Kitchen Sink Pasta

Thank god for leftovers.

This is one of the house favorites, Kitchen Sink Pasta. We also make Kitchen Sink Soup, Kitchen Sink Salad, etc.

Leftover pasta with Stuff

To make this particular dish I dry-fried some onions cauliflower and carrots. When they were slightly burned I added the asparagus, diced smoked pork and a bit of olive oil and orange zest. I let it cook for a few minutes then turned the heat off and threw in the leftover campanelle and some toasted almonds.


On top is some shaved fennel and dried apricots.I squeezed the juice of half the orange over the whole thing.


You can make this kind of dish in just a few minutes. I try to include different textures and colors and cooling foods like the fennel and rich savory tastes like the almonds. This dish improves if you let it sit a while.

You can easily make it vegetarian by leaving out the pork. You could add shredded tofu or smoked tofu. You could substitute fish for the pork or bbq chicken or whatever you have. If it's dull add some flavors and colors and crunch or juice or something!

Ravioli in the Garage

Teaching, practicing, playing Brahms and going to the dog park doesn't leave a lot of time to make lunch. I ate in the garage today taking bites in between doing other stuff.

Apples and walnuts with walnut oil, ravioli with home smoked pork and peas

I had a box of locally made ravioli so I poached them and in another pan I sauteed some onions and tomatoes in olive oil, threw in some peas, rosemary from the garden and some thin slices of home cured and smoked pork. The salad is just apple and walnuts with a little walnut oil and lemon juice and black pepper. Dash of salt on the salad but the ravioli didn't need it.

My wife loved it. I scarfed it. Cost per serving: about four bucks, mostly for the ravioli.  Time to make it: about 20 minutes.

A Thrown Together Lunch - 30 Minute Spaghetti and Meatballs

Charlie on his first day with us.

It's going to be one of those crazy busy weeks. I taught this morning until 1, played with Charlie, our lab, smoked a batch of bacon, and drove my daughter to ballet and back then went to rehearsal. I hadn't really planned on what to have for lunch and my time was limited.
.
I had some ground chuck so I decided to make spaghetti and meat balls. I sauteed up some onions with some onions and peppers. I threw in some ground cumin and some celery seeds and a cup of cheap red wine.

Pretty darn tasty for something thrown together.

I toasted a couple of slices of sourdough and whirled them in the food processor. I mixed those crumbs with the chuck, more cumin, salt and pepper and some juice from the can of tomatoes I was using for the sauce.

I chopped a handful of parsley. I added the chopped stems to the sauce and the leaves to the meat balls.

There were three things cooking at once (pasta, sauce, meatballs) but they all take about the same amount of time.


Total cost for today's lunch: About 3 bucks.

Slabs of pork sides. It's like really meaty and smokey bacon

I also had the smoker going today and here is the result. I used to call this bacon but it's side pork which is like bacon but there is a lot more meat than bacon. Bacon comes from the bottom of the belly of the pig, side pork is from the side.

I lightly cure it then smoke it pretty heavily so the texture is not too dry and the smoke flavor is strong.

We like to use it as a garnish for soups and salads and sauteed vegetables. I made some onions and Brussel sprouts with bits of the smoked pork and even my kids liked it!

Now if you don't care about things like your aorta, you can cut the rind off the pork and cook it in a heavy bottomed frying pan with a light weight (like another pan) on it. You'll render out a lot of the fat and get crisp smoked pork rinds. So bad for you but sooooo tasty.

You thought pasta salad was boring, didn't you?

I got to eat this!

Today's blog (smack) is about (nom nom nom) pasta (gorge) salad. On days when I have a rehearsal or concert in the evening I frequently skip dinner so I like to have a good lunch. I've got a rehearsal at Stanford Chamber Choir this evening in Memorial Church. This is a 12" serving bowl and there are about three cups of pasta salad. Those are four large, juicy shrimp.

I started making this salad when my kids were small and I wanted a way to get green things in their tummies. This worked!

The shrimp were coated with olive oil and curry powder then grilled in a hot cast iron skillet. I deglazed the pan with orange juice (from the tree) and kept that aside. Hmm, got one shrimp left. Must..type..

The pasta is acini di pepe (pickle seeds!) shaped like little pencil erasers. I added olive oil and red wine vinegar, a bunch of cilantro, most of an English cucumber cut into dice, the zests of two oranges and a lemon and the juice from all three, celery seeds, ground cumin, black pepper and salt.  I have garnished it with the shrimp, some peeled cherry tomatoes and Kalamata olives. I poured the deglazing liquid over the shrimp.

Total cost for my meal today including the shrimp is about $3.25. And I have about a gallon of pasta salad left over.  No more shrimpies though. Sigh.

Since pasta is bland and the basic recipe is just pasta, oil and vinegar you can do just about anything with this. Maybe next time I'll make it with cider vinegar and chopped green apples.  Maybe ham and pineapple.

Can't..type..must eat..pasta salad..