This is a very quick, seasonal meal and I get to proclaim that orecchiette is my favorite pasta type ever. Some say ‘little ears’ but I think they look like little UFOs! We used a combination of two tomatoes from the garden and one heirloom local tomato procured elsewhere. I like using orecchiette here, as it is about the same size and shape as all the chopped vegetables.

The sauce is super quick, just tomatoes, veggies, olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar. You can marinate your own mozzarella balls or just buy the already-marinated ones. They will melt into the sauce and you will like it.

Summer Pasta with Veggies and Marinated Mozzarella
12 oz Orecchiette Pasta
2 tbsp + more olive oil
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 yellow, orange or red bell peppers
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3-4 tomatoes (heirloom or garden fresh are great!)
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp basil, chopped
10 small marinated, fresh mozzarella balls (Boccini), halved
salt & pepper to taste

Start your pasta water (get it boiling). Cut the bell peppers in half and remove the cores and seeds. Push down flat on a foil covered baking sheet and stick under the broiler to roast. Let the skins get all blackened.

Put them in a plastic or paper bag and let steam for a few minutes. Peel and chop. Set aside.

Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan and saute the onion for 7-8 minutes. You want them soft and with a little color. Then add the garlic and saute for a minute or so more. You can cook the pasta about now.

Chop up the tomatoes and toss in a bowl with a little more olive oil, the capers and the balsamic. Give it a little salt and pepper. You could seriously just eat this with a spoon now, but if you add it to the pasta, it will be even better.

Add the chopped, roasted bell peppers to the pan with the onions, along with the tomato mixture. Toss a bit to mix.

When the pasta is done, add it to the pan and toss. You only want the tomoatoes in the hot pan for a few minutes, so plan when your pasta is done accordingly. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

Add the basil, mix and pour the pasta out into a serving bowl.

Add the halved mozzarella balls, toss again and serve.

So simple and tasty for Summer — or, the end of Summer.

This was part of our new vegetarian Saturday night schedule! We’ve actually followed this for about 2 months — uh, except last Saturday when we went to Country Cat after a movie and I had duck legs. Oops. But other than that, it’s been vegetarian Saturdays! Woo!

This was good. It’s from one of my most beloved cookbook’s ever — The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. It’s pretty easy to make too. The only slightly intimidating part is the flip. And you really don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. But, you should live a little and give it a try.

Worst thing? You have vegetable upside-down cake on your floor and you order a pizza.

Vegetable Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Enchanted Broccoli Forest, by Mollie Katzen
Olive oil & non-stick spray
1 onion, chopped
1 head broccoli, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium zucchini , chopped
1 cup corn (frozen/defrosted)
5 cloves garlic, minced
Black Pepper + Cayenne pepper
bunch of scallions, chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated (or other cheeses work well too, I used sliced, smoked Fontina)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray canola oil into an 8″-ish baking dish (mine was — I think — 7″ X 9″) and set aside. Now, rather than boiling some of the vegetables in water, I just heated them all in one pan.

Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet and sauté the onion for 4-5 minutes. Add the broccoli, zucchini, carrot and cover. Cook for 7-8 minutes, until the vegetables are barely tender. Add the bell pepper, corn and garlic, stir and cook for a minute or two more. Season with salt, black pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Stir in the scallions.

Spread the hot vegetables in the baking dish and allow them to rest while you make the quick bread.

For the Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp fresh dill
1 egg
1 cup yogurt or buttermilk (I used low-fat yogurt)
2 tbsp melted butter

Stir the flours, baking powder & soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add the sugar and herbs. Make an indentation in the center.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, beat the egg, buttermilk or yogurt and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the well made in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.

Spread the batter over the vegetables. You might have to piece it together, taking batter from one part and moving it to another so that the vegetables are covered. Also, I think that using sliced cheese helped me a little here as I had a nice, flat surface to spread the dough on.

Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then, invert your serving plate or tray over the cake pan and flip it, using well-fitting oven mitts. Do it quickly and confidently — it’ll smell your fear.

Remove the baking dish and serve! Voila!

I was flipping channels over the long holiday weekend recently and caught some of Giada’s new show. Something about her fabulous life and having spa days at home — I dunno. I think the concept works for Ina but I’m not so sure about Giada. Maybe if she occasionally invited strange people over to her house who wore whale pants. Then maybe…

Anyway, I watched this show (Giada at Home, I just looked it up), long enough to see and then decide to make this recipe. Mainly because we had leftover beef wellington gorgonzola and also because it looked really good.

I decided to use half Parmesan and half gorgonzola, which worked out really well. I’ve made this recipe twice now — once when I remembered to drain the tomatoes for about 5 minutes and once when I didn’t. Advice: remember to drain.

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic and Gorgonzola
Recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis
6 Roma tomatoes, sliced in 1/2 lengthwise
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely crumbled Gorgonzola or grated Parmesan cheese (or 1/4 cup of each, mixed together)
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Using a teaspoon or grapefruit spoon, remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Place the tomato halves, cut side down, on paper towels to drain, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper. Using clean hands, gently toss the drained tomato halves in the oil mixture until coated.

Marinate the tomatoes for 10 minutes.

In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs and Gorgonzola cheese.

Place the marinated tomato halves, cut side up, on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Fill each tomato half with the bread crumb filling. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until slightly softened and the underside of the tomatoes are brown.

Arrange the cooked tomatoes on a serving platter. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve immediately. I placed the 12 halves around a huge plate and piled a big salad in the middle. Looked really nice and was very tasty!

So, I was listening to the Splendid Table last Sunday night and the first caller asked about green tomatoes and what to do with them. Great question, I thought, as tomato season here is from, uh, September 20th - October 10th. We have a lot of tomatoes that did not turn red. I wore a fleece hat to work today — I think the tomato season is over. We have a number of Romas and Early Girls (small tomatoes) left clinging to our dying vine.

One of the dishes described was for a pasta with ricotta cheese, diced green tomatoes, lemon zest, garlic and pine nuts. That sounds fabulous but, looking in the cabinet, I spied some lasagna noodles and decided to give that a try. Below isn’t an exact recipe, just an overview of what I did. More fiddling is encouraged. I used a 9 X 9 square pan and about 6 no-boil lasagna noodles. My sauce was a concoction of butter, garlic, mushrooms, onion, flour, vegetable broth, cheese and lemon zest.

Green Tomato & Mushroom Lasagna
green tomatoes
lasagna noodles
butter
flour
mushrooms
dried thyme
onion
garlic
a lemon
parmesan cheese
ricotta cheese (park skim)
mozzarella cheese

Slice your tomatoes into rounds. Then start the sauce. I used 2 tablespoons of butter and sauteed a bunch of mushrooms, 1/2 a diced onion, and 2 cloves of minced garlic for a few minutes. Then added some lemon zest. Then 2 tablespoons of flour (cooked for a minute or two) and added heated vegetable broth. It thickened and I added some parmesan cheese for creaminess (I think goat cheese or cream cheese would work well too). A squirt of lemon juice and about a 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme.

Ladle a little sauce in the pan and put two noodles down. Cover with green tomato slices.

More sauce. Two more noodles. Next, ricotta cheese (a whole tub) that I mixed with some salt, pepper, a garlic clove and a handful of parmesan cheese. Then the last layer of tomatoes.

Last two noodles, the rest of the sauce and slices of mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes.

When you take it out you will think, “Oh my god. That looks so good. Thank you, lasagna gods. Thank you!”

For optimal slicing, let it cool for a few minutes first.

What else should I do with our remaining green tomatoes?

***
On a completely unrelated note, if you are in the hospitality business, you should not be a raving lunatic of a woman. Just a thought.

Went back to Uwajimaya again and got more wonderful things — like tons of Thai basil and coconut milk (2 cans for $1.50!), assorted frozen dumplings and some white miso paste. Soon we will steam all the dumplings in one sitting and have Janet Reno’s Dance Dumpling Dumpling Dance Party. But for now, there are Spicy Sesame Noodles with tons o’ Thai Basil.

Oh! Also I am entering this contest and I have (I think) perfected my recipe. jwa thinks I should make another test batch though…I think he just wants more chocolate!

Spicy Sesame Noodles with Thai Basil
Adapted from Bon Appétit Magazine
1 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp Asian sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
11/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp hot chili oil
1 tsp salt
12 oz dried noodles (any Asian noodle is fine or even a linguine or spaghetti-type noodle will work)
8 green onions (white and pale green parts only), thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, sliced into small strips
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh Thai basil leaves
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Heat peanut oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add ginger and garlic; sauté 1 minute. Transfer to large bowl. Add next 6 ingredients; whisk to blend.

Cook noodles in boiling water. Drain thoroughly and toss with sauce. Add sliced green onions, bell pepper strips and toss to coat noodles.

Let stand at room temperature until noodles have absorbed dressing, tossing occasionally, about 1 hour.

Stir in peanuts and Thai basil; toss again.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.