Posts tagged pasta

Nothing says, “I love you, but I’m unbelievably poor,” like homemade pasta and tomato sauce. The ingredients are easy to find and extremely inexpensive, but this dish is impressive and definitely requires some love. This is a great dish to make for the holidays as most of the preparation can be done a few days in advance, and it is extremely easy to double (or triple?) the batches. 

The pasta is vegetarian, and the sauce recipe has vegetarian and vegan adaptations. 

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I spent a good three hours at the Farmer’s Market this Wednesday. It’s a relatively small market, but the crowds were so intense that I had to wait in line almost everywhere. I was happy to wait—which is not common, my friends. My patience in this instance should speak very highly of the quality of the products this market has to offer.

These shiitakes were gorgeous and plentiful, and remarkably cheap. They were way less expensive than at the grocery store. Although I don’t know if that speaks more toward the bargain prices of this vender, or the astronomical increase in prices at Jewel. I digress. Regardless of price, these were my favorite find of the day. 

My runners-up were:

• Apple cider from Brightonwoods Orchard
  I’m always excited about apple cider, because it means that my favorite season is just around the corner! Still, this was the best apple cider I’ve ever had. Ever.
• Habanero cheese, also from Brightonwoods
  Yes. This cheese is hot. It was dancing perilously on the boundary between pure deliciousness and inedible spiciness. I am in love.
• Raspberry bellavitano (cheese) from The Cheese People 
  This cheese was described as, “A marriage between parmesan and white cheddar drowned in a raspberry ale.” [Insert inappropriate guttural moan here.] 

When I returned to my kitchen, I had no trouble tasting (gorging?) on the cheeses and downing apple cider. But it took two full days to formulate a plan for these mushrooms. The results? A mess. A hot, delicious, fattening mess. And I’m going back for seconds.

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Yesterday was one of those days where I made it into the shower, but never changed out of pajamas. I had just returned from a short vacation at our cabin, and had lots of business pre-recoreded television shows to attend to. As I was catching up on my Real Housewives, I became a tad snackish. Carrots were not going to cut it. Instead, I made my super simple perciatelli alla carbonara. Pasta, bacon, and cheese…there was nothing missing from that guilty pleasure day.

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