CSA Pickup Day Pasta
I’ll bet you’re thinking that this pasta is going to have tons of farm-fresh veggies in it. Nope. Actually, none. But we’ll get to that in a minute.
Pickup has been a lot of fun. We are seeing a much wider variety of veggies in our CSA delivery lately. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen cabbages, summer squash and zucchini…
cucumbers, some long skinny eggplant, green bell peppers, yellow peppers, a jalapeno pepper or two…
ridiculously large scallions… why yes, they are as wide as my stove. Try putting those in the refrigerator drawer!
We have more basil than we know what to do with – especially since my backyard basil is also going crazy. Notice the absence of the huge piles of salad greens! I actually had to buy kale at the market this week.
Not that greens are a bad thing…we just got a bit overwhelmed for a couple of weeks. Fab Hub and I were discussing the greens earlier this evening. We think the reason the greens became so overwhelming is likely because our overall consumption of greens dipped a bit in the weeks right after school ended for the summer…just in time for the arrival of the CSA greens. Silly.
Anyway, back to the pasta. We have figured out that making dinner on pickup night just doesn’t work well. Pickup is from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. If we deliver Super Sister’s vegetables before going home, it’s well into dinner prep time. If we stop for a treat at the awesome little ice creamery near the farm, we’ve made ourselves deliciously not interested in dinner. Again, not necessarily a bad thing. Every girl should learn the delightful pleasure of having ice cream way too close to dinner time on a hot summer afternoon.
About two weeks ago, I found a pin for Creamy Crock Pot Spaghetti from Picky Palate. My Lovely Italian Grandmother is probably turning somersaults in her grave…creamy and Crock Pot are most assuredly not words that belong with spaghetti. Like ever.
But this stuff haunted me for days. Mostly because it was intriguing, yes. But also because somehow the stuff in the photo looked exactly like grade school cafeteria Spaghetti Friday spaghetti. You know the kind – you’ve had it. I loved that spaghetti. Or the way leftover spaghetti looks in the fridge in the middle of the night when you grab a couple of cold forkfuls right out of the bowl. Admit it – you’ve done it. It’s different than regular spaghetti at dinnertime. It’s…thicker? Saucier? Whatever it is, it’s leftover cold spaghetti and it is fantastic.
We decided that CSA day was the perfect opportunity to try this. Turns out we were right. Go over to Picky Palate and get the instructions – you will not be sorry.
It works just like Jenny says it does, almost to the letter. I did make a couple of changes out of necessity. For example, she used ground beef and I only happened to have ground chicken in the freezer. She used chicken broth; I had some beef to use. (Please, Mom, stop cringing.) Other than that little switch and using angel hair pasta instead of spaghetti because I grabbed the wrong box at the market, we followed the instructions just as given.
The result? Amazing. Photos? Not here. While spaghetti in a bowl is really not too exciting, Jenny’s photos at Picky Palate sure do look inviting. The front photo is really what sold me on this.
It is indeed just like the Spaghetti Friday stuff and/or middle of the night forkfuls of leftovers. Perfect. I did not have to heat up the kitchen. Fab Hub did not have to stand in the blazing sun to grill. Dinner was ready precisely at the moment we wanted it. My two cents about the process would be to watch your time carefully. My slow cooker runs hot, so this was more than ready in two hours rather than the three indicated. I’m sure the angel hair cooked more quickly than regular spaghetti would have, too.
Overall, this is a pretty fantastic find and I am certain we will make it again. Would I do it in the heat of July? Sure, why not – it’s a nice, comforting home-cooked meal with zero fuss and no heat spike in your kitchen. But where I see this really working is a snowy winter afternoon…snow day dinner! Toss it in the slow cooker mid-afternoon before you watch the 2:00 PM snow day movie double-feature or before you head out to build a snowman and dinner will be hot and ready precisely when you want it to be. This qualifies as serious comfort food.
What about all of our beautiful farm fresh veggies? Fear not. Many have already done their duty and I have plans for the rest of them. My trusty little Vitamix and I have several goodies waiting to post. Check back later!
In the meantime, what’s your favorite comfort food meal or your best option for keeping the kitchen cool? Share!
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Wow them scallions… I’m officially suffering from scallion envy…
They are crazy! I had to cut them into thirds just to fit them in a Ziploc bag. They are quite possibly the best-tasting scallions I’ve ever had, though.
The kids and I opted to stop for ice cream yesterday for lunch. Ice cream for lunch…I love being able to make these executive decisions as a mom once in a while. The kids like it, too.
I grill outside to keep the kitchen cool in the summer-and to cut down on the amount of dishes to be washed!
The grill is our hero and the Fab Hub is quite a grill master. Mostly, I think he likes having a few minutes out there to himself… But sometimes it is just too hot even for that, especially since our deck gets the afternoon sun.
I have great memories of things like that from my childhood. Sometimes you just gotta have fun. 🙂
I had found a new (to me) blog the other day where the lady was talking about an over abundance of basil and how she froze it. I had never heard of freezing basil so I asked her about it, and here is her response:
I whirl the basil + a tiny bit of olive oil in my food processor first, then freeze the thin basil paste / thick basil syrup. I don’t freeze a whole basil leaf. When I use the frozen basil in soups, lasagna, sauces or even as a sandwich spread the texture is the same as fresh chopped basil. The olive oil “insulates” and protects the tender leaf in the freezer.
I don’t have basil this year, but am going to try this next time I grow it. When you said you had a surplus, I thought this might be a way to make use of some of it.
That’s a great idea – thanks! I definitely wouldn’t want to freeze the whole leaves. Basil doesn’t like the cold, so I have a feeling the frozen leaves would turn black, as some of them did when I accidentally popped them in my fridge. Oops! I may have to try this because what would be better in December than summer-fresh basil for recipes? I also had someone recommend pesto for the same reason – you can make it and then freeze it for later use.