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!

Featured: DailyBuzz Healthy Living

Hello friends.

My Gluten-free/Dairy-free Pumpkin Bread was featured in this week's Top 9 on the DailyBuzz Healthy Living site.

Pretty cool, right?

Nice to see that something I love to cook is out there getting some love.

Enjoy your second week of January, and expect some great recipes from me this week.

A {Fig} Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Yet another excellent installment in the Gran Fran birthday lead-up.I have included a recipe from my own kitchen using figs, as I don't ever recall her cooking with them. Rather, they were served alongside Prosciutto di Parma and maybe some almonds.

From Gran Fran's Lips to Your Ears: My brother moved to Oklahoma City to plant a fig tree. He plans to bring a bit of Brooklyn Italian to the home of the Cherokee, the Choctaw, and the Chickasaw. He’s lived without a fig tree for well over half a century, but now that he’s retired the view from his West Side condo lacked tangible proof of his childhood.

For him and for me, the longer we’re grown-ups, the more magnetic is the lure of childhood. And I yearn for those things that spelled home and comfort, and miss the loving embrace in the hefty arms of a strong solid grandma, a neighbor’s pat on the head and her admiration of my dark thick curls as I take a walk—a passegiatta—with my grandfather, and even the cheek-scraping kiss of the rosey rotund (very flabby armed) cumare with her whiskery chin. Those who peopled our childhood are now gone, but I continue to search out the scents, foods, and traditions that I grew up with so I can share them with my children and so that I can remind myself of where I came from –a Brooklyn neighborhood teeming with street-level stores, open cellar doors, ill-lighted tenement hallways, and a fig tree in every backyard.

Now every August I search greenmarkets to find a green cardboard container filled with figs. I touch the fruit and it yields enough to expose its seeds and its sweet sticky scent. And I'm in Brooklyn, sitting on a folding chair at the curb eating the sweet fruit and planning what I'll wear to the first day of fourth grade.

Fig Puff Pastry Tart ala Gran Fran's Daughter

adapted from Bon Appetit, 1993

Ingredients

• 1/2 17 1/4-ounce package (1 sheet) frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
• 1 egg, beaten to blend (glaze)
• 7-ounces of nuts, pulverized in a food processor
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1/2 cup apricot jam (any jam works well here, experiment a little!)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• Sliced assorted fresh fruit (such as kiwi fruit, strawberries and figs)

Method

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Roll out thawed pastry square on flour dusted work surface to 9 1/2-inch square.
• Pull edges of dough up slightly, to form a higher edge then the center of the tart.
• Brush edges of square with egg glaze.
• Pierce center of pastry all over with fork.
• Bake until pastry is golden brown about 25 minutes.
• Melt jam with ginger in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, blend nut paste and cream in processor until almost smooth. Spoon almond filling into center of tart and spread evenly. Bake 5 minutes.
• Arrange fruit decoratively atop tart, and brush jam glaze over fruit.
• Place back in the oven for 10 minutes until fruit has softened.
• Enjoy!