Kitchen Sink Spaghetti with Asparagus, Eggplant and Everything Else You Have in the House - Recipe

Kitchen Sink Spaghetti

Any Italian grandmothers reading this should probably avert their eyes. I expect there to be a brigade of Nonna's with pitchforks outside my window at any moment. This pasta is about as far from traditional as you'll ever see me go. It has a dizzying array of intense flavors that could overwhelm your palate. Oh, and it is really freakin' tasty.

Let's see what we've got in there. It starts out fairly traditional: asparagus, roasted red peppers, eggplant, red onion, garlic. White wine. Stonewall Kitchen's amazing Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam. Basil. Rosemary. Lemon zest. Pumpkin seeds? Smoked mozzarella? Chipotle pepper?!?

Actually, I guess if you want to look at it a certain way, this isn't so much of a stretch. I use pumpkin seeds because we can't have nuts in our house, but walnuts, hazelnuts or pine nuts would be even better. The chipotle is a little odd, but Italian dishes often have red pepper flakes, and this way I'm getting some of the smoky flavors that an omnivore might introduce with bacon. Same goes for the smoked mozzarella.

Oh, and that garlic and onion jam. I love that stuff. A tablespoon or two of it melted into the base of a sauce is an incredible, complex-tasting alternative to a slow and low caramelization of onions you do yourself.

Bottom line: this kind of dish is a total crowd pleaser. Big, bold, intense flavors that are at the same time comforting and approachable.

Pay attention to the details of how the sauce and pasta are brought together - this little bit of technique really marries the flavors and makes them pop.

Kitchen Sink Spaghetti with Asparagus, Eggplant and Everything Else You Have in the House
Vegetarian; vegan if you omit the cheese; gluten-free if you use a gluten-free pasta (are those any good?)
Serves 4

• 1 pound high-quality spaghetti noodles
• 1/2 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), or walnuts, hazelnuts or pine nuts
• 1 large eggplant, peeled and cut into 1/4" thick slabs
• 1 large bunch asparagus, trimmed and sliced on a diagonal, about 1/4" thick
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
• 2 tablespoons Roasted Garlic and Onion Jam
• 1 chipotle chili pepper (from a can of chipotle in adobo), mashed
• 1/2 cup white wine or dry vermouth
• 1 cup of jarred roasted red peppers, rinsed and sliced
• 1 cup fresh basil leaves
• zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 of said lemon
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound smoked mozzarella, rind removed, cubed
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt

1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil with 2 tablespoons of salt.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over a medium low flame. Add the pepitas and toast, tossing occasionally, until fragrant and beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Reserve.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and raise heat to medium high. Add the eggplant in a single layer. Cook for 5 minutes on one side, flip and season with salt. Cook until thoroughly tender and easily pierced with a fork. Remove and reserve, dicing when cool enough to handle.
4. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, along with the asparagus and 1 teaspoon of salt. Saute, stirring occasionally until crisp-tender and bright green. Don't overcook, it will get heated more later.
5. Now to make the sauce. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan, along with the onion, garlic and rosemary. Saute for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and onion jam, chipotle pepper, wine and lemon juice. Reduce heat to low and stir occasionally. This stuff will seem too thick to be a sauce, but wait for it... step 9 will reveal all.
6. At this point, if you have everything else prepared, you can drop the pasta.
7. After the pasta has cooked about 5 minutes, add the asparagus, eggplant and roasted red peppers back to the saute pan and stir.
8. When the pasta is nearly done, but definitely still al dente, reserve one cup of the cooking water and drain the rest. Return the pasta to the pot.
9. Scrape the contents of the saute pan, getting all the flavorful bits, on top of the pasta and turn the heat back to medium low. Toss, and then add some or all of the reserved pasta cooking water to loosen the consistency. Because the pasta water has starch, salt, and sweetness, it will thin the sauce without greatly diluting your flavors. Taste and adjust for salt.
10. Finally, add the basil leaves, tearing as you go, the lemon zest, the smoked mozzarella, several aggressive grinds of fresh black pepper, and the pepitas. Give it all one final toss, and serve it forth in heated bowls. (Or for a slightly more refined presentation, dish up the pasta as of step 7 and garnish with the remaining items).

Make Sparkling Water or Soda at Home with Soda-Club - Save Money and Help The Environment

I'm completely addicted to sparkling water, and so is my whole family. We go through quarts of the bubbly stuff every day, and believe me it was getting expensive! Even when we stepped down from imported to store brands, we were easily spending $30 per month, not to mention lugging it home from the grocery store.

So last summer I learned about Soda-Club, and we had to give it a try. Bottom line: I've never been happier with a product I've bought for the house. Check out the video above - the machine is incredibly easy to use. You just fill up one of the included, reusable quart bottles with water, screw it into the machine, and depress a button a few times to release the CO2. In a few seconds you have a quart of delicious, refreshing sparkling water. By pumping more or less you can adjust the carbonation level to your own preference.

Ok, I can't help it, I'm just in love with this thing. It would make a terrific Mother's Day gift, by the way!

Here are 10 things I like about it:

1. Saving money: You'll spend less than $100 upfront, but then each canister of CO2 makes 110 quarts of water. If you were paying $2 each, you'll be ahead of the game in just a couple of months and never look back. I figure we save at least $25 each month.
2. Bottled water is an environmental disaster. Even if you use glass bottles, you have a huge amount of energy used to transport it from around the world to your grocery store and then home to your house.
3. Carting home lots of quarts of water from the grocery store is a pain in the neck! They are heavy and take up lots of room.
4. The heavy-duty plastic bottles are BPA free and you can reuse them for up to 3 years.
5. You'll never run out. You can make more sparkling water in just a few moments.
6. The customer service is terrific. When you need supplies, you just place an order on the website and put the old canister outside. A few days later, new ones magically appear. Tip: there is free shipping if you get two at a time.
7. Soda-Club also offers flavorings (like lemon essence), and soda packets if you want to make cola or lemon-lime etc. beverages at home. I'm not a big soft-drink drinker, but I do like to add a little bit of fruit juice sometimes. Pomegranate is especially delicious.
8. The machine is easy to use. Installing a new canister just takes a minute, and you only have to do it every few months (depending on your usage level of course), and making bottles of waters takes literally seconds.
9. The unit is compact and looks nice on your counter.
10. And it doesn't use any electricity at all! It is completely driven by the compressed gas.

Just get one. You can thank me later :)! The banner below will take you right to their site.

Tempeh and Japanese Eggplant with Crispy Rice - Recipe

Tempeh with Japanese Eggplant and Crispy Rice

I'm not going to lie, this is a refrigerator cleanout party. I'm proud of it. I think a lot of folks are trying to reduce their waste these days, both because it is the right thing to do for the environment, and to stretch their food dollars a little farther.

Coincidentally, the same night I cooked this, my old pal the Surly Gourmand tweeted "Tempeh sucks. It has the same spongiform texture as an alien's brain." I knew exactly where he was coming from. If you just open a package of tempeh and take a bite, you have cold soy-mush in your mouth. Not good. (Surly's blog is hilarious but definitely not for children or the easily offended. Here's the link if you have your fire-proof suit on.)

Tempeh's magic happens when you thoroughly fry it. It doesn't have to be deep fried, but it needs to be pan fried in a single layer with enough oil that the outside really browns. Now your mush has been transformed into a semi-crispy treat with a complex, nutty flavor. You want to maximize surface area, so slice it thinly for best results. It makes a really nice change of pace from tofu.

Anyhow, when I opened the fridge I found a few cups of cooked brown rice, the tempeh, Japanese eggplants and lemongrass. I opted for a straightforward stir-fry, but crisped up the rice to provide another textural element. Even if you never make this exact dish, you could adapt any part of it to suit your own needs.

Tempeh and Japanese Eggplant with Crispy Rice
Vegetarian and vegan; potentially gluten-free as long as you make sure the tempeh is safe
Serves 4 as a one-dish supper

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• vegetable oil
• 1 package tempeh (usually about 8 oz.), sliced into 1/4" thick slabs
  
• 1 stalk lemongrass, tender part only, peeled, crushed and minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Japanese eggplants (the long, thin kind) sliced into half-moons about 1/2" thick
• 2 green onions, white parts, thinly sliced
• salt
  
• fresh ground black pepper
• toasted sesame oil
  
• 1 cucumber, peeled if needed, thinly sliced

1. Coat a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of oil, fill with the rice, cover and set on a low flame. Check occasionally, adjusting the heat so that the rice is toasting but not burning. Try not to disturb the toasting layer on the bottom more than necessary. The longer you let it cook, the more toasted rice you'll have.
2. In a large skillet, heat 1/8" of oil over a medium high flame. Add the tempeh in a single layer and cook until browned on one side. Flip and brown the other side. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels and season with salt.
3. In the same skillet, raise the heat to high and add the minced lemongrass and garlic. Stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add the eggplant and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Saute, stirring occasionally, until fully tender, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Turn out the rice onto a serving platter. If things went great, you will have a nice big crispy dome. If not, that's ok, mound it up. You'll get the hang of the crisping technique. Season it with a bit of salt.
5. Top the rice with the eggplant and tempeh, and garnish with the green onions. Arrange the cucumbers around the base of the rice. Give the whole thing several big grinds of fresh black pepper and a few drops of toasted sesame oil.