Summer Pasta with Bacon

Good bacon goes with everything — I have a sneaking suspicion that bacon ice cream would be a hit.  (Especially if you paired the bacon with pecans.)  When I say “good” bacon, I’m referring to bacon from pastured hogs that snort and snuffle about on an actual farm.  You can find this kind of bacon at your farmer’s market, online, or at your favorite well-stocked grocery store.  My current easy-to-find favorite bacon comes from Applegate Farms.  They also make darned tasty hot dogs, deli meats, and sausages.  Eatwild.com has plenty of suggestions for finding pastured animal products at farms in your area.

Aside from improved flavor, better nutrition, and a much more pleasant effect on the environment, one of the big perks of good-quality bacon vs. conventional bacon is that it has not been injected with brine to make it taste better.  (It already tastes great!)  That means splattering is kept to a minimum when you’re cooking the bacon…and that means you can use the bacon grease to fry and flavor other ingredients.  In this case, I chopped up a variety of veggies from my garden and tossed them into the pan with the bacon a minute or two before the bacon was done.  Those four strips of bacon were all I needed to have a single-skillet, deliciously-bacon-seasoned dinner!

Summer Pasta with Bacon
This recipe serves 2 but can be easily doubled or tripled.

2 servings of whole-grain pasta of your choice (I used Tinkyáda’s tricolor vegetable brown rice spirals)
4 strips of bacon, preferably from pastured hogs
Assorted summer vegetables of your choice (I used 2 small cucumbers, 8 cherry tomatoes, 2 small peppers, and 12 green beans), chopped or sliced*
Fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and/or sage as garnish (optional)

Prepare the pasta according to package instructions. When the pasta is al dente, drain it, rinse it with tepid water, and set it aside.

While the pasta is simmering, cook the bacon in a covered skillet over medium heat for about 8 minutes, occasionally turning with tongs. If you’re using good-quality bacon, this shouldn’t be too messy; if you’re using the value-pak variety, you might want to use a very deep pot and long tongs to avoid making a mess out of your stove and burning yourself. Value-pak bacon is also probably going to take longer to cook because it will have more saturated fat than bacon from pastured hogs. (Looking for and buying the good stuff is really, really worth it!)

Add the vegetables and cook for 2 more minutes or until vegetables have softened. Turn off the heat.  Stir the drained pasta into the skillet to warm the pasta and mop up the flavorful bacon grease, then serve promptly.

Enjoy!

* Other tasty summer vegetables include zucchini, eggplant, corn, and anything else you find in abundance at the farmer’s market, in the produce market, or in your garden.

Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta

Crunchy lettuce is great…but so is wilted lettuce!  Lettuces with a faint bitterness/pepperiness to them — arugula, watercress, frisée — are especially good complements to savory dishes.  Plus, because they wilt so quickly, they’re a snap to toss into a sautée or stir-fry at the last minute.  Just the heat coming from the pan and the hot food will be enough to wilt the leaves.

The next time you find yourself with too much lettuce on your hands and not enough ways to use it, wilt it!  Especially when the wild salmon are swimming and in their summertime prime.  (Salmon season matches lamb season: both run from May until October.)

Salmon & Wilted Lettuce Pasta

Serves 2 and can easily be doubled or tripled as needed.

2 servings of your favorite whole-grain linguine, prepared according to package directions, then drained and tossed with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil*
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 lb. to 3/4 lb. of leftover baked wild salmon OR you can sautée it fresh** (how much salmon you serve depends on how much each person likes it — I love salmon and like to have hearty portions), chunked into bite-size pieces with two forks
2 handfuls mixed lettuce leaves

While the pasta is cooking, sautée the garlic in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-low heat. After 2-3 minutes, the garlic should be nicely golden brown (but not burnt!). Add salmon to the pan to warm it through. Remove pan from heat and stir in lettuce, gently lifting the salmon and incorporating it with the lettuce to wilt the leaves.

Toss salmon mixture with drained linguine. Season to taste with sea salt and add more extra-virgin olive oil if you wish.

Enjoy!

* To make this a gluten-free dish, simply use a gluten-free pasta such as brown rice, corn, or quinoa. I find that Tinkyáda brand brown rice works best.

** To sautée your salmon, rinse the filet under cold running water and pat it dry. In a frying pan big enough to hold the salmon, heat a pat of butter over medium heat. When the butter begins to sizzle slightly, slide the salmon onto it skin side UP. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, then carefully flip the salmon over so that it’s skin side DOWN.

Continue to cook for another 5 minutes, then poke the center of the filet with a fork to see how it’s cooking. If the top and bottom are browning and seeming to dry out but the middle is still very pink, reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue cooking, covered, until the center flesh flakes cleanly with a fork. (This will probably take about 15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish and the heat of your stove.) Once the fish is done, you can usually slide the flesh right off of the skin with a spatula, leaving the skin behind in the pan.

Wilted Lettuce & Pasta

The arugula piles up sometimes, doesn’t it?  (Especially now that we’re getting into lettuce-growing season.)  Even if you don’t have a lettuce garden, I bet you’ve stared down a half-full container of baby greens and wondered what to do with it.  Salads are great, but no dish can tickle your gastronomic fancy 100% of the time, and you know those delicate leaves won’t last too much longer.  Argh!  Time is running out!

Luckily, though, salad greens can be treated like hearty greens and included in everything from stir-frys to pasta dinners to soups.  Greens are greens, after all, and the biggest difference between curly spinach (we automatically think “savory & hot” dishes) and arugula (“savory & cold“) is the thickness of the individual leaf.  That means all you have to do to use salad greens the way you’d use “savory & hot” greens is lessen the cooking time: rather than sautéeing the greens for a few minutes, just toss them into the meal at the very end, after you’ve taken the pot off the stove and before you dish out the servings.  The residual heat will nicely wilt the greens, softening both their texture and their flavor.  You’ll never have to waste your arugula again!

Wilted Lettuce & Pasta
This recipe is so simple that you can base the ingredient amounts/proportions on your taste buds: if you really like tomatoes, use 2 medium tomatoes or 1 large tomato per person; if you’re a garlic nut, assume at least 2 cloves per person. If your arugula is really getting out of hand, chop up the lot of it and have a very green pasta dish. And of course you can add other veggies at will, or sautée some chicken to go along with the pasta.

Whole-grain pasta of your choice
Coarsely-chopped lettuce
Chopped tomatoes
Slivers of sautéed or roasted garlic (I used roasted garlic chips from Trader Joe’s)
Extra-virgin olive oil
A flavorful, dry cheese like Parmesan or Dutch Parrano (optional)
Sea salt & freshly-ground pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. As soon as you’ve drained it and while it’s still steaming hot, toss in the lettuce, continually folding the pasta up and around the lettuce to allow the heat to wilt the leaves. Stir in tomatoes, garlic, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir in or top with cheese and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Rapini Stir-Fry with Noodles

When it comes to produce, I’m a big fan of the “two-fer” deals: you buy beets with the greens attached and you get two veggies for the price of one, you buy one papaya and get fruit + edible garnishing seeds for the price of one.  Rapini (or broccoli rabe, as it’s often called) is another great twofer vegetable.  It’s also easy to keep crisp and crunchy because you can treat it like a fresh herb — put it in a vase/glass of cold water, loosely cover it with plastic wrap or a plastic produce bag, and keep it in your fridge for up to ten days.

To Americans, rapini is a mysterious, crinkly, is-it-broccoli-or-is-it-not? vegetable.  To a Silician or someone from the south of Portugal or Spain, however, rapini wouldn’t be odd at all.  In fact, it’d be considered darned tasty thrown into a quick sautée or braised with some fragrant garlic, much as we would use curly spinach or any other type of hearty green.

For me, the twofer concept of rapini comes into play when I compare the flavor of the stems to the flavor of the flowered heads — while the stems can get woody and bitter if the rapini is past its prime, after only a few moments of sautéeing, they’re usually tender, a bit sweet, and reminiscent of asparagus.  The flowered heads, on the other hand, taste like toned-down broccoli.  The leaves are a nice greeny backdrop to both.  Very young rapini is also sometimes eaten raw in salads.  With so much inherent versatility, it’s time to give this oddball green a try!  (Note that stores usually keep rapini tucked in with the greens and/or root vegetables.)

Rapini Stir-Fry with Pasta (note that these are general ingredient ideas — double or triple the quantity as needed)

Whole-grain pasta of your choice, gluten-free or with gluten
Red bell pepper, chopped
Onion, chopped
Chopped tomatoes
Black-eyed peas, drained
Garlic, cut into slivers or thin rounds
Fresh or dried thyme, rosemary, basil, and/or oregano
Rapini, rinsed, bottom third of the stem removed, the rest coarsely chopped
(Other tasty veggies to include would be mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, sweet onions, leeks…you name it!)
Extra-virgin olive oil

Prepare noodles according to package directions. While the noodles are cooking, in a large pan, sautée red pepper and onion with a pat of ghee or butter over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent and beginning to turn golden. Reduce heat to medium-low and add tomatoes, peas, and garlic. Sprinkle in some herbs, stir, and let simmer for about 5 minutes or until garlic has begun to cook through and become fragrant.

Add rapini, stir well, and cover pan. Increase heat to medium and let rapini steam for about 3 minutes. If you’d like your rapini super-crunchy, only cook for 2 minutes; if you’d like it to be softer and more wilted, cook for 4-5 minutes.

Immediately remove from heat and place in a large mixing/serving bowl. Toss in pasta and a drizzle or two of olive oil. Season with sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper. If you’d like, you can accent your stir-fry toss with a grated hard cheese like Parmesan or Dutch Parrano. A few sprigs of extra fresh herbs would be a nice garnish.

Enjoy!

Mexican Mole Stew

Although we’ve become accustomed to the taste and style of European-made chocolates (most American chocolatiers stick to Continental methods when it comes to cocoa), the great chocolate traditions originally came from Mexico — specifically, the Aztec civilization.  They drank their chocolate unsweetened, accenting their frothing cups with chilies, cinnamon, and vanilla rather than sugar. Not surprisingly, their richly-blended hot chocolate beverages were the province of the ruling class.

Remnants of that penchant for combining cocoa and spices can still be tasted in today’s Mexican mole family of sauces.  They’re flavorful and thick (although not chunky) and are particularly popular with chicken.  Although many sauces qualify as “mole” from the standpoint of being a type of sauce — guacamole, for one — in modern culinary parlance, mole refers to the tomato-based sauce that also contains cocoa powder, crushed chiles, and cinnamon.

Whether you use a sweet chile like sweet paprika (which is dried sweet red bell peppers) or one that’s closer to cayenne is up to you.  Also, since certain brands of chili powder are blends of chile pepper and red pepper that have already been underscored by cocoa, cinnamon, and cloves, sometimes just choosing the right chili powder can give your dishes a bit of a mole feel.  You can also make your own Aztec version of hot chocolate by adding cinnamon, cloves, and a hint of cayenne.

Mexican Mole Stew

1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, cut into thin rounds
2 T. chili powder, preferably Spice Hunter
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sea salt
32 oz. broth (can be vegetable, chicken, or beef, although if it’s the latter two, preferably broth from free-range animals)
15 oz. canned black beans (the Eden line of canned beans is BPA-free)
15 oz. canned diced tomatoes
3/4 cup frozen peas
3/4 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pasta (corn pasta happens to go wonderfully with this recipe and is gluten-free, but any whole-grain pasta is fine)
Lime juice to garnish

In a stockpot or large soup pot, sautée onion in 1 T. butter or ghee over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in spices and cook for another minute. (Heating the spices in the fat gives them a chance to release their essential oils and therefore their flavors.)

Stir in broth, vegetables, and almonds. Since I use Eden beans — which are in BPA-free cans and are only seasoned with kombu seaweed and sea salt — I like to add the entire undrained can of beans, but that’s up to you. (I find that the bean “juice” thickens the stew nicely.) Let stew simmer for about 20-30 minutes. More time won’t hurt a bit, so if you want to let it happily burble away while you tend to other matters, feel free. Stews like this taste even better when they’re cooked for a long time. (They’re also delicious the next day, after they’ve “married”!)

Check the noodle package to see how much cooking time your pasta requires and add it accordingly. If the noodles require 10 minutes, for example, stir them in 10 minutes before serving, then immediately remove stew from stove.

(Note: if you’d like to make this a meat stew, feel free to stir in strips/cubes of leftover cooked meat when you add the pasta. If you have a tougher cut of meat in mind — i.e., one that will benefit from long cooking — cook it at the very beginning with the onions and let it stay in the pot the entire time. I often brown oxtails at the beginning if I want to turn the vegetable stock into beef stock.)

Squeeze a squirt of fresh lime juice into each bowl before serving. You could also serve the stew with sour cream, cheese, or fresh cilantro.

Enjoy!

Corn Spaghetti Tossed with Guacamole

A whimsical name for a whimsical dish: pasta tossed with guacamole.  I got the idea when I wanted to make guacamole but was out of corn chips.  What to do?  Use corn in a different form, I decided.  I did.  I also deepened the flavors of the dish by sautéeing the garlic and onion before stirring them into the smashed avocado.

This is a great way to serve extra guacamole…and people who object to the greenness of the dip may be more willing to eat noodles swathed in greenness.  (Dad!)  After all, pesto is green, and everyone loves that on pasta.  If a child is balking at the idea of a green meal, tell her you’re serving Shrek pasta for dinner.

“Monster” Pasta (Spaghetti Tossed with Guacamole)
Both gluten-free and wheat versions given

2 servings of a pasta of your choice, prepared according to package instructions (corn is best, but a mild brown rice or wheat would also work)*
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds
1 small onion, diced
1 avocado
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 T. fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper

While pasta is cooking, sautée olive oil, garlic, and onion over medium-low heat in a small saucepan for about 2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant and onion is translucent. Stir often to prevent garlic from browning. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a flat-bottomed bowl, mash avocado with a fork. (It works best if you can easily press down into the avocado flesh.) Stir in tomato, lemon juice, garlic, and onion.** Season to taste with salt and pepper, then toss with warm pasta. Serve immediately. A dollop of good-quality sour cream or Greek yogurt would be a nice garnish.

Enjoy!

* Use corn or brown rice to make this dish gluten-free.

** Note that this is how you make basic guacamole, whether you want to toss it with pasta or dip chips in it.  Just use raw onions and garlic rather than cooked ones and use about half (or less) the amount to account for the fact that they’ll be much stronger-tasting when they’re raw.

Pumpkin & Spinach Pasta

Who says pumpkin is only for pies?  It’s a squash, after all, and we use every other kind of squash — acorn, butternut, spaghetti — in savory dishes.  It’s a shame that zucchinis are the only squashes that have managed to make the jump from savory (in countless Mediterranean dishes) to sweet (quickbreads and fritters).  Given pumpkin’s potential and the fact that Thanksgiving feasts will be hitting tables across the land this weekend, what better time to explore your savory options?

Pumpkin & Spinach Pasta

Note:  this recipe serves 2.  Simply double or triple ingredients as needed.

2 servings of whole-grain pasta
4 cloves garlic, sliced into rounds
1 T. unrefined peanut oil OR extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup whole coconut milk
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ginger
2 cups spinach, roughly chopped

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Rinse with hot water, drain, and set aside. While pasta is cooking, prepare sauce.

In a large pot or pan (you’ll need enough room to add the spinach later), sautée garlic in oil over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes or until garlic is fragrant and slightly golden, stirring often to make sure that garlic doesn’t scorch.

Add coconut milk, pumpkin, and ginger and stir to combine. Simmer on low for about 5 minutes to allow the flavors to marry, then add spinach. Cook for another 1-2 minutes or until spinach is wilted.

Toss pumpkin sauce with drained noodles and serve piping hot. A few crushed peanuts and/or a spritz of lime juice would be nice garnishes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Roasted Beets & Greens

Hey, we’re all hanging onto our pocketbooks for dear life nowadays, so why not make the most of your groceries?  Fresh beets are the perfect example of a food that has hidden potential — namely, two ingredients for the price of one.  No sense in throwing away the tasty greens when you can use them in everything from stews to soufflés.

This dish of roasted beets and wilted greens is also easy on your pots and pans because you double up on individual ingredient preparation when you roast the garlic along with the beets and cook the greens along with the pasta.  And the roasted garlic dressing can be made in a food processor or with the old-fashioned fork-and-bowl method, whichever is easier for you.  (I’m partial to simple forking.)

Roasted Beets & Greens with Garlicky Dressing

Note: one beet = one serving, so just increase the amounts accordingly.

1 beet with greens, separated (snap off the greens from the top of the beet and set aside)
2 T. peanut oil OR melted butter/ghee OR coconut oil
Sea salt & cracked pepper
5 cloves garlic, UNpeeled
1 serving whole-grain pasta
1-2 T. extra-virgin olive oil OR cold-pressed walnut oil
1-2 tsp. cider vinegar
Handful of chopped walnuts (toasted or raw, your choice)
Crumbling of goat cheese, herbed or plain

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. While oven is heating, prepare the beet by peeling it and cutting it into 1″ chunks/cubes. Be sure to use a plastic or glass cutting board — a wooden one would be stained purple from the beet juice. Toss chunks with peanut oil, sea salt, and pepper, then spread out on a flat baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes.

Place cloves into a square of aluminum foil, oil, salt, and pepper, and bend the edges up and down so that you’ve made a pouch. Add to beets when you’ve hit the 25-minute mark and roast everything for an additional 10 minutes.

During those final 10 minutes, chop the reserved beet greens. Cook the pasta according to package directions, adding the greens during the final 2 minutes of cooking. Drain together.

Make the dressing by combining the roasted garlic, olive/walnut oil, and vinegar with a fork or in a processor. (Simply squeeze each clove to make the roasted innards slide out. Be careful, though — they’ll be piping hot and will stick to your fingers! It’s best to let the cloves cool slightly before handling them.)

Toss pasta and greens with beets and dressing and garnish with walnuts and goat cheese.

Enjoy!

Refreshed Asian Stir-Fry with Salmon

Just before I slipped off to sleep last night — a surprisingly sound one considering that I’d just watched another two episodes of my new favorite show, True Blood — I had a culinary ephiphany:  the term “leftover” needs to be revamped.  (Pun intended.)

“Leftover”  sounds distinctly unappealing, doesn’t it?  I mean, who wants what’s left over?  Even dedicated garage-sale shoppers like to get there at the crack of dawn to get first dibs on what’s laid out in the garage or scattered across the lawn.  Calling something a “leftover”  doesn’t do it justice at all, especially when that leftover can be re-purposed and used to create something totally new and innovative.  Leftovers aren’t leftovers at all — they’re founts of inspiration.  They’re tasty ways to save money.  They can be the ultimate convenience food, particularly if we go with the well-nigh-forgotten definition of “convenient”:  affording accommodation or advantage.  (Which commercial “convenience”  foods most certainly do not — they afford poor health, strained economies, and overburdened health-care systems.)  It’s time to re-create the concept of leftovers!

Henceforth, leftovers won’t be leftovers in this e-kitchen:  they’ll be “refreshed” foods.  And to usher in the new era, here’s how I made Monday’’s dinner into Wednesday’s lunch by pairing it with Tuesday’s dinner!

Refreshed Asian Stir-Fry with Salmon & Noodles

As the name implies, I simply added salmon and noodles to Monday’s stir-fry (two posts down).  I’d baked the salmon the night before for dinner and had saved half of it, so all I had to do was use a fork to break it into chunks while I boiled water for the brown rice noodles.  As soon as the noodles had finished cooking, I drained them, added the already-cooked stir-fry to the noodle pot, slid the drained noodles back into it, added the chunked salmon, stirred it, and put the whole thing back on the stove for a minute or two to heat it all through.  Right before serving, I drizzled on a bit of extra sesame oil and soy sauce.

There you have it!  A fantastic lunch in 7 minutes.  (Or however many minutes it takes to cook whatever kind of pasta you choose to use.)  How’s that for refreshing?

Enjoy!

Asian Stir-Fry with Cauliflower & Bok Choy

Mirepoix is a fixture of classic French cuisine:  it’s a mixture of diced and sautéed carrots, celery, and onions used as a base for soups, stews, stocks, and sauces.  You can add other vegetables and whatever herbs you’d like to tailor it to your tongue; like the staple Latin sofrito blend of garlic, onion, and red bell pepper, mirepoix is meant to be a springboard for your creativity in the kitchen.

Given that, I thought, why not start in France and wind up in southeastern Asia?  I had bok choy nestled in the bottom of my crisper drawer and a bag of peas in the freezer.  Toss in some garlic, ginger, and tamari — and the random-but-welcome head of cauliflower occupying a chunk of prime refrigerator real estate — and I knew I’d have the makings of an easy and delicious meal.  And like mirepoix itself, this blend of flavors and attitudes can be combined (or interchanged) with plenty of other elements to create several different meals.  Talk about modular leftovers!

Mirepoix Asian Stir-Fry

2 carrots, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1-2 leeks, thoroughly cleaned and diced
2-3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin rounds or slivers
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
1 cup cauliflower, steamed in simmering water for about 5 minutes and then drained and chopped
1 tsp. ginger
2-3 T. tamari or soy sauce
2-3 T. rice wine vinegar
Sprinkling of crushed red pepper
1 medium bunch bok choy, chopped
Unrefined peanut oil for drizzling (optional)
Unrefined sesame oil for drizzling (optional)

Sautée carrots, onion, celery, leek, and a tablespoon or two of coconut oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are a little bit soft and the onion is nearly translucent. (Butter works, too, but the coconut adds a bit more Asian zing.) Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 2 or 3 minutes. If the vegetables start to stick, add a tablespoon or two of the tamari and/or rice wine vinegar.

Stir in cooked cauliflower, ginger, (remaining) tamari and vinegar, and red pepper. Add the bok choy and gently mix it in. Cover and cook for another 3 minutes to steam the bok choy and re-heat the cauliflower. Remove from heat and stir in peanut oil (if desired). Plate, then drizzle sesame oil onto each portion. Serve immediately.

Note: this recipe makes about two servings, but you can easily expand this by tossing the stir-fry with noodles, additional vegetables like bell peppers or mushrooms, and/or serving meat or seafood along with the stir-fry. (This would be a great way to make use of leftover chicken!)

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Lately, I’ve been wondering what would happen if I re-strained strained Greek yogurt (the double-straining it goes through initially is what makes it thicker and creamier than the standard American variety).  Logically, I figured, it would get even thicker and turn into some sort of a queso fresco or farmer’s cheese.  I snipped off a fresh piece of cheesecloth and gave it a strain.

I’d been right — the re-strained Greek yogurt basically turned into cream cheese.  Even better, it tasted fresh and just a bit tangy rather than plastic-y and gummy the way most commercial cream cheeses do.  I decided to combine my homemade cream cheese with a puréed roasted red pepper and some za’atar spices to make a dip.  That worked out well, so the next day I decided to toss some cooked pasta with the leftover cream-cheese-and-pepper dip.  That worked, too!  It tasted vaguely like palomino sauce, but with peppers instead of tomatoes.  (Palomino is basically marinara with a bit of cream stirred into it.)

The next time you find yourself with extra Greek yogurt on your hands, you might want to try making your own cream cheese…and then maybe your own dip, sauce, or stuffed-fruit dessert.  Your homemade cheese will be much, much fresher than anything you could buy at the market.

To make your own cream cheese: simply secure a piece of cheesecloth — I buy mine at the local hardware store — over a bowl.  (The easiest way is to rubber-band the cheesecloth over the bowl’s edges.)  Scoop out some yogurt and mound it onto the cheesecloth.  Let sit in the refrigerator overnight.  (To prevent the soon-to-be-cream-cheese from picking up refrigerator odors, up-end a bigger bowl over the top to cover it.)

The next morning, carefully scrape the cream cheese off the cheesecloth.  Serve immediately with fresh fruit or crackers or save it to incorporate the cheese into whichever dish you choose.  Bear in mind that it’s best used within 3 days.

Enjoy!

Mexican Pasta with Turkey

I love corn.  Real corn, that is, not high-fructose corn syrup, caramel color, dextrose, maltodextrin, and all the other hundreds of processed corn products in our food today.  Real corn is corn on the cob and corn chips and cornmeal…and things made with those, like roasted corn and chips and salsa and Indian pudding.  And, in this case, corn pasta tossed with fresh salsa, leftover turkey, and a bit of Parmesan cheese (queso fresco would have been better, but I didn’t have any on hand).  Why not apply an Italian idea — pasta and sauce — to Mexican ingredients?  Not only does fusion cuisine make for innovative and tasty dishes, it’s also often a convenient way to re-purpose leftovers.

Mexican Pasta with Turkey

Prepare corn pasta according to package directions.  (You’ll probably find corn pasta — and other pastas made from non-wheat sources such as rice, quinoa, buckwheat, and amaranth — in your local health-food store or in the gluten-free section of a standard grocery store.  Some ethnic stores will also stock non-wheat noodles — Japanese soba is made entirely from buckwheat, for example.  Using these un-typical pastas is a great way to make more authentic ethnic meals and it’s a fun way to experiment with bringing new flavors to an old dish.)

Toss cooked pasta with salsa (either homemade or a store-bought “fresh” style), chopped cooked turkey, and a sprinkling of cheese.  You may want to base your cheese choice on how spicy your salsa is.  (Monterey Jack with jalapeños might be a bit much if your salsa is fire-hot.)  Or you might want to punch up the overall flavor by using a pungent, creamy goat cheese.  Diced green onions and/or cilantro would make a nice garnish.

!Buen provecho!

Half-and-Half Pasta

Ever seen a bowl of soup that had tomato in one side and split-pea in the other?  Perhaps with a line of cream down the middle?  It’s a bit like modern art in a soupbowl.

As a kid, I always used to want the red-and-green option…despite the fact that I didn’t  like split-pea soup.  The colors, I thought, were cool enough to offset the flavor of the pea.  (Now that I’m an adult, I actually like the green part.  Amazing how our tastebuds evolve!)

I used that same let’s-share-the-plate idea to create a quick, easy bi-pasta meal:  I tossed half of the noodles with leftover creamed spinach and half with palomino sauce (which I made by stirring a soft mushroom Brie into marinara sauce over low heat until the cheese melted). The switcheroo effect is highlighted by the addition of sliced grape tomatoes on the green side and a sprig of fresh basil on the red side.

You could do this with any smooth sauces — pesto would also be a great companion for the marinara, or combine fettucini alfredo with puttanesca sauce for a nouveau-artsy look (puttanesca is typically made with capers, anchovies, and black olives).  You could even purée a leftover soup to make a unique, chunky-smooth sauce.  No matter which sauce you choose or which color scheme graces their plates, your guests will be impressed!

Spinach & Chili Pasta

Steamed spinach, creamed spinach, spinach salad, spinach soup…or spinach pasta!  It’s amazing how versatile spinach can be.  (Spinach-and-beet juice is another interesting one.)  Maybe Popeye wasn’t so crazy, after all…

Even though this dish only has 7 ingredients, it has loads of macro- and micro-nutrients and plenty of visual appeal; plus, spinach and whole-grain pasta makes for a very hearty meal.  The chili powder–usually a blend of dried peppers, oregano, cumin, onion, and garlic–adds a Latin flair.  (Spice Hunter chili powder blend is my favorite–it also includes cinnamon, cocoa, and cloves for a vaguely mole feel.)

Spinach and Chili Pasta

For the pasta:

Choose a whole-grain pasta (whole-wheat, kamut, spelt, brown rice, etc.) and prepare according to package directions.  (Note:  100% brown rice pasta is gluten-free.)

For the sauce:

Dice and sautée one small onion and 2 cloves of garlic in a pat of butter.  After a minute or two–garlic will become fragrant–sprinkle on 2 tsp. of chili powder, then stir in 2-3 diced tomatoes and about 1/2 tsp. sea salt.  Continue stirring, keeping the heat at a medium-low setting, for another minute or two to allow the flavors to blend.  Add a handful or two of fresh spinach leaves and carefully stir them into the tomato mixture, spooning the sauce up and on top of the leaves to gently incorporate them.  (You may want to use an entire 10-oz. bag of spinach leaves as they will shrink to about 1/8th of their original volume.)  Warning:  it will only take a minute or two for the spinach to cook!  This sauce could easily be named Salsa Rapida.

Serve hot with whole-grain pasta.  Nice garnishes would be freshly-chopped cilantro/parsley or a flavorful, salty cheese like Feta.

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper with Chicken & Noodles

Leftovers can be magic–especially versatile leftovers like roasted red pepper and chicken.  Just add a bit of pasta and olive oil, sprinkle with parsley, and poof! you have a delicious meal.  With a bit of purposeful overproduction, in fact, you can create your own healthy freezer meals/leftovers.  (But be sure to stick with your original plan and actually save the extra portions.  Eating them all at one sitting defeats the whole scheme!)

There are many reasons to create your own next-day delights:  you know EXACTLY what the ingredients are (let’s face it–you’d have to be a chemist to correctly pronounce the ingredients on a typical frozen dinner), your own leftovers are much more fresh than store-bought ones (how long have they been sitting on the shelf? in the warehouse? in a truck?), and you can control the portion size.  Also, since you’ve already tested the meal and you know you like it, you can treat yourself to a potluck-style surprise by simply not labeling your leftover.  It’s like going to your favorite restaurant and just asking for the chef’s special.

To make roasted red peppers for this dish or for any other meal that strikes your fancy:

[Optional:  place a tray or a piece of aluminum foil underneath the center of the main oven rack to catch any possible drips.]  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  When it’s piping hot, place the whole washed pepper directly on the rack.  Roast for about 20 minutes or until the skin of the pepper begins to blacken and blister.  (You may wish to turn it over halfway through the cooking time.)

Remove pepper from oven and IMMEDIATELY place in ziploc bag.  Seal and let the pepper rest until it’s cool enough to handle.  (This could take 30 minutes.)  When you remove it from the bag–which will be foggy with condensation–the skin will be very easy to peel off.  Remove stem, seeds, and all skin.  At this point, you can purée the roasted pepper for dips or smooth sauces, slice it into strips to serve alongside main dishes or on sandwiches/wraps, or cover it with olive oil and save it for later.  (You can refrigerate roasted red pepper for about a week.)  If you’d like to flavor your pepper, add garlic and/or herbs to the oil.  They can be directly added to the dish later on.

Happy roasting!