Garden Series, Part VI: Solanaceae, or The Nightshades

Tomatoes! Tomatillos! Chiles! Eggplant! Potatoes! And basically everything good!

My favorites of the garden are starting to come into season.  There is a strong tomato focus to my garden and I have recently discovered that eggplants are quite beautiful. If you know me, you may know that I'm not a fan of bell peppers (blech!), but I do love the spicy kind, and chiles also make for pretty plants.  This year, I gave Purple de Milpa tomatillos another chance, and while they are not ready yet, there may be hundreds in a week or two.

It turns out that the members of the Night Shade family make great cooking companions.  Most of my gardening and cooking energy goes to the tomatoes, as I can them and freeze them and use them throughout the year.  As if I'm a pioneer.  Or a survivalist.  (I'm neither, but that's beside the point.)  But other than a potential jar of pickled jalapeños, the non-tomato night shades get consumed right away.  We'll see about using up those tomatillos...

It also turns out that mixing together tomatoes, eggplant, and chiles makes for a great puttanesca sauce.  Well, at least with the addition of some pantry ingredients, like capers and pickled peperoncini (American-style, not the strict Italian translation). Olives would be great, too, but I'm out. It's also entertaining to me that "night shades" make up the sauce that was for "ladies of the night." But I love a little wordplay and I'm aware that I'm kinda nerdy and cerebral. 



I was a little worried about posting too many pasta recipes, and then realized that pasta can almost always be replaced by pouring the sauce over polenta.  I thought of this as I was eating and found myself wishing I had done this in the first place.  So, if you're not into pasta, think about polenta.


PUTTANESCA

• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 hot chile, sliced
• 1 small eggplant, chopped
• 4-5 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 2 T. capers
• 2-3 peperoncini, sliced (American-style)
• salt and black pepper
• handful of basil
• parmesan, to garnish
• chèvre, to top
• 1/2 pound penne OR POLENTA

Start water for the pasta, or prepare polenta.  While heating and cooking, prepare the sauce.

In a medium cold skillet, pour in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Add garlic and set heat to medium.  Once the garlic begins to sizzle, stir a few times and allow to cook for about 30 seconds, depending on the heat of the stove. Add chile slices, give a couple stirs, and then add the eggplant.  After about a minute, add the tomatoes, capers, and peperoncini.  Allow the ingredients to cook and release their juices.  After about five to ten minutes, they will come together as a nicely textured sauce.  Season with salt and pepper.

If using pasta, reserve a little pasta cooking water, drain, and toss directly into the sauce.  Loosen with pasta water as necessary.  Chop basil at the last minute and toss along with the pasta and sauce. Serve topped with parmesan and some good, solid chunks of goat cheese.

If using polenta, ladle the polenta into bowls.  Toss freshly-chopped basil into the sauce and pour over the polenta.  Garnish with parmesan and goat cheese.  Enjoy outside on the patio overlooking the garden.  Perfect.

Making Pasta at Home

Since I have been on a fresh pasta kick, I thought perhaps I would show you the process of making it at home.

Of course, if you have a pasta machine, you probably already have this down.  I, for one, keep losing the recipe I like, and keeping it here will be helpful for at least myself. Hopefully for you, too.

Many recipes will call for several eggs to make a very rich and yellow dough.  It turns out that I prefer the flavor of the pasta itself and like a leaner dough.  I also like using semolina instead of regular all-purpose flour, but AP flour works, too, in a one-to-one substitution ratio.

Some other tips might be useful, too, aside from the actual recipe.  Making pasta at home it actually quite simple if you have the tools, but it does require some time and little finesse.  The process requires some space and a whole afternoon.

FRESH PASTA

• 1 1/2 cups semolina flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t. olive oil
• pinch salt
• a small bowl of all purpose flour, for dusting

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until the dough gathers to together and moves en masse around the blade.  Remove the dough from the processor and knead by hand for a minute.  It will be sticky and have a grainy feel; the goal of kneading it is to bring the dough together and jumpstart the process of allowing the moisture to be absorbed.

Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to a few days.  Remove from fridge and cut dough into quarters.  Run each quarter through the widest setting on a pasta rolling machine several times, folding into thirds and forming a rectangle.  This serves as kneading the dough, so run each quarter through until it starts to feel smooth and elastic.

Still folding dough in thirds after each pass, move to the next setting.  Once on the third setting, stop folding sheets of dough and dust well with flour as you set them aside for the next round.  They can be stacked to save space. Run each through the progressive settings twice until you get to the second-to-last setting - my last setting is "6" and is too thin, which always tears the dough.  Cut each sheet in half when it gets too long to run through the machine comfortably.

Once you have achieved the thickness you like, you can cut the sheets into squares for ravioli.  If you have fettuccine, linguini, or spaghetti plates, go ahead and use them.  If not, and you want noodles, roll each sheet into a tube, crosswise, and cut into slices of your desired thickness.  Unfurl the rolls into long noodles!  This is the best way to get pappardelle, too.

Cook the pasta in a large pot of well-salted water.  Like usual.  The only difference is that fresh pasta cooks in 3-5 minutes.  Drain and serve with any sauce you like - fresh pasta is so good that even tossing it with butter and salt like dish for a picky child will be delicious!

Stay tuned for late-summer garden recipes, in which I'll use beets and fresh pasta dough to make Beet Ravioli with Poppy Seed Butter.  It's good.  Really good.

Garden Series Part I: Radishes & Sage

With the garden salad as a warm up, I thought I might share a recipe from the garden each week or so as new produce can be harvested.

In the past week, the various lettuces have indeed provided many salads - I can practically feel all the vitamins and nutrients flowing through my veins!  Radishes also popped up, and by "popped up" I mean they were pushing themselves right out of the ground.

I haven't come across many people who share my love of radishes, but I would like to put in a good word for them.  Not only are they quick to mature in the garden, but also come in a wide variety of shapes and colors and can be eaten raw or cooked.  I prefer the bright and cheerful French Breakfast radishes shown here, but I would love to try other heirloom varieties, too, like the "Watermelon" or even "Red Meat."  I have tried growing a "Green Luobo" radish, but unfortunately without edible results...

If you are a non-believer when it comes to radishes, you might try cooking them.  It brings out the sweetness and cuts the heat.  I have read about the French tradition of dipping radishes in anchovy butter, so I thought I would start with that idea and cook my radishes with anchovies in a pan of browning butter.  And what else goes well with brown butter?  Well, sage and pasta, of course!

At first I was going to cook the radishes in anchovy butter and eat them as a side dish, but then mixed it all together to see what it was like.  That was a good decision, I must say.  I also had some leftover ricotta from the last post's ravioli, which added to the dish.  Now, I am out of radishes and am disappointed I won't get to have this dish every night.  Forever.  At least those radishes are fast-growing!

ANCHOVY BUTTER RADISHES & SAGE PASTA

• 6-8 oz. fettuccine pasta
• 1 bunch radishes (about 8-10)
• 2 T. butter
• 1-2 anchovy fillets, or about 1 t. worth
• 4-5 leaves fresh sage
• ricotta cheese, for serving (optional)
• salt to season

Cook pasta according to directions, drain, and set aside.  I used fresh pasta here, since I had dough ready and I have a pasta machine to make noodles at home.  I'm planning on a special Friday post this week about making pasta at home.

Meanwhile, trim and halve or quarter radishes so they are bite-sized pieces.  Melt butter in a saute pan over medium heat.  When the butter begins to brown, turn the heat to low and the whole sage leaves to the pan.  Let them fry until they are dark green and translucent throughout, a few seconds on each side.  Remove the leaves from the butter and set aside.

Turn the heat back to medium and add the radishes.  Cook until softened, tossing or stirring them frequently. Remove from heat until the pasta is cooked, if it's not done already.  Add the pasta to the butter and radishes, toss, and heat through.  Season with salt.

Divide among two dishes and top each serving with a dollop of ricotta and the fried sage leaves.

*I forgot the anchovies the second time I made this dish.  If you're vegetarian, it is still good without the anchovies - but if you are not, remember to add them.  They add really nice balance and complexity to the dish.