THAI-STYLE PESTO WITH BROWN RICE PASTA

Posted in Pasta & Noodles by sallybr

As someone who owns a disturbingly high number of cookbooks, subscribes to several cooking magazines, and downloads cookbooks on her iPad on a regular basis, I am aware that those should be my main source of inspiration for dinners. Surprisingly, one more time I will blog on something seen on FoodTV. Go figure. Rachael Ray enticed me with this pesto, especially through her description of how floral and complex-tasting Fresno peppers can be. I had most ingredients around, all I needed to grab at the grocery store was the bright red Fresno pepper. Quick to put together, this turned out as a very delicious pesto. Not sure about the floral, though. Read on… 😉

THAI-STYLE PESTO WITH BROWN RICE PASTA
(adapted from Rachael Ray)
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1 pound brown rice spaghetti
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 cup fresh baby arugula leaves
5 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons tamari
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lime, juiced
1 Fresno chile, seeded
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
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Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, add the pasta, and cook until al dente.Place the basil and arugula leaves, 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, tamari, garlic, lime juice, and chile into a food processor. Pulse into a paste. Drizzle in the extra-virgin olive oil. Pour the pesto into a large bowl and reserve. If the pesto seems too thick, reserve a little bit of the pasta cooking water, and use it to thin the pesto right before incorporating into the cooked spaghetti.
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Drain the pasta, add to the pesto, and toss to combine. Garnish with the remaining 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds.
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ENJOY!
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to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Rachael Ray’s title for this show was “Thai Tonight”, and she served the pasta with a stir-fry of chiles and chicken over shredded iceberg lettuce. I had some iceberg lettuce in the fridge, but went with grilled flank steak. I simply seasoned the lettuce with lime juice and a tiny bit of grapeseed oil, added some Campari tomatoes that were feeling ignored and risking the cruel fate of a compost pile. The grilled steak rested on the bed of this improvised salad. A simple main dish to allow the pasta to shine.

I did not have a lot of basil available, so I used baby arugula to compensate, I like its sharper nature. Now, let’s address the floral component of a Fresno chile. When I plated the dish, I told Phil that next time I would use two peppers to make it more colorful, because “Fresno is all about flavor, not real heat.” After the second forkful of pasta, lips burning, taste buds fried, we were both grateful that I used only one! 😉 Either Rachael’s tolerance for heat is a lot higher than mine, or I managed to pick a mutant pepper with unusually high levels of capsaicin at the grocery store. But, the interesting thing is that after a while we more or less got used to the heat and the sweat dripping from our foreheads, and thought the level of spice was just right. So I say be brave, grab a Fresno (make sure you seed it) and go for it!

Rachael used brown rice pasta as the starch component. Traditionally, one would choose the regular, white rice noodles associated with Thai cooking, and of course they work great for this type of dish. But I loved the slightly firmer texture of the brown rice spaghetti. Nowadays I use whole wheat pasta almost exclusively, but both brown rice and quinoa pasta have their spot in the Bewitching pantry.

Dinner is served!

ONE YEAR AGO: Shrimp with Spicy Orange Sauce

TWO YEARS AGO: A Simple Appetizer (Baked Ricotta)

THREE YEARS AGO: Sour Cream Sandwich Bread

FOUR YEARS AGO: Pasta with Zucchini Strands and Shrimp

29Sep2013

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: LINGUINE WITH CAULIFLOWER PESTO

Posted in Pasta & Noodles, Secret Recipe Club, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

A sensible person evaluates a situation and chooses a path of action that is compatible with it. For example: a sensible food blogger whose kitchen is undergoing renovation would take a break from The Secret Recipe Club to be back once she actually has a place to cook. I did consider that option for a while, say… 5 seconds. 😉 So, throwing caution to the wind, here I am to join once more the virtual party in which bloggers are paired in secret to cook recipes from their matched blog.
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Last month was my 2nd anniversary with SRC, so this post opens my third year with the group. And what could be better for an “old-timer” than to be paired with a new member? I was assigned Vintage Kitchen Notes, hosted by the beautiful Paula, who just joined SRC. She cooks and blogs from Argentina, right next door to my home country. Paula blogs in English, but she also keeps another blog in Spanish – talk about blogging stamina! I actually tried to include recipes in Portuguese for a while, but quickly realized it was too much of a struggle for me. So, I am in awe that Paula can do it all! Her photography is beautiful, I had a wonderful time browsing her site. Let me share a few of her concoctions that were particularly tempting to me: 8-Hour Cheesecake with Roasted Grapes, Limoncello-Glazed Citrus Poppy Seed Cake, Chocolate-Hazelnut Mini-Bundt Cakes (gorgeous!), Pastel Azteca (gotta make that sometime), Roasted Radicchio and Provolone Risotto (go drool over the photo, will you?), and just to tempt my bread baking addiction, she has more than 40 different bread recipes listed on her index. I will just mention one: Soft Pretzels with Spicy Beer Cheese Sauce. I’ve always wanted to make soft pretzels at home, but that will have to wait for calmer days.
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Since our kitchen looks like a war zone. I ended up choosing a very intriguing recipe that required only the food processor and one pan to cook the pasta. Seemed doable under the circumstances. So, I am delighted to share with you my first experience with a cauliflower pesto!

LINGUINE WITH CAULIFLOWER PESTO
(from Paula, at Vintage Kitchen Notes, originally adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook)
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1 pound (450g) fresh cauliflower

1 medium shallot, quartered

pinch of red pepper flakes

½ cup toasted almonds

2 oz. (60g) Asiago cheese

4 sun-dried tomatoes, dried-packed

1 Tbs drained capers

2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup olive oil (I used 1/4 cup)

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar (I added 2 tsp)

1 pound linguine
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Cover the sun-dried tomatoes with boiling water in a small bowl and let them stand for 5 to 10 minutes to soften. Drain well and chop them coarsely. Rinse the cauliflower, cut off the leaves and hard stalks. Cut the rest into chunks, and add to a food processor, processing them until they are more or less the texture of couscous. Transfer to a large bowl and reserve while you prepare the other ingredients.

Add to the food processor the pieces of shallot, pepper flakes, almonds, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, capers and parsley. Process until they´re as fine as the cauliflower. Season with salt and pepper. Add oil and vinegar and pulse until a paste forms. If you feel it´s too dry for your taste, add another tablespoon of olive oil.

Transfer to the bowl with the cauliflower, check the mixture for salt and pepper and add more if necessary.

Cook the linguini until al dente in plenty of salted boiling water. Reserve some of the cooking liquid, and drain the pasta, transferring to a serving bowl. Add some of the pesto and mix gently. If necessary, add some of the reserved cooking liquid. Add the remaining pesto, sprinkle with grated cheese, a few parsley leaves and serve immediately.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: You might remember that Phil is not too wild about cauliflower, so I was hoping to prepare the pesto while he was doing something outside, maybe playing golf or trimming tree branches. My plan almost worked but not quite. I had cleaned all the “remains” of the cauliflower from the crime scene, but he caught a glimpse of the processed cauliflower, and…

What is this? some exotic type of rice?

This? No, not rice.
(quickly moving the bowl away from view)

Hummmmm… couscous?

No, not really…

What IS it?

I cannot quite tell you. It’s a surprise. It’s going to be a pesto.. A surprise pesto..

Pesto? Great, I love pesto!

😉 😉 😉 😉

Verdict: Two very enthusiastic thumbs up for this pasta! I can understand why Paula made this dish twice in the same week. One could imagine the raw cauliflower to be too sharp and omnipresent in the pesto, but it’s not. It is just a perfectly balanced dish, with the capers, the vinegar, the sun-dried tomatoes, the parsley, a real winner. I divulged the “secret ingredient” of the Secret Recipe Club concoction to Phil, and he was amazed. The heat of the pasta slightly changes the texture of the cauliflower, taming its raw taste. I highly recommend you try this recipe. If you use the reduced amount of oil I did, make sure to save some of the pasta cooking liquid to adjust the consistency at the end. If it still seems too thick, swirl a little olive oil right at the table.

Paula, it was great to get your blog this month, I hope you had fun stalking and cooking from your assigned site!

For a delicious collection of tasty dishes prepared by my friends from Group D of SRC, click on the blue frog at the end of the post…

ONE YEAR AGO: Carriage House Apple-Walnut Pie

TWO YEARS AGO: Chicken Marsala

THREE YEARS AGO: Home, sweet home

FOUR YEARS AGO: Levain Bread with Caramelized Onions

16Sep2013

DITALINI PASTA SALAD

Posted in Pasta & Noodles, Salads, Side dishes, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

I am not at all fond of pasta salads that are loaded with oily dressing, or the dreadful mayo to weigh things down even further. I like a salad that leaves me feeling refreshed and light. Ditalini is a shape normally used in soups, but I thought it would work well in this type of recipe. It has slightly more body than orzo, and is not as “slippery” . Rather than a strict recipe, this is all about flexible amounts, so play with it, and make it shine!

DITALINI PASTA SALAD
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

Ditalini pasta, cooked all dente and rinsed in cold water
1/4 cup grape seed oil
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 Tbs lemon juice
Dried oregano to taste
Dried mint to taste
Red pepper flakes, a pinch or two
Cherry tomatoes, red and yellow
Green onions, sliced thin
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the cooked and cooled ditalini pasta on a large bowl.

Make the vinaigrette by mixing and whisking well the grape seed oil, vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, mint, and red pepper flakes.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half, and season lightly with salt and pepper.

Add the vinaigrette to the pasta and mix well. Incorporate the cherry tomatoes, add the green onions, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Keep cold… and….

ENJOY!
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to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Feel free to use fresh mint instead of dried, as well as fresh oregano, although I find fresh oregano too overpowering and always use dried instead. I kicked myself for not thinking about adding capers, so keep that in mind, this salad begs for a handful of those. We like our vinaigrette to be more about the vinegar than the oil. We also prefer the milder taste of grape seed compared to olive oil, so grape seed was my choice. You should make it the way you prefer, more oil, olive oil, a little mustard, maybe some garlic. As you may have noticed, we are not garlic people. It is quite possible that if they sequence our genome, a few vampire genes might be found here and there. But, nothing to worry about, we are usually very well-behaved, your neck is safe with us. 😉

Are you familiar with Vincent Price’s cookbook? A classic, a real classic….

ONE YEAR AGO: Celebrate Wednesday with a Thai Seafood Curry

TWO YEARS AGO: Post-workout Breakfast

THREE YEARS AGO: Semolina Barbecue Buns

FOUR YEARS AGO: Lavash Crackers

2Aug2013

JERUSALEM: PASTA WITH YOGURT, PEAS & CHILE

Posted in Pasta & Noodles, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

If you are a cookbook lover, chances are you have at least one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s books on your shelf. His book “Plenty” (released in 2011) was a huge success, but “Jerusalem“, which he wrote together with Sami Tamimi is probably the hottest cookbook published last year. Countless bloggers have been raving about the recipes in Jerusalem, and even the Diner’s Journal of The New York Times devoted a special article to the cookbook. As usual, I bookmarked way too many tempting concoctions to try, but when I read this review from Orangette, I knew this pasta would hit the spot with us. Several things I like about it: the sauce is made with yogurt instead of cream or a bechamel; peas are incorporated in two ways; feta cheese gives it a sharp bite, and fresh basil does the magic that fresh basil always does.

But, as if that symphony of flavors and textures was not enough, each serving is crowned with a spicy and nutty flavored oil, made by sauteing pine nuts and Aleppo pepper. Oh, my! Can you spell perfection?

The two main components of the dish come together quite quickly. First, the yogurt-pea sauce, simply whirled in a food processor. Beautiful light green color!

Then, the finishing touch, a flavored oil with pine nuts and Aleppo pepper. Red pepper flakes can be substituted, but I say go for a Turkish pepper if you can find it.

The yogurt sauce is never heated, instead the hot pasta is added to it in small batches to prevent the sauce from separating. Reminds me of pasta in fresh tomato sauce, a regular appearance at our table these days.

I must say this recipe was the best thing I cooked in a few months! I loved everything about it… The original recipe used small shell-shaped pasta which might be even better to catch those cute little peas, but any pasta will work. If you have a dinner party coming up and would like to offer a vegetarian option, I say it will be hard to top this one… 😉

If you want the full recipe, you can buy the book (click here), or you can use the version published at Orangette.

ONE YEAR AGO: Edamame Hummus in Cucumber Bites

TWO YEARS AGO: Headed to Brazil!

THREE YEARS AGO: Twice-Baked Goat Cheese Souffle

FOUR YEARS AGO: Golly Moses: She’s a Muffin!

26Jul2013

GRATED TOMATO SAUCE, REVISITED

Posted in Pasta & Noodles by sallybr

Almost three years ago I blogged on a fresh tomato sauce in which the tomatoes are grated instead of diced or processed. It is such a nice method that I feel it’s worth mentioning again for those who might be new to my site. Something about its texture makes this sauce absolutely unique and very delicious…

WHOLE-WHEAT SPAGHETTI WITH GRATED TOMATO SAUCE
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

Whole-wheat spaghetti
4 large, ripe tomatoes or 6 medium, halved crosswise
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried mint leaves
2 tablespoons capers (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
fresh basil leaves, cut in chiffonade
Parmigiano-Reggiano for serving

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, grate the tomatoes using a box grater with medium-large holes. The skin of the tomato will protect your hand as it gets close to the grater.

To the grated tomatoes, add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mint, capers, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the cooked pasta on top of the cold tomato mixture, and immediately add the basil. Toss everything together gently, and serve right away with Parmigiano cheese.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

IT”S ALL ABOUT THE TEXTURE…

I make this type of pasta several times each summer, never get tired of it! Since I learned from Louisa Shafia that dried mint should not be frowned upon, I’ve been using it a lot. In this pasta, it worked wonders together with the capers and the basil… You can adapt this recipe in countless ways, just make sure to grate the tomatoes, it is amazing how a little change can bring so much to a simple recipe.

The refreshing pasta next to a simple roasted chicken, adapted from an old favorite.