My New Favorite Dish - Spaghetti with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, Pancetta

This is my new favorite dish.  It has to be, because I've made it every single week since I saw the recipe.

It's a luscious dish of pasta topped with tomatoes which are roasted with bread crumbs and stuffed with slivers of garlic.  Fresh herbs and crispy bits of pancetta top it off.  The flavors are perfect together.  To eat the dish, you just crush your tomato on top of your pasta and it makes this incredible sauce.  

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Pasta with Roasted Beets, Beet Greens and Pine Nuts

When confronted with these beauties at the local farmers market, what would you do with them?

Growing up, I never liked beets. I think that's true of a lot of people because we were used to bad canned beets. The best way to enjoy beets is to buy them fresh, roast them simply in the oven, peel them and serve them with just a little olive oil and sea salt. When I started reading Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin, it inspired me to cook beets this way and I've loved them ever since.

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Penne with Salmon in Vodka Sauce

I think I've reached the cracking point. The high for the next couple of days here is still only going to be in the twenties.  This has been the longest, coldest, snowiest (we broke a record in February for snow) winter. Then Cookiecrumb over at I'm Mad and I Eat had the nerve to post a picture of a daffodil blooming in her yard. That really did me in. My back yard, on the other hand, looks like this:

  

So last night I cooked a friend a birthday dinner.  I knew she liked pasta and salmon, so this was a perfect dish for her.  We started off, however, with these:

Limoncello cocktails.  Simply a shot of limoncello, topped off with champagne (actually, we used an Italian Prosecco) and a slice of lemon.  No ice, because you keep the limoncello in the freezer and ice would only dilute the drink.

Penne with Salmon in Vodka Sauce

serves 4

For a printable recipe, click here

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces penne pasta
• 1 shallot
• 1 15 oz can pureed or crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 2/3 cup chicken broth
• 2 salmon fillets, chopped
• chopped dill
• fresh thyme
• 2/3 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Boil pasta in salted water until al dente.

 

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce.  Saute shallot in olive oil in skillet.  Add tomatoes and vodka and cook for 2 minutes.  Add chicken broth and herbs.  Add salmon and gently cook for five minutes.  Stir in cream.

 Add cooked pasta to skillet and coat with sauce.