Summer vegetable orzo

Our freezer always has tons of little odds and ends that I couldn’t bear to throw out. Problem is, I often forget what’s in there or can’t figure out a use for it, like the five or so egg yolks that were leftover from some baking project. Finally, though, the three tablespoons of pesto (from a batch I made at the height of summer), got put to good use in this vegetable orzo. With red pepper, tomatoes, zucchini and fresh mozzarella, it captures the flavors of summer, just as we head into fall.

Summer Vegetable Orzo, adapted from epicurious

8 ounces orzo (about 1 1/3 cups)
5 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar, divided
2 medium zucchini or summer squash (about 9 ounces total), cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 red or yellow bell pepper, quartered
3 tablespoons pesto
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 heirloom tomatoes (8 to 10 ounces total), cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 2 cups)
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
1 8-ounce ball fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Cook orzo in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Transfer to large bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon oil.
Whisk 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon vinegar in small bowl. Brush zucchini and bell pepper with oil mixture, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Whisk pesto, lime juice, 3 1/2 tablespoons oil, and 2 tablespoons vinegar in small bowl for pesto vinaigrette.
Broil zucchini and bell pepper until crisptender, about 8 minutes per side (Alternatively, these can be grilled). Transfer to work surface and let cool. Chop zucchini and bell pepper; add to bowl with orzo. Add vinaigrette, tomatoes, sliced basil, and mozzarella; toss to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve cold or at room temperature.

Clean out the fridge pasta

Law school has started and every student group is having its initial meetings this week. To get us there, organizers promise free food, which means that over two days I’ve eaten pizza three times. Right now I feel like I’d be happy if I never had pizza from a cardboard box again. So tonight I was determined to come home and cook a real meal. We had all sorts of random stuff that I wanted to use up, so I found a pasta recipe that would cover the bacon, cheese and sour cream we had on hand. To that I added zucchini, tomato, a shallot and some spices. It was like an amped-up macaroni and cheese, and it was delicious! I’m already looking forward to lunch tomorrow.

Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese

6 slices bacon
1 shallot, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium zucchini, cubed in 1/2-inch pieces
2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 box (14.5-16 oz.) elbow noodles

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth
3/4 cup grated monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp parsley

Cook pasta according to package directions. Cook bacon in large skillet until crispy. Remove to plate lined with paper towels and drain. Remove some grease from skillet to leave about 1-2 tbl. Saute shallots and garlic briefly, then add zucchini. Saute about 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomatoes and remove from heat. Cover to keep warm.
To make sauce, combine sour cream, butter, wine or broth and spices and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and whisk in cheeses until smooth. Toss together pasta and vegetables, then toss with sauce.

Sweet pepper pasta

In all the craziness over the past few weeks, I think my cooking skills actually atrophied. When I finally got back into it, I actually burnt some rice. And then I screwed up a very easy cake that I had made before without incident. I was kind of dreading getting back into a cooking routine, but the box of produce we got at the farmers’ market Saturday cheered me up. There were several colorful peppers, a watermelon, two other melons, cucumbers, okra, potatoes and apples. I suppose this signals a changing season is about upon us.

To use all the peppers except the purple one (apparently when you cook them they lose their color), we made this delicious pasta. I wasn’t sure it would be very flavorful since it had so few ingredients, but that turned out to not be a problem.

Sweet Peppers with Chicken Sausage and Pasta, adapted from this recipe

4 large garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 large red and yellow bell peppers (3 lb.), cut into 2-inch-long julienne
1/2 cup dry white wine
14.5 oz. penne (1 box Barilla Plus)
3-4 links chicken sausage, cooked according to package directions and sliced

Fresh Parmesan

Cook garlic in oil in a large heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring, until golden. Add peppers, wine, and salt and pepper to taste, then cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until very tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
While peppers are cooking, cook pasta in a 6-qt. pot of boiling salted water until al dente and drain. Toss pasta with peppers, add chicken sausage and season with salt and pepper.

Dust each serving with freshly grated Parmesan.

Working with fresh tomatoes

We picked up some sausage last week from the farmer who runs our CSA, and I was actually stumped as to how to use it. Lately we’ve been eating a lot of vegetarian meals, picking things based on the vegetables we get for the week. So I hunted through the sausage recipes on epicurious.com and found a wonderful pasta dish. (I really should cut back on the pasta. Maybe next week.) It called for a 28 oz. can of pureed tomatoes, but I wanted to use fresh instead. Preparing them seemed like it would be a lot of work, but it really wasn’t so bad. Since it was a learning experience for me, I’m sharing a little primer here.

First, start a large pot of boiling water. Also, fill a bowl with cold water and throw in some ice cubes. Cut out the stem of four tomatoes (for the recipe below) and slice off the bottom. Then score each with a knife, top to bottom, and around the sides.

Then, drop the tomatoes into the boiling water and let them sit for about 60 seconds. With a slotted spoon, remove them, and plunge them into the bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. You will see the skins have loosened.

Once cool, peel off the skin, slice each tomato into fourths and scoop out all the seeds. I just stuck my fingers into the crevices and pulled them out. I felt like I was back in biology class dissecting a pig.

Since I wanted them pureed, I stuck them in the food processor and ran it until no big chunks were left. And that was it. Once we get more tomatoes in, I hope to make a big batch of sauce this way. That’s one way to prolong the summer!

Now, where those tomatoes ended up:

Click below for the recipe

Pasta with pesto, potatoes and green beans

I always knew I liked pesto, but don’t believe I’d ever actually made it myself (not sure why!). Now that I have, I think I’d be more accurate to say I love it. And I was also in love with this dish, since it combined my two favorite starches with crisp-tender green (actually yellow) beans. Since my beans were yellow, there wasn’t much color in the finished product, but its interest was definitely heightened by the cool spiral-shaped whole wheat radiatore I got at an international farmer’s market. You could use any short pasta, though, of course. The pesto in the dish was reserved from the batch I made the other night to use in the tomato tart. I’m all about making cooking prep easy. Since it didn’t have Parmesan cheese in it like most pestos do, I added some to the finished dish.

Pasta with Pesto, Potatoes and Green Beans, adapted from Great Food Fast

3 small potatoes, mix of yellow and red, peeled if not organic
Salt and pepper
8 oz. short pasta
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and halved
1/2 cup pesto
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, if missing from pesto

Cut potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes; place in a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta; return to a boil and cook until pasta is al dente, according to package instructions.
Meanwhile, steam green beans until crisp-tender, 8-10 minutes in steamer basket over simmering water.
Drain potatoes and pasta when done. Mix in beans. Toss with pesto and cheese; season with salt and pepper.

Pasta with squash, peas and basil

This recipe was one of the fastest things I’ve made in a while and the one-pot cooking barely heated up the kitchen. The only change I made from the recipe, from Everyday Food magazine, was to substitute rotini for the fancy-pants gemelli that I can’t find at my grocery store. This is a yummy summer dish for when you don’t want to spend much time in the kitchen.

Pasta with Yellow Squash, Peas and Basil, Everyday Food

8 ounces gemelli or rotini
3 medium yellow squash, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
10 oz. frozen peas
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup torn fresh basil leaves

Cook pasta in a pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes less than al dente. Add squash and peas, cook until pasta is done and squash is crisp-tender. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water; drain mixture and return to pot. Add butter, lemon juice, 1/4 cup Parmesan and 1/4 cup pasta water and season with salt and pepper. Toss the combine and add more pasta water if needed. Stir in basil and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Serve immediately.

Free form lasagna

A few months ago I had a delicious dish at a local restaurant called free form ravioli. It was basically pasta sheets stuffed with shrimp, corn, zucchini, avocado and tomatoes, all covered with a white sauce. With our abundance of spring vegetables, I thought I’d try to create something similar at home. I was all set to make some fresh pasta until I realized we were low on eggs, and would need them later in the week. So I improvised with some lasagna noodles I had on hand. Next time I might skip the potatoes to let the squash shine a little more, but all in all, I was really pleased with the results.

Excuse the blurry photo, but you can get the idea:

Free Form Lasagna

Olive oil
8 sheets lasagna noodles
1 medium red potato
1 small yellow onion
1/2 red pepper
2 yellow squash (or zucchini, or this can be doubled and skip the potato)
1 ear corn, kernels cut off
2 cloves garlic
1 medium tomato, seeded and diced.
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbl butter
2 tbl flour
1 cup milk (since i was using rice milk, which is really thin, I added a splash of cream, also)
5 thyme sprigs
Parmesan cheese

Cook noodles according to package directions. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Peel and dice potato and add to oil. While cooking, dice onion and add to pan. Dice red pepper and add to pan. Dice squash; add to pan. Add corn. Mince garlic and add; mix in tomato at end. Cook until all vegetables reach desired softness, about 20 minutes from start. Season with salt and pepper.
In small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook for two minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add thyme sprigs. Raise heat to medium and whisk in milk, stirring constantly. Cook until thick and bubbly, then cook for two minutes more.
Add three-fourths of finished sauce to vegetables in pan. In four bowls, put teaspoon of sauce in bottom of each bowl. Fold lasagna noodles up, two to a bowl, putting vegetables between each fold. Top each with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.