Everything's coming up pasta: lemon & oregano penne

This weekend, the early crop of summer veg made an appearance at the farmer's market: hooray! So I just wanted to eat a massive plate of vegetables for dinner. Easy enough.

I was totally going for a pseudo-Greek tone with all the lemon zest and oregano here. If only I'd had some ouzo to deglaze with! On the other hand, I haven't ever really had enough ouzo to know whether that would backfire. Hmm.

Penne with green beans, summer squash, oregano, and lemon

olive oil
shallot/garlic/etc
hot pepper if you want it
green beans
summer squash
dried oregano (or maybe fresh--I just never have any)
salt, pepper
dry vermouth/other deglazing device
spinach/other greens
a lemon (juice & zest)
pasta of choice

First, put a pot of water on high heat. Boil your pasta at an appropriate time in the cooking process. If you don't have penne, you can use mostaccioli, rigatoni, gemelli, or rotini: chunky pastas that more or less echo the shape of the beans.

Warm some olive oil over medium-high heat in a sauté pan. Add your preferred amount of minced shallot or garlic (I like plenty, shockingly enough), and some chopped hot pepper if spicy pasta appeals to you. While things are softening, wash a couple big handfuls of green beans, top and tail them, and cut them into bite-size pieces.

Add the beans to the softened aromatics. Season with oregano, salt, and pepper; toss; cook.

Chop your summer squash into appropriate pieces. I had a medium-sized yellow crookneck squash, so I cut it into quarter-moon slices. If you happen to have any tiny adorable baby squash, by all means just cut little round slices. Throw the pieces into the pan with the beans; toss; cook some more.

While you're waiting, wash, destem, and chop a big armful of spinach. If you want to use sturdier greens, that's fine too. Set your chopped greens aside for a minute.

After a few minutes, the squash pieces will sweat out their moisture and begin to develop a bit of golden crust. At this point, you may want to deglaze the pan. Just pour in a little dry vermouth (or whatever dry white wine you may be drinking, or even a little water or oil) and quickly stir, scraping up any dark brown sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. If you're using sturdy greens, add them to the pan and let them cook in the tasty business for a few minutes as well. It's all good.

By now, your vegetables should be cooked through and your pasta should be done. Toss your tender greens in top of the cooked veg; add drained pasta. Turn off the heat and let everything sit while you wash the pasta pot. When you come back, the greens will be nicely wilted. Yay!

Zest half a lemon into the pasta; squeeze out the juice over the pan. (Use your hand to catch the seeds.) Grind on some additional black pepper, toss, and serve.

Delicious garnishes to add:
- fresh basil or parsley
- grated parmesan/other grating cheese
- crumbled feta or goat cheese, for additional pseudo-Greek flavor
- toasted pine nuts or slivered almonds
- more lemon zest! All the lemon! Hooray!

Voila: lemon oregano awesome beginning of summer pasta!

Yes, I know it's not really summer yet anywhere else--but it's coming on fast here in CA, and you can always file this back in your brain for a month or two, right?

Snacktime at our house

Carrots sautéed with ginger & olive oil (peanut would be even better), served with sesame seeds toasted in a separate pan. If you're lucky you can also have the very last glass of champagne.

Tortellini: my new best friend

Hungry? Tired? Have I got a deal for you!

Simply cook 1 package fresh tortellini in salted boiling water for six to eight minutes! In the meantime, sauté onions, garlic, or shallots in olive oil. Add chopped bell peppers, jalapeños, and tomatoes, and sprinkle on a touch of basil, oregano, salt, and pepper! Deglaze with dry vermouth! When tortellini are tender, drain and add to the sauce! Throw in a boatload of chopped fresh spinach and stir to wilt!

Voila! Dinner is served!!

Tempeh tempeh tempeh!

Sadly, we have no reliable source of tempeh downtown, i.e. within walkable distance of our apartment. This means that since we moved back to CA, we haven't been eating it, um, almost at all. So the other day, when I missed the bus that stops right in front of Whole Foods, I thought, "Hey! I should use some of this boring ten minutes of waiting to go inside and find lots of tempeh!" So that's how I ended up bringing two slabs of tempeh home for us to devour.

After reading about Pupcake's clearly excellent green salad with salmon, I had a serious desire for our classic tempeh preparation, the Ol' Reliable. This consists of a similar big pile of greens with seared marinated tempeh on top. It's always delicious and satisfying, yet never makes you feel glurgy.

Ol' reliable: seared tempeh salad

tempeh
olive oil
rice wine vinegar
hot sauce
soy sauce
fresh rosemary
garlic cloves
a lemon
vegetable broth
salt, pepper
salad greens of your choice
any other salad veg that sounds good

Over the past few years, it's become common knowledge that steaming tempeh before marinating helps it absorb more of the delicious flavor. So we're going to start by steaming the tempeh.

Bring a pot of water (that fits your steamer of choice) to a boil. While it's heating, cut your tempeh into bite-size pieces. Steam the tempeh over the water for about ten minutes.

While the tempeh is steaming, make your marinade. I made mine in a loaf pan, but you can use any bowl, or even a plastic bag if you prefer. Note: make absolutely sure any plastic bag you use has no holes whatsoever; otherwise, you will shortly have to clean up a huge mess. In fact, forget I said anything about bags. Just use a bowl.

Marinade proportions can vary quite a bit according to your preference. Since we wanted spicy tempeh, I used a substantial 3 or 4 tbps of hot sauce, plus 1-2 tbsp each of soy sauce and olive oil, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, four or five cloves of crushed garlic, the juice of a lemon, and the bruised leaves from a 5-inch sprig of fresh rosemary. Then I added about two cups of vegetable broth to make up the liquid content. Keep in mind that I don't ever measure, and am thus estimating from memory. In short: use the amounts that you want. Whisk the marinade together with a fork (another excellent reason not to use a plastic bag; can you imagine?), and you're ready.

Take your steamed tempeh off the heat and discard the steaming water. Put the tempeh pieces into the marinade pan, making sure each piece is as subsumed in liquid as possible. If you don't have enough marinade, add more vegetable broth. Ideally, you want the marinade to just barely crest over the top of the tempeh pieces; this avoids waste while still making sure the tempeh absorbs plenty of flavor.

Now set everything aside for at least a half hour. A full hour is even better. Yes. I know you're hungry, but it's worth it.

Things to do while you wait for the tempeh to soak up all the delicious flavors:
- Wash, dry, and chop up all the greens you want in your salads.
- Chop up any other vegetables you may want. I wanted cherry tomatoes.
- Arrange salad greens and vegetables nicely on plates.
- Turn your tempeh pieces once or twice, to make sure all sides absorb equal deliciousness.
- Laze about.

Ok! When you're ready to sear, heat up a nonstick or cast-iron saute pan. Ideally, this should be large enough to fit all your tempeh pieces in one layer. If you're feeding a ton of people, you may need to sear the tempeh in batches. It's all good.

Lay your tempeh pieces in the pan; they should sizzle. Cook without moving until browned on the bottoms; then flip and brown a new side. You can add spoonfuls of marinade occasionally, but try to keep the pan fairly dry; this ensures a nice brown crispy crust on each piece.

Speaking of the marinade, ladle about half a cup of it into a measuring cup or small bowl. Add a few glugs of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and an additional squirt of lemon. Whisk briskly until emulsified. This is now your salad dressing. See, because no raw meat has contaminated your marinade, you can just eat it! SHAZAM! (You can also use a different vinaigrette, of course, but what fun is that?)

Flip your tempeh a few more times, being careful not to break the pieces. When all sides are sufficiently browned, turn off the heat. Drizzle dressing over your greens; divide tempeh evenly among plates; top with the dregs of the dressing.

Now you can eat it. Hooray! Don't you feel better? I know I do. Clearly, eating salad will continue to build up my immune system. Salad FTW!

Food for further sickness

You know what's nice to have in your freezer when a cold settles into the back of your sinus cavity? Chicken broth. Vegetable broth is also acceptable. I would eat bean broth as well. You want broth.

Heat up broth; season with soy sauce, sriracha, and rice vinegar; simmer freezer stash of dumplings in broth; serve with chopped green onion, cilantro if you like it, and a tear-inducing amount of sambal oelek.

That was pretty good.

I also ate lots of fruit. Cara cara oranges, tangerines, clementines, and these:

Yay, early season strawberries and champagne mango. If I'd gone to the farmer's market this weekend (I slept through it; horrors!), I would totally have supplemented this mix with kiwi, for indulgence trifecta.