INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

This pasta dish doesn't have a name. My mother-in-law invented it, and my
partner refined it some. We usually call it "that pasta dish" <g>. Below is
how I wrote it up for my mother awhile back. Sadly, sweet peppers won't be
in season for any of us for awhile still.
This is *very* low-fat, by the way, if you leave off the pine nuts. It
probably qualifies as "California cuisine". It's certainly vegetarian, and
can be vegan if you leave off the cheese.
Feel free to share this recipe, just please leave the inventors' names on
it!
Delicious pasta dish, à la Robin & Selena Wells
Toast pine nuts until golden brown. You can put them dry into a toaster
oven, or toast them in a dry skillet or sauté them in butter or olive oil.
If you do them dry, watch them! They will do nothing and be boring for a
long time, and then suddenly start to brown. They will burn easily at that
point. If you toast them in oil or butter, they don't burn as easily. (A
cup at least, but everyone will want extra, and a lot get nibbled while
you're cooking.)
Cook pasta.
Cut red and yellow bell peppers into chunks. (1/2 inch squares.)
Chunk red onion, match size of peppers.
Sauté in olive oil: first the onion until almost cooked, then add peppers
and raisins and cook until onions are limp.
Toss with pasta. Top each serving with pine nuts.
Variations: you can top with grated parmesan/asiago/romano cheese if you
like. You can add fresh green peas to the end of the sauté stage if they're
in season and sweet. The color is really nice. Barely cook them at all.
All quantities of veggies to taste, of course.
There may be enough oil from the sauté to moisten the whole dish
sufficiently. If not, drizzle the finished dish with just a little more
oil.
This is so delicious you will go crazy.
[1] Shells or "ears" are best. Curlies work okay. Long&skinny like
spaghetti or linguini works poorest because it doesn't catch the bits.
[2] Green bell peppers are not-fully-ripe peppers of various colors. Yellow
peppers are often more-ripe, but still not-fully-ripe peppers. True yellow
peppers, when ripe, have a delicious flavor. It's better to leave them out
than to use unripe red peppers (which turn yellow first, so they can fool
you).
[3] Pine nuts are also called pignolas.
[4] Because this dish is so simple, it really matters what you use. It's
better to leave something out than to substitute for it. In other words,
don't use yellow onions, don't use green peppers. That said, I can tell you
that I've done this with a zillion variations of the "what's in the fridge"
variety, and it's always good. This is just the ultimate version.
[5] When I wrote this up, I was cutting things into chunks. Nowadays, I
tend to cut things into strips. I suspect they "catch" in the pasta better
that way. I'll have to try it both ways again soon <g>.
Posted to TNT Recipes Digest by "Jennifer Brooks" <jeffanur@hotmail.com> on
Apr 01, 1998

A Message from our Provider:

“Do you want to know the master planner? God!”