Sunday night pasta

This year we're growing a lovely Italian heirloom zucchini called Ortolana di Faenza. (We bought the seeds from Renees Garden. And yes, we're also growing the climbing zucchini Trombetta di Albenga. It is not fruiting yet because it's still working on world domination.)

Ortolana di Faenza has pale green striped zucchini that we've been picking at about 6 inches long. I sliced some into very thin strips and tossed them with hot pasta with black olives, walnuts, fresh herbs and lots of garlic for a great Sunday supper from our garden.

Here's what I did:

Fettuccine with Zucchini and Herbs
1 3/4 lb slender zucchini
1 tsp sea salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp minced black olives
1/2 tsp dried crushed chiles
1 lb fettuccine
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, coarsely chopped
1 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup basil, thinly sliced
1/4 cup mint, thinly sliced
2-3 zucchini flowers, thinly sliced

Cut the ends off the zucchinis and cut them in about 3 inch chunks. Carefully slice them lengthwise into thin ribbons — I used a mandolin. Then cut each ribbon into narrow strips. Put them in a colander over a large bowl and sprinkle with the sea salt. Toss gently and let sit for 10 minutes. Then rinse the salt off and drain the zucchini well. Finally, spread them on a kitchen towel, cover with another towel, and roll them up. Press gently then set them aside so the towels absorb a lot of the moisture.

In a large serving bowl, combine the garlic, olives and chiles. Bash them together a little to form a paste.

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until just tender. Drain, reserving a half cup of the pasta cooking water.

Add the pasta to the serving bowl with the olive oil and 1/4 cup pasta water. Toss well. Add the zucchini, walnuts, half the parmesan, and all the basil and mint. Toss again and season with salt and pepper. Add more pasta cooking water if the dish is too dry.

Sprinkle the zucchini flowers on top and serve the extra parmesan on the side.

Serves 4

zucchini flowers, purple basil and mint

Greek Salad

Our tomatoes are starting to really produce. I used them in this Greek style salad the other night. Sadly our cucumbers are suffering from drought. Fortunately the organic farmers at the Hollywood Farmers Market have my back.

The key to a good Greek salad is crunchy vegetables to offset the soft tomatoes, feta and olives. I vary them depending on what's available. This is my standard recipe. If you have mint in the garden, it makes a great addition.

Greek Salad
1/2 red onion
1 tsp white vinegar
3 medium or large tomatoes
1 cucumber
1/2 green pepper
romaine lettuce
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
5 tbsp olive oil
2-3 oz feta, crumbled
2-3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
12 kalamata olives, pitted if desired

Cut onion in slivers. Place in a bowl and cover with cold water. Add the white vinegar. Let sit at least 10 minutes.

Chop the tomatoes. Peel and seed the cucumber. Cut in bite-sized pieces. Cut pepper in slivers.

Drain the onion.

Chop the lettuce and put in a large bowl. Add the drained onion, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers. Whisk together the red wine vinegar and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more oil if desired, but it should be a sharp dressing. Toss the dressing with the vegetables.

Put the vegetables on a platter. Sprinkle the feta, mint and olives over top.

Serves 3-4

Pasta with Beet Greens

The beets I'm growing in our vegetable patch have many more leaves than the ones I buy at the farmers market. In fact,  each beet has as many greens as I would usually get in a bunch of three beets.

So we've been eating a lot of beet greens. This isn't a hardship because they are sweet and versatile. I like them combined with chard or kale in a side dish of wilted greens. I've also stirred them into cooked brown rice for a simple casserole.

The other day I stirred them into pasta with garlic and olives for a quick but tasty meal.

In the past I've made this dish with chard and other greens. The beets were particularly yummy, I thought.

I used my large pasta pot with a strainer insert to cook the pasta. It took a lot of water, but it was easy to lift out the pasta and reserve the water - turned pink by the beet leaves - for watering my plants. I'm sure they appreciated the extra minerals.

Pasta with Beet Greens
1 lb beet greens (cut stems at bottom of leaves before weighing)
1 lb whole wheat penne pasta
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped green olives
2 dried red hot chiles, crushed (or 1/2 tsp hot chile flakes)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Wash the beet leaves, cut coarsely and set aside.

Cook pasta in a lot of well-salted boiling water until almost tender. Add the beet leaves and cook another 2 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup water.

Meanwhile, warm olive oil in large saucepan. Fry garlic, olives, chiles, and salt and pepper to taste, until garlic is golden, about 2 minutes.

Add drained pasta with beet leaves and 1/3 cup pasta water. Cook, stirring, until well mixed and the liquid is absorbed. Add a few extra spoonfuls of cooking water if needed to make it moist and a little saucy.

Stir in the parmesan and serve.

Serves 4-6

Fall Bean Salad

The beautiful peppers at the Hollywood Farmers Market inspired this chickpea salad. Because this is southern California, I was able to buy fresh asparagus at the market to add contrast. I could have used green beans instead.

It had good staying power - I took it for lunch 3 days in a row along with a green salad. I tossed the two together for an excellent lunch, followed by a farmer's market apple. Real food is a great break in a busy day.

Fall Bean Salad
1/2 cup chickpeas
juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp basil, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
8 oz asparagus
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
12 kalamata olives

Pick over chickpeas and remove any stones or clumps of dirt. Bring a quart of water to the boil and add the chickpeas. Cover and simmer, adding boiling water from the kettle as necessary, until the chickpeas are tender - 2-3 hours.

Whisk together the lime juice, basil and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste

Drain the chickpeas and put in a bowl. Add the dressing and stir to combine.

Steam the asparagus until tender. Cut in 1 inch pieces and add to the chickpeas along with the chopped peppers. Pit and slice the olives and add to the salad.

Serve on lettuce.

Serves 4

Fennel and Orange Salad with Pomegranate Seeds

We ate chili and rice on Sunday night - an easy slow cooker meal - and I decided we needed something crisp and fresh as a complement.

I combined fennel, oranges and pomegranate seeds in this salad that was so yummy and pretty, I might put it on the Thanksgiving menu.

It's also simple, and still tasted good on the 2nd day when we ate it as a side with black quinoa in a pumpkin.

Fennel tastes like licorice but in this recipe the robust flavor is toned down by the oranges and honey, and contrasts well with the slightly spicy olives. (If you don't have spiced olives, add a dash of cayenne to the dressing.)

The key is to slice the fennel thinly, but not too thin. I cut a few slices with my mandolin, but decided they were too slender to give enough crunch. Instead, I just sliced them across with my knife. They softened a little in the dressing, but didn't become soggy.

Fennel and Orange Salad with Pomegranate Seeds
1 lb fennel bulbs
4 small oranges
9 spicy red pepper stuffed green olives
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp honey

Cut the fronds off the fennel bulbs and set aside, and remove the outer segments of the bulb, including any which are brownish. Cut in half lengthwise, and then cut out the core - a triangle at the bottom of each half - and discard it. Slice the remaining pieces of the bulb cross-wise and place in a medium-size bowl. Chop about 1/4 cup of the fennel fronds and discard the rest.

Wash and dry the oranges. Cut off each end (top and bottom) to reveal the orange pulp. Place one end on a chopping board, and cut down between the white membrane and the pulp to remove the peel. Once the orange is peeled, hold it over the bowl and use a small knife to cut between the segments, separating the pulp from the white membranes. Let the juice fall into the bowl with the segments - but not the seeds. Squeeze the remaining juice from the membranes before discarding.

Slice the olives and add to the bowl, along with the parsley and pomegranate seeds.

In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar and honey.

Add the dressing to the salad, and stir in the fennel fronds.

Serve at room temperature or chilled. Serves 4-6

Carrot Salad

On these warm days, it's nice to have a variety of salads to pique the appetite at dinner time.

The other day I blanched some carrots, tossed them in a simple vinaigrette, and let them cool to room temperature. They had a little heat, a little zest, and made a nice addition to a simple meal.

Carrot Salad
6 oz carrots, peeled
1 1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sriracha or other hot sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint
4 green olives, pitted and sliced

Blanch the carrots for 4 minutes in boiling salted water. Drain.

Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a cast iron pan over medium heat. When aromatic, remove from heat and grind in a spice grinder.

Whisk the ground seeds, olive oil, red wine vinegar and hot sauce together. Stir in the garlic and carrots. Toss the carrots to coat, then let cool.

Just before serving, add the mint and green olives.

Serves 2

Beans and Greens

Regular readers of this blog have probably figured out that I consider beans and greens foundation foods. If we all ate them everyday, we would be a lot healthier.

And really, there's no reason not to. With all the varieties of beans in the world (I currently have 16 in my pantry) and the diversity of greens available at the markets in the spring, beans and greens is a dish that never gets old.

I recently made my old stand-by dish with rapini and black olives, and it was great.

Rapini - also known as broccoli rabe - is a cancer-fighting green that is also good for the bones. It is a little bitter, so goes well with salty flavors and with beans.

Here's what I did the other night:

First I cooked 1/2 cup of my standby large white beans. They are grown locally and cook quickly in a large pot of boiling water - they're usually done in 90 minutes even without pre-soaking. I use a large pot of water because then it's unlikely to boil dry when I'm off wandering the garden. When they're cooked I drain them and set them aside until I need them. A 14-oz can of cannellini beans can be substituted if necessary.

Then I warmed 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat, and added 3/4 cup chopped onion and a minced clove of garlic. While this was cooking, I washed a bunch of rapini and removed the largest stems, cutting the rest coarsely. I stirred this into the softened onions, sprinkled on a little salt and pepper, stirred well, and covered the pot to let it cook down for a few minutes. Then I added the white beans and 8 black olives that I had pitted and sliced. I let it cook a few more minutes until all was warmed through, and then served it in shallow bowls.

A delicious and healthy meal.

Greek Salad with Farro

This is a very untraditional Greek Salad. It has the requisite cucumber, olives, feta and tomatoes. But the foundation is farro -- an ancient form of hard wheat that cooks up similar to brown rice but with a firmer and nuttier texture.

It is full of fiber, magnesium and B vitamins, and its chewy texture is a good foil for the salad vegetables, and a solid counterbalance to the strong lemony-mustard dressing.

It made a wonderful dinner salad on a cooling summer evening.

Greek Salad with Farro
1 cup farro
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup packed parsley leaves
2 tsp fresh oregano leaves
2 tsp dijon mustard
4 oz spinach
1 cucumber
1/4 cup chopped red onion
8 kalamata olives, pitted
2 tbsp feta, diced or crumbled
1-2 tomatoes, seeded and diced

Cook the farro in 3 cups boiling water with 1/2 tsp salt until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Purée the olive oil, lemon zest and juice, parsley, oregano and dijon in a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the farro with most of the dressing.

Wash and stem the spinach and tear into bite-sized pieces. Peel the cucumber and cut it in quarters lengthwise. Cut out the seeds and membranes and discard. Chop the cucumber into bite-sized pieces.

Line a serving platter with the spinach. Pile the farro on top. Arrange the remaining ingredients decoratively on top. Sprinkle with the remaining dressing, or serve it on the side.

Serves 2-3