Trofie Wife! Trofie Pasta with Fresh Basil Cream and Green Beans

One of my favorite flavors is basil pesto on a noodle. It is so overbearingly delicious. I mean pesto dominates everything it touches but also leaves room from shouts of flavor from beneath it's green delicious blanket. My friend Todd once made a homemade pesto that was to die for. But being from Wisconsin he also added some cream to the sauce which I took as brilliant.

I recently returned from a trip to the Midwest for a wedding and I was reminded once again of the Midwest's love for cheese. Wisconsin, especially, is a place where they take dairy to the extreme. They basically add dairy to everything except Sushi. Although, it has been done before, believe me. Wisconsin broadly described is a cheese and dairy lovers paradise. I mean even the burgers there are called "butter burgers" for heaven's sake! While I was working in Wisconsin at the Fireside Theatre in Fort Atikison, Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of seeing a lot of dishes during our potluck sundays which involved the locals bringing in the dairy goodness. My post about my White Enchiladas comes from that time. http://www.cookforrestcook.blogspot.com/2011/12/winter.html and if those aren't cheesy goodness i don't know what is!

So I thought about making a pasta dish that would be a little more sophisticated than just pesto and cream. I thought about a basil infused cream and I thought about my love of monochromatic dishes. So to stay along the green lines and stay with summer's bounty I thought why not add some fresh green beans to the dish and to add more flavor some smoked cheese as an accent. I suppose in the fall and winter you could add asparagus tips instead of the beans, but summer seemed a good time for the grean beans. Also I have learned that cooking fresh basil can be tricky. You have to get the green to set up in hot water by blanching it quickly and if you over cook it it will turn brown. The same principle applies if you saute it, so I knew I would have to work on keeping it green.

This recipe is so simple yet comes out so elegantly. If you want to impress people, even Italians, with your pasta proneness, this is a good recipe to start with. I also love the the fresh green color and the vibrant monochromatic simplicity of the dish. So try it and keep a little of summer's green with you into the fall. Enjoy ya'll.

Trofie Pasta with Basil Cream and Green Beans
makes 4 to 6 portions

Ingredients:

1 pound dried trofie pasta
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 pounds of fresh skinny green beans
1 1/2 cups packed basil leaves
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup grated smoked Mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt and some white pepper to taste

Method:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. reduce to simmer and add green beans. Let cook till al dente about 7 mins.
Remove from the hot water and plunge into ice cold water to stop the cooking
When cool cut the beans into thirds.
Bring water back to a boil add pasta and cook for 7 to 9 mins or till pasta is done.
Meanwhile saute 1 cup of the basil till soft in the butter ( about 2 mins.) add the cream and the remaining basil and cook two more mins. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree till smooth.Add salt if desired.
Place the sauce in a large bowl
Add the beans and the hot pasta and toss till coated.
Add the cheese and toss serve it with chives and parsley leaves.

Sweet Corn Pesto Pasta (Italy and the American South collide!)

One of the great joys of growing up in the South and in a Southern family was that no matter where we might have been geographically,  my father made sure that several activities were a part of us where ever we would go. These included Church going, gardening, and an evening meal together. Because of that we also had several food items nearly always present with us. For instance tomatoes were grown in the house gardens, which we always built when we moved in. Those along with squash and zucchini and a few other random veggies. Summer time always meant tomato and onion sandwiches with mayo and black pepper, corn on the cob, and weeding! I can also remember visiting my uncle's garden where corn came right out of the field and onto the table. It was so tasty.  As a family we enjoyed our corn in a lot of ways during the year in our family from fresh to the creamed stuff in a can. But  to this day sweet summer corn was one of those things that really reminds me of family eating  that only came around in the summer time.

The other part of this pasta story ( which has nothing to do with corn)  is that I am wary of making pasta dishes in general. Yes wary!  Partly because I live in New York City, where one can access amazing or at least really good pasta very easily. And partly that one of my best friends in the entire world Angelo Musco is from Italy. And if you know an Italian, you know how picky they are about their pasta. You see several years ago I met Angelo through a dancer friend of mine here in New York. Well we hit it off quite well and he was voted the new best friend of 2002. And here we are 10 years later and he is still a major influence in my life and one of the most driven, intensely talented people I have ever met. That and one of the most willing to share his view of life and world, especially of food! And when I score with a dish, I get raves from him! You can see his work at his web page if you are interested at,  AngeloMusco.com. It is stark and rich, physical and spiritual, dark and vibrant  full of contrast and ultimately very fully human, which is what speaks to me.

Well Angelo has cooked and exposed my palette to a variety of amazing pasta dishes in the last 10 years. There was mushroom pastas, lemon pasta, spicy red sauces and white sauces, oil sauces even bacon sauces. There were noodles thin and noodles fat and wide. Let's just say it's been an education. But regardless of the sauce or pasta type, they were all super yummy! Which brings me to my issue. If I make pasta for this particular friend it either has to be really good or it has to be something he would never cook! So when I did the bow tie pasta with sundried tomato and black pepper cream sauce entry which you can see at http://cookforrestcook.blogspot.com/2012/02/bow-tie-pasta-with-bacon-sundried.html  I knew I had a winner cause Angelo would never cook this. And it got rave reviews!

So after hearing about a corn based sauce for pasta I was really intrigued. I mean something as Southern as corn in a sauce for pasta could potentially be an awesome thing. So I did a little research and found that this idea for a corn pesto was already out there. Not a lot of recipes but enough to make me think, well maybe I should try this. In fact one of the reasons I tried it was that people compared it to carbonara but a lighter summer version. So I did try it and let me tell you the results were nothing short of delicious. The corn cooks into an amazing sauce which you would swear has cream in it but it is really just the sweet fresh corn pureed down into a silken starchy sauce. So without further adieu I give you Sweet Corn Pasta Pesto. Enjoy ya'll.

   Corn Pesto and Bacon Pasta


  what you need:

• 4 slices thick bacon, cut into lardons
• 4 cups fresh corn kernels from about 6 ears
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3/4 pound taglietelle, fettucini, or other pasta ( I think bow tie would work well too)
• 3/4 cup slivered basil leaves

            Method:

• 1.   In a large skillet, cook the bacon pieces over medium-low heat until chewy and beginning to crisp and the fat has rendered into the pan, about 10 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

        Add the corn and garlic to the skillet and toss to coat in the fat. Add a couple pinches of salt and pepper and cook until the corn is just tender, about 5 minutes. Reserve 3/4 cup of corn, then scrape the rest into a food processor. Add the pine nuts and Parmesan and pulse to combine. Add the olive oil with the machine running and blend until almost smooth. Add some of the cooking water right before the pasta finishes cooking and pulse to smooth it.

        In the meantime, bring a pot of salty water to boil and cook the pasta until al dente. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the pasta cooking water before draining.
  2.    In a large skillet, combine the cooked pasta, corn pesto, reserved corn, most of the basil, and 3/4 of the bacon. Over low heat, toss to combine, adding some of the reserved pasta cooking water until the sauce comes together and coats all the noodles. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3.    Divide the pasta among bowls and top with remaining basil, bacon, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and pepper if desired. Serve immediately. It's really good!

Bow Tie Pasta with Bacon, Sundried Tomatoes and Blue Cheese in a Cracked Pepper Cream Sauce

Pasta is not something you would typically think of when you think Southern food. It belongs to the realm of Italian Restaurants along with antipasta and broccoli rabe. But this pasta dish is inspired by my first visit to the "new southern" restaurant Magnolia's in Charleston SC. It was in 1987 that  I was in college and my parents had moved back to Charleston from the Washington DC. area. Leaving my brother and me to drive down during the first break in the school year at Thanksgiving. It was exciting returning to Charleston. I had grown up away from the city and was now returning with adult eyes to see the city I only remembered from being a boy.

So much had changed about Charleston. And much had stayed the same. ( It is Charleston South Carolina after all. One of my favorite stories about flying to Charleston involves a flight attendant, who made the announcement as we landed " Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Charleston SC. Please set your clocks back 200 years!" You get the idea! )
Well it was a few years before that Hugo, a storm that in it's wake brought as much change to the city, with it's influx of repair money and northern workers, as the Civil War had, occurred. But even then Charleston was changing. New businesses and international investment and corporate development had brought new customers to downtown's businesses. And many locals were reclaiming old buildings and bringing to life new businesses and living environments.

The Charleston restaurant scene was also undergoing a transformation. Gone were the days of Henry's and Perdita's and The Long Room ( Where George Washington had dined) . And in were fancy new places like Carolina's. These were restaurants celebrating the "new southern" cuisine which was first making it's appearance at that time. Southern Chefs bringing new life to old dishes and traditional low country foods. Chefs across the south were rediscovering local and sustainable foods like never before.  Magnolia's was the first of several restaurants brought to life by a partnership guided by Tom Purcell. A car dealer, who got out of cars and into food.

It was on that visit during college that my father took us all out to dinner at Carolina's where I first encountered the food of the "new south". Then later after college I moved back to Charleston  and in 1990 I went to Magnolia's right after they opened, for the first time. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Gourmet Shrimp and Grits and outrageous house made potato chips with melty Clemson Blue Cheese.  Along with this very southern menu was this pasta dish. Of course it caught my eye seeing that it had bacon and blue cheese in it. It was also billed as a "small plate" so I ordered it as my appetizer. It arrived at the table warm and creamy garnished only with parsley and some blue cheese crumbles. It proved to be delicious! It was like a blue cheese carbonara. The sweetness of the sun dried tomatoes offset the sharp richness of the cream sauce. In short it was awesome. I immediately recreated the dish at home for a gathering

 and was really pleased with the results. I served it for years when I lived in Charleston. But over time and with all the new things I learned since moving to NYC, I forgot about this dish. I was reminded only recently by a notation I saw about Magnolia's in my notes.

I recently visited the web page for Magnolia's and found that as I suspected the menu had changed over time and no longer included this dish. Even so I wanted to recreate it and add it back into my repertoire. So I made it last night. I think it may be the best pasta I have ever made. As you know I don't claim to be the best pasta maker in the world. But this is really good. I hope you try it out! It may not be exactly the Magnolia's recipe but I think it's close, so enjoy Ya'll.


Bow Tie Pasta with bacon, Sundried Tomatoes and Blue Cheese in a Cracked Pepper Cream Sauce
( ala Magnolia's Restaurant Charleston, South Carolina. )

Ingredients:

10 oz of bow tie pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup finely minced onion
1 teaspoon mince garlic
1/2 cup bacon ( I believe Magnolia's used Applewood Smoked Bacon, I used Trader Joe's Brand                Applewood bacon)
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
3 ounces or Blue Cheese ( I used Maytag, which is close to Clemson Blue Cheese)
1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
4 to 5 tablespoons chopped parsley


Method:

Boil the pasta in heavily salted water for 80% of the cooking time on the package
( pasta will finish cooking in the sauce, package said 10 mins I boiled mine for 8 mins)
Drain into the sink and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, then place into the fridge to cool for 20 mins. ( when you bring it out rinse again with tap water to release the noodles from each other as they will likely have clumped)

In a large sauce pan add oil and cook the onions till soft but not brown. then add the bacon and cook, add sundried tomatoes and the 2 ounces of the blue cheese the cream and the black pepper as well as 3 tablespoons of the parsley.
Allow sauce to cook and reduce slightly until it has thickened up.
Add noodles and toss with the sauce until it's coated and heated.
Place into 4 bowls for a main course or 6 for a starter.
Garnish with blue cheese crumbles and sprinkle with parsley.

Baked Gnocchi With Cheesy Rosemary Cream and Carmelized Onions

Baked Pastas are a big American favorite. We love them. We make them with all sorts of ingredients, cheeses and sauces. We put all sorts of noodles in them from Macaroni to Penne to Flat Egg Noodles. But whatever we put into them they remain a favorite in the American culinary landscape. Maybe partially because they are so easy. Boil some pasta, throw in some yummy fixings, bake and viola! Instant mealtime.

So for the second dish on my menu for the Christmas dinner I am going to make for my Mother's friends, I am including a baked pasta course. One of the reasons is I know that one of the couples coming is Italian and from New Jersey. So in homage to them I want to do something I think will please that Jersey Palate. However, I am also feeding people from Chicago. So I want to do something that has a little Midwestern Dairy flair. Mix pasta and some cheese and you have got a party in your mouth I always say.

The inspiration for this dish actually comes from my workplace. At work the chef prepares a fig raviolletti, with a goat cheese sauce, and crunchy walnuts. He also does a gnocchi dish with carmelized onions, sort of a play on Pierogies.  I love both these dishes (of course)  and wanted to use them as the springboard for a baked pasta recipe. So I decided for my baked pasta I would use all those elements and add in another rich flavor rosemary. I hope you can pick up what I am about to lay down for ya sister, cause rich tasty and delish are on the way!!!

For this recipe you will need

One package of store bought Gnocchi 1 lb. ( you can make your own but I think the store bought are fine, and lets face it who wants to spend all that time making pasta)
Prepare as per the directions on the package and hold in reserve

Next: 2 med white onions very thinly sliced in circles, saute in butter over med heat until brown and carmelized. Reserve as well

Next: 2 cups Heavy cream in a sauce pot, place in it 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer slowly for about 8 mins. till cream has reduced by 1/4, remove rosemary. Add in 1 whole log (8oz) crumbled of goat  cheese and 1/3/ cup shredded fontina cheese and slowly melt till combined.

Next: Take 8 oz of dried figs and cut them cross wise into little discs.

Next: 6 oz of crushed walnuts or walnut pieces. Place in a small pan and saute over med heat till the oils begin to toast them. Make sure you toss them frequently as not to let them burn.

To Assemble:

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

Take 6 to 8 baking dishes depending on the size and grease them with butter
In a large bowl add Gnocchi, cream sauce, figs, nuts, and 1/2 of the onions. Stir VERY gently to combine. You don't want to crush the gnocchi.

Spoon into the baking dishes and garnish the top with the rest of the carmelized onions.

Take 1 package of Boursin Cheese and break into crumbles, top each dish with the boursin crumbles making sure that each has a nice amount. Next top each dish with some toasted bread crumbs.

Place the baking dishes on a baking tray and place in the hot oven for 20 to 30 mins until everything is bubbly and the tops are starting to brown.

Remove from the oven let rest for 5 mins, then serve while still hot hot hot!!