Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic Scapes and Anchovies

It's taken years, but I finally made an anchovy aficionado out of the old husband. Oh, I've tried before, with stealthy insertions of the salty fish into Caesar Salads, minced onto pizza pies and tucked into pastas, but I was always discovered. Not until I melted a tin of anchovies into a luscious and decidedly unsalty base for a supper pasta with Broccoli Rabe and some of our bountiful supply of homegrown garlic scapes did I succeed in winning over my Dan to the anchovy side.

When anchovies are cooked down over a low flame, they lose their super salinity and gain a mellow, earthy flavor that was the perfect foil to the bitter Broccoli Rabe greens. This dish was so successful, I've made it twice since, and Dan has even cleaned out the cupboard of my tinned anchovy stash, so I believe I have an anchovy convert on my hands now.

It's a quick and simple pasta dish and one that I will pass on to you should you covet a hearty pasta dish with once-sharp flavors that are delightfully mellowed after cooking.

Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Garlic Scapes and Anchovies

1/2 bunch broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 lb. fettuccine

1 tin anchovies

10 garlic scapes, chopped

Olive oil

Pinch of hot pepper flakes

Grated Romano cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste (taste first; you made not need to add any salt with the saltiness of the anchovies)


Cook fettuccine until al dente. Drain and rinse with warm water. Set aside.

Heat a teaspoon or so of olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add chopped garlic scapes and stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring. Add anchovies and their oil and break up with a wooden spoon, stirring until they melt and coat the scapes. Add chopped broccoli rabe and stir all around. Cook until leaves are wilted and broccoli rabe is crisp-tender, about 7-8 minutes. Add a little water and cover pan to steam for another minute or two.

Add hot pepper flakes and salt and pepper to taste. Mix with your cooked pasta and toss to coat. Garnish with grated cheese.

Serve hot to 6-8 persons.

I am sending a plate of this toothsome pasta over to Helen of Fuss Free Flavours, who is this week's host for Presto Pasta Nights. This weekly event was started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast and is a great showcase for noodly dishes. Helen will have the roundup for Presto Pasta Nights #221 posted after the July 7 deadline.

Chapchae: A Cellophane Noodle Stir-Fry, Gluten-Free and Tasty!

Shopping for naturally gluten-free ingredients in Albany's Asian markets has proven to be a fun and inexpensive way to try new foods and recipes. We try to get down once a month to stock up on rice varieties, spices, gorgeous fresh Asian produce and all kinds of exotic sauces, snacks and canned vegetables to experiment with.

On our last shopping trip I picked up a bag of gray-colored sweet potato noodles to play around with. They cost under $2 and looked intriguing. After a little research on Korean cuisine, I found this recipe for Chapchae (also known as Jabchae or Japchae) which is a traditional stir-fry of these noodles with sesame oil, sliced veggies, all slathered in a sweetened soy sauce. That would work!



The cooking directions on the back of the package were a little confusing, but I got them softened up for the pot by bringing a big pot of water to a boil and then soaking them in it, with the stove burner turned off, while I was busy chopping up my other Chapchae ingredients (about 15 minutes).

The cooked noodles turn absolutely clear, which is why they are also referred to as cellophane noodles or glass noodles. They also had a springy, gelatinous texture, kind of like Jello jigglers and would make a perfect bowl of "guts" for anyone's Halloween Haunted House.

We feasted on a delicious batch of Chapchae the first night and then had lots left over for the next day, when the noodles got even fatter and softer and absorbed more of the luscious sauce. While our package of cellophane noodles was made of sweet potato (actually botanically a yam) starch, other varieties of cellophane noodles are made of mung bean starch, but both would be good substitutes for wheat-based noodles in a gluten-free diet.



Here's my upstate New York version of Chapchae, which turned out great and can be adapted to use any other varieties of veggies you might want to add:

Chapchae

1 (12 oz.) pkg. sweet potato noodles (also called cellophane or glass noodles)

2 Tbsp. peanut oil

1 large onion, peeled and sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, peeled and rough chopped
1 bunch chives, snipped

3 cups tatsoi or boy choy, stems sliced and leaves rough chopped
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
8 oz. firm tofu, drained and cubed

2 Tbsp. sesame oil
3 Tbsp. soy sauce (check ingredients to make sure it's gluten-free)
1 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (optional garnish)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add noodles and turn off heat. Cover and let soak until softened, about 15 minutes.

Heat peanut oil in heated wok or large pot. Add onions, garlic and chives, and cook, stirring constantly, until onions are softened, 3-4 minutes. Add tatsoi and mushrooms and cook, stirring often, another 5 minutes.

Add tofu and stir in gently. Cook another 2-3 minutes to heat through.

Mix sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar together and stir to dissolve sugar. Add to wok and mix thoroughly. When heated through, remove from heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve while hot.

Makes 6-8 servings.

I will be seeking out these cellophane or sweet potato noodles again on my next Asian market trip. I liked them clear and jiggly, while husband Dan preferred them when they were softer the next day, but both ways were really tasty. I can't wait to try them in my Cold Sesame Noodle salad recipe, as I think their texture will really give this great party dish a nice bite.

Am sending a bowl of this tasty Chapchae over to Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, who is this week's host of Presto Pasta Nights, a long-running blog event where great cooks from around the world share their delicious posts and recipes about the World of Noodles. Check back with Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat after October 8 for a great roundup.

Rounding Up Pasta Presto Nights #165

I had an eye-opening, enjoyable time serving as the current guest host for Presto Pasta Nights, the weekly sampler of pastaliciousness started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast over three years ago. In this edition, PPN #165, we had eighteen submissions showing a splendid variety of noodles, seasonings and accompaniments. Many dishes used the herbs and vegetables of Spring and all were tantalizing.

Grab your pasta fork and let's dig in!

Lemon and Anchovies is trying to ward off unseasonably cool weather from her Northern California home with a gorgeous bowl of Pasta Salad with Arugula and Four Herbs. She claims that this is the best-tasting recipe she has ever posted on her blog, so I'll be sure to test drive this recipe!


Rotini with Spinach and Asiago Cheese was on the menu over at Gramma's Cookin. It sounds like the perfect pasta for lighter eating now that the Northern Hemisphere (except for Northern California, apparently) is easing into hot summer weather.


Daphne at More than Words in far off Perth, Australia, teaches us how to prepare Risoni Salad with Honey Pork Patties. Risoni is a rice-shaped pasta (I wonder if it is the same thing as orzo?) that she dresses with peppers, lemon, corn and peas for a tangy salad.


After scooping up the best looking bunch of radish leaves (with radishes attached) at her Toronto farmer's market, Elizabeth from blog from OUR kitchen turned out a fab dish of Penne with Radish Leaves and Broccoli. Sounds terrifically good and I am glad to learn about the edibility of radish leaves, which Elizabeth also uses sauteed in omelettes.


Feeling a bit under the weather made Cool Lassie turn to her Pan Gravy Kadai Curry kitchen for some food medicine in the form of Algerian Couscous Salad with green lentils and a colorful medley of gourmet tomatoes. This dish must have improved her spirits with all those healthy, tasty ingredients.


Orzo makes an appearance in Split Pear-sonality's recipe for Orzo Tabbouleh. This Middle Eastern salad traditionally uses bulgur wheat as the main ingredient, but this pasta-rific version would be perfect to bring to a summer party.

Over in France, Katie of Thyme for Cooking used up the tail end of the seasonal green garlic and asparagus to make a lovely supper of Fried Gnocchi with Asparagus and Tomatoes. Magnifique~!


Apu took the classic recipe for baked macaroni and cheese and gave it a little twist with a mix of chopped vegetables over at her food blog Annarasa. Looks like a great variation on a crowd favorite.


Everyone's favorite comfort carb, macaroni and cheese, gets another overhaul with Brie, black olives and a crusty garlic bread topping from Reeni over at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.


My Hawaiian blogger buddy, Claudia of Honey from Rock made homemade beef raviolis with a chiffonade of beet and mustard greens, swirled in truffle butter. Excuse me while I swoon. (Claudia is a two-time winner of Cook the Books, a bimonthly foodie book club that explores various food-related books, and she knows her way around truffles, having cooked up a prize-winning Omelette aux Truffes to win the Cook the Books edition featuring Peter Mayle's book "French Lessons".)


Speaking of ravioli, memories of foraging for fiddlehead ferns and other wild edibles in her native Maine inspired Think On It to make up a batch of tender homemade ravioli with stinging nettles in her new hometown in Umbria.


Homemade cavatelli got topped with some fresh-picked favas, kale, dandelion greens and spinach in this healthy, tasty spring pasta dish sent in by Feeding Maybelle.


Despite its creamy appearance, the Healthy Chicken Zucchini Alfredo Pasta recipe submitted by Holy Cannoli Recipes doesn't contain heavy cream at all, but instead combines skim milk, evaporated nonfat milk and cheese to make the rich sauce. This contribution to Pasta Presto Nights is Holy Cannoli's first appearance at Pasta Presto Nights, so be sure to stop by her blog to say hello and welcome her to our noodly world.


Joanne of Eats Well With Others was my first received PPN entry with her take on fellow blogger Chaya's Pasta with Caramelized Onions, Broccoli and Ricotta. Now that's an awesome trio of flavors!


Debby over at A Feast for the Eyes seared up some sea scallops and served them over pasta with a tasty white wine sauce and Presto! we have a luscious scallop pasta with which to feast our virtual eyes.


Curry leaves are wonderfully aromatic and can be found at Indian and Asian markets for those who are not familiar with them. Rachana used them to perfume her dish of Curry Leaves Pasta over at Sizzle N Spice.


Pam at Sidewalk Shoes turned out a fantastic Fettuccine with Mushrooms, Lemon and Prosciutto for her contribution to Presto Pasta Nights this week. She adapted a recipe from Donna Hay to use her own homegrown oregano and some preserved lemon rind and it sounds decadent indeed.


To wrap things up, your happening host, the Crispy Cook made a gluten-free, vegetarian lasagna using rice noodles layered with spinachy ricotta, artichoke hearts and sauteed portabella mushrooms. It was a lovely combination of flavors.


Thanks again to Ruth for giving me this opportunity to host Presto Pasta Nights and for all the wonderful cooks who shared their recipes, photos and writing. Next week, this event will be hosted by Ruth herself, our own Pasta Maven, so be sure to send her your fabulous pasta creations to keep us all inspired in the kitchen.

Presto Pasta Nights #165 Hosting and an Awesome Veggie, GF Lasagna

I am currently hosting the 165th edition of Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly celebration of the world of noodles, macaroni, spaghetti and all the great variations on pasta which is the brainchild of Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. Every Friday Ruth or a guest host rounds up a carbo-loaded array of pasta dishes from bloggers all around the world and I am delighted to announce that I am this week's guest host. You can send me the details of your pastarific blog posts by Thursday, May 27, midnight (Eastern Standard Time) and I will post the roundup the following day.



If you have never participated in Presto Pasta Nights before, please check out the details here. Basically, you just need to cook up a pasta dish, blog about it, and then email me at: info AT oldSaratogabooks dotcom with a cc to Ruth:
Ruthat 4everykitchendot cOM. Your blog post should include a link to the Crispy Cook and to the Presto Pasta Nights blog so others can find out more about the event. Include the URL of your blog post and a photo of your dish for the roundup.

My youngest daughter had a hankering for traditional lasagna with meat sauce so I made up a batch of that, but since my husband must dine gluten-free and eschews meat, I experimented with a second pan of vegetarian GF lasagna for his dining pleasure. I bought a box of DeBoles' oven-ready rice lasagna noodles which worked great because I didn't have to boil them first and risk having them disintegrate in the pasta pot if my attention wandered away. I had some fresh portabella mushrooms in the fridge, some canned artichoke hearts in the cupboard and some chopped spinach in the freezer, so they all coalesced into this very tasty vegetable lasagna.




Portabella, Artichoke and Spinach Lasagna

2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp. dried rosemary, crumbled
4 portabella mushrooms, patted clean and sliced into 1/4 inch strips

1 (10 oz.) pkg. rice lasagna noodles

1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
4 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen chopped spinach, cooked, drained and squeezed dry
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pint ricotta cheese
2 eggs

1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella
1 cup grated Parmesan
5 cups marinara sauce

Heat oil in frying pan. Add garlic and cook, stirring, one minute. Add onions and cook until soft, about 4-5 minutes. Add portabellas and cook until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Add rosemary and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and reserve.

Mix artichoke hearts and parsley and reserve.

Mix ricotta, eggs, and spinach. Reserve.

To assemble lasagna, pour 2 cups marinara sauce in bottom of a 13x9 glass baking dish. Lay down enough lasagna noodles to cover and then add 1/2 of the portabellas. Cover with 1/3 of the spinach-ricotta mixture. Sprinkle with 1/3 portion each of the mozzarella and Parmesan. Ladle another cup of marinara sauce on. Add another layer of noodles, top with 1/2 of artichoke mixture.

Repeat layers and make sure to sprinkle final lasagna with some shredded mozzarella to melt.

Cover lasagna with foil and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove foil and let cheese melt, another 10-15 minutes.

Serves 8-10.

This was supremely good. Dan even said it was the best lasagna he ever ate, so I made sure to get all my scribbled notes on the lasagna box transcribed immediately.

Don't forget to send me your delicious pasta dishes for Presto Pasta Nights by this Thursday! I've already received some tempting entries, so it should be a delicious roundup.

Cosmic Shrimp Two Ways

My wonderful sister-in-law Cathy parted with her flavorful shrimp appetizer recipe years ago after we vacuumed it up at a family party. My paper copy of the recipe is quite bespattered and tattered now, and I can't believe I haven't shared it here on The Crispy Cook before now, as it is one of our favorites. We like to bring these tasty crustaceans to parties and serve them chilled on skewers (in which case we cook up the larger sized shrimps) but we also have found the recipe makes a great warm topping for our noodles, too.

I am wasting no more time sharing this keeper with you all, especially since our Gulf Coast seafood supply is endangered with that BP oil rig disaster. Grab some shrimp now and cook this up before they are $30 a pound and marinated in crude.


Cosmic Shrimp Pasta

1 head broccoli, cut into florets (save stem for another use)

1/4 c. olive oil
1 -1/2 lbs. shrimp, peeled, deveined and patted dry (use large or jumbo shrimp if you are serving the shrimp as a chilled appetizer, otherwise medium shrimp are better for a pasta topper)
3 Tbsp. gingerroot, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1 -1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped ( jarred roasted red peppers work fine too)
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1 bunch scallions, sliced very thin
1 Tbsp. black sesame seed (optional, but it does add nice color)

1 lb. pasta, cooked and drained

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add broccoli florets and steam until bright green and crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and cool.

In a large frying pan, heat 2 Tbsp. of the olive oil until hot. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink and opaque, another 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.

In a bowl, blend together the remaining olive oil, lemon and lime juice, salt, red peppers, hot sauce, scallions and sesame seeds. Add shrimp and broccoli and toss to coat.

For Cosmic Shrimp Appetizer: Cover and chill in refrigerator at least 2 hours and then thread shrimp and broccoli on wooden skewers and serve as an appetizer, with leftover sauce drizzled over. Or you can serve as a mound on a lovely plate with toothpicks on the side for personal skewering. Serves about 8-10 shrimp lovers.

For Cosmic Shrimp Pasta: Toss cooked shrimp with pasta and serve immediately with a little extra lime juice and extra-virgin olive oil on the side for diners to sprinkle on. Makes 4-6 dinner servings.

The Cosmic Shrimp Pasta seems perfect to send over to Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly celebration of the noodle in all its delicious forms, which is an event started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. This week's edition of Presto Pasta Nights is being hosted by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook, and she will be posting a pastarific roundup of all the other dishes submitted by food bloggers next Friday, May 21. Grab your pasta pot and get boiling!

Cooking with Squid for the First Time

It was a shocking sight. My friend Patty and I were eating out with friends when we were sweet young things, flush with money from our first REAL jobs out of college. We were at an Italian restaurant and ordering up piles of spaghetti (this was the early 80s when it wasn't yet called pasta), when out comes Patty's bowl of Seafood Marinara topped with these weird spiky clusters that looked to me like creepy little splayed hands. What the heck was up with that dish?

That was my first sight of calamari in all its tomato-stewed glory swimming around in my buddy's dinner plate. She tucked into her meal with obvious relish so when she offered up a forkful, I tried a tentative bite. Not bad. Not like the tough little rubber band I expected.

In the eons since, I've eaten a fair bit of calamari when dining out. Our Crispy Crew particularly like Fried Calamari as an appetizer when we go out to a restaurant, and the fried squid cooked up gluten-free in a dedicated GF fryer at KD's Fish Fry in Ballston Spa is our favorite.

I never had tried cooking with squid at home, so when I found a frozen block in my local supermarket I brought it home to play with. There was even a handy recipe for Calamari with Pasta on the back of the package, so that's what used for my foray into squid cookery.


My package of squid was 2.5 lbs. and the recipe only called for half the amount, but I went ahead and thawed the whole thing since it was one big block. It involved a little picking over to remove a few bits of clear, flexible cartilage and even one teeny tiny squid beak. I patted it dry and took care in the cooking to ensure that it didn't get past the tipping point of tenderness and into rubbery terrain. It proved delicious and I was even able to sneak some black olives into the sauce though I live with a pack of olivephobes.

Here's the tasty recipe, slightly adapted from the package:

PASTA WITH CALAMARI

1-1/2 lbs. squid tubes and tentacles, cleaned and patted dry
1-1/2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 Tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (I used a can of diced tomatoes)
8 basil leaves, slivered (I used frozen garden basil)
1 Tbsp. Italian parsley, minced
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped black olives

1 lb. pasta

Cut squid tubes into rings about 1/4 inch thick. Leave tentacles alone to blossom into spiky little "hands" during the cooking.

Heat 1 Tbsp. of olive oil in large saucepan. Add garlic and saute, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add mushrooms and cook for another minute, stirring. Add tomatoes, basil, parsley, and ground red pepper. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add olives. Stir, lower heat and let simmer over low heat while you cook up the squid.

In a separate saucepan, heat remaining 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Add squid pieces and cook over medium heat for 2-4 minutes, stirring all the while and checking to see that the squid remains tender. DO NOT OVERCOOK! When done, add squid to tomato sauce and cook another minute or two to mingle flavors.

Cook up your pasta and while still warm, pour sauce over the top and toss with the sauce.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Sending a big thank you to my friend Patty for introducing me to the pleasures of calamari and a bowl of this deliciously squiddy pasta over to Presto Pasta Nights, the weekly roundup of all things noodly started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. This week's edition, Number 161, is being hosted by Thyme for Cooking, a lovely French food blog and the roundup of delicious pastas will be featured after the April 30 deadline.

Thinking Spring with Pasta, Peas and Smoked Salmon

Happy Anniversary to Ruth at Presto Pasta Nights for three years of celebrating the glories of our elbow macaroni, rotini, lasagne, pierogies, glass noodles, bow-ties and all the other shapes, sizes and types of pasta. This week Ruth is rounding up what might be a record-breaking number of pasta entries from cooks around the globe and I had to come up with a recipe to offer to the celebration.

I was honored to host Pasta Presto Nights #130 last September and have sent in some pasta entries to various other editions of this fun weekly event. Each Friday Ruth or a guest host rounds up the pastas and we all get a carbo-loaded feast for the eyes.

For my contribution to the party, I wanted to augur in Spring (actually Season #5, Mud Season, in these parts) with a delicately spiced and colored pasta. Some leftover smoked salmon was the inspiration for this pasta dish. We really like sushi in this house and we make it at least a couple of times a month in our kitchen.

Youngest daughter is the Sushi Chef: she has the best rolling techniques and the most patience for cutting cucumbers and carrots into thin sticks for the sushi innards. We like making smoked salmon and cream cheese sushi rolls, and for this I buy packages of smoked salmon trimmed from the more expensive Nova packages in the smoked fish section of the supermarket's fish counter. A one pound bag will give us at least two sushi dinner platters, leaving the more sinewy, chewy bits of smoked salmon for grinding up in the food processor with cream cheese for an appetizer spread or for schmearing our breadstuffs.

This last time we had leftover smoked salmon bits I thought about chopping them up and sauteeing them in a butter and wine sauce for pasta and the resulting creation was well-received by the Crispy Crew. Here then is my recipe for the Presto Pasta Nights Anniversary Party:


Rotini with Smoked Salmon and Peas

1 lb. pasta, cooked and drained (we used Pasta d'Oro corn rotini)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 cup white wine
4 Tbsp. butter
1 cup smoked salmon, broken up into chunks or chopped coarsely
2 Tbsp. snipped dill (we used garden dill from our freezer)

Melt butter in large heavy skillet. When it starts to foam, pour in wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.

Add smoked salmon and peas and saute until salmon turns light pink and firm. Sprinkle with dill and serve hot.

Serves 6.

Congratulations again Ruth for 3 wonderful years of Presto Pasta Nights. Looking forward to the roundup party!

A Zippy Black-Eyed Pea and Pasta Salad

Cooking up a pot of black-eyed peas is one of our New Year's traditions. The peas represent the promise of money to be had in the coming year, especially if accompanied by some greens. There's actually still produce hanging out in the snow-capped Crispy garden, some hardy kale plants, which are extremely tender now after many freezings and thawings, so we have still been enjoying our greens, mostly roasted and stir-fried with garlic.

I always have bags and jars of dried beans around the kitchen, but I will confess to hoarding and viewing them more often than putting them to use. Those strumpet cans of already-cooked beans have a more alluring siren song at the dinner-making hour, its' true. However, when I have the leisure of planning meals rather than flinging food at my busy, hungry teenagers, I do like to soak my own and cook up those frugal meals, so my aim is to use more of these food budget-extenders in 2010.

On New Year's Eve I made sure to soak some dried black-eyed peas in water overnight and then changed the water and simmered them until they were tender the next day. Some were accompanied with some sauteed kale (bring on those 2010 riches!) and some were left over for another concoction, which turned out to be a tremendously good pasta salad. I got inspiration from this recipe, but wanted to use ingredients which were more readily in my pantry during the winter, so I substituted frozen peppers and tomatoes from our garden, switched around some of the seasonings and came up with a version which even my eldest teen daughter, a notorious avoider of legumes, pronounced delicious.



A Zippy Black-Eyed Pea and Pasta Salad

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (I used chopped peppers from the freezer)
1 cup diced tomatoes (also came from my freezer stash)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp. Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 Tbsp. hot sauce
1 fat clove garlic, peeled and minced (or run through garlic press)
Salt and pepper to taste

4 cups cooked pasta (I used Pasta d'Oro corn elbows, $1.50 per lb. bag at the Ballston Spa Job Lot)
2 cups cooked black-eyed peas
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in frying pan. Add onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add peppers and tomatoes and cook until soft.

Mix 1/4 cup olive oil, lime juice, parsley, hot sauce, and garlic until well blended. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Mix pasta, black-eyed peas and cheese together in serving bowl. Mix in sauteed vegetables. Pour on dressing and toss lightly.

Makes 6 main dish servings. Accompany with breath mints.

I am passing along a bowl of this vibrant tasting and vibrant colored salad over to the 19th Helping of My Legume Love Affair, a monthly food blogger celebration of the glory of legumes. Simple Indian Food is hosting the January round of this beany bonanza, started by Susan, the Well-Seasoned Cook. Aside from learning about various kinds of legumes and tasty ways to prepare them, My Legume Love Affair offers prizes to participants, which this month includes a calendar and a sampler of N.K. Hurst Co. dried beans.

Off to soak some more beans...

The Great Pumpkin Invades the Crispy Kitchen

Pumpkins and gourds have never been big players in our home gardens. The vines and umbrella leaves are so huge and I've really only thought of them for table use in pumpkin pies, so I never wanted to devote a whole lot of valuable garden acreage to their cultivation. One time we had a volunteer pumpkin vine running out of our compost heap from a decaying roadside stand giant pumpkin purchase, but planting them on purpose was never considered until this spring, when the voluptuous curves of the French heirloom variety, Rouge Vif d'Etampes, made its siren song from the seed catalogue.

This heirloom variety looks like a giant red cheese and after a slow start in the wet back garden (those cucumber beetles kept bedeviling my seedlings) they took over the entire patch and were very poor neighbors to my adjacent rows of string beans and cabbages. We had a nice harvest of varying size pumpkins, and they come in an array of red, yellow and orange shades, with varying degrees of ridginess.



The Rouge Vif d'Etampes variety is an old French market pumpkin, so naturally they make for good eating in addition to their stylish good looks. I decided to cook up one of my best-looking monsters (and one of the biggest, weighing in at 30 pounds!) and brought this lovely pumpkin inside.



My trusty scullery hound, Martha, was a little apprehensive about this Giant Vegetable, but a little peanut butter spread on the outside eased her mind.



The first order of business was to wash the outside and then attempt to carve the pumpkin into wedges for roasting. This was quite a feat and worthy of a Halloween horror movie. It involved a cleaver. And my biggest kitchen knife. I thought about a machete, or perhaps a small brush chainsaw, but Martha objected. The pumpkin grinned in a terrible rictus.



In the end, I would cleave deep into the pumpkin, then remove it and lever in my kitchen knife to hack off small wedges. The Rouge Vif d'Etampes is flattened (some might say squashed) so I found that trimming the tapered ends worked better to scoop out the seeds and strings. A grapefruit spoon was the instrument of choice for that project. I filled a roasting pan and my largest baking dish with a 1/2 cup each of water, laid in the pumpkin slices and then roasted them for 1-1/2 hours at 375 degrees F. And that only dealt with half of the pumpkin! So I repeated that process over the course of an afternoon.



When cooled, I scooped the pumpkin flesh from the skins and then pureed it in my food processor. That 30-lb. pumpkin made somewhere just shy of 20 cups of pumpkin puree! Some went into my already-stuffed-with-garden-harvest-freezer and about half was set aside for a second day of pumpkin mania.

There is a Royal Foodie Joust underway over at the Foodie Blogroll Forum and the three ingredients which must be jousted with to create a recipe are pumpkin, dark beer and sugar. I wanted to make something savory, rather than sweet, so after perusing a bunch of cookbooks and Internet recipes for pumpkin pasta recipes, I cooked up this very elegant variation on the old comfort food standby, macaroni and cheese with a Crispy crumb topping.



I am happy to report that this creamy, pale orange concoction was gobbled up by my Crispy Crew and was even better heated up the next day after the delicate flavors melded more. I made our recipe gluten-free with GF pasta, bread crumbs and gluten-free beer, which are now so much more readily available in local food markets. Here's my autumnal recipe:

Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese with Crispy Crumb Topping

1 lb. gluten-free pasta (I used Sam Mills corn rigatoni - $1.50 bag at Odd-Lot)

2 large onions, peeled and sliced thinly
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt

1 cup Red Bridge sorghum beer

2 cups pureed pumpkin
1 cup Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

2 cups fresh, soft bread crumbs (I used half a baguette (the end parts) from Saratoga Gluten-Free Goods from my freezer)
2/3 cups walnuts
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage
Salt and pepper to taste.

3 Tbsp. softened butter

Cook pasta in boiling salted water until just al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Heat oil in frying pan. Add onions and cook over low heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with 1 tsp. salt and add beer. Turn up heat, bring to boil and then cook until beer is reduced by half, about 7-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, yogurt, brown sugar and Parmesan. Mix in cooked onions and blend well. Carefully mix in cooked pasta (GF pasta tends to be brittler than wheat pasta) and pour into a greased 9 x 11 baking dish.

Place walnuts, bread crumbs, and sage in food processor and whizz it up until crumbs are coarse. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle crumbs over macaroni in baking pan and dot with bits of softened butter.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until topping is Crispy and golden brown.

Makes 8 generous servings.

This was truly a great recipe for our family. My kids liked the familiarity of the mac n' cheese, while Dan and I enjoyed the subtle flavors of beer-braised onions, earthy sage and pumpkin. Enjoy!



My only reservation about this recipe is that it ONLY used 2 cups of my vat of pureed Great Pumpkin, so I spent a bit of time baking stuff up the next day to use up more of my reserves. Stay tuned for more pumpkin recipes....

Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Pasta

You know that awesome, creamy hot spinach and artichoke dip which often shows up at gatherings and that everybody gobbles up? Because it has spinach and artichokes in it you can justify hefting another glob onto a chip at parties and admiring your vegetable intake. It is divine, but the mayonnaise makes it so caloric you might as well chow down on a Frito-stuffed, deep-fried Oreo while you're at it.

I have a variation recipe on that dip which I blogged about before, which uses Jerusalem Artichokes (or sunchokes) to add a little crunch. Since my introduction to the much healthier Greek yogurt, I've been subbing t in to some of our Crispy repertoire for a healthier switch from sour cream and mayonnaise.

Greek yogurt tastes great in a saucier version of the Spinach-Artichoke Dip idea over pasta. I used fresh spinach, but other greens would probably work in this dish and it would certainly be a great pantry dinner for the winter months using frozen spinach.


To make enough sauce for 1 lb. of your favorite hot, cooked pasta, match a batch of:

Spinach-Artichoke Pasta Sauce

2 Tbsp. butter
6 small cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

4-5 cups fresh spinach, washed, steamed, squeezed dry and chopped (or 1 10 oz. pkg. frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry)
1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts packed in water, drained and chopped coarsely

3 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1 cup ricotta
1 cup Greek yogurt
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter in saucepan. Saute garlic slices until light golden, about 2-3 minutes.

Add spinach and artichoke hearts and cook, stirring, another couple of minutes. Add parsley, ricotta and Greek yogurt. Let heat through, and then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss sauce onto your cooked pasta and serve immediately with a little extra chopped parsley on top.

Serves 6-8.

In the winter, any frozen, snipped herbs or a dollop of pesto would be a nice substitution for fresh parsley.



I am sending a bowl of this luscious Spinach and Artichoke pasta over to Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly pasta-lover's roundup of recipes, founded by Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast. Ruth is actually hosting this week's Presto Pasta event, so be sure to stop by and see what everyone's cooking up after August 7. You can also shoot Ruth an email if you are interested in hosting an upcoming week.

Luscious Lobster Pasta and Some Kestrel Photos

We've had a cooler and rainier than normal last couple of weeks so I haven't had much to report on the Spring Garden. We've been munching away on home grown lettuces, snow peas, English peas, daikon radishes, lots of herbs and even a couple of heads of broccoli, but all were eaten raw or cooked simply, so no fabulous garden recipes to report.

There is an exciting development in the garden, however. We have had a thrilling front row view of three baby kestrels fledging from their nest box. Several years ago Dan made a big birdhouse and popped it onto a maple tree in back of our house in hopes of luring pileated woodpeckers to nest there. Instead, one year we got a pair of kestrels, small, shy falcons with beautiful markings, that enjoy snacking on rodents (yay!) and other birds (there goes my bird sanctuary!). They returned again this year and chased away various hopeful starlings and grackles, but we hadn't seen them nesting once the foliage grew out. To our delight, one by one, we heard baby bird chirping and saw one, two and then three fuzzy kestrel chicks leave the nest.



We believe we have three young boy kestrels, whom we've alternately referred to as Chip, Robbie and Ernie ("My Three Sons") and Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe ("Bonanza"). Little Joe is runtier than his two bigger chick mates so we've become particularly attached to him, rooting him on in his short fledgling flights from nest to ladders to our backyard swing set. Glad to see that's getting some use again.







Dan is particularly enraptured with raptors, so he's been nonstop wearing a pair of binoculars around the house most days. We saw one of the parents (they zoom in and out so fast you can't focus on their plumage to determine their gender) drop off an enormous snack for one of the older kestrel chicks. It was the size of a pigeon, but it had some big old yellow chicken feet, so we're still trying to guess what that unfortunate fowl was. My neighbor down the road does raise turkeys, so maybe this was an early Thanksgiving for Hoss or Adam. We never found any remains, so those gnarly, huge feet must've gone down the hatch too.

Enough ornithology, this is a food blog after all, and since we didn't poach one of our Three Sons, I will focus on a fabulous Lobster Pasta that I made for Dan on Father's Day. My own egg chicks and I went off to the grocery store and had them steam up three lobsters for us and then hied away home to cook them up. It was a lot of labor to crack and pick out the lobster meat and I made a mountain of pots, but luckily my two daughters incorporated dish washing and other kitchen labors as our Father's Day present to our patriarch.



Luscious Lobster Pasta

3 medium (1.5 lb.) lobsters, steamed
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 bunch garlic scapes, finely chopped (or scallions)
3 large stalks celery, finely chopped
4 Tbsp. butter
1 handful basil leaves, slivered (I have purple and green garden basil which made it very colorful)
1 lb. cooked pasta
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove meat from lobsters, chop coarsely and refrigerate until later. I don't personally like the green liver, but you could add that if you enjoy it. I did add the red roe from the female lobster in our mix. Removing lobster meat requires hand strength, good cracking tools (and a handy mallet for the big claws), as well as a hot, soapy shower afterwards for the prep cook.

I saved the lobster shells, clipped of the feathery gills and eye stalks and placed them in a stock pot with water to cover. I brought this to a boil, then simmered it for 1 hour for a nice lobster broth to add to my pasta sauce, with plenty of stock leftover to freeze.

Heat heavy sauce pan. Add olive oil and heat. Add in garlic scapes and stir 2 minutes. Add celery and saute another 3-4 minutes, or until it is softened. Add 1-1/2 cups lobster stock and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer until it is reduced by half. Through in butter to melt. Add reserved lobster meat and basil and just heat through. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook up pasta and when it is al dente, drain and toss it into lobster sauce. Serve immediately.

Serves 6.

I am submitting this elegant, if laborious and therefore reserved for special occasions, pasta dish to the weekly Presto Pasta Nights event, started by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast, and hosted this week by Katerina of Daily Unadventures in Cooking.
Looking forward to another roundup of great pasta dishes after today's deadline. Dan certainly loved this recipe!

Golden Cauliflower & Mushroom Fettuccine - Gluten-Free

It's Royal Foodie Joust time again over at the Leftover Queen's Foodie Blogroll and this month's trio of required ingredients are mushrooms, cauliflower and noodles. Sounds simple, right? Well, for me it was a stumper, since I couldn't get past all that creamy whiteness. How could I violate the basic principles of Home Economics Cookery and make a dish out of three white ingredients, much as I love them all separately?

Husband Dan saw me muttering over a pile of cookbooks and asked me what I was up to. When I relayed my culinary quandary, he immediately shot back with the brilliant suggestion to use one of those beautiful yellow-orange cauliflowers that have been cozying up to the regular white "choux fleurs" at our supermarket. It seems that plant scientists recently worked with a mutant head of cauliflower dug out of a Canadian marsh and bred a new variety of beta-carotene enriched cauliflowers that are a splendid sunny shade of yellow.

I procured the desired golden cauliflower head and that got my creative kitchen mojo working. I made up a pot of rice fettuccine and made a buttery wine sauce that got added color from some flat-leaf parsley and a handful of dried grape tomatoes that we grew in the garden, sliced and half and threw in the food dehydrator last summer. The tomatoes add a nice bit of chewiness and acidity to the sauce.The result was not only tasty but colorful and so I present to you the recipe for Golden Cauliflower and Mushroom Fettuccine:



Golden Cauliflower and Mushroom Fettuccine

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
10 oz. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced (I used baby Portabellas)
1/2 medium head yellow-orange cauliflower
3 Tbsp. Italian parsley, finely chopped
8 Tbsp. butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup dehydrated or sun-dried tomatoes
Grated Fontina cheese to garnish
Salt and pepper to taste
1 lb. pasta
Extra-virgin olive oil

Cut out core of cauliflower and break into very small flowerets (1 inch average size). Set aside.

Heat butter in saucepan. Add garlic and cook, stirring 2 minutes, over medium-low heat. Add mushrooms, and cook another 5 minutes, stirring. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Drain and rinse with warm water and set aside.

Back to the mushrooms: Turn heat to high and add white wine. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium, and cook until pan juices are reduced to half, about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower and cook until crisp-tender, about 5-7 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp. of the parsley and the dried tomatoes and stir another 3-4 minutes.

Toss pasta with a little olive oil to moisten. Put into serving bowls, top with some cauliflower-mushroom sauce and garnish with remaining parsley and Fontina.

Serves 6-8.

There are already some other great Joust recipes posted on the Foodie Blogroll, so you may want to visit the Leftover Queen's Forum to investigate. Hopefully, this will inspire you to Joust along with me!

Rice Noodle Sushi Salad

I have been tweaking my Rice Noodle Salad recipe made with tofu and nori (toasted seaweed sheets used for rolling sushi) and it's so much more flavorful than the version I blogged about previously, that I thought I would share it. My kids have dubbed it "Sushi Salad", even though the rice in this deconstructed sushi is of the noodle variety. It's quickly made with dried rice vermicelli or rice stick (maifun) noodles and it's been a real winner with our family.


Rice Noodle Sushi Salad

10 oz. pkg. rice vermicelli or other thin rice noodles

1/2 lb. firm tofu, pressed and cut into small cubes (1/4 inch squares) ***
4 Tbsp. gluten-free soy sauce
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
6 sheets nori (toasted seaweed sheets for sushi), ripped or snipped into 1/2 inch squares with kitchen shears
2 Tbsp. pickled ginger, chopped
2 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds (black seeds add a little color)
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
Wasabi powder to taste (check ingredients to see that wheat flour is not added)

Bring a pot of water to a boil and then turn off the heat and add rice vermicelli to soak until softened, about 5 minutes. Don't let vermicelli soften too much, as you want some bite here. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop cooking. I cut it up into manageable lengths with my kitchen shears.

Mix remaining ingredients and blend with noodles. Chill at least one hour before serving.

Serves 4-6.

***With the remaining 1/2 lb. pressed tofu, I made a batch of Book of Yum's Southern Fried Tofu, which is another tofu standard in our household. Highly recommended!

Beans and bean products like tofu are the stars of "My Legume Love Affair", a foodie event being hosted by Sra of When My Soup Came Alive, and which was created by Susan, The Well-Seasoned Cook. The superior nutritional and purse-saving qualities of the legume are to be praised indeed, so I encourage you to check out this fun blog event and look for Sra's roundup after October 31st.

Three Spring Sisters Pasta

Subterranean moles continue their deviltry in the garden and left me with exactly three spinach plants, three fennel plants and three
Italian dandelion plants in my carefully planted and tended rows. I
have been summoning mole hunting advice from all quarters and have several options profferred from my neighbors, blogger buddies and bookstore customers:

1) Poke mothballs into the mole tunnels

2) Poke unwrapped wads of unchewed pink bubble gum into the mole tunnels (the moles apparently choke while chewing).

3) Pour gasoline into the mole tunnels.

4) Get a Jack Russell terrier.

All of the above seem worth investigating, although I am an organic
gardener and don't think I want to ingest mothballs and gasoline
(especially not at $4.29 a gallon!) and the chewing gum idea seems a
bit cruel. I don't mind mole hills and tunnels in my lawn, but when
they start eating my groceries, I turn into Mr. MacGregor. Please let
me know if you have any other methods for banning moles from my
vegetable patch.

With my trio of spinach plants, some fresh garden peas and fat asparagus spears, mercifully spared by the mole brigade, I put together a light pasta sauce which came out rather deliciously and which I thought I would share with others.

Three Spring Sisters Pasta

10 asparagus spears, trimmed and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/2 cup fresh peas
3 spinach plants (or more if you got 'em!), chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
1 (1 lb.) box of your favorite pasta
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta and drain. Keep warm.

Heat saute pan. When hot, add butter and olive oil and let butter melt. Add garlic and stir around for 1 minute. Add white wine and bring to boil. Lower heat and reduce liquid to half.

Add peas, spinach and asparagus. Cover and cook over medium heat about 3-5 minutes, or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste and toss with your pasta.

Serves 6.

This recipe is being submitted for this week's round of Weekend Herb Blogging started by Kalyn's Kitchen and actually hosted by her this time! Check Kalyn's blog later in the week for a roundup of other blog posts featuring vegetables, flowers and herbs. With gardens and farmers markets in full swing in the northern hemisphere this should be a great roundup!

Pasta with Creamy Asparagus-Herb Sauce

The first bedroom that I didn't have to share with my brother was painted a beautiful lavender with soft green trim, which has remained one of my favorite color pairings. Today, inspired by my spring garden offerings, I whipped up a beautiful rhapsody in pastel greens and purples to toss with our pasta dinner and while Dan thought it was "okay" and the girls didn't appreciate having "grass clippings" sprinkled all through their noodles, I thought this dish was a knockout...beautiful, delicately-flavored and perfumed with chives, dill, lime and lemon balm. My family are all just a bunch of pastel-hating Philistines.

Here is my palette of assembled ingredients:



Pasta with Creamy Asparagus-Herb Sauce

1 lb. gluten-free pasta
1 bunch asparagus, sliced into 1/2 inch diagonal slices
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 cup snipped chives and 7-8 purple chive blossoms, separated into flowerets
1/2 cup snipped fresh dill
1/2 cup shredded lemon balm
2 Tbsp. rice flour
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta in boiling water and drain. Rinse with warm water.

While pasta is cooking, heat 2 Tbsp. butter and 2 Tbsp. olive oil in saute pan until hot. Add asparagus and half of chives, lemon balm and dill. Cook, stirring, about 4-5 minutes, or until asparagus is just tender. Remove from pan and set aside.

Heat remaining butter and olive oil in same pan. Add rice flour and stir 1 minute. Add milk slowly, stirring all the while, to make a cream sauce. Add half of remaining herb trio, lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Toss cream sauce with pasta and garnish each serving with rest of herbs and chive blossoms. Serve with grated cheese on the side.

Serves 6.



I am submitting this recipe to the Weekend Herb Blogging Event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen over two years ago and hosted this week by Sweetnicks. This is my first submission to this fun and informative event and I am looking forward to a roundup of other great recipes using fresh ingredients from the market and our gardens.

Parti-Colored Pasta with Vegetables

I've been really digging my new cast iron wok. I used to have a wok like that when I had my first post-college apartment with my roommate Irene and we cooked a lot of stir-fries for our suppers. Until.... disaster struck. We were both at the stove, chopping and stirring, when a bolt of electricity shot out from the ring underneath the wok shorting out the burner and blasting past in between our astonished selves.

BAM! As one celebrity chef might say.

That was the end of our wokkery, as we both decided to donate the offending item to our favorite thrift shop the next day rather than risk our skins further. It was probably the fault of our cruddy electric apartment stove, but we didn't want to wok on the wild side.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and here I was, prowling yet another favorite thriftery when I saw my present wok, still encased in its original box and cuddling its instruction booklet. My heart swelled with fondness and I had to adopt it.

I have a gas stove now, so my fears of electrocution are groundless. I scrubbed it up, seasoned it well and now have a new favorite cooking pot. Woks are great for evenly distributing cooking heat and can double as a deep fryer. Mostly I use my wok for sauteeing up veggies, but they are great also for reheating and re-treating leftovers. Here's a recipe for a beautiful pasta dish that provided a refrigerator roundup of some leftover pasta and crudites. It tasted and looked so good that it will be added to our permanent recipe files.

Parti-Colored Pasta with Vegetables

2 small zucchini, ends cut off and cut into slim spears
2 small yellow squash, ends cut off and cut into slim spears
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
8 oz. cooked pasta (make sure it's gluten-free if you can't eat the wheat!)
1 medium onion, sliced in half and then sliced thinly
5 cloves garlic, rough chopped
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crumbled
1/2 tsp. dried thyme, crumbled

Heat oil in wok until hot. Add butter and melt. Add garlic to pan and stirring constantly, cook 1 minute. Add onions and cook another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add white wine and cook 2-3 minutes, until liquid reduces. Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring, 5-7 minutes, or until squash and peppers are crisp-tender.

Serves 4.