Tag Archives: cherry tomatoes

Pasta with fresh Cherry Tomato Sauce and Goat Cheese

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Sometimes wonderful recipes happen completely by accident. Last weekend I had the good fortune to come into a supply of gorgeous cherry tomatoes. One of my freelance computer clients had gotten a quantity of these tomatoes, too much for her to use, from a friend who grows them. She just happened to ask, really out of thing air, if I wanted any. Wanted any? Folks, I am too poor to buy fresh vegetables, yes, make me a repository for your garden surplus. Tomatoes are always good, but cherry tomatoes have got to be my very favorite of the tomato family. Tasty, pretty and easy to use (I usually only ever cut them in half), cherry tomatoes are always a boon to my kitchen.

I also happened to have a leftover supply of goat cheese from another recipe that I was anxious to find a use for. Perfect! I blogged recently about my roommate in Columbus who taught me how to cook great pasta dishes without following a recipe, and there was no doubt in my mind about taking the same approach here. With such a wonderfully fresh ingredient, simplicity would be key.

I started by sauteing some minced garlic, but I was distressed to recall that I’m out of onions. Diced white or yellow onions, that is. Luckily I had some green onions, so I chopped up the white parts (i.e. the most onion-y parts) and used those instead. Fair warning, this is a recipe without quantities… so one just has to eye-up what’s needed. I based my estimates on the amount of cherry tomatoes I had at hand.

PASTA WITH CHERRY TOMATO SAUCE & GOAT CHEESE

vegetable oil
minced garlic
onions, diced, or spring onions, chopped fine
cherry tomatoes
salt & pepper
paprika
pasta
goat cheese

Saute the garlic and onions in vegetable oil until softened in a medium-deep, non-stick skillet. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add to skillet. Season with salt, pepper and paprika (because everything is better with paprika). Cover and simmer on low. This will take some time. I like to cook my cherry tomatoes until they easily squish when pressed by my cooking spoon. They can be cooked longer to a saucier amalgam, if preferred.

When sauce is near ready, cook pasta according to package directions; al dente is preferred. Toss pasta with the cooked tomatoes, crumble goat cheese liberally on top. Serve and enjoy.

This dish really delighted me. Maybe I’ve been too heavily entrenched in spice-heavy curry cookery as of late, but this very straightforward mix of tomatoes and cheese hit me as unexpectedly delicious.
 

Around the House Raita

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I had a burst of cooking inspiration this weekend. Having been on vacation all week, I did a bit more culinary exploration of local restaurants than normal. I went to a couple Indian Buffets with Sabrina (not really new ones… but you may still be hearing more about them), and I got a chance to go back to Abay, which I had thoroughly enjoyed once before, and now have thoroughly enjoyed a second time.

Tomatoes, Mint, ScallionsAdd to this all a peculiar imperative to find opportunities for my mother eat more food with ginger (also more on that later), and I had an intensive weekend of cooking experiments. As part of the experimentation, I decided to make some Pakora, that is, Indian vegetable fritters, because I had been enjoying them all week at our Indian Buffet trips. I was enjoying them more than usual also because I had taken to dipping the pakora in the raita (a yogurt-based condiment) provided by each buffet. I don’t know if such practice is authentic, or just some spontaneous innovation of Americans at the India Buffet, but I found it tasty and so decided to make a raita to accompany the pakora fritters.

Problem was, I didn’t find all of the ingredients I had hoped to find at my parents’ house. In fact, after scouring many raita recipes online, I found that I couldn’t put together any one recipe in its entirety. I scoured the recipes, getting a feel of what ingredients seemed often to go together and what didn’t. I quizzed my dad on what he had available in the fridge and in his vegetable garden. There was no plain yogurt to be had in the fridge, but my suspicion was that sour cream would do just fine in a pinch. My impression from the recipes I found online was that no particular spices or herbs where standard, and so I put together a raita based on what my parents’ had around the house and in their garden:

RaitaAROUND THE HOUSE RAITA

cherry tomatoes, chopped
fresh mint
scallions
sour cream or yogurt
sprinkle of cumin
sprinkle of paprika
salt, to taste

Combine ingredients and chill.

Obviously, this is not a precisely measured recipe. Nor, I believe, should it be. It should be noted that the cherry tomatoes I found in my dad’s garden were especially small, and having only quartered them, I felt like even then, they could have been smaller. The scallions and fresh mint leaves were easily snipped small. The sour cream was stirred in to the fresh ingredients to create a dip-like consistency without overwhelming the fresh ingredients (I even added a little milk to make it a little saucier). The spices were simply to taste. I did not add salt to the initial batch, for the sake of my dad’s dietary restrictions, but I added some to my own portion.