Pasta Salad with Salmon

My folks, aunt, and uncle were in town this past weekend, and thanks to that, I re-discovered one of my favorite summer recipes of my mom's. It's very similar to Salmon Salad, except that it omits the beans and adds pasta (which I'm always in favor of, obviously - nothing against beans, but pasta is my...um...bread and butter?).

This is seriously so good - the perfect summer recipe, because the only stove time is to boil some water for the pasta, beans, and eggs (which you can do in the same pot, if you're clever like my Ma). This recipe has changed over the years - we used to not use avocado or arugula; used lettuce, used peas, used tuna...you can really make it however you like. It's light, delicious, and relatively healthy. We top it (surprise!) with grated parmesan cheese, which really puts it over the edge.

Serves 5.

3/4 lb baby shells (bowtie pasta is really good for this, too)
Handful and a half or so green beans, cleaned and rinsed
3 eggs
10-15 baby carrots, sliced thin
1 avocado, peeled and cubed
1 container grape tomatoes, halved
2 cans or packages salmon
A few handfuls of arugula
Olive oil
White balsamic vinegar (lighter in flavor than regular balsamic; alternately, you can use fresh lemon juice)
Ground black pepper
Grated parmesan cheese, for serving

Place three eggs into the pot you'll use to cook the pasta in and add water for cooking the pasta. Bring to a boil, then add the pasta and the green beans.

Meanwhile, in a very large salad bowl, combine carrots, avocado, and grape tomatoes. Add the salmon and mix together.

When the pasta is ready, remove from heat. Drain the pasta and green beans and rinse with cold water. Remove the eggs and place in a bowl of cold water to cool. When the eggs have cooled, peel them, remove the yolks (unless you don't want to), and cube the egg whites into the salad bowl. Add the pasta and green beans.

Next, dress the salad. Oy, I wish I had actual measurements here for ya. You will use more olive oil than you probably would think - the ingredients soak it up well. Use the olive oil and balsamic in approximately a 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar. I just watched my dad pour on the olive oil - I want to say it was at least 1/4 cup. Add olive oil, then balsamic, then toss to coat. Taste and adjust as needed.

Finally, add the arugula, along with just a splash more olive oil and vinegar. Grate in a little black pepper to taste. Toss to combine and serve!

Arugula Pesto

I'd like to say that this is a recipe that I've been dying to try for months, and the truth is that it's more like I've been avoiding making it. I want to say I saw it at least a year ago in a Mark Bittman article, where he explained that "pesto" needn't apply only to basil, but that it could be make with many other things, including asparagus and arugula.

Now, I love arugula. I love pesto. But I really, really, REALLY love pesto made with basil (no pine nuts, please!). So the thing is, it's hard to break away. It's hard to make the decision to make pesto, and then make it with something other than basil. Plus, I was skeptical about the bitterness of the arugula. Hence, arugula pesto went unmade.

But I got back from Wisconsin (so wonderful - friends, a wedding for a wonderful couple, and meals at both Osteria Papavero and Pizza Brutta) the other night and had a whole mess of arugula in the fridge that needed eatin'. And, it being summer and all, I decided to go for it.

I'm really glad I did. Yes, it's bitter. Yes, I used waaaaay to much garlic, and it was...powerful. And I really liked it. Basil remains my favorite, but that wasn't going to change. Aside from using it in pasta, I could see using it as a sandwich spread, maybe even on pizza. I saw one recipe where the cook added chickpeas to the pesto, ground up with the arugula. So yes, I'd definitely make it again.

For one, with lunch leftovers:
1/2 lb pasta
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large clove garlic (I used two HUGE cloves...too much)
3 handfuls arugula
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated, plus more for serving
Salt to taste

Start your pasta cooking. In the meantime, combine the arugula, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor or blender. Blend into a pasta, scraping down the sides as needed. Pour into a small bowl and add the parmesan, and stir to combine.

When the pasta is ready and drained, stir in the pesto until the pasta is coated. Add salt, if you'd like, and serve with grated parmesan (or Romano!) cheese.

Pork Scallopine with Marsala

This recipe comes from my dad, who recently shared some of the ways that he likes to prepare that most inexpensive (yet still tasty) of meats, pork. He often turns them into scallopine, dusting them with flour and cooking them up with olive oil, butter, and a little something to deglaze the pan and give you some sauce.

Here's how he put it:
You can buy boneless pork cutlets (usually loin) for about $3-4 lb., sometimes less. The cutlets are about 1/4 thick. You simply pound them to make scalloppine, lightly dust them in flour, then fry them quickly in a little butter and olive oil with s&p [salt and pepper], move them to a platter, deglaze the pan with some Marsala (a dry sherry would work too), return the meat to the pan, and serve them up.

And that's pretty much it. It's a similar (almost identical) recipe to Lemon Chicken, one of my favorite dishes. You use Marsala/dry sherry instead of lemon, and pork instead of chicken. It's even more similar to lemon chicken the way I made it (confession time!) - I didn't have Marsala or dry sherry, so I just went ahead and used lemon anyway. But I've had it with the Marsala, and that's how I'd recommend making it.

I served mine with some pearled couscous with basil from a box (ahhhh!). This whole meal, which cost about $6.00 and was enough for dinner and full leftovers (or, would feed two for dinner), took about 20 minutes to make from prep to serving. And it tastes great. So there's really not a good reason not to make it!

Roughly 1 lb boneless pork loin, sliced into 1/4 inch scallopine
A plate of flour for dusting
A few pours of olive oil
1/2 tbsp butter
Salt
Ground black pepper
1/4 cup or so Marsala or dry sherry (or, if you must, juice from 1 lemon)

Line up your scallopine next to one another. Cover in wax paper and pound with the bottom of a small saucepan. Dust the scallopine in the flour, shaking off the excess. Set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until the butter melts and bubbles. Add a little salt and pepper. Add the scallopine in batches, turning each piece once so that each piece cooks through. They cook really, really fast. Seriously. Remove and do the next batch.

When you're done cooking the scallopine, add the Marsala to the pan - it will sizzle like mad - and scrape up the oil and any trimmings from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula (leave them in there, just stir it up a little so it makes just a little sauce) - i.e., deglaze the pan. Turn the heat down and add the pork back to the pan, stirring around to coat. Serve!

"La Boulange" Poached Egg Hash

With Joef working in San Francisco this summer, I've had a couple of opportunities to go visit him in North Beach. You heard it hear first, folks - I am in love with that city. Oh my God. The weather is balmy and cool, the streets look European, and you can walk a few blocks and see sea lions off the pier. I mean, come on.

And the food is great, too. For breakfast, we went to a place called "La Boulange". Yes, it's a chain, and they have a lovely menu, and this little condiment area with jars of jam, NUTELLA, olives, cornichons - all kinds of things that you can take bits of back to your table. Plus, they serve their cappuccino in deep, round bowls, which is just plain decadent.

I've now been there twice, and both times, we've both gotten their poached egg hash (with bacon, not sausage). It makes a great breakfast - it's just two eggs over zucchini, yellow squash, and cannellini beans, plus bacon and some herbs. And since it was easy, and easily replicated, I made it here at home. I decided to add some onion and tomato, and to replace the herbs with just a little salt and pepper. As I'm writing this, I realized I completely forgot the bacon part. It's good vegetarian - and if you wanted, a little chopped pancetta would do nicely.

I'm still not really sure how to poach an egg. The whole stirring the water while you drop the egg in thing is just not quite working out. But it worked on at least one of my two eggs.

2 eggs
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 onion, chopped
1/4 zucchini, chopped
1/4 yellow squash, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped and lightly salted
1/3 a can or so cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Salt and pepper to taste

In a small/medium saucepan over medium-high heat, drizzle olive oil. Add the onions and stir to coat with olive oil. When they start to turn translucent, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer until they begin to soften and caramelize. Add the zucchini and squash, along with salt and pepper, and let that start to soften a bit, too (you can turn up the heat a little if you want).

Meanwhile, poach two eggs (that's right, I'm not going to tell you how, because I'm not so sure myself...fried eggs over easy would work fine, too). 

When you're close to being done, add the tomato and beans and cook them just enough to heat them up a bit.

Place the hash in a bowl and top with the two eggs, plus a pinch of ground black pepper.