Rosemary Pasta

I am behind on posting. We had a lot of heavy food that went a long way and then I have been lazy of late. This is easy and so good. Add some chicken or shrimp for a protein if you want. I suspect you could use any fresh herb (oregano, basil) to do this, I just love the rosemary so much I have never strayed. Since this is really simple the Parmesan is a real stand out in this. Get some good stuff. I recommend hands down Locatelli. However, if you don’t want a big block go to Ukrops you can by the end pieces and it will cost your near nothing. Plus you can use the extra on popcorn (yummy).
½ lb pasta
¼ olive oil
½ stick butter
1-2 spring fresh rosemary
Fresh Parmesan
Start pasta, while that is cooking melt butter and oil in a pan. When the butter mix just starts to bubble, throw in the rosemary and take off the burner. Allow rosemary to steep in the butter for 5 minutes or more. Once pasta is done, remove rosemary and toss with pasta. Serve immediately with fresh grated cheese over.

Cilantro Salad/Tabouli

1 c. bulgur
2 c. boiling water
¼ onion
2 medium tomatoes
1 bunch cilantro chopped
¼ c. lemon juice
2 tbs olive oil
Salt, pepper
Put bulgur in boil and cover with boiling water. Stir and cover bowl. Let stand about ½ hour or until water absorbed. Add remaining ingredients and refrigerate for about an hour or moor until cool.
I owe this recipe to my cousin. I was a tabouli purist. Then one time I went to visit her and she had put corn and carrots in her tabouli. How odd, I thought. It was so good. From then on I got much more experimental with what I added to my bulgur. However, I realized the other day… I always used parsley. Why… why not cilantro. I have to say, if you like cilantro…and I do, try it. You will wonder why you didn’t before.

Fig Salad

I don’t know where you are but here it is fresh fig season. The figs that are grown locally, are not super flavorful, which is the reason for “drying” them in the oven to concentrate the flavor. The dressing is the most complicated part of this simple salad. It is really good, and very pretty. If you don’t like goats cheese, use feta.

Dressing
10 figs sliced
½ c. balsamic vinegar
¼ c, oil
2 tbs raisins
1 tsp brown sugar

Heat oven to 250. (note below this is a good time to toast walnuts) Line a baking sheet with sliced figs and cook for 1 hour. You still want them moist, you are just trying to concentrate the flavor. Put into blender of food processor. Add all other ingredients and mix until fairly smooth. This will be a thick dressing.

Salad
Bag of spinach
¼ of onion thinly sliced
¼ c. walnuts
½ c. goat cheese
3 fresh figs

Toast walnuts in oven for about 10 minutes. Set aside. Combine spinach, onion, goat cheese in a bowl. Top with walnuts and garnish with slices of the fresh fig. I would serve into bowls and put a dollop of dressing in the middle of each salad.

Sautéed Turnips

Okay this is nothing sexy other than it is new for me. I have to admit, I Vanessa, have never had a turnip. Turnip greens yes, turnip no. So I was at the store the other day and I saw these beautiful vegetables. They were this creamy white topped in a beautiful purple. They were not the size I think of turnips as being. I think of a turnip as being about the size of a baseball. These were between the size of a Clementine and a tennis ball. They were just so pretty, so I thought to myself, could something so lovely, really deserve the terrible reputation it has received? Why not try them, it is only food after all. So I did. So I got these lovely little globes at home and then realized I had NO idea what to do with them. I began to look through recipes with very, very mixed reviews. So then I thought to myself, “ now how are you going to know which recipe you would be interested in if you don’t even know what they taste like. “ So I tried a thin slice raw. Wow, this was good, but packed some heat. Imagine, radish meets horseradish. (I plan a salad with them in my future). However, people always cook them I thought, so lets see what this tastes like cooked. I sliced it thin and in the pan it went with a wee bit of olive oil. I sautéed it for about 3-4 minutes and tried it.. These were good, a bit sweet. Really a lot like sweet onion. So that is where this recipe was born. So many recipes a I read talk about the turnip overpowering the dish. I always was told it was ammonia-y. I did not find this to be the case at all, however, they were very small turnips and looked very fresh. Maybe that was the difference? But man am I glad I tried them!!
1 whole sweet onion sliced
3 small turnips
2 tbs butter
Salt/pepper
1 tbs lemon juice
Slice onions and start in skillet with half the butter and cook medium low. Meanwhile slice turnips as thin as you can and once sliced throw in skillet with the rest of the butter. Cook medium low for 5 minutes and reduce to low and cook until soft. Once done, season to taste. Sprinkle with lemon, toss to coat and serve.

Browned Butter Brussels Sprout

Say that ten times fast! These are good and a different way of having Brussels Sprouts.
4 tbs butter, browned
1 lb Brussels sprouts
Salt/pepper
1tsp lemon juice

Using the slicing side of the grater, grate Brussels Sprouts. If you don’t have a grater, starting at top and working to bottom core slice. It should resemble a coarse cole slaw. Set aside. Put butter in pan and over medium heat melt butter and keep on heat until it browns a bit. This gives a very distinctive nutty flavor to the butter, if you are not sure, under brown, over browning will just burn it. Add about a ½ tsp of salt to butter, then add sprouts and pepper and stir to coat. Cover and cook about 10 minutes or until it reaches the doneness right for you. Sprinkle with lemon juice, stir to coat and serve.