Sunday, July 09, 2006

Strong Flavors

At this moment, I amwondering about the fate of this project. I don't want to throw in the towel, but I have to be honest that with this hot weather and general non-inclination to cook anything, I have fallen behind. So right now, I'm not making any decision either way. I will continue cooking and see what happens... For the moment, I'm still here.

Well, with such strong feelings must come a dish with strong flavors. I found it in CL's Pasta chapter.

97. Sapori Forti - *Pasta*

Sapori Forti, in Italian, Tom says, means 'strong flavors'. The strong flavors are incorporated into the sauce for the pasta. My version was a bit toned down, omitting the anchovies and capers.

The sauce is cooked while the water for the pasta is boiling. Basically, all you do is soften some onions and garlic in oil. It is alright to cook them on a high flame so that the onion catches and caramelizes a bit.

If you were to add anchovies, you would do so at this point, when the onions are soft. As you all know, I do not like anchovies at all, so instead just added the rest of the ingredients, minus the capers: pinenuts, chopped mint, chopped olives (I only had green but Tom recommends black!), and plump raisins that have soaked in a bit of warm water. You take this mixture off the heat and add a bit of olive oil to loosen it up. That's it!


The sauce is then just folded into the cooked and drained pasta - the recipe calls for linguine or spiralli, which Tom explains look like chopped up telephone cords. We have rotini here, so I used the tri-color ones we had laying around.

Since the ingredients of the sauce are salty, Tom says not to salt the pasta any further. But, since I only had olives as the salty ingredient, I found that my pasta needed a tad more salt. The pasta was really lovely though - I love the combo of caramelized onions with just about anything. I also love olives and raisins, so this combination was quite welcome! Mmm.

For dessert, I put my new Kitchenaid ice cream attachment to use (birthday present, you see!), and made Strawberry Sorbet from Apples for Jam (another bday gift - I was spoiled!).


A fantastic lunch! I have a bit of pasta leftover so am looking forward to my lunch tomorrow!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sorbet looks gorgeous!!!!!! Great that you got the attachment :).
DON'T throw in the towel, I plead! You're doing great! Just extend your deadline by a month, Metooka! No prob!

Anonymous said...

How was the sorbet? There are late strawberries in the market and I am sort of eyeing that recipe, too. Although I did not like the strawberry ice-cream from HTBADG - it was a bit too icy and crunchy.

Re: lack of desire to cook, I completely understand you... when it is hot (and probably humid), the last thing you want to do is to stand over a hot stove or preheat an oven in an already hot kitchen. And it would be a bit sad to cook with the storecupboard ingredients when there is the fresh produce of the summer around... Together with Lisa I plead you to extend your deadline, you are doing a great job.

irenethrun said...

Please keep going, who cares about deadlines? Deadlines, schmedlines.

Lady M said...

If things look grim come the end of September I will indeed extend my deadline. Thanks for your support.
RH, the sorbet was fanastic! Here it's considered more of a sherbert because there is milk in it. It's not an ice cream, so is more strawberry than cream, actually there is no cream at all.
Mine came out quite soft. I think it was due to the ice crystals being broken up by the attachment. I have never made ice cream previous to this, so I guess that is the desired effect?
Anyway it was lovely and refreshing. Perfect considering how hot the apartment was midday.

:)))