Saturday’s left over ribs plus new sides equalled delicious tonight. I served them with carrots & chick peas which I oven roasted with cumin and lemon. Sauteed cippolini onions & cabbage topped with soy toasted walnuts and gorgonzola cheese. Princess rice (jasmine rice – get it? – made with butter and a little bit of Better Than Boullion).
The carrots, cabbage and onions are from my csa box.
We spent 6 1/2 hours in the car coming back from Cape Cod, it should have taken 5. It was already 7:30, so I made a quick pasta dish which I call Faux Penne alla Vodka. Faux Penne alla Vodka is for when you really, really don’t have any time because regular Penne alla Vodka is already pretty quick to make, I like the Lidia Bastianich recipe.
• Faux Penne Alla Vodka •
(Makes enough for 1/2 lb of pasta)
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup half and half (or light, heavy or whipping cream)
salt & pepper to taste
Melt the butter in a small skillet over low heat. Add the tomato paste and stir to blend with the melted butter. Add cream, salt and pepper. I’m pretty heavy-handed with the salt in this dish, because it’s just a low sauce to pasta ratio. Taste for seasoning. Drain pasta and toss with a little butter or oil. Add sauce and stir to coat pasta. Yum. This sauce is really good on ravioli too.
I also made radicchio salad with balsamic dressing (honey, balsamic vinegar, salt, olive oil) topped with loads of grated pecorino and simple sauteed cabbage (olive oil, garlic, red peper flakes, lemon, salt).
We had a record low number of people for dinner at the Cape tonight, there were only eight of us! Shane has been perfecting his smoked ribs for the past two summers. This was his first attempt this summer and all meat eaters agreed it was his best yet.
André made three types of barbeque sauce, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kansas City, they were all really good but most people favored either North Carolina or KC.
We also had mashed potatoes, baked beans (Bush’s from a can), asparagus roasted with olive oil and lemon pepper, really good zucchini from my csa box sauteed in butter and olive oil and topped with lots of parmesan cheese, buttered carrots.
Hello and welcome to The Steady Table. My name is Nina Max Daly and my family eats together every night.* Here at thesteadytable.com you will find a photo journal of our dinners, starting tonight! I’m really excited to be sharing our meals with you. For more about about me and my family please see the about page.
*Full disclosure: On Wednesday nights my husband Shane is at his studio, so it’s just our daughter Rose and me. We’ve also not eaten together a handful of times for the following reasons: sicknesses and/or hospitalization, a carload of Italians running late, the once or twice a year that Shane and I go out to dinner without Rose and, well, I guess that’s it.
