Archive for December 29th, 2006

Tonight I made a salad using left-over ham from Christmas dinner. I combined an heirloom tomato with honey-glazed ham and mâché, but included a special dressing.

• 2 parts Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey
• 1 part lemon juice
• 2 parts extra-virgin olive oil
• salt, pepper

Leatherwood honey was a gift I received during the holidays, and has an incredibly unique and strong flavor and smell: a little goes a long way.

Here’s another angle for those who love salad:

I also made an awesome pasta dish with left-over mushrooms. I call it, simply, Linguini alla Funghi.

Linguini alla Funghi

This recipe serves 2.

• 5 garlic cloves
• half-carton crimini mushrooms, cleaned and washed
• one carton oyster mushrooms, cleaned, and chopped
• one shallot
• diced sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 tsp. sun-dried tomato paste
• green, ripe Tuscan olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• salt, pepper
• zest of one lemon
• juice of one-half lemon
• 4 Tbsp. beef stock
• 3 Tbsp. red wine
• 3 Tbsp. fresh tarragon leaves, chopped
• one-half pound Italian linguini

Sauté one garlic clove, the shallot, minced, with olive oil for a few minutes, then add the fungus. Add pepper, salt, tomato paste. Add wine, reduce; add beef stock, reduce, and cover on low. Boil pasta.

Next, add the sun dried tomatoes, more garlic, and lemon zest. Cover. When pasta is done, add 3 Tbsp. of pasta water, more salt, lemon juice, and tarragon. Stir to coat in sauce pan, and cover for 2 minutes. At the end, add copious streams of the Tuscan oil and parmesan cheese, and more fresh cracked pepper, if desired.

I make pasta often, but this was one of the better pasta dishes I’ve ever made. I think it was the addition of lemon, and the good-quality EVOO.

Toasted Tuscan-style bread sopped up extra dressing.