Turning Trapanese

Upon her return from Sicily , a good friend of mine coined the summer of 2011 as being “all about Pesto Trapanese”. After hearing a recommendation of that caliber, I had to try it. Plus, adding yet another recipe to my cooking repertoire that combines two of my favorite summer ingredients – tomatoes and basil? Yes, please.  Although I was already on a pesto kick for the summer and have certainly added a tomato or two to some of my previous pesto dishes, I had never mixed my ingredients quite like this.

So once I got home from work, I put my apron on and started my favorite part of the day.

Pesto Trapanese, taken from both Serious Eats and Sippity Sup:

• 1 pound of spaghetti (in my case orrechiette)
• 1/4 1b of almonds, skins on or off (I toasted them lightly)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled (I added 2)
• 1 tsp of red chili flakes
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 4 large handfuls of basil
• 5 oz of grated parmesan cheese
• good olive oil (i used 1/2 cup total)
• 1 lb of cherry tomatoes, blistered in a dry skillet (unable to find cherry, I used grape)

Bring a large pot of salty water to boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Meanwhile, toast the almonds lightly
Add the basil, garlic, tomatoes, almonds, salt, and chili flakes with two tablespoons of oil to the food processor,
blend (I pulsed a total of 14 times, adding only a tablespoon of olive oil at a time). Remove from the food processor
and transfer to a large bowl. Let the sauce sit for a few minutes before tossing with the pasta.

 

have a glass of wine

fini

Sunday night miso

I have a binder full of recipes. It’s a mix of family and friend’s recipes, recipes that were copied down on napkins, tear outs from magazines and newspapers, and old/new recipes I have yet to try. Sundays are usually my menu planning and grocery shopping day (although today was also coupled with yard work). Although I was feeling tired, hot, and not very hungry, I was hungry enough to eat dinner. So I took this recipe out of the binder – Traditional Miso Soup, which was given to me by my friend Kris about 10 years ago. The only change that I made is that I used Oyster mushrooms instead of Shitaki and I added soba noodles for a little more substance.

Taking a break from meat this week; this was a good start.