thoughtful consumption

From Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less

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51. Put a stick of butter and a handful of pine nuts in a skillet. Cook over medium heat until both are brown. Toss with cooked pasta, grated Parmesan and black pepper.

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Ta-da!

Don’t believe me? Try it. Oh, and I only use half a stick of butter for three of us. The fresh Parmesan and cracked pepper are not optional. Somehow it all comes together perfectly.

Why I love this recipe

Its haiku-like simplicity. I’ve threatened to decorate my kitchen by painting the recipe on the wall.

It times itself beautifully. The butter and pine nuts brown at the just same time – about ten minutes. And that’s if you just take the butter out of the fridge and literally throw it on to the skillet with the pine nuts. But make sure to keep tossing the pine nuts during the ten minutes so they brown evenly.

Ten minutes, you say? Why, that’s how long it takes to cook up a mess of spaghetti! So you boil the water for pasta, put the pasta in, set the timer for ten minutes, put the butter and the pine nuts in the skillet. That way the pasta comes out just before the pine nuts are ready.

It’s got butter and pasta, for Pete’s sake! So maybe you can’t eat it everyday unless you’re training for London in 2012. But if you’re eating good vegetables from your CSA all week, why not splurge? We also eat less meat now that we eat more vegetables. I intend to make up for that with butter and pasta.

So, what’s your favorite recipe of all time?

I love tabouli! It’s a good healthy appetizer for entertaining. Or you can just eat it with a spoon out of a bowl if you’re me.

Here’s my recipe. Note that it doesn’t use cucumbers or tomatoes because I don’t like them. I also go light on the bulgar wheat compared to most recipes.

Soaking the bulgar takes an extra 30 minutes or so up front. But that’s okay because it will take you a while to chop all that parsley.

1/2 cup bulgar wheat
2 cups chopped fresh parsley
1 clove of minced garlic (optional)
onion (2 or 3 green onions if you have them. Otherwise, mince half a small onion.)
Add diced tomatoes and cucumbers here, if you must.

For the dressing:
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)
1/2 cup olive oil (add more to taste)
1 tbsp pepper
salt to taste

Soak bulgar in 1/2 cup of very hot water for 30 minutes. Drain the excess water and squeeze dry.

Combine bulgar, parsley, garlic, and onion in a medium bowl.

Mix dressing ingredients together. Taste the dressing and add more stuff if necessary. Stir into parsley mix. If it tastes overdressed that’s probably okay. In the fridge it will meld more and some of the dressing will sink to the bottom of the bowl.

Chill and serve with pita.

Making pesto

Pesto is yummy and very useful. It freezes beautifully. Somebody you know probably has too much basil come late summer/early fall. Relieve them of it (well before the first frost) and then invite them over for a pasta dinner this winter.

Try this recipe from from Simply Recipes.

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced (optional)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Freezing pesto

If you’re freezing pesto, make sure to freeze it in small containers so you can get to just what you need. Some people freeze pesto in ice cube trays and then store the cubes in freezer bags. Then you just need a cube per serving. I’ve defrosted pesto overnight in the fridge and in an hour or so on the counter.  Both ways worked fine.

Using pesto

Add to freshly cooked pasta.

Toast on good bread.

Try it on pita crisps.

Add chicken. Here’s an interesting pesto recipe that I haven’t tried yet. You smear chicken breasts with pesto and then bake them until the chicken’s cooked. Sounds good.

From the New York Times picnic recipes…
“Cook peeled shrimp; little ones are best. Toss with pesto: lots. Put on small rolls. (In fact: cook anything; toss with pesto: lots. Put on small rolls.)”

Other pestos

Pesto doesn’t have to be basil. Play around with other herbs you like. I’ve heard of people doing it with cilantro (which I’m not terribly fond of). I bet it’s good for chicken dishes. Parsley would probably work, too. (Unfortunately, parsley in my house inevitably winds up as tabouli.)

Anybody have ideas for other pestos?

This is a cool way to use a bunch of Italian herbs.

Pita crisps

pita bread
olive oil
chopped oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, chives, garlic, and/or parsley
shaved parmesan
salt and pepper (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Cut pita in to quarters and then split them, making 8 pieces per round.
Brush pieces with olive oil and spread them out on a baking sheet.
Top with chopped herbs, cheese, salt and pepper. Bake for 7 minutes or so. They are done with the edges get brown, and the cheese is melted.

I’ve tried different things with the basic idea of baking pita brushed in olive oil: fresh tomatoes and onions, cooked up tomatoes and onions (sort of like bruschetta), and pesto. It’s all good, but my favorite is still the simple herbs, oil, and parmesan recipe. Heck, I’ve even made crisps with just olive oil and sea salt – mmmm!

You can also buy and freeze pita bread when it’s on sale. Defrost it in the fridge overnight before baking it.

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We made up “pita crisps” one night when we needed a light supper but didn’t have much except some leftover pita from a Lebanese restaurant and some herbs growing in the garden. So this dish wouldn’t have happened if we’d been fully stocked or interested in going to the grocery store. I think we’re anxious about not giving our families enough. But do we sometimes deprive them of life’s serendipities? What about the confidence that they can “make do” and be just fine? If the meal’s light but healthy, I tell myself there’s always ice cream if people are still hungry later. To my surprise, everyone’s usually fine (although they still want ice cream).

Here’s my favorite yellow squash recipe. The original idea came from this Cooks.com recipe.

It’s yummy like fried squash but not nearly as greasy or messy to cook.

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The amounts below make two generous servings:

• 1 yellow squash
• ½ onion
• some cormeal or cormeal mix
• 1 clove of garlic, minced (optional)
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt and pepper to taste

Slice yellow squash and onion. I use a 1 small squash to ½ onion ratio. You can add a clove of minced garlic, too. Melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add the squash, onion, and garlic. Sprinkle some cornmeal on top. Cook over medium, stirring frequently, until brown and tender. Maybe 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I’ve substituted cornmeal mix for the cornmeal and olive oil for the butter. Both substitutions work, but they’re not quite as tasty.

Also, the ingredients can be prepared and refrigerated ahead of time. Then you just toss them in the butter and go.