veggie bowties II: farfalle alla caponata (more joy)

Our only record of this is a printout of a February email to an Italian mom friend, casually informing her that no Caribbean vacation was in the works (spring break was coming up) but instead our first European long weekend vacation, in Stockholm. It all started at the table eating nadereh's homecooked Iranian food when ani mentioned this SAS really low season promotional weekend package to Stockholm, a city dr bob knew well from professional collaboration with dr kjell and dr claes. She'd spotted it in the Sunday paper. Of course initially bob had said something like "What, are you crazy?" though more diplomatically put at the time, but when Cyrus said, "Why not?", bob thought, yeah, why not? Early childhood training to reject offers of good stuff with a polite no thank you cracked. Maybe it wasn't so crazy after all. Ani is an American industry wage slave, with 3 weeks max vacation per year, so we don't have the time for long fun vacations, what with the mandatory Italian summer visits and occasional Lebanon trips. So we went. And ani met kjell and claes's families on a bright sunny snow and ice weekend in the city and surroundings. A quick mix of big city excitement, friendship and family, beautiful urban and country scenery, walking on the frozen lakes and city not-a-river but looks-like-one water body, window shopping, European otherness, a visit to the Nobel dinner castle. Memories.

Later followed by Paris, where we ran into more ani relatives (by chance being visited by ani's brother's childhood friend from Anjar then living in Texas) whose Armenian-Lebanese home cooking surpassed everything French we'd found except possibly lunch at Fauchon, recommended by another Iranian couple who'd already done the city. And then Munich, where bob had spent 9 months after his year in Italy, visiting piero and accidentally catching Luigi, an old Rome connection /roomate from bob's HS CFA days. Having friends and relatives scattered around the globe definitely has its advantages.

ingredients

pasta
1 lb bowtie pasta (farfalle)
veggie process group
1 celery stalk
1 red pepper
2 green onions
sauté starters
2 T olive oil
1 onion, chopped
sauté intermediaries
1 eggplant (big), peeled and cubed
1/2 c black olives, chopped
2 t green jalapeño pepper, chopped
finishers
1 28oz (big) can pomodori pelati (peeled plum tomatoes)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

instructions

  1. Start the pasta water boiling and when ready throw in the bowtie pasta and cook al dente. Meanwhile:
  2. Food process the food process group together, after cleaning.
  3. Sauté the onion and red pepper in olive oil.
  4. When a bit softened, throw in the food processed group and continue sautéing.
  5. Add in the eggplant and continue sautéing.
  6. After cooking a bit, add in the pelati and cook about 15 minutes on low to medium heat.
  7. Then season with salt and pepper.
  8. Combine half the sauce with the pasta, freeze the other half with a dated post-it to use at a later date (we usually forget what goes in the freezer).
  9. We served this with freshly grated pecorino Romano.

notes

  1. Remember, never overwhelm pasta with too much sauce.
  2. The e-mail noted that this was great for lunch the next day. Microwaved in Rubbermaid.
  3. It must have been rita. The Italian mom friend. She never commented on our improvisation. How should we interpret that?
vegbow2.htm: 6-aug-2001 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]