Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Pasta & corn salad with red bell pepper sauce

Thank you guys giving me advice on my oven's knob. Tanna, Deborah and Cynthia, I listened to you, run a search on internet and got some crucial information. And yesterday I tested it on roasting a chicken, it turned out fine. Tomorrow I will try another setting for baking cake and see how... Since I'm still testing on the oven so I believe in the coming few posts, I won't do anything that involves baking.

Yesterday I was watching a local food channel and saw a chef do such a dish - sauteed garlic and red bell pepper, cooked with double/heavy cream and vegetable stock, then pureed, and tossed it with some fist-size pasta. A lovely idea but two things I don't like... as a meal I normally prefer my pasta savory rather than sweet (not even slightly); second, don't you think the size of his pasta is totally wrong? Anyway, I love his sauce; I keep his platform but change to play it with a salad dish: medium piston rings and sweet kernels are in, and adding roasted red pepper let my tastebuds sing! With fried sage leaves (or some dried herbs also sound good to me) to finish. If you have rucola, add it in, even better. Since sage leaves are used, this salad is perfect to enter this week of Weekend Herb Blogging. This event is found by our wonderful Kalyn, but this week WHB is guest hosted by Myriam from Once upon a tart. Please go to her site after the weekend and check for the round-up.

While I was taking some photos of my sage plant, I just couldn't stop myself being nosy and filmed my neighborhood... I see most people who live on the top floor tend to grow many plants and even trees... Tree in an apartment, in a city! Fantastic!
To make the red bell pepper sauce
Ingredients (yield: 2 servings)
  • 1 big fresh red bell pepper, seeded, diced
  • about 2 good slices of roasted red pepper in vinegar (in jar), patted dry, diced
  • 2 cherry tomatoes (blanched them if the skin bothers you), seeded, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • some olive oil or butter (I prefer butter)
  • some vegetable stock
  • some double/heavy cream
  • salt and pepper (I used ground white pepper)

How to:

  • Pre-heat a skillet, add olive oil/butter, saute the garlic for 30 seconds over low heat, then add in red pepper, roasted pepper, tomato, and you may need to raise up the heat a bit, continue to saute for about 5 minutes. Add a few table spoons of stock and cream, simmer it for another 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Puree the sauce

To serve:

First, fry the sage leaves (pre-heat the oil first, then lower the heat during frying, it only takes 20 seconds to get done). I don't see the fresh sage leaves go well with this salad, but once they got fried, the original woodsy and grassy flavor are gone, but left with a superb crisp texture!

Mixed cooked piston rings and corn kernels (my ratio is 2:1), toss in the pepper sauce, sprinkle more fried sage leaves on top. Serve in room temperature.

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30 comments:

sunita said...

Yaay! You're back with a bang!And that too with my favourite-pasta...looks absolutely delicious.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Welcome back! And thanks for such a lovely dish -- it looks so delicate and inviting.

FH said...

Good to see back in action Gattina, missed you terribly!:))
Pasta looks yum with Pepper sauce,very nice.
Love that tree growing on the top floor, my kinda girl she is!:D

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Nice to have you back Gattina - and with a lovely dish! At least you are now in Europe. ;-)

Mishmash ! said...

hey u back!!! How ve you been..?Hope you re enjoying your new home and neigbourhood too :)

Sauce sounds delicious too :)

Shn

Blue Zebra said...

Back with flair Gattina!!! Looks fantastic and love the piston rings. So much more delicate and so fun looking!

Good luck with the baking! :D

Saffron said...

Welcome back darling! here as well if you have a terrace than..you can grow trees: it's like a garden in a top floor!
I like your recipe but maybe I won't add the cream! Baci

Warda said...

So Nice to have you back Gattina. What a fresh pasta dish. I love your new neighborhood.

Burcu said...

so nice to have you back, Gattina! I missed your beautifly clear pictures, and delicicous recipes. welcome back

Katie Zeller said...

Wonderful pasta! I love fresh sage and use lots of it!
Did you know that it is legal (or at least was 3 years ago) to grow marijuana, for personal consumption only, in Spain? That's why you see so many green balconies in Barcelona! And smell it so often on the street!

Anh said...

Gattina, welcome back! :)

Now, I know the feeling of living in a city. It is just so different to see plants in top floors and all.

Your salad is wonderful. Great way of using sage, too.

Cynthia said...

You don't know how happy I am to see you back cooking and posting :) Glad the chicken roasting worked out. Hope the other baking works well too.

I like that sauce, will try it.

Callipygia said...

Oh I like the shape and size of the pasta, definitely a nice pair with the sauce. And you're not really spying as much as "taking in" your environment...

Gattina Cheung said...

sunita, thanks for your welcoming arms :D

Lydia, thank you. And I love a lot of sauce, glad this one (seems to me) not having much fat.

Asha, the trees, plants and all do make things look different (huge better), don't they? Quite many people like to grow palm tree on roof tops too, pretty!

Meeta, thanks! My hubby is very Asian in his heart, but we have to save money before this dream (move to Hong Kong) comes true, that city costs a lot more...

Shn, BIG hello!!! The neigborhood looks good, now just hope our neighbors on next door are goodie-goodie; we had quite many bad storis about next-door-neighbors in other previous places, so fear still lingers :P

Blue Zebra, I love matching piston rings with corn kernels; their textures are indentical (to me). And thanks for your encouragement to my baking. I hate being blind-folded in setting the oven's heat, but not much choice for now...

Simona, you have a plenty of room to allow double cream :) :) I also see most neigbors in Roma, as long as any where they found soil around their houses, they will grow things. It is good!

Rose, many thanks! I like them too, and may like to tell more later :D

Burcu, oh I miss you too! Seems my camera having a little problem after all that traveling... hope it'll be fine soon...

Katie, really?!!! And I'm also so asmased by seeing (from bloggers in Italy and France) abundant poppy just growing wild! My grandfather because he smoking opium got kicked out...

Anh, thanks for your e-mail, and I changed the info *big hug* I always love city, in the past few years in NJ, small town livng was nice, but just not my thing.

Cynthia, big thanks to your previous tip! I love this sauce a lot, hope you'd like it as much as I do :D

Gattina Cheung said...

Calli, heeheee...
I've seen your comment about pasta's different texture lead to different taste in somewhere, you are so right!!! The pasta in this shape ends up a sweeter note, nice!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Gattina! Lovely dish

Brilynn said...

Great to see you blogging again, and with a great dish!

Anonymous said...

Nice pasta you've got.
I'm nosy sometimes too. I like to peep (not intentional) into windows, esp if it's the kitchen facing the common corridor. :P
Welcome back!

Nabeela said...

Oh Gattina, it's good to see your wonderful and colorful recipes :)

Anonymous said...

Sei molto brava. Ciao

Unknown said...

Great to have you back, my friend *hug*

Amy said...

This sounds divine! I love roasted red pepper sauces. Welcome back, I've missed your posts so much!

Anonymous said...

Hooray!! Not only are you back--the recipe is marvelous. AND pictures of your neighborhood let me see in my mind where you live. However, soon there will be long lines of people trying to get into your home, to eat the delicious food. :) The pasta looks so good, I want some and would line up at your door, if I could.

Edith said...

It is so nice to see you cooking again. I misses all your dishes you know.

Anonymous said...

Hi - It was good. I was missing something in it, though...I wondered if Pinon nuts would have been a nice addition. Just a thought! Thanks for the great idea -

Peter M said...

First time visitor and I love the roasted red pepper/tomato combo on the sauce. You've inspired me to try such a sauce.

Kalyn Denny said...

Nice to see you're posting again. Sounds like you're having an interesting time with the oven knobs. Glad you're getting the hang of it. Love the sound of the sauce with red pepper and a touch of cream, yum.

Shella said...

The pasta looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

Abt the pic. i have always been wondering how I could grow something like a tree on my balcony?? Maybe you could help, by asking the neighbors ;-)

Anonymous said...

This looks really wonderful. I love the different way you used ditalini pasta; and the fried sage was just icing on the cake! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the lovely photos.
Ciao!

Ginny said...

I finally got around to trying this recipe last night. It was amazing! Thanks for the idea! I am very glad I tried it!