Rigatoni with Sauteed Lettuce and Garlic; Roasted Radicchio; Crostini with Cilantro Pesto and Roasted Chery Tomatoes

This year, the late summer CSA bounty is getting ridiculous. Every week, we come home with bags and bags of lettuce. We're not the green-salad-with-every-meal type, so we've had to make an awful lot of lettuce pasta in order to stay ahead of the coming week's haul. Though fairly boring, its an easy way to use up your lettuce since you need about 4 parts lettuce to one part pasta for the ratio to work.

A radiccio, quartered, roasted, and drizzled with balsamico made a simple side dish. To start, crostini with cilantro pesto (just substitute cilantro for basil in a regular pesto dish; you can leave out the reggiano or keep in, depending on your taste) and roasted cherry tomatoes (halved and roasted with garlic cloves, olive oil, vinegar, thyme, and a little brown sugar for 1 hour at 400 degrees F)

Stuffed Tomatoes and Red Bell Peppers

I made a mixture of sauteed greens, onions, left-over risotto, parmigiano-reggiano, and bread crumbs as a stuffing for both, then baked in a 350 degree oven.

Frittata with Swiss Chard, Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese

For years, I have been looking for a decent non-stick, oven-safe pan to make frittate, the technique for which requires you transfer from cooktop to hot oven. Until now, I never could justify the cost of yet another pan in the pantry. But when I recently came across a significantly-marked down Swiss Diamond pan at Marshalls, I really couldn't pass it up. Like risotto, there are endless variations on the classic frittata... this one used up a bunch of things from the CSA.

Roasted Beet Risotto with Goat Cheese

I'm always experimenting with variations on risotto. Once you have the basic technique down, there are hundreds of ways to use up left-over items in the fridge and pantry. I roasted a couple of beets, diced them, and added them about 2/3 of the way through the cooking. Once finished, I folded in some goat cheese and topped with leftover kale chips.

Spaghetti con Le Zucce

 

Spaghetti with Squash
-1 3½ to 4-pound butternut squash
-4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
-2 to 3 large cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
-1/4 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or more to taste
-1 tablespoon rosemary leaves (optional)
-7 to 9 cups water, maybe a little more
-1½ teaspoons salt, or more to taste
-12 ounces spaghetti or small tubular pasta
-Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino
 

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Discard the seeds. Peel the bottom of the squash, then cut it into more or less 1-inch cubes.

Cook the garlic, hot pepper and optional rosemary in olive oil in a deep pot. Do not let the garlic color. Add the squash cubes and continue to cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the surface of the squash seems to be getting cooked.

Add the 7 cups of water. Bring to a boil and boil the squash for about 15 minutes, until quite soft. Mash with a potato masher. Then bring the squash to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the pasta and, stirring fairly regularly, cook until the pasta is well-cooked.

Salad Nicoise

In a hot minute, we went from baskets full of CSA tomatoes to just two. The very last of the season screamed for use in a recipe that feels like summer... Salad Nicoise. Dressed with Jacques Pepin's simple vinaigrette, of course.

Beans and Greens with Homegrown Borlotti

At long last, we have a garden. It's not like the old Worth Street city garden. Those raised beds, though well-meaning, were crammed in our tiny backyard and shaded by tall trees. Thus, they never had the potential to produce more than a handful of herbs. Our new set up is a large plot with full sun and that appears to have been used by the previous homeowner and the homeowner before that.

Alas, we didn't have time to take advantage of the land this year. The house itself comes first Nonetheless, K resolutely decided to throw in some tomato, chicory, and borlotti bean seeds. All three, with zero maintenance, turned out great.

The beautiful borlotti, which K dried on the vine, made their way into this classic beans and greens soup with homemade chicken brother and parmigiano-reggiano. 

Adventures in Canning

K got me a canning pot, jars, and all the necessary accoutrements for my birthday. It's probably the best present that I ever received. Nothing exudes eating local more than the act of canning your own organically-grown produce for the winter. In this case, of course, we used an absolute dearth of CSA tomatoes and tomatillos and canned crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, and tomato sauce, plus a roasted tomatillo salsa. The full day production was laborious and time consuming, but well worth it. In addition to the satisfaction of eating local, the process also makes anyone with half a historical consciousness feel closer to the past. This is how our grandparents and great grandparents ate. Seems appropriate that we would do the same.