summertime Archives

Angel Hair Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil

Will Cook for Tomatoes (Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic and Basil)

By threejamigos | August 10, 2018 | Comments 0 Comment

This is going to be a short post. I wanted to make sure I posted while all of you are harvesting your bushels of homegrown tomatoes (I am so jealous). Yes, I see your photos on FB and Instagram of all those love apples ripening on the vine in your backyard. I see the basket on your kitchen counter overflowing with heirloom tomatoes, Sweet 100’s and Early Girls and those gorgeous salads you are making with them. I hate you. Ok, I’m kidding, I don’t really hate you, but I do have tomato envy-so, so jealous. We just haven’t had much luck with tomatoes lately. After looking at our sad vines, I caved and bought some dry farm tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market, I couldn’t resist.

I made a beeline home and used those tomatoes, and the few I was able to pull off our vines (so few, so sad), to make my favorite pasta dish, Angel Hair Pasta with Tomato, Garlic, and Basil. This dish captures the essence of summer, where the star are those vine-ripened, luscious tomatoes. You know, the ones you grew and I had to buy (auugh, so fixated). I pulled out my dog-eared copy of Kuleto’s Contemporary Italian Cookbook and flipped to the page for Angel Hair Pasta with Tomato, Garlic and Basil and in barely 30 minutes we were sitting down to the best damn bowl of pasta. So delicious, so easy and so simple.

All you need for this dish, besides tomatoes, is noodles, olive oil, garlic, and basil. That’s pretty much it. How simple is that?! In full transparency, I didn’t have angel hair pasta so I used linguine fini. Normally I would say NBD, but in this case, use angel hair pasta, it is the perfect match for this sauce.

So, yes, despite my tomato envy I’m passing this delicious recipe along to all of you who have that “difficult task” of figuring out what to do with all those homegrown tomatoes. ALTHOUGH…another option, you could call me, I’ll gladly take some off your hands!

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Angel Hair Pasta with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Basil

Fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and basil the building blocks for a classic, delicious pasta dish

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Angel hair pasta, basil, garlic, tomatoes

Cook Time 15

Servings 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup garlic thinly sliced
7 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
2 cups fresh tomatoes seeded and diced, ~ 1pound
2/3 cup basil leaves roughly chopped or julienned
3/4 tsp kosher salt or to taste
1/2 TSP black pepper freshly ground
6 ounces Angel Hair Pasta Capellini

Instructions

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in sauce pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and cook slowly until garlic is lightly and evenly browned. Reduce heat to low add tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Cook just until tomatoes are heated through. Remove 1/3 sauce from skillet and reserve.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions in boiling, salted water. Drain and add pasta and remaining olive oil to skillet. Toss to coat with oil. Remove to serving bowl or leave in skillet and top with remaining sauce. Serve with freshly grated parmesan if desired.

Peche a Trois’ (Peach Hand Pies)

By threejamigos | August 7, 2016 | Comments 0 Comment

I am going to miss Jamie’s and my weekly forays to the farmer’s market. Not that the season is ending, but Jamie heads back to Houston this coming week so there goes my kitchen buddy for a while. We found some luscious peaches at the market (it’s been a good summer for peaches) and coincidentally Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for peach pie. As Jamie perused the recipe she said “Is it hard to make pie crust?” Well, what kind of mom would I be if I didn’t lay a little pie crust wisdom on my kid before she heads back to college? Kind of like a lovely parting gift.

Though the Smitten Kitchen peach pie served as our inspiration, we decided to make peach hand pies instead. Fingers over forks is our mantra so hand pies are the perfect ending for our final summer happy hour gathering. Luckily, Smitten Kitchen also has a recipe for Bourbon Peach Hand Pies.

We turned to a favorite pie crust recipe from Julia and Jaques Cooking at Home. It’s a great recipe to teach pie crust 101 making. It has a high proportion of butter so it’s yummy and flaky and it is easy to work with.

COLD, COLD, COLD. Did I say to keep things cold? Butter and shortening. I cut my butter and shortening or lard into pieces and put them back in the fridge while I measure out my flour.

LESS IS MORE, DON’T OVER-PROCESS OR OVERWORK YOUR PIE CRUST

Place your flour, sugar, and salt in the food processor and pulse a couple of times to mix. Scatter your COLD butter and shortening or lard on top and PULSE mixture until the butter is approximately the size of peas. At this point, you can pour your flour mixture into a bowl or you can continue using your processor.

Add ICE-COLD Water

to your flour mixture and pulse until it just begins to clump then STOP. Do not overdo it, especially if using the food processor or you end up with tough pie crust, yuck.

If you are not using the processor. Sprinkle water on the flour mixture and stir with a fork until mixture begins to clump and come together.

Reserve one tablespoon of water, if the dough still seems dry or does not hold together add the remaining one tablespoon water.

At this point for either method, gather the dough into a disc on a sheet of plastic wrap. Using the palm of your hand gently push a portion of the dough away from you. This flattens out the butter lumps into sheaths and incorporates the butter and flour evenly. This creates a flaky, tender crust. This is called fraisage ‘(yep, more French lingo) Repeat until you have pushed all of the dough. Gather it into a ball, flatten into a disc and place it in the fridge to rest for approximately 30 minutes.

How Easy is That?!

As the dough chills start on your peaches. We adapted Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Bourbon Peach hand pies for the filling. We added a bit of brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Omit the cinnamon if you like. Although delicious the hand pies have less filling and would have benefitted from a flavor boost. I think I would add a bit of peach jam to the fresh peaches to try to intensify the flavor next time. We had quite a bit of filling left and Jamie BRILLIANTLY (shameless parent plug) grabbed some ramekins and made peach crisps with the extra. YUM!

Back to the pie crust dough…

On a lightly floured board or surface, pat your dough into a rectangle. Divide in half and roll each piece into a 7×11 rectangle, approximately 1/8 inch thick. You may need to trim the edges to make a pretty rectangle. Divide the dough into 4 pieces 7x 2.75”.

Hint– Roll it out on parchment paper on a flat cookie sheet, makes it easy to transfer to the fridge. Once you have cut it into four pieces chill for 30 minutes. While it is chilling, roll out 2nd disc of dough.

Hint-Use a ruler and a pizza cutter to cut out your rectangles.

Or if you like use a 4.5” round cookie cutter for half-moon-shaped pies.

Pearls of Pie-Making Wisdom

If at any time the dough gets too soft, throw it back in the fridge to chill.

Peche a Trois’ (Peach Hand Pies, Crisp, Unadulterated)

Really, does this need an intro? Handpies of buttery, flakey crust filled with summer sweet peaches

Course Dessert, Pie

Cuisine American

Keyword Peach handpies

Prep Time 1 30

Cook Time 20

Ingredients

Peach Hand Pies

Pie or Galette Crust from Julia Childs

2 cups AP flour
7 ounces cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2 pieces
1 tablespoon cold shortening or lard cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup ice cold water reserve 1 tablespoon to finish dough

Filling

2 pounds fresh peaches
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1 T light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon omit if you like
One egg yolk beaten with 2 tablespoons water for egg wash or cream
Coarse sanding sugar for decoration

Instructions

See above for directions for making pie dough!

Filling

Make the filling. Peel and dice peaches into 1/2 inch pieces. Add remaining ingredients, mix gently and set aside. If you wish, add 1-2 tablespoons peach preserves.
Remove chilled dough from fridge, let stand a couple of minutes until pliable. Spoon 1.5 tablespoons filling onto one half of each rectangle or circle of dough. Brush a little water on the edge and fold in half. Seal and crimp edge with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough. Transfer to fridge and chill for 30 minutes. We used cream on our pies and sprinkled some sugar on top, you could use an egg wash if you like.
You can make these hand pies bigger or smaller as you want. The key is to keep the dough’s thickness at approximately 1/8 inch.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove pies from fridge and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Cut a small slit in each pie and brush with wash. Sprinkle with sugar and place in oven to bake.
Bake approximately 20 minutes until edges are golden brown. Remove and let cool slightly before serving.

Peach Crisp

We had quite a bit of peach filling left so we made crisp using our apple crisp crumble topping recipe. So this is probably more crumble then you will need. Cut the recipe in half if you want. Fill lightly buttered ramekins with extra peach filling. Sprinkle crumble on top and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until crisp bubbles and top is golden brown.

Crumble topping

Mix topping ingredients, except for oats and nuts, with pastry blender or fingers until crumbly.

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add oatmeal and nuts and stir to combine

1/2 cup old fashioned oatmeal (not instant or quick cook)
Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Take excess filling and spoon into selected-size buttered ramekins. I like 3/4-1 cup ramekins. Top with crumble.

Finishing the Crisp

And to complete our trio....

Fresh ripe peaches, sliced, leave them whole, your choice. Take a bite, let the juice drip down your chin, hand or both. Yum!

Jamie’s Back Scouring Farmer’s Markets and Binge Baking! (Raspberry Buttermilk Cake)

By threejamigos | July 18, 2016 | Comments 1 comment

Hello friends!

Since I have written more than a few slightly embarrassing posts about my—quite glamorous—life on this lovely blog, and since I know you all read it religiously, I’ve decided that we are now on the “friend” level. (We are friends now, so you guys can’t judge me for my terrible grammar—I’m a bioengineering major, give me a break here) And since we are all friends, I have decided to let you in on a little secret: I am addicted to farmers markets. Before you roll your eyes and laugh at how incredibly basic/dramatic/priviledged/annoying I sound let me defend myself:

1) I had to switch it up from my normal introduction of saying hi, long time no post, complaining a little bit about my life in Texas, and making fun of my mom’s blog. Yeah. You’re welcome.

2) I grew up in Los Gatos, the land of Kate Spade bags and Tory Burch sandals, excuse me for being a little basic.

3) Farmer’s markets rock, whoever disagrees with me can hit the unsubscribe button right now. (just kidding, my mom would kill me if that happened).

Anyways, to get back on track, I love farmer’s markets. You can literally get a free breakfast there if you just walk up and down the stalls eating samples of fruit.

Plus, farmers markets in California during the summer are pretty much guaranteed to be sunny and filled with the prettiest, tastiest fruits and veggies EVER. True story. Sam came to visit over fourth of July weekend and I dragged him around the Bay Area. Obviously, one of the first places I took him was the San Francisco Farmer’s Market at the Ferry Building. We were on a mission to acquire 4 pounds of peaches—yes, you read that right—to make homemade peach ice cream. The ice cream was super simple-heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and lots of peaches. We made it after a long day of walking around the city, so by the time it was finally frozen enough to eat, I was asleep. I woke up just in time to watch the end of a Euro cup quarterfinal match while eating a bowl of sweet, peachy goodness.

To go along with our ice cream, I had baked up a simple berry cake from Epicurious that morning—you dot the cake with berries of your choice before sprinkling it with sugar and popping it into the oven. As my mom says, “stupid easy”. The sugar gives the cake a caramelized top crust, while the berries sink into the batter, giving it a warm and gooey center. Unfortunately, the cake was forgotten over our homemade ice cream excitement, but it was so good on its own the next day that no one minded a bit. I tried to make the cake festive by using blueberries and raspberries to create red and blue stripes, but the berries sink in such a way that the stripes get all jumbled up. Not worth the effort, but the cake still looked pretty great!

All in all, it was a successful weekend of food!

Stay tuned: next time I talk about my other guilty/basic pleasure: happy hour!

Hi Claire! 🙂

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Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients

From Epicurious

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter softened
2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar divided
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries about 5 ounces or a mix of fresh berries

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes, then beat in vanilla.
Add egg and beat well.
At low speed, mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.
Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top.
Scatter raspberries, I used a mix of berries including blueberries and blackberries and probably closer to 11/2 cups of berries) evenly over top.
Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream! Yum!

The Great Burger Cook-off

By threejamigos | July 11, 2016 | Comments 2 comments

It started last year when Jamie’s friend Sam came from Houston for a visit. The gauntlet was thrown down when Sam casually remarked one day, “I make a mean burger”. Oh really? Caught up in the competitive spirit as the Warriors were playing the Rockets at the time it was….GAME ON for the best burger.

This year Sam visited again during the July 4th holiday and once again the Burger Throw Down was on. Off to the market we went, each of us trying to hide our ingredients from each other…so much pressure, can’t imagine how they do this on Top Chef.

While Jamie and Sam went the tradition route and used beef for their burgers. Wes and I both veered away from tradition. Wes created a Portabello Burger while I opted for seafood to create a crab and shrimp burger. You would think creativity would score big points. Nope, not in this house.

The winner of our 2nd burger cook off- Jamie! The prize? Her burger featured on the banner of this post, a root beer float and of course best of all, bragging rights until next year.

It was a unanimous choice. For her burger she added minced shallots, a mix of bread crumbs, crushed corn flakes, panko flakes and an egg as binder. She seasoned it with salt & pepper and a touch of garlic powder. She formed her patty, pressed her thumb into the middle (tip from our neighborhood butcher) to help keep the patty flat and the juices in and threw it on the grill.

Her toppings set her burger apart from the rest. A thick slice of creamy, buttery brie topped with a grilled peach slice and cold crispy romaine sandwiched between a toasted, buttered brioche roll.

ARE YOU SALIVATING? You should be! It was delicious!

Not to say she didn’t have some competition. Sam created his version of sliders. Mini-burgers topped with swiss cheese, crispy pancetta and grilled pineapple on Hawaiian sweet rolls with a dab of mayonaise. Yum. My vote for 2nd best.

Wes’s Portabello mushroom burger was really good, but in a house full of carnivores it faced a daunting challenge. On any given day I would choose his burger but sitting next to two all beef patties with special toppings? Tough job. But it was tasty, his secret weapon, a delicious homemade pesto mayonnaise. He finished his masterpiece with avocado slices and grilled red onions, it was a vegetarian’s dream burger.

And finally my seafood burger. Ok, not to toot my own horn but it was pretty darn good…much like a crab cake, I added shrimp (because crab is pretty darn expensive and I like shrimp) for texture and flavor. I adapted an Asian crab cake recipe for my burger entry, hope you like it!

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The Great Burger Cook-off (Crab & Shrimp Burger with Asian Slaw)

Ingredients

Seafood Burgers

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon minced green onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
2 teaspoons bottled Thai fish sauce nam pla or soy sauce or ponzu soy sauce
1 T thai sweet chili sauce or 1 teaspoon Siracha + 2 teaspoons honey
6 ounces fresh crabmeat
3 ounces cooked and peeled shrimp chopped
1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless French bread
1 cup panko crumbs
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil

Asian Slaw

2 cups julienned green cabbage
1 cup julienned red cabbage
1 carrot peeled and julienned
1-2 green onions tops and ends removed, sliced on the diagonal 1/4" thick
2 tablespoons cilantro optional
1/4 cup diced red onions

Dressing

2 T. sesame seeds toasted
3 T sugar
2/3 cup oil dash of sesame oil
1 clove garlic minced
2 T lemon juice
1-2 t soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Combine, chill and cover. Just before serving, add dressing to slaw, mix to combine. Serve slaw on side next to burger or pile on top. Your choice.

Instructions

Blend first 6 ingredients in medium bowl.
Mix in crabmeat, shrimp and 1/2 cup breadcrumbs.
Season with pepper.
Place 1 cup Panko crumbs on plate. Drop 1/4 or 1/2 of crab mixture into breadcrumbs; turn to coat. Shape into 2 1/2-3 inch-diameter cake. Repeat coating and shaping with remaining crab mixture and crumbs, forming total of 2 cakes.
Chill to set cakes, approximately 1 hour
Heat oil in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add cakes and sauté until crisp, about 5 minutes per side.
Serve on toasted buttered brioche buns with Asian slaw and Siracha mayo. (blend of mayo with Siracha to taste)