Sustainable Eating - Means Branching Out

Changing one's eating habits is not easy. You need a diet that you can't "break" - one that's flexible enough to adapt to new changes.

Try a fruit or vegetable that you did not think you liked when it's in season or at its peak. I have seen people converted to foods from zucchini to asparagus just by tasting them freshly picked and simply prepared.



Pasta with Asparagus - Fettuccine con Asparagi

Ingredients

1 lb. thin asparagus

2 cloves of garlic chopped

4 ripe tomatoes or 1 can plum tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil for sauce

1/4 cup of olive oil to saute' asparagus

Salt and pepper

1/2 lb. fettuccine pasta

Cut asparagus into 1 inch pieces.  Throw away hard ends.

In a pan add 1/4 cup olive oil, add cut asparagus, salt and pepper and saute' for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tender.

In a medium pot, add 3 tablespoons olive oil and chopped garlic. When garlic is golden, add tomatoes and simmer for approximately 15 minutes, add the asparagus, and simmer few more minutes.  Adjust salt and pepper.

In the meantime, bring water to a boil and cook the pasta and drain. Pour sauce with asparagus over pasta and serve.


Asparagus are not limited to fettuccine.  We also love them with rigatoni.





FETTUCCINE WITH MUSHROOMS (Fettuccine con Funghi)



Shitakes, oyster and crimini

In our home, we love mushrooms.






Pasta Divella

For stuffed mushrooms, I use the button mushrooms.  With pasta or  as a vegetable dish, I prefer a combination of shitakes, oyster and crimini.

Fettuccine with mushrooms is an easy and delicious dish.  For pasta, I used Divella Fettuccine 90.  Any other pasta can be used.



Ingredients

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup minced flat-leaf parsley

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 pounds mushrooms

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons dry white wine

Freshly ground black pepper

1 lb. fettuccine

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano (optional)

- Thoroughly clean the mushrooms with a cloth (damp but not wet) and thickly slice.

  

1. - Begin heating a large pot of water for the pasta.

- Meanwhile, heat a large pan (I like a cast iron pan) over medium heat.  Add the oil and garlic.  When garlic is golden, add the mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes over high heat. 





- Add the wine, salt, pepper and parsley.  Continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Keep warm.

 -When water boils, cook the pasta al dente (around 7 min.).  Before draining, save some of the pasta cooking water.

-Drain the pasta and toss with the mushrooms in a large bowl.  If it seems dry, add some of the pasta water.
Add the cheese and serve.