Rigatoni Melanzane

Just Enough For Lunch

I made Rigatoni Melanzane out of Evan Kleiman's Angeli Caffe cookbook the other night. The recipes are from her restaurant in Los Angeles. I love eggplant, especially now that we are getting into late summer and the eggplants are at their best. The recipe in the book calls for pork ribs. I'm kinda off pork right now, having just been to the fair and all, I just can't get those darling pigs out of my head. That may change. Or not. I'm really not much of a fan of pork..other than for bacon in the morning, bacon when we are craving BLT'S using our tomatoes from the garden, canadian bacon on my pizza, ham for Easter dinner.... Oh, no, this isn't going well...
Anyway...here is the recipe for the eggplant pasta. And it was just as good without pork. At least for today. It was our lunch for Saturday. Leftover, from the other night. And still good.

Rigatoni Melanzane
Meat-Enriched Tomato Sauce, Eggplant,Fresh Mozzarella

Adapted From Evan Kleiman

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1/4 slab pork ribs (approximately 3/4 pounds)
8 ripe tomatoes or one 28 ounce can San Marzano or Organic Muir Glen
One 10 ounce can tomato sauce (if using canned tomatoes)
10 fresh basil leaves, torn
Sea salt and fresh pepper
Olive oil for frying
1 large eggplant, ends trimmed,peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
1 pound imported rigatoni
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, drained and cut into small dice
Grated parmesan cheese for the table

Heat the oil and the garlic in a heavy saucepan. Cook garlic until it is a deep golden brown, then remove the garlic and discard. Add the pork ribs to the pan and brown them well on all sides. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Puree the tomatoes and their juice in a food processor. Pour tomato puree into a pot with the ribs. Add tomato sauce if using canned tomatoes, and the basil. Bring to a simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook till sauce thickens about 30 to 40 minutes.Remove the ribs and let anyone who helped cook enjoy them as a special treat.

While the sauce is cooking, pour oil to a depth of 2 inches in a large skillet.Add half the eggplant and cook till golden brown.Lift eggplant out and drain on paper towels. Cook the rest of the eggplant in the same manner.

Cook the pasta in an abundant of boilg salted water till al dente. Carefully drain the past and place in a serving bowl. Add the tomato sauce, cooked eggplant, and mozzarella and toss to mix. Serve immediately with Parmesan cheese at the table.

Ying and Yang

To be perfectly honest here..we actually have two things going on. We go back and forth between "the fancy and the farmy". I guess I kinda have a split personality.
Some days I am all about Alice Waters, Julia Child and Thomas Keller. And other days I am Gooseberry Patch, 365 Ways To Cook Chicken, and you know those little paperback cookbooks at the check out stand. I LOVE those. Especially the ones from Pillsbury.
They are always seasonal and farmy... "What To Bring To A Potluck", "Tailgating", "What To Do With Ground Beef", "Autumn Baking","Halloween For Ghouls And Ghosts"...... you know what I mean.

And last night was no exception. We had grilled fillets (fancy) with double stuffed potatoes (farmy) and really farmy when the serving dish is lined in foil. Deep down, I am not a fan of foil lined dishes, but I was tired and didn't want to have to soak and scrub the dish, and nobody was here but me and John. And one more thing, yea, it's real life around here. Yep, that's Dande on the drainboard. Hope you don't mind.

I'm Floating

OMG...Just got back from seeing the "Julie and Julia" movie....and I am walking on a cloud....and I wasn't first in line..I was about 40th...and it was an 11:30 in the morning matinee..... But I LOVED it...WONDERFUL....all the stuff we all like..
cooking and pots and pans and recipes and food ...food....food.......

Paris in the 40's.... Oh, LOVE it !!!!

Now, Where is my "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking?"

And, Yes, that's scotch tape...

It's Time

O.K. Everybody..the day has finally come..the opening of Julia and Julie...I am going to be first in line at the 11:30 matinee at the Downtown Center......

I'm out the door......

more later
Kary

Time To Say Good-Bye

The Fair here on the Central Coast of California is over. And I went. I know, I made my case earlier in the month for the reasons I had about not going. But, there was family pressure. So against my better judgement,I got in the car and we headed north to Paso Robles. My husband, John likes to go on what is called "jazz night". I don't like jazz. But I wasn't worried 'cause I knew I was going to take a different path.
Lucky for me John's brother kept him company on this night. The evenings entertainment was provided by Dave Coz. I actually kinda like him. I even have his Christmas C.D. But tonight I had nothing to do with him. I wanted peach jam. Sorry Dave. I'd rather go look at pigs and goats. So sorry.
So while everyone else was getting their "jazz thing on", I headed for the barn.
And I struck gold right off the bat. The pig barn. SCORE. I spent the next 2 hours, just me and my camera taking in all the old fashion farm fun. Barnyard animals of every nature, chickens, goats, cows, rabbits, hogs....all of it.
I made my way past the corndogs and slush puppies and eventually found what I had been looking for. HOME ARTS. It was there that I really hit my stride. Corn, apples, pumpkins,scarecrows, pies, breads, jams, pickles, home sewn housecoats and quilts.
And you know what? I had a good time. Yea, I did.
And I hope Dave had a good night too.

After All