On my way back from the Bay, which instead of telling you how exactly I got back down to LA, I will just say was an interesting ride... as the car rolled south through the hot, brown valley and the stench from real california cows put on the verge of puking, I decided that I needed to cook for the girls with whom I was staying every evening. There would always be fresh, delicious food and wonderful baked goods for them to indulge- that would be my exchange for letting me sleep in their house without paying rent.
The night after I made the quiche, I went to Trader Joe's to buy a basil plant. It must be the way they line them up outside, green and bushy-eyed, the delightful smell of blooming basil leaves wafting through the air as you cross over to enter the store. Unfortunately, it's either so hot that now the basil plant is attracting fruit flies or I'm doing something terribly wrong. But before the flies came, the plant was a beautiful green overflowing with big fresh leaves that were going to make a wonderful pesto.
I still had my 19 cent corn left over and tons of tomatoes from the farm. Browsing for ideas of what to do with the corn on the internet, I saw roasted corn. Where you just take off the kernels and stick them in the oven on a baking sheet and they get all nutty and pop in your mouth, and, as it turns out, in the oven while they bake, almost as if you're making oven popcorn. What could be better? I wanted to invite everyone I knew over, but they only one who seemed the least likely to flake on me was my beautiful Bolivian-Jewish friend, who had spent the past semester in Brazil, studying in the north, and who I couldn't wait to see after almost 9 months apart!
I remember I went to her house the night before I left for New Orleans back in December. Fall semester had finally finished and her house was having a party. I had finished my 46 page research paper a couple of days earlier and was getting ready to spend 5 days in New Orleans, in the lower 9th, working at an alternative school and farm for underserved local youth. It was a beautiful place, which unfortunately had very poor leadership and I think has become nothing. I learned so much while I was there about the New Orleans, the local culture and how wonderful the youth are there, but how messed up everything is. School to Prison Pipeline is what they have created. It was a great end to my food justice research project (aka my 46 page paper) to see this happening by youth and for youth across the country. I actually remember New Orleans is what made me like rice. The school we stayed at purchased wild rice from a local coop and we bought some and cooked it for everyone and it was the best rice I have ever tasted. Incredibly dark, nutty and sweet...
I transgressed, but as for the corn, I did exactly what the internet told me- removed the kernels and put them on an olive oil- greased baking sheet with 3 or 4 tomatoes. I put that in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until the kernels were a golden brown and the tomatoes were bursting at the seams with their juices.
While the veggies were roasting, I put on a pot of water to boil for the pasta. I never salt my water. I grew up with very little salt in my food and hate salty pasta. I may add a little bit of olive oil from time to time, especially with spaghetti or linguini, to prevent it from sticking, but never any salt.
I then chopped up about 3 cloves of garlic and the other half of the yellow courgette squash from the farm. In a frying pan, I sautéed the garlic with a pinch of crushed red pepper and tore up a small handful of basil leaves to make a basil-garlic oil, one which I had made this summer while in Long Island for grilled clams over pasta. I actually got the idea for a grilled watermelon salad recipe in Bon Appetit, which I also used the oil for that same hot, humid summer night in New York. Once the oil smelled fantastic, I added the courgette to cook briefly.
For once, everything seemed to come together perfectly. I had already made the pesto- roughly chopped about 1.5-2 cups of fresh basil, added about 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup shaved asiago, and 2 cloves of raw garlic into a bowl. Since I am without a food processor, I just mixed it all together, which I actually often prefer it made by hand- it adds more love and dedication than with a machine. The pasta was still cooking while I added the roasted corn and tomato into a large mixing bowl. I broke apart the tomatoes with my hands, or rather they fell apart at my touch. I then added the sautéed courgettes in basil oil after it cooked for 5-7 minutes. The pasta still wasn't done and I remembered that I wanted to add nuts to the pesto. I quickly toasted about 1/4 cup chopped walnuts in the same pan that held the courgettes and then added it into the pesto.
When the pasta was done, I had to have my friend help me drain it because the girls didn't have a colander at the time (they found one for $0.75 on sunday at an estate sale!) and I added the pasta to the vegetables, along with the pesto.
I brought out the pasta to the table, along with some kale chips that I had made earlier that day. Our wonderful friend arrived with a bottle of red, and we had a wonderful dinner, full of Charlie's fabulous red wine and memories and stories from Brazil, Nepal, France and our lovely college.
Ingredients
2 ears of corn, husked and shucked
3-4 medium sized tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic for the pesto, minced
1/4 cup parmesan, asiago, or romano, grated
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped and toasted
1/4 cup EVOO
2 cups fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
pinch of crushed red pepper
1 lb pasta, either fusilli or penne
3-5 tbsp EVOO
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp crushed red pepper (or more, if you like it spicy, or less if you don't- I LOVE spice)
small handful torn basil leaves
1 cup sliced and halved yellow courgette
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