Pasta Primavera

Last fall some friends invited us over for dinner and served this dish . . . and I've been dreaming about it ever since. I got the recipe today and luckily had most of the ingredients on hand, so I changed my dinner plans and did not regret it for a second. This dish doesn't really have many seasonings, but it is somehow SO incredibly flavorful and delicious. I'm in love and so is everyone else in the fam.

Just a note on the ingredients. This is the type of dish that it's hard to go wrong with---you can really mix and match the ingredients here to customize it to what you have on hand and what your family enjoys. You MUST use pine nuts and asparagus and FRESH Parmesan cheese, however. Today I didn't have the fresh basil, so I made it without and that obviously changes the whole tone of the dish, but it was still delicious. So use it if you can (and if you like fresh basil, of course), but don't stress if you don't have it. I also think this would be amazing with some zucchini or yellow summer squash.


Pasta Primavera

4 Tbsp pine nuts
1 pound dried pasta of your choice (penne and rigatoni work well)
2-3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
20 cherry tomatoes, halved
15 (or so) fresh asparagus spears, bottoms trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieeces
4 (or so) carrots
1 cup green peas (thawed if frozen)
8 button mushrooms, sliced
4 Tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
1/2 chicken broth
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese

Heat a skillet over medium heat; add the pine nuts and toast, stirring continuously for 1 minutes; set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions.

While pasta is cooking, heat 2 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the onions, stirring, for 6 minutes or until soft. Add garlic and cook another minute. Add tomatoes, asparagus, and carrots and cook, stirring regularly, for 2 minutes. Add peas, mushrooms, basil, broth, salt, and pepper; cover skillet and cook 5 minutes. Add remaining olive oil and toasted pine nuts; stir to combine all ingredients.

Drain cooked pasta in a colander, and put the vegetable mixture in the bottom of the empty pot. Top with hot pasta and toss together gently to combine well and heat through. Serve pasta topped with a little Parmesan cheese.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Gary discovered this recipe at allrecipes.com quite a while back. It's easy and yummy, and you can make it just like that. However, given a few more seconds of your time, you can make it something spectacular. I'm talking really only a few minutes. I thought I had written this already, but puzzling-ly, I have not.

Here's what I did the other day:
1 large onion (or 1 1/2 medium/small onions), diced
2 T bottled minced garlic (if you're using fresh, use less, but this is my fast recipe)
1 jalepeno, seeded and diced

Cook those in the bottom of the pot (in a little oil) on low to release their flavors while you go get all of the cans out. Or, to speed things up, cook on medium-high. The flavors get locked in more, but oh, well.

Now dump into the pot:
2 cans beans (I like one black, one pinto, but whatever works)
2 cans diced (or petite diced) tomatoes
2 cans diced green chiles (if you already have them in the tomatoes, you won't need this)
2 cups frozen corn, or a can of corn (really, I just eyeball this, 2 cups is a guesstimate)
1 can Preston-canned chicken or size equivalent of canned or other shredded chicken (rotisserie works great), be sure to add the broth. If you don't you will need more broth than I used.
1 cup chicken broth (or water and boullion)

Stir it all up and season with:
A lot of cumin
A lot of chili powder
some salt
some pepper

Maybe next time I'll measure. But really, if it tastes bland, add more. Measuring takes time. :) It's how you like it.
You may need to add a bit of sugar or red wine vinegar to cut the acid. To taste. Make sure it's hot, but really, everything in there is cooked. It will taste better as it sits and the taste comes together, but you haven't got all day. Unless you do, it will be yummier.

Now, for the grand finale. Serve with:
lots of lime
Tortilla chips
sour cream
cilantro
green onions
avocado
queso fresco or cojita . . . or monterey jack or cheddar
hot sauce, should you feel inclined (just a teensy of Chipotle Tobasco, and yum!)

This is super fast. Of course all of the extras are not necessary, but they are really good. You can serve it plain with cornbread, too. If you don't have time to dice an onion you can throw in onion power, if you have no minced garlic, you can throw in garlic powder. You can leave out the jalepeno entirely, but really, it's good, and when seeded, not hot in the final product.