Fun Monday - Lotsa Pasta

Fun Monday for May 24th is a piece of cake--or, in my case, a bowl of pasta. Our host is Debs over at 1 Crazy Stitcher and she's asking us to share our favorite foods and, if we have them, foods we really dislike. Well, getting the dislike out of the way, for me it's soft cooked eggs, especially the yolks. Just can't do it. Aside from that, I haven't met a food that I didn't like. Unfortunately?

Penne-fusilli-farfalle-orecchiette-lasagna-vermicelli-cavatelli-angel hair-linguine. That's what flashed before my eyes when I read Debs assignment. Love, love, love pasta in all its forms and preparations. When I eat out, I go to the pasta entrees first. At home my shelves are stocked with several varieties of pasta at all times. I especially like the Barilla brand. And now they have my favorite pasta shapes in "piccolini" or mini versions. Cute little penne tubes, farfalle bowties, fusilli corkscrews. Now I wish I could say that I also enjoy whole wheat pasta, but I'm not there yet. It just doesn't have the al dente bite that the other pasta has.

Preparation is simple. It could be elbow macaroni cooked in tomato juice of my childhood or mac 'n cheese. Sometimes I'll make what Rachael Ray calls "stoup", a cross between stew and soup that contains a bit of chicken or ground beef, lots of vegetables and pasta cooked with tomato. Or, it could be vegetarian--farfalle with broccoli, olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and Parmesan cheese. Version two would be penne with frozen spinach, artichokes, and Parmesan cheese. Sometimes its traditional spaghetti and meat sauce. It won't be Alfredo though--that sauce seems like overkill to me.

I also make cold pasta salads like Pasta Primavera with tons of fresh vegetables, vermicelli, and an Italian dressing. Debs asked us to share a recipe for our favorite food and last week I just happened to make a new pasta salad that was a real winner. So, just in time for summer cookouts I give you:

Marzetti's Summer Pasta Salad

3/4 C Marzetti Classic Ranch Dressing (look for it in the produce section)
8 oz. fusilli (I used the Barilla "piccolini" version)
1 C broccoli florets
1 C artichoke hearts, quartered (canned, packed in water not marinated)
1 zucchini, diced
1/2 red onion, about 1/2 cup VERY thinly sliced
1/2 C frozen peas, thawed
1 C cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 C shredded Parmesan cheese
1/4 C pitted and halved kalamata olives (next time I may just use black olives)

Preparation:

Cook pasta according to package directions. One minute before done, throw in broccoli florets (be careful to just blanch the broccoli). Drain pasta and broccoli together. Run cool water over to stop cooking and drain well. Combine the pasta-broccoli with the Marzetti Ranch Dressing and remaining ingredients and toss gently. Serve or store in the refrigerator until serving time. Gilding the lily: this would make a wonderful seafood salad with the addition of a bit of lump crab meat.

So, there you have it. My celebration of pasta. Can't wait to see what other Fun Monday participants love to eat--and maybe get some new recipes. Check Deb's place for the list of players.

(Image credit for pasta poster: Pasta Italiana I, Riccardo Marcialis, www.art.com)

Summer Soup, Cornbread & Coca Cola Cake

(Our host for this week's Fun Monday, M the Misanthrope ,has handed us a proverbial piece of cake with this week's assignment. She wants us to describe our all-time guilt free main course and dessert. What glorious food would we love to eat at any time without worrying about calories, fat grams, cholesterol, carbs or points--or whatever our most important dietary measure may be? Well, great minds! Last week I had actually made my favorite main course, and as I tucked the leftovers away in the fridge was thinking that if I had to choose one food to eat all the time, it would be this one.)

Main Course--Summer Vegetable Soup with Cornbread

I've written frequently about the huge vegetable gardens my family raised when I was growing up. We needed to grow enough vegetables to feed the family from early spring through the fall with enough left over to can and freeze for the winter. By mid-summer our garden would be bursting with tomatoes, green beans,cabbage, corn, carrots, potatoes, green and hot peppers, and peas. Time to get out the biggest pot--usually a canner--and make Garden Vegetable Soup. This was not fancy food. My mother would just chop up all these vegetables at one time and fill the pot with water and let everything simmer together for several hours. No meat, broth, herbs or spices were needed. What she ended up with was pure vegetable essence in a bowl.

In the south the side for vegetable soup has to be cornbread. It must be made from a coarse ground white cornmeal, buttermilk and bacon grease. Absolutely no eggs or sugar went into our version of the southern bread. The cornbread had to be baked in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet so that you'd get this deep brown crust and the "pone" could be turned out on a plate. The plate was passed around and everyone broke off a piece of southern deliciousness--no cut wedges at our table.

Dessert--Southern Coca Cola Cake



My recipe for this southern classic is written on a blue spattered index card and I've used the same recipe for over 40 years. You'll find the recipe in most of the church, women's and homemaker's cookbooks that are common in the south. It is much loved for its simple ingredients, ease of preparation, moist texture. But it's the frosting that keeps the fans coming! Think crackly soft chocolate fudge bumpy with pecans and coconut, poured over the cake while still warm. The star ingredient is Coca Cola in both the cake and frosting, the southern classic drink invented by an Atlanta druggist in 1886.

Here's the recipe: Coca Cola Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9 pan with butter, dust lightly with cocoa powder.
2. Combine 2 C flour, 2 C sugar
3. Heat to boiling: 2 sticks butter, 3 T cocoa, 1 C coca cola
4. Pour over dry ingredients
5. Add 1/2 C buttermilk, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1&1/2 C miniature marshmallows.
6. Bake for 45-50 min. Cool slightly and frost.

Frosting
1. Heat to boiling: 1 stick butter, 1-2 T cocoa, 6 T Cola
2. Pour over 1 box confectioner's sugar. Beat until smooth.
3. Add: 1/2 C coconut, 1/2 C chopped pecans, 1 tsp. vanilla
4. Pour over cake. Frosting will set as it cools.

So, there you have it, Ms. M. Garden Vegetable Soup, Cornbread and Coca Cola Cake would be my dream guilt free menu any time of the year. And, I just have to mention this. All my dogs LOVE vegetable soup, too. They enjoy theirs over dry kibble, not with cornbread! Now scoot over to The Misanthrope's place to find out what everyone else craves.

(Photo credits: all from google. The cake is from Road Food.)