nancree said:I think I'll try that, Nathalie.I always put fresh tomato chunks on top
of my Pasta Primavera, rather than stir them into the hot mixture.
Cheers, Nancree
The Kid’s Tomato Stuff
The Kid and I did a cooking demonstration at a farmers’ market. She
walked around, picked up some stuff and made a wonderful dish out of it.
Cucumbers almost too large for her hands to go around. Huge red tomatoes
heavy with their ripe juices. Tiny yellow plum tomatoes. A few Roma
tomatoes. A new variety to me called Rose tomatoes. Elephant garlic and
two other kinds or real garlic, Music and Italian red. Peppers so big
and perfect that look like they should be in a museum. A big bag of
basil with full, delightful perfume. She cut the veggies into pieces and
popped them into a big bowl. She tore up some of the basil leaves and
the perfume was maddening. The luxurious, heavy richness of the scent of
basil blending with the pungent garlic, peppers.
I splashed in some of my own home-infused (Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and
Thyme) vinegar, my home-infused olive oil (with lemon and garlic), salt
and a few cranks on my pepper mill. We also brought a chunk of wonderful
old, hard Asiago cheese and an antique cranked cheese grater. I cooked
some rigatoni pasta to combine with whatever we came up with. About two
pounds.
After she chopped, diced, minced and stirred, I heated the pasta and
dumped it onto a tray for the folks to help themselves. Pasta, a little
tomato stuff (and make sure you get some of the juice), a sprinkling of
cheese. Not bad. We made several more batches because they disappeared
so fast. The amounts given here have probably never actually been used
since the dish comes out differently every time, but this is close
enough to reality. Make it to please yourself.
TOMATO STUFF
Add, subtract or substitute ingredients to your heart's content.
Macaroni (ziti, rotelle, rotini, wheels, rigatoni, cavatappi) works
better than spaghetti in this one simply because you can spear the
chunks of pasta with your fork as you pick up the chunky vegetables.
They should be cut into pieces a half inch or bigger. If you use
smallish macaroni, it can all be eaten with a soup spoon and I guarantee
you'll like it even better that way. You get more of the juices in each
mouthful, and that can only be good.
Serves 4 to 6
2 or 3 large (or 10 plum) tomatoes, diced
1 large cucumber, peeled and diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
4 tablespoons each, minced, oregano, basil, tarragon (or more or less)
2 cloves fresh garlic, mashed and very finely minced
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup herbal vinegar
1/2 cup tomato juice (optional)
pinch of sugar (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound macaroni, cooked and hot
Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese
Cut up vegetables, add herbs, oil and vinegar and stir. Let sit at room
temperature for a while - couple hours is good - for flavors to mingle.
Stir occasionally and taste. Add whatever you think it needs - more salt
or pepper, vinegar or oil or whatever. Cook pasta, drain. Toss with
butter to lightly coat. Spoon pasta onto plates, top with vegetables and
serve immediately with a dusting of grated Parmesan cheese.
The vegetables can be served as soon as they're cut, but they taste
better if they have a chance to sit for a while. Throw everything into a
bowl and stir it gently now and again to let the flavors mix. You can
add cooked or raw peas, spring onions, hot peppers, water chestnuts,
grapes, nuts, raisins, hearts of palm, cooked carrot circles or raw
shreds, artichoke hearts, raw zucchini, bleu cheese crumbles... anything
you want. (After dinner, if there's any left, combine the pasta and the
vegetables and refrigerate. Leftovers are tomorrow's very tasty macaroni
salad. Tastes great the second day. Add some flaked fish or ham shreds.
Shrimp. Leftover lobster (very likely, huh?).)
After the demonstration was done and the last of the folks had departed,
She asked if we had any left. I said that all we had were empty bowls
with a bit of juice and very little veggie stuff in the bottom. “May I
dip slices of bread and let the juice soak in?” She ate the soggy,
wonderful bread and left the bowls clean.
Pastorio
