Every single year for as long as I have known Sally, she has planted zucchini. She is typically a very sensible person, but somehow she is unable to remember in May exactly how many zucchini will appear in July.
This pasta is her retaliation. It's cooked in one pot, with mostly raw ingredients, and is perfect on a hot summer night or served at room temperature for a "pasta salad" that even the Italians would approve of.
The brightness and color of this pasta with the meatiness of the scallop cannot be beat. You might want to add fresh greens or arugula to toss in the pasta to add texture and dimension. This can be made with tinned scallops or even sautéed ones that have been thawed from your freezer “pantry”!
When it comes to finding sustainable scallops, farmed scallops are basically sustainable, landing in the “Yellow-Green” range overall. Antibiotics and feeds are not used in scallop farming, there’s no affluence, and chemical use and ecosystem impacts are minimal. As with all tinned seafood, know your source and look into where the scallops come from and how impacted they are. I like using Ramon Pena‘s Small Scallops in Sauce!
The sauce will hold for one week in the fridge and indefinitely in the freezer.
This is an indulgently rich balm to soothe body and soul in the bitter cold. The pear and walnut are by no means essential, in fact a plate of tagliatelle drenched in just the creamy, peppery cheese sauce is pure joy. However, the chunks of fruit add a delicate sweetness that cuts through the intense richness of the sauce and it’s little extra effort to throw them in.
Italy’s colonization of southern Somalia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had a lasting impact on Somali cuisine. Pasta is just as popular as Canjeero (Sourdough Pancakes) Suugo is the most popular of Somali pasta sauces and resembles an easy weeknight meat sauce but the added flavor of Xawaash Spice Mix makes it distinctly Somali (and distinctly tasty). You can substitute ground turkey or ground chicken in place of the beef if you’d like. Serve with cooked pasta (any shape will work, whether it be a strand like spaghetti or a shorter cut like penne). If you’re gluten-free, try serving it over Ma Maria’s Xima (Smooth Cornmeal Porridge) or roasted sweet potatoes instead of pasta.
A handy, helpful, and always-delicious roast chicken is a weeknight meal time-saver. I make two at a time on a weekend, so I have one for midweek recipes. And if you don’t cook on the weekend, those grocery store rotisserie chickens are perfect for making a quick dinner.
Makes 6 servings
The smaller fennel bulbs at our farmers markets tend to have a more pronounced licorice flavor that pairs nicely with the tang of good tomatoes.
We've all had those post-farmers'-market moments when, while unloading your goodies, you remember that you actually bought three pounds of zucchini in an optimistic moment and now what the heck are you going to do with it? Well, this is what.
Steam the cauliflower florets and core over boiling water for about 3 minutes. Taste a piece. It should be on the verge of tenderness and not quite fully cooked. Set it aside.