I decided to check out our Farmer's Market in the depot district. It was small but very cool, I walked away with a head of garlic, 3 lemons and a cafe americano!
My next stop on my adventure was to run out to the Idalou Apple Butter Festival. I didn't go last year and even though Chris was gone I thought I should go check it out. FYI, wearing my 5 fingers was a HORRIFIC idea. Unfortunately I am the only person on the planet that can attract 100 stickers in the half mile walk from where I parked my car to the actual festival.
I walked around the orchard and picked plenty of apples. I got some Granny Smith Apples, some Golden Delicious Apples, and some various Red Apples of which I'm not sure if they are Gala, or Pink Lady's or what. Here is my collection of apples I got for $10, I'm pretty sure that they were charging $1/lb but i'm not entirely sure.
Then I ran to Sprouts because I wanted some cheese so I got some Parmesan, Romano, and Ricotta.
Here's the recipe (ish):
1 heaping pile of roughly chopped Swiss Chard (1-2 in chunks) with the main vein removed. About 2 cups but it could use more. You can use Spinach too instead of swiss chard, I just had swiss chard lying around.
1/2 a stick of butter (melted in the pot)
3 heaping Tablespoons of flour (or as much as needed to make it as thick as cookie dough)
Lots of milk
1 lb of rigatoni pasta (cook it 3 minutes shorter than the bag says)
0.2-0.25 lb of Parmesan and Romano each (set a little bit aside to sprinkle on top)
I added Ricotta but it's really not necessary
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Parsley (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon Oregano (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon Thyme (You could easily use up to 1 tablespoon)
a dash of cinnamon
a dash of salt
2 tablespoons Red Peppers (I used 2 packets of Papa John's red peppers)
zest from 2 lemons
GARLIC!!! I totally forgot to add 2 cloves of garlic but you should NOT forget, it would add the perfect touch!
I started with making a Roux, Melt the butter in the pan and add the flour so it's very thick. Drown it in milk then add all the seasonings, including lemon zest and Swiss Chard. Let it cook down on medium and add more milk if it gets to thick, think of it as a creamy sauce that is thicker than ranch dressing and less thick than molasses.
While the sauce is cooking down bake the pasta, remember to bake it 3 minutes less! Preheat your oven to 350.
Just before the pasta is done add the cheese to the creamy sauce and let it melt.
After you drain the pasta mix it in with the creamy sauce and pour it into a 9 X 13 baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the Romano and Parmesan that you set aside. Bake it for 8 minutes, let it rest 1 minute before serving then spoon into bowls.
Here's what the finished product looks like:
It made 6 servings for me. It would make about 4 for very hungry boys. If you wanted to add a little bit of a crunch you could put panko bread crumbs or toasted pine nuts on top just before putting in the oven. If you wanted to add some meaty protein in it a spicy italian sausage (cased and sliced) or some finely chopped bacon would be perfectly delicious!
This was a very fun Saturday and i'm grateful for years of helping my mom in the kitchen so that I can look at multiple recipes and combine them into one amazing one.
