the rain can't stop me now

Well my mantra to bring along summer didn't quite work as I had hoped. This morning it poured rain real hard but that didn't stop me from heading to the farmer's market in Trout Lake with a couple of friends. When I got home, I was soaked from head to toe but my bags were full of organic, local produce. The other day I had spied some mustard greens over at PocoCocoa and was curious since I've never eaten them before. Lo and behold, there were mustard greens galore at the farmers market, so I picked up a bunch along with some pretty tomatoes, baby beets, baby portobellos, baby potatoes, rhubarb and some sunchokes. I was pretty pleased with my haul and had all sorts of ideas regarding dinner floating about in my head. Crystal's recipe for mustard greens and pasta would be the basis of the meal and since I had also picked up some fresh, crusty sourdough bread earlier that day, I decided that bruschetta would be the perfect accompaniment. And oh boy, dinner was awesome! The meal was put together in about 20 minutes and the flavours were simple enough to let the freshness of the vegetables and herbs do their thing. Pair this meal with a glass of wine (or two), put some old records on the hi-fi and eat this up with your favorite someone and you might even forget that it's raining outside.

The original pasta recipe called for lemon zest but I only had a naked (zest removed) lemon in the fridge, so I just used the juice. I'm sure the zest would only make things more awesome. And the tomatoes I used for the bruschetta were half cherry tomatoes and half of these crazy green & orange striped ones. They had the perfect sweet/acidic balance and were possibly the best tomatoes I've ever eaten.

fettucini with mustard greens
(based on a recipe from Crystal)

250g fettucini
1 T olive oil
1 T butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb mustard greens, washed & trimmed
3 T parmesan cheese, grated
pepper

1. Prepare fettucini according to package directions. Make sure to salt the water because that's the only salt you'll find in this recipe.

2. In a large skillet, heat up olive oil and butter. Add garlic and saute until fragrant and slightly golden. Add mustard greens, tearing them into bite sized pieces. Saute until bright green. Add drained pasta to skillet along with the lemon juice, 1 T of parmesan and a few grinds of fresh pepper. Toss and serve with remaining parmesan cheese.

bruschetta
1/2 loaf of fresh sourdough bread, sliced into thick slices
10 large cherry tomatoes, quartered or cut into eights
2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 basil leaves, torn
a small handful of parsley, torn
1-2 t balsamic vinegar
1-2 T olive oil
fleur du sel & pepper
1/2 c parmesan cheese

1. Combine the tomatoes, garlic, basil, parsley, balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Arrange sourdough slices on a cookie sheet. Brush bread with the olive oil/balsamic/tomato juice mixture from the bottom of the bowl. Toast under the broiler for a few minutes until slightly golden. Remove from oven and spoon the tomato mixture on top. Sprinkle with parmesan and return to the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese melts.