Punaweb Cookbook: sharing favorite recipes

[AlohaSteven]

I should have mentioned the Sweet Potato & Pear Soup recipe originally came from my dear friend Marianne. This next one, though, I invented myself by experimentation over a number of years while teaching science in Alaska's most remotely isolated Eskimo and Athabascan Indian villages. This dish was such a huge hit at community potlucks that the recipe is now in a number of rural Alaska cookbooks as "Science Teacher’s Quick and Easy Pasta Delight."

Science Teacher’s Quick and Easy Pasta Delight

If you love spicy, cheesy, delicious Italian pasta dishes but do not have much time for cooking then this one is for you! Remember to pick up these ingredients while shopping to have on hand and it will be simple to swiftly prepare a great-tasting and nutritious main dish.

Preparation time: About 25 minutes.

Ingredients checklist:
(Substitute freely with other brands and change proportions to taste)
___Dash of salt.
___One to one-and-a-half pounds of extra sharp cheddar cheese, to taste.
___24 ounces of tricolor pasta spirals called "rotini" made of plain macaroni, spinach macaroni, and tomato macaroni.
___One or two 2.5 ounce sticks of Hormel pepperoni, to taste.
___One or two 0.7 ounce (small) Good Seasons “Zesty Italian” dry salad dressing spice mix packets, to taste.
___Two-thirds cup extra-virgin first-press olive oil.
___Two cups balsamic vinegar (preferably from Modena, Italy).

These quantities make one large pot, enough for several adults and a bunch of kids with hearty appetites.

Method:
1) Add a dash of salt and a few drops of olive oil to a pot of water, then bring the water to full boil.

2) Add the tricolor macaroni spirals (rotini) to boiling water, stir until the water reaches boiling again, and then reduce heat and allow to simmer until pasta is tender.

3) While the pasta is cooking dice the cheese and pepperoni into small cubes, jumble them together, and set off to the side for the moment. Watch out for a possible plastic skin on the pepperoni: if present, then remove and discard plastic skin before dicing the pepperoni.

4) Pour the balsamic vinegar (regular vinegar will serve at need, but balsamic vinegar really does make a huge difference in the flavor) into a capped bottle or jar and add the Italian dressing spice mix packet(s). Shake the vinegar and spices together, then add the olive oil and shake again until the vinegar, spices, and oil are well mixed.

5) Drain the tender tricolor rotini and then stir the diced cheese and pepperoni thoroughly into the hot pasta. Allow the cheese and pepperoni to sit mixed into the hot pasta for five minutes; they melt a bit and so improve the overall flavor.

6) Shake the vinegar-and-oil spice mixture one last time and then pour all of it on top of the pasta; stir the vinegar-and-oil spice mixture throughout the pasta.

7) Serve hot. The flavor improves if placed in a crock pot and kept warm for several hours, or if baked in a covered dish at low temperature in the oven for an hour or two. That which is not eaten immediately will keep well for a long time--at least a week--if stored covered in a refrigerator. Reheats easily in the microwave as well as over a burner and tastes great as a “left-over” snack; scramble with eggs to raise the protein content. May actually improve in flavor when reheated as a left-over!

Bon Appétit!



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"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Pres. John Adams, Scholar and Statesman


"There's a scientific reason to be concerned and there's a scientific reason to push for action. But there's no scientific reason to despair."

NASA climate analyst Gavin Schmidt

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