Two nights ago my parents and I went to Peter Luger's Steakhouse in Brooklyn to belatedly celebrate my father's birthday. The meal was delicious (pictures and a review will eventually appear on this blog), but our mouths and stomachs were thoroughly coated with grease, enough for two days in fact. As such we decided last night to go for a lighter, meat free dinner. My mother got to take a break from cooking and I prepared Penne all'Arabiata and a beautiful salad with ingredients I can't readily find in Israel.
Perhaps more exciting than the dinner yesterday, was my trip to Kalustyan's with my mother where we purchased all sorts of ingredients that can't be found in Israel, and for the most part are hard to come by elsewhere in the States as well. I bought white and black cardamon, white poppy seeds, tangerine and lime oil, a ton of different chilies, some pickled galangal, xanthum gum, wasabi mayonnaise, a number of kinds of peppercorns, thai green chili paste, sambal olek, and more. I love Kalustyan's! If I could, I would buy everything in the store. It is its own kind of Shuk with more variety than anywhere, it's really wonderful. The employees and perhaps the present owners are South Asian, but the name is Armenian, who along with the Jews are history's traditional merchants. Some one in Israel needs to get in touch with their importer.
As for the dinner, it was delicious. The salad I made was with locally raised farm carrots of both orange and yellow varieties, along with radicchio, which is super bitter, and slices almonds. Because of the bitterness of the radicchio, we put on a fair amount of both aged balsamic and balsamic reduction for acidity and sweetness to compliment it. Yum! Make this at home, it's quick and delicious.
Ingredients:
Pasta
1 box of penne
2 tbls olive oil
1/2 spanish onion, diced
1 dried pepperoncino, seeds removed, then crumpled with your fingers
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbls of red wine vinegar
2 400ml cans of italian cherry tomatoes
Salad
1 bunch of orange carrots, sliced in 4
1 bunch of yellow carrots, sliced in 2
1 raddichio, sliced against the grain then pulled apart
a handful of sliced almonds (you can toast them a bit if you like)
olive oil and balsamic to taste
Directions:
Heat in the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the pepperoncino flakes, then once the oil is good and hot, add the onions. Sautée for about 10 minutes or until they start to brown, add the garlic, sautée for another 2 minutes then add the vinegar and allow to evaporate. Add the cherry tomatoes with about half the juices, add a bit of water, and allow to simmer on medium-low for ten minutes. During this time you should have a big pot of water boiling. When a rolling boil has been achieved, add a tsp of salt. Boil the penne for one minute less than the instructions on the box indicate for al dente. Purée the sauce. Strain the pasta and drizzle with olive oil to keep from sticking together. Remove to a serving dish and pour atop the sauce.
Combine all ingredients for the salad in a bowl and serve.
B'Teavon!
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