This week feels luxe. Like rich and delicious LUXE. While everyone is out here with watermelon spears over ice, I don’t know what has possessed me to go full pasta mode.
(Narrator: …it was hormones)
But while everything I cooked this week feels ultra-rich (which PS, I’m a firm believer cozy food in the summer never hurt anyone), I revisited the recipes and realized…everything is relatively well-balanced and light. Take this corn pasta, which uses corn to make the creamy sauce, and cheese as the sidekick. Or this breaded halibut, which is really just steamed white fish and veggies, with a topping of bread crumbs to make it feel like a fish-fry. Or gnudi, which okay, might be swimming in a butter sauce, but there are greens! Also, they are light enough that I’d be happy to have them alongside a summer grilled fish and a simple salad.
Maybe I was looking for food that felt a bit more fulfilling this week than a zesty, chilly gazpacho (…yet now I’m craving gazpacho). But even with the lack of salads here, I can confirm all these recipes will hit the spot, and go great alongside watermelon over ice.
The weekly round-up!
Corn & Parmesan Pasta - Inspired by cacio e pepe, but with much more corn than cacio. This uses quite a bit of fresh corn to build the sauce, along with corn cobs to make the corn broth we use both in the sauce and to boil the pasta. We’re nearing the time of year where corn is so SO sweet, so pick up a few ears to try this. The salty-parm-sweet-corn combo is quite lovely.
Breaded Halibut over Sungold Tomatoes - Photos don’t do it justice. This one-pan meal tastes like a proper fish-fry, but there’s no fry involved at all. While I love sungold tomatoes for their concentrated, sweeter flavor, this is also amazing with any cherry tomatoes you have available. If you want to swap the halibut for a veg version, just sear some tofu on the side and it’s a perfect substitute.
Spinach & Ricotta Gnudi - In a Calabrian Butter Sauce! By far the easiest pasta/dumpling to make, so if you are a first-time pasta maker, these might be the ones for you.
Now tell me! What is growing in your garden? What ingredients can you not get out of your head? Do we have any interest in garlic scapes?
All important questions. Let’s talk about it next week.
Until then,
Xoxo,
Gnudi_Snacks
Yes yes to scapes!! I get them in my food share and learning more uses for them would be rad. Keep up the güd work.
Yes to garlic scapes! The garlic scape curry you posted last year was soo good