simple tomato-base pasta sauce

The following is just a simple tomato-based pasta sauce that I use. The most important things are to use the fresh, non-conventional stuff. Before you brush this off, there is actually a noticeable difference between the tomatoes I used here and the conventional (common) tomato: the ones here are more flavorful and the conventional types are more 'watery'; the carrots I used here are more starchy and the conventional ones are (again) more watery and less flavorful; finally, the pasta I used here is more starchy and less chewy. I know I am very vague about naming the exact produce I used (I didn't take careful note of the source when I purchased (mostly from the Davis Coop) and picked (I actually picked the tomatoes from work) them =P

Despite all that I have said, using conventional produce does not actually make your food taste bad! All I am saying is that: if you get a chance, try the non-conventional stuff; you will be pleasantly surprised =)

Serves 2.

Ingredients
bunch of semolina linguini (~3/4" diameter bunch; mysterious source from Davis Co-op)
5 fresh tomatoes, finely diced (a mysterious Japanese variety)
3 skinny heirloom carrots, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely chopped
1-2 small hot dried chili, finely chopped
1 tbp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
green leafy part of one fennel, coarsely chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Procedures
For pasta:
1. Boil a pot of ~6 cups water
2. Once water boils, add a dash of olive oil and a bit of salt
3. Break pasta in half and add to boiling water
4. Once water reboils, turn down heat and let simmer
5. Check pasta periodically; cook till al dente
6. strain pasta, return to pot and coat with olive oil

For sauce:
1. Heat (on medium to medium-high heat) a dash of olive oil in a pan
2. Saute the the garlic, chili, and carrots
3. Once carrots begin to brown, add the parsley, basil and fennel
4. Once fennel begins to wilt, add tomato. When tomato begins to brown and stick, add ~1/4 cup of water and turn down heat. Let simmer to reduce water.
5. When sauce looks thick enough, add salt & pepper to taste (or taste and add salt and pepper)
6. Turn off heat and stir in pasta.

Serve immediately with a sprinkle of parmesan or pecorino romano cheese.
Enjoy.

random fusilli

Motivation: to consume the random assortment of veggies in the refrigerator.

Finding: discovered the yellow summer squash was bitter! Apparently, summer squash, being of the Cucurbita genus may sometimes cross-pollinate with other cucurbitacin-containing cucurbit to produce a bitter-tasting summer squash. Cucurbitacin is a natural plant herbicide and its effects on human health is debated: it is known to be cytotoxic but many are hopeful of it potential as anti-carcinogenic properties. We decided to pick them out mainly due to our lack of knowledge in the matter and because it was really bitter (not different to bitter melon which belonging to the same family (Cucurbitaceae) but different genus (Momordica) also contains cucurbitacins.

Serves 4.

Ingredients
8oz. or 230g whole-wheat fusilli
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 summer squash, diced (your choice of bitterness)
1 small zucchini, diced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
~5 asparagus, chopped
~ 10 long beans, chopped
~5 white mushrooms, diced.
2 roma tomatoes, diced


3/4 cup (3 oz or 85g) ground pork, marinated in
1 clove of crushed garlic
1 tbp dried parsley
1 tsp dried basil
pinch of S&P

Procedures
1. Cook pasta according to manufacturer's instructions until al dente, drain, toss in some extra virgin olive oil, set aside.
2. Brown pork over medium to high heat. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, saute mushrooms, zucchini and squash over s dash of olive oil and the crushed garlic, until just tender.
4. Add beans and asparagus and cook briefly (~2mins).
5. Add browned pork and diced tomatoes with ~1/4 cup water. Simmer over low heat until much of the water has evaporated.
6. Toss in the pasta. Turn off heat. Grate and stir in some pecorino romano.
7. Serve immediately preferably with a glass of red wine (we recommend the 2005 Wingnut Zinfandel).

Enjoy.

campanelle with zucchini ragù

This was made with my boss' ginormous-home-grown zucchini and pattypan squash.

Serves 4.

Ingredients
1/2lb. (250g) campanelle (or other sauce-collecting) pasta
1 cup (~ 1/2lb. or 250g) ground pork
1.5 medium sized zucchini (equivalent to 1/3 of the home-grown stuff!), dice to ~2cm cubes
2 normal-sized squash (eq. to 2/3 of my boss' squash!), dice to ~2cm cubes
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1tbp dried parsley
1/2 tbp dried basil
1 roma tomato, diced to ~2cm cubes
3 oz. (85g) tomato paste
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano (or other parmesan) cheese

Preparations
1. Cook pasta until al dente; drain, set aside.
2. Brown pork over medium to high heat with 2-3tbp olive oil.
3. Add garlic, zucchini & squash to pan and cook until slightly tender.
4. Add tomatoes and tomato paste along with ~2/3 cup water. Add parsley & basil. Season with salt & pepper. Stir well.
5. Reduce to low-medium heat. Simmer until sauce thickens.
6. Toss in prepared pasta until pasta has been coated with sauce.
7. Turn off heat and serve with grated cheese.

Enjoy.

campanelle alla boscaiola

So here is my second attempt at the boscaiola pasta. First of, it tasted much better this time ;-)

Few things I did differently:
1) In addition to the porcini, I also used half a cup of each white and maitake mushrooms;
2) I used three fresh roma tomatoes plus three table spoons of Muir Glen's Portobello Mushroom pasta sauce;
3) Campanelle was used instead of fenne or cavatappi (which I have yet to find in Davis!).

In regards to the first two points here are my two cents:
1) Addition of fresh mushrooms really adds flavour. There is not doubt that porcini is extremely aromatic, but its taste is less conspicuous by comparison. I think this is mainly because the fragrance is so powerful that one naturally expected something of an equal par on the palate. The maitake definitely hits the right note. On top of the nutty taste, the meaty texture of this mushroom also help to improve this dish nicely.
2) I do not mean to sound like a snob, but I am generally adversed to premade pasta sauces. This is mainly because I believe one can easily make simple sauces at home that can taste as good or, more likely, much better than prepackaged ones. The key is to always have the right ingredients on hand. And that was my problem: I had hoped three roma tomatoes would have been juicy enough but they weren't and I didn't have extra tomatoes and I had ran out of tomato pasta (pure ones with nothing added). Instead there was a bottle of MG's pasta sauce in the fridge (we won't dwell on how it got there). Three table-spoons was enough with about 1/4 cup of water to dilute it then simmered down.

Like I said, it turned out great!

I haven't mentioned wines in past posts, but I thought I should start. We paired this dish with a 2005 Cline Cashmere. It is a decent wine with lots of berries and a very subtle finishing which together made it a good pair with the pasta.

pasta alla boscaiola

This time I had intended to follow Hazan to the letter, but alas, this recipe was only inspired by Hazan's Cavatappi alla Boscaiola on p.110-111 for a couple reason, the major of which was the lack of fresh mushrooms. The second was the mixture of wheat penne and rotini instead of cavatappi pasta.

As with many of the recipes, I halved the amount indicated by Hazan as there are only two of us and I generally prefer not to have left-overs. Aaron informed me 1oz is approximately 28g; not helpful as neither actually means much to me without a scale. As a consequence, in my opinion, more porcini could have been added. Although these mushrooms, especially when dried, are very aromatic (I could smell them throughout my kitchen and dinning area while they were being soaked-- not to mention when I actually cook them!!), their taste is relatively less apparent. So if one were unsure how much porcini to use (as I were), I would suggest adding a fewer more pieces just in cases. Of course, things may have been different if I had fresh mushrooms; this is supposed to be a pasta dish with wild mushrooms after all!!

It was because I didn't have the fresh cremini that prompted me to think about how the dish would have tasted if I did have fresh mushrooms or in fact another ingredient. I did thought about adding green capsicum (bell pepper) that was sitting in the crisper, but I just could not imagine the flavours marrying well. On the other hand, especially once I started eating the pasta, I could imagine diced browned chicken being a really good match.

Another ingredient I wasn't sure about was the canned tomatoes. Hazan mentioned on p.84 that "unless you can find fresh tomatoes as good as those of Campania it is best to use good quality canned ones". Although it is quite likely that the problem is inherent in the fact that the brand of canned tomato I bought was far from whoaing (it was Hunt's..), but in hindsight there are plenty of fresh tomatoes of different varieties available in California (albeit pricey), so perhaps I should have used fresh ones even if they are not from Capania..?

I think I will definitely try this dish again with some modifications. Hopefully, I will be able to blog my attempt again soon.. ;-)

rotini ai carciofi

First time buying (globe) artichoke; second time cooking it. I was feeling adventurous the other day and compulsively bought two globe artichokes. A quick search on the internet revealed that artichokes most commonly steamed and eaten with dips. The second most common way to cook these thistles is to bake them. I tried the latter: I baked them with some lemon juice, garlic, and basil pestos. My intention was to make both of them but Aaron suggested that I should only make one of them. He was right. Aside from the large amount of work involved in the preparation and trimming of the artichoke, I also did not realised how rich a whole artichoke could be!! One was plenty for the two of us to snack on. To be honest, I thought it was only okay, but I think that was because of the pesto I used-- a local Afghan pesto I bought from the Farmers' market that had more parsley than I liked ( no offense to the pesto, I am just not a parsley person ).

So that was my first time cooking an artichoke which left me with another one in the fridge. Following yesterday's post I decided to turn to Hazan for advise. There are two recipes in his book using artichokes: one is a tortellini and the other is Lumache ai Carciofi. The dish I made was inspired by this latter recipe. I didn't have any pancetta on hand and I was wanting a vegetarian dish, so I made a rotini with artichoke and carrots. Yes, I have carrots in the fridge. No, they are not the heirloom carrots. Although I know they are no longer in season, I still look out for them at the supermarkets, and being disappointed I would, more often than not, end up with a bunch of conventional orange carrots (sigh!).

Ingredients
1/2 lb wheat rotini ( wheat pasta will give it a grainy texture; if you like a smoother (creamier?) texture then keep to the normal type )
1 large globe artichoke heart; thinly sliced
1 Tbp butter
2 skinny long sticks of carrots; cross-sectionally sliced
1 clove of garlic; crushed
freshly ground salt and black pepper
couple pinches of dried thyme ( use double the amount of fresh thyme if available )
1/4 cup of freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Preparations
1. Cook pasta per instruction. When done, drain and coat with olive oil. Set aside.
2. Prepare artichoke per Hazan (p.126) or any other method you desire or can find on the internet (see here for example). Slice thinly and set aside. My inexperience at preparing the darn thing lead to a few fibrous pieces in the pasta, but no harm done =P ( Remember to keep cut artichokes in lemon water to keep them from discolouring. )
3. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat and saute garlic and carrots until carrots are slightly browned.
4. Add sliced artichoke (strain from lemon water first) to pan. Season with salt and pepper and add in the thyme. Toss until all ingredients are coated with the seasoning.
5. Add about 1/2 cup of water (or enough to cover at least 80% of the artichokes and carrots) and let simmer over high heat until artichokes are tender and all water evaporated (adding more water if needed).
6. Serve immediately with pasta and a handful of grated cheese.

Enjoy.

tri-colour fusilli pasta with tri-colour heirloom carrots

Okay, this post is long overdue. I made this back in... March! There is a Canto saying "Three minute enthusiasm"; I think that may be the problem here =P I guess the truth is we have been cooking a lot of Chinese and Mexican these days (we won't mention my laziness to take pictures and blog my cooking). Anyway, back to this pasta dish.

That was actually my first time purchasing and cooking with heirloom carrots. In the past, carrots was never my first vegetable choice. But they appeared to have been in season a couple months ago and seeing their colours (generally orange, yellow, and purple) and crispness at the supermarket, I just had to buy some to try. To my delight and surprise, I almost fell in love with them to the point where I would get them every other week. These days (full Spring now) the heirloom varieties are no longer available and we are back to the boring orange fat giant variety =( Nonetheless, if you happen upon some of these delights, here is my recipe:

Makes 2.

Ingredients
150g fusilli pasta ( I used the tri-coloured ones to make this colourful dish, but fusilli in general will be good for absorbing the sauce )
6 heirloom carrots ( suggest 2 of each colour ); thinly cross-sectionalyl sliced
3-5 rashes of bacon ( amount will depend on how much you like bacon ); cut into small pieces
couple sprigs of coriander ( cilantro )

Preparations
1. Cook pasta per instruction. Once al dente, drain and return to pot with some good olive oil. Set aside.
2. Saute bacon until cooked and slightly brown. Set aside.
3. Using the bacon fat from your saute, saute carrots until slightly soft. (Try and cook to your own liking.)
4. Add pasta and bacon back into the pan with the carrots; toss until pasta is coated with (bacon) sauce.
5. Serve with fresh coriander leaves.

Enjoy.

angelhair pasta with hedgehog mushrooms

We were at the farmers' market on Saturday and found some wild hedgehog mushrooms. Never even heard of them before, so of course, we bought some to try =) The mushroom guy suggested sauteing with garlic or using them in a risotto amongst others. I decided to cook it with pasta ;-)

People have described hedgehog mushrooms as having an earthy taste. I would agree as there were definitely hints of mineral and dirt flavor (not in a bad way). My first impression, however, was stale water (again, not in a bad way..). Hehe, okay, I guess you just have to trust me or find out for yourself that this mushroom is actually not bad. And, honestly, this pasta dish was very refreshing yet flavorful.

I used angelhair pasta because we had some at home, but it turned out to be perfect as the flavor of the dish is quite light so the skinny pasta was a good match. Also, this dish will end up with a little sauce (due to prior soaking of the mushrooms) and angelhair will pick that up when eating. Of course, other pasta that picks up sauce well will probably do fine too. By the way, we soaked the mushrooms in a bowl of salted water for a couple minutes to get out any bugs that may have been hiding. This was necessary because the mushrooms were wild; luckily, no critters were discovers =)

Oh, I also made this dish with a really nice olive oil from UC Davis. We had tasted this olive oil before at various places, but it had taken us over a month to finally walk over to the bookshop to get a bottle!! And this is the first time we used it at home. Apparently, they launched a centennial blend which is not the ones that we have had before, but it did not disappoint. It has a grassy taste (which I think really complimented the hedgehog mushrooms) but it is not overpowering. I highly recommend it (though I think it was a little pricey).

Without further ado, here is our recipe:


Makes 2.

Ingredients
150g angelhair pasta
1/4 lb (115g) hedgehog mushroom
1/2 yellow heirloom tomato
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper
olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano

Preparation
1. Cook pasta per instruction. Once al dente, drain and return to pot with some good olive oil. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic and mushroom in a good drizzle of olive oil over medium heat for 2-5 mins or until all moisture has evaporated.
3. Toss in diced tomato and stir for 1-2 mins. Do not let it dry out or burn.
4. Season with salt & pepper. Turn off heat.
5. Toss in prepared pasta & grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Enjoy.

angelhair pasta with smoked salmon and yellow heirloom tomato

I made this last night, impromptu with existing ingredients in my fridge.
I do apologise for the lack of photo ( clearly, eating was on my mind at the time and blogging wasn't.. )

Makes 2.

Ingredients
( note: amount is approximate... basically, enough for two people )
150g angelhair pasta
75g smoked salmon
1 large [yellow] heirloom tomato
1 (skinny) branch of broccoli
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
olive oil

Preparation
1. Boil half pot of water in a medium-sized saucepan. Once boiling, add a couple pinches of salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Add pasta, stirring until pasta is completely immersed in water and water reboils. Turn heat to medium and let boil until pasta is al dente. Drain water. Return to pot and coat with olive oil. Set aside.
2. Multi-tasking step (1), prepare ingredients:
a) dice tomato;
b) remove head of broccoli from stem and break up as usual; [for those of you who don't normally use broccoli stems, here is your chance] peel bark off stem (roughly cut stem into medium-sized stubs; set stub vertically and slice off ~2mm around the stub; or use a peeler) and dice;
c) crush garlic;
d) break up salmon into bite-size pieces.
3. Heat pan on high. Sauté garlic and broccoli in olive oil. Once broccoli begins to brown (burn), add a dash (~1/3 cup) water. Once water has evaporated, remove broccoli from pan and set aside.
4. Using the same pan, set on medium heat. Lightly fry the salmon in a tiny amount of olive oil.
5. Once salmon is slightly golden, stir in the tomato. Then add back the broccoli. Salt & pepper to taste (beware: smoked salmon tend to be salty already).
6. Turn off heat. Toss in pasta and grated cheese. Serve immediately.

Enjoy.

Wholewheat Fusilli ai Brussel Sprouts e Salsiccia

This was based on the Penne ai Rapini e Salsiccia recipe on p.116 and as this blog title suggested, I had substituted the broccoli rabe with brussel sprouts and penne with wholewheat fusilli. The highlight of this dish, however, was intended to be the salsiccia di maiale (homemade sausage; p.116). I had bought all the ingredients over a week ago except for dry white wine. I got the wine a couple days later, but with the help of a friend from Cork the wine disappeared before the sausage materialised..

For the sausage, I ended up not using any wine at all. Instead, I added a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and that turned out pretty good. If I had prepared the sausage the same day I purchased the meat, the meat would have had time to marinate and I would have had the opportunity to separate the sausages into single-use portions. As it happened, I had to defrost the ground pork the same evening I cooked the pasta, meaning the meat had about one minute of marination time and I had to cook the entire pound. The large portion did not bother me as much as the possibility that that the sausage may have tasted much different had it had time to marinate. The sausage in the pasta ended up a little dry though I don't think the marination time had anything to do with it (?). Instead, I think the mince itself was a little lean and the sausage recipe had called for no fat (oil or butter); perhaps I will try mincing pork from a fattier cut (maybe the pork loin centre cut) next time. The flavor, however, was good.

As Hazan had intended, the sausage and the strong-tasting green complimented really well. And this is still the case even though I had substituted the rabe with brussel sprouts which are a little sweeter. Although 1/3 cup olive oil was added here to the sausage during cooking, it only coated but did not seep into the sausage and pasta. The result was such that the dish was a little greasy but dry. The dryness was probably also exacerbated by the wholewheat fusilli which has a rough texture.

Still, I liked it... enough that I am not complaining (yet) about the leftovers which will likely last for another three meals =P

fusilli al chorizo ragù

This dish was inspired by the Conchiglie Alla Salsiccia e Panna recipe on pg.125 of Hazan's book. Inspired because I didn't have, and couldn't use, all the ingredients as indicated, and after substituting shell with spiral pasta, Italian pork sausage with Spanish pork chorizo, fresh tomato with a can of peeled whole tomato, and heavy cream with soy milk, I created this dish.

Naively, I had thought the chorizo will only impart a different flavour, but my ignorance became blatantly obvious once I completed Step 1, which was to boil the sausage in water than slice them into thin rounds. I knew something was amiss when the sausage flopped back into the pot as I tried to take it out. The skin of the chorizo was very tough, which wasn't a problem in itself as I have just gotten a set of nice sharp knives, but the first pass of my knife through the floppy sausage pretty much indicated we would be having bolognese for dinner: the meat inside the sausage was no longer bound together, they just crumbled (oozed) out of the sausage skin.

A glass of wine in hand quickly dampened my initial urge to panic and vowed to never cook pasta again. Pass that, I was able to convince myself I have been subconsciously craving for bolognese for weeks ;-) So, I continued with the recipe as if nothing has gone wrong; i.e. I continued to follow the steps in Hazan's recipe knowing full well my dish will turn out to be a bolognese. As I continued along, I was able to further convince myself of my own brilliance, as my can of tomato turned out to be much more appropriate than whole tomatoes would have for making bolognese, and the spiral pasta was also perfect for this sauce.

All in all, I though the pasta turned out to be really good. The spiciness called for in the Salsiccia e Panna recipe was nicely accentuated by the inherent spiciness of the chorizos. It made a really nice winter dish. I think, I would make this again especially since it wasn't all that complicated (minus the blunder). Though I might try out a different sausage next time.. I am pretty sure the chorizos I had in the pass were far less crumbly.

This is the recipe I ended up with:

Spiral Pasta with Chorizo Bolognese
Ingredients
1lb (500g) fusilli pasta
1/2lb pork Chorizo sausage
2 Tbs butter
pinch of dried rosemary
1 can (6oz) can peeled whole tomato (diced) [ an extra fresh diced tomato for texture ]
pinch of dried red chili
pinch of salt
1/2 cup soy milk
1Tb finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup shaved parmigiano-reggiano

Preparation
1. Boil (uncut**) sausage in water for 2-3 mins. Remove from pot. Cut sausage in middle using sharp knife. Squish out sausage meat from skin through opening. Discard skins. [ ** If you cut them first the meat will spill out into the pot of water ]
2. Cook pasta according to manufacturer's instructions. Stir occasionally to prevent pasta from sticking to pan and to each other.
3. Melt butter in large pan over medium heat and cook sausage meat until much of the water from the meat evaporates and the meat begins to brown.
4. Add rosemary & tomatoes. Simmer to reduce tomato juice; or if fresh tomato was added, until they begin to break down; or for about 5mins.
5. Add chili and season lightly with salt ( taste before adding too much salt as chorizos tend be salty ). Stir in the soy milk and parsley. Keep stirring until milk has reduced by half. Remove from heat and set aside.
7. Once the pasta is cooked al dente, drain and toss into sauce in pan. Stir in the cheese.

Enjoy.