Libby Klein I've just returned from a Mystery Writer's Conference in New Orleans where I did as many tours as I could squeeze into two pre-conference days. My favorite tour was a guided food tour of the city by a local chef. Even though I couldn't eat everything on the tour, I still found a new favorite. The Muffuletta. It's pretty close to being an Italian hoagie with olive and vegetable tapenade on sesame seeded bread. Not exactly - but close.
When I came home to Virginia, I searched Grubhub to see if anyone had Muffulettas. No. Then I searched the grocery stores on Instacart to see if anyone had Muffuletta Salad - the tapenade topping. I was thrilled to find it at Wegmans, and set out to find some way I could turn it into a meal.
I'm a big fan of a weekly pasta meal. Not the traditional spaghetti and red sauce, although I like that too. I mean a pasta with olive oil and lots of vegetables. One of my favorites I always thought I'd make for the blog one day involves chicken, walnuts, Pecorino Romano, lemon zest, fresh herbs from my garden, and fresh, sauteed asparagus.
Since Muffuletta salad is basically a lot of vegetables and olives in olive oil, why not toss it in pasta? For this version, I added sauteed fresh spinach and another favorite pasta addition - fresh sauteed sugar snap peas, cut in half. Topped with a little fresh parmesan and this is a keeper for our house. Let me know in the comments how you like your pasta.
Muffuletta Pasta
Yield: 4 large servings
1 box of your favorite pasta. I used high protein for the hubby1 cup of Muffuletta Salad. More or less to your taste but beware - it's pretty salty6 cups fresh spinach2 cups fresh sugar snap peasReally good quality olive oilParmesan cheeseFresh pepper
Boil your pasta according to package directions.While pasta cooks, sauté your fresh vegetables.
Drain the pasta and toss immediately with the sauteed vegetables. Add about a cup of the muffuletta salad and a healthy sploosh of good olive oil.
Toss together like you're making a pasta salad because technically you are. Top with shredded Parmesan cheese and enjoy.
Yield: 4 large servings
Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.
Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.
After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .
Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment