When you look at the ingredients of this pesto, you might think, it will be too strong especially with the mint and pecorino. When you taste it, you realize that it is indeed fragrant but delicate. I used some whole grain linguini made with red winter wheat but any short pasta such as penne or rigatoni would work fine too. Looking at the picture, it feels like I went crazy with the quantity of pesto, which I think I did. I had some extra I didn’t want to store in the refrigerator so I added it to the pasta, which was a little too much.

I added cooked asparagus to the whole dish, which added a little extra texture. For an alternative to traditional pesto alla genovese with basil and parmesan, try this one.

A little note on pecorino, I noticed in the US, the main pecorino kinds you get are either pecorino romano (from Rome) or pecorino sardo (from Sardinia), but there are so many kinds of pecorino in Italy, the word pecorino is quite generic and only tells you it is made out of  sheep milk (pecora). There are five types of pecorini whose production is very controlled and protected “denominazione d’origine protetta“: Pecorino sardo, pecorino romano, pecorino toscano, pecorino siciliano and fiore sardo.

Spring is just around the corner and what better to celebrate it than with this fresh dish full of colors and flavors!

Ingredients for 2

• 7 oz (or 200 g) of pasta
• 8.8 oz (or 250 g) fresh peas (or frozen)
• one handful of fresh mint
• 3 tbs raw walnuts
• 1.7 oz (or 50 g) pecorino
• 2 tbs meyer lemon juice
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Start preparing the pesto. If peas are frozen, defrost in a microwave or let it thaw at room temperature. Then mix all the ingredients in a mixer until smooth, adjust with salt and pepper.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta, stir and let cook until al dente. Drain and mix well with pesto. Serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2013/03/lets-celebrate-spring-linguini-with-fresh-pea-pesto-mint-and-pecorino/feed/ 1 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/12/lets-squish-the-cauliflower-wholewheat-fettuccine-with-cauliflower-saffron-and-pecorino/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lets-squish-the-cauliflower-wholewheat-fettuccine-with-cauliflower-saffron-and-pecorino http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/12/lets-squish-the-cauliflower-wholewheat-fettuccine-with-cauliflower-saffron-and-pecorino/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:21:50 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=5693 Abbiamo schiacciato il cavolfiore – Fettuccine integrali con cavolfiore, zafferano e pecorino

Something funny happened to me today that has nothing to do with food. I am looking to buy a new car, but not really new more like second hand since I gave my Golf away. So the guy I went to meet who was selling his car, was not the one I thought I was supposed to meet. The car I thought I was going to see was a white Nissan with 9000 miles and the one I ended up meeting had a black Toyota with 28,000 miles. Basically I mixed up sellers. I have been acting strange lately, maybe I need some rest.

Besides the confusion, I have had cravings for pasta, of all kinds and shapes. I have had a strange love story with pasta, somehow during my teenager years, I just refused to eat it, since my mom was making pasta al sugo at least once a week, with leftovers that lasted for a week. There were three of us, since I am an only child, and like a good Italian mamma, my mom made food for about an army, and my dad was complaining of eating leftovers. So after I rebelled against pasta like most teenagers do, they always rebel about something, I just went by phases, either I eat pasta seven days a week or just don’t eat any for months.

Looks like, I am back with my daily consumption of carbs. I remember my mom making a soup with cauliflower and tomatoes that was delicious. This dish is inspired by a Sicilian pasta dish that I twisted around a little, and I loved it. If you have a cauliflower that has been sitting in your refrigerator and not sure what to do with it, you might want to try this pasta. You’ll be surprised to see how delicious the cauliflower sauce tastes, very light, not too strong, a real delight. In my case, I had a green cauliflower, that resulted in a beautiful greenish fettuccine dish.

Ingredients for 3

• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) wholewheat fettucine
• 1 large green cauliflower
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 saffron dose
• 1 bouillon cube dissolved in water
• 4 tbs pecorino, grated
• 4 tbs heavy cream
• 2 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Cut cauliflower florets and cook them in salted boiling water. Cook until still a little crunchy. Drain cauliflower and keep the cooking water to cook pasta.

With a potato masher or a fork, crush the floret roughly.

In a cup, mix about 1/3 cup or more hot cauliflower water with saffron threads and let it infuse for about 10 minutes. Dissolve a bouillon cube in it. (You might have to add some additional water if the sauce is too thick).

In a pan, heat olive oil and brown shallots. Add cauliflower and mix well. Add bouillon mixture, and stir well and cook for a few minutes at high heat until some of the saffron and bouillon get absorbed by cauliflower and infused in the sauce. If the sauce is too thick add extra water. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add cream. At this point, you need to have a little creamy sauce (not too liquid) with cauliflower but not too much.

Cook fettuccine in the cauliflower water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower. Mix well, let the fettuccine absorbe the sauce, add pecorino and serve hot.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/12/lets-squish-the-cauliflower-wholewheat-fettuccine-with-cauliflower-saffron-and-pecorino/feed/ 13 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/dont-break-the-egg-poached-egg-on-saute-fava-beans-snap-peas-and-aspargus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dont-break-the-egg-poached-egg-on-saute-fava-beans-snap-peas-and-aspargus http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/dont-break-the-egg-poached-egg-on-saute-fava-beans-snap-peas-and-aspargus/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:02:57 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=4648 Ne casse pas l’oeuf!! – Oeuf poché sur fèves, mange-tout et asperges sautées, balsamic et pecorino

I have had some poached eggs lately at a new little place that used to be a French restaurant called Couleur Café run by French people. It closed down, and opened again under another name, Pizza Nostra run by the same people and now it’s an Italian restaurant, well the menu is more Italian than French. I liked it before when they were serving French cuisine and I like it now serving Italian cuisine. One of my favorite brunch menu item is the poached eggs on asparagus artichokes and eggplants with a side of frisée.

The best poached egg salad I had was in Lyon. Of course, if you ever go to Lyon, you need to order a Salade Lyonnaise at L’Est one of Paul Bocuse‘s four brasseries (one of the most famous French chefs of this century). The four brasseries are comprised of Le Nord, Le Sud, L’Est and L’Ouest (North, South, East and West). That salad is really a masterpiece. Unlike other French cities, where you tend to get very tiny portions on your plate, Lyon is very different in that respect. That salad was enough for four people and so rich that it had probably the amount of calories I consume in three days…but a real delight. Actually, Lyon is my favorite city in France, I prefer Lyon than Paris, it reminds me of San Francisco, a very livable size city, a clean metro, and nicer climate.

So going back to our egg, what do you do when you get a poached egg? Do you break the egg right away or eat the rest of the dish and break the egg at the end? I think I never really changed from when I was 8 years old. I just hate to break the egg and see the yolk dripping by, sometimes I just feel like sticking the whole egg in my mouth, just not to break it.

Ingredients for 2

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup snap peas
• 1 cup fava beans, skin removed
• 4 asparagus, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp mixed herbs, chopped (parsley, chives, etc…)
• 4 slices pancetta, diced (optional)
• balsamic vinegar for drizzling
• parmesan or pecorino, shaved
• 1 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add shallots, brown them, then add pancetta, let it cook for a couple of minutes until it gets a little crunchy, then add garlic. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add snap peas and asparagus, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook at slow heat.

Remove fava beans from the pod. Bring water to a boil in a small pot, then add fava beans. Cook for one minute depending on the size of the beans. Drain, let it cool and remove the skin from the beans.

Add to the snap peas and asparagus mixture.

To poach the eggs: In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil with salt and vinegar. When it started to boil, reduce heat so that it boils very slowly. Break egg in a bowl and slowly bring the bowl on top of the boiling water and pour it very slowly and carefully in the water. Make sure the egg whites don’t get spread out in the water, and bring the white close to the yolk. You can use two spoons to try to “glue” the egg whites all together on top of the yolk. remove the egg carefully and place in cold water to rinse the vinegar and stop the cooking process.

When the vegetables are cooked but not overcooked, drizzle with balsamic vinegar, shave some parmesan on top. Spoon vegetables in serving plates, place one poached egg on top, Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.