This week was a good week. I volunteered at my CSA and had the closing shift. It was exciting to see what happens to the leftovers at the end of the night. The farm donates all that is left to the women who live at the YWCA.It was a mad dash to the finish but no one got hurt.
The goodies that we got this week were:
Onions
Beets
Zucchini (two types!)
Broccoli
Mint
Sage
Lettuce
Raspberries
Peaches
And one apple
The beet risotto that I made a few weeks ago is a bit hit in the household. I've made it twice now and now need to find another tasty beet recipe....more to come.
My biggest fear this week was what to do with the sage. I have NEVER used sage before. I mean never ever. I found a recipe online for a sage pasta sauce from the food network. See here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/butter-and-sage-sauce-recipe/index.html
Ingredients
- Pasta, of choice
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 8 sage leaves
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
While your pasta cooks, melt butter in a 12 to 14-inch saute pan and continue cooking until golden brown color ("noisette") appears in the thinnest liquid of the butter. Add sage leaves and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and set aside. Drain the pasta, but leaving some cooking water, and gently pour into saute pan and return to heat. Add the cheese, toss to coat and serve immediately.
The recipe turned out quite well, even with fears that it might not sit well. I did, however, run into a couple of hiccups making the recipe: 1. The butter didn't brown to the nice "noisette" color that they wanted. I was impatient and added in the sage a bit early. 2. Do you put the whole leaf in? I ended up splitting them up a bit for smaller pieces. 3. I was not sure how much water to reserve at the end from the pasta and poured until it looked ok.
My taste-tester (ie boyfriend) not only complimented me but he actually finished his dish of pasta (I used linguine) - the real test of whether a dish is good or not. I am not sure if it turned out perfect but it was fine for us!
And, of course we made a side salad. We're still working on finishing some of the greens we received last week!!
