Vegan Slut's Spaghetti

There is perhaps no pasta dish that teases and titillates a vegan cook's imagination as maddeningly as Pasta Puttanesca.  Brazen and vibrant, this Italian classic, which literally translates to whore's pasta, appears at once attainable (all but one ingredient is vegan) and forbidding (darn those anchovies!).

Italian lore has it that Pasta Puttanesca was thus named because it was invented by prostitutes hoping to lure customers in with its rich aroma. Other versions attribute the sauce to the prostitutes' uber-busy lifestyles: they didn't have time to go shop for fresh ingredients, so they just threw together what was in the pantry.

Whatever its origins, Pasta Puttanesca is one of those dishes that, once you've had it, is impossible to forget.

Gingery Eggplant In Coconut Sauce

A gingery, peanutty, coconutty sauce drizzled over butter-soft eggplants is a side-dish to die for. Or better still, to live for.

People are often baffled by eggplants. Those who have never cooked with this vegetable are not sure what on earth to do with it. Some have tried it but detest it because all they can recall is bitter, chewy, undercooked flesh and a hard skin.

But undercooking eggplant is an unspeakable kitchen crime against this delicious vegetable-- so delicious, in fact, that it tops the list of my favorite vegetables (and that is not a small achievement given how much I love all veggies). Take that as a rule of thumb, in fact-- never, ever, undercook your eggplant, and you will learn to love this tall, dark, handsome vegetable with all your heart.

Stir-Fry Veggie Sambar for Chalks and Chopsticks

Home, Or Something Like It

The Roommates liked to eat-- Indian food, exactly as mom had made it-- and that's why they decided it was time they learned how to cook. It was their first semester at grad school and they had more time than they could gossip, hang out, and study, in that order. They had delicious memories of the foods of home (which they were dying to eat again). And they had just sprung $10 for a slightly worn set of pots and pans from a Panamanian student in the apartment building who was moving back home. He had also thrown in a knife and some ladles. And a futon, if they agreed to carry it out so he could get his deposit back from the landlord.

The kitchen was new territory for the Roommates, in many different ways. Back home in India food had always been served up to them on a platter by mom, or their sisters, or grandmom, or an aunt. They did not even have to pick up the dirty plates and wash them, because someone else -- a woman -- would do it for them.