Pasta With Cabbage, Winter Squash And Walnuts

This is the second pasta recipe selected this month at Cook The Book Fridays, from Everyday Dorie cookbook. 

The main ingredients are winter squash, green cabbage, dried cranberries, walnuts and pasta. Flavour from this pasta dish comes from cider vinegar. I've used regular pumpkin and napa cabbage.

The squash is first cooked in a little oil, season with salt and pepper until tender, then stir in the vinegar followed by the honey. Dish out and keep aside. The pasta is boiled in salted water, and the dried cranberries are thrown in during the last one minute of the pasta cooking time. Drain the pasta and retain a quarter cup or so of the cooking water. The cabbage is cooked in a tablespoon of oil, season with salt and pepper, with a tablespoon of cider vinegar, stir until it is absorbed. Pour in about a quarter cup of the pasta cooking water, stir for a minute, then add the pasta with the cranberries and a tablespoon of olive oil, Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve, topped with walnuts and Parmesan.

We thought this pasta dish was just OK. The cranberries and walnuts added a nice touch and texture to the dish, but this is not in our list of favourite pasta dish. The family prefers the previous pasta we made two weeks ago, Pasta with Shrimp, Squash, Lemon and Lots Of Herbs, of which there's a request to make again. 

Pasta With Shrimp, Squash, Lemon And Lots Of Herbs

The first recipe selected in this new year 2020 at Cook The Book Fridays, from Everyday Dorie is Pasta With Shrimp, Squash, Lemon And Lots of Herbs. 

A delicious and colourful bowl of pasta. I like everything about this pasta; the shrimp which gives a delicious umami taste, the fresh citrus taste of the lemons, the bright colours from the yellow and green squash (delicious too!), and that burst of sweetness from the ripe raw tomatoes. Chopped fresh dill and spring onion greens sprinkled over, makes it complete.

And I love Dorie's take on using the squeezed lemon half, dropping it in the pot of water to cook the pasta. So lemony nice.

There is no heavy sauce for this pasta. It is  simple, fresh and delicious. We love it. Will definitely cook this again. Yum!

Cook the Book Fridays
Cookbook Countdown #49

Apricot Sweet Buns

These buns are soft and delicious, with a delicious filling made with dried apricots. I love dried apricots, they are my favourite dried fruits, great for snacking or used in baked goods. And also delicious made into jam.

There's milk and sour cream used for the dough, which makes for a nice soft tender crumb. I've used vanilla extract instead of almond extract for the dough. To make the filling, bring dried apricots and water to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes until the apricots are softened. Drain apricots, reserve some of the cooking liquid. Process the softened apricots in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid, sugar, butter and ground cinnamon, and process until mixture has the texture of jam. I have however added only 1 tablespoon of the cooking liquid and 2 tablespoons of dark rum. Smells so lovely and tasted amazing. This filling would be a wonderful jam for bread and toast, it is quick to make, and can be made in small amounts. I'm making a batch of the filling soon just to enjoy with bread. Love it!

The dough is rolled out and spread  with the apricot filling, then fold in thirds in a rectangle, which is cut to 1 inch strips. Each strip is then twisted and tie in a knot, tucking ends under. Place on parchment lined baking sheets,  spaced well apart, then left to rise until puffed. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown.

The buns are glazed with a brown sugar glaze of which I have omitted, preferring to brush the hot buns with melted butter instead.  These buns are soft and delicious with the apricot-rum filling. Especially good when eaten still slightly warm. 

This fabulous recipe is from The Bread Collection cookbook, page 65, and can also be found at Bake From Scratch website. There is a video where Brian Hart-Hoffman shows how he shape the strips of dough into knotted buns. 

This post is linked to Cookbook Countdown #48