What was supposed to be a day filled with lovely, productive work work working was instead filled, for the most part, with migraines, befuddled druggedness, and Persons from Porlock. But now that the narcotic haze has lifted, I'm hungry! There will be no more working here until I've filled my poor scholar's belly, and that's flat.
Fortunately, we've been quite ambitious in our grocery shopping of late, which means I've got plenty of gourmet odds and ends to work with. So, while replenishing my fluids with plenty of elderflower saft, I've thrown together a nice and totally unreproducable variation on the perennial eggplant-and-pasta combination. What follows is in no way a recipe, merely a report of what went in.
There's something so pleasurable about mixing together the contents of many little jars and stepping back to see what happens. It reminds me of a very wonderful "cookbook" I owned when I was a wee lassie, of recipes along the lines of mud pies, raised to an art form. I remember only that the final recipe (featuring dandelion fluff, I think) recommended that it be consumed with Mumm's, not stooping to mention even that Mumm's was champagne. That should give you an idea of the tone. I miss that book terribly, and wish I could remember anything more about it, such as, say, the title.
Anyway, in the interests of documenting all, here (in my best approximation) are the components:
1. 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1" cubes, baked until tender, and chopped roughly
2. 1 lb. rombi (little ruffled parallelograms of pasta), cooked to an al dente state in heavily salted water.
3. 1/2 tub of organic ricotta cheese
4. 3 fat cloves of garlic, chopped fine
5. A couple of tablespoons of ultra-fancy tomato paste
6. A tablespoon or two of artichoke spread
7. About a tablespoon of roasted red pepper dip
8. A splash of olive oil
9. A few handsful of baby spinach (raw)
10. Lots of freshly ground pepper
11. Grated odds and ends of cheese
Items 1 and 3-8 were mixed separately into a kind of sauce. I tossed the pasta in the sauce and then tossed in the spinach, which would cook just fine when I put the whole thing in to bake. I layered the pasta mixture and the cheese in a deep round baking dish, adding extra spinach where it seemed appropriate, and plenty of pepper along the way. The results, so delicious, will never be heard of again.
Fortunately, we've been quite ambitious in our grocery shopping of late, which means I've got plenty of gourmet odds and ends to work with. So, while replenishing my fluids with plenty of elderflower saft, I've thrown together a nice and totally unreproducable variation on the perennial eggplant-and-pasta combination. What follows is in no way a recipe, merely a report of what went in.
There's something so pleasurable about mixing together the contents of many little jars and stepping back to see what happens. It reminds me of a very wonderful "cookbook" I owned when I was a wee lassie, of recipes along the lines of mud pies, raised to an art form. I remember only that the final recipe (featuring dandelion fluff, I think) recommended that it be consumed with Mumm's, not stooping to mention even that Mumm's was champagne. That should give you an idea of the tone. I miss that book terribly, and wish I could remember anything more about it, such as, say, the title.
Anyway, in the interests of documenting all, here (in my best approximation) are the components:
1. 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1" cubes, baked until tender, and chopped roughly
2. 1 lb. rombi (little ruffled parallelograms of pasta), cooked to an al dente state in heavily salted water.
3. 1/2 tub of organic ricotta cheese
4. 3 fat cloves of garlic, chopped fine
5. A couple of tablespoons of ultra-fancy tomato paste
6. A tablespoon or two of artichoke spread
7. About a tablespoon of roasted red pepper dip
8. A splash of olive oil
9. A few handsful of baby spinach (raw)
10. Lots of freshly ground pepper
11. Grated odds and ends of cheese
Items 1 and 3-8 were mixed separately into a kind of sauce. I tossed the pasta in the sauce and then tossed in the spinach, which would cook just fine when I put the whole thing in to bake. I layered the pasta mixture and the cheese in a deep round baking dish, adding extra spinach where it seemed appropriate, and plenty of pepper along the way. The results, so delicious, will never be heard of again.
