Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers

This recipe was a great find for someone like me, who doesn't take much creative license in the kitchen without permission. Mostly because ideas such as "stuff some chevre inside those cute little sweet peppers" don't usually come to me on their own. But as soon as I spotted this idea on Pinterest? Total light-bulb moment. This makes for a quick and easy snack, but still feels pretty high-class if you ask me. I made them on Monday night for the ladies in my small group, and I think they went over pretty well! I just have one not-so-great picture today, but definitely click through to the original recipe to see just how endearing and enticing these are.

Chevre Stuffed Sweet Peppers on bell'alimento

Used From Our CSA
mixed yummy peppers

Thoughts on the Recipe
It was hard to mess this one up. I thinned out the goat cheese with a small amount of olive oil (partly to stretch it further and partly to make it a little less crumbly), and added some salt and pepper. I ended up with a little extra after all, so probably could have roasted a few more peppers.

I definitely recommend these guys for your next dinner party or social gathering. Does anybody have suggestions for something else I should fill a tiny pepper with? Tell me please, because I'm probably too dense to think of it myself.

Fettuccine with Agretti & Tomato Peach Salad

Today I have two dishes to share that we made on Wednesday night. Along with some burgundy beans, these two things made for an awesome mid-week dinner (albeit time-intensive).

Our main dish was this lemon fettuccine with agretti. For the most part we do not tend to be big pasta people, but since we had no earthly idea what to do with the agretti or previous context for how to eat it, pasta seemed like a reasonable place to start. And man oh man, what a treat; who knew that lemon and bacon could compliment each other so well? Add in the agretti, and we had the perfect triumvirate of winning at pasta. We ended up dumbing down the recipe quite a bit; and I'll elaborate more on that below. But even with our cheats it was totally worthwhile. 

Lemon Fettuccine with Agretti, Bacon, and Roasted Garlic on Round the Table

On the side we had this tomato, peach & burrata salad. It's basically a fun variation on the caprese salad theme: heirloom tomato, peach, burrata cheese, and a balsamic reduction with some basil. A total win and, in contrast to the pasta, quick and easy to put together. As she says in the recipe, fresh mozzarella can substitute for the burrata if needed. It was more steeply priced, but we decided to spring for it because we were curious. It's basically a cream-infused fresh mozzarella, so ... yeah; we obviously wanted to give that a whirl. And since we only needed half of it, we should be able to repeat this recipe again soon. Woohoo!

Tomato, Peach & Burrata Salad on two peas & their pod 

Used From Our CSA
agretti
peaches
burgundy beans (eaten on the side)

Thoughts on the (Pasta) Recipe
- We had several ingredient substitutions in this: regular fettuccine instead of lemon fettuccine (couldn't even find it at our run-of-the-mill grocery store), raw garlic instead of roasted (didn't want to take the time to roast it ourselves for just two cloves' worth), and Parmesan cheese instead of Romano (because it's what we keep on hand). I'm sure it had the potential to be even more awesome had we used some of those swankier things, but the good news is that it was still great without them.
- I'm not sure if this is always the case, but we realized, once we had served up our finished pasta, that the agretti stems were pretty woody and tough to eat. So we went through it all after the fact to cut the softer leaves from their stems, which clearly would have been much easier before it was all cooked and cheesy. Next time we'll get that right, but still: no real harm done. Once that was taken care of I really enjoyed the taste of this interesting Mediterranean vegetable.


Has anyone else ever cooked with agretti? Did you have to remove the stems? What did you make? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Grilled Asparagus Tartines

I was totally smitten with this simple appetizer/side dish. Steve liked these too, but not nearly as much as I did, and I think I know why: this to me totally feels like something you would be served at a classy garden party or bed and breakfast. Where's my floppy sun hat? Personally, I can easily get behind food that is both delicious and makes me feel fancy, but I can see why Steve might not be so excited about that prospect.

Grilled Asparagus Tartines on Panini Happy

Sidenote: this website is completely devoted to recipes that can be made using a panini press. We don't have one ourselves, but I still think that concept is pure genius. Although we have been known to use our George Foreman Jr. to make paninis before - because we're resourceful (or maybe just desperate) like that.

Tartine: a fancy French open-faced sandwich topped with spreadable ingredients.

Used From Our CSA
asparagus
red scallions

I'm half counting the bread here too. It was not part of our CSA, but we grabbed it a few weeks ago at a local bakery for about $4. Then we cut it into thirds, froze them all separately, and collectively it lasted us two weeks - so good. We will be doing that again soon!

Thoughts on the Recipe
- If yesterday's chopped kale salad is the perfect make-and-take, dish, these tartines are the opposite of that. In my opinion, this is the kind of thing you want to pull off the skillet (or panini press, or grill), assemble as quickly as possible, and shove in your mouth while it's still hot and therefore at optimum levels of deliciousness. Is that allowed?
- These ended up being a little overboard on the oil for us, but I think it had more to do with our pesto than anything. Pesto is so easy to make but we got a small jar from the store this time around (whomp, whomp ... I know), and it was pretty oily. So next time I'll be more sparing with the oil when toasting the bread, unless maybe I have some homemade/less oily pesto.
- I sprinkled on a bit of kosher salt with the pepper.

We had these with a chicken dish we've made before, which we were able to use our CSA chicken breasts for. Check that recipe out here if you're so inclined (it's a work-intensive dish, but we enjoy it from time to time): Crispy Parmesan Chicken on The Comfort of Cooking. Together, they made for a delightful weekend dinner.