My selection from Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta this week is an adaptation of Spaghettini with olive oil and garlic. The recipe calls for hot pepper flakes, but I wasn’t feeling particularly in need of the heat, so we subbed off freshly grown and harvested with my very own hands button mushrooms!
Over at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Kayte prepared Fusilli with Sausage and Zucchini. You should follow the link. It’s simply gorgeous! Very Italian with the red (tomatoes), green (zucchini) and white (pasta)! I also know from experience, that the taste is fabulous!
Back in our own kitchen, I chose the spaghettini with olive oil and garlic because I had roasted a chicken and some squash. We had a bumper crop of acorn squash here. We shared a LOT, still could share a LOT, and still have plenty for us to eat. There are still only two of us. These were actually way too large for servings, but…what the heck. It’s good for ya! Chicken was at a record low price this week…77¢ per pound…that’s half what they’ve been running! I bought 3…so far. Chicken is pretty versatile, and I’m pretty flexible. At that price, I can cut and wrap 3 or 4 birds and have some great soup stock base too…but that’s another post! The purpose of telling you that was to explain why pasta became a side dish this week! We were roasting chicken, and our very own, garden grown, almost 100% organic acorn squash!
I really do love being able to bring food from my garden to my table. Right now, it hardly looks possible… The garden is at it’s most bleak…dark, foggy, leaf strewn…abandoned. No sign of hope or life…well…a few signs of life. The garlic is sprouting….and the strawberries are spreading their leaves across their bed. Flower bulbs are sending up leaves, but no flower spikes yet. I ordered some seed yesterday. Nothing too crazy, but just a little sensible. I ordered some herbs and tomatoes I’d like to get started. With some concerted effort, we could start some things next month…peas, lettuce, spinach…anything that can stand some cold…if we protect it some. But let’s get back to what we do on Thursdays!
This is one of the easiest, quickest little pasta dishes there is. Saute a little garlic…toss in a bit of this, some of that, toss your pasta in, and serve. What could be easier? The spaghettini cooks fast…use thin spaghetti instead, or even angel hair, although angel hair or capellini is a bit more fine even that this is. Spaghettini has just a bit more body than angel hair. Like I said, I used mushrooms this time, off the recipe. I sauteéd them in olive oil, and cooked them until almost all their water had evaporated off…then added the garlic in so it infused into the mushrooms. When the pan dried, I added the remaining olive oil for the pasta and let it heat. Simply yummy. I cut all recipes in half if at all possible…and I did the same with this one, if my quantities look off to you. That’s another thing I love about Giuliano’s recipes…they’re easy to reduce by half!
As always, anyone who would like to cook along with us is welcome! You’ll need a copy of Thirty Minute Pasta by Giuliano Hazan, and 30 minutes or so to prepare a dish! It takes longer to write the post up! *giggle* I’m excited that Giuliano has visited us and knows we’re here! If you’d like to cook along, please email me with your post and I’ll include you in the weekly round up!
Buon Appetit!
Can't Believe We Ate... 