rigatoni with tomato, mozzarella, basil, radish micro greens

rigatoni_tomato_mozzarella

I had quite a bit of mozzarella left from the ball I had used in a meal 2 days before, so I decided the best idea for using it, if I didn’t want to repeat the insalata caprese, would probably be including it in a summery pasta.

Barry went on line to look for suggestions, and he found 2 recipes which looked very good; I chose the one which did not require letting snipped basil leaves sit around all day in a bowl with olive oil before proceeding further with the assembly of the dish.  I halved the amounts and, because I had no basil, specified in the recipe, replaced it with 3 other herbs.

It was fabulous.

  • one garlic clove from Norwich Meadows Farm, cut in half, the edges rubbed all over the inside of an old ceramic kitchen bowl, then discarded (the garlic), 2 heirloom and 2 red banana tomatoes, chopped, all from Norwich Meadows Farm, combined in the bowl with 6 or 7 ounces of fresh hand-rolled mozzarella from Valley Shepherd Creamery, cut into 1/2″ pieces, plus 1/4 of a cup olive oil, and about a third of a cup of a mix of chopped herbs (lovage from Keith’s Farm, spearmint from Ryder Farm, and savory from Stokes Farm), salt, and pepper, allowed to sit for about 15 minutes to let the flavors meld, after which 8 ounces of Rigatoni (an organic hard durum whole wheat, ‘Senatore Cappelli’, from Foragers Market), cooked al dente, was tossed into the bowl, combined with the sauce, divided into 2 bowls, and sprinkled with purple radish micro greens from Two Guys from Woodbridge
  • the wine was an Italian (Sardinia) white, La Cala Vermentino di Sardegna 2014
  • the music was mid-eighteenth-century harpsichord music composed by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, performed by  Christophe Rousset