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Thursday 21 January 2010

A gift of Cheese and a Pasta called Primavera



I'm trying to clear up my backlog of outstanding posts or drafts that I have done where I've uploaded pictures but not the text or worse still not even the recipe! This post goes way back to October 2009 when a close friend, Naomi, came to visit and brought along a slab of Pecorino Cheese for us.

I've never sampled Pecorino before so the gift of cheese was most welcome. My little princess loves her cheese and as soon as she heard that I had some new cheese, she wanted some of it. We ate a little of it with crackers and the cheese was a little strong but very, very tasty.




A few days later, The Lovely Wife asked me if I could make this Pasta dish that she had seen in the California Pizza Kitchen cookbook. The secret to this dish, according to the book, was the roasted garlic sauce. As I never follow recipes to a tee, this is my version of Spaghetti Primavera inspired by the CPK cookbook. Apparently Primavera is Italian for springtime and that is why this pasta is made up of a variety of vegetables and herbs.




Ingredients
1 bulb garlic (about 8-10 cloves)
1 medium onion - chopped
3 stalks fresh oregano - leaves removed and chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
200g button mushrooms
1 red capsicum - sliced into large pieces
1 orange capsicum - sliced into large pieces
1 zuchinni - sliced
2 stalks celery - thinly sliced
200g cherry tomatoes - halved


Method
Cut the end of the garlic and then place the garlic bulb in a small dish. Pour about a teaspoon of olive oil over it and roast in a 200C oven for about 20 mins till soft.
Meanwhile, fry the onion, oregano and thyme together till fragrant. Add in the mushrooms and cook till tender. Add in the celery and zuchinni and mix well. Add in the tomatoes and press them lightly as you stir the mixture to get the juices out. Reserve a few tomatoes. Be careful not to overcook the vegetables as you want them slightly crunchy.
Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of their skin and process together with the reserved tomatoes to make a nice paste. Add in some water if necessary.
Add in the garlic paste to the mixture and cook well. Finally toss in the capsicum and cook till slightly tender. Toss togehter with pasta of your choice.

A most delicious meal and very, very healthy! I grated some of the Pecorino Cheese and sprinkled it over the pasta. The cheese went really, really well with the pasta and The Lovely Wife said she really enjoyed the dish. Who would have thought a vegetarian pasta dish could taste so good!



Thanks for the cheese Naomi - told you I would put it to good use!

I'm also sending this in to Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights. I haven't contributed anything to PPN for a while and this is my first one for 2010! This time around, PPN is being hosted by Sara of Cupcake Muffin. So pop over to her blog on Friday to see the roundup!

9 comments:

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Yum! I've heard of roasting garlic but not of making a sauce out of it! Sounds wonderful! :D

azmir1 said...

You go girl!!! :)

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

This is a delicious and droolworthy version of primavera. Spring is not too far away here in the WH Dharm.

Ruth Daniels said...

Lovely post Dharm, glad to see you and your delicious dishes at Presto Pasta Nights.

As for Spring...I'll be making is as a wish. Spring won't really come to Nova Scotia for a few months. End of April, if we're lucky, but more often than not, it doesn't arrive until late May.

Alicia Foodycat said...

I love the roasted garlic sauce! Yum!

Sara said...

Mmmm, this looks absolutely delicious! Love all the veggies in there, and I will have to try using roasted garlic in a sauce! :)

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

I'll make it in winter, longing for Spring.

Really this looks outstanding!

Joanne said...

Primavera is one of my favorite kinds of pastas...especially with that roasted garlic. So good.

Cakelaw said...

This looks fabulous - I would be very pleased if someone made me this. I have never tried Pecorino cheese - another experience to add to the "must try" list.