What We’re Eating
May 27th, 2008 by Laura
Lest you think that we’re so busy local eating has gone by the wayside, let me assure you that things are still pretty dang local around here. The garden isn’t feeding us, but hopefully we’ll have lettuce and radishes soon. In the meantime I’ve been hitting the farmer’s markets and the local grocers that reliably have local foods.
This past weekend we had a clean out the freezer rib feed one night. A rack of pork ribs, some beef ribs and a passel of short ribs were expertly smoked on the grill by Ron. Add some tasty roasted local asparagus and we had the beginnings of a wonderful dinner.
Tonight I fell in love with a new recipe from my secret lover Nigel. I love cream sauce pastas, but not so much the easy yet boring Alfredo. Tonight was about cooking from what was in the fridge and it just so happened that we had local bacon, leeks, butter, cream and pasta. The result was scrumptious and now I will share it with you.
I’m quoting it exactly so that you can understand why I love him so much!
A quick, soothing weekday cheese and pasta supper
Nigel Slater, Appetite
No matter which recipes I hold dear, the most downright useful are those weekday pasta recipes whose sauces cook in less time than the pasta takes to boil. Is this book invaluable or what?
Per Person:
butter - a thick slice
bacon - lean, center-cut, 3 slices per person
leeks - 2 medium ones per person
pasta - an overflowing handful for each person, or more if you think you can eat it
cream - 1/2 cup should be enough for each person
parmesan - just enough to decorate your bowl (my addition)
Melt enough butter in a saucepan or high-sided frying pan to cover the bottom - this will be about 4 tablespoons for a medium pan - then cut the bacon into short, thick strips (or pieces the size of a postage stamp, if you prefer) and let them cook in the butter for a few minutes. They should color a little. Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and then pieces no thicker than your little finger. Add them to the bacon and leave to cook until they are soft and squashy, stirring them from time to time.
Put a large pot of water on to boil, salt it, and add the pasta. Let the pasta boil until it is tender, yet with a bit of a bite to it. When the pasta is almost ready, pour the cream into the leeks and bacon and let it boil bubble gently. Drain the pasta lightly (a little of the cooking water will help the sauce to coat the pasta) then tip it into the leeks and cream. Serve in warm bowls with freshly shaved parmesan.
That pasta sounds wonderful! I can’t wait to try it (though the notion of frying bacon in butter kind of blows my mind.) I really like the directions - more a method than a recipe. That’s exactly how I cook.
It all sounds amazing.. and I’ll be making that pasta as soon as our leeks are ready. Maybe I’ll have some local bacon by then, too.
This looks like a good way to use up the giant leeks in my winter veggie bed. Thanks - I’ll make the recipe this weekend!
Anne - I know! But the butter mattered I think - without it I’m not sure that it would really have made a cream sauce. Plus the butter with the bacon grease made the leeks soft and flavorful. But very very rich - I made way too much for the two of us - making the recipe for 2 was enough for 3.
Denise / Renee - I can’t wait until my leeks are big enough to make this again!
Ah, Nigel. We have his Kitchen Diaries, and love it. It’s more like a book than a cookbook! The newest addition to our small collection of cookbooks, however, is Seasonal Food by Susannah Blake. Now that we’re trying our darndest to get into this “local, seasonal” food thing, we’ve been stuck for new things to try. Her book is arranged exactly as I want a seasonal cookbook to be arranged - by season, with each season being a compilation of recipes arranged by an ingredient that should be in season. So the spring section has asparagus and purple-sprouting broccoli and spring greens, the summer section has tomatoes and all that other good stuff, etc. The winter section even has a recipe or two for celeriac, which is a relief! And the recipes aren’t all necessarily for mains - there’s a recipe for spanikopita, another for tzatziki, another for a lemon tart… Yum!