Pesto Rigatoni with Sauted Rapini Greens

We are still getting the CSA boxes despite the fact that my garden is about to explode. I've got a lot of great herbs, tomats have begun to bear fruit, zucchini plant is insane and has already given us three squash, and beets and potatoes are getting close.

We got rapini greens (brocoli rabe) from CSA and basil. I'm getting quite a bit of basil in the garden, so we sort of have to make recipes that use a LOT of basil. So Monday's meal was a lovely rigatoni with homemade pesto and greens. The pesto recipe comes from a book that I am more and more coming to adore, The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. Waters, as you well know, is brilliant. I didn't realize how much was missing from our meals until we started using this cookbook. It really is simple. The first recipe we tried was the Minestrone soup. The flavor was unbelievable. Usually, I throw things in a pot and sort of add an assortment of random spices. By following very specifically her recipe, we discovered crisp flavors that were never overly salty or peppery. Waters uses spices in ways that enhance the flavor of the ingredients, I use spices in a haphazard way that hopes that my food won't be bland.

The nice part of summer is that I get to do more of kind of cooking that makes me better. I think my cooking reflects my life. Most often, JE cooks during the week. I cook weekends and once during the week, more or less. I usually come up with ideas or plan our menus, but I fall short in the execution. Sort of like this school year, good with ideas, short on execution. Too overwhelmed, so I would rush through stuff. The summer allows me to explore, take time to really read and understand, reflect, and most importantly relax. Summer vegetables and fruits require that - a sort of slow, lingering moment to savor their richness and color - bright red tomatoes, brilliant green zucchini with their orange flowers like sherbet, glossy peppers in yellows, reds and orange, pink fleshy fruits, melons whose rough, scabby exterior opens to reveal a cool, sugary flesh you can practically drink. Despite evolving as a society that really doesn't need summer break, we do. We need to eat watermelon on the porch and spit the seeds at one another. We need to feel the warm sand under our toes and the cool water licking our ankles. We need to wear sundresses and sandals and big floppy hats. We need to sleep for hours or run for hours or play for hours. We need bicycles through the sprinklers and rolling down grassy hills. We need the sun on our face. We need hikes through the trees and babbling brooks to dip our tired feet. Its nice to recharge and enjoy the moments. I guess despite all the frustrations of teaching, this I can at least enjoy and know that despite many things it comes every year, giving me that much needed time to let go and get to a place where I can be a better me.

I got lost in all of this, so if your interested in the recipe, here goes:

Pesto (The Art of Simple Food)
1 bunch basil to yield 1 lightly packed cup
In mortar and pestle, pound to a paste (p.s. don't have - birthday???):
1 garlic glove peeled
salt
add and continue to pound:
1/4 c pine nuts, lightly toasted
Add: 1/4 c grated parmesan
Transfer mixture to a bowl, coarsely chop basil leaves and put them in mortar, pound into paste, return pounded pine nut mixture to mortar, pound together, continue pounding as you gradually pour in 1/2 c extra virgin olive oil, taste for salt and adjust as necessary.

Cook rigatoni

In olive oil saute chopped rapini greens, add salt, pepper as needed. I also added a tbsp of butter. Then I threw in rigatoni and pesto, stirred it all up, allowed to heat for a bit, then served. it was really fresh and very popular with JE, whose not a big veggie only eater.