I have a real thing for spanakopita, to the point where it occasionally takes over my brain until I do something about it. Does anyone else feel this way sometimes? I rarely give in to it entirely (although, sometimes I definitely do) but I realized at some point, that it was less about the actual Greek pastry and more about the cooked, flavourful, dense amounts of lemony greens.
So this is what I have been making to fill that triangular pastry void, and it’s totally been working.
Every time I go to the farmers market, I get super inspired (sometimes even making recipe notes in my phone) buy a bunch of fresh, gorgeous produce, walk home with grandiose plans and then get busy/hot/other and wind up making this.
Simple roasted veggies (any veggies you guys, fennel, zucchini, garlic heads, mushrooms, kohlrabi, you name it) and a simple fresh sauce to elevate it to a level deserving of this beautiful, local produce.
Since it is literally what I make most of the summer (often in the toaster oven so that I don’t have to heat my place up with the big oven), I thought it was probably worth sharing with you.
I get antsy during tomato season if I don’t have a satisfactory number of local tomatoes in my house at all times. It’s a short season and the alternative during the rest of the year is so sad in comparison that I feel tremendous pressure to make the very most of one of my favourite food seasons (and yet I feel close to no pressure for so many seemingly more important things…).
So, short of the Spanish Tomatina Festival, tomatoes have been on, in, under and around everything that has been happening in the kitchen these days. Usually just salad like the Avocado Caprese or this one from last summer with avo croutons, but as you saw last week, there has also been pasta.
There isn’t a lot that is better than homemade pasta. I have a hand-crank pasta maker and occasionally make it at home, but it keeps a pretty solid layer of dust on it most of the year. Part of the problem is it’s easy to be lazy about pasta-making when the healthy alternative is just so damn easy.
Zucchini, the ultimate peasant food, the vegetable that (almost) anyone can not only grow, but grow to the size of their car, somehow makes a really good whole-food pasta substitute.
