What's-in-the-Fridge Pasta Sauce

Unfortunately, didn't get a chance to take a picture of this one, but it is delicious. Relies on things I usually have on hand.


What's-in-the-Fridge Pasta Sauce

1 onion, sliced
1 large shallot, sliced (or just more onion)
3-4 handfuls fresh spinach
Half a can of water-packed artichoke hearts, cut into quarters
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
olive oil
Pasta


While boiling water for pasta, saute onion and garlic in olive oil. When the pasta has about five minutes left to cook, add the spinach and artichoke hearts to the pan with the onions and shallots. After draining the pasta, add the cheeses to the vegetables, saute just until they begin to melt (only about a minute), and combine with pasta. Dinner!

Serves 2.

Summer White Bean & Tomato Salad

Seems kind of silly to keep track of the recipe for something as simple as this, but hey, it's what I made today, so here it is.

Summer White Bean & Tomato Salad

1 15-oz can cannellini beans, rinsed very well and drained
3 small-to-medium tomatoes
4 green onions
4 leaves fresh basil
olive oil
red wine vinegar
black pepper

Cut the tomatoes into small wedges. Slice the white and light green parts of the green onions finely. Tear the basil into small pieces. In a large bowl, combine beans, tomatoes, onions and basil. Dress with about 1 tbsp olive oil and about 1 tsp vinegar. Season heavily with black pepper and salt if necessary.

Serves 1 for dinner or 2-3 as a side dish.
Could garnish with mozzarella or feta if you were looking for a heavier dish.

Green Bean and Mozzarella Salad

I got to thinking about insalata caprese today, but wasn't quite in the mood for tomatoes. This salad leans slightly more in the direction of France than Italy, because of the shallots (green beans' best friend) and because the only fresh herb I had on hand was parsley, but it turned out to be delicious. The hot, crunchy green beans are a good match for cool soft mozzarella.

Green Bean and Mozzarella Salad

2 medium shallots, sliced very thin
1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, torn into small pieces
about 3 oz. fresh whole-milk mozzarella, cut into small pieces
about 1/4 cup dry white wine
olive oil
squeeze of lemon juice from one small lemon wedge
salt, pepper

In a large bowl, mix the mozzarella and parsley. In a small saucepan, saute the shallots over medium-low heat in olive oil just until they begin to color, about 5 minutes. Be careful, because they will burn fast. Add a splash of white wine and turn the heat to low. Watch the pan; when the wine boils away, add another small splash. When the wine has evaporated, take the pan off the heat. Meanwhile, make sure the green beans still have some water on them from when you washed them. Saute the green beans in a little olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until they begin to be tender and the skin begins to blister, about 10 minutes. Take the pan off the heat; season with a lot of black pepper and salt to taste. Add the shallots to the bowl with the mozzarella and parsley, then add the green beans. Season with lemon juice and about 1 tsp olive oil. Toss and serve immediately while the beans are still hot.

Serves 2.

Blueberry Cookies

Still dealing with a mountain of blueberries... these are delicious. Light, juicy, and quite tart.


Blueberry Cookies

1 cup rolled quick-cooking oats (NOT instant)
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup 2% milk
1.5 cups fresh blueberries
grated zest of 1/2 to 1 lemon
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
Combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, followed by milk. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Fold in blueberries and lemon zest.
Drop by tablespoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.

Makes about 40 cookies.

If you store them overnight, they will lose their crispness; if you'd like them to be crisper, just toast them briefly on a cookie sheet in the oven.

Cherry Blueberry Crisp

Today I had a mountain of cherries on the verge of going bad, and blueberry bushes that are starting to produce like crazy, so clearly it was time to make a crisp.

I was in the mood for more of a granola-y, breakfast-y crisp than a dessert one, so this one is heavy on the oats and low on the sugar (but because these are sweet cherries, not sour cherries, it's still pretty sweet). Goes very well with some nice plain yogurt.

This is a very flexible recipe--amounts of everything are approximate. I discovered that a vegetable peeler works very well for pitting cherries.

Cherry Blueberry Crisp

1.5 cups pitted red cherries
1.5 cups blueberries
5-6 tbsp rolled oats (regular or quick-cooking--NOT instant)
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cherries and blueberries in a small (about 6 in by 6 in) baking dish. In a bowl, mix butter, oats and sugar until just combined. Sprinkle on fruit. Bake 30 minutes. Let cool and serve for breakfast with plain yogurt.

Serves 2-3.

Pasta Salad with Eggplant

Last night, I was imagining a nice cool pasta salad that would be full of lush, smoky eggplant, with something to highlight the eggplant's sweetness and something with a little crunch: long-cooked red onions. I put in some feta for heft, but this would probably be good without it as well.

Pasta Salad with Eggplant

1 globe eggplant, cut into 1/4 inch slices. (I skipped the salting and draining step, but it wouldn't hurt.)
1 red onion, sliced into thin, long strips
1/2 cup chopped parsley
4 oz feta, crumbled
1 box shell pasta
Olive oil
2 tbsp Red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Saute sliced onions in olive oil over medium-low heat for about 25 minutes--until pale pink, sweet, and tender. Meanwhile, brush eggplant slices with a little olive oil and place on a cookie sheet, working in batches if necessary. Broil 6 minutes, flip, brush with more oil, and broil 3-5 minutes longer, until soft and browned but not burned. Let the onions and eggplant cool while cooking the pasta. Chop the eggplant and parsley roughly. Toss eggplant, onions, parsley, feta and pasta. In a small glass, whisk red wine vinegar with mustard and 2-3 tbsp olive oil. Toss with pasta. Season with salt and lots of pepper.

Serves about 5.