Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Angel Hair Pasta with Fennel, Onion, Orange and Olives

IMG_1811

So after my last blog post...riddled with some very minor typos ...OK FINE...FULL-FLEDGED BLATANT MISTAKES (one.... after another....after another...)

It was agreed upon by all those "who care about me"...I was officially...

GROUNDED from MY BLOG!  (**effective immediately)

IMG_1726

Sent to my room...no camera, certainly no computer, no snacks, no flat screen TV ...no wine.

No husband...no children...no ultra messy toy room...

...no noise.

No bills sitting out...no dirty pots to scrub... no diapers to change....

Did I say no children????

IMG_1733

Just "POOR, POOR" me in exile from her kitchen and family ....left all alone...

...with a bed, a pillow and the latest edition of, "bon appetit!"

A pen and some paper (for which I was instructed to write on the words, "offense" and "weigh" 100x each) .....instead gave way to thoughts, ideas, bubbly doodles....

Solo brainstorming at its finest!

IMG_1737

HOLY COW!  I could get used to this grounded thing!

I'm going to misspell the crap out of words and write grammatically incorrect blog posts WAAAAY more often!  In fact, I HOPE...NO...I PRAY... I am butchering this one... AS. WE. SPEAK!

So go ahead and "ground me" again you, "people who care..."  I dare you. 

Someone. Just. Might. Like it.

IMG_1787

(**ALL MISTAKES/TYPOS IN THIS POST WERE ON PURPOSE!) ;)

Angel Hair with Fennel, Onion, Orange and Olives
~ my own recipe as a result of some alone time

Ingredients:

8oz. Angel Hair Pasta, cooked Al dente - some cooking water reserved!

1 fennel bulb, trimmed and sliced
1 large red onion, sliced
3 orange circle slices, peel removed (about 1/4 inch thick)
1 large or 2 smaller cloves of garlic, cut in half
Olive oil, enough for coating a large pan
1 tablespoon capers, drained
2 tablespoon butter
1/8 cup cream Sherry
1/2 cup heavy cream
Chopped olives (to taste but about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup fresh chopped flat leaf parsley
Fennel fronds for garnish
Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large pan coated with olive oil, cook down the fennel, red onion, orange slices and garlic until soft and fragrant, about 15 minutes.

Add a nice pinch of kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper (I think it is important in most recipes to add salt and pepper in layers) then the butter, sherry and capers and continue cooking down about 5 more minutes, deglazing the pan.

Remove from heat and let cool (it should look similar to the picture above with the wooden spoon).

When you're ready, add the mixture to a food processor then add cream, mix until it turns into a paste. (It will be a thick paste - not pretty looking) but honestly....you could salt and pepper to taste again and then stop right here and serve it with BREAD! YUM!)

OK...moving...on....

Cook pasta Al dente - RESERVING SOME OF THE HOT PASTA COOKING WATER!

Drain pasta - DON'T RINSE!

Place pasta back into its pot, add the fennel puree and some of the (to desired consistency about 1/2 cup but do it little by little) reserved cooking pasta water and mix together well. (This will take a few minutes to get it well incorprated)

Stir in some chopped olives and fresh chopped flat leaf parsley. Salt and Pepper (AGAIN) to taste!

Garnish with fennel fronds and serve with crusty bread!

16 comments:

Bo said...

This pasta sounds great...don't feel bad about the typos...I think I'm the worst...I once made a post for some roasted "pototoes"...really funny thing is I saw my entire post, pics and everything on another blog(a real person not a robot)...I just left a comment telling them those pototoes sure did taste good.

Magic of Spice said...

What an amazingly happy pasta dish...love it. Wish someone would ground me :)

Edible Art said...

haha !
a very brilliant mind you have, twisting "punishment" in a way that (in the end) benefited you ! haha

but then again i think thats the " purpose " of a "grounding " (;

lovely dish, yet another great dish amongst your manyyyyymanyyy others

Marc van der Wouw said...

Looks very very nice;-)

Joanne said...

Embrace the grammarless posts! That's what I do. :P I call it creative license. A much nicer term for illiteracy.

I LOVE this pasta! I've really come around to fennel recently and this sounds delicious!

Lea Ann said...

I wish I could get my pasta that organized for a great photo like yours. I can't for the life of me get it to pile up nicely...will you please ground me?! This sounds delicious. I love citrus in anything. Great post...another recipe bookmarked...and I think I'm going to make your salmon/shaved asparagus thing tongiht.

Unknown said...

Ok, first...there were typos? :)
Second..it's sort of like when I got sent to my room when I was a kid...I mean, that's where I wanted to be anyway, that's where all my toys were!!
And third...WOW, the pasta sounds incredible!! And again...the pictures are amazing!

Whats Cookin Italian Style Cuisine said...

Very pretty dish of flavorful pasta!

Nuts about food said...

I wouldn't mind being grounded at all if I got to hang out in my room alone -sans kids - flipping through a food magazine. Now, if I had a bowl of your pasta too, I would actually be in heaven.

Karen said...

I LOVE the combo of orange and fennel...they are so good together.
And I can definitely see why you didn't mind the grounding if this is what comes of it! Looks really tasty.

Unknown said...

What a great combination all into a pasta dish beautiful presentation too!! Superb work

Clint said...

Actually, it looks sensational. Are we having a dry white wine with it?

Mary Bergfeld said...

This is a wonderful pasta. I love the flavors you've combined here and I'd love to have a taste of this. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Angela said...

Yum! I sorry you were grounded. It looks like you used your time wisely:)

Unknown said...

Thanks for all your comments guys :)

@Clint yes I do think a nice light white would pair great with a dish like this as it would bring out the flavors if the dish (orange...fennel, etc) OR a pinot noir :) But I'm no wine expert!

Katerina said...

Well, they must ground you more often, if in this way you come up with such beautiful and mouthwatering recipes as this one lol. I would have loved it too, are you crazy I would die to be grounded ha,ha,ha.