Rotini with Spinach & Ricotta

So Simple, So Good.

Put the pasta water up to boil.

Chop an onion and start it sweating in a tad of olive oil.

Wash and chop a bunch of spinach.

Drop the pasta in the pot.

Throw the spinach in with the onions and cook until it wilts.

Remove the pasta from its pot to the pan with the spinach and onions, using a slotted spoon.

Stir in 1/2 - 1 cup ricotta cheese (use the purest you can find - read the ingredients - there should be only milk, vinegar, and salt).

Add a little pasta water to thin if you like.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Top with a dollop of ricotta and little grated Parmesan if you like.

 

Cavatelli & Brocolli

Family Favorite and another quick supper. D. is practicing his cooking skills before leaving for graduate school. this is one of his favorite dishes. We had some broccoli in the share this week too.

Ingredients:

I large head of broccoli, cut into florets - size up to you - we like them about 1 inch

1-2 bags of frozen cavatelli

4-8 cloves of garlic (we used lovely fresh garlic from the farm market)

salt & pepper

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

How to do it

1. Put a pot of water big enough to hold the broccoli up to boil

2. While the water is heating: peel and slice the garlic - or cut each clove into quarters

then put the garlic in a heavy saute pan with some olive oil - we use very little - 2 tablespoons or so - but you can use 1/4 cup or more - cook over medium heat until the garlic is soft and golden brown

3. While the garlic is cooking - cut up the broccoli - and when the water boils throw it in the pot for 3-4 minutes - until it is bright green and still a little crisp

4. scoop the broccoli out of the water with a slotted spoon and add it to the pan with the garlic and oil - turn off the heat on that pan - keep the water boiling

5. add the frozen cavatelli to the boiling water and cook 5-7 minutes. While it is cooking, grate the Parmesan cheese.

6.  Drain the pasta - but reserve 1 cup of cooking water - add cavetelli to the broccoli, garlic and oil

6. Stir in some cheese, add pasta water to moisten - especially if you are not using a lot of oil

We keep the cheese and grater on the table for a little extra on each dish.

Spinach & Sun Dried Tomato Fritatta

There are so many delicious things you can do with fresh spinach. This was a quick supper with eggs, kind of a fritatta. I used one bunch of spinach from the CSA box.

Wash the spinach well, especially if it just came from the farm market or the CSA box and still has dirt and sand clinging to it.. I usually put it in a big bowl of water, push it around gently, lift it out of the water into a collander, dump the water (and the sand and dirt) - or use it to water the plants, then repeat that process two more times or until there is no more dirt in the bottom of the bowl when I remove the spinach.

Chop the spinach bu piling up the leaves, slicing them into strips one way and then slicing the other way to cup those strips into pieces.

I made this a few weeks ago and used sun dried tomatoes - but if I make it now, I would use fresh tomatoes -mmm - makes my mouth water just thinking about fresh Jersey tomatoes...
For this fritatta, I chopped about 1/3 cup of sun dried tomatoes.

Grated about 1/2 cup Parmesean cheese

Sauteed one chopped yellow onion in 1 tsp olive oil

I beat 6 eggs with a little soy milk, then poured them into the ovenproof saute pan

I cooked the fritatta on top of the stove until it was almost set, then sprinkled the mozerella and Parmesean cheese on top and popped it into a 400 degree oven just until the top browned

Day 24: Pasta with Cauliflower, Kale & Onions

It was the second Night of Hanukkah and I was scheduled to work from 2:30 until 10 pm. My husband usually stops by the hospital on his way home from work (and the gym) and has dinner with me. Now, Hanukkah is a minor festival - but it is a holiday, and we we ate out on the first night,so I wanted to have something a little more special than cafeteria food. There are still lots of veggies left from the last CSA share of the season, luckily they are winter vegetables and they keep well. I decided to use a head of cauliflower, a bunch of kale and some onions - that looked kind of like this










The list that came with the CSA share says they are pearl onions, but they look like spring onions or bulb onions to me. In any case, I halved a bunch of them (quartered a couple that were larger) and put them in a pan with some EV olive oil to cook for a few minutes while I washed the cauliflower and broke it into florets. I added the cauliflower to the pan and let that cook while I re-washed a bunch of Kale and chopped that up. After the cauliflower began to soften a bit, I added the Kale. I re-hydrated a handful of sun-dried tomatoes and sliced them up, and quartered a handful of Kalamata olives. I added those to the pan, along with a little dried basil and oregano and some salt and pepper. I let this cook while I boiled a pot of water and cooked some orichette pasta (just short of al dente). I transferred the pasta to the pan with the vegetables using a slotted spoon. I added about a cup of the pasta cooking water and simmered everything together until the pasta was done. Then, I added about a cup of crumbled Feta cheese and  about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese and tossed. I packed two portions of that pasta up and took it to work. I re-heated it when we were ready for dinner and it was pretty fabulous.

Day 20: Lentils and Rice

I had to work from 2:30 to 10 pm and the hospital cafeteria is not open on Sunday night. I left the family to their own devices (there were still Thanksgiving leftovers in the refrigerator) and made myself a quick supper to take with me from leftovers that didn't make it onto the Thanksgiving table. I had some extra lentils and rice from the stuffing I prepared for the Portobello Mushrooms on Friday and some chopped tomatoes from the Autumn Vegetable Soup preparations ( I chopped what the recipe called for, but it seemed like too many tomatoes for the perfect balance of that lovely soup - I have been making it for years  and I know how I like it, so I left some out). I mixed some lentils with some rice and the chopped tomatoes in a glass bowl. I added some chopped arugula from the CSA share and some dried basil, and oregano, salt and pepper. I grated some Parmesan cheese and packed that separately. When it was time for dinner, I heated the lentil mixture in the microwave and mixed in the cheese. That is my idea of a perfect dinner.

Day 18 : Thanksgiving #2

We traveled to visit my husband's mother - and brought some vegetarian Thanksgiving dishes with us. Once again, the family voted,  and this time it was a split decision, the boys wanted squash with a nut stuffing and the girls wanted stuffed mushrooms.  I made both. First, I modified  Chloe Coscarelli's vegan Harvest-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/a-vegan-chef-dishes-up-thanksgiving/) by adding a bunch of fresh spinach, chopped, to the onion, cashew, and garlic sauté. Then I added  some grated Parmesan cheese to the finished stuffing mixture. The flavors blended well and the result was very tasty.


For the squash, I started with a nut stuffed Delicata squash recipe from Sunset Magazine (http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001842377). We had acorn squash from our CSA share, so I used that. I wasn't sure I would like the nut stuffing (and it is a little too high in fat and calories for me) so I stuffed my squash with the stuffing I made for the mushrooms - making a total of three different main dishes. For sides, we had the roasted left-over winter vegetables that I made earlier, a big green salad made by grandma, and some of the apple cranberry chutney.

Day 15: Cavatelli & Broccoli

Spent the day cleaning and shopping for Thanksgiving. Picked up the last of the CSA shares for this season. I made stock for the soup I usually make for Thanksgiving (Autumn Vegetable Soup from Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu cookbook) and Cranberry Apple Chutney (tried a new recipe from the NYT Well website). Cavatelli & Broccoli is one of our favorite dishes and it is so easy to prepare - and there was broccoli in the CSA share. I sauteed a bunch of garlic cloves in oil (2 tsp oil per person). I cut up the broccoli and threw it in the pasta pot - before the pasta - for 3 minutes, then transferred it to the pan with the garlic & oil using a slotted spoon. I boiled the cavatelli in the same water - then transferred them to the broccoli - added salt & pepper and Parmesan cheese, with more on the side. We had that with some semolina bread and a salad. After dinner, we finished making the Thanksgiving soup - everyone helped chop the many, many vegetables that make it taste so wonderful (leeks, butternut squash, brussels sprouts, carrotts, celery, potatoes, sweet potatoes). I left the last few ingredients (tomatoes, swiss chard, red & yellow bell peppers, tamari, dill) to be added when we re-heat it on Thursday.