No Paul, No Pasta

It’s Emily here, coming out of a week without Paul and without pasta. Paul was in Spain and I went on strike. To be honest I was getting a little tired of pasta and also didn’t feel like cooking much in general. Another heat wave came around and it was nearly 100 degrees in our apartment. So raising the temperature even more in the kitchen and sitting down, sweating, to a meal by myself didn’t seem appealing. At the beginning of the week, my friend Lisa came over for dinner, however, so I decided I would cook for us for that night and for me for the next several days in one shot. I made a whole bunch of vegetables and salads that would be good cold, and I liked them so much that I think I will start doing this more often.

It is so great to have this big of a variety of vegetables on one plate. Also it is amazing to have a big salad bar waiting in the fridge for you. Though this week I made mostly cooked vegetables, I am thinking of doing this next with more raw vegetables. Looking at the photo below, clockwise from the top are: garbanzos with lemon and shallot, chicory with chilies, roasted carrots with ginger and mint, borlotti beans with tuna and tomato, roasted zucchini, and roasted red cabbage. In the center of the plate is farro with pine nuts.

My favorites were the cabbage, the carrots, and the borlotti beans. I bought the beans fresh and think they are so beautiful. It is hard not to like them based on their looks alone.

But what is so great about them other than their color is that they are more tender than dried beans. The texture turns out creamy and more uniform and less mushy than when you cook them from dried. If you can find fresh shell beans at the market, I would highly recommend trying them. Just take them out of their pods, simmer them in water with a bay leaf , a clove or two of garlic, and a sprig or two of fresh herbs like sage or rosemary. Add salt when they are nearly done, and then drizzle with olive oil when you serve them. They are great by themselves warm, or cold in a salad like the one I made with Italian style tuna packed in olive oil, tomatoes, red onion, and parsley.

For the carrots, just slice them on a diagonal along with some red onion or shallot, put them in a roasting pan, toss with dried cumin, chopped fresh ginger, olive oil, and salt. Roast them at 400 degrees, tossing every 10 minutes or so. Once they are browned, which should take about 25-30 minutes, put them on a serving plate and add chopped fresh mint.

Finally, the roasted red cabbage is something that is so simple and very addictive. It is almost like a healthier version of potato chips. I will post the recipe separately because I think it deserves its own entry.

Let me know if you have favorite vegetable recipes that I can add to this mix, or if you would like recipes for any of the other ones I made here. It’s great to have Paul back, and I could go for some pasta now, especially if Paul makes it. But he came home saying he wants vegetables. As you can tell we missed each other!