CSA experiment #1

The Boy and I started receiving a weekly CSA (community-supported agriculture subscription) last week. It is clear that I'm going to have to get creative with my preparations because (to be honest) I've never cooked with a lot of these things before.

Aside from the fact that I couldn't quite identify what the rapini (a.k.a. broccoli raab) was that we recieved (even though it was delicious and had pretty yellow flowers), we have been pretty mundane with it. Salad and that sort of thing. Yesterday was my first major CSA experiment:

Orzo with Spinach and Green Garlic

serves 2

2 c. fresh spinach, chopped
1 green garlic, chopped
1/4 c. orzo
1 T. olive oil
salt
pepper

1/4 c. grated parmesan

Boil water, heavily salted. Cook orzo to package directions in salted water. Meanwhile, cook green garlic sprinkled with salt and pepper in 1/2 T. olive oil in nonstick skillet for a few minutes until soft. Add spinach and 1 t. oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and cook until done, about 4 minutes. Drain orzo, and reserve a few Tbs. of pasta water for later. Combine orzo with spinach mixture. Add remaining oil and parmesan. Add pasta water to loosen as needed.

This recipe turned out well--it was fast enough for a weeknight dinner, but tasted quite complex. I think I like green garlic.


Today, I made a midweek pizza concoction with Trader Joe's premade pizza dough, jarred sauce, pregrated light mozzarella cheese, Morningstar Farms soy sausage crumbles, chopped green garlic, chopped rapini and chopped fresh basil.

I had, as always, a little trouble with the step where you transfer the prepared pizza from your "peel" to the stone in the oven, but it ended up working out okay, and I got compliments on the topping choices!

The rapini had even begun to bloom (which I wasn't aware that it did) so we had adorable yellow flowers on our pizza. Cute cute cute!