From My Kitchen: Dunbar Pie

It’s that time again, I grabbed one of my cookbooks, and picked out a good looking recipe and got to cooking. I picked a Dunbar Pie from the cookbook Meals, Music and Muses by Alexander Smalls, a fellow New Yorker, a soulful man from Harlem. He is a chef, a visionary, a restauranteur, an entrepreneur, and a James Beard Award winning writer. If you follow his instagram, you will find pictures of celebrities dining in his home, next to deeply felt advice, yearning for a better America. Besides the fact that I love his recipes, he seems to be a pretty awesome person.

This recipe requires a few steps, takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to make, so most likely it’s a dish I would make on a Sunday, or a holiday, or hey, during quarantine, as it is still the case for me. I absolutely loved this dish, couldn’t get enough, ruined my diet, can’t wait for my leftovers tonight. It is comfort food at its finest.

What you’ll need:

Prepare the pasta according to the instructions on the box, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pot or dutch oven, the the oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring andante breaking the meat into crumbles as it cooks, for about 10 minutes, until lightly brown.

Add red pepper flakes, garlic, onion, and oregano. Cook, stirring often until the onions are translucent and fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Add tomato paste,belll peppers, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, stock and cream. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a light boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.

Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley and the mint, then add the pasta.

Spoon half of the pasta into a 3-quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese, then spoon in the remaining pasta. Top with remaining cheese. Bake until the sauce is bubbling, and the cheese is browned 35 – 40 minutes. Let it rest 10 minutes before serving.

Bon Appétit!

For more info on Meals, Music and Muses click here

Author: Gotham Foodie

Hello there, fellow foodies! My name is Erica, I was born and raised in Germany, and moved to the US, New York City to be exact, in July of 1987. I have worked most of my time here in the Big Apple as a bartender, but my true love is food. I cook just about every day, I search for good food everywhere, and pretty much always find it. I don't consider myself a food critic, I don't have the culinary background for that kind of expertise. I do however know good food, good chefs and good restaurants. I report back about my culinary adventures, and I choose to leave out my unsatisfactory experiences. We have enough negativity in our daily lives, I don't want to add to that. All the recipes in my FROM MY KITCHEN and DOTW blogs are cooked and prepared by me. All pictures are taken by me. I don't always eat everything you see in my pictures, but you bet your buns, I do try everything. Last but not least, you should know that I am a huge Top Chef fan. I have never missed an episode of the Bravo TV show. I have at this point visited almost 20 restaurants run by Top Chef contestants, and I'm continuously impressed by their skill, drive and passion. So I will continue to seek them out, and I hope you join me in my journey!

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