Fresh Tomato Summer Pasta

 

Sauteed Eggplant Pasta

Chop up one-two small eggplants into bite size pieces. Saute in oil (lots) with a cover, stirring frequently, until the eggplant is very tender but not total mush.

Meanwhile saute onions(green or regular), some garlic, and a dozen fresh tomatoes, diced. Cook down until you have a nice sauce. Add the eggplant, some herbs, and salt.

Toss with pasta and top with crumbled GOOD feta and garnish with fresh parsley. Olives would be good too!

Asparagus Goat Cheese Linguine

Saute some onion and garlic in a pan. Add some chopped-up yellow squash, sundried tomatoes, and olives. Saute until squash is tender. Meanwhile, cook your linguine. 4 minutes before the end of the boil, add your asparagus to the water(each stalk cut into threes). Strain your pasta, and toss in the veggies and lots of goat cheese (cut into chunks). Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Version 2.0: In two separate pans, roast chopped up asparagus and sliced baby tomatoes in a little olive oil with salt. Also roast a head of garlic (chop off the top of the bulb and roast face down in a little olive oil). Roast at 425 for about 30 minutes or so until asparagus are tender and a little crisp. Toss your pasta with the asparagus, tomatoes, and the roasted garlic (scoop out each clove with a fork and throw it in). Scoop in some goat cheese. Toss. Top with parmesan!

Dressler's Caponata

1 1/2 eggplant cut into 1/2" cubes. Brown in hot olive oil in large skillet. You will need a LOT of olive oil. Remove when soft and drain on paper towel. Set aside with paper towel still wrapped around the eggplant.

Squeeze some of the olive oil out of the eggplant/papertowel and use this to saute 1 cup celery and 1 onion. Add 5 cloves minced garlic. Continue to saute and add 2 peppers (preferably 1 yellow and 1 orange). Once everything is cooked, add 1 big can of San Marzano plum tomatoes (squish them with your hands as you throw them in). Add the juice if you want to use the Caponata as a pasta sauce. Otherwise drain the tomatoes before adding them. Add the eggplant, 2-3 T Balsamic Vinegar, 2 T sugar, 2 T capers, 1 t kosher salt, 1/2 can tomato paste, 10 olives chopped, and 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley. Add fresh ground pepper to taste. Simmer 15-20 minutes. Add 1/4-1/2 cup toasted pine nuts. You can serve it immediately as a sauce for pasta or you can put it in the fridge and serve it cold with fresh bread.

Roasted Puttanesca Pasta

In an oven pan, put: 2 containers of grape tomatoes sliced in 1/2s or 1/4s, 5 cloves garlic minced, handful of olives chopped, and 1-2 T capers. Add some olive oil, a splash of balsamic, and some hot red pepper flakes. Roast about 30 minutes. Meanwhile cook up 1/2-1 lb pasta.

To serve, place the pasta in a bowl, add the puttanesca sauce and top with a generous amount of chopped Italian Parsley and parmesan.

Nutmeg Sage Butternut Squash Risotto

Chop a butternut squash into bite-size pieces, and roast at 400 for 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat up 3 cups of broth and a cup of white wine. Keep this simmering the whole time.

Meanwhile, saute half of a big onion, diced, to a big stockpot, until translucent. Add a cup of arborio rice.

When the rice is a little toasty, ladle in some hot broth. Don't put all the broth in at once! Just keep topping it off when it gets dry. Stir stir stir the whole time, or the rice will stick to the pan.

Meanwhile, saute a diced red pepper and a bag of baby spinach.

When you're running low on broth, taste the rice to see if it's almost done. If it still has a ways to go, heat up some more broth. (A little water will also do the trick if you've run out of broth.)

When the rice is done, toss in a big pinch of nutmeg and a big pinch of sage, then the vegetables, then a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately!

Last minute Lasagna

This is a dish I threw together last night when we were pressed for time and had little in the fridge. I'm sure I will never make it exactly the same way again (like I said, it was with what we had) but it turned out so well I decided to write it down. You can use this as a template and play around with the recipe.


I boiled 6 lasagna noodles. Meanwhile I created a tomato sauce starting with a jar of really good store-bought sauce and then adding some frozen spinach, chopped up fresh cherry tomatoes, and chopped-up olives. I got out a casserole pan (mine was as long as one lasagna and wide enough to fit three noodles side by side) and layered:

1/3 of the sauce
cottage cheese
noodles
1/3 of the sauce
noodles
1/3 of the sauce sauce
grated cheese

Bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes on 350.

Chicken Cacciatore

For this recipe you need a good sauce. Check out the Petrocelli Pasta Sauce or Caitlyn's lasagna sauce in this blog if you need inspiration. Or for you Norfolk folks, La Bella in Ghent sells a fantastic homemade tomato sauce!

Preheat oven to 375. Make a wet spice sauce with a little water, lots of basil, oregano, salt, pepper, crushed fennel, and garlic. Heat up some olive oil in a skillet on high heat. When it is good and hot, quickly brown 3-4 chicken breasts (whole, don't chop) then remove to a plate. Then quickly brown 2 zucchinis sliced and 1 onion sliced. In an 9x13 pan (a little smaller is fine), pour half your sauce on the bottom, place your veggies and chicken on next, pour over your wet spices, and then top with the rest of your sauce. Cover the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. While it is still hot, lay some parmesan slices on top for melty cheese goodness.

Pasta with Broiled Eggplant

Cut an eggplant into french-fry sized strips. Oil both sides of each strip. Don't skimp on the EVOO. Array them on a pan and broil each side for five minutes, and not a minute longer. You will not eat a tastier eggplant. Throw in some pine nuts near the end of the broil.

Saute onions, garlic, tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini. Add olives, eggplant/pine nuts, pea pods, fresh basil, grated parmesan.

We put this on top of linguine.

Polenta with Stewed Pinto Beans

Boil 5 cups water. Add 1 1/4 cups coarse corn meal and 1 tsp salt while stirring. Simmer on low for 15 minutes. Pour into 9"x9" pan and cool in fridge for an hour. Saute in hot oil at last minute.

Meanwhile... roast 2 quartered peppers at 400 for 25 minutes, blend with 1 cup tomatoes. Saute 1/2 onion and lots of garlic, add 1 cup tomatoes, pepper blend, and 3 cups pinto beans. Lots of rosemary and a little salt.

Note: Alternatively, you can make soft polenta by continuing to simmer it on the stove for another 20+ minutes, stirring regularly until it thickens into a mush (you should be able to move it away from the sides of the pan with a spoon). Serve immediately!