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!