Posts Tagged ‘tomato’

Be careful what you wish for or you just might get it.

Right before I made this dish I was musing on how out of all the recipes I’ve tried specifically for this site, only one has been labeled a complete and total failure (oh feta dill pie, you were terrible and let’s not speak of you again).  This recipe doesn’t quite make it to ‘failure’ status, but it certainly won’t be receiving the ‘favorite’ tag either.  Since my sister and I have The Shining, we made this within 3 days of each other and both did our spins on it, with mediocre results.  She used capers instead of olives, I used pecorino romano instead of feta and a different pasta shape, yet both results were lackluster.

The idea behind this dish is great.  Like pasta puttanesca, you make a room temperature tomato  sauce (using the best heirloom tomatoes in this case) with some olives, toss hot pasta with it, add some cheese, and dig in.  Since I’ve been battling a horrible head cold and didn’t feel like spending my energy standing in the kitchen for hours, the idea really appealed to me.

The flavor isn’t bad per se, it’s just very subtle and nothing extraordinary.  Something I did notice however while snacking on the cold leftovers late last night was that the flavor intensified and the entire dish was more enjoyable cold, after sitting for a day.  Honestly, if I were to make this again, I would make it, chill it, and serve it the next day as a cold pasta salad.  But hot for an entree?  Probably not again anytime soon.

Whenever I’m visiting home, my family of course looks forward to seeing and spending time with me, but they also blatantly say how they missed not only me, but my cooking. Not one to disappoint, I try to make something a little special while I’m home, but I never want it to be too fussy or time consuming.  Thankfully, steamed mussels are fast, easy and pretty cheap when you serve it in a spicy tomato broth and some thin spaghetti on the side.

I adore this recipe because it’s all things I usually have sitting in my kitchen (or this case, my mom’s) or the garden, it has great flavor and can feed an army in very little time.  I always end up making more mussels than the recipe calls for because the bags sold at my grocer are usually 2 1/2 lbs, but I always end up with a ton of sauce anyway and it always works out.  And be sure to put some of the broth on the pasta, it’s the perfect touch.

I was able to start my weekend with a fun little victory today.  Upon arriving home and going out to the backyard to water my garden, I found a surprise.  My first ripe tomato had arrived!  Like a proud mother picking up her kindergartener after their first day, I lovingly took it from the stem and lavished it with photography before slicing it up for a scrumptious BLT.  Juicy, firm and sweet, it makes me drool for the future where I’ll have them available on a regular basis.  If only the sun could hurry up and make it happen faster somehow.