Rice Pasta Salad with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Raw Garlic

Fresh raw tomato, walnuts and raw garlic mixed with hot pasta creates a perfect late summer dish.

I used to make this dish once a week. It fell out of my repertoire a few years back. When these lovely tomatoes showed up in my weekly fruit and veggie delivery box, I was reminded of this recipe.

If it wasn't already apparent, I love to photograph food. I had a great time working on this pasta salad. Maybe it's my back-to-school attitude, or the changing light now that Fall is around the corner, but something shifted when I was shooting this week.

I've become more confident in what I'm shooting, how I'm shooting it and what is ultimately ending up on this site as final images. It has freed me from worrying whether or not I got the shot because I now know that I need to trust that when I download the photos to the computer, the right images will be there.

This version of Non-Reactive Pan was launched the first week in September of 2011. I had 468 visitors that month. Right now, I'm averaging 1500 visitors a month. It has been a good year. I'm excited to see what this next year will bring and so happy to have found my groove while shooting, cooking and of course eating.

Thanks for visiting!

Rice Pasta with Raw Tomato, Walnuts and Garlic

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 to 2 cups tomatoes, cut into chunks
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup walnuts
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Red pepper flakes to taste

PREPARATION

  1. Place olive oil, tomatoes, roasted peppers, garlic, walnuts, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
  2. Prepare enough pasta for two people, drain and pour into the bowl.
  3. Mix well, let the mixture sit for five minutes, to help soften the tomatoes and mellow the garlic flavor.

Cook’s Notes: Quinoa, barley or couscous works well with this recipe, instead of pasta.

Memorial Day Gluten-Free Pasta Salads: Pasta with Romanesco Cauliflower, Pasta with Olives and Walnuts

Going to a Memorial Day BBQ? Pasta salads are an easy made-ahead side dish that can feed a crowd. These are just two examples of pasta salads that you can make. Improvise some, add in some cheese for an extra rich variety. Or, some bacon instead of the tuna in the Romanesco cauliflower pasta salad.

Whatever you do, make these ahead of time, kick off your shoes and enjoy the BBQ.

Ingredients:

  • 1 head Romanesco Cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 1 can Solid White Tuna, drained
  • 1/2 cup Olive Oil
  • 2 cups Pasta, cooked (I used gluten-free rice pasta like this one from Tinkyada)
  • 3 Tbsps Capers, drained
  • 4 Pickled Italian Cherry Peppers

Method:

  • Boil a large pot of salted water.
  • Chop the peppers into small pieces, removing the stems.
  • Once the water has boiled, add the pasta and a steamer basket on top of the pasta to parboil the romanesco cauliflower.
  • Cook the romanesco for 3 minutes with the lid on.
  • While the pasta/romanesco is boiling, heat a large skillet over high heat.
  • Put the olive oil and the tuna in the saute pan and cook for 1 minute on high heat.
  • Add the parboiled romanesco to the saute pan and cook for five minutes, or until beginning to brown.
  • Put the capers and peppers in with the romanesco and cook for three minutes.
  • Drain the pasta, rinse in cool water and  put in a large bowl.
  • Mix the pasta and the tuna/romaesco mixture together and enjoy!

Pasta with Olives and Walnuts

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cupLindsay chopped black olives, drained
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
  • 1 lb pasta spirals (I used gluten-free rice pasta like this one from Tinkyada)
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 diced red onion
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
  • 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 4 tbsps Olive Oil, divided, plus some for drizzling at end

Method:

  1. Set a large pot of salted water on the stove to boil for pasta.
  2. Put drained, chopped olives in a bowl, add 2 cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper and *red pepper flakes.
  3. Leave to marinate while pasta water boils, and pasta cooks.
  4. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
  5. Add 2 tbsps olive oil to pan, swirl to coat.
  6. Lower heat to medium, add remaining 2 cloves of minced garlic, and chopped red onions.
  7. Sautee until golden, then reduce heat to low.
  8. Add chopped walnuts, moving them around in the pan so they brown evenly.
  9. Cook pasta according to directions on box.
  10. Just before it’s cooked through, add marinated olives to the onion, garlic, walnut mixture.
  11. Raise heat to medium. Heat until olives are just warmed.
  12. Drain pasta and place in large bowl.
  13. Pour onion, garlic, walnut and olive mixture over pasta and mix.
  14. Drizzle olive oil over mixed pasta, add a pinch of salt and *red pepper flakes.
  15. Serve and enjoy!

Chili-Mac: Gluten-Free

I love chili. When my daughter was home sick with a stomach bug, I took the opportunity to break out the chili fixin's for myself.

Weird thinking, I know, but when there is a bonus day off from work (not saying her being sick was a bonus, mind you), I feel inclined to go big with my cooking. She doesn't eat chili and said the cooking smells wouldn't bother her, so I figured since I had to make really bland stuff for her to eat, I'd make myself something extra spicy. I also made oven-roasted jalapeno peppers (recipe will be appearing shortly, needs some adjustments...). Clearly, I was not having any of the bland food myself.

For years now, I've been using a mix for the spices, from Carroll Shelby's Original Texas Chili Kit, which I highly recommend. There are no chemicals or weird fake-foods in the box, just cayenne pepper, corn masa flour, cumin, garlic, ground chili peppers, onion, oregano, paprika, salt. It's just easier to have everything put together for me, especially since I may not have all the ingredients on hand, most importantly, the corn masa which you use towards the end of cooking to thicken the chili.

I'd like to talk about chili-mac now. It's not a dish I grew up with. Maybe it did exist in NY, but it never made its way to me. The first time I encountered it, I was in southern Illinois with my then in-laws at Steak 'n Shake. It seemed to me like an ingenious combination. Why not use pasta as your vehicle of choice for chili? It's a pretty good combination of textures, and the cheese just sinks into the pasta every so nicely.

While I cooked the chili, I looked around for some corn tortillas to serve it with, only to come up empty. Instead, I chose a rice pasta as my base for the chili, making this the first time I've made chili-mac in my own kitchen. There is no cheese in this version, as I'm primarily dairy-free (except for butter, can't leave that behind), but you should feel free to add some nice sharp cheddar and maybe even some sour cream to finish off this great dish.

Gluten-free Chili-Mac

Ingredients:

Method:

  1. Heat a large non-reactive pot over high heat.
  2. Add the olive oil and half of the minced shallots.
  3. Cook for 1 minutes. Add the ground meat.
  4. Brown on all sides, about 15 minutes of cooking time.
  5. Drain the fat from the pan.
  6. Add the tomato sauce, water and spices.
  7. Cook for ten minutes. Add the drained black beans.
  8. Slightly cover the pot. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  9. While the chili is cooking, take the masa flour and mix with 1/3 cup warm water.
  10. Add to the chili to thicken it. Make sure the corn masa flour is not clumping in the chili, break it up with a fork as you stir it into the mix.
  11. Cook for five more minutes.
  12. Place the prepared pasta into individual serving bowls.
  13. Top with chili (and cheese, if you're into that).
  14. Serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

The Day After: Pesto

I know, you've probably all eaten your body weight in treats, ham and gooey goodness by now, but I had to share a-not-so-light recipe with you. It's traditional, I guess, to start off the post-Christmas season with light, healthy foods, but it's so darn cold, I still think we need these stick-to-your-bones dishes to get us through.

Remember how I mentioned that my sister and I made a book for Gran Fran with her recipes and my photos? Well, here is another

recipe from that project, Lasagna Geonvese. I've not made many lasagna's in my time, but figured I should give this one a go since it's different than any others I've had.

I, of course, don't eat gluten or dairy, so I only had a small taste of this. It was superb. You could adjust this easily with gluten-free noodles, but I'm not a fan of non-dairy cheese, so can't recommend anything on that front.

OK, back to the recipe. It was really fun to make. Lots of steps, as I've mentioned before, but the potatoes and pesto really made this dish stand out from your traditional lasagna. I love the colors, too, since it's a little unexpected to see a green lasagna. I do have to say, though, I don't recall when Gran Fran may have made this for us.

I do remember her excellent Pesto, and know that when we were in Italy in 1989 we did have a lasagna with pesto and potatoes in it. Yes, that's right, I (and probably Gran Fran, too) can probably recall every dish we ate that month in Italy. The fried bread (savory and salty) is one thing I have yet to be able to recreate in my own kitchen.

Enjoy a piece of this right out of the oven.

original recipe courtesy of Fran Claro of The Italian Pantry

Lasagna Genovese

Serves ten

Pesto

  • 3 cups basil leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, roughly grated
  • 1 to 1 1/4 cups extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2   teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • Dried red pepper flakes to taste
  1. In blender or food processor, pulse all ingredients, until sauce is thick and creamy.
  2. Add more oil if necessary.
  3. Set aside.

Lasagna

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

  • 1 pound curly edge lasagna noodles
  • 10 fingerling potatoes, scrubbed, salted, thinly sliced, steamed until tender
  • 1 pound green beans, sliced on the bias, salted, steamed 5 minutes
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, coarsely grated
  • 1 pound fresh mozzarella, diced
  • 2 cups whole milk ricotta, drained
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, minced
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • Pesto
  1.  Boil noodles in salted water, according to package directions, drain well.
  2.  Blend mozzarella, ricotta, and eggs with parsley;  salt and pepper to taste.
  3.  Layer pesto, noodles, green beans, pesto, grated cheese, potatoes, blended cheeses, pesto.
  4.  Continue stacking ingredients in the same order, ending with noodles, pesto, and a sprinkling of Parmigiano.
  5. Cover loosely with aluminum foil; bake 35  minutes; remove foil; bake 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
  6. Let rest 15 to 20 minutes before serving.