Roasted mushroom goat cheese pasta

Penne with roasted mushrooms, red onions and goat cheese
This recipe is very slightly adapted from Meredith Deeds' recipe in a recent Taste section.

Ingredients
1 pound penne or other short tubular pasta
10 ounces mushrooms, cleaned and cut into wedges
1 large red onion, peeled and slices into thin wedges
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
4 ounces goat cheese, softened
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped


Method
Cook pasta according to package directions. Don't discard all the cooking water, since you'll use some to moisten things.

Toss mushrooms and onions with olive oil, thyme and salt and pepper to preference. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and bake in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Toss with chopped garlic and bake for another 10 minutes or so until tender.

Toss drained pasta with roasted mushroom mixture, goat cheese and enough pasta cooking water to create desired level of sauciness. Toss with balsamic vinegar and most of Parmesan cheese. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with remaining Parmesan and the parsley.

Rating: Perfectly fine. Not a super wower, but nice enough for a weeknight meal. And roasting mushrooms does help them out quite a bit.

Kale panini with pickled cherry peppers

The small, heart-shaped red peppers at the farmers market were adorable. I had to buy them, even though warned they were hot, and even though I hadn't a clue what to do with them. Googling yielded one basic plan: Pickle them.

These pickled gems have been patiently waiting in the back of my refrigerator since midsummer, so it was time to start using them.

Kale panini with pickled peppers

Adapted from Andrea Reusing; I believe from "Food52: Genius Recipes"

Ingredients

Kale leaves, torn into smallish pieces, about 2 big handfuls

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoons salt, divided

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus more for drizzling bread

½ tablespoon red wine vinegar

10 ounces crumbled farmers cheese or queso blanco or feta

Pickled cherry peppers to taste, sliced and seeds discarded

8 slices sturdy bread

Method

Blanch kale leaves in boiling water to which ½ tablespoon salt has been added. Cook about 3 minutes or until tender. Drain well.

Heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet. Saute garlic briefly. Toss in kale. Season with remaining salt to taste and saute briefly. Season with red wine vinegar.

Put sautéed kale on four of the bread slices. Top with crumbled cheese and pickled peppers to taste. (If you’re not sure, err on the side of less than one small pepper per sandwich. Top with remaining bread slices. Drizzle with olive oil and either heat in a panini press until browned and cheese is melted (or in a skillet, flipping once to brown on both sides and covering briefly to help melt the cheese).

Pickled peppers

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, March 2010

Ingredients

2 pounds hot cherry peppers

6 garlic cloves, halved

3 bay leaves

¾ teaspoon whole black peppercorns

4 cups white vinegar

1 1/3 cups water

¼ cup stugar

1½ teaspoons coarse salt

Method

Divide peppers, garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns among sterilized jars (about 2 quart and 1 pint or some combo pack thereof).

In a medium saucepan, bring vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a simmer. Cook until sugar dissolves. Pour hot liquid over peppers, leaving a headspace (original recipe said ¼-inch) at the top. Seal jars and either can in a hot water bath for 15 minutes or let cool and then refrigerate.

Rating: Those pickled peppers definitely pack a punch, but they really punched up and prettied up a kale sandwich. It's essentially a grilled cheese sandwich with serious attitude. But while it's a far cry from the Velveeta-filled kind I savored as a child, these still count as comfort food, just the kind that mildly afflicts the comfortable.

Roasted butternut squash Alfredo pasta

I've been in comfort mode for the past few weeks. Something about a chill in the air. Anyway, it helps for awhile, particularly when served with wine. A nice crisp white offsets this thick Alfredo-ish sauce. There's no egg or anything, so it's not a true Alfredo sauce, but frankly, it's tastier despite being slightly, possibly more healthful. Because, well, bacon. Really, really good bacon from Hilltop.

Plus, I super overbought at the last few farmers markets of the season, so I've got to make progress so they don't go to waste. (One stall offered four small butternuts for $2! How could I not buy a zillion?)

Roasted butternut squash Alfredo

Adapted from joyfulhealthyeats.com

Ingredients

3 cups cubed butternut squash (peeled and seeded)

Olive oil for drizzling

4 strips of bacon

1½ tablespoons butter

1 cup diced red onion

1 garlic clove

8 sage leaves, julienned, plus more for garnish

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

½ cup chicken broth

½ milk (at least 2 percent fat)

1 pound pasta, cooked until al dente (rigatoni or penne works well)

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss squash cubes with a sprinkle of coarse salt and generous drizzle of olive oil and spread on the baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender and slightly browned.

Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, cook bacon until crisp. Remove from pan to drain on paper towels. When cool enough to handle, chop/crumble into bite size pieces.

If your bacon isn’t very fatty, add butter to pan over medium low heat; otherwise just use the bacon fat. Add onion, garlic and herbs. Cook until onion is translucent. Add stock and simmer while squash roasts. Add roasted squash to pan. Stir in milk.

Pour mixture into food processor and puree. Return to pan. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as necessary. Stir in drained cooked pasta, adding pasta cooking liquid if you like a thinner sauce.

Rating: High on the taste and comfort scale, pretty gosh darn easy, an all-around keeper.  

An entry into the non-keeper category? Piecaken. This is pastry abuse.