Ali’s Pasta Salad

One of my favorite fallback recipes: a summer pasta salad, salty, sweet, fresh and tasty. I made this for our final Eating San Francisco meal, where we had to try to use as many seasonal and local ingredients as possible. It’s simple, and you can add whatever you want – maybe some seasonal veggies?

Ingredients:
1 lb Rotini Pasta
Two handfuls lightly chopped Basil
Lots of olive oil (part lemon-infused, part regular)
Not so much balsamic vinegar
One handful pine nuts
4 chopped tomatoes (large chunks)
Mozzarella balls, chopped in half
A dash (aka spoonful) of the parsley/arugula pesto (in retrospect, a traditional basil pesto would have been better)
Salt, salt, salt, and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and dump in all the pasta (the pasta I bought from Rainbow cooked quicker than your regular supermarket box). Chop up a good amount of the basil leaves, but not finely, just enough to release the flavor. Chop the four tomatoes into large chunk. Chop the mozzarella balls in half, or quarters depending on the size. When the pasta is soft (al dente, preferably), strain it and rinse the noodles with cold water. Put the noodles in a large bowl, and add the chopped ingredients and pine nuts. Begin adding lemon olive oil, regular olive oil, and a little balsamic vinegar to taste. Finish with some salt and pepper, seasoning to taste. It’s a DIY kind of recipe – you can make it however you like it.

ESF’s Final Meal Ingredient Map

For our last class, Eating San Francisco students were asked to cook a dish from mostly local and seasonal ingredients, resulting in a delicious potluck. A map was created to pinpoint where in California all of our ingredients came from. View it here (embedding was disfunctional):

ESF’s Local, Seasonal Feast Map

Ali’s Easy, Delicious Vegetarian* Curry

Almost every single night, I eat vegetables and rice with curry sauce. I heard rumors long ago that curry is addicting, and rolled my eyes at this impossibility. I now stand humbled and corrected, one year after my curry addiction began (it is also rumored that eating curry results in crazy dreams… at the risk of sounding crazy myself, I am living proof). Here’s how I usually do it:

Ingredients:
Third Yellow Squash, sliced thinly

Third Green Zucchini, sliced thinly

Small Red Potato, sliced thinly or bagged Trader Joe’s Broccoli

Handful Crimini Mushrooms

Any other fresh vegetables you like (bell peppers, onions, cauliflower, etc).

White Rice

Trader Joe’s Yellow or Red Curry Sauce (mix together if you’re feeling crazy)

Trader Joe’s, or other Coconut Milk

The directions are simple. I sautee the ingredients in olive oil (EVOO as our muse, Rachael Ray, would say…kidding), salt and fresh garlic (garlic salt/powder is a sin, please remember this), keeping the lid on as much as possible to allow the potatoes to cook all the way through. This usually takes about 10-15 minutes on a medium stove setting. After the vegetables are almost cooked all the way through, I add some coconut milk and the curry sauce (amount can vary – some people like it soupy, I like just enough to coat all the rice and vegetables, sort of like a curry risotto)  and put the lid back on, turning down the heat and letting it simmer for about 5 minutes. If I need to reheat already-cooked rice, I throw a serving into the pan as well because rice dries out in the refrigerator, but it’s best to cook it fresh (directions are on the bag: it usually takes 20 minutes so it’s best to put that in first). When the sauce is hot and the potatoes and other vegetables are soft, serve however you like.

*If you fancy some meat, sautee a chicken breast in a separate pan with oil and garlic, slice it up, and toss it in too.

Hello world!

ESF 2009 is over for the year, but that doesn’t mean our legacy must die. Here are some recipes created or loved by the ESF crue; our very own cookbook.