Saturday June 22nd Weeknight Dinners with Chef Danny Conkling

Danny Conkling is a good cook. Actually he is a great cook. He attended the Culinary Institute of America — CIA — worked at Restaurant Daniel in New York, moved out to Seattle and was the chef at Sitka and Spruce and then The London Plane. And thankfully he agrees to come out to the farm every summer to teach a class or two. I find him to be one of the best teachers here; patient, thorough and very knowledgable about the material at hand.

Although he usually makes fancy, Frenchy food I asked him this year to teach something a little different. This summer he will be teaching us how to make better weekday food. Not that elaborate meal that you spend most of Sunday prepping for, but that quick dinner on a Tuesday when you got home from work later than expected and when you’re terribly hungry. That dinner that starts with a box of dried pasta.

Danny will take us through ten rapid-fire pasta dinners: a kale and walnut pesto, a seafood brodo, aglio y olio, and of course that remarkable Allison Roman dish with the shallots and tomato paste and a few others. He will show you how to up your game; to learn to make your Tuesday dinner just a bit better. How to caramelize those onions the correct way, the best way to cook and drain that pasta, how to expertly cut those vegetables and how to properly season to make your dinner delectable.

You might not think that you need this class, but I’ve been to your home for a weekday dinner. You do.