Arriving in Paris

We arrive in Paris just before Easter and the first thing we notice (after the beautiful spring flowers everywhere) is the Easter chocolate displayed in the shops and department stores.

We're on a journey with a brief stop in Paris, on to Nice and Monaco, then to Sanremo and Cinque Terre in Italy, ultimately returning to Paris to catch our flight home (and have one last day in this fabulous city).  But, first, we wander through Paris.

We start with chocolate admiring.

Chocolate everywhere

The department stores are full of spring fashions and decorations.

Galleries Lafayette

Outside, the weather is delightful and we stroll, taking in our favorite locations.

Jardin des Tuileries

Place de la Concorde

Looking down the Champs Élysées

Glimpses of La Tour Eiffel

Houseboats moored on the Seine

Musée d'Orsay

Le Musée du Louvre

We stop near Place Saint-Michel for lunch at a gyro shop, followed by gelato admiration across the street.

Gyro

Gelato

We stroll back along the Seine toward the Champs Élysées, passing more great sights.

Along the Seine

Revitalized La Samaritaine

Rear of the Louvre

Palais Bourbon (French National Assembly)

Place de la Concorde (from Palais Bourbon across the river)

Grand Palais

Petit Palais across the street

More views of the Eiffel Tower

Back on the Champs Élysées

We've started our visit to Paris with a large circular tour from the Champs Élysées up to the department stores on Boulevard Haussmann (and the Opera), then over to the the Seine (near Notre Dame), and along the Seine back to the Champs Élysées.  We've filled an afternoon with great views, memories, and new experiences and now return to our hotel to plan the rest of our visit (and find dinner).

Pasta Primavera With Asparagus and Peas

This pasta primavera recipe from Melissa Clark at the New York Times combines early spring vegetables with fettuccine (or tagliatelle), cooked al dente for the chewy bite of the pasta to complement the gently cooked vegetables.

Ingredients

We slice snap peas and asparagus into ¼-inch (6 mm) thick pieces, leaving the asparagus tips whole.  We then add English peas and thin sliced shallot (or spring onion) and cook in butter until tender, 3 to 4 minutes.  Stir in garlic and cook one more minute, season with salt and pepper, then set aside.

Asparagus and peas

With garlic

Cook the fettuccine to al dente, drain, and add to and toss with the vegetables.  Add Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, crème fraîche, chopped parsley, and chopped tarragon.

Add cheese, creme fraiche, and herbs

Dinner is served

Dinner is served!

Red Lentil Soup

One of the most popular dishes in the New York Times cooking database, with over 40,000 5-star ratings (the highest), is red lentil soup.  We've seen it mentioned and featured periodically in the paper and finally decide to make it.  The dish is based on a Turkish lentil soup, mercimek corbasi, and is light and spicy, with  bold red color.

Gathering the ingredients

We first sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until golden, then stir in tomato paste, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper, sautéing for an additional two minutes.

Sautéing

We next add chicken broth, water, red lentils, and diced carrot, bringing the mixture to a simmer and cooking until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes.

Simmering

We remove half the soup, purée it in a food processor, return it to the pot, reheat the soup, and stir in lemon juice and cilantro.  We served drizzled with olive oil and dusted with chili powder.

Finishing up

Serving

We accompany the soup with a salad of arugula (topped with olive oil, salt, and pepper), mozzarella, tomato jam, and prosciutto, with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Salad

Dinner is served

What a simple, tasty dish.  Now that we've made in once, we're thinking about tweaking the recipe for the next time (less cumin and cilantro, perhaps some crunch such as bacon, pancetta, or croutons).

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

The classic Italian dish of spaghetti aglio e olio is a simple meal made from spaghetti, olive oil, and garlic, often with Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes for heat and parsley for freshness, using starchy pasta water to create a light sauce.

We make the dish with spaghetti that was given to us at the Monaco Open Tennis Tournament (upcoming blog) earlier this year as a gift for attendees.

Free spaghetti

We bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the pasta, cooking to just before al dente and saving 1½ cups of the pasta cooking water.

We add thin-sliced garlic to olive oil at medium heat and cook for two minutes, until the garlic turns gold on the edges.  We add red pepper flakes and cook for 30 more seconds, then the reserved pasta-cooking water, bringing it all to a boil.  We lower the heat, add one teaspoon of salt, and simmer for about five minutes, until the liquid is reduced by about a third.

Preparing ingredients

Starting with the garlic, adding red pepper flakes

We introduce the drained pasta to the garlic sauce and mix.  Off the heat, we add minced parsley and grated Parmesan cheese and toss well.  We allow the pasta to rest off heat for five minutes for the sauce to be absorbed, taste for seasoning, and serve warm with extra Parmesan on the side.

Adding the pasta

To accompany the pasta, we prepare a salad of romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, radish, avocado, green onion, and mushrooms, with a dressing of  olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, shallot, salt, and pepper.

Dinner is ready

Simple, elegant, quick, and delicious.  Really good!

Garlicky Shrimp Tacos

We're thinking of shrimp for dinner and spot a recipe for garlicky shrimp tacos that sounds really tasty and we give it a try.  We start by making pico de gallo to accompany the dish, using a recipe that is fairly traditional, with the addition of chili peppers (jalapeño this time, although the recipe suggests both jalapeño and serrano).

We gently toss chopped tomatoes, cilantro, white onion, jalapeño, and garlic with lime juice, seasoning with salt and more lime juice as needed.  We then let the pico de gallo sit for a few minutes as the flavors meld

Pico de galla

For the tacos, we sear the shrimp in olive oil infused with garlic and smoked paprika.  We then add the shrimp to warm corn tortillas and dress the dish with crisp sliced radishes, guacamole, cilantro, and the pico de gallo.  After a final squeeze of lime, we are ready to serve.

Accoutrements

Shrimp ready to cook in garlic/smoked paprika olive oil

Shrimp are ready to go

Dinner is served

Make your own taco

What a great dish!  We'll make this again soon - simple, quick, and delicious!