15 minute pasta

This dish was the fastest and the easiest to make of all the dishes that I've made so far. I've added some sun dried tomatoes that I got at the farmer's market last week. I soaked them in hot water for 5 minutes just to plump them up a little and then added them to the sauce. The pasta was very tasty, however it was missing something. Nelson said that bacon or pancetta would be a great addition to this dish and also it would make it a little hardier. I didn't have any tarragon so I used oregano that I have growing in my garden.


Pasta with goat cheese lemon and asparragus
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Serves 6

1 pound of multigrain rotini or pene pasta
1 pound of lender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 1-1 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon of grated lemon peel
1 teaspoons of chopped fresh oregano
1 5 to 5 1/2-oz log of fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes

Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water, until almonst tender, stirring occationally , about 7 minutes. Add asparagus and cook until pasta is tender but still firm to the bite, about 3 minutes longer.
Meanwhile combine oil, lemon peel, chopped oregano, and chopped sun dried tomatoes in a large bowl. Coarsely crumble in goat cheese. Drain pasta and asparagus, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Add hot pasta, asparagus and 1/4 cup of reserved cooking liquid to bowl with cheese mixture. Toss to coat, adding more reserved liquid if dry. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper.

A taste of Tuscany

Every once in a while I like to take a cooking class at Whole Foods. The culinary center in San Mateo has many classes that change every two months. Last Wednesday I took a class called Small dishes of coastal Tuscany. I chose this class because the menu looked simple, different and delicious and let's face it, you can never have enough italian recipes. After chef Lesa explained all the recipes we all picked a recipe and we got cooking. I didn't bring my camera with me that day but Cecilia from Gourmet Senses took very nice pictures and you can also find all the recipes in her blog. If you go to her blog, you can see me in a blue sweater adding salt to the pasta.

Here is the menu:
Focaccia al Formaggio - Cheese Focaccia filled with artesian cheeses
Scampi con Salsa al Prezzemolo- Prawns with Garlic Parsley Sauce ( we also added some littleneck clams)
Trofie con Salsa di Fungi-Spiral Pasta with Wild Mushroom sauce
Zuppa di Cozze- Mussle Chowder ( Don't think creamy, thick east coast chowder) It's a very light tomato base soup.
Crema con Banane al Rum- Vanilla Cream with bananas in Rum.

All the dishes were great except for dessert. Don't get me wrong the dish was good but I'm not a great fan of cooked bananas (except in banana bread). I guess you could substitute the bananas for peaches, apples or mangoes.