Sunday, November 11, 2007

Fall Inspirations- Pasta, Beets & Brussels Sprouts



I admit it...I'm fickle...and I'm one of those people who, one month into one season, are wishing for the next. By early August, I'm bored of salads and tired of little dresses and sandals. I want the "warm cuddly sweaters and soup" weather of Fall. By the time the trees have lost most of their leaves, I'm ready for another change of clothes...those cool new winter boots, for instance and wondering what kind of local food I'll be finding here in the Maritimes.

A perfect segue....I was at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, wondering what would be available...

...check out those glorious beets...red, purple, orange...fantastic.

Plus Chemcookit over at An Italian in the US is hosting a very fun food event...Fresh Produce of the Month, which this month stars another Fall favorite of mine Brussels Sprouts

Then I headed over to Pete's Frootique to buy more of the cutest (and most timely) pasta - Castellano Foglie D'Autunno (Autumn Leaves). I've bought them before and still had visions of these cute leaves of pasta which, like a Fall day here, are multi colored...red ones made with beets, green ones from spinach, yellow ones from turmeric, orange from carrots...you get the picture. While there I found some fat and juicy Merguez sausages to round out my dish.

A slight aside....when I was living in Montreal...and I still miss the food more than you can imagine...a favorite place to shop was Le Faubourg on St Catherine Street. At the back was a sausage purveyor, the likes of which I've yet to see anywhere else. Pick a country, pick a meat, pick a spice...and you'd find it. Montreal has a large North African community and one of their favorite sausages is merguez, a spicy reddish (and very skinny) lamb sausage. Here's a recipe, in case you want to make your own.

Once I brought all these wonderful things home I had to figure out what to do with my bounty and I came up with this perfectly heavenly dish that also works for Presto Pasta Night.



I do love it when things magically come together and when the whole is truly greater than the sum of the parts!

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5 comments:

Katie Zeller said...

I'm much the same - always about a month ahead of the weather, especially here where the season seem to go on forever!
Love the pasta...so colorful! And I love Brussels sprouts!

christianne said...

That looks good! I've never used merguez before - will have to see if my market has it.

I also really like beets - in fact have a recipe for beet ravioli with brown butter sauce that is fantastic. I've yet to participate in your weekly pasta round-up, but may have to submit it now that I know you like beets!

Ruth Daniels said...

Katiez...great minds think alike
;-)

Christianne, I am looking forward to adding your beet pasta to Presto Pasta Nights.

chemcookit said...

Ruth, this looks so good! I never put baked veggies on pasta before. It sounds like a great idea! And, that 'foglie d'autunno' pasta! So appealing! I'd really like to find it. Thanks a lot for taking part to the event :)

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