Recipe Review from 10/27/08

Oh my oh my. What an exciting week! Our local and state elections were as exciting as the national one. Still, I’m glad all the campaigning is over - we may now resume our regularly scheduled programs called life.

To play catch-up from Monday, here’s last weeks recipe review:



Ziti with Tomatoes and Spinach in Gorgonzola Sauce (Ckng Lght Sept 08, pg 148) 4.5
This was an excellent dish with great flavor that came together very quickly. I did have a couple of substitutions - campanelle pasta for the ziti, swiss chard for the spinach and some baby portobelo tossed to use them up. While the pasta is boiling, I briefly sauteed the mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic. To this was added the Gorgonzola cheese and a splash of ½ n ½ to make it nice and creamy. When the pasta was complete, it was added to the pan and coated in the sauce and vegetables.

Only one complaint about the recipe itself - the directions call to make the sauce first then boil the pasta. Very misleading because the sauce is then cooling while one is waiting for the pasta to cook. The two can be done simultaneously.



Roasted Parsnip Soup (Eating Well, Nov/Dec 08, pg 80) 3.5
The Husband made this recipe and had a few complaints about it - the directions call to clean and core the parsnips. He felt not only was this a pain in the patooie, but unnecessary as well. In past recipes, we have never cored our parsnips. Second, the roasting didn’t seem to soften the vegetables as the recipe indicated. Perhaps a longer recommended roasting period is necessary or a combination of roasting and boiling. There was supposed to be a balsamic vinegar reduction drizzled over the top, but that was more work than he/we wanted to deal with for just dinner.

So the soup ended up a bit granular - almost with a cream of wheat consistency. We liked the peppery flavor, and it was perfect for these fall nights, but we both agreed it could have been better.

Pumpkin Muffins (Ckng Lght Annual 07, pg 396) 3.5
I happened to have all the ingredients on hand so I whipped up a batch of these for a yoga book group meeting this past Sunday. Due to the addition of molasses, these were a bit stronger in the flavor department than I would have liked - the molasses being tempered by buttermilk, brown sugar, pumpkin and a heck of a lot of spices. They did bake up very moist with a nice open crumb. I did substitute craisins for raisins because many folk just do like raisins in their baked goods (me being one of them). I am waffling if I would make them again - they were good, but not really what I like in a pumpkin muffin.