Monday, February 9, 2009

Mediterranean Inspired Pasta for a Winter Escape

I did mention yesterday that I would be making pasta every day this week to inspire all of you to share your pasta recipes with me for the big...make that GIANT Presto Pasta Night Celebration this coming Friday. 100 weekly roundups is an accomplishment, and I couldn't have done it without all you pasta loving fans out there. Don't forget to send me your recipes for the big night...even if you don't have a blog! Just send me an email with the full recipe and I'll post them for you email: ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com.

I didn't expect to actually eat pasta TWICE in one day, but last night I made this very tasty dish inspired by the back cover of the latest issue of Fine Cooking .

Naturally I changed things up a bit...I left out the proscuitto because I made this as a side dish for some salmon that I purchased before the brilliant plan to cook pasta every day this week. I didn't like that recipe as much as I thought I would, so...no sharing here. I think it would have worked better if I just roasted it with tons of herbs & spritzed with some lemon juice.

Although I was in a grocery store, I forgot to buy some grape tomatoes...oh well. That actually inspired me to make this more Mediterranean (at least to me) using preserved lemons, more of those tasty sun dried olives I seem to be addicted to, sun dried tomatoes in olive oil - I like them better than dry dried. Is that a real term, or did I just make it up? You know what I mean.

In my normal world, I would see this as a summer dish. Of course then I would be whining that it's too hot to boil a huge pot of water or heat my oven, so perhaps it really is perfect on a cold wintery day to at least bring the thought of summer to the table, or the fantasy that I'm heading off to the Mediterranean where it's warmer than here.

(long enough title for you? but each ingredient is a star)
Don't forget to come to the big 100th Presto Pasta Night Party with your tasty pastas. Send your entries to me to join the fun. Email: ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com

4 comments:

Joanne said...

Mediterranean flavors are great at any time of the year or day...summer, winter, fall, breakfast, lunch, dinner. I'm excited to see the four more dishes that this week has in store for us!

Anonymous said...

I have never joined this round-up, but it sounds delicious and what a celebration! I will see if I can come up with some pasta here :)

pam said...

This looks like my kind of pasta dish. I need to learn how to make preserved lemons!

Ruth Daniels said...

Joanne, good thing I did 2 yesterday, because, in the end, I'm not making any tonight.

Alisa, hope to see your dish for the roundup.

Pam...making preserved lemons is dead simple..less than 20 minutes and letting them rest for at least five days http://recipesfrom4everykitchen.blogspot.com/2008/05/moroccan-style-preserved-lemons.html They keep for up to a year in the fridge, but they won't last that long, I promise.