PENNETE CON GAMBERI, FIORI DI ZUCCA E POMODORINI

Recently we went Upstate NY, to see our dear Margaret.

I love the two hours train ride, but what I love the most, is hanging out, relaxing and picking fresh fruits and vegetables at local farms .

This time was different, no local farms in program, but similar, we were privileged to invade some relative's vegetable garden, and pick up yellow zucchine, baby zucchine, zucchini blossoms, cherry tomatoes and some fresh basil .

The next day's dinner was already planned.

This time a pasta dish. I did choose pennete, but you can use

any kind of short pasta.

While I was boiling the pasta (1/2lb for 2 portions),

I started to make a quick cheese-less pesto.

2 cups of chopped basil

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup of cracked almonds

1/2 cup of olive oil

lemon zest (from half lemon)

sea salt and pepper

After processing the ingredients until became homogeneous,

the pesto was ready .

I sautéed 10 small shrimp with cherry tomato and touch of olive

oil for 2 minutes, and added 8 small zucchini blossoms, cooked

pasta and the pesto, afterwards.

This pasta is a great summer pasta, and can be enjoyed cold or warm.

As a wine match, we had a beautiful Traminer,

again from Slovenia ( G Pullus 2009) .

If you try to cook this one at home, I assure you, that

you won't be disappointed!

Cheers!

Red lentils soup with smoked paprika marinated shrimp

Well,well,well I finally got a moment to bring up some new stuff, here is a soup that I've made for my family, for Easter lunch.

More dishes from that event will be posted soon.

This lentils shrimp soup is easy to make and very delicious.

You need the following ingredients in order to come up with the dish right :

(for 4 servings)

8 oz red lentils

1 carrot medium size

2 celery ribs

1/2 bunch of cilantro

2 garlic cloves

1 chopped medium size onion

2 tbs of turmeric powder

4 shrimp U10 size

smoked paprika

olive oil

In a large soup pot bring to boil: lentils, chopped onion,diced carrots, chopped celery and garlic along with 1l of cold water.

In a small pan mix 2 tbs of turmeric with 1oz of olive oil, until become a paste.

Add the paste to the boiling pot stirring in.

After approximately 25 minutes, the lentils and vegetables are cooked well.

Add salt and pepper as well, according to your taste along with the chopped cilantro and remove the pot from the stove top.

Let it rest for 10 minute.

Prepare a marinade of:1 tbs of smoked paprika, salt, and a squeeze of lemon.

Coat the shrimp with it and gently saute them for 1 minute.

Remove the shrimp from the saute pan then chopped them or skewer each of them like in the picture above.

Process the content of the soup pot in in a blender or food processor, until becomes velvety .

The soup is ready, all you need to do is enjoy it.

Usually is hard to match wines for soups, but I got to tell you, we had a nice

2006 Kerner from Abbazia di Novacella, which was the perfect match.

The wine color goes from pale straw yellow with green highlights to pale gold; fruit aromas; fresh and medium bodied.

Shrimp and yellow string beans

It's 10am, and I have to get Ravi to the Day Care then to go to work,but there is no dinner prepared, so I have to put together something quick,otherwise my lovely wife will order some for delivery again .(I don't really care for delivered food) .
Well, so I have handy the following ingredients to play with:
12 shrimp 16-20 size
2 organic loose carrots
2 oz baby green peas
1 onion
garlic
chili powder
herbs
1 lb of yellow string beans
1 red bell pepper
1 tomato
To begin with I cleaned up the string beans, then I chopped the carrots, onions and tomato.
In a shallow saute pan I did heat up a little oil, the I added the vegetables and a cup of water.
I added the garlic, a dash of chili powder, salt and pepper, letting the whole thing simmer for about 18 min.
The shrimp has been added as well, stirring and mixing them with the vegetables.
Cook the whole thing for another, 12 minutes the add frozen green peas and stir them in.
By now, the water has been reduced, and all we have is a melange of vegetable and shrimp, perfectly cooked.
It's 10:40 already, I'm ready to go, the dinner is ready, all we need is some vino.
I suggest for this dish, to try the Salneval Albarino 2006, see the review at:
http://www.21cdigital.com/civusa/condes_de_albarei_reviews.htm