Grilled veggie sandwiches

A lot of produce to use up this week!  A huge zuchinni from last week, and the eggplant is starting up again, along with the bell peppers.  Plus we got a good bunch of basil (not to mention the plants in my yard going crazy) and the red onions are starting to pile up.  Time to grill some veggies!  Slice up whatever veggies you like about 1/4" thick or a little less, spray or brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill on a HOT grill about 3-4 min per side.  One exception, for peppers, slice into planks and grill the skin side until blackened and charred a bit, transfer to a bowl, cover tightly with foil and let cool.  Once cooled, peel the skins off.  After all that you get a nice looking collection of veggies:

Get yourself some nice crusty rolls (I used some square ciabatta rolls from Lowes), slice in half, then spray or brush with olive oil and toast.  Spread the bottom half with some basil pesto (2-3 tsp). Pile on whatever and however many of the veggies you like (eggplant, peppers and onions are my fav), then top with sliced fresh mozzarella and run it under the broiler until the cheese is good and melty.  Spread the top half of the roll with some basil pesto (2-3 tsp), smash on top of the sandwich and eat!  In retrospect it might be good to sprinkle the roasted vegetables with some balsamic vinegar as well.

Here's the pesto recipe I use, it's an old Cooking Light recipe from September '95, I can't find it online and they killed my favorite magazine so I reproduce it without guilt here:
Basil Pesto (makes about 1 cup)
2 tbs pine nuts
2 large garlic cloves
3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 tbs grated parmesan cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
3 tbs olive oil

If you can do it w/o burning them, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan.  If you're like me and you've burned them and you just want to get the damn recipe done and have dinner,  substitute untoasted, they'll be fine.  You can also try other nuts - I want to check out pistachios some day.  Anyhow, once you've resolved whatever nut crisis you might be having, fling them and the rest of the ingredients into some kind of food processor and process until it's a smooth paste.  Keeps a few days in the fridge and can be frozen (ice cube trays work great!).

Hello World...

I picked up my first CSA box of the summer from the Guilford College Farm, and I thought it would be fun project to blog my way through it this summer.  One of those great ideas that may or may not turn out to be something I can keep up with.  At any rate, here we go with day 1:

I picked up the box this afternoon at the college farm.  I'll have to add some pictures of the farm soon, but for now you just get the box:

Here's what I found inside:

(Hmm....maybe this blog will also give me an opportunity to work on my food photography skills)

According to the list from Nick (he always includes a nice note, a recipe and a list of all the items in the box), this pile of produce is:

• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 1 bunch kale
• 1 pound salad mix (mixed lettuces)
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 bunch radishes
• 1/2 pound spinach
• 1/2 pound mustard greens
• 1 bunch mint

That's quite the deal for $20! (Guilford's CSA this spring/summer is 12 weeks for $240).

So, what did I do tonight?  Well, I've been dreaming of radishes thinly sliced on buttered bread with flaky salt sprinkled on top (don't knock it 'til you've tried it!).  I also had been re-reading Vivian Howard's Deep Run Roots and I remembered that she had a recipe for "Fancy Sandwiches" that involved radishes and butter.  I stopped at the HT on the way home and picked up a baguette.  When I got home and actually read the recipe, I realized I was short several ingredients, like mayo and cucumbers, but I was determined to try this!  So I made some mayonnaise (don't be impressed, it's not that hard, and you can tell classes are out since I did it, using this recipe from Food 52)  Mayonnaise in hand, I made this spread (adapted from Deep Run Roots):

Radish Sandwich Spread for Fancy Sandwiches:

• 4 tbs salted butter
• 2 tbs mayonnaise
• 4 tbs cream cheese
• 1/2 cup radishes, grated
• 1/4 cup radish greens, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt (or so)

Mix together this first 3 ingredients until well combined, the add the radishes, greens and salt.  I spread this on toasted baguette slices and topped them with thin slices of radish and sprinkled them with flaky sea salt:

 So ok, yeah, I'm gonna work on the photography, but it tasted good!

Then it was (past) time to make dinner.  All those greens are going to have to go somewhere, and I've found a good quick way to use them up is to make pasta.  I did an adaptation of this pasta dish from Cooking Light.  Instead of chard, I used the mustard greens.  I was by myself tonight - here's how much I made:

Pasta with Mustard Greens and Pancetta for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow:

• 4 oz dry pasta (I used penne)
• 1 oz pancetta, chopped
• 1/2 pound mustard greens, large center rib removed, thinly sliced
• 1 cup finely chopped vidalia onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 ounce parmesan cheese, grated. 
• red pepper flakes, to taste 

While the pasta water was heating up, I chopped the pancetta and put it in a dutch oven on high (med high?) along with about a half cup of water.  As the water heats up an boils away, it renders out some of the fat and you can then use that fat to brown the pancetta after the water evaporates. Once the pancetta is nicely browned, remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.  In the remaining fat, saute the onion for 5 minute until browned slighly.  Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add mustard greens to pot (they should still have some water clinging to them) and saute 5 minutes until wilted.  Add reserved pancetta to pot.  It looked something like this:

While all this was going on,  my pasta was cooking to al dente (mine was Barilla penne, which takes about 11 minutes).  Add the drained pasta to the greens and pancetta, stir to mix well.  I took half of the pasta/greens mixture and topped it with 1 oz shredded parmesan cheese:

And dinner was served.  Tomorrow I'll mix the other half with some egg and make a frittata for breakfast. But now I need to clean up and go to bed.