Food

This pasta recipe was inspired and altered from this La Cucina Italiana recipe.

When I go to the farmer's market in the fall I look for zucchini blossoms and often they are 3 to 10 for a dollar. But at the end of the day, sellers are often still very stocked with them, and you can ask to make a deal. I made this dish with 100+ blossoms (which are pretty mild and the receipe was great with that number of them) because a seller sold me all her remaining stock for $3.

Ingredients

* Coarse sea salt
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
* 5 large shallots, thinly sliced
* 1 pound zucchini, thinly sliced crosswise
* sweet corn cut from 4 cobs
* nutmeg ground fresh to taste, about 1/2 a large pod or 3/4 tablespoon of preground nutmeg
* 10 tablespoons finely chopped fresh marjoram (it's mild when fresh and you can use a lot in this recipe)
* 50 - 100 large zucchini blossoms, stems and pistils removed
* 1 pound fresh pasta like an angel hair
* 16 ounces fresh ricotta cheese (2 cups)
* Freshly ground black pepper
* Asiago or hard cheese for grating

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add shallot, reduce heat to medium and cook for 2 minutes. Add zucchini, marjoram, corn and nutmeg; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 7 minutes more. Stir in 1/2 the zucchini blossoms and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and season with salt.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente. Reserving 1/2 cup pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta. Transfer pasta to a large serving bowl. Add zucchini mixture and ricotta; stir to combine. Moisten with pasta cooking liquid, if desired.

Serve drizzled with oil and sprinkled generously with pepper. Gently fold in the rest of the blossoms so that they are visible on top.. and sprinkle with asagio cheese as desired.

Posted by Mary Hodder at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, first, this is not made with Hachiya Persimmons but rather the ones that are more like apples, in that they are eaten when crunchy, usually fresh, and are squat in size.

First, a slice of the Persimmon Cake, which looks as carmelized as it tastes:

I adapted this Apple Cake recipe from Razzle Dazzle Recipes for Fuyu Persimmons:

Persimmon Walnut Cake

5 cups organic Fuyu Persimmons peeled, chopped into small pieces
2 cups organic evaporated cane juice sugar
2 organic eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup organic olive oil
1 teaspoon organic vanilla
2 cups organic unbleached pastry or baking flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups organic walnuts chopped

In bowl stir together chopped persimmons and 1 cup sugar; let stand 5 minutes.

Mix on high beaters: 1 cup sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Fold gently into in egg mixture until all is incorporated and dry mixture is gone, but don't overmix to keep lighter.

Fold in apples mix and walnuts, mixing well.

Pour batter into greased and floured 13 x 9 baking pan.

Bake at 350ºF for 60 minutes or until done.

The Finished Product:

You could serve it with whipped creme and another with ice cream that had chocolate and orange. Both were delicious and the persimmon really stood up to the ice cream and in fact was a great combination.

Posted by Mary Hodder at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)