Spaghetti Primavera with Pine Nuts & Sumac

Spring is a short season so you must act accordingly and spring into action (!). Fresh veggies and herbs are, on one hand, easily available and plentiful, and on the other hand, healthy and packed with vitamins and nutrients that we lacked in during the winter months.

I haven't blogged as much as I have cooked (obviously), otherwise you would have discovered a sudden OCD streak in me this season: all green stuff... (and I'm not talking about money)  :)
I have cooked many Italian lunches/dinners lately... I have a love/hate relationship with pasta. I hate Carbonara, Bolognese, canelloni, lasagna, and other way of cooking pasta using minced meat, heavy cream, bechamel sauce and extra hard cheese. :/
However, the dish I love the most is Spaghetti Primavera- or it could also be Spaghettoni, Fusilli, Penne, Rigatoni, or Bow Ties in a light dressing made with olive oil, herbs and lemon, and with fresh, almost-raw stir-fried veggies.

My Spaghetti Primavera with Toasted Pine Nuts and Sumac

Type of cuisine: Italian/Vegetarian/Low-Fat

Difficulty: easy

Cooking time: 15 -20 min preparation time/10 minutes cooking time

250 gr of pasta

2 carrots

1 zucchini 

a small bunch of orach

2-3 spring onions

10 wild garlic (aka ramson) leaves

a small bunch of spinach

2 cloves of garlic

a small branch of rosemary

a handful of pine nuts 

basil 

sumac

freshly ground black pepper

salt

extra virgin olive oil

freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation

Boil the pasta in salty water with a dash of olive oil and a handful of basil. 

Boil the spinach in salty water, drain (and chop roughly).

Boil the orach and drain.

Peel the carrots as if you were making vegan-style raw carrot spaghetti. Do the same with the zucchini.

Chop the spring onions and the wild garlic leaves.

Toast the pine kernels. 

Method

Once you have everything chopped up and at hand, you can almost start calling that dinner's ready.

Fry the garlic and the rosemary in olive oil. Stir-fry the zucchini and the carrots for a minute or two until they become soft. Add the pasta and toss. Squeeze some lemon juice and add the spinach and the orach. I like to separate the leaves individually (even though it's time-consuming and a bit boring) so that they won't bunch up and turn into big lumps. Toss.
Finally add the spring onions and the wild garlic. I like them raw.

To decorate grind some black pepper over the plate, sprinkle some sumac and top with toasted pine nuts. You could also use pumpkin seeds, toasted sunflower seeds, walnuts- the sky is the limit.. though be discerning and sample before embarking on anything fancy :)

The beauty of Spaghetti Primavera is that this dish is so versatile and easy to make. Don't be deterred by how many ingredients you will need. The list is open. If you don't have wild garlic, maybe you can use sweet peas instead, and so on. Let your creative juices flow and make the most of what these beautiful spring months have to offer. I am sure you will love this dish: it has many textures and it is the perfect candidate for a light lunch or a guilt-free dinner.

a view from above

Red Marmite with Orach, Lovage & Wild Garlic

I have started paying heed to the weather forecast, constantly hoping that "next week will be better". There is nothing wrong in hoping, but lately the sun has been playing hide and seek with me. In the meantime, I am making the most of what I can (feebly) call a spring: everything is brand new, green, and fresh.

Anyway, this is my first spring in three years. Saudi Arabia doesn't have a spring in European terms, strictly speaking. March/April marks the sandstorm season, with sudden showers, and temperature is quite high at this time of year. I was pining for spring when I was living in Riyadh. 

So I am still eagerly waiting for the perfect spring to come. I love the (normally) mild weather of April with its sunny days, when happy kids ride their bikes in the park, and beautiful cherry trees are in bloom.

As you know by now, my beloved blog is bursting at the seams with these wonderful seasonal plants: wild garlic (ramson), parsley, nettle, spinach, orach, spring onions... Mixed and combined, they offer an explosion of tastes and textures. Over the weekend I was made to drool over a traditional Romanian soup that I stumbled upon in foodie.ro. I discovered a Transylvanian Orach Broth, soured with vinegar. And so I went down memory lane and suddenly remembered my mother's Orach soup with cream. Oh, memories! Funnily enough, as I was making my own marmite, my mother called me to ask us over for dinner. She was making orach soup as well :)

 Marmite with Orach, Lovage, Wild Garlic and Beef Cubes

a big piece of beef bone with some meat on it (to make the stock)

1 carrot

2 small red onions

..........................................

2 small bunches of orach

2 bunches of ramson (wild garlic)

1 small bunch of lovage

1 small tomato (diced) or 2 tsb of diced canned tomato

1 extra cube of beef stock (optional) or salt

the juice of 1/4 of a lemon 

Type of cuisine: (new) Romanian

Preparation time: 2 hours (blame it on the beef stock)

Difficulty: easy

Preparation

To make the stock, boil the bone for at least 1 hr 45 mins. Drain and discard the veggies. By now they should have become a mush. Scoop the lean meat off the bone and cut it in small cubes. 

Wash the orach, lovage and wild garlic. For nice layers, chop the wild garlic Asian style, tear the orach leaves off their stem leaf by leaf, and cut the lovage finely. (Lovage is vaguely similar to parsley, but has a distinctive taste.)

          tomato, beef & spring yummies

Method

Once you drain the soup in a separate pot, work on your marmite. Add the beef cubes and the diced tomato, season with salt or, for a richer taste, a cube of beef stock. Work in the orach, lovage and wild garlic and let simmer for 10 minutes before serving. Sour the soup with some lemon juice. 

The combination of lovage and lemon juice is a killer :) - it wowed me and Mike, who thought at first that he was tasting miso. 

The orach will turn the soup dark pink bordering on crimson. It's a delicious and appetizing colour.

In Romania people make orach borscht with single cream. My version is much lighter so I didn't pour it over the simmering marmite. 

It was such a great dish that I hope that tomorrow when I go to the farmer's market, I'll be able to find more lovage and ramson, and that their season isn't over. (Isn't spring wonderful?)

                                                                                                                          xoxo

beautiful cherry tree in bloom

Springtime

the picture of happiness 

This is probably my favourite time of the year- days are longer, warmer, and meals are so much more interesting. A trip to the farmers' market is a real pleasure and everything around is green, green, green. Yes, I am happy. :) I want to make the most of it and eat better, leaner and healthier. Now it's the time to have most things raw and fresh, amazing salads with vinaigrette or lemon dressing. To combine exotic and local fruit with spinach, rucola, or celandine. To exercise more often and to shed the weight, the worries & the gloom. Winter is over and remember, No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.

Love, xx

spinach and beetroot

celandine

ramson and orach