Friday, March 05, 2010

dinners from the chestnut forest

After receiving all those goodies from Rowena, we enjoyed several pasta dinners.

Using the Casarecce, which is long and shaped like an "s", I made the sauce for Penne alla vodka and topped the casarecce pasta with the vodka sauce, plus eggplant, zucchini and red bell pepper sauteed in olive oil.

For another dinner, we also used the Anelli pasta, which is shaped like an "o" and topped it with the same sauce and veggies.

These dishes went nicely with some Badia Alle Corti's Negroamaro wine, a deep purple wine. Despite the deep purple color, this wine had a light mouth feel...699 yen (about US$6.99)

For another meal, I also used the Casarecce pasta with a recipe I found on the Italian Barilla site. This recipe uses pesto, potatoes & green beans.

The recipe calls for Barilla's pesto, but I made my own using mac nuts. I didn't really follow the recipe, just used it as a reference.

Satoshi liked that this dish had potatoes in it, it was delicous and something different.

We also tried the dried morels in a risotto topped with red bell peppers, green beans and scallops for yet another meal.

I loved the earthiness of these mushrooms. Very flavorful. After re-constituting them, I strained the liquid (twice) and used it in the risotto.

We enjoyed both the pesto style pasta & risotto with a glass of Cono Sur's Viognier. This wine was fruity....780 yen (about US$7.80)

I think something a little drier and less fruity would have been better with these two dishes, but having something chilled and white was a nice change from all the red wines we've been drinking.

We also enjoyed the Almond and Pistachio Torrone (nougat) & pistachio ganache chocolates.

The torrone was coated with a lemony icing and deliciously filled with lots of almonds and pistachios!

Thank you again Rowena! Gochisoosama!

It is Friday here, have a nice weekend!

15 comments:

  1. Wow, those look sooo good. I wish I had half of your cooking skills!

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  2. OMG Kat! You were jammin' in the kitchen on this one - I didn't even think you'd have the time to work with the ingredients. I am seriously impressed....and....can I come to your house for dinner next time? Promise not to make you sick with my cold. ;-)

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  3. Secondly....the japanese wotd "mean"...is that to define the word as an adjective, for example "mean person" or does it have a dual purpose like in english and it signifies "to mean something"?

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  4. Thanks Kirk :)

    Thanks Jalna, I wish I had half your photographing skills :)

    Thanks Rowena, I wanted to use them a.s.a.p. since I have the tendency to put something into my pantry and fuggetaboutit! :( You can come over anytime, sick with a cold or not :)

    I didn't see the WOTD, I wonder which "mean" it was? Hope to see it later on, it says "cannot load from server" now :( "imi" means "meaning" but "hidoi" and "osoroshii" means "mean" (these two words are written differently). some words sound alike which you would need to look at the chinese characters to determine which definition it is.

    Take care everyone!
    Kat

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  5. All that look wonderful. The Barilla website sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing that. It sounds like a good place to get recipes. It's Friday here too, so have a great day and even better weekend!

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  6. Hope you find some recipes to try Momiji :)

    Thanks Laura :)

    Take care you two.
    Kat

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  7. What elegant photos and now my mouth is watering - I'm ready for pasta and wine. Can I come to dinner at your house? lol :)

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  8. OMG - looks so onoliscious. Thanks for the link to Barilla. I just discovered Cono Sur wines last month and really enjoy their product. I hope the earthquake didn't shake them up too much.

    word verif: autti - a Chilean Audi.

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  9. Thanks Biologie, c'mon over :)

    Hi Panda, Thanks so much for the word verif :) I saw something on the news that many Chilean wineries lost most of their stock, so they won't be exporting for awhile. Hope they can get back on their feet soon.

    Take care you two.
    Kat

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  10. It all looks delicious! You are the pasta queen! ;-)

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  11. Thanks Debinhawaii :)

    Take care.
    Kat

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  12. Cono Sur (from Chile) seems very popular in Japan, and they have made certified organic wines more available here too. If you look carefully on the label they say something about their eco-friendly policies. I hope they are ok over there, but your comment made me wonder.

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  13. We have a few of Cono Sur's organic wines in our pantry to try Martin, I hope their winery is okay also, their wines are really delicious.

    Take care.
    Kat

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