Tag Archives: green beans

Reliving the Glory of Summer – Pasta al Pesto Genovese in the Fall

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Post-Thanksgiving Pasta – Sounds like a bad idea, right? I am a few weeks late with this post, but I hope you will still find it entertaining.

Pretty Purple Taters and Green Beans Ready to go

Pasta al Pesto was great excuse to reminisce about the summer’s bounty.  And required no additional shopping – a bonus after hitting the grocery store multiple times while prepping for Thanksgiving. I pulled a glass jar of pesto out of the freezer Saturday morning to defrost, excited for my resourceful quasi-pantry meal. We had purple potatoes leftover from the last CSA pick-ups (remember, potatoes do last), and the green beans, while neither local or seasonal at the moment, were leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner. We cleaned and sliced them up, and boiled the potatoes first, then the green beans, using the same water.

Boiled potatoes and green beans, awaiting their turn

Set aside the veggies, then cook the pasta in the same water. While the pasta cooked, I thinned out my frozen pesto with some additional olive oil, and added 1/2 cup of grated parmiggiano to the pesto. If you prepare pesto for the freezer, don’t add the cheese until you are ready to use it.

Add the spaghetti, steaming, straight from the pot

Add the pasta to a large bowl with the green beans, potatoes, pesto and a splash of pasta water. Toss well.

Fabulous Fall Meal: Spaghetti al Pesto Genovese

Tutti a tavola! Spaghetti al Pesto Genovese on a chilly November night. I loved dipping into my pantry to pull out previously prepared treats.

Tell me what you’ve used from  your pantry lately.

Late Summer Crunchy Veggie Salad

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I had called this a vegetable and brown rice salad in an earlier post, and realized that it makes it sounds awfully boring. Very health food store-y, and not in a good way. So I’ve re-branded my headline in the hopes that it will encourage more folks to give this awesome, flavorful, deeply-textured, nutrient-dense dish a try. This was a perfect lunch dish, and one that you can prepare in advance, good for 1-2 days.

Late Summer Veggie Salad: Layered colors and textures

Here is an updated version of the recipe:

Summer Veggie Rice Salad
adapted from Bon Appetit June 2012

1 small shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
2 cups cooked brown rice, cooled
2 cups bite-size pieces assorted vegetables  (I used radishes, steamed cauliflower, bell pepper, green beans)
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
3/4 cup torn mixed leafy greens, sprouts, and herbs (Optional – I didn’t have any on hand, so skipped it)
1/3 cup chopped red onion or scallions

Preparation

  1. Make the dressing: mix shallot, parsley and lemon juice together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in oil and use whisk to mix dressing.
  2. Place remaining ingredients in a large bowl; drizzle with 3 Tbsp. dressing and toss to coat. Pass remaining dressing alongside for drizzling over.

 

And for those interested, origins of Ingredients:

– Cauliflower, bell peppers, jalapenos, onions, garlic: WSF

– Sauteed Green beans: Citarella Market (I cheated on this one, these were already prepared when I bought them)

– Breakfast radishes: our garden

Late Summer Veggie Salad