This week’s box included: watermelon, Italian peppers, potatoes, okra, Kirby cucumbers, summer squash, sweet corn, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, salad cucumber.
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Watermelon is still with us and spaghetti squash and corn make return appearances. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and okra are our summer stalwarts, and so nice to see potatoes show up again. I’m loving the variety of peppers that show up each week and I’m incorporating them into almost everything I’m making from salads to cold soups to shakshuka.
I’m planning some watermelon sorbet – just frozen watermelon pureed with coconut milk, lime zest and a tiny bit of grated fresh ginger. Add lime juice if it needs a little tartness. Our house is suffering from air conditioning woes – thank goodness for attic fans and the cooler temperatures we’re having right now. Anything frozen is a real gift and what I want to be eating when the temperature in my home office is 86 degrees. My watermelon has been cubed and is freezing right now.
For those with cooler homes, I’ve got a recipe below for baked spaghetti squash with chickpeas with a clever tip on how to cut that squash to get longer strands. It’s just a standard baked squash but with a fun and protein-packed chickpea filling. It supposes you are cooking your chickpeas from dried. If you’re using canned, add the liquid from the can and maybe some water if needed to get the chickpeas to start to break down.
Continuing the chickpea theme, and looking for new ways to eat up all my slicer tomatoes, there’s a recipe down below for Puttanesca Chickpea-Tomato Salad, with chickpeas substituting for the traditional cubes of bread. A cold salad I can nibble on from the refrigerator is a win for me this week.
And there’s a recipe for corn cookies! Use one of those ears of corn and your stash of Artisan Milling cornmeal (or use it as an excuse to buy some Artisan Milling cornmeal). The recipe creator suggests these make great ice cream (or sorbet) sandwiches. I can’t wait to try them.
Baked Spaghetti Squash with Garlicky Chickpeas
Adapted from “Skinny Taste’s One and Done Cookbook”
Tip: Cut the squash crosswise as opposed to lengthwise. Cutting crosswise is not only easier but also (counterintuitively) produces longer, more spaghetti-like strands. Interesting, right? See the newly added video for cutting guidance. If you have a microwave: Use it to soften the flesh of the spaghetti squash, thereby making it easier to cut into. One minute on high should do it, but continue to cook at 1 minute intervals if skin is still too hard after the first pass.
for the squash:
1 medium spaghetti squash, (2 3/4 to 3 pounds)
kosher salt, for seasoning
fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese
for the chickpeas:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 2 onions thinly sliced to yield 1-2 cups
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups cooked chickpeas in their cooking liquid
flaky sea salt for finishing
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper.
Halve the spaghetti squash crosswise and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds and stringy yellow strands, then discard. Season the flesh with a pinch of salt & pepper then place the squash cut side down on the prepared pan.Bake until the flesh can be easily pierced with a fork, 55 to 60 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Using a fork, gently pull the squash flesh from the sides and scrape into a bowl; it will separate into spaghetti-like strands.Add olive oil, Pecorino Romano, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Toss well and serve immediately, or to make the chickpeas, continue on.
To make the chickpeas: Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring every so often, till they begin to caramelize, 7 to 1o minutes. Add the garlic and pepper flakes to taste, and cook for a minute more. Add the chickpeas and 2 cups of cooking liquid and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for 10 minutes or until chickpeas begin breaking down. Taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add liquid as needed to keep the chickpeas somewhat brothy.
To serve. Spoon chickpeas into a bowl. Top with a spoonful of spaghetti squash. Use a microplane to shave more Pecorino over top. Serve, passing more salt and pepper on the side.
Puttanesca Chickpea-Tomato Salad
From The New York Times
Notes from NYT: This recipe turns tomato salad into a meal by marrying creamy beans with some of the briny, salty ingredients found in pasta puttanesca, like tomatoes, capers, olives and garlic. While Parmesan isn’t traditional to puttanesca, coarsely chopped pebbles of it add bursts of umami to this salad. Feel free to omit the cheese for a vegan dish, or embellish the mix with fresh or dried chile, tinned fish or more vegetables. This recipe is not only adaptable but also improves as it sits: The tomato juices mingle with the oil, olives and capers — and the beans drink it all up.
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes of any size, cut into 1- or 2-bite pieces
3 cups cooked, rinsed chickpeas, white beans or a mix (homemade or from two 15-ounce cans)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley leaves and stems
1 1/2 ounces Parmesan, coarsely chopped or crumbled (about 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup kalamata olives, torn in half and pitted
3 tablespoons drained capers
1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
Kosher salt
In a large bowl, stir together the tomatoes, chickpeas, parsley, Parmesan, olive oil, olives, capers, lemon juice and garlic. Season lightly with salt and stir once more. Let sit for 10 minutes or up to 2 hours at room temperature.
Before serving, taste and add more salt and lemon juice until it tastes bright. The balance is largely dependent on your tomatoes. (This salad keeps for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
Fresh Corn Cookies
From Susan Spungen of Susanality on Substack.
She bakes the cookies right after she makes the dough, which ensures a thin cookie. The dough is soft though, and a little tricky to handle, so she drop the scoops or spoonsful of dough directly into a bowl of sugar and jostle it around to coat; this makes it easier to handle. If you want to make the dough ahead and chill it, that’s fine, too. Form balls of dough while the dough is cold, and let them warm up a bit before baking. They won’t be quite as thin, but still perfectly delicious.
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ear fresh corn, husked and de-silked
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until well combined.
Use the large holes of a box grater to grate the corn into a bowl. This can get a little messy, so I suggest you wear an apron. Add the vanilla to the corn.
Add the corn mixture and butter to the food processor. Run the food processor until the dough collects into a mass. Scrape it out into a bowl. Use a small cookie scoop to scoop up about 1 tablespoon of dough and drop it into a small bowl of sugar. Roll it around and gently transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet, rounding the cookies slightly with your hands. The dough will be very soft.
Arrange the cookies 8 to a tray, hopscotch style, to give them plenty of room to spread, and bake for 14 to 16 minutes if baking two trays at once, or closer to 14 minutes if baking only one, until they are golden brown on the edges. They won’t color much on top. Repeat until all the dough has been used.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.