BLT Pasta (NY Times)

 A friend gifted me with a bowl of cherry tomatoes and I'd also had a few cherry tomatoes from my deer and bug eaten plats, so I thought it was a good time to make this BLT Pasta recipe from the NYT.  I used rigatoni instead of the "paccheri" pasta called for. Recipe said you couldl also substitute penne, but I don't think it would catch the chunks in the sauce as well.  This version is also halved to feed 2. :-)

BLT Pasta (Adapted from the NYT)

Ingredients:

• 6 oz rigatoni pasta
  
• 4 ounces bacon, diced into ½-inch pieces (I used Nueske's applewood smoked bacon from the Fresh Market)
  
• 8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved, plus a few more
  
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt  and black pepper
• 2.5 ounces baby arugula (or more!)
  
• 1.4 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for serving (I used Parmigiano Reggiano)
  
• Flaky salt, for serving (optional)

Intructions:

1. Cook pasta in salted water until about 1 minute from being completely done.  Drain and reserving 1 cup pasta water.
2. You can start the sauce while the pasta's cooking. In a 5-qt dutch oven or large skillet,  place the bacon cook over medium-low heat until crisp, stirring occasionally to make sure it does not burn, about 8 minutes (sometimes I'll start it with 1/2 cup of water, that allows some of the fat to render and then the bacon can crisp in that fat after the water evaporates). Remove bacon  with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate lined with paper towels. If there's a lot of fat, you may want to remove all but 1 tbs or so.
   
3. Turn heat to medium and add the tomatoes to the skillet, tossing them to coat in the bacon fat. Season with salt and pepper. As the moisture from the tomatoes releases, scrape any browned bits that have accumulated at the bottom of the pan (add a few tablespoons of the pasta water if you need to) and continue to cook until the tomatoes begin to fall apart, about 5 to 7 minutes more. Add half of the cooked bacon back to the skillet and toss to combine.
4. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the cooked pasta directly to the skillet tossing to coat with the sauce. Add the arugula and and a couple tablespoons of the pasta water, and carefully toss (Here's where the NYT warns "you'll have a very full pan" and why I like to use a dutch oven rather than a skillet for these types of recipes!) until the arugula wilts. 
5. Add the cheese and another 2 tbs pasta water, and toss together until the cheese emulsifies and the pasta is glossy with sauce. If needed, add another 2 tbs  cup pasta water to loosen the sauce. 

 

Some pics:

 

Pretty cherry tomatoes - some sungolds from my plants, and mostly I think Black Cherry tomatoes from my friend:

Cut in half:

 

Finished dish:

 

Roast Pork Chops and Peaches

 I love the peaches at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market. My favorites come from Leonard's Orchard in Cana, VA. I tend to overbuy - an if I'm not eating them out of hand I'll make them into a cobbler. (World's Easiest Cobbler recipe incoming).  In late July (ok, I started this post awhile ago!( I had more than I needed so I was looking for a recipe to use them up. I found this recipe for Roast Pork Chops and Peaches on Leite's Culinaria.  I had all the ingredients, including a red onion from the Guilford College Farm, some fine bone-in pork chops from PTB Farm, so let's go!

 I followed the recipe pretty much as is, though I left out the pomegranate molasses and fresh basil.  And as advised, I took the chops out a little before the the onions and peaches. Pretty quick and delicious, we'll be having it again this week. 😊😊😊

 

Provolone tomato sandwiches

 Man, I keep taking pictures of food and not posting them.  So let me try and get something posted - this Smitten Kitchen Fried Provolone and Tomato Sandwich. 

For one serving you need the following:

• Two slices of bread, toasted (I used Pane di Casa from Harris Teeter)
• 1-2 tbs mayonaise
• 4 slices thin sliced provolone (I used Sargento Ultra Thin sliced)
• As much ripe tomato as you like (this one was from the Farm, I think it was a German Johnson, about 1 medium tomato).

Pretty much the recipe is just toast the bread, spread with mayo, top with fried provolone, top with sliced tomato, sprinkle with salt and pepper and you're done.  The tricky bit is that part in italics, the fried provolone.  The first time I tried to make this dish, the fried provolone was a big fail, and I didn't understand what the fuss was about.  But I tried it again this summer, and I think the trick is just to be patient. 

To fry the provolone, heat a non-stick skillet on medium low heat.  I pour 1-2 tsp of olive oil in the pan, and wipe it around with a paper towel. Lay two slightly overlapping slices of provolone in the skillet, it will start to bubble up as it melts and look lacy, especially on the parts where there's only one layer. This is where I've messed up before, I went too fast and the provolone hadn't browned, which helps it hold together.  As it is cooking, I shape it a little bit with the spatula so it will fit on the bread.  Once the underside is browned, you can flip the cheese over if it folds up, don't panic, just unfold it and brown it on the other side:

Then lift it out of the pan and put on your mayonnaise spread bread.  Top with tomato and sprinkle with salt. It's like a crispy/chewy cheesy crouton.

Grilled Zucchinni/Summer Squash Sandwich

Writing this one down because I've been eating it a lot as the summer squash comes into season.  I love grilled veggies of all types, but squash and eggplant are two of my favorites. Last week just to cut down on the volume in veggies in my fridge (I really shouldn't get the full share CSA but always do b/c FOMO with just a half share) I decided to grill the the zucchinni and summer squash that I had.  It's very simple, just take your squash, wash and dry it, take off the top and tail and slice into about 3/8" planks.  I do this crosswise for zucchinni (especially the big fat ones) and lengthwise for yellow squash but you do what you like.  Drop the slices in a bowl or a zip-top bag, add some olive oil (a few tsp, you just want to lightly coat them) and salt and pepper. Toss in the bowl or moosh around in the bag (I like the bag) so everything is coated.  Grill on high heat, about 3 min per side, until you get nice grill marks and the squash is tender.  

Pro-tip: don't do what I did with the second batch and go inside and start another recipe and forget the squash was on the grill until it was charcoal.

I thought I took more pics of this but apparently not.  Of course a great way to eat this squash is off the plate with your hands or as a side dish.  It's also good tossed with a little olive oil, garlic and balsamic vinegar.  But as I was pulling last of the unburnt  squash off of the grill, I had an inspiration to try it in a grill cheese sandwich.  

Grilled Zuchinni/Summer Squash sandwich:

Ingredients

• Two slices bread (I used 2 slices of Band of Bakers Pane de Casa - 2 ounces of any nice bread will do)
• 1-2 tsp chimichurri or pesto (or something else vinagary/herby)
• grilled squash (eggplant would be good here too)
  
• 1-2 ounces shredded gruyere or swiss cheese (or whatever melty cheese you like)
• olive oil (brush or spray)
• 1-2 slices of proscuitto, cut into ribbons (optional)

Instructions

Spray or brush one side of each slice of bread with olive oil. Spread chimichurri on the non-oiled side of one of the slices. Shingle slices of grilled squash over the chimichurri (they can overlap a bit, but I just use one layer). Spread proscuito (if using) over the squash.  Distribute the shredded cheese evenly over the squash, top with the other slice of break (oiled side up).  Grill or cook in a non-stick pan over medium-low heat until the cheese is melted and the bread is nicely browned.

I took almost no pics, which is unfortunate.  My first effort I made on the grill since it was already hot from grilling the zucchinni/squash.  It was a bit warm so I burned the bread a little.  The second and 3rd attempts were in a non-stick frying pan, and I heated it up on medium low since the grilled squash was just out of the fridge and I wanted to heat that up before the bread burned.

A little chimichurri spread:

Sandwich off of the grill with cooked zuchinni/squash in background:

Collard Greens Pesto

 What? Yes, you can pesto anything.  Normally when I make a salad pizza, I'll use an arugula pesto but this week I didn't have any left in the freezer, and I wasn't about to go and buy more greens when I had a bunch of collards, half a bunch of kale and a good amount of lettuce still sitting in the crisper.  And the collards were from the CSA almost 3 weeks ago!  I will say, that's the advantage of CSA/farmer's market produce, it's so generally so fresh that it lasts a long time in the fridge (especially if you clean and package it like this), unlike the bags and boxes of salad you get at the grocery store that seem to turn to slime after a few days. At any rate, I hadn't had a chance to cook the collards, but I had cleaned and chopped them as soon as I got them home (they fit in the fridge much better that way) so they were ready to be turned into my first attempt at collard pesto.  

Collard Pesto (Recipe adapted from Garden & Gun)

Makes about 12 ounces of pesto

• 4 cups chopped collard greens (a small bunch will give you this much)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2/3 cup EVOO
• 2 oz grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 tbs lemon juice 
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan halves
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a food processor, combine the pecans, garlic, ¼ cup of the oil, the cheese, lemon zest, and lemon juice and blend or pulse several times to combine. Add the greens and pulse a few times to get them started (you can use a spatula to push the greens down between pulses). Add salt and pepper Add the rest of the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the food processor is running and process to the desired consistiency. Taste and adjust seasoning.  

This will keep several days in the refrigerator and also freezes well.

Here it is going on the pizza dough:

I use the parchment to help me slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, I bake the pizza for 5 minutes at 500°F, then remove the parchment and bake for 5 more minutes. 

The finished product - I drizzled the lettuce with about a tsp of olive oil and lemon juice and grated a bit of parm on it:

 Full salad pizza recipe and process here. Overall collard pesto was a success! 

Crispy broccoli

 I love me some roasted veggies.  This week we got a wonderful 2 lb bag of broccoli in our CSA, and I knew that it was going to get roasted.  Thanks to my girl Deb at Smitten Kitchen, I knew exactly what I needed to do, and it did not dissapoint! You can find the recipe here: https://smittenkitchen.com/2015/04/crispy-broccoli-with-lemon-and-garlic/

First cut up the broccoli into smaller florets, and peel the stems and cut into 1/2 inch chunks. Toss it up with salt, pepper, garlic, lemon zest and and couple of tbs of olive oil and throw it on a sheet pan and roast the heck out of it at 425°F for 20-30 minutes.  Stir it up after 20 min and then check it every 5 minutes after that until it's the amount of crispy you like. Mine was good after 5 more minutes.  Hard not to eat the whole pan when it comes out!

some pics!

stir it all up!

put it on the sheet pan:

Roast it up!

Ugly delicious....

Strawberry Shortcake

 I was out of town for a few weeks in April and May, and then my brain seemed like it was out of town for  few weeks after I got back.  Finally made it to the farmer's markets this week and one of the items I'd been most wanting was fresh strawberries.  Hadn't made it out to Rudd Farms yet, but the folks at Sugar Hill Produce hooked me up.  The berries we delicious out of hand, but I turned the rest of them them into some strawberry shortcake for today.  For my shortcake, I use Deb Perelman's version of Cream Biscuits adapted from James Beard.  They are super simple, and come together quickly.  I use the version with a bit of sugar and usually halve the recipe and get about 5 biscuits.  

Strawberry Shortcake:

• 1 qt fresh strawberries
• 1/2 batch Cream Biscuits (flour, heavy whipping cream, baking powder, butter, salt.  Buy 1 pint heavy whipping cream and use the rest - about 1.25 cups for whipped cream)
  
• Sugar to taste

Components:

Wash strawberries, remove tops and slice thinly.  Toss sliced strawberries with 1 tbs of sugar (or to taste, but you need to use some to pull the liquid out).  Allow to macerate in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours or overnight.

Make cream biscuits.

Whip remaining cream, sweetening lightly with 1 tbs sugar (or to taste).

Assemble

Split warm biscuits down the middle with a serrated knife (they are delicate!).  Put the bottom half on a small plate.  Please a large spoonful of berries and juice on top of the biscuit, followed by a large spoonful of whipped cream.  Place the top half of the bicuit on the whipped cream, add another large spoonful of strawberries followed by a spoonful of whipped cream.  Serve immediately. 

Enjoy: