Sunday, August 16, 2009

Ida-ho! Ida-hi! Ida-like-the-summer-pasta!


Last night Jana and I went to see the movie Julie & Julia, which is based on TWO true stories about one famous and one not-so-famous cook. Being a fan of cooking myself, of course I adored the movie! The film tells the story of two women in their quest to find themselves. It was a great movie to watch with your girlfriends!

In the movie, Julie (the younger character) sets a goal to cook her way through Julia Child's french cookbook for American women who don't have servants. There are over 500 recipes, and Julie spends a year of her life cooking and then blogging about her experience. I wish I could say I got the idea for this blog from the movie, or the book, but, alas, I knew nothing of the story until recently. You can credit the creation of this blog to my mother who requested that I post all of my recipes online.

Anyway, in the spirit of the movie, and after visiting a local farmer's market yesterday, Jana and I decided to blog and cook a new meal. So....here we go with our one-of-a-kind, organically grown, northern Idahoan summer pasta dish.

Ingredients:
1 zucchini squash
1-4 to 1/2 bag of wagon wheel pasta (or whatever you prefer)
1 pint (assorted colors) cherry tomatoes (which, apart from this farmer market, are not NEARLY as yummy)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
rosemary or Italian seasoning to taste
salt and pepper to taste
EVOO (olive oil for you non-Rachael Ray fans)
Parmesan cheese (freshly grated is best, but you can also use the canned kind)

Directions:
Wash and chop all vegetables in nickel size pieces. Add 1/2 of the tomatoes and zucchini to a skillet and saute in olive oil. Add minced garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Saute vegetables for about 10 minutes, or until zucchini Boil pasta according to directions on package. Drain when done and return to pot or pour in a bowl. Add the other half of the cherry tomatoes and cook for about 3 minutes. Pour vegetables in pasta. Drizzle with olive oil and mix. Add a salt and pepper to taste and mix in Parmesan cheese.

Side suggestions: Serve with your choice of meat and garlic bread or salad. We grilled chicken breasts marinated in Italian dressing and lemon juice. You can also shredded the chicken and add it to the pasta before hand, or use shrimp!

Wine paring: This is a very light dish, one that is good to serve as lunch or dinner. I would pair it with a light, fruity wine like a chardonnay.

1 comment:

Jacob said...

I like the idea of you blogging about cooking. Two problems though. You are not in Fort Worth to allow us to sample them, and the recipes look to complicated for a simpleton like myself to try, but I might. Anyways good stuff, glad ID was fun.