2 New Recipes

We tried 2 new recipes this week- Pad Thai from Mark Bittman, and Penne with Ricotta and Pine Nuts from Martha Stewart.

I've tried Mark's Pad Thai before, and am not convinced that this recipe from "The Minimalist" is much different. On the other hand, I was able to get my hands on tamarind from my local oriental market (their wording, not mine) so I thought I'd give it a shot. It has a TON of nappa cabbage in it, and not very much noodles (despite the picture on the article), 4 ounces of noodles, a small cabbage... but it turned out delish. I also skipped the shrimp as we don't love shrimp here too much and tofu generally works out pretty well. In the future, I might batter the tofu before to give it some more crunch, maybe with some sirachi or something to give it some spice....Like most of his recipes, this makes 2 big dinners or 4 teeny dinners. Up to you! I think I might tweak this recipe based on whatever was on hand, and that would probably be ok by MB.

I had second thoughts about the flavor level in the Penne before I even started. So everyone got a spicy italian sausage as well. Of course, it got a little out of control, trying to cook the noodles, sausage and the pine nuts, so I burned the pine nuts. I tossed them rather than have them foul up the whole dish, but we were definately left wanting more. :( Jonathan gave this a 2 on our 5 star system, and he said that without the sausage, it would have been lower. Oh well.