Vine-ripened tomato and squash blossom pasta sauce (Recipe below the fold) |
A locavore recipe collection, inspired by the CCA Steering Committee
Part 1: The Pasta-sauce Variations
By Linda Felaco
Served over fusilli bucati with grated Parmigiana Reggiano. Yes, the pasta and cheese are imported. Sorry, I'm too Italian to eat Prince Spaghetti. |
To make the sauce, coat
the bottom of a sauté pan with heart-healthy extra-virgin olive oil.* (Spain has had a bumper crop of olives, so Spanish olive oil is really cheap right now.) Crush 4-5 cloves
of garlic (I get it at the farm stand on Old Coach Road), slice half an onion (I get them at Briarfield Farm on Shannock Road), and add to oil when hot. When onions are
translucent, add 6 medium-sized vine-ripened tomatoes,† diced. When the tomatoes are nearly cooked, add 12-15 squash blossoms (tips for harvesting them can be found here), several basil leaves, and salt to taste.
Variation 3:
Spaghetti with zucchini, squash blossoms, and tomatoes.
Follow the same basic recipe as above, but with zucchini in place of most of the tomatoes.‡
Buon appetito!
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*Full disclosure: The EVOO is of course imported. Ya don't see a lot of olive groves in RI, sadly.
†Basil, tomatoes and zucchini are homegrown; unless otherwise noted, tomato varieties are purple cherokee, pink brandywine, or supersteak.
‡This is a dish from last year, when we grew plum tomatoes.