Odd Ingredients on Cupboard Shelf Enjoyed Over Pasta

Sometimes odd ingredients, snagged in a whim off a grocery store shelf, take up prolonged residence in the home cupboard for weeks, months, or (in my house) years. I know this is true. Once I heard Prairie Home Companion's Garrison Keillor refer to water chestnuts purchased in such moments, and consumed only by house-bound Minnesotans during prolonged blizzards. Yes, on the very night I heard his monologue, I noticed my own resident water chestnuts. I also have a 1/2-decade old jar of pureed, roasted eggplant, a jar of Thai peanut sauce, a jar of curried corn relish, a package of miso soup...well my list could continue, but you get the idea.

So if you have a jar of Calamata olives and a package of pine nuts which you no longer recall why you bought, I have the recipe for you. It's a pasta recipe, and it is so good that I am entering it in the food-blogging event: Vegetables, Beautiful Vegetables 2008.

Of course, you'll need a few other ingredients to make it, but not many. As long as your olives are already pitted, the recipe is easy and fairly quick to make. I got the recipe from my mom. She didn't make it often because back-in-the-day she had to de-pit the olives. Once she gave me that job, and I learned the first secret of a top chef: delegate the prep-work.

So here's the recipe for Pasta with Olives and Tomatoes:

• 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 4 large garlic cloves, chopped fine or pressed
• red pepper flakes, to taste
• 25 Greek olives, chopped (I buy Calamata, pitted olives)
• sprigs of fresh basil, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon (or 1 cube) of chicken or vegetable bouillon dissolved in 3/4 cup boiling water
• 5 ripe Roma tomatoes, diced

While cooking enough angel hair or thin spaghetti pasta for 3-4 people, heat olive oil in a skillet. To the heated oil, add garlic, pine nuts, and red pepper flakes. Saute a few minutes. Add basil, broth, salt and pepper. Cook about 1-2 minutes. Add olives. Drain pasta. Turn off heat under skillet and add the tomatoes. Toss the tomatoes in the skillet mixture to warm them up. Pour the sauce over the pasta and serve.

Curious, I queried my co-workers at Wisconsinmade.com about the permanent-resident foods on their home shelves. The survey results show definite trends:

 

 

• Soups -both exotic and common:
  • Nina: can of bird's nest soup
  • Vicki: cream of mushroom
  • Katie: chicken vegetable
• hot drinks:
  • Nina and Vicki: assorted loose teas
  • Katie: tins of hot chocolate
• spices, examples are:
  • Nina: cinnamon sticks, alum
  • Vicki: soup-spice mix
  • Katie: pumpkin pie spice
• noodles:
  • Nina and Vicki: Asian noodles (not sure of real name)
  • Katie: colored noodles in odd shapes such as a house
• other eclectic ingredients:
  • Nina: shrimp boil mix
  • Vicki: Japanese prunes
  • Katie: boxed salad (at one time she liked it)

If you have permanent residents in your cupboard, we're curious what they are, and we would like to add them to our growing list.

If you have recently moved or remodeled and lack such tokens of a well-stocked home, let us suggest some Wisconsin favorites. However, I add this disclaimer: you might actually enjoy these foods and will later need to re-stock.

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Spinach Artichoke Dip Mix

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 Wild Mushroom Burgundy Sauce

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Berres Brothers Rubs and Spices

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Premium Pickled Asparagus

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Gourmet Ice Cream Toppings by Door County Toppings

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Make any purchase from Wisconsinmade.com by May 31, 2008 and receive $5.00 off by entering this offer code with your order: FBLOG508

Comments

[Vibram Five Fingers]

This site sounds amazing and appeals to it addict in me.

[cristie]

Hi Abby,
Thanks for your chutney and tagine sauce entries. To the list, I'll add the canned salmon and canned mackerel on my shelf. At one time we thought we liked them.

[abby]

your pasta looks lovely cristie - as the tomatoes improve i love eating them raw with pasta. thanks for sharing this recipe with vegetables, beautiful vegetables.

and as for the items which lurk in cupboard - i have a jar of tagine sauce which really needs eating or binning. there are also jars of chutney aplenty!