It’s also great for other recipes. The flavors only intensify when you thaw and heat this sauce a second or third time! I’ve used this in Lasagne, when I make a Timpano, Baked Ziti, for Steak Pizzaiola, in a Beef Braciole, well you get the idea.

I hope you enjoy this. Remember, make it with love, make it with care and care for the ones you love!

Cento di questi giorni! Salud! Cin cin!

Question of the day – Do you have a favorite table wine? Defined as one that you enjoy and drink fairly often, maybe daily, and isn’t too expensive.

We lived in Miami Beach for a couple of years when I was in the 7^th and 8^th grade. I remember the morning Mom and Dad told us we were moving to Florida. We lived in a small 2-bedroom house on Avalon Avenue in Charlotte, NC. It was only a few blocks from my Grandparents, Gracie and Speedy. For maybe the 10^th or 11^th time in our young lives, we were moving, and we were excited. BEACHES, are you kidding me! We’re going to live in Miami Beach! My brother and I were thinking, “hey, we’re going on permanent summer vacation!” Of course, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Before we moved, Dad invited some neighbors over and made this dish for everyone. He had several variations on it and I’m sharing the one I think I remember best. He also made this for John Hertz Jr. The son of the founder of Hertz Rental Cars. Mr. Hertz owned a huge mansion in Miami and hired my Dad away from the Fountainebleau Hotel because he had this dish at the hotel one night. Well, the old king of rental cars decided he would have the Chef at his house. That’s a whole ‘nother story.

I remember all the Oooo’s and Ahhhhh’s when Dad brought this dish to the table on a huge platter. It was heaped high and steaming. The presentation was awesome, and it smelled wonderful. Of course, the kitchen was a disaster, and my Mom didn’t join us right away. Dad always said that “Great Chefs don’t clean, they create!” My Mom always responded, “You might be a great Chef at the restaurant, but here, you’re just a damned cook. Clean up after yourself!” Of course, he didn’t, so Mom always did as much as she could before sitting down. She didn’t want to face all the pots, pans and dishes after a great meal. Sometimes she would wink at us, and whisper, “The mess is worth it. But don’t tell your Dad I said that.”

This recipe will serve 6 to 8 people, fewer if you eat like me!

Prep time:  30 minutes – 1 hour depending on the shrimp you buy

Cooking time: 40 – 60 minutes

Ingredients

1lb – shrimp, peeled, deveined, tailed

7C – chicken broth, maybe 7 1/2 C

2C – Arborio rice, must be constantly stirred when cooking.

1 1/2C – Parmesan cheese

1C – Italian parsley, chopped

1 – small, sweet onion, finely chopped

4 – garlic cloves, finely chopped or mined

8oz – tomato sauce or purée, canned, I prefer Cento.

1/2C – white wine, dry

Olive Oil – My favorite olive oil comes from The Natural Olive in Hickory, NC. It’s an awesome shop to visit. The aromas, when you walk in, will transport to you. If you can’t visit, they do ship. Check them out at www.naturalolivehickory.com

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Making The Magic

Start warming your broth in a pot, over low heat.

In a large pan add about 2T olive oil, heat to Medium. Drop in a 1T of butter, melt and swirl in the pan to mix the oil and the butter. Lay your shrimp in the pan and cook on one side then flip to the other, just getting the shrimp pink and cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and stir in about 5 to 6T of the tomato sauce. Enough to thoroughly coat the shrimp, not swimming in it. Lower the heat to warm and cover. Don’t want them to continue cooking, just keep them warm.

In a large sauté pan, pot or Dutch oven, melt 2T of butter at Medium heat. When the butter starts to sizzle, drop in the onions and the garlic. When the onions are soft and just start to brown up, add the rice. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly (you might as well get used to stirring) making sure the rice is well coated.

Next, pour in the white wine. WHAT, you drank it already! Okay, get more, and pour in ½ C of dry white wine. Continue cooking the rice. Stir, stir, stir. Scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure nothing is sticking at this point. Reduce the heat a little and continue cooking until the wine is gone. NO, not by you drinking it!

When the last of the wine is absorbed and cooked into the rice, start ladling your heated broth into the pot. Continue stirring as you add one ladle at a time, letting the liquid almost disappear before you add the next one. Repeat, over and over again. This is a gradual process that is the essence of risotto’s creaminess and making its own sauce. The starches are slowly released with each ladle of broth and it slowly builds throughout the process. Stir, stir, stir. I know it’s hard, but you are given permission to use the other hand to pour yourself another glass of wine and enjoy. It’s a lot of work and it will take about 15 to 20 minutes. It’s like Tom Hanks says in the movie, A League of Their Own, “Baseball is supposed to be hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it.” Well, great Risotto is supposed to be hard….  You want a gentle simmer during this process, not a hard boil.

You may, or may not, add all the broth. Start sampling the rice after 10 or 12 minutes. It will be a little crunchy. Keep testing it and you’ll know the rice is done when its like porridge, gruel if you grew up in an orphanage, and a little bit chewy. When you reach that point, turn off the heat and have a sip of wine.

Right away (after the sip of wine) stir in the grated parmesan cheese and up to 3 or 4T of the remaining tomato sauce. Add a little bit at a time. If you add too much tomato sauce it will make your beautifully hand-crafted risotto soupy. Stop when you like the texture and the flavor. The tang of the tomato sauce will blend beautifully with the Parmesan. Stir in about half of your chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Plate this dish right away. For a beautiful presentation, use a spatula or large serving spoon to create a spiral swirl in the plated risotto. Then, drizzle in a thin line, a small amount of the remaining tomato sauce in a spiral on top of the risotto. You can use a small pastry bag and tip to get the right effect. Top the risotto with your shrimp. Sprinkle everything with the remaining parsley.

Wines we love with this…

Wines have become a subjective thing when it comes to preferences and what dishes to pair them with. We tend to favor whites in the summer and reds in the winter, but we don’t restrict our choices because of the temperature. I like to imagine the flavors and acidity of the wines, compared to the same things in the dishes. That comes from experience, so thirty years ago I sort of followed the conventional wisdoms. My point is, drink what you like. Just enjoy it!

Riesling

Moscato (yes a sweet wine with dinner! It’s allowed!)

Chardonnay

Frascati

Rosé

Variations to keep it new….

If you make this so often that you need to do variations, you’ve got a lot of patience and love to share with your friends!

Scallops, sautéed in butter and black pepper are awesome with this dish. Don’t add the tomato sauce to the scallops when cooking.

Tilapia, sea bass or orange roughy is perfectly matched for this dish. Broiled, sautéed or grilled, definitely not fried. Do not add the tomato sauce to the fish when cooking.

If you feel like splurging, steamed lobster is incredible. It’s also very rich and the combination of the risotto Adriatica and lobster will leave you STUFFED! Tomato sauce added to the lobster is optional.

Buon Appetito miei cari!

Here’s a question – Is there a special dish or meal that triggers a favorite memory for you? What is it and when’s the last time you shared it with people you are close to?

There are times when leftovers kind of pile up in the fridge and there’s just so much soup you can make with leftovers. Another thing I like to put together is a hearty breakfast bowl that can hold you all day long, even if you’re active all day. There are lots of variations and I’ll bet you can come up with some awesome ideas yourself. This recipe uses some ingredients we frequently have, but don’t hesitate to try your own combinations.

The first time I did this one, I was sitting in the sunroom on a Sunday morning, just getting into my second cup of coffee, when this idea sprang into my head. I was thinking about a small restaurant that was our favorite place for breakfast in Raleigh, NC back in the early 90’s. We went there on Sunday mornings, along with half the city of Raleigh. I think the name is Brigs, Great Beginnings. The breakfasts there were awesome, and we frequently met up with close friends. There was a bustle and buzz throughout the dining room. It always took a while to get your food. We shared stories with each other about the week or since the last time we saw each other, sipped coffee, and felt the warming rays of the sun streaming through the large windows all around the restaurant. The anticipation just added to the growing appetite and by the time I’m thinking, “I’m starving, where’s my food”, our server was bringing out the breakfast skillets we had ordered. I can still taste the flavor combinations. 

So inspired, I came up with my own dish and I hope you’ll enjoy this variation yourself. This will serve two with a hearty appetite.

Prep Time: 10 minutes. Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Leftover veggies from my Comfort Baked Chicken

½ lb Bacon

2 Sandwich sized slices American cheese

2 Sandwich sized slices of Swiss cheese

4 Eggs

4 T Butter

3 T Oliver Oil

1 Chopped green onion

Salt

Pepper

Making The Magic

Slowly pan fry the bacon until crispy throughout. I like to put the strips of bacon in the pan and heat to Medium High. After I have a sizzle going, I like to reduce the heat to Medium or less. Cook it slow, have patience. I usually flip the strips two or three times during the cooking, just to be sure they are cooked thoroughly and evenly. Once the bacon is done, remove it and place it on a paper towel to soak up the excess grease. As it cools, it should become stiff and crispy.

In the same pan, add 1 T of the butter to the bacon grease on Medium High. As the butter starts to sizzle, drop the leftover veggies into the hot pan. When the pan comes back up to temperature, it will be sizzling again, lower the temp slightly. You want the veggies to develop a crust, or at least dark brown, but not burn. DO NOT stir or turn the veggies until the browning or crusting has started. 10 minutes is usually enough time, then turn the veggies and brown on the other side.

When the veggies are almost done, in another pan or skillet, melt 2 T of butter and add 1 T of Olive Oil. Once hot, cook your eggs to taste, over easy, over medium, sunny side up, whatever makes your mouth water. I like the yokes runny, so they mix with the rest of the dish when I cut into them. Just before the eggs are done, turn the heat off.

Plate your cooked veggies in a large soup bowl, wide and shallow. Lay a slice of the Swiss and the American cheese over the veggies. Crumble the bacon over the top of the cheese. Add the eggs to the top of the pile. Salt and Pepper to taste. Finish it off with the chopped green onions.

Variations To Keep It New

The possibilities are limitless with this dish. Here are some of the alternative ingredients that I’ve used to change the flavor and texture of this meal.

Thinly sliced steak, crumbled sausage, avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, hash browns, potatoes O’brian, feta cheese, cheddar cheese, Italian seasoning. Mix and match to your own taste!

Breakfast Drinks Anyone

Bloody Marys, made with Zing-Zang are great with this.

Also, Mimosas are good.

Share what you come up with so we can all try it. As Julia always used to say “Bon Appetit”. And we like to say in the south, “Bon Appetit Ya’ll”.

I love making this dish because it is so easy and has a tangy zest. This recipe is a little different than most because I cut the chicken into bitesize pieces. The smaller pieces have more of the lemon sauce and every bite burst with flavor.

This recipe is for four, but it’s easy to scale up or down. Like with any recipe, easy or complicated, it’s always better if you measure, prep and stage all your ingredients before you start to cook.

One of my fondest memories around this dish is tied to an annual high school reunion I attend almost every year in October. Missed the one in 2020 and probably will in 2021 because of COVID, but I can enjoy the meal and think of the people I’m missing. Yes, I did say annual. It’s a reunion that’s been going on for more than a decade and includes all the classes of the 1960’s from two rival high schools in Charlotte, NC. Harding High (Go Rams) and West Mecklenburg High. Around 350 people show up for the long weekend every year. One year, I made this dish for six of us sharing a condo we rented for the weekend. I think we finished 6 bottles of wine that night! Sharing stories about the year since we last saw each other and catching up on the good and the bad. It seemed to get easier as each bottle of wine emptied. As I sat there watching everyone talking, laughing, it dawned on me that I had known these people most of my life, since the age of 6 or 7. I never would have imagined back then I would be making a meal for all of us more than 60 years later. It was hard to hold back the tears as I thought of how very fortunate I was, we all were, to still have each other.

Prep time: 20 minutes. – Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 – boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 C – chicken stock

1/3 C – lemon juice

½ C – capers, drained

½ C – white wine (nothing sweet)

¼ C – grated Parmesan cheese

½ C – all-purpose flour

¼ C – olive oil

3 T – butter

Garlic salt pepper mix

Angel Hair pasta (Substitute whatever pasta you like, but remember this is a delicate sauce and thicker, heavier pastas will dilute the flavor of the pan sauce and chicken.)

Making The Magic

Butterfly the chicken breasts, cutting them all the way through. You should end up with 4 halves. Take each half, one at a time, lay them on a cutting board and cover them with piece of cling film (plastic wrap). Use a small plate and use the edge of the plate to lightly pound the chicken breast on one side, flip it and do the second side. Not too hard. You don’t want to pound all the way through the chicken, and you don’t want to break the plate! This process breaks down the connective tissue and creates crannies for the seasoning and the sauce.

Slowly preheat a large pan, nonstick or stainless is best, with the olive oil and butter. While the butter is melting do the following step. Don’t overheat the butter. You don’t want it to brown. Once the butter melts, swirl the pan to let the oil and butter mix. 

Once the halves are tenderized, season them with garlic salt pepper mix. Slice at an angle, into bite-size pieces, and put them into a container to toss with the flower. Add the flour and coat the chicken. Drop the coated pieces into your preheated pan with the olive oil and butter.

Cook the chicken until lightly browned. Turn each piece and brown on the second side. You may need to add more olive oil.

When the chicken is browned, remove it from the oil and set aside. Pour in the chicken stock and scrape the brown bits left in the pan until all the leavings are mixed into the stock. Add the capers and stir in. Add the lemon juice and bring to a simmer. Add the white wine and stir in. Let the sauce simmer and return the chicken to the pan. Be sure each piece is covered with the sauce in the pan. Cook down until the sauce starts to thicken.

While the chicken simmers, cook your pasta. Angel hair cooks in 4 minutes. Some pastas take as much a 18 minutes, so time it accordingly. Hint: Don’t use too much water. Most folks think more water in huge pots is better. When your pasta is cooked, drain and plate the pasta.

Spoon the chicken and piccata sauce over the pasta. Sprinkle Parmesan over the plated dish, if desired.

Variations to keep it new

I’ve added Lion’s Mane Mushrooms for some different texture and flavor. You can also add canned mushrooms, drained.

Top with chopped green onions, just a few.

Sprinkle some raisins over the top. The combination of the lemon sauce and the sweet raisins really changes the flavor.

Wines we love with this

Pinot Grigio

Chardonnay

Sauvignon Blanc

Leftovers

There is seldom any leftover, but if you do have some, it is great to just simply reheat in the microwave. I usually reheat things at power level 8 and no more than 2 minutes at a time, until hot.

Question

What would you think of adding pine nuts to this dish?