Summer Pasta Part I

During last week's heat wave, when it reached 103° in NYC—a record for that day —I couldn't bare the thought of spending too much time in the kitchen to cook dinner. So I relied on one of our favorite warm-weather meals: spaghetti with arugula, cherry tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. This dish tastes like summer. The beauty of this recipe is that you most likely have all or most of the ingredients in your cupboard or refrigerator. Garlic is a staple in our kitchen as is olive oil. We're growing tomatoes in our garden in Copake but it's too early to pick any just yet, so I grabbed some cherry tomatoes from the market. Arugula on the other hand was one of the first vegetables to grow in our new garden this summer. Carl takes the credit here. He grew the plant from seeds and took pains to keep the patch weed and critter free.


I cut the tomatoes in half and washed the arugula. Next, I sauteed chopped garlic in the olive oil for 30 seconds or less. Don't let the garlic start to brown. It will taste too bitter. Add the cherry tomatoes and saute until they start to caramelize and create a thickened sauce. While you're doing this have a pot of water on to boil. I prefer traditional spaghetti # 8 for this but you can use linguine or any long pasta of your liking. Once the pasta is al dente, drain and pour the hot spaghetti on top of a heallthy serving of arugula placed in your serving bowl. The heat from the pasta will wilt the greens. Pour that delicious red "sauce" of tangy tomatoes over it. Voila! A taste of summer at your ready in less than 20 minutes. Fresh ground pepper and little Percorino Romano on top finishes it off. Take your bowl as quickly as you can into the air-conditioned living room and slowly enjoy your dinner in front of the AC and the latest episode of Glee stored on your DVR. Dishes can wait until tomorrow when the weather cools. Hopefully.

Picking from the garden

Wow, it's amazing how much can grow in two weeks. That's how long it's been since we were last in Copake. And boy did the radishes and lettuces go crazy. The whole garden did. The tomatoes have a few flowers, the peas needed to be staked up, the carrots are really looking beautiful, and the zucchini is getting ready to stretch out and take over the back part of the garden. Very exciting stuff.



But what was equally exciting was eating the first salad from the garden. Some romaine, a little bit of arugula, and another blue/green lettuce that I don't even know what it is. I shredded a radish over the top and then drizzled a little vinaigrette. Simple and delicious. With a turkey burger from the grill, it was exactly what summer should taste like.

Chicken cutlets, summer style

Fred has a favorite, little Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side—Coppolla's—which he swears has the best Chicken Parmesan in the city. I, on the other hand, think that their Chicken Milanese is out of this world. The crispy, fried, extra-thin chicken cutlet covered with a mix of greens and chopped tomatoes. Mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

Since I had tons of leftover arugula I decided to make some Chicken Milanese at home. It is so easy to do, and so easy to alter based on what you have in your crisper. Fred's sister also made some last week and she used fresh basil and tomatoes instead of arugula. You could substitute mesclun salad, fresh spinach, or chop some flat-leaf parsley and toss that with tomatoes. There are no hard rules with this dish.

Start with your favorite recipe for chicken cutlets. This can be done ahead of time, since they don't need to be hot when eaten. In fact, I like to eat this with the chicken just warmed a little, kinda like room temperature. That's what makes it so perfect for summer. Then toss a mix of chopped greens and tomatoes with a glug of olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar in a bowl. You can use your hands for this part. Put a cutlet on each plate and then top with a handful of the salad mix (for the kids, you might want to put the salad on the side). Lick fingers and enjoy the taste of summer.

Serving Suggestion: Flank steak and arugula

Sometimes there are dishes that I make that are so simple that they don't really have a recipe. It's usually something that I've made so many times that I've memorized the list of ingredients and I don't measure anything, I eyeball it. Or sometimes it's a dish that is exactly what it says it is, such as Flank Steak with Arugula. I like to refer to these dishes as serving suggestions. No recipe, no measuring. Just a simple combination of food. The perfect antidote to the midweek dinner brain freeze.

I've posted before about pan grilling a steak, and I can't stress how easy it is to do. I was always skeptical of the idea, but now I find that we do it every few weeks, whenever we get that hankering for a hunk of meat. I just bought a huge (I mean huge) container of arugula, and I figured the peppery greens would be a perfect partner with steak.

Here's my serving suggestion: salt and pepper both sides of the steak, massage some olive oil into the meat. Get a grill pan or cast iron skillet really hot (if you're using the grill, better yet). Put the steak in the pan for 6 minutes per side for medium rare. Let the meat rest for about 5 to 10 minutes to continue cooking slightly. Slice thinly across the grain. Toss greens with a drizzle of olive oil and small splash of balsamic vinegar. Make a bed of greens on each dinner plate and top with the sliced steak. That's it.

Now I need to come up with a few more ideas with arugula. I think I'll try to make a pesto. Anyone have any other arugula recipes or serving suggestions?