Pasta Primavera

"Pasta with spring vegetables and cream" is, when you get down to it, basically pasta alfredo with vegetables simmered into the sauce. Those vegetables make a huge difference, though!

This recipe comes from the Classic Pasta Cookbook, slightly modified; I don't pre-boil the asparagus and have adjusted the vegetable quantities somewhat to reduce the number of fractional vegetables it generates. It will happily take a great deal of variation, though; if you don't have some of the veggies you can just turn up the dial on the others or swap in something else you like, if you want it more saucy you can increase all the vegetables (or just your favourite) and add more cream and butter. For a recent batch we dropped the zucchini (not having any) and used 5mL celery seeds in place of the celery, but cranked up the asparagus and onion dramatically.

Fettucini is traditional for this, but I find I actually prefer it with more "lumpy" pasta like penne or radiatori; it makes it easier to get some pasta and some veggies in each bite.

In a pinch you can make this with mixed frozen vegetables, but it's not nearly as good. Nor does it reheat well; it's best if you can eat it all the day it's cooked.

Ingredients (for 450g dried store-bought pasta)

• 60mL butter
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 celery spear, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, finely diced
• ½ a zucchini, finely diced (about 192mL?)
• 125g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1cm lengths
• 250mL heavy cream
• 125mL freshly grated parmesan

Procedure

1. Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onions and sautee until translucent and golden.
3. Add the celery and carrot and sautee for another ~5 minutes.
4. Add the bell pepper and zucchini and continue to sautee until tender, 10-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the asparagus and sautee for another minute or two so that it just starts to soften.
6. Add the cream. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the cream has reduced by half, then remove from the heat until the pasta is ready.
7. When the pasta is cooked al dente, toss it with the sauce and the cheese.

Cheesy Bagel with Horseradish & Pickled Onions

If we have bagels, my go-to brunch most weekends is something like: get a bagel, slice it in half, toast it, spread something on it (laoganma, cream cheese, roasted garlic paste, pesto...), top it with cheese, maybe sprinkle something else on top of that, back into the toaster oven to melt the cheese, then top with black pepper. It's easy to put together, filling, and tasty.

This morning, I did that, and Alex ate half of it, declared it delicious, and said that she wanted me to make one of these again next time we have bagels. Which is pretty exciting, since she's been on a Flavour Is The Enemy kick for a while. So I'm recording the specific recipe for posterity.

Ingredients

• Bagel
• Strong horseradish puree
• Pickled red onion slices
• Cheddar cheese, planed or cut into thin slices
• 1 pepperette (or 2 mini-pepperettes), cut into thin discs

Procedure

1. Slice the bagel and toast it until it's just starting to turn brown around the edges.
2. Spread with horseradish
3. Top with pickled onion
4. Cover with cheddar
5. Sprinkle with pepperette discs
6. Return to the toaster oven to melt the cheese and toast the pepperettes
7. Generously grind black pepper onto it and eat

Sausage & Kale Penne

Originally from foodnetwork.ca, the recipe as written calls for turkey sausage and orechiette. We didn't have either, but did have penne and beef sausage (my favourite sausage). The recipe has been adjusted accordingly; in particular, beef sausage, while leaner than pork, is not as lean as turkey and doesn't need the extra ⅓ cup of olive oil. We also don't pre-boil the kale; cooking it with the sausage is sufficient.

Ingredients (for 450g dried pasta)

• 250mL panko
• 15mL olive oil
• 450g beef sausage, casings removed
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• 500mL black kale, stemmed and coarsely chopped
• 125mL freshly grated parmesan
• red pepper flakes to taste

Procedure

1. In a pan, over medium-low heat, warm the olive oil.
2. Add the breadcrumbs and stir to coat.
3. Add salt to taste and cook, stirring occasionally, until breadcrumbs are toasted and golden brown, ~10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
4. Cook pasta al dente.
5. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook sausage and garlic over medium heat, breaking up sausage as you do, ~7 minutes.
6. Add kale and mix in with the sausage until warmed through and starting to soften, 2-3 minutes.
7. Toss pasta with kale-sausage mix and cheese.
8. Serve topped with breadcrumbs (and more cheese if desired).