Another Great Pasta Dish

I suspect that there are lots of 5-year olds like little j who would like to eat pasta every day. Big J left for Texas on Friday to help out with the hurricane and we've had pasta twice in three days. Tonight I decided that I had to come up with something other than my standard tuna, garlic, and caper pasta dish.

This was perfect, especially if, like me, you love garlic.

Pasta with Broccoli and Garlic

4 oz dried pasta (any shape you like)
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
Parmesan

As pasta cooks, steam broccoli until tender crisp.

In the meantime, heat olive oil in saute pan over medium heat. Add garlic, anchovy paste, and red pepper flakes. Saute until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes. Add steamed broccoli and heat through.

Toss cooked pasta with broccoli and garlic mixture. Top with fresh grated Parmesan. A delicious variation would be to add fresh toasted breadcrumbs to the completed dish.

Serves 2.

Peach Overload

A couple weeks ago little j's summer camp went peach picking. Like I imagine most 5-year olds do, she has a fascination with all things small, as in, "Can you make me little baby pancakes?" So of course her bag was filled with peaches the size of plums. We don't seem to eat a lot of stone fruits in our house, for whatever reason, so they'd been around a while when I cleaned out the fridge today. I knew I had to do something with them.

Last summer little j fell in love with apple butter and I thought that she would love peach butter even more. Okay, that turned out to be the understatement of the canning season. She LOVED it. After her first taste she said, "Could I have a bowl of that?"

Ordinarily I would have canned, but because I only had a little over 3 pounds of fruit I ended up with about 12 ounces which will definitely keep in the fridge until little j eats it up.

Spiced Peach Butter

4 pound of peaches, peeled, pits removed and cut into chunks
1/2 cup water
Juice and zest of one lemon
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Put peaches, water, and lemon juice and zest in large pot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil stirring frequently. Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for about 20 minutes or until peaches are soft.

Run peaches through a food mill or in a food processor until smooth and consistent in texture (about 10 one second pulses in a processor).

Put puree into clean pan. Add sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Set over medium high heat stirring constantly until sugar has melted and puree begins to simmer. Lower heat to medium low and allow to simmer for up to 60 minutes, until desired consistency is achieved.

Place into jars. Process for canning if desired.

Camp Cooking

When it comes to camp cooking I am not an expert, although there are a few things that I do well: paper bag fried eggs, banana boats, campfire stew, and, of course, s'mores.

To my way of thinking, roasting marshmallows is an art form. It takes patience to hold a blob of sugar on a stick and roast it to ooey, gooey, toasted perfection. You have to find the right place over the coals and you can't let it roast too quickly or else it won't warm all the way through. Ideally, you want it nearly falling off the stick but not so much you lose it in the fire or in the dirt before you put it on the chocolate and graham cracker.

I am very picky when it comes to s'more ingredients. Jet Puffed marshmallows are far superior to any other brand. They puff up better and roast more evenly. Honey Maid graham crackers have just the right thickness and crunch. Only Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars in the 1.55 oz size will do.

And the correct proportions are as follows: two graham cracker squares, two squares of chocolate, and one perfectly toasted marshmallow. The chocolate should be melty and the marshmallow should squish out the edge and get all over your face and hands. Yum!

Pizza at Home

Making your own pizza can be a great family dinner activity. Tonight, however, it was just me making the pizza. little j was busy riding her bike and Big J was getting things ready for our camping trip tomorrow.

The September/October 2008 issue of Cook's Illustrated arrived about a week ago and, after skimming all the recipes, I immediately knew I wanted to make pizza bianca. This week turned out to be a little crazy and, because the dough has to rise at least two hours, I was never home in time to make it during the week. So today it was and before we headed out to to get our food supplies for camping I mixed up the dough and set it to rise.

This is an interesting recipe because the dough is incredibly soft and you don't knead it and shape it by hand as you would a typical pizza dough. Rather, after the dough rises you turn the dough out directly onto a rimmed baking sheet and stretch it to the edges of the pan.

The basic recipe calls for a simply topping of olive oil and rosemary, but variations with tomatoes and mozzarella as well as tomatoes, sausage and fontina were also included. I decided to split the pizza in half between the two variations.

Let me tell you that this is quite possibly the best pizza we've made at home. The crust was tender and chewy with crisp edges. The toppings were simply and flavorful. I am looking forward to trying the pizza with the simple topping of olive oil and rosemary, but I am also looking forward to experimenting with other toppings.

Eggplant Even That Girl Can Love

I've had eggplant rolls on our weekly menu for about three weeks now but didn't get around to making it until this past Thursday because, as I mentioned in the previous post, I haven't fully embraced eggplant. However, this recipe (gleaned from several to make my own) made me, in not an eggplant lover, an eggplant convert. Here's my recipe:

Grilled Eggplant Rolls

1 large eggplant (about 1 - 1/2 lbs.)
Kosher salt
8 oz ricotta
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan
1/4 cup shredded basil
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (more if desired)
salt
pepper
tomato-based pasta sauce -- whatever kind you prefer

Peel a two-inch strip from opposite sides of the eggplant, then make 1/4 inch (or less) slices. (I actually used the tines of a fork to make the marks where I cut and came out with 8 slices.) Sprinkle both sides of each slice with kosher salt and lay in a colander for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl mix ricotta, parmesan, basil, cayenne, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat grill on high. Rinse eggplant slices and pat dry. Brush olive oil on both sides of eggplant. Grill until slightly softened, turning once, about 5 minutes total.

Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese mixture on the small end of the eggplant and roll up. Place eggplant in an 8"x8" baking pan. Spoon enough sauce to cover eggplant, making sure edges are covered. Cover pan with foil and place in oven for about 20 minutes or until bubbling.

Serves 3 - 4.

Eggplant, Still Not Feeling It

I want to like eggplant. I feel like I should like eggplant. But I'm just not feeling it. There are only a few eggplant recipes that really appeal to me (I'll be sharing one that I truly like very soon). Fortunately I heard a piece on Morning Edition today that made me feel better about my ambivalence and sometimes dislike of eggplant -- apparently Nigella Lawson doesn't particularly care for eggplant either, nor, for that matter, does host Renee Montagne. Apparently I'm not alone.

In my quest to find a delicious and non-slimy eggplant recipe I like I decided to do a grilled vegetable and pesto pasta dish. While the dish as a whole was good, I still didn't care for the eggplant. In fact, on my second helping I picked through so I wouldn't get any eggplant. I'm so mature.

Despite the fact that I didn't care for the eggplant, the dish was good as a whole, and so I am happy to share the recipe.

Pasta with Grilled Vegetables and Cilantro Pecan Pesto

1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup pecans
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3/4 cup fresh packed cilantro
1 tablespoon ume plum vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Assorted vegetables (seeded roma tomatoes, onions, eggplant, summer squash)

Shelled edamame (if frozen, boiled for 5 minutes and drained)

8 oz dried pasta (a short noodle such as penne works best)

For pesto: Lightly toast pine nuts and pecans and cool. Place nuts, garlic, cilantro and ume plum vinegar into the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until fine and well mixed. With processor running, slowly add oil. Set aside.

While pasta is cooking, heat grill. Slice vegetables (halve tomatoes) and toss with olive oil. If using eggplant, slice and sprinkle with kosher salt and set in a colander for half an hour, then rinse before roasting. Roast on grill until grill marks appear and vegetables are beginning to soften.

Roughly chop vegetables. Drain pasta reserving some pasta water. Mix vegetables and edamame with pasta. Add pesto, more or less to taste. If too thick, add a bit of pasta water.

Serves 4 - 6

Perfect Warm Weather Dinner

We went to the county fair today, and let me tell you it was HOT! After looking at the animals and fruits and vegetables, including an amazing look inside a beehive, we made our way to the carnival where it was even hotter. I think we drank a gallon of lemonade and two gallons of water. By the time we got home we were wiped out, so a complicated dinner was the first on our to-do list for the evening.

Big J said he wanted shrimp salad. Of course we had neither shrimp nor salad in the house. I went down to Main Street Market which is a great collection of shops including Seafood @ West Main and Feast!. I got some really nice shrimp at the seafood place then walked over to Feast! for a baguette, bottle of wine, local greens, and a pound of local white peaches that smelled so amazing I couldn't pass them up.

On the way home I thought about how to combine everything and decided on peel and eat shrimp with the family cocktail sauce and a grilled peach and arugula salad.

For the salad, I cleaned and placed arugula in a salad bowl, mixed up a vinaigrette of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, honey and olive oil. I cut the peached into 8ths and spooned a little vinaigrette over the fruit (acid to keep it from browning, olive oil to prevent sticking, and honey to caramelize the sugars) and cooked them on the grill for about 3 minutes per side. The warm peaches mixed with the peppery arugula and acidic dressing was delicious.

We had our shrimp with my family's cocktail sauce recipe. The secret is . . . celery! Here it is:

Cocktail Sauce

1 cup ketchup (I like Whole Foods 365 Organic)
3 tablespoons grated onion
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
juice of one lemon
1 stalk finely minced celery
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate, covered, for at least one hour.