Last Week's Sunday Recipe

In honor of DC heat, I've decided to do picnic foods.

This can be a side salad or a main course depending on how many people you spread it around. I believe the original for this recipe came out of a Seventeen magazine circa 1981. But I could be wrong.

The original recipe called for farfalle (bow ties). I like gemelli for this, but I haven't found them in whole wheat yet. If I use whole wheat pasta, it's rotini. Spaghetti and angel hair also work, if it's a main course. Don't use shells because you can't get the flavoring to pasta ratio right on the fork.


1 pound of tomatoes. More if you are trying to get rid of some or really love tomatoes. If you use whole tomatoes, skin them and chop them. Seed them if you don't like the seeds. I use the water I'm boiling for the pasta for the skinning and add the pasta afterward. If you use grape or cherry tomatoes, cut them in half. Life is too short to peel cherry tomatoes. Put it all in a large bowl. I prefer glass or pyrex. Anything except metal is fine. (I've mixed cherry tomatoes and large, peeled tomatoes in this recipe. It's very forgiving.)

1 large bunch (2/3 of a cup of leaves. More if you like) of Basil. Chop or chiffonade (roll the leaves into a long cigar and slice through them) the basil and add to the tomatoes.

2 Tablespoons of good olive oil. Add it to the tomatoes and basil.

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Add to the bowl.

At this point you can stop and refrigerate the ingredients. I usually do that for about an hour and then pull them out of the refrigerator just as I start the water for the pasta. It isn't necessary, though.

1 pound of pasta. Prepare according to the directions on the box.

1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese.

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.

Drain the pasta. Add some to the bowl with about a third of the mozzarella and nuts. Stir lightly and add more pasta, cheese, and nuts. The cheese should get a little stringy.

You can either serve it immediately or let it cool and chill it for awhile. I would use it within 24 hours, but I've known it to keep longer if well covered.

Variations:
Substitute sundried tomatoes for some or all of the fresh tomato.
Use pine nuts, pistachios, or slivered almonds in place of the walnuts. Pecans and cashews are too bland.
Try another fresh herb -- dill is good -- in place of the basil. I would keep it to ONE herb, not many.
If you really love spicy food, a seeded hot pepper cut into rings is a good addition. Warn your guests because the acid in the tomatoes seems to enhance the burn of the pepper.

Today's Recipe

Also a picnic food.

Prepare asparagus (sorry gileswench) by taking one end of the spear in each hand and gently bending it. It will snap at a natural spot. Either discard the thick end or, if you do this, save it for making vegetable broth.

Line the asparagus in a single row on a broiler pan. Liberally douse the spears with olive oil. Salt and fresh ground pepper should be applied. Put them under the broiler for three minutes if they're the very skinny Italian spears, five to seven minutes for the standard green spears, and seven to twelve minutes if they're very thick.

Set them on a platter and squeeze blood orange wedges over them. If you don't have blood oranges, squeeze any standard orange over them. If all you can find are navel oranges, mix the juice with a little lemon juice.

This was the first recipe I ever tried to redact.