Four Seasons Of Pasta

by Anja Haelg Bieri

Hi, my name is Anja Haelg Bieri. I’m a doctoral student at Virginia Tech, and the initiator of the Blacksburg Walks. I would like to share some of my favourite pasta recipes with you. I cook pasta all year long, so I’ve selected one recipe per season.

Make fresh pasta sauce!

You can find most of these ingredients at the Blacksburg farmers market. Grow a little kitchen garden and harvest fresh herbs from spring to autumn from your own production. Read about how to grow a kitchen garden here! Take advantage of the bounty of summer and dry and can as much as you’re able to in autumn.

Pasta, of course, is not a local good, but for the sauce the local produce taste the best. Your pasta sauce will be the most delicious if you prepare it just before you want to serve it – most of them take just under 30  minutes. A good tomato sauce takes either under 30 minutes or over 3 hours.

How I cook and serve pasta

Of course, just as the sauce, the pasta must be freshly cooked as well. My Italian grandmother used to say: "Pasta shouldn’t wait for people, people should wait for pasta." In other words: Serve it when everybody is sitting at the table – waiting for you to carry out the steaming fresh plate of pasta.

• Take at least 1 liter per 100g of pasta plus 1 liter for the pot, (a standard US pasta pack needs to be cooked in 6-7 liters of water, that’s 1.5 gallons.
• bring the water to a boil
• hold out your hand and make a little salt mountain in your palm, bigger or smaller depending on the water
• add the pasta, stir, time 2 minutes earlier than what it says on the pasta package
• when done, pour into colander, slide back into pot
• add ½-1 tablespoon of butter and mix pasta well
• immediately mix with the sauce and serve.

Spring Pasta

Start heating the water for the pasta and throw the pasta in when the water has come to a boil. Make sure that the sauce will be ready at the same time as the pasta. This dish goes well with penne.

2 tablespoons olive oil           
4 cloves garlic, roughly cut       
1 medium onion               
½ chili, finely chopped           
1 bunch of fresh spinach or dandelion   
½ cup white wine (or water)   






salt                   
ground pepper
nutmeg               
olive oil                   
fresh goat cheese (roughly crumbled)   

heat up in a sauté pan
add to the oil and sauté them (don’t let them get too hot and brown)
add after 1-2 minutes and sauté until tender (shiny)
add together with the onions
wash and cut into 1-2 inch pieces, add to the rest and sauté
deglaze and let simmer on medium heat (spinach about 5-10 minutes, dandelion about 10-20 minutes)

add to taste during cooking
add to taste before serving
add to taste before serving
add to taste before serving
sprinkle over the vegetables

Summer Pasta

The eggplants take a while to soften, so you can start heating the water somewhere in the middle of your sauce cooking process. This goes well with spaghetti or linguine.

Which eggplants to take?
Try different varieties, for this recipe I prefer the round violet-white ones, you can find them at the Blacksburg farmers market. The little slim long ones are very tender and take less time to soften. Try them all and see which ones you prefer.

How to prepare eggplants?
Wash, leave skin on, and just take off the dark part which attaches it to the plant. Then cut to your liking.

4 tablespoons of olive oil   
6 big cloves of garlic, cut in halves    

 
1-2 eggplants, chopped into ½ inch cubes       
salt to taste           





about 10 oregano leaves 
2-4 tomatoes     (your choice, take very ripe ones)

fresh basil, fresh flat parsley    

gently heat up in a sauté panwhen oil is hot, tilt the pan so you get a little lake of oil, gently “fry” the garlic in there until soft and shiny, reduce heat
add to the pan
immediately add to the eggplant, it helps softening them up
Stir-fry for 10-15 minutes (it is important to get them really soft, otherwise they taste unripe, slightly bitter),
You can start heating water during the eggplant cooking process.
add to the eggplants when almost soft.
chopped into ½ inch cubes or so, add when eggplants are soft.
continue stir-frying, add a little salt if necessary, cook for another 10-15 minutes   
roughly chop and mix with the sauce when it’s ready to serve   

Immediately mix with the buttered pasta. Serve with fresh parmesan cheese and ground pepper.

Fall Pasta

Goes well with broad tagliatelle. And if you have leftovers, serve it over polenta instead of pasta the next day. For this dish I use a dutch oven like Le Creuset. Or any large sauté pan with a lid.

3 tablespoons olive oil           
½ tablespoon Butter           
1 rabbit (check at the farmers market)    either cook it whole and cut it before serving or cut it into big pieces (legs, sides, etc.) for cooking

2 tablespoons of olive oil (depending on how much fat is left in your pot)
6 big cloves garlic, in halves                   
1 onion or chalottes, roughly chopped            
1-2 twigs of fresh rosemary or ½ tablespoon of dried rosemary   
2 carrots, cut in big pieces (e.g. 2 inches whole carrot)       
1 celeriac (the root), cut into 1 inch pieces, ½ inch thick
salt   
1 pound tomatoes (fresh or canned), roughly chopped
1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1-2 bayleaves, 1-2 cloves                   
½ cup red wine       





Fresh italian (flat) parsley
Ground pepper, salt
1 clove garlic, to taste

pour into pan
place into the oil, heat up
sear in the fat until slightly browned, remove from pot and keep on a     plate while you sauté the vegetables, do not clean the pot, use it for the veggies:




add and stir-fry
add and stir-fry
add and stir-fry

add with a little salt, stir-fry until everything is nicely sautéed
add and mix


add and mix

add and mix into sauce

add and keep at a slight boil for 5 minutes

Bring the rabbit back into the pot and cover it with sauce. Let simmer in covered pot for about 1 1/2-2 hours.

When done, sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and ground pepper. Salt to taste.
Press 1 fresh clove garlic into it and mix.

Winter Pasta

Goes well with small pasta, like penne, farfalle or shells.
Butternut squash stays nice for quite a while in your cellar, so you can use them way after harvest time. Butternut squash is the most exquisit in taste and texture of the squashes you can get here. But do also experiment with other squashes you have grown or found at market. Add a little potato to change the consistency. Add a handful of 1/2 inch slices of bacon, nicely baked for extra taste.

½ tablespoon butter (or oil, if you prefer)
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 twig of rosmary, 2 leaves of sage   
1 onion, finely chopped           
1 butternut squash, cut in ½ inch cubes
salt, ground pepper
1/2-1 cup white wine or cider or apple juice
mace or nutmeg    

1 handfull of cashew nuts


Parmesan/Parmiggiano

melt/heat in pan
   

sauté all these things in butter until slightly shiny
add and sauté for a couple of minutes
add to taste
add and let simmer until squash is tender
add to taste

In a little frying pan, roast cashew nuts and mix with squash.

Serve with roughly grated parmesan cheese.