Pasta tossed with ricotta.

[mamadeb]

I've made tonight's dinner before, sort of. I got the idea from a couple of different cooking shows - Alton Brown; Giada di Laurentis - and from a dish made in a local restaurant. It's one of those things that are too simple to imagine, but with endless variations.

I used the technique first on a steaming hot holiday night,and again on a warm and lazy night.

Tonight is hot again, but the air conditioner makes it feel comfortable and I'm making it on request even though next week, the Nine Days, will be entirely meatless except for the Sabbath.

The basic dish? Cook pasta and toss it with ricotta cheese, olive oil and fresh garlic, and grind fresh pepper over it.

Tonight, I have sun-dried tomatoes. And scallions. And I just toasted a handful of pine nuts because toasting makes an enormous difference. I have whole wheat rigatoni flavored with garlic and parsley. I'm going to slice the tomatoes and scallions fine, and mince the garlic. I have cold-pressed olive oil - the type you do not cook with. I'll serve it with plain mixed salad and a simple vinaigrette (although I'm not sure in what, since I'm using my dairy salad bowl for the pasta, as it's the only thing big enough for proper tossing. I'll buy a pasta dish someday or maybe Sunday, when I have another pair of hands to help me take it home.)

Drain the pasta. Do not rinse. Put a puddle of olive oil on the bottom of the bowl, and add very finely minced garlic. Add the hot pasta. Toss. Put in a cup of ricotta and - I don't know. A bunch of scallions, and a handful of tomatoes. Toasted pinenuts. Pepper. Taste for salt and maybe add some. Or grate fresh parmesan. I have that. I'll do that. Serve right away in bowls. If the garlic is fine enough,the heat of the pasta will sweeten it just a enough, but it needs to be dry, needs to be in microscopic dice, not grated even with a microplane. I'm not sure why.

Dinner.

Comments

[chrysantza.livejournal.com]

Sounds scrumptious! I'm always on the lookout for quick pasta recipes.

My pasta dinner:

[dphearson.livejournal.com]

I was needing carbs, so I made this:

Hot cooked vermecelli
Olive oil ( extra virgin)
a crushed clove of garlic
a generous grab of fresh spinach
a handful of cherry tomatos
a tablespoon of pesto
a tablespoon of olive tapenade

So I heated a saucepan with some olive oil ( greek olive oil; my olive oil from Israel is waiting!) a put the clove of garlic in. Then the spinach, until just wilted. Tossed all with noodles. Served with a glassof very cold wine.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

That sounds GREAT - I'll have to try it! I have some pine nuts left over from a Lebanese recipe the hubby made recently on the grill (which was *fabulous*).

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds delicious!

[leahmiriam.livejournal.com]

I got Giada's new (and first!) cookbook at Costco. I love her show and her recipes work out well. If you like Tilapia she has a great recipe for it done citrus style with anchovies. My husband begs me to make this and it is a good starter on shabbos instead of gefilte fish which bores us after a while.

We love Alton, too.

[naomichana.livejournal.com]

It's definitely the time of year for simple pasta things -- I've been on a kick involving pasta salads (crumbled feta, tons of veggies, fresh herbs where available, and a splash of a good dressing and/or vinegar and/or lemon juice) and pasta with sauteed or wilted veggies, but I haven't been buying ricotta lately. Must fix that.

(Also, thanks for reminding me to serve meat/chicken the next couple of nights -- we tend to default away from fleischig, but with the Nine Days coming up I want to nip any incipient cravings in the bud.)

[castiron.livejournal.com]

Yum. Must try. That'd make a nice change from the most-closely-resembles-capellini-pomodoro recipe that I'm usually making myself lately.