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 (update: also works fine with penne! 😀)
• 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!) update 4/6/26 also have used frisee (5oz) or escarole (5oz).
• 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:

 

Penne with Prosciutto, Tomatoes and Zucchini

This week the tomatoes continued, but we are now starting to see some summer squash as well.  This weeks' CSA bag had:

• 1 bunch carrots
• 1 lb cucumber
• 3 small peppers
• 2 lbs beets <--- this is a project I need to work on!
• 1 lb zuchinni (I got two small green and one medium yellow)
• 2 jalapeños
• 1/2 lb tiny tomatillos
• 1 bunch cilantro (check out the last post)
• 1 basil plant
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes

I wanted to make dinner last night using items in the bag and in the house, I settled on combining and modifying slightly two different recipes, one called "Penne with Prosciutto, Tomatoes and Zucchini" from a blog called "Jo Cooks" and the other called "Cherry Tomato Pasta With Proscuitto and Asiago" from Cooking Light.  Here's what I used:

Ingredients (serves 2 generously)

• 6 oz penne pasta
• 3 oz proscuitto, roughly chopped (6 slices)
• 1 tbs olive oil
• one onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 medium zucchinni, quartered lengthwise and sliced (I used the two tiny green ones I got)
• 12 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
• kosher salt to taste (about 1/4 tsp)
• ground pepper to taste
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 oz parmesan cheese, grated
• handful fresh basil, chopped

 Instructions:

•  Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and reserve
• Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. 
• Add prosciutto; cook 3 minutes or until crisp. Remove prosciutto from pan, reserving fat. Place crisped proscuitto on a paper towel lined plate to absorb fat.  If there is not at least 2 tsp of fat left in the pan, add 2 tsp olive oil.
• Add onion, sauté 4 minutes until softened
• Add zucchini, garlic, and pepper, cook 1 minute. 
• Add tomatoes and salt; cook 3 minutes.
• Stir in pasta and vinegar; cook 30 seconds. 
• Remove pan from heat; stir in chopped basil
• Divide pasta mixture among 2 bowls; top with prosciutto and sprinkle the parmesan over the two bowls. 
• Sprinkle with additional chopped basil 

This was pretty good, but next time I make it I might replace the proscuitto with sweet Italian sausage.

Some pics!
Line up your ingredients:

Saute those veggies:

Forgot to take pics of adding the tomatoes, but here it is plated up:

Lettuce suppose...

...that you have too much lettuce.  Apparently one of the top searches on Google this time of year is about using up all the lettuce in your CSA.  I have a folder of "CSA ideas on my computer, and I was looking through them and found this recipe from Mark Bittman "Pasta with Proscuitto and Lettuce" that I'd saved a few years ago but never tried (I have experimented with a lettuce soup).  With a couple of heads of lettuce and a pound of salad greens sitting in my fridge, I figured it was time to give it a try.  And I liked it!  You can pretty much use up a whole head of lettuce in one serving, thanks to the power of wilting greens with heat.  I bet you could even make this vegetarian by replacing the crisped proscuitto with some mushroom "bacon" that I've seen recipes for.  This is adapted from Bittman's recipe to serve one, now that I'm home all the time and can cook lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil, divided
• 1 tsp butter
• 2 slices (about 1 oz) proscuitto, sliced crosswise into 1/2" strips
• 2 oz pasta (I think flat-ish shapes work well here, like farfalle orrecchiette, but use what you have)
• 2 tbs minced shallot (a good sub from the CSA would be a couple of chopped garlic scapes)
• as much lettuce as you can stand (I've been using the heads of lettuce that we're getting from the CSA), sliced into ribbons (about 1/2")
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 2 tbs white wine, chicken stock or water (I used wine)
• 1 oz grated parmesan

Procedure:

1. Cook pasta until al dente, drain and reserve.
2. While pasta is cooking, heat a 10" skillet over medium heat, add 1/2 tsp olive oil. 
3. Add proscuitto, saute until slightly browned and crisp.  Remove from pan and reserve.
4. Melt butter and remaining 1/2 tsp oil over medium heat
5. Add minced shallot, sprinkle w/ salt and pepper saute until tender ( 5-10 min)
6. Add liquid (stock, water  or wine) lettuce and peas,  cook until lettuce is wilted and peas are bright green, about 5 min.
7. Add cooked pasta and 3/4 oz of parmesan to pan, stir and toss to mix together
8. Put in bowl, garnish w/ remaining parmesan and the proscuitto.

Some pics!

Your mise:

crisped proscuitto:

Add the lettuce

Plated up!

Also, Black Lives Matter.  Educate  yourselves.  Be part of the solution.

And we're back with the CSA for 2020!

Something has to go well in 2020, right?  For right now, we've got 25 weeks of the Guilford College Farm CSA to look forward to.  Last week was the first week, but I had this little biochemistry class in 3-weeks thing going on, so I didn't get a chance to post.  So here's the beauty shot:

What all did we have?  '
1 lb salad mix
1 bunch golden and red beets with greens
1/2 lb arugula
1 bunch mustard greens
1/2 lb spinach
1.5 lb cornmeal

An excellent start!  I did manage to use everything last week, except for the beets and the cornmeal, but they'll both keep.  I gave 1/2 lb of the salad greens to one of my students.  What did I make?
Some "classics" like Crispy Spinach Pizza (subbed some dodgy Manchego in our fridge for the romano), Salad Pizza with arugula pesto and, well, just salad with grilled pork tenderloin, veggies and this Zesty Buttermilk Avocado Dressing.


The new recipe I made was with the mustard greens, so if you've got the 1/2 share the week of May 15, this is for you, cuz' y'all got the mustard greens this week. Of course there are a million recipes for pasta, sausage and greens out there, and I adapted this one from a blog by nutrionist Rachel Hartley, but don't let that scare you. The sweetness of the onions goes well with the mustard greens.  You could use sweet italian sausage, or leave out the meat all together.

Mustard Green and Sausage Orrechiette (4 servings, 2 dinner and 2 lunch)
Ingredients:
1 lb turkey Italian sausage (hot), removed from casings
8 oz dried orrechiette pasta (mine was from HT)
2 medium Vidalia (or other sweet) onions, cut in half through the root and thinly slice crosswise
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped.
1/2 cup chicken stock (better than bullion to the rescue)
8-10 ounces mustard greens, large stems removed, roughly chopped (this is about what I got out of the bunch I got in the CSA)
Grated parmigiano reggiano to taste (1-2 oz per serving)

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water according to directions on package until al dente. Drain, reserving starchy pasta water.
2. Brown sausage - drain and reserve a few tsp of fat.
3. While waiting for the pasta water to boil, heat 2 tsp of olive oil (or reserved fat from sausage) in a large non-stick skillet (12") or dutch oven (5 qt, this is what I used) add onion and cook 3-5 minutes until translucent.  Add garlic and cook another minute. Remove from pan and reserve.
4. Add broth to pan, scraping up any browned bits.
5. Add mustard greens to pan, cover as they wilt down and cook 6-10 minutes until desired tenderness (you may need to add a little water).  
6. Add sausage, onion mixture  and pasta to pan, and stir in some of the pasta water to make a sauce (1/2 cup or so?).  
7. Serve w/ generous grating of parmigiano reggiano.

Some pics!
Sliced onions sauteeing:

 Prepping ingredients ingredients:

 Cooking the snausage:

 Greens and pasta ready to go:

Putting it all together:

 Plated up!

Ooops.  Forgot.  It was delicious.

What to do with eggplant? Pasta Sauce!

So last year we were inundated with eggplant. I think there was a research project that the farm was doing w/ NC A&T.  This year it's not been so much, but still, the eggplant and tomatoes are in full force right now.  I've definitely figured out a few things to do w/ eggplant which you can find if  you click the "eggplant" label over there -->

But I wanted to try something new, so I searched "eggplant" on https://smittenkitchen.com, and Deb, per usual did not disappoint.  She had many recipes for eggplant, but this recipe for Rigatoni and Eggplant Puree really got my attention, since I had eggplant AND a pint of cherry tomatoes in this weeks (and last week's) CSA.

I made it pretty much as described.  The only big difference was that I only made 6 oz of  pasta (it was just the two of us) and used half the sauce it made, and I only used  4 tbs of oilve oil instead of 6.  I also added 6 of these Turkey Meatballs from Trader Joes, thawed and cut into quarters.  The puree is definitely not photo-worthy, but it was pretty tasty overall!
Some pics!
The ingredients! (full disclosure, the eggplants were from last week)

Getting the roasted veg into the food processor:

This was a little tricky b/c the Al foil I'd put on the baking sheet had a hole and the juices from the veg had welded the foil to the sheet.  It all worked out.

Mixing up the sauce with the rigatoni.  Needed 2-3 scoops of pasta water to loosen it up.

Plated up with a little parm and basil garnish...
Oh, and Rudy was jealous b/c Dudley got featured in the last post, so here he is:

All the chard....

I really like rainbow chard, it's so pretty!  It also tastes great.  Like most greens, if you get some Italian sausage involved, it's very tasty.  I can't believe I hadn't posted this one last year with the CSA, but at least here it now....

Penne with Sausage, Chard and Pine Nuts This is from Fine Cooking, I'm really surprised at how awful the photo in the article is! However the recipe is great.

What did I change?  Well, I used 6 oz of pasta, not 8.  Also, I probably used more chard, since I had a bunch from week 1 and week 3.  I soaked the week 1 chard in some water for about an hour or two to freshen it up, and then cut off the stems and rolled it and chopped it up.

 See?  Pretty!  I also used turkey sweet Italian sausage instead of pork sausage.  Other than that, it pretty much went as described in the recipe (only one tablespoon of olive oil, though - 1/2 tbs to start the sausage, then 1/2 tbs to saute the onion).

Looking pretty good:

And I also have all these stems...

Some interesting pickles to come...

This is still good!  Especially if you have the romano cheese called for in the original recipe: https://guilfordcsachallenge.blogspot.com/2018/10/mustard-greens-pasta.html

Mustard greens pasta

Week before last we had a lovely bunch of mustard greens in the the CSA.  Greens and pasta are great together, and I found this recipe and thought it would be good to adapt since I had three links of this chicken kale sausage (that I bought on sale) to use up.

Here's how I put it together for two servings:
Ingredients
6 oz pasta (I used farfalle)
3 links chicken kale sausage, sliced (you could use 8 oz of whatever sausage you like.  If it's raw, crumble and cook it before adding to the pasta)
1 yellow onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch mustard greens, chopped (stripped out any large stems)
2 oz (1/2 cup) grated parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp red chile flakes (if you're not using hot Italian sausage)
2 tbs half and half
2 tbs pasta water or chicken broth

Process:
Cook pasta in hot salted boiling water until al dente - drain and reserve pasta water.  I

Heat a 5 qt dutch oven over medium heat. Add 1 tsp of olive oil and then chopped onion, cook 4-5 minutes until tender.  Add chopped garlic and chile flakes, saute 1-2 minutes.  If you're using raw sausage, you could add it at this point and saute until cooked.

Add greens onion/garlic mixture, saute until wilted and tender 2-5 minutes. (if you're using cooked sausage, add it at this point and heat).  Season with salt and pepper. 

Stir in half and half, cheese, pasta water or chicken broth and cooked pasta. Heat until cheese melts.

Serve on two plates or pasta bowls, sprinkle with additional grate parmesan.

Some pics - chopping and washing the greens:

Sausage and greens mixture:

 Plated up!

Would also be good with some toasted pine nuts!!

More Casserole - Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables

Here's another great casserole to use all the veggies from the box.  It's based on this recipe from Giada de Laurentis on the Food Network. I use a variety of vegetables depending on what I have.  I also vary the cheese, and the amount of pasta.  Here's what I did this week:

2 red or yellow peppers cut into 1" strips.
2 zuchinni,quartered lengthwise and cut into 1" cubes
2 summer squash, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1" cubes (I substituted eggplant for squash this week)
8 oz sliced mushrooms (basically one package)
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1" pieces.
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbs herbs de Provence
8 oz penne pasta
4 oz mozarella or Italian blend shredded cheese (1 cup)
2 oz (1/2 cup) shredded smoked cheese (mozarella, provolone or gouda)
3 cups marinara sauce (a jar is good here - Trader Giotto's is convinient)
1 oz parmesan (1/4 cup)
2 oz mozarella (1/2 cup)

You'll need a 13'x9" casserole dish sprayed with olive oil.  (Pam or similar)

Preheat oven to 450°F
Line a baking sheet with heavy duty aluminum foil.  Spray with olive oil spray (Pam or similar)
Put all the vegetables in a large bowl and add olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs de Provence and toss to coat.   Spread out on the the baking sheet and put it in oven for 15 (too short) to 30 min (30 is prob too long).  Once the vegetables are roasted, you can save these in the frig and assemble the casserole later.  But if not, while the veg are roasting, you can...

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pasta and cook for about 6 minutes. Since you will be cooking the pasta a second time in the oven, the inside should still be a bit hard.  Drain.

In a large bowl, toss the drained pasta with the roasted vegetables, marinara sauce and 
4 oz mozarella or Italian blend shredded cheese (1 cup) and 2 oz (1/2 cup) shredded smoked cheese until everything is well combined.

Pour into the casserole and top with the parmesan and mozarella cheese.  Bake until top is golden and cheese melts, about 25 minutes.

I only took one pic  - here's what the vegetables look like after roasting:

Kale, kale, kale....

So one thing you definitely see in your CSA share every week it seems, is KALE.  Which I like, don't get me wrong, but I am still searching for more KDD's (Kale Delivery Dishes).  Last night I was all set to make this casserole again, but when I turned on the oven to pre-heat I got.... nothing.  We're doing some renovations on our house, and the contractor said that the electricians might not have turned everything back on.  Fortunately I've still got a little Girl Scout in me so I was able to light our gas cooktop with a match and carry on.  And it was a bit of a blessing in disguise, because I found this recipe for Pasta with Sausage and Kale from Fine Cooking that I like even better!  It's not that different from the casserole, but there was a subtle difference and one less dish to clean!  Note to self, next time I make this use a pot instead of the 12" saute pan - getting all that kale in there before it wilted down was a bit of a struggle.

In the pan before serving:

Covered with cheese!

I changed a couple of things about the recipe:

1.  I wanted to feed 2, so I only used 6 oz of dry pasta (still had some left over)
2.  Substituted one of the onions I got in the CSA for the shallot
3.  Only used 1 tbs of olive oil
4.  Used 8 oz of turkey Italian sausage
5.  I deglazed the pan with about 1/2 cup white wine after cooking the onions and sausage.
6.  MOAR KALE was added (Probably about 6-7 ounces of chopped kale- a salad spinner full, which is more than the full recipe called for
7.  Added 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
8.  Probably used more parm than I should have at the end.
9.  Forgot the lemon wedges.
10. 
    

Epic apologetic catch-up post

Well.  Hello world, again.  Been away for a bit - projects at home and at work have caused me to get behind on this whole blogging project.

Just to get you caught up, here's what was in the Week 5 and 6 boxes

Week 5
1 lb carrots
1 head purple cabbage
1 head broccoli
1 lb kale
1 bunch onions
1/2 lb salad mix
1.5 lbs squash and zuchinni
1 bunch swiss chard
1 bunch mint

Week 6
1 bunch carrots
1 lb squash
1 lb collards
1 bunch beets
1/2 lb broccoli
1 bunch onions
1 lb zucchini
1 lb kale
1 head savoy cabbage
choice of  cherry tomatoes, slicing tomatoes or snap peas (I chose cherry tomatoes)

So, what's been going on?  Well, the past two weeks I've been working with a group to hire a bunch of new advisors at the college, so that's taken up a bit of time, and means I've been eating out more than usual (ie lunches at work).  I've also been to a couple of high school graduations, and done a barbecue for one of those (and am headed to one I'm not catering tonight!).  We're also doing some renovations at our house so we've been busy getting ready for that. And it was our 22nd wedding anniversary so we had a lovely dinner out at 1618 Seafood Grille which was really awesome, but moved no produce out of our house.  There's only so much salad I can eat for breakfast....

So this post is going to be kind of a catch-all of stuff I've made using things from the boxes over the past few weeks.

Barbecue
For the barbecue, I made collards from the box, as well as two different kinds of slaw using cabbage and squash casserole to use up the various squashes and onions.    The collards I detailed here.

One of the slaws I made was a barbecue slaw, which is something folks usually use as a topping on a barbecue pork sandwich rather than something you'd eat separately.  It's not much of a recipe, just chop cabbage pretty finely (I used a food processor) and mix in some barbecue sauce until it looks right (lightly dressed basically).  I use this barbecue sauce usually, a Lexington style tomato-y vinegar blend.  I used the purple cabbage which is not something I've seen before.  Should have taken a picture!

The other slaw I made is called Sweet and Sour Slaw which is cabbage dressed in a slightly spicy peanut sauce.  I got the  recipe a million years ago from a friend in Oregon (Stacey, if you're reading this I think it was Craig!) and that million is also about equal to the number of times I've been asked for the recipe.  So here you are:
Sweet and Sour Slaw
Dressing:
1/3 cup rice vinegar or cider vinegar (I always have used rice)
1/4 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
3 tbs light brown sugar 
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
Salad:
7-8 cups (about 1.25 lbs) shredded green cabbage (I did use green this time!)
red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped (I usually manage this by putting them in a plastic bag and bashing with a rolling pin a few times).

1. In a large bowl (big enough to hold all the cabbage, whisk together the dressing ingredients until they are well mixed (you can also do this in a blender but then it's another thing to wash!)
2.  About 1 hour before serving, add the cabbage, about 2 cups at a time to the dressing, tossing after each addition.  Once all the cabbage has been added and tossed, stir in the pepper flakes (I usually use about 1/4 tsp).  Cover the bowl and chill the salad for about an hour, tossing every now and then.
3.  At serving time, add the peanuts and toss.  Serve!
4.  Accept compliments and hand out recipe generously. 

Other new stuff I've made over the last week or so
5 Ingredient Italian Sausage and Kale Baked Ziti 
Man, that website is annoying, but this was a pretty good recipe.  Some changes I made- I used turkey italian sausage and penne instead of ziti.  Here's my ingredient lineup:

 Brown the sausage:

 Add some chopped garlic

 Add the kale and cooked pasta:

 let the kale wilt down a bit:

 Assemble the casserole:

 Everything's better topped with cheese:

 Bake and eat!

Verdict?  A little dry but not bad.  Probably should cook the pasta a little longer since there's not much moisture in the casserole for it to absorb (unlike a tomato sauce based casserole).

Happy Mother's Day!  Today we'll be having my mother-in-law over for lunch, so we'll finish off the last few salad greens.  I still had the spinach, chard and kale staring at me - so yesterday I was able to transform one for a use to be determined and make dinner with another.  The kale remains...

I did not take any pictures while making this Spinach and Mint Pesto from a cutely named blog called "Pip and Little Blue", and I should have taken the picture of the finished product right after - I think it darkened a bit in the fridge overnight.

Tasting it just now- it still tastes good, but not as good as yesterday.   It's also not as minty as I hoped, I think I'll up the mint next time I make it.  I dropped it into the freezer until I can think of something to do with it.  I was hoping it would go well with lamb - but we'll see.

The recipe was from a UK blog which was nice because most of the measurements were in grams, rather than cups and spoons.  Minor rant here: cup and spoon (volume) measurements are horrible! Not only do you have to wash all the cups and spoons, you have to struggle with getting sticky things like peanut butter and honey out of them.  Why do that when you can just add an ingredient, tare (zero) the scale and then add the next ingredient?  Also, cups can be wildly inaccurate for measuring ingredients like flour. Finally, using weight instead of volume makes scaling recipes up or down so much easier.  So, do yourself a favor and go out right now and buy a digital scale for the kitchen.  I use this one but there are lots of good ones out there.  Rant over.

Back to the box - dinner last night was Swiss Chard and Turkey Sausage over Polenta, which I made with rainbow chard and chicken sausage because I'm a rebel.  It came out very tasty, and checked another CSA item off.

First I had to give the chard a bit of a soak in cold water b/c it had wilted (rainbow chard is so pretty!):

Then get it chopped up:

Once chopped, it got sauteed, and then I added the sausage I'd already cooked (the recipe said to slice it into "coins" but that didn't work well so I just crumbled it. Then put the sausage/chard mixture onto the polenta, and sprinkled with parmesan and pine nuts.

Hmmm...maybe I should start taking pictures before I cover things up with cheese?

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.