Pasta with zucchini and Ricotta Salata

Pasta is my go-to dish for a quick supper. This is a standard combination of my favorite flavors. I always start with onion and garlic sauteed with in olive oil. Here I've added sliced zucchini, fresh basil, chopped fresh tomatoes and small white beans and crumbled Ricotta Salata cheese - a dry salted ricotta cheese made from sheep's milk - which is sort the Italian version of Feta Cheese, a similar texture - drier, and less salty. You may have noticed that I never tire of eating pasta with vegetables and feta, I am becoming very fond of Ricotta Salata as well.

Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto and Roasted Beet and Orange Salad

A couple of weeks ago, the CSA box had something in it I have never cooked (or even seen) before - Garlic Scapes. These are the shoots that grow up out of the garlic bulb as it tries to become a plant. We eat the garlic bulb, so the farmers cut off the scapes before they flower and leave the bulb to continue to grow. I have read that the scapes have a "delicate" garlic flavor. Our experience was that they pack a serious punch of garlicky power. They are lovely to look at as well.

There are dozens of recipes (maybe hundreds) on the web for garlic scape pesto. I used less oil than called for - a trick I learned from Weight Watchers - I substituted vegetable broth for some of the oil..

Ingredients

1 cup chopped garlic scapes (about 1/2 inch pieces)

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup vegetable broth

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesean Cheese

Pulverize everything in the bowl of a food processor.

It come out a lovely light green color. We did not add basil - but someone told me it is a nice addition.

We had our pesto with spiral pasta (Barilla Plus - for protein)

Our side dish was made from another stand out in the early summer CSA share - beets. I usually roast them whole, but D.has a new cook book, called Fast Fresh & Green by Susie Middleton


She recommended "quick roasting" the beets by slicing them thinly crosswise, tossing them with olive oil, coarsely chopped fresh thyme and a little salt, and roasting them at 475 degrees for 16 to 18 minutes. We did them this way and they were fabulous. We served them on top of some leaf lettuce with chopped navel orange slices and just a little Feta cheese.This should have been topped with a little fresh mint as well - but we got hungry and skipped right to eating.

Pasta with Greens, Herbs & Feta

The CSA box has been full of lettuce the past couple of weeks. Lettuce is wonderful, but D. was away for the week and three heads of lettuce is a lot of salad for two people to eat , so I cooked up the Romaine into this modified version of Molly Katzen's Pasta with Greens & Feta.

 I washed and chopped the Romaine ( I triple wash all my greens the same way I do the spinach (see Tofu topped with Spinach and sun dried tomatoes). I think Romaine lettuce has a wonderful flavor when sauteed lightly. Mollie Katzen uses it with Spinach in her recipe, but I decided to let the Romaine solo here.

 Went out on the deck and picked some oregano

 and purple basil

 I sauteed some onions in about 2 tsp olive oil, then added the lettuce and cooked it till it was wilted but still had a little crunch at the center.

 Then I threw in some Feta cheese

 Tossed the veggies with the pasta and some pasta cooking water

 and topped with freshly grated Parmesan

Very simple, quick and easy supper with wonderful flavors.

Day 69: Pasta with Eggplant, Onions Peppers, Olives & Feta

A last, lonely bag of sauteed eggplant, onions, peppers, and tomatoes was in the freezer from August. So, I boiled up some pasta (Barilla Plus - for the extra protein). Heated up the veggie mix. Put the two together with about 2 cups of pasta water (ALWAYS save some pasta water when you drain the pasta, it inevitably comes in handy). I threw in some shopped calamata olives and topped it with feta cheese - sorry I didn't take a picture - it was very tasty.

Day 5: Pasta with Kale, Arugula & Beans

I was going to make a mushroom strata - but I forgot that it has to sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before baking and it was late, so I made my usual standby, pasta with whatever is in the fridge. I had kale still left from last week's CSA share and arugula from this weeks share. I was thinking greens and beans, so I googled a recipe and found this one: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000223294.

I added a chopped white onion - sauteed with the garlic. I used kale and arugula, a can of cannellini beans, just a little chopped red pepper from a jar, more Parmesan than the recipe calls for, and I left out the lemon juice. I used a little of the pasta cooking water to moisten it up a little. It was quick, tasty and filling