Garbage never tasted so good...

I've been experimenting in the kitchen lately. I got some new cookware from my lovely Aunt Nancy (red le creuset, nonetheless) and am learning the joys of cooking in some really amazing and heavy pots and pans. I've made a few pasta dishes with fresh veggies that have been pretty tasty, my favorite being stewed tomatoes and okra with whole wheat linguini, but the best is a dish I fondly refer to as "garbacini."

Garbacini is something that I feel I should trademark, it's old food thrown into pasta. Garba = garbage, Cini=um, pasta (my Italian translation is probably off here). It is essentially any type of left over ingredient, sauteed in olive oil, butter, garlic and onions and then thrown into pasta. Ideally it's a cream sauce, but that's only if there's milk or cream in the fridge.

Anyway, the creation of garbacini was in 2008 during the first family girls trip to Hilton Head Island. I am generally the cook for a week spent with the female portion of my immediate family. During the day, we lie on the beach, read boatloads of books, do yoga, drink a bit and eat a lot. In the evening, I just make whatever I want or whatever is requested, sometimes it's steaks on the grill, sometimes it's nachos, but the last dinner we eat is always garbacini. We take inventory of the stuff we have left over, and I create a custom pasta dish for the evening. Garbage pasta, if you will. And trust me, you would.

My favorite is, of course when we have lots of left over veggies, but you can put anything from chicken to steak to scrambled eggs in it. It's a great way to get rid of cooked leftovers and extras, below is the, well, umm, I don't know if it can be called a recipe because it is just kind of a mish mosh....but here's the basics:

Saute garlic and onions in olive oil.

Add veggies, hard ones first -- ex. broccoli before peppers, carrots before broccoli, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms last...the longer they take to get soft, the sooner you add them. You may have to put in more olive oil, but keep the heat at medium max, and just get them soft enough to keep some crunch, but that they're cooked enough to eat.

Here's where you get creative, left over steak? Sure! Chicken? Yep. Bacon? Why not? If there's a vegetarian in the house, these ingredients may change. :)

While cooking the veggies & other stuff, boil your pasta in salted water, homemade pasta if you have the time!

So, then you add cream, butter, Parmesan, salt and a lot of pepper to the veggie mix, keep it on medium low and stir pretty constantly until the cheesy chunks are melted, we usually have brie (yum) and blue cheese left over too, and I throw it in at his point. I am a firm believer in cheese. Almost to the point of obsession, the more cheese the better. Seriously.

When the pasta is done, throw the cheesy, veggie, meaty or whatever goodness on top and VOILA... you just created Garbacini.

Oh, and the picture above is the most beautiful beagle in all the world. Garbacini doesn't photograph very well. Luigi, however, does.

This is the end, my beautiful friend...for gardening anyway.

The garden is officially dug up, the tomatoes are but a memory, the eggplant eaten, and the stinking non-tomatilloing tomatillo plant has left the neighborhood for good. Below are some details...

This is all that's left of the last haul. Beautifully photographed, then systematically devoured. The green zebra's won the petit jardin challenge. They were tasty, tart, beautiful, and I could ignore them and they rewarded me handsomely. (If only everything could be this easy). The cherokees were a disappointment, I got only 4, they tasted terrific, but left me wanting more. The yellow pears will be a garden staple for the rest of my gardening years (bold statement, I know...I am very young), but they were amazingly prolific and tasty, tasty, tasty. Tomatillos, as subtly alluded to above, were a disappointment. I had the most gorgeous huge plant, that constantly had blooms, and I got 2 tomatillos. Total. 2. This plant was freaking HUGE, you can probably gather that I was a bit annoyed. I will continue with the canopy contraption next year, and I will use the awesome purple cages my mom bought me, but I will prune. A lot. The non-pruning was, I believe, not good for my yield. I knew it was an experimental year, so I chalk it up to learning.

I think next year I will have a substantially smaller garden. Space-wise it'll be the same, but I got overwhelmed and drowned out some of the plants by over planting. And the season was a little rough, I thought it was me, but it turns out most of the backyard gardeners I know had challenges with lots of rain/draught/hot/cool/stormy/icky weather to battle. So the plan for petit jardin 2011 is 4 tomato plants, a few peppers, 2 rosa bianco eggplants, an artichoke or 2, a cucumber and some okra. And maybe some spinach. And beets. Oh, and lettuce. And perhaps carrots.

Oh crap.

Ah, fall...Welcome!

Fall is upon us, the weather is changing, days are shortening and gardening is nearly over. Some may assume this would make this gardener sad...some would be wrong. At the end of August, I am always strangely ready to be done with the garden. I kicked around the idea of doing fall crops this year, didn't do it, and am kind of glad. I'm not sure why, but every year after the planting, nurturing, loving and most importantly eating of the crops, I am ready to be done. It is a lot of work, and from May through the middle of August I do it willingly and am excited about it, some may say I even brag about it. But, right now my garden looks like an overgrown mess. Don't judge me, these plants want to be done too, they worked hard for three months and are ready to be done. A horticultural circle of life, if you will.

Below is my eggplant recipe that I use regularly and absolutely love. Of the three types of eggplant I put in the ground this year, Rosa Bianco was by far the fave. Not only was it beautiful, as seen above, but it was tasty and I got about 6 off the plant. Great job Mr. Eggplant!

EGGPLANT ROLANTINI

Eggplant (about 4 lbs - 2 big ones)
32 ounces ricotta cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
8 tablespoons grated Parmesan
20 fresh basil leaves, chopped
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups fresh tomato sauce

Directions
Preheat the grill pan and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Place a rack over a large baking sheet. Cut the ends off the eggplant, then cut the eggplants lengthwise, into 1/2-inch thick slices (the outer parts that have a lot of skin can be thrown away or cut into cubes for a stir-fry later, they will be too tough for this). Arrange eggplant slices onto rack. Sprinkle with salt (kosher preferably) to help remove bitterness from the eggplants. Set aside for about 10 minutes. Rinse off the salt from the eggplants and pat dry with a towel. Spray hot grill pan with vegetable spray and then place eggplant slices on the grill until browned on each side and tender, I usually brown them about 4 minutes per side and then put slices aside to cool

In a large bowl, beat eggs until lightly scrambled. Mix the ricotta in with the egg. Add mozzarella, 3 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and gently combine. Fold in basil just to combine. Don't over mix or else it gets too runny.

Put a tablespoon of the cheese mixture on 1 end of the eggplant and roll up tightly. Place the eggplant rolantini into a greased (with olive oil) 13 by 9-inch baking dish, seam side down. Continue with remaining eggplant. Pour the tomato sauce on top of the eggplant rolantini as evenly as possible. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and bake for 15 minutes. When cooked, drizzle the top with olive oil. If you like cheese a lot, you can double the Parmesan on the top, or use Romano for a more pungent flavor

For a super easy and delicious tomato sauce:

Buy 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes with basil from any supermarket

Saute 2 carrots, sliced in little circles, 2 pieces of celery (diced), a small yellow onion (chopped), 2 garlic cloves (diced), in a couple tablespoons of olive oil until tender

Pour in the tomatoes and throw in a bay leaf and let cook on low for 45 minutes to an hour

Remove the bayleaf when the sauce is done cooking and then throw the tomato mixture in a blender, blend til smooth. You can freeze or can any left over, frozen will last forever, canned will last in the fridge for a week or two.