Spaghetti di San Giuseppe

Pasta di San Giuseppe chez Aurora

Let me just start by saying how amused I am to find that the best link I can find for the book from which I've swiped this recipe is, it seems, some sort of Scandinavian website. The book in question is one that I'm project managing for Fall 2018, Scraps, Peels, and Stems. It will be, as far as I know, only available in the original English-language edition and yet . . . Apparently Swedes can appreciate a good book when it becomes available via some sort of metadata upload. None of which is what I intended to write when I sat down here.

No, what I meant to write is that after talking about trying out this recipe for some weeks now, Scott and I finally set about making it tonight. After a few bites Scott declared, "This could be a company meal" which those who have come to dinner here might know is a happy thing because, well, we don't have all that many company meals in our repertoire. But what I love about this particular recipe (which maybe makes it seem less company appropriate) is that it calls for a couple of items that we end up throwing out more often than I'd like: fresh greens or veg and baguette. In tonight's version, we used some young broccoli that I couldn't resist at the Whistling Train Farm stand at the West Seattle Farmers Market close to ten days ago and the crumbed remains of a couple of baguettes I put into the freezer some weeks back. (Because, in addition to providing recipes, the book encourages you to do things like proactively create and freeze crumbs. Who knew you could freeze crumbs? Or that there was anything you would later want to do with them?) 

We opted for bow-ties rather than spaghetti because, as everyone knows, bow-ties are cool. Probably I should have been a little less free with the red pepper flakes and for a company dish it's a bit garlicky, but we're definitely going to make this again.

"Borrowed" recipe page and some red pepper flakes (because the MarketSpice shop at Pike Place is also cool)

This book is really supposed to be all about using up stuff you already have, rather than letting it go to waste, but if I'm to be completely honest, I have to admit that it has sent me to MarketSpice in the market more than once. I am not complaining because I love that shop. Seattle could lose Amazon (please!), the Seahawks, and Microsoft across the water and as long as it still had places like MarketSpice I'd be happy. It's tiny and it's cramped and it's crazy the week before Christmas. But you can buy just about every imaginable spice there in pretty tiny quantities, and the people who work there are knowledgeable and friendly even just before Christmas. (I will say it's a more pleasant place to visit the second week of March.)

I've also made the shakshuka recipe from Scraps, Peels, and Stems more than once, possibly just because I find those spices so darned pretty:

 And yes. I'm all too well aware that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Which is maybe all the more reason to find ways to make use of what one has and to appreciate things like tiny spice markets and local farmers.