Baby octopus is one of those dividing foods: you either love them or you hate them. I fall into the lover camp as does Carlo. There is something strangely satisfying about popping an entire little baby octopus into your mouth. I first learned to enjoy them at the incredible restaurant Uchi in Austin, where they serve Tako Pops which are grilled marinated baby octopuses on a stick so they look like some kind of deranged lollipop.

We have never made baby octopus at home before, but since we have had positive experiences cooking squid at home, we decided to try cooking some octopus. You can find frozen packs of baby octopus at most Asian stores and they are really cheap: I paid $3.50 for a pound pack of frozen octopus at my local ethnic food store.

I like my baby octopus quickly grilled or sauteed so they get a nice crunchy char on them, especially on the tentacles. This recipe is a classic Spanish seafood treatment and can be used on baby squid too if you are a bit too freaked out to cook baby octopus at home. This recipe makes enough for 4 people as a starter at $1.06 per serving.

Baby Octopus with Garlic and Parsley, adapted from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound baby octopus, defrosted if frozen
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
salt to taste

In a griddle, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat. Place the baby octopuses in the pan and sear them, without moving them for 3 minutes, then turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes until they are a bit crispy and charred. If a lot of water starts coming out of the octopuses, just remove them and pour out the water and restart the process until the octopuses are cooked. Remove the octopuses from the pan and place them on a large serving dish.

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic to a small frying pan and saute for 20 seconds. Remove the garlic from the heat and squeeze the lemon juice over it and stir together. Add the parsley to the mixture, then pour it over the octopus and add salt to taste. Serve the dish immediately.

Artichokes are one of those vegetables that have always frightened me a bit. They look so beautiful, but what the hell do you do with them? For years, I would only eat artichokes in restaurants, awkwardly sucking out the tasty flesh of the leaves, but last year at a farmers’ market in Oceanside, California, I fell in love with the cutest little baby artichokes that I had to buy. We brought that back to Vegas in a cooler bag and learned how to trim them so we could saute them up for a pizza topping. They were delicious and surprisingly easier to trim than we both thought. Artichokes are currently in season and this Mario Batali pasta recipe highlights their delicious taste with a little bit of pancetta thrown in there to add some extra flavour. This recipe makes enough for 6 at $1.17 per serving.

Spaghetti with Artichokes and Pancetta, from Mario Batali in Food & Wine, April 2010
1 lemon, halved
8 baby artichokes or 2 large artichokes (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for serving

Fill a large bowl with cold water. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon halves, then add the lemon halves to the water. Working with 1 artichoke at a time, peel off the dark green outer leaves. Cut off the top fourth of the artichoke; peel and trim the stem. Slice the artichoke lengthwise into 1/8 inch thick slices and drop them into the lemon water. Repeat with the remaining artichokes. If you need help figuring out how to trim artichokes, check out this great tutorial.

In a saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion, garlic, and pancetta and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 10 minutes. Drain the artichokes; discard the lemon. Add the artichokes to the saucepan, cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until almost tender, about 10 minutes. Add the white wine, cover and simmer over moderately low heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add the pasta and the reserved cooking water to the artichokes and toss over moderate heat for 1 minute. Remove the pasta from the heat, stir in the Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve the pasta with grated cheese to top.

Now that the weather is warming up in Vegas, I’m starting to crave crunchy and cool salads for lunch. As much as I enjoy salads, it is sometimes pretty easy to get in a salad rut, especially since most nights we have a green salad as part of our dinner. While this Chopped Greek Salad might not be the most innovative salad out there, it sure looks pretty and colourful, which makes filling up on all your veggies an easy and enjoyable task. This recipe makes enough for 2 large salads at $2.41 per serving.

Chopped Greek Salad, adapted from Health Magazine, April 2010
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 small garlic clove minced
salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cups lettuce, preferably Romaine
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 small red or yellow bell pepper, diced
1 cup tomatoes, diced
1 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, chopped

Whisk together the lemon juice, garlic, and honey in a small bowl. Season the dressing with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and then slowly whisk in the olive oil until well combined.

Place half of lettuce on each plate, and arrange the chickpeas, bell pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives, and feta on top in sections. Sprinkle the mint leaves over the salad and then drizzle the dressing over everything.

Often when you order spaghetti and meatballs in a restaurant, you get a ginormous meatball–hard as a hockey puck–in a generic red marinara sauce, which is why I never thought I really liked spaghetti and meatballs. I thought meatballs were just a poor substitute for a rich bolognese sauce, which is how I preferred my meat to top my spaghetti.

This recipe by Campanile’s Mark Peel helped change my view on meatballs: By using a mixture of three different kinds of meats, he manages to create the most tender and light meatballs I’ve tasted. The sauce isn’t your average bland marinara either. The flavour of the olive oil and the freshness of the basil make for a bright and tangy tomato sauce that tastes like it has been made from fresh tomatoes. This recipe does take a while to make, but is a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon, especially if you have a good glass of wine in your hand. The meatballs and sauce freeze really well for up to 1 month too if you needed an added incentive. This recipe makes enough spaghetti and meatballs for 8 very generous dinners at $2.56 per serving.

Spaghetti and Meatballs, from Mark Peel’s New Classic Family Dinners
For the Sauce:
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, halved and thinly sliced
3 28-ounce cans diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
about 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
about 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large fresh basil sprigs, plus 1/2 cup leaves

For the Meatballs:
about 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces mushrooms, chopped
2 teaspoons cracked fennel seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
About 2/3 cup cold dry white wine, divided
4 ounces crusty bread, crusts removed, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
3/4 pound cold ground pork
3/4 pound cold ground turkey, dark meat
3/4 pound cold ground beef
2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 pounds spaghetti
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To make the sauce, get a 5- to 6-quart pan and cook the oil and garlic over medium-low heat until the garlic softens, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover the sauce and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer it, stirring often, until thick, 45 minutes to 1 hour. If needed, crush the tomatoes with a spoon to break them up. Stir in the basil sprigs and then turn off the heat.

While the sauce is cooking, make the meatballs by heating 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Add the mushrooms, fennel, salt, and pepper. Cook everything until the mushrooms are tender, 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 cup wine and the bread crumbs until the liquid is absorbed.

Transfer this mixture to a food processor and pulse to finely chop. Scrape everything into a bowl and let it cool. When it has cooled down, add the parsley, meats, and 1/3 cup wine and mix everything together until well blended, 1 to 2 minutes.

Using wet hands, shape the meat into 1 1/2-inch balls. Be sure to use both hands and firmly press the meatballs into shape so they won’t fall apart later. Heat 2 large frying pans over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil in each. Brown about a third of the meatballs in each pan, turning once and adding more oil if needed, 6 to 8 minutes per batch. With a slotted spatula, transfer the meatballs to a platter. Repeat with the remaining meatballs and oil.

Scrape all the meat drippings from the pans into 1 pan. Whisk in the flour, then cook it over medium heat until bubbling, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in 2 cups of sauce to loosen up the browned bits then scrape everything into the pan with the rest of the sauce and stir.

Return the sauce to a simmer. Gently stir in the meatballs; simmer, covered, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes. Discard the basil sprigs, and cut the remaining basil leaves into fine slivers and stir into the sauce. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti according to the packet directions. Drain the pasta and serve by topping with meatballs and tomato sauce with lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Tonight is the season premiere of Top Chef Masters 2. Carlo and I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of the show, especially watching the chefs, who had previously been judges on the regular Top Chef, realize that those quick fires weren’t so easy and perhaps they were a little too critical of the contestants.

I was definitely Team Rick Bayless last season, who proved to be one of the smartest and most thoughtful chefs that I’ve had the privilege to watch on TV. Perhaps the art history dork in me loves that he was an anthropology PhD student studying in Mexico City who realized that he was more interested in the street food, and then used his academic background to delve into the history and culture of regional Mexican cuisine. While I long to visit Chicago and eat at all of Rick Bayless’ restaurants, I’ll settle on snacking on some of this incredible Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa with tortilla chips while watching tonight’s Top Chef Masters. This recipe makes 2 1/2 cups of salsa which can feed 4 people as a snack at 53 cents per serving.

Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa, from Rick Bayless
8 ounces (about 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1/2 cup loosely packed coarsely chopped cilantro
1 small jalape?±o, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado, pitted, and flesh scooped from the skin
1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
salt

Roughly chop half of the tomatillos, and put them into a food processor with the cilantro and jalape?±o. Measure in 1/4 cup water and whiz everything to a slushy, coarse puree. Roughly chop half the avocado, add it to the processor and pulse until it is incorporated into the salsa.

Place the salsa into a serving dish and add the finely chopped onions. Finally chop the remaining tomatillos and avocado and stir them into the salsa. Taste and season with salt as needed.