mister loves pasta

In case I haven't made it clear in the past, Mister loves pasta a whole heck of a lot.  He loves pasta so much that sometimes he even lets me serve him noodles made of all kinds of weird stuff, like buckwheat soba and rice noodles.  As such, I'm rewarding him with his patience for my recent soup spree with a week that is almost 50% noodles of some sort.  In fact, tonight we kicked off the new menu with dinner #1: Pasta E Fagioli from Veganomicon.

I made it with fun and sturdy Rotelle, but aside from that and the incredibly strong flavor of garlic, nothing was any more outstanding about this dish than normal.  And when I say "normal" what I mean is "indescribably good," which is why I won't try.  Just get the book and make it yourself (but increase the garlic to 8-9 cloves, if you dare...)

Every once in a while I serve "weird" noodles, like whole wheat spaghetti, and Mister isn't quite as thrilled.  I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the soba noodles later in the week.  Fortunately, he's joined me in my love of these weird little rice noodles, which makes recipe creation a little easier.

Five-Spice Seitan and Noodles
4 servings

Ingredients:
12 oz seitan (in broth)
8 oz rice noodles, prepared according to package directions
green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup julienned carrots (about 1 large carrot or 2 smaller ones)
4 cloves of garlic, pressed/minced
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1 tsp Five-Spice powder
3 Tbsp tamari/soy sauce
2 tsp miso (I used white, but you can use whatever you have), dissolved in 1/3 cup warm water
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil


Heat peanut oil in a saute pan or wok on medium heat.  Add garlic, pepper slices, and carrots.  Cook, stirring occasionally for 3-5 minutes, then add seitan and mix.  Cook for 5 more minutes, then sprinkle on the Five Spice powder and tamari.  Mix well and lower heat to medium low.

Drain noodles and add to the pot with the miso-water mixture and sesame oil.  Cook, stirring frequently, for about three more minutes, until almost all the liquid is absorbed.

bet you can't have just one

There are a few things I take for granted, living in Pennsylvania, and specifically this area of Pennsylvania.  I normally don't realize other parts of the world don't have Tastycakes and Herr's potato chips and Wawas until I find myself on the opposite coast asking where the nearest Wawa is...and then having to give the best explanation my 19-year-old self could.

What I mean is, I'll bet I could eat just one Lay's potato chip because I was raised on Herr's and although I don't eat potato chips nearly as frequently now as I did as a teenager, I will always prefer them as a brand.

But this post isn't really about potato chips at all.  Despite the newest issue of Vegetarian Times showing up in my mailbox today with a sweet potato chip-topped galette on the cover to make me drool a little.  No, friends, this post is about Pasta e Fagioli, specifically the one from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, and generally, how darn many recipes I have for this Italian treasure.

Actually, this is a picture of my second helping, since I was too busy trying to match Mister's voracity to take a picture of the first bowl.

I have at least three "go-to" recipes for Pasta e Fagioli and I've even matched them up against each other to see who would come out on top.  You might think a person in that position would not need another recipe for the same dish.  You'd be wrong.  Pasta e Fagioli is like the Italian version of the latino favorite, Rice 'n' Beans.  I also have way too many recipes for that.

Like Rice 'n' Beans, Pasta e Fagioli is one of those meals that is so good that when you see yet another recipe, you feel compelled to try it - not because you're looking for a new "champion" but rather, because there's so little chance it will suck.  It's kind of fail-safe, which is a nice quality for a sometimes work-intensive food to be.  I will admit, though, I'm forever on the hunt for a Pasta e Fagioli that can truly be considered a soup and I have not found that yet.

For this recipe, I got wheel-shaped pasta for two reasons.  First, the recipe was not specific - it just said "short pasta."  Second, and more importantly, the last few times I've made a Pasta e Fagioli recipe, I've somehow overcooked the pasta, causing it to fall apart a little.  In an effort to not wrestle the pieces of broken rotini toward one another again, I decided to try a sturdier pasta.

Normally, Pasta e Fagioli is exactly that - pasta, beans, tomatoes....that's about it.  Basil.  Yes, normally, there's basil.  This one was a little more detailed - we had pasta, beans, tomatoes, and basil, of course, but also zucchini, carrots, and celery.  I had some mixed feelings about this "complication," but as you can tell from my second serving, I got over any ill-will within a few bites.

With that, I'm off to harvest some more recipes from the three magazines I haven't had a chance to pick through yet...