Huh? Is That a Sprout I see? and Pasta Pomodoro

Look closely what do you see?

Closeeerrrr

CLOSER!

It's a sprout!!!

Yes, it has been the highlight of my weekend. I know I know…I live such an exciting life. But finding an itty bitty sprout emerging from my tiny little basil and parsely plant has definitely made my weekend that much better! Some may be thinking “Big deal, there’s a sprout, so what?! I can grow a basil forest!” While others may still be analyzing the pictures trying to figure out if such a thing even qualifies as a basil plant. And all I have to say is, it does in my book buddy!

This is a HUGE achievement for me considering the fact that since I’ve begun trying to plant and maintain herbs, nothing has survived past a week under my care. =( So that fact that I’ve managed to keep a few plants green and living is quite exciting. And the sight of something actually sprouting is to me, nothing short of a miracle. My gardening woes are not all my fault. You see, I actually have very VERY limited space not to mention the unstable and scare sunlight that my patio receives.

As I often say to Nhat, I have to “catch the sun” which translates to me moving my plants around to wherever I can find sunlight in the back. Sometimes I even move my plants 5 maybe even more times in a given day just to provide the plant with enough sunlight. Nhat rolls his eyes and think I’m being “ridiculous” when he sees me make my way to the patio to move the plants, but I have proved him wrong! As today, weeks later, my basil and parsley plants are still green and alive and are sprouting new stalks! Unfortunately, now that colder weather is quickly approaching we’ll see how the plants continue to do.

If I can manage to have basil throughout winter that would truly be a miracle and if I succeed in maintaining basil throughout winter I may even dare to grow new plants and herbs…but I won’t get ahead myself. I forget that I actually go back home during holidays so we’ll see what I’ll do about my plants then. In the mean time, while I still do have some fresh basil and parsley, do you know what dish all these herbs would be good in? PASTA POMODORO!

Pasta Pomodoro with Sauteed Eggplant

I used a lot of basil and parsley this weekend and could have used more if I had more. While I was watching a video on the Tamra Cooking Show, I was inspired to make Pasta Pomodoro, a light pasta and tomato dish. I love fresh tasting pasta dishes and this one was exactly what I wanted. I added sautéed eggplant to provide some meaty textures. If you ever have a few tomatoes around or even canned tomatoes and you’re not sure what to do with them try this recipe out.

Pasta Pomodoro with Eggplant (makes 4 good size servings)

4 big tomatoes

4 cloves garlic (sliced)

2 shallots or third a small onion (chopped)

¼ cup red wine

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 tsp sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch chili flakes

A handful of fresh basil and parsley (chopped)

Parmesan cheese

A handful of spaghetti noodles

Olive oil
Optional:

Eggplant (I used Indian eggplant, they’re smaller so I used three). You don’t want to use too much eggplant just enough to have some in your pasta sauce but not overtake all of the sauce.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. On a baking sheet rub tomatoes in olive oil and put in oven for 15-20 minutes. After 15-20 minutes, you should see the skin blister. Once tomatoes cool, peel the skin off the tomatoes. You can chopped up the skin and add them into the sauce later if you like, that’s what I did (I hate to waste). Cut each tomato in half.

Bring a pot of water to boil. Salt the water and add pasta
In large pan over medium high heat add about 2 tbs of oil, sauté the eggplants then set aside.
With the same skillet on medium heat, add more olive oil (about another 2 tbs) then add onions, garlic   and chili flakes to brown a bit. Add a tiny bit of salt and pepper.
Add the tomatoes and with your wooden spoon or whatever else you’re using, mash in the pan to break a part the tomatoes and release all of its juices. Add the sugar and stir.
Add the wine and cook off the alcohol then add the vinegar.
Once the sauce comes to a boil, lower the heat to simmer. Add more salt and pepper if you like. Add ¾ of the chopped basil and parsley.
Allow the sauce to continue simmering uncovered to allow the sauce to reduce to a consistency that you like.

Add spaghetti noodles and mix to incorporate sauce. Add eggplant and mix again.

Transfer to serving boils and garnish with parmesan, parsley, and basil.

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Butterfly Pasta and Roasted Bell Peppers

Last night I knew it was time to use up the bell peppers I had sitting in the fridge for about a week. It's not that I didn't want to use them. I just didn't have the time. From going away the past weekend for Labor Day to settling back in after a short but very nice visit back home, there was no time to cook! But yesterday, I knew my precious bell pepper's shelf life was coming close. Fortunately, when I took them out of the fridge, they were still quite firm and bright and very tasty looking. I wanted to cut them up and eat them with ranch dressing right there!

But I needed to make dinner, and I already knew what I wanted to do with them. A while back I was watching Easyway Gourmet with Kris Capra (a very vibrant and enthusiastic lady to watch on TV) and she made a delicious looking dish with roasted bell peppers and farfalle pasta. I've always wanted to try it but I felt roasting bell peppers is too time consuming! Now I realize how wrong I was. The few extra minutes you put into roasting the peppers is WELL worth it.

I wasn't able to find the exact recipe but I put something together that I think went very well together. For this dish I used FARFALLE pasta which is better known as bow tie pasta. In Italy, farfalle is actually a word for "butterfly". And if you look at the shape of these cute little pasta, you'll see that they do indeed resemble a butterfly or a bowtie. I also had some chicken and apple sausage links my dad gave me from Labor Day weekend so I used that along with leftover shredded rotissere chicken. That's the good thing about this pasta dish, it's very versatile and you can use almost anything you like (within reason of course).

Roasted Bell Peppers and Butterfly Pasta- about 2 good size servings

2 sausage links (whichever kind you like, I used chicken and apple)
2 bell peppers
1/3 cup shredded chicken (optional, I had some left over)
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 lemon or lime (I prefer lemon but I only had lime at the time)
2 Tbs butter
1 ½ - 2 tbs capers (coarsely chopped)
1 tbs minced garlic (estimated)
1 pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 tsp of Italian seasoning (optional)
2 cups farfalle (bowtie) pasta
2 tsp olive oil for the sauce
Canola oil for broiling the bell peppers
Salt and pepper (I acutally didn't add any extra salt aside from what I used for the bell peppers)

Preheat oven to broil, rub canola oil all over bell peppers and season with salt and pepper.
Broil peppers for about 10 minutes, turning peppers over half way, until charred (skin turns black). Take peppers out (careful they’re HOT) and transfer to a bowl and cover to let peppers cool.
Once bell pepper cools (should take about 20-30 minutes) remove the stem and peel off the skin of the bell peppers (the skin should come right off). Take out the seeds and cut the bell peppers into about 1 inch pieces then set aside. Discard stem, skin and seeds.

Meanwhile bring pot of water to boil. While waiting for the water to boil, mince garlic and capers and set aside. Take sausage links and cut into bite size pieces. Once water boils, salt the water generously then add the bowtie pasta. Give it a quick stir to prevent clumping. As pasta cooks, heat a large pan at medium heat. Add olive oil and cook the sausages. This should take about 7 minutes to get nice browning on the sausages. Remove sausages then add garlic, let garlic heat up then add chicken broth, butter, and juice of half of the lime. Stir and let butter melt. Once butter melts add capers, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and then lower the heat. Continue cooking the sauce for a few more minutes.

Once pasta finishes, add pasta to sauce and stir to incorporate all the sauce. Let cook for 1-2 minutes then add bell peppers and shreds of chicken. Continue mixing all the ingredients, then squeeze second half of lime and give pasta final stir. If you have fresh parsley or basil, chop some up and add to garnish and flavor! Read more On "Butterfly Pasta and Roasted Bell Peppers"!