After prowling the produce stands and farmers markets I gathered enough items to put together a simple, but certainly healthy and gourmet-type meal. This one is a nice, simple, elegant dish that can be made up in about 1/2 an hour.
I started by de-seeding some purple muscadine grapes and heating them on the stove with some honey. Letting them cook on a low simmer released the grape flavors. While that was going I rendered some lardons of Pine Street Market’s delicious applewood smoked bacon and began to boil some garlic flavored Pappardelle’s linguine whole wheat pasta. Before anyone asks… it was a small amount of bacon, locally cured and smoked from hormone free hogs obtained in Newnan, Georgia. It’s damned good.
Meanwhile I de-seeded some scuppernong grapes (and pulled the skins off because S. doesn’t like their thick, slightly bitter taste), diced a fresh peach, and mixed them both with some tiny, tiny, cherry tomatoes I bought at the market. I also diced half and onion, crushed some garlic, sliced some crimini mushrooms, and diced a red and a yellow tomato.
When the bacon had rendered I picked the pieces out of the pan with a fork, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. With the heat on high I dropped in the garlic and onions, sauteeing until just browned(I can offer no defense for the sauteeing in bacon fat… it’s just got an incredible smokey, salty, rich flavor that I cannot throw out). This was followed by the mushrooms, which I let sit in the fat and only turned once one side was nicely browned. I added the diced tomatoes and stirred, letting the whole concoction simmer on a reduced heat.
I pulled the muscadine/honey mix off the stove, added a small amount of rice wine vinegar, pureed and strained, and set aside as a dressing for the salads. I built the salads with a handful of baby spinach leaves, some home-grown broccoli/alfalfa sprouts, the peach/scuppernong salsa, and the muscadine dressing.
I drained the pasta, tossed with a little olive oil(see, no bacon fat!), hit the tomato mix with some capers and a touch of cream, stirred in some chiffonaded fresh basil and seasoned with cracked black pepper, kosher salt and grated lemon zest. I put the pasta on a plate an ladled the fresh tomato sauce over it, sprinkling the bacon on top.
For some reason, S. feels she must have some kind of meat with at least one meal each day, so I diced and sauteed some chicken breast for her. Mine was vegetarian (not counting the bacon/fat).
Tomatoes are loaded with health benefits, the most loudly touted being Lycopene. Lycopene is an anti-oxident credited with staving off all sorts of cancer-causing health issues. It is also a soldier in the fight against heart disease. Dark leavy greens like spinach are high in vitamin K, A, iron and calcium. Fresh sprouts contain concentrated amounts of phytochemicals, plant estrogens that increase bone formation and density and prevent bone breakdown or osteoporosis, and are high in saponins which lower LDL cholesterol and fat in the bloodstream. Whole wheat pastas contain much of the nutritious bran and germ, high in B vitamins, magnesium and manganese, and a good fiber source, too.
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