Fresh and/or Roasted Tomato Cappellini

I have tomatoes! This year’s rainy spring and late frost pushed my tomatoes back by about 3 weeks and I have been anxiously waiting and watching for them to ripen. Why? Because there is nothing better than a fresh tomato eaten straight from the garden. Or on a sandwich with crispy lettuce, or with my favorite pesto on pasta. Or…or…or…I could go on forever.

However, eventually there comes a time at the end of summer (not yet…), when all the tomatoes seem to ripen at the same time and I’m inundated with way too many.

And a sandwich doesn’t sound good…

And I don’t feel ambitious enough to can them…

And I’m tired of salad, and I don’t feel like making sauce…

And I’m thinking I planted way too many plants, and next year I’ll remember this and do better.

What exactly do you do with all those cherry tomatoes anyway?

You make Cappellini, and invite your friends or family for dinner.

This recipe chases all my grumpies away… It uses lots of tomatoes. It is very easy to make, feeds lots of people, and is a great recipe for use with both fresh and/or roasted tomatoes. Roasting the cherry tomatoes caramelizes the sugars and gives a delightful smoky flavor to the pasta. Fresh tomatoes give a sweet lemony flavor. Try this dish both ways and then mix the roasted and fresh for an entirely different flavor. Each way is unique and equally wonderful.

Best of all, when I make this…and close my eyes to appreciate the flavors of tomato, garlic, and basil…I fall in love all over again.

And I vow to plant just as many plants, if not more, next year.

Fresh and/or Roasted Tomato Cappellini
Serves 6-8
(as always...amounts in recipes are approximate...feel free to be creative)

1 medium onion—minced
4-5 cloves garlic—minced fine or crushed
1-2 Tbs olive oil, plus more if roasting tomatoes
4-6 cups fresh tomatoes—diced or if using cherry tomatoes, roasted
½ cup fresh basil—chiffonade
2 Tbs fresh parsley—minced
1-2 Tbs balsamic vinegar or lemon juice (see note below)
¼ - ½ tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup freshly grated parmesan and or Romano cheese
1 lb angel hair pasta—cooked al dente
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:
Cook pasta as per directions on package

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil. Add fresh or roasted tomatoes and cook over medium heat for an additional 5-10 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes, parsley, and basil and stir to wilt herbs (about 1 minute). Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with pasta and add cheese. Serve immediately.

For Roasting: Place tomatoes on parchment or no-stick tinfoil. Drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in 450 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until they look like the picture below.

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil.

Add roasted tomatoes...

Alway use fresh herbs if possible...

This batch we mixed the roasted tomatoes with fresh. Toss with pasta...yum!

A note about tomatoes: There are many varieties of heirloom tomatoes available in home gardens and farmers markets and I encourage you to try them all. Yellow varieties have a wonderful citrus flavor that is not to be missed. When we make this recipe with fresh and especially the yellow varieties, we use lemon juice instead of balsamic vinegar for the brightness of flavors it yields. With the roasted tomatoes, balsamic vinegar seems to yield the better dish. Play around and let me know what works for you.

Confessions of a Dump Cook

Ok, I confess. I’m a dump cook. I rarely use a recipe unless I am baking. I think it’s genetic—an inborn trait written on my very being at birth. My very first memory bears this out. I am about two years old and it is an early morning in spring. My mama is still in bed. There is a white Formica table pushed up against the wall beneath the dining room window. The bright sunshine backlights the curtains a brilliant yellow. It is dazzling and I crawl up on the table entranced by the beauty of the sunshine. How lovely—there is a tub of strawberry jam left up here from supper last night. It is a very pretty red. I’m hungry. Dipping my fingers into the jam, I bring them to my mouth. It is sweet and yummy. How pretty, I think as I take another scoop and this time smear it across the brilliant yellow curtains. The sun shines through illuminating the jeweled pictures I create. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and I turn to get more jam.

I do not remember my mothers’ reaction upon finding me—just how beautiful the red jam was on the yellow curtains with the sun behind—but it was my first experiment in ‘dumping’. She tells me that when she found me, I had the entire jam tub, upended on top my head like a hat. Many such experiments followed. Playing with food was fun. One memorably spectacular disaster involved a bag of melted chocolate chips, peppermint oil and coconut. I was nine. You cannot imagine my disappointment as I dumped the whole mess down the garbage disposal so my mother would not find I’d wasted food.

Playing with food is still one of my favorite activities—a little of this, and a little of that. Sometimes it works and sometimes I again dump the whole mess in the trash. The following recipe is a ‘dump’ recipe. I don’t have measurements—it’s a little of this and a little of that. The nice thing about ‘dump’ recipes is that they can be the canvas for many dishes. Here I offer an easy Alfredo pasta sauce that can be used as the base for Pasta Primavera, Chicken Alfredo, or Chicken Artichoke Penne. Be as creative as you like. It’s fun.

Easy Alfredo Sauce
Measurements are approximate.

1-2 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3-5 cloves garlic—pressed or minced very fine
1 package low fat cream cheese (for richer sauce use full fat cream cheese)
1-1 ½ C half and half (can also use fat free half and half)
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp fresh ground pepper

Put olive oil in skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cream cheese. Smash cream cheese and garlic together. Cheese will begin to melt as it gets hot. Add half-and-half and whisk gently until sauce is smooth and thick. Add nutmeg and ground pepper. Sauce can now be added to any pasta dish. (If the sauce is too thick, add more half-and-half.)

For Auntie Eileen:

Chicken Penne Pasta with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts

1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts—diced
½ onion—cut in half and sliced thin
1-2 tsp dried thyme (fresh basil would be good too)
Salt and pepper
1-2 jars marinated artichoke hearts-drained
6-8 oz sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil-drained
1 recipe Alfredo sauce (above)
2 C penne pasta
Parmesan and/or Romano cheese

Prepare Alfredo sauce as above and set aside. Boil water for penne and cook until al dente. While pasta is cooking, sauté diced chicken, thyme, and onions in olive oil until chicken is cooked through and onions are tender. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Combine cooked chicken, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes and pasta. Pour Alfredo sauce over pasta and mix to combine. Garnish with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Photo Credits: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

(From Flickr.com/creative commons,)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laura-elizabeth/3244863814/