A Chef's Take

This being my Mom's birthday ,I just want to share some of her favorite and our favorite recipes. One is a three bean salad, tanged up with some vinegar. The other is our pomedori e uovi, tomatoes and eggs, one of the best summer recipes.

Three bean salad
1 can (16 oz) chickpeas
1 can  (16 oz) kidney beans
1 can (16 oz) cannelini beans
1 dash red wine vinegar
good glug or two of olive oil
1 chopped onion
dash of dried oregano
2 to 3 basil leaves  de-stemmed and roughly chopped
salt and pepper

Chop onion in food processor until fine.
Mix together beans and onions with the oil, vinegar, oregano, basil and seasonings Chill about two to three hours before serving.

Pomodori e uovi
Butter or margarine for sauteing
six to eight large eggs
four to five sliced vine ripe tomatoes
two cloves garlic finely minced.
salt and pepper
loaf Italian bread

Melt about two to three tablespoons of butter or margarine in a large pan
Beat eggs as if you're scrambling them. Add to pan along with the two cloves of finely minced garlic. Mix in tomatoes until they and the eggs are cooked and form curds. Season. Serve with large slices of Italian bread (although you may need two loaves to sop up the juices)

These were some of my Mom's favorite dishes to make and to eat. We always enjoyed them, especially for her birthday.,

Pasta Crudo For A Hot Day

It's a heat wave here in New Jersey and that means one thing : spaghetti con salsa crudo. This is an easy  and delicious pasta dish that takes advantage of a summer harvest. It's a raw tomato sauce  cooked when it's mixed with hot pasta.

First , get four tomatoes

Cut into quarters

Then mince into smaller pieces. The recipe I followed on line calls for a small red onion. I used half of a yellow one I had in the fridge.

Again it was minced into fine pieces.

Add a quarter cup of good olive oil

Many salsa crudo recipes don't call for garlic but I like it, especially in any tomato sauce. I tossed in two minced cloves.

Basil usually is added but I didn;t have any so I subbed in a good sprinkling of oregano.

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper were liberally sprinkled in too.

As for the pasta, Barella's thick spaghetti is perfect for it.

This was the hardest and hottest step, waiting for the water to boil and then for the pasta to cook.

 

When the pasta is done, place in a bowl and ladle the salsa crudo over it.

It was delicious,along with being the easiest to make during this blasted heat wave.

Store the pasta and salsa crudo separately. You can use the  leftover sauce for bruschetta the next day.(which is my plan)

This is heat wave cooking. Simple, Easy, Delicious. Best of all it's a no sweat recipe.