Week 14 - Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Everything on the farm is in transition right now. Our next big wave of seeds and starter plants is in the works. We've got some late summer plantings of cucumbers and squash out, which we've got our fingers crossed were planted early enough for a second harvest before the cold sets in. I have a feeling we'll be catching it by the skin of our teeth.

In addition to our transition into a new growing season, we're also adjusting to some new routines this week. The Husband has made his official move. He is now home/on the farm full-time. I've started my new part-time job at a local pizza place. And the Boy had his very first day at Daycare this past week.

So, yet again, I have just not had the time to get out there and take pictures of the farm. I did, however, manage to get some step-by-step pictures of one of my favorite summertime dishes: Linguine with Fresh Tomato sauce. I have it here, made with bacon and chicken. But this would be lovely with some homemade meatballs, or perhaps featuring some other, tasty seasonal veggies, like summer squash, bell pepper, or mushrooms!

I'm so excited to share this recipe with you, finally! It's one of my favorites, and has been on my mind since we first got our tomatoes in the ground, many months ago. This is a simple dish, with not many ingredients, but lots of flavor. The trick is the order in which we do things, which builds layers of flavor, and also the quality of ingredients. Everything should be as fresh as possible. I wholeheartedly recommend this dish on any day of the week. It takes about 30-40 minutes to cook.

As any good cook knows, kitchens can easily become chaotic. So before you go heating up your pots and pans, get your mise en place in order. This simply means, everything in its place. Prep all of your ingredients before you start cooking, that way you can focus on the process of cooking. 

First of all, the stars of the show! I have three medium-sized paste tomatoes, here. This is one of our two varieties we are growing this year, called Costoluto Genovese. Roma/Roman tomatoes would also be an acceptable substitute. You can use slicing tomatoes, but you will ended up needing to cook the sauce a little longer, to properly cook off all the juice.

I also have a small bundle each of fresh Italian basil and parsley.

Generally, it's a good rule of thumb to chop up your herbs right before you add it to your dish; however, I prefer to chop all of my herbs and veggies before I cut up any meat, that way I (ideally!) only have to use one cutting board, from start to finish. To keep my herbs (particularly the basil) from oxidizing before I'm ready to cook with them, I toss them in 1-2 Tbsp olive oil, and set aside in the fridge.

You'll want to wash your tomatoes, and remove any blemishes. Then, simply roughly chop into medium-sized chunks. My three tomatoes came out to around 3 generous cups of tomato chunks.

2-3 Tbsp of diced garlic. You want your garlic cut finely, but still big enough that you'll be able to see it in the finished dish.

Half of a yellow onion, sliced

Linguine. For this recipe, you'll be using 1/2 the box (8 oz) to make 3-4 servings. In a pot of well-salted water, cook your linguine most of the way, about 7-8 minutes. If you taste your pasta, the texture should be a little more toothsome than al dente. Don't worry! It'll finish cooking in the sauce! Set aside 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Preheat your skillet on medium, and your pasta pot on high, covered. As soon as the water is at a boil, add your linguine. To keep your pasta from sticking together, make sure you stir the pot at least three times in the first few minutes.

Confession: I was pretty excited about cooking this meal, and didn't even think about taking pictures (duh, Neary!) until my bacon was already done. So please, take a moment to imagine the smell of bacon frying... 

So here I have three slices of bacon, which I chopped, and then rendered off in my cast iron skillet. I've pulled my bacon out to drain, but left the bacon fat in the pan. You could drain off the fat, and replace it with some olive oil if you wanted to, but I think it adds an irreplaceable depth of flavor.

Live on the wild side. Cook with the bacon grease.

Add your two seasoned chicken thighs to the pan. Sear on both sides, until chicken is golden brown, and nearly done in the center of the thickest part (if you have a meat thermometer, which I highly recommend, your chicken should register between 157-160*F). 

When your chicken is ready, set aside, and let rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing.

By now, there should be all kinds of lovely little brown bits stuck to the bottom of your pan. Go ahead and give your pan 2-3 splashes of red wine vinegar (red or white wine would also work wonderfully here), and with a wooden spoon, swirl the vinegar around and scrape up all those lovely little bits of flavor from the bottom of your pan.

Once your pan is deglazed, add 2 tbsp olive oil and let it heat up for a minute before adding your yellow onions. Season lightly with salt and pepper. When they become fragrant, and just start to turn soft, add your garlic to the pan. Cook 2-3 minutes, until garlic becomes fragrant as well. Then add your tomatoes to the pan. Stir every minute or two, until tomatoes are about halfway cooked. 

Season your sauce with 2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, and a pinch each of salt and pepper.

When your linguine is ready, move your pasta directly from the pot, into your tomato sauce. Toss well with your sauce, stirring every 2 minutes.

Our unexpected key player in this recipe is the pasta water, which is not only seasoned with salt, but also with starch. When added to your pasta sauce, will produce a silky, velvety sauce that clings to every single bit of pasta in your pan. Most people would pour this straight down the drain without a second thought, but trust me, it is well worth remembering to do.

Adding 1/4 cup at a time (I generally add around 1/2 cup total, sometimes more or less), stir pasta water into your simmering pasta and sauce. Add a second 1/4 cup when the first round has cooked off.

Slice your chicken! 

When your pasta and sauce are ready to eat, add your chicken, bacon, and herbs. Herbs not pictured here. My camera lense got fogged up. Toss well and serve immediately.

Last but not least, Enjoy!

Linguine with Chicken, Bacon, and Fresh Tomato Sauce

Makes 3-4 servings; Takes 20 minutes to prep, 20 minutes to cook

Ingredients

• 3 medium paste tomatoes, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 5 Tbsp fresh basil, chiffonade
• 3 Tbsp garlic, finely diced
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 3 slices of bacon, diced
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar, or red wine, or white wine
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup of pasta water, reserved
• Garlic and Herb seasoning, to taste
• Salt and pepper, taste
• Flour, a few pinches

Heat a cast iron skillet out medium heat. Start a pot of salted water, covered, on high heat.

Render off bacon in cast iron skillet. Remove bacon from pan, leaving behind bacon grease, if desired. If not, drain off bacon grease and add 3 tbsp olive oil to the pan.

Season chicken thighs on both sides with garlic and herbs seasoning, salt, pepper, and a few pinches of flour. Sear in skillet, 3-4 minutes on both sides, until outsides are golden brown, and internal temp reads ~160*F. When pasta water begins to boil (right around when you flip your chicken), add linguine to the pot, and stir 2-3 times in the first few minutes to prevent sticking.

When chicken is ready, remove from the pan, and set aside. Let rest for at least 5 minutes. Deglaze the pan with red wine vinegar, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon until all the little brown bits of flavor have released from the bottom of the pan.

If you need to, add about 1-2 tbsp of olive oil to the pan. Add onions, and season very lightly with salt and pepper. When onions are just beginning to soften, add garlic to the pan. Cook 3-4 minutes, until onions and garlic are fragrant. Add tomatoes to the pan, stirring well. Stir every 1-2 minutes, until tomatoes are about halfway cooked. Season sauce with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, and sugar.

When pasta is ready, transfer directly from pasta pot to skillet. Toss well with sauce. Add 1/4 c reserved pasta water to your skillet. Stir every minute, until pasta water is absorbed. Add another 1/4 cup of pasta water, and stir every minute until cooked off. Taste a small bite of your pasta. If pasta is not quite ready, add a small amount more pasta water. If it is ready, add chicken, bacon, and herbs. Toss very well, so that all herbs are dispersed, and everything is coated evenly in sauce.

Serve immediately.

Week 12 - The Homestead

This farm is so much more than just a parcel of land that we grow vegetables on. To us, it's the culmination of years of daydreaming, planning, and endless amounts of reading. The husband and I will be celebrating our 7th anniversary this coming week. Eight years ago, when we first met, one of the first things that we bonded over was a mutual interest and desire to farm and provide for ourselves, and one day, our family. As we began our self-education, we learned that what we wanted had a name: Homesteading.

The basic premise behind homesteading is simple: To provide as much as possible for yourself and your family with your own hands, labor, and knowledge. Some people are fortunate, and have older relatives and friends from which to learn many of these skills. We are not those people, and have spent a great deal of time - particularly in the last few years - constantly acquiring and practicing new skills.

With me headed back into the work force in less than two weeks, a lot of our energy and spare time has been focused on getting a good head start on our pantry and freezer for the winter. We've made laundry soap (okay, not food, but still pretty vital for this family!), pickles, and relish; frozen pounds of blueberries, zucchini, and corn; and are in the process of canning blueberry preserves, as well as baking bread to put away in the freezer. Needless to say, it's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, and it looks like that pace is only going to continue.

I love the intensity and excitement of summertime, but come August I am typically looking forward to cool weather signalling the slow-down of our home life. C'est la vie! It will come soon enough. In the meantime, feel free to shower me with caffeinated goodies and encouraging words, because this marathon is far from over!

My laundry soap, at the halfway done point. I've been using this recipe for several years now, and I love it! Not only did I make 1-1/2 gallons for about $8, but it cleans out dirt and grease better than any commercial detergent I've used, with the added bonus of not irritating my husband's and son's sensitive skin. 

We managed to get to Thomas Blueberry Farm twice this season, and came home with around 23 pounds of delicious blueberries total. I'm looking forward to enjoying these all winter long.

Obviously, the first thing I did was make a pie with it. Summer is not complete without a blueberry pie a la mode.

A good bit of it has made it into the freezer, with several pounds yet to come. The second tray that you see in the picture full of Chicken Zucchini Patties (you can find the recipe in my week 10 post. My preferred method for freezing food is worth the little bit of extra effort it takes. I line a baking pan (I definitely recommend one with sides) with wax paper, and lay whatever I'm freezing out in a single layer. Then I put it in the freezer for 5-6 hours (or overnight). After everything is thoroughly frozen, then I put it into freezer bags. It's so much easier to remove the proper portion later, as nothing is frozen together! 

A batch of sweet and spicy pickles in the works. We have both cucumbers and zucchini in this brine. The red pieces you see are whole dried chilies.

I had to take another picture of our lettuce this week. I'm so proud of this product. Admittedly, it's not the most exciting thing that we grow, but it is the most essential. This season, our lettuce mix has become the backbone of our operation, and we've harvested at least 300 pounds since our 2017 season officially started.

We're trying something new at the market this week - single-serve salad kits, featuring cucamelons and tomatoes. Just wash and add dressing. What a great way to get a small taste of what Nantahala Heirloom Farm has to offer!

Last week saw a soft start to our ground cherry season. We have a limited number of boxes available for sale. Come get them while you can! They didn't last long on the table last week, and I expect them to fly quickly again!

CSA shares will be receiving - Little Gem Lettuce, Tomatoes, Ground Cherries, Lemon Basil, Opal Basil, and Soy Beans.

Two very, very simple recipes for you this week. High quality ingredients don't need a lot of fussing to really shine, so we're going to celebrate simplicity.

First off, let's talk about chocolate-covered ground cherries. You can use either dark or milk chocolate. That's totally up to your personal preference. 

Peel your ground cherries, but DO NOT remove the husk. If you take a look at the picture above, you can see that the husk has been gently pulled backwards This makes a nifty little handle. Melt your chocolate. Holding onto your new husk handle, dip each ground cherry in chocolate, and set down on a parchment-lined tray. 

When all your ground cherries are covered, place your tray in the fridge, and allow your chocolate to set, 1-2 hours. Pat yourself on the back! You've made a fancy dessert, and hardly done any work at all.

We have a new offering this week - Soy Beans, or Edamame. One of my favorite ways to enjoy these is simply to boil them. This is definitely a veggie that needs to be cooked to be enjoyed. And once you've boiled them, you can add them to basically anything that you can dream up.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil on the stove. (You could lightly salt the water if that is your preference, but for soy beans, I prefer the water to be pretty aggressively salted. The short cook time and tough pod mean that not much salt will penetrate to the bean itself.) While your water is coming to a boil, thoroughly rinse off your soy beans. Add the beans to the water when it begins to boil, and back off the heat just a little bit, so your pot doesn't boil over. Boil for 10 minutes. 

This is the point that I like to take mine out, when they're a little on the al dente side, but you can cook them for 5 more minutes if you prefer yours a little more done. To test the done-ness, simply, carefully, remove a bean from the water, and rinse under cold water to cool. Squeeze out a soy bean. If you like them, pour the pot into a colander. If not, let them cook a little longer, and taste a bean every couple of minutes until they're as done as you like them.

Once your beans are ready, pour them into a colander, but do not rinse . Enjoy as is for a tasty snack, or remove from the shell, and throw your cooked soy beans into stir-fry, curry, fried rice, or whatever else you can dream of.

That's all for now! As always, we look forward to seeing you at market! Happy eating!