Acini Di Pepe
On the topic of healthy eating, I’ve found that I can actually cook in quite a bit less fat as well as substituting relatively-healthy olive oil in for the massive amounts of butter I used to use. And I’ve found I can eek a lot more flavor out of butter simply by taking a small amount and letting it brown slightly.
This dish was made, literally, with what we had laying around the house left over from other projects. Heather was toying with the camera so captured a bit of the mis en place for the dish. One onion, two carrots, two yellow squash, two zucchini. I sauted the onion for a few minutes in a bit of olive oil, then added the carrot, then about 2 minutes later, the squash and zucchini. To the saute I added a hint of cumin and a good helping of Hungarian smoked paprika and a bit of garlic salt (the horror! but it works here) as I didn’t feel like cutting up any garlic. After it had all started to soften, I added in a half cup of white wine and let that boil away.
All while this was going on, I sliced up half a tomato we had left over, a seeded cucumber, and zested a meyer lemon. The juice of half the lemon went into the saute. On another burner, I was boiling the Acini di Pepe away.
At the last minute before combining, I added a handful of sliced almonds to the sauted vegetables and let that cook for a minute or so, then combined the warm vegetables, lemon zest, pasta and a little bit of oil, browned butter and salt.
The plate was garnished with a wedge of the remaining lemon half, the cucumber and the tomato.
It was good. Fresh and the contrast between the saute and the clean vegetables and the lemon really added some punch. We ate it and have had it the last two nights as a side dish.