Penne with Creamy Tomato-Chipotle Cheese Sauce on a Lazy Sunday

It is Sunday.

It is cloudy outside.

I am going to Nashville tomorrow. For 23 hours. Total. That is the whole trip.

How did I decide to spend this day?

There were many things I should have done. I should have cleaned the bathroom, paid bills, raked leaves, and done a million other things tormenting me from my to do lists (note the use of the plural). I did do some of these things.

Then, I needed a break. You ask, "how did you decide to take this break?" I made pasta and watched a made for TV movie (starring James Van Der Beek, no joke) with Max on the couch. Don't judge me about the movie.

This pasta recipe is perfect for happy comfort times. It is fast and simple. This is one of the pasta sauce recipes that taught me that pasta and sauce belong together. It is smokey, hardy, and creamy. So satisfying.

I used to think pasta sauce came out of a jar. You open a jar, heat up the sauce, boil the pasta, then you serve pasta and sauce at the table. It turns out that pasta tastes better when it is finished in the sauce, then it absorbs some of the sauce and flavor. Sauce does not need to come in jars all finished. It comes from ingredients, ingredients that do not necessarily need all day to cook. Not necessarily complex.

This is it. Pasta + ingredients = pasta in sauce.

Penne with Creamy Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

modified a little from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 medium garlic cloves, minced

2 small chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, minced (these exist in almost every grocery store)

1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce (from the jar)

2 14.5 ounce cans of diced tomatoes

salt

1 pound penne, rigatoni, or any tubular pasta

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves

5 ounces feta cheese or a fresh goat cheese

1. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. I have always heard that the water should be as salty as Mediterranean... I am not sure I ever remember specifically tasting the Mediterranean, but I think the water should be salty because it seasons the pasta and then you need less salt later.

Garlic and chipotle chiles are really all it takes to flavor this pasta.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. The garlic should be golden and delicious smelling. Then add the chipotles and adobo sauce. Cook this until fragrant (about 1 minute)

3. Add the tomatoes and a three fingered pinch of salt to the chiles and garlic. Now we have a sauce! Bring this to a simmer and allow it to cook for 15 minutes.

These are home canned tomatoes. Derek and I spent hours making these this summer. When I opened up the can, it smelled like summer again. Was it worth the time? Questionable.

4. When there is about 10 minutes left for the sauce, add the pasta to the boiling water. Cook it for about 2 to 3 minutes less than the package says. You want it to be too undercooked to eat when you drain it. Trust me. Before you drain the pasta reserve about 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta.

5. Crumble the cheese into the sauce and combine. Add the pasta to the sauce and stir it up. At this point, I usually add about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of pasta water to the pasta and sauce. This helps get the sauce evenly distributed and the starches in the pasta water help thicken up the sauce. Stir the pasta constantly into the sauce until the pasta absorbs the sauce and the pasta is cooked to your taste. Stir in the minced cilantro.

Pasta water is miraculous.

6. Eat! Preferably with Van Der Beek and a kitten.

P.S. - His forehead is really huge. What a man.

Fresh Garlic and Tomato Toast

Hello! Did you miss me? I have been busy.

Because just saying I have been busy is not enough, I will outline all of the things I have done in the past few weeks (not necessarily in order):

1.) One of the many bug bites on my person from Florida became infected, it got huge and painful, I broke out in hives and had to visit the doctor three(!) times to finally figure out what was wrong. More importantly, I had to go the pharmacy three times to find the correct drug to ease the itching and allow me to sleep through the night. Do not worry I have no pictures of my spotted hiving self.

2.) We went to Florida to watch Derek's baby brother get married.

This is Derek at the rehearsal, not his baby brother...

3.) I had to go shopping to obtain proper wardrobe for said Florida wedding (for me the shopping was a major, awful event).

4.) I went to South Carolina for an incredibly awesome wonderful ground-penetrating radar project where we mapped a beautiful early 19th century kiln. I was able to see the chimney, kiln floor and an auxiliary building by the kiln that had been previously unknown. I had so much fun nerding out with the other archaeologists there and learning about the pottery manufacturing industry in the pre-industrial southeast. Now I am fascinated and reading two books on the area and I want to go back.

While we were away gadding about the country (or the doctors office waiting room) our garden was growing and ripening. We are officially in the season of vegetables and fruit. The season of eating tomatoes at every meal so they do not rot on our counter top. It is a time of planning meals around our garden and CSA (community supported agriculture) box. Trust me I am not complaining. I love tomatoes. I truly miss the July produce the moment the season ends.

We harvested our garden this weekend.

It turns out the garlic can go from this...

To this.

Then you have delicious garlic. In fact, we have more delicious garlic than we could possibly eat. It keeps though.

I made this with some of the garlic.

Pretty! My Italian grandmother would be proud... oh wait, I am not even remotely Italian, I only know how to french braid because of my unruly curly hair. It was the only way to get it under my skiing helmet.

After harvesting garlic, we picked some tomatoes. Then we realized the tomatoes were over ripe and had to be consumed immediately.

I rose to the occasion and invented this dish. I call it "snack for when your tomatoes need to be eaten and you have too much garlic." That seemed like too much so I hope you like my new title. This is pretty ridiculously simple, maybe not warranting a recipe. This is kind of how we are eating these warm summer days.

Fresh Garlic and Tomato Toast

Several slices of fresh artisan bread (we make a whole wheat Italian style loaf)

olive oil

2-4 cloves of fresh garlic (or just any old garlic)

1 small ball (about 4 ounces) fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced

1 ripe tomato, sliced

sea salt

1. Toast the sliced bread in a toaster or under the broiler until it is crispy on the outside but not hard.

2. While the bread is toasting finely chop the garlic. Then mix the garlic with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

3. Brush the bread with the olive oil and garlic mixture. Place a slice of mozzarella on each slice of bread.

4. Sprinkle the slices of tomato with sea salt and place a tomato on each bread slice.

Summer!

I have not done any interesting work lately, so I want to talk about summer food.

To me, summer is tomatoes. Summer does not bring tomatoes, it IS tomatoes. I generally do not have the heart to do anything with beautiful heirloom tomatoes other than eat them in wonderful salads.

When I was twenty I studied abroad in Athens (Greece) and fell in love with Greek salads. In Greece, these are called horiatiki (χωριάτικη σαλάτα) or village salad. There are basically 6 ingredients in a traditional Greek salad. Lettuce is not ever incorporated. In Greece, if you want lettuce in your salad you must order a lettuce salad.

As I believe that more Americans need to try a real Greek salad, I am going to give you directions here. Please note, feta and olives on a lettuce salad from your pizza place does not make it Greek.

Village Salad (χωριάτικη σαλάτα)

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (only use really tasty ones)

Cucumber (preferably, European seedless)

Red Onions

Green Peppers (optional)

Kalamata Olives

Feta (preferably sheep's milk packed in brine)

Red Wine Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (get the really good tasting stuff)

Oregano (dried or fresh)

Pepper

1. Slice the tomatoes into wedges (bite sized pieces).

2. Slice the cucumbers into thin disks. They should not need to be peeled.

3. Cut the red onion in half and thinly slice the onion (you only need about 1/2 a cup of this, or to taste).

4. Cut up the green pepper into bite sized pieces.

5. Combine the tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, green pepper, and olives in a large salad bowl. Cover the salad with feta. It can be crumbled on top or you can just put a slice of feta on top of the vegetables (this is how they do it in Greece).

6. Sprinkle the top with oregano and a dash of vinegar. Liberally coat the salad with olive oil.

7. It is now ready to be eaten immediately. Tossing is not necessary, just use salad tongs to serve out the vegetables and break apart servings of feta.

This salad is missing the onions, green pepper and olives, but sometimes you need to work with what you have...