A garlicky meal

Yesterday's meal came as a bit of an accident. I was planning to make some sort of pasta dish using homemade noodles and the best of what the Farmer's Market had to offer. Yesterday's haul from Green City included japanese eggplant, fresh dug garlic, golden and white beets, sungold tomatoes, Prairie Fruits Farm ricotta and fresh chevre, Liberty Farm eggs, Bennison's ciabatta, and fresh herbs (sage and thyme). The ingredients were all so terrific, that I was sure it would be hard to mess up this meal, so I just started cooking stuff without much of a plan in mind. While about 20 garlic cloves simmered slowly in a saucepan, covered with olive oil, and the eggplant and tomatoes roasted in the oven, I made pasta sheets. A rough plan was forming at this point for an eggplant/ricotta/herb filled ravioli. Well, you know what happens to the best laid plans.... The "filling" I made ended up being so addictingly good, that the was no way it was going to make it from the bowl into the noodles. With the ciabatta nearby, it served as a large antipasto instead, devoured by my dinner guests in no time flat. So, on to plan B. Recipes below, with most quanties guestimated since I didn't measure anything.

Eggplant/ garlic spread:
3 large Japanese Eggplants
2 heads of garlic
4 oz of fresh chevre
4 oz fresh ricotta
1TBS of heavy cream
1TSP or so of thyme. A little less than that of chopped sage.
S&P to taste

Make a few slits in the eggplant with a knife, wrap in foil, and roast at 400 degrees for 50 min. Remove, slice open lengthwise, and remove the flesh into the bowl of a food processor. Separate and peel garlic (super-easy with the fresh-dug heads I used), then place in a small sauce pan and cover with olive oil. Simmer slowly, covered, for about an hour (check a couple of times - you don't want the garlic to brown). I placed my oven-proof saucepan right in the oven with the eggplant, which worked perfectly. Place about 8 of the now very soft garlic cloves into the food processor bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and process until relatively smooth. Serve on good bread or as a dip for some veggies.

Linguini with garlic oil
1 lb of fresh or dried linguini
2 heads of garlic
a cup of cherry tomatoes
dried chili flakes
S+P to taste
whatever fresh herb(s) you have on hand (I used sage and thyme)
serve with your favorite freshly grated hard cheese (I used Wisconsin stravecchio)

Separate and peel garlic (super-easy with the fresh-dug heads I used), then place in a small sauce pan and cover with olive oil. Simmer slowly, covered, for about an hour (check a couple of times - you don't want the garlic to brown). Drain and reserve the oil - keep the cloves for another use. I placed my oven-proof saucepan right in the 400 degree oven, which worked perfectly. I also roasted the tomoatoes at the same time for 45 mins.
Cook and drain linguini. Mix in a pot with about 1/4 cup of the garlic oil and the rest of the ingredients, and put this over a flame for a couple of minutes to let the flavors meld. Serve with fresh grated cheese and more pepper flakes on the side.

Garlicky beet greens
Beet greens
Garlic oil (see recipe above)
S&P

Chop the beet greens. Season and sautee for about 20 minutes’ in garlic oil. Serve hot.

Any recipe that starts with 20 cloves of garlic must be pretty amazing. Easy to see how that dip would vanish.

Cynthia wrote:Any recipe that starts with 20 cloves of garlic must be pretty amazing. Easy to see how that dip would vanish.

Agreed! I read Kenny's recipes and went....Yes Sir Senator!

G Wiv wrote:Agreed! I read Kenny's recipes and went....Yes Sir Senator!

Wow. There's a blast from the past.

Meanwhile, I just wholesale cut-and-pasted KennyZ's post into an email to Mrs. B. for our next GreenMarket foray. Though I may pop 20 garlic cloves into a pan tonight, just for the sensory preview.
That and the recent recall of Gary's bucatini alla matriciana photo essay have got me very fired up lately.

P.S. What's wrong with my quoting technique? I'm just not an adept.
Moderator edit to fix quote

lose the = sign and put the right parenthesis immediately after the e in quote

mrbarolo wrote:P.S. What's wrong with my quoting technique? I'm just not an adept.

You're missing the closing quotation mark and and right bracket after G Wiv.

It should be {quote="G Wiv"}....Yes Sir Senator!{/quote} (bracket style changed from [ to { for illustration purposes.)

yeah, what they said:)

As for garlicky, I had the gyros plate at Nicky's Gyros today. Oh sweet Og, I am still emitting room clearing garlic and lamb belches lo the many hours later.