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Cheese, Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Summertime Meal, Vegetarian

Kale and Walnut Pasta

April 18, 2024

Garlicky kale with toasted walnuts and salty, robust pecorino interlaced between strands of spaghetti is irresistible. So gather up a few ingredients and make this delicious, healthy pasta dinner. It’s a beautiful dish to serve to guests with thick slices of good sourdough bread.

You won’t need to drive around all morning looking for special ingredients. This inexpensive, tasty, and healthy pasta dish is a one-stop shop kind of meal.

Tuscan kale is preferred for this recipe but you could certainly use curly kale in its place. I love the dark blue-green leaves of Tuscan kale.

Smell and taste your walnuts before toasting to ensure they are fresh and not rancid. Eating a rancid nut is very unpleasant!

Whether you are a vegetarian or not, this pasta dish is a winner. I especially love the crunchy well-seasoned walnuts. Make sure to add them just before serving so they keep their crispy texture.

Kale and Walnut Pasta
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Kale and Walnut Pasta

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4

servings

Adapted from NYT Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (2 ounces) walnuts, chopped into bite-size pieces

  • 4 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided + more as needed

  • Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) and black pepper

  • 3 large garlic cloves, chopped

  • 1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) red pepper flakes

  • 10-12 ounces Tuscan kale, ribs removed, chiffonade leaves into thin ribbons (you want to have at least 7 ounces)

  • 8 ounces spaghetti

  • 1/2 large lemon, cut in half

  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons finely grated pecorino or a combination of pecorino and parmesan

Directions

  • Place walnuts in a large pan (12-inch or 10-inch with 2 1/2-inch sides) with a lid, and turn the heat up to medium. Toast the walnuts, stirring occasionally, until just fragrant, about 3 minutes, taking care not to burn them. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, give a stir for 1 minute and transfer to a small bowl. Wipe out the pan to make sure there aren’t any walnut pieces remaining.
  • Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil for the pasta. While the pasta water is heating, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and the garlic to the clean (12-inch) pan and cook over low, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the red pepper flakes, stir and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Increase heat to medium, add the kale to the pan in batches, using tongs to turn and wilt the kale in the garlicky oil, and season with salt and pepper.
  • Once all the kale is in the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low and cover. Add the spaghetti to the pot of water at this point and cook until al dente, according to package directions. As the spaghetti cooks, add a couple of ladles (about 1/2 cup) of the starchy pasta water to the kale to help it wilt down.
  • Squeeze 1 piece of the lemon over the kale and toss. Taste the kale and add more lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Keep in mind you will be adding salty pecorino or parmesan to the pasta.
  • Once the pasta is cooked, set the pot next to the pan and use tongs to transfer the spaghetti to the kale. Ladle in more of the starchy water (about 1/2 cup) add 1-2 tablespoons reserved olive oil, toss well until the pasta is glossy and silky. Add half of the walnuts and 1/4 cup of the grated cheese tossing to combine. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and another squeeze of lemon to taste. Remove from the heat and transfer pasta to a large, low-sided serving bowl. Shower with 2 tablespoons reserved cheese, top with the remaining walnuts and serve.

Notes

  • You may increase the pasta to 10 ounces for larger serving portions. If you have leftovers, keep in mind the walnuts will lose their crunchy texture but will still be delicious.
Dinner, Fish, Pasta, Recipes, Sauces, Vegetarian

Cilantro Macadamia Nut & Lime Pesto

April 10, 2024

Pesto alla Genovese (basil) is certainly the most classic of all pesto sauces, but there are many other variations that use different herbs in place of basil. Cilantro pesto is a delicious twist on traditional pesto. It has a fresh bright flavor and beautiful vibrant green color. Cilantro pesto is also very versatile. Use it with your favorite pasta, with fish or chicken, as a sandwich spread with salami and cheese, on pizza, with eggs any way, dolloped on tomatoes….

I avoid using pine nuts ever since I had a bad experience many years ago. These days I use raw cashews when making basil pesto. My cilantro pesto uses one of Hawaii’s favorite snacks, macadamia nuts. They are rich and buttery and add a smooth texture to the pesto.

Measure out 2 cups of packed cilantro leaves for this recipe. That would be 1-2 bunches of cilantro, depending on their size.

The food processor is a wonderful kitchen appliance to have. I’ve had mine for 15+ years now and it still works like a charm.

Fold the cheese into the processed pesto. Taste and add additional salt and lime juice if needed.

The pesto makes a perfect accompaniment to macadamia nut crusted mahi and saffron rice.

Cilantro Macadamia Nut & Lime Pesto
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Cilantro Macadamia Nut & Lime Pesto

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

1 cup

Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup (1.5 ounce) salted roasted macadamia nuts (or substitute with raw cashews)

  • 2 cups (2 ounces) firmly packed cilantro leaves

  • kosher salt

  • 1 large garlic clove, grated or minced

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

  • 1/4 cup (.05 ounce) finely grated parmesan cheese

Directions

  • Pulse macadamia nuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
  • Add cilantro, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, garlic and lime juice. Pulse until the cilantro is finely chopped, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Pour in olive oil and pulse until the pesto is smooth. Stir in grated parmesan cheese. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and lime juice.

Notes

  • Pesto can be frozen in small containers for a few months.
Dinner, Italian, Lactose Free, Pasta, Recipes, Salad, Side Dishes, Summertime Meal, Vegan, Vegetarian

Broken Pasta Salad

January 20, 2024

I fell in love with this salad immediately. Not only is it a gorgeous salad to bring to the table, the flavors and different textures are superb. The addition of maple syrup in the dressing adds the perfect touch of sweetness that pairs so well with the intense flavors of bitter radicchio and briny, salty olives.

The original recipe from Bon Appetit calls for broken lasagna noodles. I used ribbon shaped mafaldine pasta instead because it is what I had available. Similar to lasagna with its ruffled edges, mafaldine is a very versatile pasta to have on hand.

Castelvetrano olives are a favorite of mine. Here on Maui they can be tricky to find. Sadly, Whole Foods does not sell them at their olive bar any longer though they are available packaged. You could substitute Picholine olives if you can’t find Castelvetranos.

The salad dressing is delightfully sweet and tart thanks to the maple syrup, red wine vinegar and fresh lemon juice. A bit of nutritional yeast adds flavor and body to the dressing.

If you have any leftover salad, it can be stored in the refrigerator and eaten the next day. If possible, reserve some of the toasted almonds to sprinkle on just before serving so they retain their crunchy texture.

Broken Pasta Salad
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Broken Pasta Salad

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4-6

servings

Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cups raw almonds

  • 1 pound mafaldine or wavy lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch pieces

  • kosher salt

  • 1 large garlic clove, finely grated

  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

  • 1/3 cup finely chopped basil

  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (2 lemons)

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

  • pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

  • freshly ground pepper

  • 1 small head radicchio, thinly sliced

  • 2 cups Castelvetrano olives, pitted and torn (can substitute with Picholine or other green olives)

Directions

  • Preheat toaster oven or oven to 400 degrees. Toast almonds on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until fragrant and slightly darkened, 6-9 minutes. Let cool slightly, then finely chop.
  • Meanwhile, cook noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until tender (you don’t want al dente pasta salad). Drain and rinse under cool water.
  • Stir almonds, garlic, oil, parsley, basil, lemon juice, vinegar, nutritional yeast, maple syrup, and red pepper flakes in a large bowl. Season dressing generously with salt and black pepper.
  • Add noodles, radicchio, and olives to dressing and toss to combine. Serve with crusty sourdough bread.
Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Pork, Recipes

Spaghetti with Fresh Soppressata

October 14, 2023

Here is a delicious meat sauce pasta dish that uses both spicy and mild Italian sausages as its main ingredients. The sausage makes for a flavorful sauce and is easy to prepare. The recipe comes from Food & Wine magazine courtesy of restaurateur Andrew Carmellini. In the recipe headnotes, they explain that Mr. Carmellini’s family makes their own soppressata, a hard salami, by grinding their own meat. Italian sausages share many of the same ingredients such as garlic, white wine, fennel and crushed red pepper. To give the fresh soppressata extra spice, you may use only hot sausages or increase the amount of crushed red pepper. Either way, you’ll find yourself savoring this wonderful pasta dish.

I used both mild and spicy sausages but feel free to use just one or the other. The spicy Italian sausages from Whole Foods are not overly hot so you could use them solely and skip the mild sausages if you want to.

The sausages are mixed with garlic, white wine, ground fennel, black pepper and crushed red pepper then refrigerated overnight.

A flavor base for many recipes, a mirepoix of carrots, onion and celery are an integral part of this dish just as they are for other dishes such as bolognese, soups, braised lentils and many other dishes.

Once the simmering is close to an end, start your pasta. When the pasta and sauce are done cooking, drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Mix in the grated cheese and herbs (reserve some for topping the pasta) before serving.

The Italians have a word to describe the flavor of this dish – delizioso!

Spaghetti with Fresh Sopressata
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Spaghetti with Fresh Sopressata

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

6

servings

Adapted from Food & Wine magazine

Ingredients

  • 4 garlic cloves

  • 1 1/3 cups dry white wine, divided

  • 1 pound Italian sausage (sweet or spicy or a combination, Whole Foods meat department recommended), casings removed

  • 1 teaspoon ground fennel (available at Down to Earth on Maui)

  • 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

  • 1 small onion (3/4 cup), finely diced

  • 1 small carrot (1/2 cup), finely diced

  • 1 celery rib (1/2 cup), finely diced

  • 1 (28 oz) can plus 1 (14 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with their liquid

  • kosher salt

  • 12 ounces spaghetti (or up to 16 ounces)

  • 1/2 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese plus more for serving

  • 1/4 cup finely chopped basil plus more for serving

  • 1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley plus more for serving

Directions

  • Using an immersion blender or small blender, puree garlic with 1/3 cup white wine. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Add the sausage, ground fennel, black pepper and crushed red pepper and knead lightly to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
  • In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the sausage mixture and cook over medium-high heat, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon, until lightly browned, 6-7 minutes. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring frequently , until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining 1 cup white wine and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until nearly evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and their juices to the pan and season lightly with salt. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 5 cups, about 40 minutes.
  • In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until just al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss with 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/4 cup each basil and parsley. If the sauce seems too thick, stir in some of the reserved pasta water over moderately high heat, until the pasta is nicely coated with sauce, about 2 minutes. Divide into bowls and serve with extra cheese and chopped herbs over the top.
Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Summertime Meal, Vegetarian, Veggies

Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas

August 1, 2023

With its beautiful bright green colors and aromatic tarragon, this pasta primavera earned 5* ratings on NYT Cooking site. After making this dish I can see why everyone loves it. It’s loaded with fresh asparagus, snap peas and green peas. Fresh tarragon is what makes this dish special.

The pasta I used (Mafaldine) is wide and flat with ruffled edges. It has a striking appearance when cooked and works well with many pasta dishes. The original recipes calls for fettuccine or tagliatelle which are much easier to find. If you want to try malfadine, you can find it at Amazon. Fresh tarragon can be found at Whole Foods.

Pasta Primavera (Spring in Italian) is a dish that combines lightly cooked vegetables with fresh herbs. Now that spring has passed and summer is here, it’s still a perfect time to find fresh asparagus at the markets. Sugar snap peas seem to be available year round as well as peas (frozen). I bought a well known brand of frozen peas that were chalky and had no flavor. I searched online for reviews of peas and found multiple top ratings for Woodstock Organic Peas. They are sweet and have a nice texture. So these are the only peas I buy now. You can find Woodstock Organic Peas at Hawaiian Moons on Maui.

Serve your pasta primavera with focaccia or good sourdough bread and you have the perfect summer meal.

Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas
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Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4

servings

Adapted from NYT Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1/4 pound sugar snap peas, stems trimmed

  • 1/2 pound asparagus, woody ends trimmed

  • 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Sticks or unsalted butter

  • 3/4 cup frozen peas, defrosted

  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

  • kosher salt

  • freshly ground black pepper

  • 10 ounces mafaldine, fettuccine, or tagliatelle

  • 2/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano + more for serving

  • 1/2 cup warm half and half (I used Organic Valley Lactose Free)

  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley

  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon

Directions

  • Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
  • While the water is coming to a boil, slice snap peas and asparagus spears into 1/3-inch wide pieces; leave asparagus tips whole.
  • Melt Buttery Sticks or unsalted butter over medium-high heat. Add snap peas, asparagus, and shallots. Cook until vegetables are barely tender (not soft or mushy), about 3 minutes. Stir in peas and garlic and cook 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
  • Cook pasta until al dente. Drain pasta and transfer to the bowl with vegetables. Immediately toss pasta with vegetables, Parmigiano Reggiano, half and half, and herbs. Season generously with salt and pepper to taste. Grate extra cheese over the top before serving.
Dinner, Japanese, Lactose Free, Pasta, Pork, Recipes

Pork and Asparagus Soba

May 18, 2023

We’re starting to harvest our homegrown asparagus spears which is one of the reasons I was drawn to this recipe. The other reason is that I love soba. Though dried soba cannot compare to fresh, it works well enough for this dish which turns out to be a real winner.

There’s not much to it, in terms of the amount of ingredients called for. However, you may need to make a quick trip to the market if you don’t have tahini or chili crisp in your refrigerator. There is a multitude of chili crisp/crunch options available these days. You can find it at Costco, the Asian food section of your local markets, or online. My current favorite is Zindrew (from Amazon). Though the jar says chili oil, I consider it to be a chili crisp since it has lots of crunchy bits of garlic and does not contain an excess amount of oil.

Tahini adds a rich and creamy note to the sauce. Mixed with soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili crisp, the flavor is an umami rich seasoning for the noodles and pork.

The soba is cooked briefly before adding the asparagus. It’s a one pot deal. Not having to blanch the asparagus separately saves time and dishes.

The sauce is added to the cooked pork before getting mixed in with the soba and asparagus. It’s so delicious.

Everything goes back into the pot with some of the reserved soba cooking water. A quick stir to warm everything up and it’s ready to be served with extra chili crisp or sriracha.

Pork and Asparagus Soba
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Pork and Asparagus Soba

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4

servings

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup chili crisp (1/3 cup if you want it spicier) + more for serving

  • 1/3 cup tahini, well stirred

  • 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon soy sauced divided

  • 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

  • 9.5 ounces dried soba noodles (1 package Hakubaku soba, or about 10 ounces of your favorite dried soba)

  • 1 bunch (10-12 ounces) asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces (thinner spears work well in this dish)

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1 pound ground pork

  • Thinly sliced green onions (for serving)

  • Roasted sesame seeds (for serving)

Directions

  • Whisk chili crisp, tahini, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, and vinegar in a small bowl. Taste and add a few extra teaspoons of chili crisp if you want it spicier. Set aside.
  • Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling water for half the time noted on the package directions. For Hakubaku brand soba, cook for 1 1/2 minutes (no longer). Add asparagus to noodles and cook for 45-60 seconds. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid just before the 45-60 seconds is up, then immediately drain noodles and asparagus in a colander and run under cool water to stop the cooking; reserve pot.
  • Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork in an even layer undisturbed, until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring and breaking up with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 3 minutes (adjust heat as needed if too hot). Add reserved sauce and cook, scraping up browned bits, 1 minute.
  • Transfer pork, noodles, and asparagus to reserved pot. Drizzle a teaspoon of soy sauce (or a few pinches of kosher salt) plus 2/3 cup reserved cooking liquid into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring gently with a spoon adding more cooking liquid if needed, until noodles and meat are warm and well coated with sauce but not watery, about 1 minute (leaving the soba on the heat much longer can cause the soba to be over cooked). Taste and adjust with more soy sauce or kosher salt if necessary.
  • Transfer pork and asparagus to a large, shallow serving bowl. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds. Serve with extra chili crisp or sriracha.

Notes

  • If you want to make this for two people, use half of the soba, asparagus and cooking liquid called for. I recommend making the full recipe for the pork and reserving half for the next day. It’s delicious with ramen (the dried wavy type) cooked al dente and warmed in a bit of vegetable oil seasoned with soy sauce. Mix it all together to warm up and shower with lots of green onions, roasted sesame seeds and sriracha sauce. Serve with crunchy bok choy on the side.
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