Start by bringing a large pasta pot filled water to a boil. In a small sauté pan, add olive oil; sauté panko bread crumbs until golden; season with salt and pepper. Remove the crumbs to a paper towel lined dish. The sauce consists of sautéed eggplant and garlic seasoned with salt and pepper cooked in olive oil. When the eggplant has softened, it’s time to start the sauce. Move some of the eggplant aside to make a hot spot for browning the tomato paste, next add crushed tomatoes, basil sprig, oregano (I used fresh oregano from my garden) and 1-1/2 cups of water. The sauce simmers for 15 minutes to allow for the eggplant to become meltingly tender and the sauce thickened. The pasta is cooked per the box instructions with a 1/2 cup of the pasta water saved before draining. The drained pasta, eggplant sauce and reserved water is returned to the pasta pot and stirred until the sauce thickens and coats the pasta. Chopped basil is added for additional flavor. Before serving, add the grated Parmesan cheese to the panko and mix. Add pasta to bowls, top with some fresh mozzarella, flavored panko and garnish with basil. What a wonderful meal. The sauce was light and flavorful. The bread crumb topping give the pasta another layer of flavor and texture. My husband and I do eat quite a lot of pasta, at least once a week. However, I had some beautiful, sweet corn in my CSA and was tempted by Ali Slagle’s recipe for Skillet Tortellini with Corn and Crispy Rosemary. For the recipe you’ll need 4 slices of thick cut bacon, 5 rosemary sprigs, unsalted butter, cheese or spinach-cheese tortellini, kosher salt, black pepper and 4 ears of corn with cobs scraped of their milk. You can use frozen corn and I substituted frozen tortellini. I purchased my tortellini from Pastosa Ravioli and cooked it per the package instructions. While waiting for the pasta to cook, I started by frying the bacon and rosemary with some butter in a cast iron fry pan. I made sure the bacon was a deep brown before removing it and the rosemary to a paper towel lined plate. Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I added it to the frying pan in a single layer cooking until they turned golden brown. Once that was done, I added 1-1/2 cups of water, a new sprig of rosemary and seasoned with salt and pepper. The ingredients were stirred together to coat the pasta then the pot was covered so the flavors could meld together. After several minutes, the corn kernels, any corn milk that I was able to get off the cobs and a pat of butter was added and cooked just until the corn was heated through. A check of seasonings was done before the pasta was ready to be served. To each dish I added the pasta and topped with the bacon and crumbled fried rosemary leaves on top. Delicious! The corn was sweet and the kernels plump. The combination of sweet and salty was divine. My husband and I loved this preparation. My daughter tried it cold and enjoyed it too! A one pot meal and the kitchen didn’t get hot. I had roasted some beets that I had from a previous week’s CSA box. I was going to use them in a salad with peaches, but I found a recipe by Mark Bittman for Roasted Beets with Moroccan Spices. For the recipe you’ll also need carrots, almonds, cumin, coriander, allspice, lemon juice and olive oil. It just so happened that I picked up a container of small carrots from Rolling Hills Farm at the Asbury Fresh Farmers & Makers Market on Sunday. As the beets were already roasted, I only had to roast my carrots. Instead of using the oven, I tossed the carrots with olive oil, placed them on a sheet of foil and placed them on a raised shelf on my outdoor grill. Once done and cooled I was able to cut the carrots into chunks as well as the beets. The vegetables were dressed with cumin, coriander, allspice, lemon juice and olive oil. The salad was garnished with chopped mint. What a delightful summer side dish. I found the combination of ingredients made for a lovely, savory salad. Although, my husband and I aren’t fans of mint, it did complement the dish quite well. The salad tastes best at room temperature. Eggplant Parmesan Pasta By Kay Chun The New York Times Instagram @thisiskaychun Yield: 4 Servings Time: 35 Minutes INGREDIENTS ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil ¾ cup panko bread crumbs Kosher salt and black pepper ½ cup finely chopped yellow onion (from 1 small onion) 3 garlic cloves, minced 1½ pounds eggplant, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes (8 cups) 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands in a bowl 1 basil sprig, plus ⅓ cup coarsely chopped basil leaves ¼ teaspoon dried oregano 1-pound short pasta, such as mezze rigatoni, fusilli or shells 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 8 ounces fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced and at room temperature PREPARATION
Skillet Tortellini with Corn and Crispy Rosemary By Ali Slagle Featured in “How to Cook in a Vacation Rental (and Still Enjoy Your Vacation) The New York Times, July 28, 2022 Time: 20 minutes Yield: 4 Servings Ingredients 4 thick bacon slices, cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick pieces 5 rosemary sprigs 2tablespoons unsalted butter 16 to 20 ounces refrigerated cheese or cheese-and-spinach tortellini or tortellini Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) Black pepper Kernels from 4 ears of corn, cobs scraped of their milk and reserved (or use 4 cups frozen and thawed kernels) Preparation
Roasted Beets with Moroccan Spices By Mark Bittman Featured in “Do Not Fear a Beet Without Goat Cheese” The New York Times, October 23, 2019 Time: 2 hours Ingredients 1-pound beets 1-pound carrot chunks chopped almonds ½ teaspoon of cumin ½ teaspoon of coriander a pinch of allspice lemon juice olive oil Preparation
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