Adventures on Route 6

The other day my friend Kevin and I set out to brave the maelstroms and visit our friends at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. Things were pretty wet at the Shire and the winds picked up enough to close the Faire early- but happily not before we saw our friends The Brigands play some great pirate tunes ( check them out at www.thebrigands.com) and also sample the mini doughnuts made fresh to order and rolled in cinnamon sugar- so worth the indulgence!

Well with the Faire closed we found ourselves in need of some sustenance and adventure- afterall it was a precious day off. GPS to the rescue- the little magic box found us a microbrew pub just down the road from Hebron in Willamantic.

The Willamantic Brewing Co. is located in a beautiful old post office and has both bar and restaurant seating and an extremely cordial wait staff. We sat in the restaurant and oohed and ahhed about all the Harvest Beers and finally decided to get a beer sampler of 5 and a tomato mozzeralla salad with house bread. The house bread is amazing! The spent brewing grains are used to make the bread and the flavor is rich and nutty and oh so good with a little butter.

And now for the beers: we tried a sampler of Gold, 3 cent Pale Ale, Husky IPA, Dead Letter Stout, and Harvest Ale. The Gold is very mellow like a sunny Fall day. This is a light beer good for, well, when you want a really light beer. The 3cent Pale Ale had a wonderful jasmine tea note to it which I loved. The Husky IPA was like blending the Gold with the 3 cent - but richer. Very good and one of Kevin's favorites. The Harvest Brew was disappointing at first but it grew on us later- we expected a richer harvesty flavor but instead this was a bit thin with an interesting caramel finish. I love Guiness so I had to try the Dead Letter Stout! Rich deep -roasted malt and chicory flavors, strong but not heavy or creamy the way Guinness is, and good to the last drop!

The Willamantic Brewing Co. brews everything seasonally so their beer menu varies often. There was an enticing Red in the works for the end of October and we may have to go back just to check that one out! www.willibrew.com

Route 6 is host to several antique shops from the mom and pop country store style to the high end this is definitely a great route to go adventuring on- who knows what you will find?!!

Harvest Moon

Hello again from your wayward diner! Life got busy for a few weeks there and then the computer had an attack of the vapors. Happily, everything seems to be back to normal. I have lots yummy eating adventures to catch you up on. Stay tuned for Nara and Siena, but today lets talk pasta and sauce!

Sunday was the Harvest Moon and since we were not beset with ravaging thunderstorms as promised, I spent four hours in the gardening weeding, staking tomatoes, and the best part, harvesting. A colleague gave me a variety of canteloupe to plant this year. I was excited to try a new plant in the garden and man was this an opportunist!- The vines went everywhere and it yielded two melons. ( there was a 3rd but it became insect lunch) I just cut into the melon for lunch- it is sweet, juicy, succulent- a smaller variety than what you find at the store, but the flavor is richer and I will definitely be planting these again next year!

I planted a second crop of tomatoes later in the season and they did not get destroyed by the rains. Happily, these tomatoes think its still summer and while their flavors are not as rich as if they had seen lots of summer sun, they are still good and I am grateful to have them.
Rachel Ray 's October issue has a whole section dedicated to pasta, its forms and what sauce to make for the shape of your pasta. It's a great article courtesy of Giuliano Hazan (His mom is Marcella Hazan of Italian cookbook fame) and he just came out with a new book : Giuliano's Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes. I haven't had a chance to check out his book yet but you know it's going on the list!

So I was dreaming up a sauce that needed a kick, because these tomatoes did not get the full benefit of the sun ,but wouldn't break the bank either. I ended up at Venda's in Federal Hill getting minced garlic, salted capers, and a can of black olives and a package of fresh roasted red pepper rigatoni. Normally I try to cook with fresh ingredients, but when you are short on time and work with your hands, minced garlic and canned pitted olives can be a cook's best friends.

I should mention that I don't like to follow rules- give me too many and I dig in my heels- this has been both the boon and the bane of my existence but it does keep life interesting. Rigatoni, according to Giuliani, should go with meat sauce not tomato sauce but I thought I would try them anyway. The recipe for tomato sauce only recommends parsley for herbs and this seemed, well, a little un- pasta -sauce- like. I mean you think red sauce you think at least a bit of basil and oregano right? Well I thought I'd search my cookbook collection for a bit of inspiration and I came across the mention of nutmeg in - ohh intriguing!

I ran my tomatoes through the juicer, this separates the seeds but juices the skin so that you get more nutrients, the remaining pulp and seeds then get run through a strainer to get any extra juices. I followed the basic sauce recipe but did not add salt since I was trying salted capers- Holy Saltmines Batman! Great flavor and bigger caperberry but salted capers are extremely salty and less is definitely more in this case. My sauce ws bubbling along with its garlic, parsley, olives and capers but needed a bit of something so I added some fresh basil, a dash of oregano, and a dash of nutmeg and then let it all reduce a bit.

Giuliano was right about the rigatoni - they work better with a meat sauce , but Venda's didn't have roasted red pepper farfalle (bowties) when I was there . To thicken the sauce a bit I added some parmesan to my steaming bowl of pasta and mmm...sooo good!