Linguine with ham, olives, and fresh mozzarella – 1 June 2012

Last night we thought briefly about dinner, and decided we could make a pasta with some ingredients lying around, and also use the zucchini in the fridge as our veggie.

We chose linguine (6 oz, which is a bit more than usual) and cooked that in salted water, during which everything else cooked. D cut up a shallot and sliced the zucchini into thickish slices (maybe 3/16 inch?) and cooked those in oil. They didn’t get all squishy, but still a bit “al dente” – very good. I pulled four mammoth sage leaves at D’s behest and washed them and cut them up, and also cut one slice of Kentucky Legend ham, which we have liked a lot. D sliced pieces off of a small bunch of Gaeta olives. The sage, ham, and olives we cooked in olive oil in a small frying pan. I cut the remainder of the non-brined fresh mozzarella into perhaps a 3/8″ dice. When the linguine was done, I kept a bit of pasta water, and drained the pasta, then tossed it with the sage/ham/olive mix. Finally, I added the cheese chunks, and stirred/folded until the cheese melted. It had a tendency to reform large chunks, and I wonder if making matchsticks (as D had suggested) might have been a better choice, so they would have melted into the pasta better. I succeeded in getting the cheese spread around pretty well, though, and it was a tasty dish. D thought the flavors were not entirely right, and that if we had to remove olives, ham or sage, it would be the sage that didn’t go as well. I thought it was all very good.

D made a no-knead bread today, using 2/3 King Arthur bread flour and 1/3 Central Milling Company unbleached. It was delicious, as usual, and beautiful, as usual.

Friday, ergo Friday wine: Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, 2008, from Costco. Love it:)

{Written the 1st, photos added and posted the 2nd}

~ by berkeleybarb on 2012/06/01.