What do all of these things have in common? You guessed it. My first foray into cooking in quite some time didn't go exactly as planned. The food was still delicious (which is of course the main point) but it took quite a bit longer and was much more frustrating than it should have been. Oh well.
I am, as I may have mentioned, house sitting. And I haven't entirely figured out their kitchen organizational system as of yet, which meant I was already a tad frustrated when I began because, really, how hard should it be to find a mixing bowl? Naturally it was in the last drawer that I looked in. Figures.
The first step in this vegetarian pasta is to roast your veggies. This was my first time ever cooking an eggplant, and I was pretty excited. Mostly because we ate a lot of eggplant in China and it was amazing. Amazing. Anyways, the selection of eggplants at Safeway was less than inspiring, but I managed. Cut it up into small chunks, along with some yellow pepper and onion. Toss the lot with olive oil and finely chopped garlic (the more the merrier, I always say) and spread in a shallow baking dish or on a cookie sheet and throw in the oven for approximately 30-45 minutes (depending on how big you chopped your veggies).
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This phase of the operation went flawlessly and I was beginning to feel better about this whole cooking thing. [insert ominous music here] Then I went to pull out the ingredients for the pasta sauce so I could get going on that ... and I discovered that, sadly, in spite of multiple reminder notes to myself, I had forgotten to pick up the bottle of white wine from home, even though I had already been there twice that day. And since the sauce is basically pureed tomatoes, wine and goat cheese, the wine is a pretty crucial ingredient. I couldn't exactly skip it. But I didn't really want to go and get it and leave my veggies in the oven roasting all on their lonesome.
Well, I thought to myself, no problem. I'll just call my parents and invite them over for dinner too as long as they bring the wine. That way I can keep cooking and they get a free dinner out of it. Win-win, right? The only problem: they weren't home. And neither of them answer their cell phones (naturally). So what choice did I have? I could have dashed to the local liquor store and bought a whole new bottle, but I'm cheap and didn't want to do that. So I waited until my veggies were done, turned the stove off and dashed off to the parentals house.
Or at least I tried to. I got about 2 blocks from my housesitting place and then there was a giant accident blocking off the intersection and pretty much my only way out. And by giant I mean not giant, but it was still big enough to block Quadra for a good long ways. Super annoying. I had to take a ridiculously long detour to get to my parents house, grab the wine, and then get stuck in the traffic on the way back which was still held up from the accident. Good times.
Anyways, got back to my new place, started making the sauce. Put the pureed tomatoes and wine in the pan along with some oregano. Forgot that I was halving the recipe and put in too much wine. Oops.
Still tasted fine though. I just let it boil for a little while longer to get rid of some of the alcohol taste. While that was cooking I got the pasta started. I used my favourite (fusilli) but you of course could use whatever type of pasta you feel like.
After the sauce has been simmering for about 15 minutes, add in the roasted vegetables and simmer for another 10. By that time your pasta should be about done. Drain it and pour the sauce over top. Crumble the goat cheese on top with some fresh basil and mix thoroughly. The goat cheese will melt and give a delicious creaminess to the sauce. Yum.
Serve immediately. :)
Oh, and one last thing that went wrong with this meal -- I took all the photos for this blog post, but then realized I had left my camera cord in my other bag, which was still at my parents' house. So this post had to wait a couple of days for me to go back and get it. Sigh.
Here's the full recipe (which is, naturally, from The Girl Can't Cook)
Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese Pasta
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant, peeled, salted, and rinsed
1 large yellow bell pepper
1 large white onion
1 head garlic, cloves peeled
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 can (796 mL) Roma tomatoes, pureed
1 cup white wine
1 tsp dried oregano
1 lb. short pasta (penne, etc)
1 cup soft goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup slivered fresh basil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Slice the eggplant and cut into 1-inch chunks. Cut the bell pepper into cubes and cut the onion into chunks. In a shallow roasting pan, combine the eggplant, pepper and onion with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with the olive oil and toss to coat. Rost in the oven for 45 minutes, until tender, stirring once or twice.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pot, combine the pureed tomatoes, wine and oregano and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes to thicken. Stir in the roasted vegetables and simmer together for 10 minutes longer.
3. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well but don't rinse. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce and heat through. Add the crumbled cheese and basil, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately or turn into a casserole dish and bake at 375 F for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown.
