Italian recipe

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Slim Man Cooks Bay Scallops with Garlic, Butter, Lemon and Basil

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Wow. That’s a long title. But when I tried to trim it down, I felt bad about whoever I was leaving out!I’ve been on a scallop kick lately. One of the reasons is...they are delizioso. I do love the flavor, texture, smell...I guess what I’m saying is...I’m a big scallop fan.But the main reason for the recent consummation of scallops is...They’re on sale at a local grocery called Sprouts. Eight bucks for a one-pound bag of frozen, wild-caught bay scallops from the Gulf of Mexico. Eight bucks!  And they really are stinkin’ good.So I’ve been buying a couple bags at a time, I keep them in the freezer for emergencies, in case there’s an earthquake or if I bang my head on the goat shed and need an ice-pack.Bay scallops are the small ones. Sea scallops are the big ones, the ridiculously expensive ones. I don’t know why sea scallops have almost doubled in price lately. Maybe there’s a scallop divers strike that I’m not aware of. Maybe scallops just aren’t having as many children as before.Regardless, sea scallops are costly. But bay scallops ain’t. And I’m really digging the bay scallops, I love the way they taste, they’re wild-caught, they don’t cost a ton of dough, and they’re easy and quick.What’s not to love?The other night here at the Slim Shack I wanted some pasta. I’ve been getting these cravings. Maybe I’m pregnant. But I’ve been craving pasta lately, so I pulled out a bag of scallops.I had a basil plant in back of the Shack, it’s been doing pretty well despite it being 189 degrees outside. Palm Springs gets hot in the summer. It was so hot the other day here at the Slim Shack that when I milked the goats all that came out was evaporated milk.I usually keep garlic and lemons and white wine handy. And I had some spaghetti, too. And I had some butter, some real good Irish butter that I had splurged on last week.So I thought I’d whip up a quick little something. I put it all together, and it was good, Slim Folks.It was so good I made it again just a few nights later. Just to be sure.And?It’s well-worthy of Slim People.NOTES:The scallops threw off a bit of liquid. It didn’t bother me, it actually made the sauce taste better. It reduced quite nicely! And the flavor, she was a-so nice!Bay scallops are small and don’t take much time at all. Try and get them to sear on each side. It’s tough, but you can do it, Slim People!I put this over pasta. Call me crazy, but I’m a glutton for gluten!But you can serve it as is with some crusty bread to your crusty friends and family. Or you can serve it over rice. Put it on bruschetta, or a pizza, or your pancakes in the morning!INGREDIENTS1 pound bay scallopsFresh cracked black pepper, brown or Turbinado sugar, and salt, a sprinkling of each3 tablespoons butter1 tablespoon olive oil5 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled½ cup dry white wineJuice from one lemon (2 tablespoons, NO SEEDS!)Small handful fresh basil leaves HERE WE GO!Put a sauté pan over medium-high heat.Add 1 tablespoon of butter, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.When the butter has melted and starts to brown, add the scallops.Cook for 90 seconds or until the bottoms are golden.Stir/flip as best you can!Cook on the other side for 90 seconds or until golden.Remove with a slotted spoon to a platter.Reduce the heat to medium.Add the garlic, cook for a minute or two, until golden.Flip, cook for another minute or two, until golden.Add the wine and the lemon juice.Turn the heat to high, scrape and stir for a minute or so as the sauce reduces.Turn heat down to medium.Add 2 tablespoons of butter.When it melts, add the scallops.Take the basil, snip it with scissors on top of the scallops.Stir gently for a minute.Turn off the heat.She’s a-done!I put my scallop sauce over pasta, I cooked a half-pound of spaghetti in salted boiling water, drained it, and added it right to the sauce and gave it a toss.She’s a-so nice!MANGIAMO!!! 

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Slim Man Cooks Risotto with Shrimp, Pancetta, and Asparagus

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The first editor I hired for the Slim Man Cooks cookbook took out a lot of the jokes.I started one story/recipe with one of my favorites...Why don’t cannibals eat divorced people?Because they’re bitter.The editor took it out because she thought it might be offensive to divorced people. I thought it was funny.In another section, she took out one of the instructions for a chicken recipe. I had written...Dust your breasts with flour. Do the same with the chicken breasts.I thought it was funny, she thought it might be offensive to women. I was gonna point out to her that both women and men have breasts, but I didn’t. I went through the whole cookbook and put the jokes back in. And then I found a new editor.The second editor was a little better. For instance, in an asparagus recipe, I wrote...Why does asparagus make your pee-pee smell funny?She pointed out the "pee-pee" was an anatomical term, and that I should use the word “pee” instead. Well, it was a small improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.When I was coming up with this risotto recipe, I decided to use asparagus. I went to the grocery store, the asparagus was fresh, looked wonderful, and was on sale. I bought some, and used it in this dish.Risotto. It’s a dish that needs attention! You need to stand over this dish until it’s done. So, when you have guests over that you are not crazy about and want to hide in the kitchen? This is the dish to make!Keep in mind, the key to cooking risotto is to add a ladle of broth, and stir gently until it’s absorbed. Keep adding ladles and stirring until absorbed. It usually takes about 20 or 25 minutes. It should take about 4 minutes or so for each ladle to be absorbed. If it takes longer, turn the heat up a touch; if it takes less time, turn it down.When the rice is al dente, firm to the bite, she’s-a done!NOTES:I used chicken stock, you can use seafood or vegetable stock. INGREDIENTSSaffron (some threads, not too much, it’s EXPENSIVE)5 cups broth (chicken, vegetable, or seafood—I used chicken)¼ pound pancetta, cubed (diced)2 tablespoons olive oil½ cup dry white wine1 pound shrimp, deveined and deshelled (save the shells) and chopped into smaller pieces1 ½ cups asparagus (tips and about 1 or 2 inches down the stalks, chopped)2 tablespoons butter1 cup minced onion1 ½ cups Arborio rice½ cup fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (OPTIONAL)HERE WE GO...Put the saffron threads in one cup of warm chicken broth. Mix and let sit.Put the remaining 4 cups of broth in a small sauce pan over low heat.Add the shrimp shells to the broth, stir.Put a large, heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat for 2 minutes.Add the pancetta, cook until brown, about 6 minutes, stir occaisonally.Remove with a slotted spoon.Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil.Add ¼ cup of the white wine.Add the shrimp, cook until pink, about 3 minutes; remove.Add the asparagus, and a little salt, cook for 3 or 4 minutes until tender; remove.Add 2 tablespoons butter.Add the onion, stir and cook for 5 minutes.Add the rice, stir gently and cook for 3 minutes.Add the remaining ¼ cup of white wine, stir and cook 2 minutes.Turn the heat down under the rice.Remove the shrimp shells from the broth.Add a ladle of stock (no shells!) and stir until absorbed (about 3-5 minutes).Add another ladle of stock (no shells!) and stir until absorbed (about 3-5 minutes).Add the cup of stock with the saffron, stir until absorbed.Add some salt, stir.Add another ladle of stock (no shells!) and stir until absorbed (about 3-5 minutes).Add one more ladle, and stir until absorbed.At this point the rice should be done, al dente, firm to the tooth.If it’s not, add another ladle, or a little warm water if you’ve run out of broth; stir until absorbed and the rice is done.Add the shrimp, the asparagus and the pancetta, and stir gently.OPTIONAL: add ½ cup of fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, stir gently.Dish it up!MANGIAMO!

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Slim Man Cooks Baked Tomatoes with Parmigiano and Panko

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So there I was. Staring at two very ripe tomatoes.I don’t normally stare at produce, but these things needed to be eaten. And soon.I didn’t want to eat the same old shit, Caprese salad, or my Mom’s tomato salad, no disrespect to my Mom or Capri!I just wanted something different. Then I thought of making baked tomatoes, but they seemed so...Antiquated. Out of style. Not in vogue.Which is why they appealed to me. I looked up recipes, but nothing was clicking; they were all missing something.Know what they were missing?Slimness.I wanted to make a stuffing with stuff I like. So I made a mixture of panko and Parmigiano and parsley and garlic, along with some dried oregano. Why dried oregano?I like the taste better. Especially in Italian-American dishes, although I’m pretty sure this dish is more American than Italian.Until now!I added a little olive oil to keep it together and moist.I scooped the seeds out of the tomatoes. I’m not a big fan of tomato seeds, especially in fresh tomatoes. I cut out the top tab/button of both tomatoes first. Then I cut them in half, horizontally. Then I scooped seeds.I mixed up the stuffing, stuffed it in the tomatoes, and baked them for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.Wow. They were real good. I mean...real good. I’m staying away from the hyperbole these days. Leaving myself a little headroom. But these were...delizioso. And quick. And easy.INGREDIENTS¼ cup panko breadcrumbs¼ cup fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese1 teaspoon minced garlic1 teaspoon dried oregano1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsleyKosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper1 generous tablespoon olive oil2 ripe tomatoes, top buttons cut out, cut in half horizontally, seeds scooped outHERE WE GO...Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.Put all the ingredients except the tomatoes in a small bowl.Mix with a fork.Put the 4 tomato halves in a small baking dish.Drizzle a little olive oil over each, add a little Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper to each.Add equal amounts of the panko mixture to each tomato. Fill the tomato holes. Put the extra on top. Be judicious. Be equitable.Put the dish in the oven for 20 minutes. Keep an eye on these maters.When the tops are golden brown, take the dish out of the oven.Let it sit for 5 minutes.Dish ‘em up! Make ‘em look nice, add a sprig of fresh parsley, and...MANGIAMO!!!! 

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Slim Man Cooks Fregola

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My niece got married in June.My sister had five kids, all by Cesarean. They’re all pretty normal, except every time they leave the house they go out the window.My sister would be laid up after each birth, so Uncle Slimmy would babysit the newborn until my sister's stomach recovered, a couple weeks. At one point, I had a newborn, a 2-year-old, a 4-year-old, a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old.It wasn’t easy, but it was such a wonderful experience. I loved it, and I loved them. Still do!The niece who just got married...her husband...I love the guy. He’s funny and smart and cool and comes from a great family. They met in high school in Pennsylvania.The wedding was in Philly, a town I hadn’t been to in a while. Man, it has changed. I stayed at a hotel right in the heart of downtown. I took a jog/walk up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the one where the statue of Rocky is.Rocky. Remember that movie? Sylvester Stallone? When he was training for his big fight, he’d end his exercise routine with a jog up the museum steps as the theme song played. “Flying high now!”I jogged up those steps. And when I got to the top, I played my own theme song. “It’s All About Love!” Seemed suitable for the City of Brotherly Love, which is Philly’s nickname. I jogged back to the hotel, and right next door was one of the best urban markets I’ve ever been to.The Reading Terminal Market. They had everything. Bay scallops, sea scallops, all kinds of fresh fish, meats, produce, Philly cheesesteaks, pastries...they even had pig’s feet.Which were pretty disgusting looking.My Mom was from down south, and they had big jars of pickled pig’s feet in this red liquid, sitting on counters at gas stations. Unrefigerated. You could stick your hand in the jar, grab a pickled pig’s foot, and start gnawing.I never ate any. I couldn’t get past the visual.The night before the wedding, they had a rehearsal dinner. There wasn’t any rehearsing, it was just a way for folks from the two families to get to know each other. It was held in an upstairs room at one of those hipster restaurants, the kind where the guys have beards and glasses with big black frames, and boots that look like the kind that soldiers wore in the Civil War.Except this was modern-day Philly.I’ll admit this, the food was good. They had a couple choices for entrees, chicken or salmon. I’ve been eating a lot of chicken lately. I’ve been eating so much chicken I’m starting to sprout wings between my shoulder blades. I’m afraid I might start spitting feathers out of my mouth.So I ordered the salmon.When they brought me the plate, the salmon looked beautiful. I took a bite, it was pretty damn good. It was resting on...what was it? It looked like some kind of couscous. I took a bite, and it was delizioso. She was a-so nice!I could tell it wasn’t couscous. I asked the waiter what it was.Fregola.What?Fregola.Which had me looking it up on my phone. I was trying to stay off the damn phone, especially at a gathering where you’re supposed to get to know people. But I had to know what fregola was.Well, Slim People…it’s a pasta from Sardinia. Sometimes it's spelled "fregola" and sometimes "fregula." It was about the size and shape of BBs, and that night in Philly it was done in a simple sauce, as a side dish.Sardinia is a place I’ve always wanted to visit; it’s an Italian island in the Mediterranean, off the East coast of Italy. I read an article in National Geographic a few years ago; the people of Sardinia live exceptionally long lives. The National Geographic folks were trying to figure out why.Maybe it’s the fregola!It’s usually served in a simple sauce, like a tomato sauce with some pecorino-Romano cheese. It’s usually a side dish, except when they make it with clams, tiny clams from the Mediterranean.When I got back to Palm Springs, I decided to find some fregola.I couldn’t. I went to all kinds of food stores, and when I asked for fregola, people looked at me like I had two heads.What to do?I went online. I found some on Amazon, and ordered it. It was expensive, about $8 bucks a pound. Normally pasta costs a couple bucks, but this was imported from Sardinia. Shipping was $6 bucks. I decided to splurge.It’s a durum wheat semolina pasta, which is what most Italian pastas are made from. But fregola is toasted in an oven at the end of the pasta-making process. The pasta was many shades of brown. Each little pellet was a different color...beige, tan, burnt Sienna.What the hell is burnt Sienna anyway?So I followed the instructions on the package, cooked it in salted water for about 12 minutes. Then I drained it, and added a little olive oil and butter. I made one batch with some Slim pesto and another batch with Slim’s tomato sauce.It was so good. It had a slightly nutty flavor, and I thought I tasted a mild saffron-type spice. I like trying new foods, especially Italian foods. And this was one of the best new dishes I’ve cooked in quite a while. And it was so simple.How was the wedding the next day? It was great. Yes, it rained...torrential downpours and thunder and lightning. At least it was inside. Sometimes when the weather is really crazy, it somehow makes an event seem more memorable.“Remember the wedding? It was raining cats and dogs!”Now, I’m not sure where that expression came from. But it was raining really hard.Fregola. It sounds like an Italian curse word. "Slim Man! Che fregola!"This is gonna be quick, Slim People. And easy! And delizioso.INGREDIENTSA couple tablespoons of Kosher salt1 pound fregolaA couple tablespoons of olive oilA couple tablespoons of butter, room temperature1 cup simple tomato sauce½ cup of pesto sauceFreshly grated pecorino-Romano cheeseFreshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeseHERE WE GO!Get a large pot, fill it with fresh, cold water, and put it on the highest heat you gots.When it comes to a boil, add the Kosher salt (I use 2 generous tablespoons).Add the fregola pasta.Keep the heat up during the whole process!Stir and cook for about 12 minutes or so, until al dente—firm to the bite.Drain the fregola.Put half in one bowl, and half in another bowl.Add a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter to each bowl.Mix gently, make sure the butter has melted.Add the pesto sauce to one bowl, and the tomato sauce to the other.Mix gently.Dish it up!Put a serving of each on a plate. Add a little grated pecorino cheese to the tomato sauce fregola, and some Parmigiano to the pesto sauce fregola. MANGIAMO!!!

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Slim Man Cooks Salmon with Leeks

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Once again, I was faced with the dilemma...how can I prepare salmon in a new way?Lady Peoples, they love salmon. I once went out with a girl who ate salmon so often, grizzly bears tried to attack her when we went to the zoo.Trying to find a new way of cooking salmon can be a challenge. I’ve baked it, seared it, broiled it, grilled it, poached it…I was running out of ways to cook it! So I thought maybe I’d sear it, just the top, and then steam it.I saw a recipe that included Dijon mustard. I like Dijon mustard. I mean, I don’t eat spoonfuls out of the jar, but as far as condiments go, I like it.But on a piece of fish? I had my doubts. But I thought I’d try it, and see what it was like.It was good! There’s just a teaspoon, so it’s not overwhelming. And it was really subtle. If you didn’t know there was Dijon in the sauce, you might not have detected it.I used Wild Alaskan King salmon. It was thick and fresh and about $11 a pound, which is about half of what you normally pay. The filets I got were about an inch thick.You can use halibut, or any firm-fleshed thick fish. Thinner fish won’t work.I really like this dish. When you cook/sear/braise the top of the salmon first, it gets a nice crispness. Then when you steam it over the leeks, it stays really moist inside. It’s a nice contrast, the crispness of the top, and the steaminess of the rest.I’ve always liked the french-fried onions that come in a can that you use over string beans at Thanksgiving. I thought they might go well on top of the salmon. But I wanted to make them myself. So I took some slivered leeks, and fried them in some butter and olive oil until golden.Wow. They were good. They tasted great, just a few on top of the salmon at the very end. I made a little teepee, and it looked cool, and tasted great.Leeks...they’re dirty! Make sure you clean them real good. And cut off the root at the end, and cut off the dark green parts/leaves on top. The dark green leaves are tough like shoe leather! So just use the pale green and white parts of the leeks.INGREDIENTS1 cup leeks, white and pale green parts only, cleaned thoroughly and cut into matchstick slivers½ cup leeks, the same way (these are for garnish)¼ cup of flour4 tablespoons butter3 tablespoons olive oilSalt and pepperTwo 8-ounce Wild Alaskan King Salmon filets, about an inch thick each1 teaspoon Dijon mustard¾ cup dry white wine1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, choppedHERE WE GO!Let’s fry some leeks first. We will use these on top of the salmon, at the very end.Put a small sauté pan over medium-high heat.Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and let them heat up!Put the flour on a plate.Take the ½ cup of leeks, and add them to the flour and mix.Pick up the leeks, let the excess flour shake off, and put them in the pan.When the edges of the leeks turn pale gold, a minute or two, turn them over.Cook them on the other side until pale gold.Remove to a plate lined with a paper towel, and add salt and pepper.Don’t throw out the flour yet!And now for the salmon…Sprinkle the tops of each salmon filet with some Kosher salt. Mazel tov!Put 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat.When the butter melts and bubbles, add the salmon, skin side up.Cook for 3 or 4 minutes.Remove the salmon to a large plate.To the sauté pan, add the final 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 cup of slivered leeks, the mustard, and some Kosher salt.Stir gently and cook for 3 minutes, until leeks are soft.Add wine, and let it cook off for a minute or two.Add the salmon to the pan, skin/raw side down, right on top of the leeks.Cover and simmer for 8 minutes, or until done (pale pink in the middle, and slightly flaky).Remove the salmon to two gorgeous plates.Add the lemon juice and parsley to the pan.Add a touch of flour, and stir gently.Taste for salt and pepper and adjust.Pour a little sauce over each salmon filet. Add some crispy leeks on top, like a teepee.MANGIAMO!

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Slim Man Cooks Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Basil

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The most popular thing to eat in the USA?Well, the most popular thing to eat is a sandwich. And you can see why…a couple pieces of bread, a few slices of meat and cheese, maybe some lettuce and tomato and you’re done in 5 minutes.But the most popular food we eat here in good ol’ America?Chicken.Chicken!There’s a lot of it, it ain’t expensive, and it’s available almost everywhere. The other day I was at the grocery store and noticed a package of chicken that had “air-chilled” written on the package. It was a little more expensive than the regular chicken. What gives?Then I read an article in Cook’s Illustrated magazine. These guys and gals go way deep into food and cooking and they often get scientific and specific. They do elaborate tests. They don’t accept advertising, which is probably why the magazine costs around $300 a copy.So when they recommend something, it’s been tested and tried and fried every whichaway. And they highly recommend air-chilled chicken.So do I, Slim People. It tastes mo better. Why?Chicken needs to be chilled to be safe to eat. In Europe, they chill chickens with air. In the US, most chicken is chilled by soaking it in cold water, water that’s sometimes…chlorinated.Nice.But air-chilled chicken is cooled by purified air, the chicken moves along tracks as it gets blown with frigid air. Kinda like going up an escalator in a mall during the summer.Because the chicken is cooled by air and not in water, it cooks better, tastes better, looks better. It’s juicy, Lucy! The difference was noticeable to me, and I’m no chicken expert. Although I am considering a career move…In this recipe, I used sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil. Olive oil, preferably. Anything except motor oil.I’ve done this dish two ways, one with fresh basil, and one with thyme. If you use basil, you’ll need a small handful. You’ll need less thyme…IMG_4245INGREDIENTS3 tablespoons olive oil½ cup flourSalt and fresh-cracked black pepper4 chicken cutlets (2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half)2 tablespoons butter4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled¼ cup dry white wine½ cup sun-dried tomatoes, cut into small piecesFresh basil (a ¼ cup, leaves snipped or torn) or fresh thyme (a big tablespoon, chopped)HERE WE GO…Put the olive oil in a sauté pan big enough to hold all 4 cutlets.Turn the heat to medium-high.Put the flour on a plate (I use a pie plate).Sprinkle in some salt and fresh-cracked black pepper, about ½ teaspoon each, and mix.Put a cutlet in the flour, dust both sides, and put it in the sauté pan.Do this with all 4 cutlets.Sprinkle a little salt and some fresh cracked black pepper on top of each cutlet, press it in!Let the cutlets cook undisturbed for 4 minutes, or until pale gold on the bottom.Flip ‘em over!Cook on the other side for 4 minutes or until pale gold.IMG_4241Remove them to a plate.Turn the heat down to medium.With a wooden spoon, gently scrape off any tidbits stuck to the bottom of the pan.Add the butter.Swirl it around, let it melt.Add the garlic, and swirl it around for a minute or two.When the garlic is pale gold, add the white wine and swirl for a minute or so.Add the sun-dried tomatoes and give it a stir for a minute or two.Add the basil or the thyme and stir.Dish it up! Make it look good. Pour some sauce over the cutlets, garnish with a basil leaf or sprig of thyme, and…MANGIAMO!With thyme

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Slim Man Cooks Primavera Sauce

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Cooking these days can be a pain in the ass.I’ll tell you why…This weekend, there were some folks visiting the Slim Shack. People came in from around the globe to pay respects to my friend, Abe, who passed away recently.He was a colonel in the Army, and one of the good guys. He was well-read, kept himself in great shape, was thoughtful and generous and kind and strong and had a sense of humor, too. Plus, he was a sharp-dressed man.I cooked many dinners for Abe. He ate everything, and when I say everything, I mean he didn’t turn vegan or vegetarian or paleo or Mediterranean, Abe ate a balanced diet. Reasonable. Moderate.And he passed away at the age of 97 recently. Not from something I cooked, promise!He livescan0004d a very healthy life right up until his last days. And he ate whatever he wanted. But that was then. And this is now…And now folks have all kinds of dietary restrictions. Here is what I was up against this weekend. Seriously.This one doesn’t eat meat. That one doesn’t eat onions. This one is a vegetarian but can’t eat tomatoes. The other one can’t eat pasta. Another one doesn’t eat anything fried or even sautéed. This one is completely vegan, and…What the hell was I supposed to cook?Well, I made one of the best dishes ever. Seriously. All these restrictions forced me to come up with something I never would have made. Sure, in the beginning I felt like smacking each numbskull upside the head with a wooden spoon, but after…Wowoweewow. I’m telling you, it was so good and so healthy.And I’m gonna show you how to make this primavera dish.Primavera in Italian means spring. So, the point to this dish is to find all the fresh—not frozen—and colorful spring vegetables you can, and make a dish of pasta with them.I went to the local grocery, and picked out the most gorgeous vegetables I could find. And there were plenty. Here in California, all the produce looks so beautiful and tastes like it hasn’t been sitting on a truck for a month.Because it hasn’t.Never in my life have I seen so many fresh and beautiful and scrump-diddly-umptious vegetables. And not to mention Gilroy, the Garlic Capital of the World, is not far away!So I found some magnificent vegetables, and then I roasted them, that’s right, roasted them in a pan. Because this one doesn’t like fried or sautéed.And then I put them over pasta. Well, I made one batch with real pasta, and the other one with some quinoa-edamame-tofu-Styrofoam-type fake pasta.I wasn’t jumping for joy when I tasted the fake pasta.But when I put this primavera sauce over farfalle? It was one of the best-tasting dishes I’ve made in a while.  All because of those knuckleheads!So, in life, when confronted with knuckleheads, know that they are there to improve you. They are like sandpaper that smooths out your rough edges. When you have a bunch of knuckleheads over for dinner, and they have a bunch of dietary demands, cook this.This dish is simple. And quick. And easy. And inexpensive. And ridiculously healthy.NOTES: IMG_4039I put the chopped, slivered, sliced vegetables in two baking pans. After I sliced and diced and smashed and chopped, I divided up the vegetables equally…half the carrots in one pan, half in the other, and so on, with all the vegetables.The carrots need to be sliced thinner than the other vegetables. They cook quicker that way, and will be done when the rest of the other vegetables are.I used a whole garlic bulb. There were about 10 cloves inside, I smashed each one, peeled off the paper, and put 5 in each pan. The roasted garlic was delizioso.I have two racks in the Slim Oven.I put one pan on the lower rack, and one on the rack above it.After 20 minutes, the lower pan was perfection, so I took it out of the oven. But the upper one needed a little more time.So I put the upper pan on the lower rack for 5 or 10 minutes, and wow, it was done to perfectly perfect doneness.I put the grape tomatoes in at the end. For two reasons…One is that they really don’t need to cook/roast. They just get all mushy.The second reason is…that one couldn’t eat tomatoes. Or didn’t like them. Whatever, I left them out of her dish, and put them in after I served her.Cazzo!INGREDIENTS1 yellow bell pepper, de-seeded, and sliced into thin pieces1 red bell pepper, same way4 carrots, sliced into matchstick-size slivers1 zucchini, sliced the same way, but thicker1 yellow squash, sliced the same as the zucchini1 generous cup asparagus tips2 shallots, slivered10 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved, seeds squeezed out1/3 cup of fresh snipped basil leaves1 tablespoon of chopped fresh oregano1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thymeOlive oil1 pound of farfalle pastaKosher salt and fresh ground pepper Here we go!Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.Divide all the vegetables in half (except for the tomatoes) and put half on each baking tray.Drizzle with olive oil and mix.Add Kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste, and mix.Put the trays in the oven for 10 minutes.Then take them out, and give ‘em a stir, stir, stir.Bake for another 10 minutes.When the carrots are done, take the trays out of the oven.IMG_4041You can put this over pasta, or quinoa, or rice, or hedge-clippings.I used farfalle pasta, 1 pound.I put it in rapidly boiling water (I added a couple of tablespoons of Kosher salt first) and cooked it until al dente.Al Dente! Wasn’t he a pitcher for the Yankees?Drain the pasta and put in a bowl.Give a little drizzle of olive oil and stir.Add the vegetables to the bowl, stir gently.Add the tomatoes and the herbs, and mix gently. Gently, Slim boys and girls!Dish it up on a nice plate, maybe garnish with a sprig of oregano or thyme, and sprinkle with some freshly grated parmigiano cheese (unless you're vegan, or dairy intolerant, or whatever) and…MANGIAMO!IMG_4049

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Slim Man Cooks Halibut with Peppadew, Olives, and Garlic

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