Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Cheap, cheerful, local and easy

My daughter and son-in-law stopped by today and Ronny installed my new cat door, which took a lot of doing. I don't know why each manufacturer feels the need to make a slightly different dimension, so the new door doesn't match the old hole.

I thought I'd whip up a bit of lunch in thanks, and the produce selection was slim. Onions, great local carrots (but not in their first youth), a couple of shallot sprouts poking out of the snow on its pot on the deck.

I sauteed half a red onion, the chopped shallot sprouts, and three grated carrots in olive oil for a couple of minutes, and then added a can of chopped clams, a splash of white wine and three dried tomatoes. (If they weren't the oil cured soft kind I would have soaked them first). I kept it all on low in a cast iron skillet until the onion was mostly soft but the carrots still had a bit of crunch. My daughter doesn't like soft cooked carrots, and anyway the extra texture is nice in such a minimalist dish.

We ate it over rigatoni. It was great. I skipped the cheese and didn't miss it a bit. If I had had a handful of Italian parsley I would have used it, but I didn't miss that either.

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