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.





Tagliatelle con Scamorza, Speck e Spinaci

Sunday is Father’s Day! 

It’s Dad’s special day so I decided to treat him to this inviting and flavorful dish that will be easy for me to make and enjoyable for him to eat.

Smoked scamorza

If speck (smoked prosciutto) and smoked scamorza are not available, prosciutto can be substituted for the speck and a good quality dry mozzarella can be substituted for the scamorza.

All photos - Copyright - ©2012-La Casa e Il Giardino

Egg Noodles with Smoked Prosciutto and Smoked Mozzarella

Ingredients

1 lb. tagliatelle or egg noodles
1/4 lb. smoked scamorza (alternate dry mozzarella)
1/4 speck or prosciutto sliced thin
1 tb. butter
1/2 lb. fresh spinach
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 cup parmigiano
Salt and pepper

Wash the spinach and briefly cook them over high heat.
In a pan, add the butter and brown the speck.
Add the spinach, shallot and the vegetable broth and cook for 5 minutes.
Cut the scamorza in cubes.
Cook the pasta in salted water.
Drain and mix with the spinach, the scamorza and grated parmigiano.

Hoping your Father's Day is enjoyable.