Garlic Lovers Pasta with Broccoli

I made this salad last year but revisited it with some added broccoli. It's super easy and when you have some leftover buttermilk in the fridge from making fresh ricotta, it's that much easier to whip up. Everyone will be so surprised at how light and yet creamy it tastes. Perfect for snacking or taking for lunch. Feel free to add other vegetables, broccoli is just a favorite with cheese.

This is my entry for this week's Presto Pasta Night, hosted by its founder, Ruth of Once Upon a Feast - Every Kitchen Tells its Stories. Check back on Friday for the roundup. Happy eating!


Garlic Lovers Pasta with Broccoli

1 lb rotini
1/2 cup buttermilk
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 large lemon, juiced
5-8 cloves garlic, minced fine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated fine
1 bunch broccoli, cut into bite size pieces

Bring large pot of water to boil (at least 4 quarts) and add 2 teaspoons salt. Combine buttermilk, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and salt in mixing cup. Once water is boiling, add pasta and broccoli and cook broccoli 4 minutes, skimming off top of water with slotted spoon; set aside. Cook pasta al dente, drain and add back to pot. Add garlic to pasta and stir vigorously to allow hot pasta to gently cook garlic. Add buttermilk dressing along with cheese and broccoli and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Chill for at least 2 hours. Best at room temperature.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Sardinian Mussel Soup at Hunger Angler Gardener Cook
Kofta Curry and Potato Tamarind Raita at Honey From Rock 
Rumtof at Think On It

Asian Corn and Shiitake Mushroom Salad

This summer, when the corn was plentiful and cheap, I bought many, many, many ears of it, cooked it up, cut it off the cob and froze it. Now, as we move into the fall season (also known as the Second Spring here in southern California) I am enjoying many corn salads. This one was inspired by a desire to use some shiitake mushrooms.

Until recently, shiitakes were not a part of my repertoire; I would buy them and not know what to do with them. But since working at Co-opportunity where we have an abundance of fresh mushrooms and customers who buy them by the bucketful, I started asking said customers what they did with them. Most answered that they simply fried them up or added them to stir fry. Apparently, shiitakes are high in protein, many of the B vitamins and have immune boosting properties.

Succotash Soup

I have a vivid memory of sometime in the third grade, around Thanksgiving, when we were learning about the origins of the holiday and there was some sort of reenactment of the feast that included real food. I do not recall turkey or cranberries but I do know that there was some succotash, lima beans and corn, and that I was the lucky one who got to finish eating the bowl after the play was done. I also recall that I was shocked that no one was fighting me for the leftovers and sitting in a corner I proceeded to shovel spoonful after spoonful of that starchy deliciousness into my belly. I have loved the combination of corn, lima beans and butter ever since.

This soup was whipped up a few evenings ago when the chilly night air was invading the house and I realized that I had a bonanza of frozen corn-off-the-cob that I had made this summer for just such an evening. I added the homemade bacon bits because the bacon was next to the corn in the freezer and I could tell they wanted to come out to play together. Feel free to leave it out and make it a vegetarian soup.

Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onions

If you grew up in the Northeast (Boston, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York) you probably were surrounded by Italian Americans. Actually, they were probably Sicilians, but most people thought of them as simply Italian. "Eye-talyans" is how many people pronounced the word, but no matter how you said it, it meant that a sausage and pepper sandwich was probably near at hand and always oh so delicious.

You really can't go wrong with this; fry up onions and peppers over medium heat until they start to soften and caramelize and add in the sausage. Put it all on a hoagie/sub/hero roll and enjoy. There is no need for any condiments or cheese or nutin' else. This is pure, unadulterated joy on a plate or a bun.

Pasta Frittata

While I am unabashedly in love with Italian food, I pride myself on the fact that I have only 5 Italian cookbooks out of my extensive collection: Marcella Hazan's The Classic Italian Cookbook, Patricia Well's Trattoria, Mario Batali's Molto Italiano, Arthur Schwartz's The Southern Italian Table, and... Italy Today, the Beautiful Cookbok, something I got at Costco for $9.99.

It's a gorgeous, cocktail table cookbook and surprisingly modern yet classic. I probably read through more than half of it before I decided to buy it, since I am not easily seduced by beautiful pictures; I need new recipes as well. Not only does this cookbook deliver on simple, modern Italian fare but it includes "cucina povera" dishes like this pasta frittata, all with gorgeous photos to boot.

Cucina povera is simply Italian for saying cooking with threadbare ingredients when you're poor. I love it because it speaks to my thrifty nature and I love cooking from the pantry. Also, for people who sigh at leftovers, this is a particularly good transformation since leftover pasta does not reheat well.  I'm sending this over to Val at More Than Burnt Toast who is hosting Presto Pasta Nights this week. Check back on Friday for the roundup!

Pasta Frittata

2/3 lb cooked pasta (I used leftover pasta puttanesca)
7 eggs, beaten
1 cup parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons parsley, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine eggs, cheese, parsley and pasta in bowl and mix well to ensure noodles are coated with egg mixture and all ingredients are evenly distributed. Heat an 8 inch skillet (preferably able to pass under the broiler) over medium high heat for 2 minutes. Add olive oil and swirl to coat. Pour in pasta mixture and distribute evenly. Cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes until egg sets and bottom begins to brown. Pass skillet under broiler for 3-5 minutes until top is cooked. Cut in 8ths and serve. This is also excellent cold or at room temperature and does improve sitting for a day.

Hugs!

P.S. I love, love, LOVE it! when I synch up with Mark Bittman, as in today's Minimalist post (diary of a food weekend alone).

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Garlic Chard Roti at ECurry
Kefta and Zucchini Kabobs at Smitten Kitchen
Indonesian Corn Fritters at Bitten (The Temporary Vegetarian)

Block Island Steamers

Ever since childhood I have had two inspirations that have deeply influenced how I interact with food in my adult life: Little House on the Prairie and Jeremiah Johnson. Does that seem nuts? The first were the books that I read over and over and over again, soaking up all of the daily means of surviving on the prairie during the late 1800s. The second is one of Robert Redford's best movies about a fur trapper surviving a winter in Montana or Wyoming in the early 1800s.

What the two have in common is survival off the land. It's always been my fantasy life for me, and yes, I know how difficult it would all be. Two blogs on my blogroll, Fat of the Land and Hunter Angler Gardner Cook, let me live this fantasy vicariously. I envy their knowledge and time to forage and gather food from the land. But finally, I was able to do a little myself when I gathered clams on Block Island last week.