Pasta Alla Puttanesca

“A spicy, tangy sauce that is very easy to make from ingredients almost always in the cupboard. Folklore says it was named for women of the evening who fed this dish to their clients.” INGREDIENTS 500 g whole grain spaghetti or penne (see note below) 4 tablespoons olive oil pinch dried chili 1 – 2… Read more »

Neapolitan Tomato Sauce

“While the original recipe called for canned tomatoes, I make this recipe every fall with tomatoes and basil from the garden and freeze. Adapted from Pasta Harvest.” INGREDIENTS 500 grams penne or rigatoni 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 sweet onion, diced 2 small carrot, diced 2 celery rib, diced 5 large cloves garlic,… Read more »

Mad Apples’ Angel Hair Pasta

“This recipe came from a restaurant called Mad Apples’ in Toronto popular in the 90’s for it’s angel hair pasta. While there are a lot of steps and ingredients, it is well worth the work for a special evening.” INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 small onion, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 1 small carrot,… Read more »

Garlic Scape Pesto

You don’t have to wait for August to make fresh pesto — all you need are fresh garlic scapes. Scapes, sometimes called garlic flowers, are the top flowers that emerge from hardneck garlic. Scapes are usually removed in order to send more energy to the developing bulb, thereby creating larger garlic bulbs. But don’t throw… Read more »

Egg Noodles With Creamy Mushroom Sauce

“I almost always use goats cheese in place of whipping cream as it adds a richer flavour. If you like replace the goats cheese with 1/4 cup whipping cream for a more traditional flavour.” INGREDIENTS 500 grams broad egg noodles 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cups peas 1 cup onions, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced… Read more »

Bow Ties and Asparagus

“We often have this light pasta for lunch. Think of it as a healthier version of mac and cheese. The recipe was inspired by my Grandmother who cooked me bow ties in chicken broth when I was a child.” INGREDIENTS 350 grams bow Ties or ditali 12-14 spears asparagus, cleaned 3 cups chicken broth water… Read more »

Basic Tomato Sauce

“A simple tomato sauce that has a rich tomato favour. Use this sauce on it’s own or as a base for other recipes. I used unpeeled tomatoes and puree the sauce which makes this a simple recipe to throw together.” INGREDIENTS 3 1/2 pounds or 3 to 4 cups chopped tomatoes, roughly pureed in blender… Read more »

Harvest Soups

Today was another fall harvest day at our house. We dug up more potatoes, some carrots, parsnips and beets, and picked some of the last of the tomatoes (so sad). I spent the afternoon roasting vegetables for various soups and dinner. Roasting everything at once just seemed to make more sense. I made roasted garlic… Read more »

Perfect French Fries

Having grown our own potatoes for the last three years we of course make our own french fries.  I’ve discovered three secrets to making the best french fries: Cut the fries the same size — we like ours about 1/4 inch in size, the longer the better. Soak the cut fries in ice cold water… Read more »

New Summer Salads

Summer is here and the garden is already providing an abundance of zucchini as well as Swiss chard and kale greens. While I love grilled zucchini and greens fried with garlic I was looking for some other ways to use these vegetables to add some new interest to our meals. And summer salads are always… Read more »