Next in our Canadian Chef Series.....A Recipe for Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Simple Dill Cream Cheese Sauce from Chef Michael Smith

Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon Pasta

If you have been following More Than Burnt Toast you will know I started a bi-weekly feature to highlight Canadian Chefs a few months back. Other commitments slowed my progress down, but now we are back in full force to bring you all that Canada has to offer!!! Through your TV networks, or perhaps on other blogs, or even just right here on More Than Burnt Toast you may have heard of some of our Canadian chefs. For those of you who haven't, I hope you will find it interesting to see what our chefs are up to, a little about their history and how they came to love what they do. For the next few months I will continue to feature one of our Canadian chefs bi-weekly. There will be some chefs you have heard of and adore and some lesser known who are up and coming. Some are not even chefs at all, but just Canadians who are passionate about what they do!!As the twelfth installment in my Canadian Chef series I introduce you to:

Michael Smith

Born in Canada Chef Michael Smith grew up in the province of Prince Edward Island. He is presently the host of Chef at Home as well as his latest series Chef Abroad. If you browse these pages you will notice I have mentioned this Canadian culinary star many times but this will be the first time he has been featured on my Canadian Chef Series. Michael has been cooking professionally for over twenty years with a diverse and impressive culinary background behind him. He is an honours graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, and his career has taken him around the globe where he paid his dues from stints in a Michelin three-star restaurant in London to South America, the Caribbean, North America and some of Manhattan's finest kitchens. Michael is known for his support of young Canadian chefs and the growing Canadian Cuisine movement.

His rise to fame as a household name started in Prince Edward Island’s now famous country inn, The Inn at Bay Fortune, which was known for his fresh, contemporary approach. This utlimately led to his first television series The Inn Chef. The series featured Smith as he took viewers inside the inn’s real-life country kitchen.

From there Michael opened his own restaurant, Maple, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It quickly became recognized as one of the top venues in the country for Canadian Cuisine. In the fall of 2001, Smith left Maple to focus on his new Food Network Canada series Chef at Large where he travels to meet other skilled chefs, investigates their amazing and diverse kitchens and documents their unique and challenging worlds.

Perhaps his most challenging initiative to date has been the shift he has made from his identity as a professional chef in world renowned restaurants to home cook both at home and on his television series Chef at Home. He says in an interview with Ivy Knight, "My son was born and I realized I only knew this small part about cooking, which is fine dining. I had to learn about health and nutrition. It's had a profound effect on me. I crave simplicity now." Chef At Home features a behind-the-scenes peak at Smith’s kitchen in his home on Prince Edward Island and how he cooks for his family and friends. One of the things we can appreciate most about the approach that Smith takes is the fact that he repeatedly invites and encourages would-be chefs to experiment and get creative in the kitchen, with both quantities and ingredients alike. As he states from the beginning a recipe is merely a guideline to follow. It's what you do with it that makes it your own. I love this philosophy of cooking which encourages your own creativity in the kitchen.

His latest show Chef Abroad takes viewers around the world and behind the scenes with a glimpse into the fast-paced hidden world of chefs, cooks and cuisine that most of us only get to dream about. Whether it is documenting the tension of pulling off a dinner for the Prince of Jordan or chronicling how chefs prepare delectable meals in the frozen Arctic Chef Abroad reveals new food frontiers.
His lateste show

Smith has authored four cookbooks to date. Open Kitchen: A Chef's Day at The Inn At Bay Fortune, published in 1998, took the bronze medal at Cuisine Canada’s Cookbook Award that same year. He followed that with The Inn Chef a year later. His highly anticipated third cookbook, based on his new series, Chef at Home, hit the shelves in the fall of 2005 and earlier this year followed up with the second in the series with The Best of Chef at Home.

What else has Michael been up to? He is North America's first chef food ambassador. As the food ambassador to Prince Edward Island Chef Michael Smith is dedicated to promoting the island as a "foodie" destination and raising awareness for island-produced food. Smith's recipes are greatly influenced by local products and ingredients. He loves making food personal by knowing where it came from and the people behind every aspect of it. He tries to define Canadian cusine which is a hard thing to pinpoint. Most people have difficulty with the idea that Canada has a distinctive cuisine of its own.When we say French food, Spanish food, or Mexican food it is easy to define those by the ingredients used. What do you think of when we say “Canadian Cuisine”? The idea of ordering "Canadian" may have you scratching your head. So what defines Canadian cuisine anyway? Our great land is vast and diverse and Canadian cuisine varies from region to region, which makes it difficult to put a finger on a single defining element or idea.The cuisines of Canada are diverse, regional, fresh, local, and linked to the culture and history of the individual regions and the people living and working there from the east to the west coast.  Michael Smith does a very good job of definition with using fresh and local ingredients in his native Prince Edward Island where seafood and agriculture are the mainstay.

 Recently someone actually stole his identity and stirred up quite a ruckus with a Twitter page. Up until that point he had never tweeted. So he decided to start twittering. He says, "It was a bit of an eye opener and fascinating to see how many of you are in the twitterverse. I’m having fun with the whole thing and can be followed at @chefMICHAELsmth. Stay tuned I’m also in the process of launching my own Facebook page. Not bad for a guy who lives in rural Prince Edward Island. Were all so connected now"

Host of  Chef Abroad, Chef at Home, Chef at Large and The Inn Chef, Chef Michael Smith can be seen in more than 25 countries. He is an award-winning cookbook author, newspaper columnist, roving Canadian cuisine ambassador and home cook. What's next? He has devoted his career to helping Canadian families create simple, practical nutritious food "with or without a recipe". From what I have read he is now trying to center his life around his family and a more relaxed lifestyle in P.E.I while still promoting delicious home cooking and Canadian local ingredients with television and charitable connections.  Smith says his favorite role by far is Dad, at home with his partner Rachel where they make Green Eggs and Ham for their son Gabriel !

Watch for him at the Olympics in Vancouver in a a few months for the Winter Games, "I'm part of this large team of chefs that, on behalf of Canada, will be cooking a lot of great Canadian food for athletes from all over the world." We have still yet to hear more on what will be involved.

So where do you begin in choosing just one recipe from a chef who has had such a diverse and illustrious career? With recipes like Black Olive Stuffed Chicken Breast with a Pine Nut Risotto Cake, Rapini and Roast Garlic Basil Broth, Aged Cheddar Cheese Biscuits with Chive Scrambled Egg Stuffing, Brown Butter Hollandaise Sauce, from the Inn Chef to Bloody Mary Salmon, Drunken Pears in Crispy Cups with Goats Cheese Cream  or Three Chocolate Mousse Cups. Finally I chose to prepare a dish I found on the Internet inspired by Prince Edward Island and brought to you by Chef Michael Smith. This is one of the most popular dishes at Chef Smith's table. It reads. "His friends love its bright, familiar flavours and I love how easy it is to make. You can toss steaming, just cooked pasta with melting cream cheese to form an incredibly smooth luxurious sauce. The smoked salmon adds extravagance balanced by other familiar flavours like dill, lemon, onion, mustard and capers. A five star dish for sharing!"

The VERDICT: I had 2 helpings...that says it all!!!!!

**Prince Edward Island Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Simple Dill Cream Cheese Sauce**

a recipe by Chef Michael Smith
Serves 4

1 lb penne or your favourite shaped pasta like bowties, long pastas like spaghetti don’t work as well

1 cup room temperature cream cheese

1 bunch of fresh dill, chopped

4 green onions, sliced

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 heaping spoonful of Dijon mustard

1/4 cup capers

8 ounces smoked salmon, or more

sprinkled sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

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Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Season it liberally with salt until tastes like a day at the beach on Prince Edward Island. As the pasta cooks it will absorb the salted water and become properly seasoned. Cook al dente, until the pasta is cooked through but still pleasantly chewy.

Scoop out some of the starchy cooking water. Drain the pasta but not quite all the way. Leave it a bit wet. Toss the pasta back into the pot along with a splash or two of the reserved water, perhaps a half-cup or so in total then immediately add the rest of the ingredients. While the pasta is still steaming hot it will easily melt the cream cheese and form a rich creamy sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve immediately.

You may also enjoy these other Chef Michael Smith recipes:

Frozen Butter Biscuits
Potato Fish Cakes
Salsa Salad
Spinach Greek Potato Salad with Feta Vinaigrette
Cheesy Potato Pie
Chocolate Chip Cookies

A Recipe for Michael Smith's Frozen Butter Biscuits for Thanksgiving

 

Frozen Butter Biscuits

  I'd love to take a few moments to wish all of our American friends a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have many hands to make the work lighter and many smiling faces around your table. There is just so much to be thankful for....despite everything!!

 Thanksgiving here in Canada was in October so we are ogling your recipe ideas for the Christmas holidays. So for the past week or two I have not been baking up a storm, or been up to my elbows with saucepans, nor do I want to stick my head in the oven either...just kidding. Our time will come and I hope you have many things to make you truly thankful.

I have had these biscuits waiting on the sidelines to have their time to SHINE!!! These are gold-standard biscuits from Canadian Chef Michael Smith. These are another one of the down-home dishes I enjoyed from his latest cookbook The Best of Chef at Home which I reviewed in an earlier post.  His secret? Frozen butter! It’s an old pastry chef’s trick that has served him well. Butter tastes great and adds that flavour that is just essential when baking biscuits. When the butter is frozen it becomes very easy to shred into the dough. This allows for a very flaky biscuit. I broke the biscuits in half and topped them with Greek yogurt from Pike Place Market in Seattle as well as some homemade raspberry preserves. These flaky morsels did not last long and are so versatile. I have made them several times adding different cheeses and herbs.

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.

If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something,

for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,

because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,

because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary,

because it means you've made a difference.

It's easy to be thankful for the good things.

A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who

are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.

Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,

and they can become your blessings.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

**Frozen Butter Biscuits**
by Canadian Chef Michael Smith from the Best of Chef at Home
print Michael's recipe

4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 large spoonfuls of baking powder

2 small spoonfuls of salt

2 sticks/8 oz/ 1 cup of frozen butter

1-1/2 cups of milk

a sprinkle or two of salt and pepper

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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together until they’re evenly mixed. Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Shred it through the large holes of a box grater or potato grater directly into the flour. Toss gently with your fingers until the butter shards are spread evenly throughout the flour.

Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir with an upside down wooden spoon to form a dough mass. The handle of the spoon is gentler on the dough. Fold the dough over a few times with your hands until all the ingredients come together. If necessary add a few spoonfuls more milk to help gather up any stray flour. This kneading will strengthen the dough a bit but not enough to toughen the biscuits. It will also help them form a crisp crust when they bake.

Pat the dough out on a lightly floured cutting board forming a loose round shape. Cut into wedges – like a pie - or any other shape you’re in the mood for. Position on a baking sheet; sprinkle on a bit of coarse salt and coarsely ground pepper. Bake for fifteen minutes or so. You’ll know they’re done when they turn golden brown. Enjoy at once with lots of brown butter!

You may also enjoy....

Basic Buttery Buttermilk Biscuits

Biscones from One Food Year

Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits from One for the Table

Biscuits and Gravy by Pioneer Woman Cooks

Buttermilk Biscuits with Goat Cheese and Chives by Elise at Simply Recipes

A Recipe for Butternut Squash Focaccia with Caramelized Onions

 

Butternut Focaccia with Caramelized Onions

Who doesn't love the smell of fresh bread baking in the oven? This feeling is something you just can't purchase at your local bakery or at Costco. Making bread is an act to not only feed my family and myself, but to nourish my soul as well. I can pick up a  fresh loaf of bread within a five-minute walking distance from my home, but I occasionally like to make my own bread just for the comfort factor. When I attended the very first ever Foodbuzz Festival I was one of the lucky recipients of  the new Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg book Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I have been eagerly browsing through it's pages and have my eye on a pumpkin brioche, but before I venture into artisan breads I was looking for something to do with the leftover mashed, roasted butternut squash I had on hand.

One bread I enjoy making at home is focaccia. In addition to thinking it's one of the easier breads to bake, I also love it's diversity. It is quite often baked with sea salt and rosemary, but, you can easily add thyme or sage instead, not to mention goat cheese, caramelized onions, olives, garlic, nuts, anchovies, and fresh tomatoes.The sky is the limit!!!!Don't you just love it!!!

Focaccia or panis focacius is a traditional Italian bread whose recipe dates back to ancient Rome. It was a flat bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace. The word is derived from the Latin focus meaning “centre” and also “fireplace” ...the fireplace being in the centre of the house. Like pizza, it is made from a simple and basic yeast dough that is often cooked with olive oil.

As mentioned earlier I had some leftover butternut squash so I decided to bake a focaccia loosely based on a recipe I found on the internet from Gattina of Kitchen Unplugged. The Internet is a very useful tool when searching for ideas. She had produced a foccacia using mashed pototoes so I said to myself why not try butternut squash instead.  When I was in Greece a few years back on the small island of Kea at Keartisinal Aglaia Kremezi taught us how to make a focaccia using zucchini picked fresh from her garden and then grated into the dough. What Aglaia taught me was to make use of what is available to you as well as use the best ingredients possible. This is how you will become a success in your own kitchen and leave people wanting more!!!

To follow through with the almost sweet tendencies of the squash I chose to caramelize some cippolini onions to add on top. These are small sweet onions, having more residual sugar than garden-variety white or yellow onions, but not quite as sweet as shallots. Their sweetness makes for a lovely addition to recipes where you might want to use whole caramelized onions.  Replace the cipollini onions with shallots if you cannot find them as they will substitute very well. Shallots are quite a bit pricier. The onions add a sweet flavor that plays off the salt in this bread nicely. Feel free to use chopped kalamata olives instead, add goat cheese, or just use herbs and salt. To add that depth of flavour you will find the method of roasting your butternut squash here.

Once the dough has risen it is common practice to "dot" the bread. This creates multiple wells in the bread by using a finger or the handle of a utensil to poke the unbaked risen dough. As a way to preserve moisture in the bread, olive oil is then spread over the dough, by hand or with a pastry brush prior to rising and baking. Whatever you do, your house will smell like HOME. It is simply not something that can be duplicated!!!!

The verdict.....This bread was delicious and can be made in stages or made all in the same day depending on your own schedule. Everything about it appealed to me. This is the perfect base recipe for making all sorts of different flavoured focaccia bread! With it's gorgeous orange hue this would be perfect for the American Thanksgiving coming up. A Happy holiday to all our American friends. I will be making this again and again and have even entered it in a recipe contest.

**Butternut Squash Focaccia with Caramelized Onions**

Print this More Than Burnt Toast Original

8 oz /1 cup mashed butternut squash, precooked ( I had leftover roasted butternut which makes a world of difference!!)

25g fresh yeast or 1 package dry

3 cups flour (+ 1/4 cup for dusting)

1 cup whole milk, lukewarm

2 teaspoons sea salt (and extra for topping)

5 teaspoons canola or corn oil

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil ( and extra for drizzling on top)

1 teaspoons dried crushed oregano

a little water (if the dough is too dry)

1 cup caramelized onions (see recipe below)

dash of chili flakes or red peppercorns

*************************

In a large mixing bowl, combine fresh yeast, flour, mashed butternut squash, oregano, both oils and salt. Add milk (most of it but not all... later during the kneading after you get a good feeling of its moisture, then decide if more milk is needed).

Dust the work table with  1/4 cup of flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Please note that the dough in the beginning feels a bit dry, but later turns sticky (so don't rush to add excessive liquid too soon). The dough should be slightly sticky.

Put the dough in a large bowl pregreased with olive oil, cover with pre-greased plastic wrap and  place the bowl on the lowest shelf of the fridge; let it proof overnight.

The following day remove the dough from the fridge and fold it (but do not knead) a few times, just to re-distribute the yeast cells.

Grease the baking tray with olive oil, and your hands too; gently press the dough until it reaches the sides of the pan. This may require a resting period depending on whether or not the dough is too springy depending on the gluten content of your flour. Sprinkle with the caramelized onions and chili flakes. Cover with  plastic wrap and let rise until it has a doubled in volume.

"Dot" the bread with your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon to create dimples. If the dough seems sticky dip your finger into a tiny bit of flour or olive oil. Brush olive oil onto the surface of bread. Sprinkle with sea salt.

Pre-heat oven to 230 C/450 F.

Bake the focaccia for 5 minutes, then lower to 200 C/400 F until it's done, it may take 20 - 25 mins in total. Unmold the bread and let it completely cool on a rack.The focaccia tastes best in the first 2 days.

Good enough to make 6 sandwiches, or simply to cut into chunks, accompanied with tomato sauce (or in this case a nice dip or spread).

Caramelized Onions

1 cup sliced cipollini onions (or shallots)

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon sugar

Heat olive oil in a medium to large pan. Add onions and sauté on medium low for about five minutes. Add the sugar and stir. Cook the onions until they are soft and a light golden colour.

What are our friends doing with focaccia?????????????

Susan at A Year in Bread - Easy Rosemary Focaccia
Luisa of The Wednesday Chef - Focaccia di Patate
Seven Fishes.com - Easy Italian Herb Focaccia
Martha Stewart - Eggplant Focaccia
Bay Area Bites - Caramelized Cipollini Onion Focaccia
Margot of Coffee & Vanilla - Green Olive Focaccia
Pinch My Salt - Herbed Focaccia from the Bread Bakers Apprentice

A Recipe for Ricotta and Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta Shells with Pesto

Ricotta and Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta with Pesto

Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard, to get her poor doggie a bone, and when she got there the cupboard was bare.....well you know the rest. Yes the cupboards here at MTBT were bare so what to do, what to do? Shall I call out for pizza, invite myself to a friends for dinner or get creative in the kitchen and use what I have available. Canadian Chef Michael Smith would be so proud!! Put those chef hats on tight because Valli is in the kitchen!!!!! Could it be that even a week later I am still reeling from all the wonderful food we had in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival and still need a reality check...sigh....This is probably the first meal I have actually attempted in the past week or so without just pulling something from the freezer. Well I was feeling creative so let's see what we have in the kitchen to work with without heading to the grocers.

I was in the mood for pasta and I see some of those jumbo pasta shells peaking out from the dark recesses. In my pantry there is an entire cupboard dedicated to pasta in every shape and size from reginette to orecchiette. I imagine your "foodie" cupboards to be the same the same.

When making delicious pasta dishes, be sure to choose a pasta shape and sauce that compliments each other. Thin, delicate pastas like angel hair or thin spaghetti, should be served with light, slightly thinner sauces. Thicker pasta shapes, like fettuccine, work well with heavier sauces. Pasta shapes with holes or ridges like mostaccioli or radiatore, are perfect receptacles for chunkier sauces.

Now let's get back to making that dish. Put your bifocals on Ms. Burnt Toast. What about that bright orange squash that has been eyeballing you for the past few weeks? It has been there since October when you purchased it at the farmers market!!!! Sheesh!!!! With its thick orange flesh and its nutty sweet flavor, the butternut squash has become a favorite ingredient around here in casseroles, quick breads, muffins, soups and even pie...so why not pasta. I have coveted many an autumnal pasta dish on many of your blogs over the past few months that have used squash and pumpkin.

Check the freezer...ooh pesto!!!!! I have afterall been dubbed the "pesto queen" by some. I have some frozen and ready to go made with toasted pine nuts and some with walnuts, either of which would offer a rich nutty flavour that would marry well with the autumn flavours of the butternut squash. I think any dish that I adore has to have at least one tablespoon of basil pesto to remind me of summer!!!! Could it be any better than the reminder of fresh basil and other herbs basking in the sun. Now don't go daydreaming Ms. Burnt Toast. You have the masses to feed...well not really...but you know. Open the fridge door...note to self...remove leftovers and chuck in bin before something reaches out and grabs you!!! What do you see?....the remainders of a container of fresh ricotta from the Italian supermarket and some Parmigiano-Reggiano ...so let's go!!!!!

This dish was healthy as well as delicious. The pesto will impart a garlicky robust flavour to both the tomato sauce and the ricotta filling. This compliments the sweet buttery flavour of the butternut squash perfectly. I was thinking some mushrooms would go so well in the sauce as well when I make this the next time!!!!
I am sending this dish over to Presto Pasta Nights which is the invention of the lovely and talented Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast - Every Kitchen Tells It's Stories. I can hardly believe that this is week #140 of PPN!!! How does Ruth keep it all together with all of her other commitments as well. You rock woman!!!! This week's host is Kait of Pots and Plots.

Also check out the new KNORK that I received in my "goodie" bag at the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco. That's it pictured up above. It's designed to provide the benefits of both a knife and a fork. It's the next best thing to chopsticks!!!!Imagine it even gives you one less thing to wash or load up in the dishwasher since you will never find a use for your knife again...except for steak knives of course!
**Ricotta and Butternut Squash Stuffed Pasta Shells with Pesto**
Print this recipe
Serves 5 - 6

20 jumbo pasta shells
2 cups cubed roasted, such as butternut or banana
salt and white pepper to taste
pinch nutmeg
1 (500gram) container ricotta cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
4 tablespoons homemade or store-bought pesto ( had some spinach pesto in the freezer as well)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 -14-oz ( 398 mL) can tomato sauce, or homemade
2 tablespoons cold water

**************************
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil to cook the pasta. Add the pasta, return to a boil and adjust the heat so the water gently boils. Cook the pasta until al dente, about 8-10 minutes.

When the pasta shells are cooked, drain well, cool in cold water and drain well again. Thoroughly mash the baked squash and season with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Preheat the oven to 375F. Place the ricotta cheese in a medium bowl and mix in the eggs, 2 tablespoons of the pesto, salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg and quarter-cup of the Parmesan cheese. Pour the tomato sauce and water into a 9-by-13-inch casserole; mix in the remaining 2 tablespoons of the pesto.

Divide and stuff the mashed squash into the bottom part of the pasta shells. Top the squash with the ricotta mixture, stuffing the pasta shells as full as you can get them.

Set the stuffed pasta shells, stuffed side up, on top of the tomato sauce. Sprinkle the shells with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until the pasta is golden on top.

To Roast Squash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of aluminium foil and spray liberally with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the squash on a cutting board. With a small strong knife, remove the stem portion of the squash. Slice the squash in half end-to-end.

Scrape the seeds and pulp from the center of the squash with a large spoon and discard. Then cut each portion in half, creating four pieces which are approximately equal in size.

Place the wedges on the baking sheet, with the cut side up. Using a pastry brush, coat each piece of butternut squash with melted butter.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the buttered squash pieces.

Cover the squash with foil, and place in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until tender. Remove the pan from the oven, and let the squash stand for 5 minutes. Remove flesh and mash thoroughly.

Check out what our friends are doing with their butternut squash....

Foodista - Butternut Squash and Chorizo Pasta
Evil Shenanigans - Pasta with Gruyere and Butternut Squash
The Paupered Chef - Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce
Adventures in Shaw - Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna
Andrea Meyers - Roasted Butternut Squash with Penne
Guilty Kitchen - Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Vegetables
Kait's Plate - Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Cannelloni with Butternut Squash Cream Sauce
Jenn & Roberto of Leftover Queen - Rigatoni with Butternut Squash and Prawns
Joan of FOODalogue - Squash Stuffed Pasta 2 Ways
Eats Well With Others - Pistachio Pesto Pasta with Butternut Squash

Food buzz....Take 2

I Love Foodbuzz!!!!

It is official. I Love Foodbuzz!!!! This is the sentiment that we heard over and over again at the 1st Annual Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco. This food extravaganza weekend was filled with opportunities not only to connect with all the Foodbuzz bloggers you have been following for the past few years, but also to meet up with world class food artisans, wine and beer makers, and outstanding California producers. The list is endless!!!! The sold-out Festival was a 3- day weekend full of interactive food-focused events and discussions. The experience was designed to engage and connect the food blogging community, in addition to cultivating valuable experiences, friendships and knowledge to blog about afterwards. You have read many accounts of this well put together event over the past week including our own first few days in San Francisco. Each attendee brought home a different experience, but the common thread is that everyone enjoyed their weekend in San Francisco and can't wait for next year!!!!

My sentiments exactly!!!!

My day started off with pastries and fruit at the Ferry Building where I met Ryan "The Girl" one of the amazing staff at Foodbuzz who pulled this off. I also reconnected with Chez Pim who was on our BlogHer panel with me last month where we spoke about How Our Blogs Can Save the World representing BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine. She was there signing her new book. This followed by a seminar with Sue from Cowgirl Creamery who guided us through 5 cheeses. She was a wealth of knowledge and has a passion for cheese that could not be matched. In 1997, Peggy Smith, a seventeen-year veteran at my "still to try favourite restaurant" Chez Panisse, joined Sue Conley, a former owner of Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, to create Tomales Bay Foods in downtown Point Reyes Station in western Marin County. The Tomales location included Cowgirl Creamery, a viewable cheese manufacturing facility, which utilized Straus organic milk. Their flagship store is downstairs at the Ferry Building where Sue and Peggy feature their own award-winning cheeses along with cheese from around the world. In the seminar we were fortunate to try their delicious Fromage Blanc with a touch of creme fraiche that imparted a slight tanginess, Inverness, Mt Tam, Red Hawk seasonal cheese and their new (and yet to be released) Batch 11. You NEED all of these cheeses each with its own attributes!!!!!

Morning Buzz with Cowgirl Creamery

After the seminar I moved on to explore The Ferry Building Marketplace located within the historic Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street along the Bay where shops large and small celebrate food in all its forms, offering everything from artisan cheeses, artisan breads made with organic flour, California olives oils including citrus olive oils with names like Blood Orange, Lisbon Lemon, and Persian Lime, macarons and French pastries, a myriad of exotic mushrooms, to the freshest of local fish and seafood. This is California where food never tasted fresher!!!! Where ingredients are fresh, recipes are simple, yet the results are sophisticated and intoxicating. It is also the home of Sur la Table which has long been associated with farmers markets. I visited the original Sur La Table that was founded in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Farmers Market a few weeks ago. With retail locations across the country, an e-commerce site, and a mail order catalog, Sur La Table carefully designs each store to have its own distinctive look and feel.From Moroccan tagines, Portuguese cataplanas and Spanish paella pans, to tart pans and tutove pins, Sur La Table provides the unexpected and a sense of discovery. Here I started collecting those "stocking stuffers" for Christmas with wild abandon!!!

I met up with Joan of FOODalogue where we were able to try a new taste sensation Sea Beans on the main floor. We wandered the farmers market for hours with new sights and sounds at every turn. Joan was a wealth of knowledge about the different fruits and vegetables we were seeing. Some were exotic like Buddha's Hands. For over a millennium, the Chinese and Japanese have prized the bizarre Buddha's Hand Citron, which looks like a cross between a giant lemon and a squid, and can perfume a room for weeks with its mysterious fragrance. I'd use it for it's zest or to make some citrus flavoured vodka!!!! Joan also introduced me to Pimientos de Padrón which are small green peppers roughly the size of your thumb. They’re fried in olive oil, salted, and served at many tapas bars in Spain. Besides being salty and sweet, most people eat Pimientos de Padrón for the fun of it. Eating them is considered a form of culinary Russian roulette. Some are sweet. Others are hot enough to make your head spin. I NEED these. We also met up with some very quirky characters from Cirque de Soleil who engaged passersby.

All the Ferry Building has to offer...

From here it was a quick jaunt to the Metreon in the afternoon where a mix of bloggers, artisan producers, brands, wineries, breweries and chefs converged for the three-hour "Tasting Pavilion." Attendees had the opportunity to sip, share, taste and talk as they learned about everything ranging from chocolate and wines, to artisan confections and local produce from Frog Hollow Farms. Alder Yarrow, the granddaddy of wine bloggers and proprietor of Vinography.Com, guided two tasting seminars... "California Sparkling Wine" and "Underappreciated California Merlots."

Also in the Tasting Pavillion were the winners in the Bertolli Sauce Kitchen. The three bloggers, selected by the Foodbuzz community to demo their recipes, used Bertolli Sauces as the backbone of their own inventive appetizers or main courses which were fortunately dished out to all the eager bloggers in the crowd. Nearby, six bloggers were featured as Nature's Pride "Bread Ambassadors," cooked and demonstrated their own unique winning recipes integrating Nature's Pride bread for their fellow food bloggers to sample. I also had the opportunity to meet up with long time blogging friend Kelly of Sass and Veracity and my new discovery Josee of Daydreamer Desserts.

Tasting Pavilion at the Metreon

Many of you may have heard me rave about the Farm to Table Outstanding in the Field dinners. I have always dreamed of attending one of their dinners at long communal tables with new found friends each time they have come to my province of British Columbia here in Canada. So far I have always had obstacles in my way for one reason or another. This year in my area they held a dinner at the University of British Columbia Farm in Vancouver as well as in Pemberton, which is up near Whistler, both about 4 hours from my home. Imagine my insane delight on Saturday night when Foodbuzz teamed up with "Outstanding in the Field" for a farm-to-table family-style feast. Saturday night’s Foodbuzz dinner & awards ceremony was beautifully set in the Greenleaf Produce building. It is not an easy task to bring a few hundred people together for a dinner in a warehouse at one long snaking table with a makeshift kitchen. Somehow, with the help of some great locals and I am sure a lot of hard work, it all came together flawlessly. As Jenn says, " Very rustic and the perfect environment to enjoy a menu of farm fresh products. Our menu was created by Chef Dennis Lee of Namu. All of the food was local, organic and sustainable and the meats were all pasture-raised. It was really nice to enjoy a guilt free meal of the highest quality." We had a truly wonderful and memorable dinner, in really great company. I had the honour of sitting with our posse and longtime blogger friends Peter of Souvlaki For The Soul, who came all the way from Australia to be at the festival, Jenn and Roberto of The Leftover Queen and The Foodie Blogroll, Peter and Christey of FotoCuisine , Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen (my cohort for the weekend and co-founder of BloggerAid - Changing the Face of Famine) , Joan of FOODalogue, Pat of FoodWedsHerbs and Claudia of Jet Set Wisdom. Randall Grahm, of Bonny Doon Vineyard, paired wines for the event, talked with diners about each wine and provided tasting notes. It was a magical evening where 250 bloggers from the world over sat at long snaking tables of mismatched china and were the recipients of some of the best food known to man. We have been inundated by brussel sprouts recipes on Foodbuzz blogs ever since!!!!!We had some real converts!!!! After dinner, Foodbuzz honoured the Foodbuzz community's incredible blogging talent at the First-Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Awards Ceremony. During the course of the evening I also met Marc of No Recipes and Blog Away Hunger and Lori Lynn from Taste With the Eyes and Father Adam.

Outstanding in the Field is Outstanding....

This was an incredible weekend that I hope next year you all have a chance to attend. The city of San Francsico is always so welcoming and Foodbuzz made this a magical experience. But what makes a weekend one for the memory books was meeting (or at least trying to meet) 250 bloggers from 27 States and 4 countries who we already had so much in common with... a passion for food and our blogs....and we obsessively photograph each and every bite we eat and never blink an eye!!!! Thank you Foodbuzz and thank you everyone who made this an experience of a lifetime...until next year...adieu!!! Giz and I missed the brunch at Luni and instead headed to the Napa Valley for some more wine tasting and a true California experience.....stay tuned!!!!

Some photos courtesy of Peter of Peter G Photography , Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen and Joan of FOODalogue.

Old friends and new...

Check out what old and new friends are Buzzing about at the Foodbuzz Festival......

Jenn and Roberto of Leftover Queen and Foodie Blogroll
Joan of Foodalogue
Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen
Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa
Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of My Pants
Mardi of Eat, Live Travel, Write
Lori Lynn of Taste with The Eyes
Chrystal & Amir of The Duo Dishes

Foodbuzz.... Take 1

I wouldn't normally consider myself a superstitious person but the events of this past Friday...yes Friday the 13th...had me singing another tune. Not singing in the literal sense (that would clear a room very quickly) but feeling differently about life's direction and taking the bull by the horns.

One event in the past week that was certainly an adventure, if not life changing, was the few days spent in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival. You have heard about this event countless times over the past week, but after car accidents, book releases, and loosing fillings I am a little behind the times. It has been months in the planning for not only the talented staff over at Foodbuzz but for Giz and I to meet up in the big city. I met Giz and her daughter through their blog Equal Opportunity Kitchen and what transpired from there was nothing short of a miracle. In the past year we started a social network BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine, published a cookbook to raise money for the School Meals Programme and finally met in San Francisco at Foodbuzz. You probably thought all along that since we both live in Canada and both have similar ideologies that our paths would have crossed long ago. We are on opposite ends of this huge country we call Canada but are not very far apart in our long term goals. It was like meeting a long lost friend after all this time and even if we were both tired we sprung into action and set out to explore San Francisco.

After flights from opposite ends of the country we met for the first time at our home for the next 4 days The Galleria Park Hotel which is a stylish boutique hotel in Union Square in downtown San Francisco and part of a group of hotels in the Joie de Vivre chain. I give a shout out to the attentive staff at the hotel as well as their social awareness. Joie de Vivre Hotels is a grass roots organization that strives to have a positive impact on their community. Each of their hotels is dedicated to donating to organizations in their communities.

As an extension of Joie de Vivre Gives, each hotel participates in the You Can Make a Difference program launched in April of 2008. The primary objective is to engage their hotel guests by giving them the option to add an additional $1 of their total bill for each night they stay with them.

Galleria Park Hotel’s philanthropic partner in the You Can Make a Difference program is The Gum Moon Asian Women's Resource Center where they address the needs of women and children in geographic and social transition. They provide services and programs that help develop life skills that help people integrate into society in order to support themselves and their families. Kudos to the Joie de Vivre!!!

First stop for Giz and I.....Chinatown. I was in San Francisco last month so read all about Chinatown in my last post. Where else can you find beautiful scarves for $1.50 and fun and fanciful cosies for your wine bottles. Mix this with the local flavours, sights and sounds and it is an idyllic way to spend an afternoon... and let's face it we were starving!!!!!

Day 2 lead us to North Beach, with deep roots in the Italian community, where we sought out macaroons the size of our heads that had inspired me on my last trip. As Canadians we visited our very first Trader Joe's which we have read about countless times on your blogs and also visited Fisherman's Wharf; which I missed during my last visit. I was fascinated by the shapely sourdough and the sea lions at Pier 39 with their engaging personalities.

In the evening we met up with our fellow Foodbuzz attendees for a Welcome reception at the Hotele Vitale, also a part of the Joie de Vivre chain for the beginning of the 1st-Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival!!!! To kick off the weekend we met for happy hour on the 8th floor with spectacular views of the city all round. Brian our bartender and 250 food bloggers became best friends:D We had a ridiculously delicious schedule of events planned for the entire weekend. There were attendees from 27 States and 4 countries who we already had so much in common with... a passion for food and our blogs....and we obsessively photograph each and every bite we eat!!!!! Can you imagine the mass sigh of relief when everyone in the room could whip out their cameras in the middle of an intriguing conversation and no one would blink an eye!!!

From there we moved on to the Ferry Building and an outdoor extravaganza to titillate our taste buds and "rev" us up for more to come. What a line up of tasty treats from the Mission District to the Ferry Building and everything in between!!!! From authentic wood-fire oven pizza, to rotisserie roasted porchetta on a bun, to antojito style tacos, to organic oysters... all culminating with organic ice cream and cupcake nibbles.

This weekend went down as one for the memory books. Kudos to the staff at Foodbuzz for pulling it all together to make it one of the best foodie weekends imaginable!!!!! I hope you all get to attend next year!!!!!!More to follow tomorrow........................................ Foodbuzz Take 2......

It's Here.......

It's Here.....

After a year of collaberation and hard work from a small group of dedicated members we are proud to announce the BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine Cookbook is flying off the shelves!!!! "We should all be proud of our efforts", say administrators Giz and Val.

Food does not simply nourish the body; food also celebrates what makes the world diverse, as well as what unites us. The BloggerAid Cook Book is a collection of international recipes illustrating that we can work together and unite for a greater cause. The over 130 authors of this cookbook are food bloggers from around the world who have endeavored to make a difference by raising funds for the World Food Programme and encompassing their passion for "all things foodie" at the same time.

Through these recipes they share their traditions and an insatiable curiosity about new flavours. They pay tribute to the home cooking of our grandmothers, while celebrating the exoticism and richness of a world brought closer together by their hopes to make a difference. With recipes such as Tomato-Cheese Ravioli with Eggplant Sauce, Spicy Serundeng Tuna and Peanuts, Serrano Ham Paella with Oyster Mushrooms, Raspberry Mascarpone Bites and Triple Layer Orange-Passion Fruit Tart we are doing our part to say that bloggers can change the face of famine.

100% of BloggerAid-CFF's proceeds from the cookbook will be sent directly to the WFP's School Meals Programme, which benefits an average of 22 million hungry children each year. School meals are important on many levels. In countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each day boosts enrollment and promotes regular attendance. Our children are the key to a better future.

This book is a virtual way for all of us, wherever we may be and however rich or poor we may be, to pull up a chair at the same table and share what we have.

Follow this link to purchase your copy of The BloggerAid Cookbook. If you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends we can be well on our way to making a difference. Remember it takes only 25 cents to feed a child a school lunch...imagine the possibilities!!!!

Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club Serves up "Windowpane Potato Chips" & "Sliders with Dijon-Shallot Relish" for the Holidays

Windowpane Potatoes

Well we're home from the Foodbuzz Festival in San Francisco. Before I can tell you all about it it's time for our monthly get together!!! So glad you could join us once again!!!! This month our Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club chose the theme TAPAS, APPETIZERS & SMALL PLATES in honour of the looming holiday. Check out this month's menu where we share our ideas for a cocktail party that will knock your socks off...and just in time for the holiday season!!!!!!! We love to share these ideas with you each month by putting together a delicious meal for each other through our Virtual Supper Club. The idea is simple because we all share a common interest in cooking and all things "foodie". This is a team effort where we get together virtually once a month and combine what Cooking Light readers like best...good food with great company!!! Why don't you join in by visiting us at their blog Test Kitchen Secrets. Bring your own dish and join the party!!!!!

Ultimately this is what has brought myself Val of More Than Burnt Toast, Helene of La Cuisine d'Helene, Shelby of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, Jamie of Mom's Cooking Club and Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen together to share their love of food, blogging and their commitment to a health conscious lifestyle to create the very 1st ever Virtual Supper Club sponsored by Cooking Light magazine!!! We all share a love for Cooking Light magazine which has an emphasis on healthy eating and living. Each issue covers light cuisine and included more than 70 delicious and flavourful recipes. It also explores food and nutrition news as well as fitness, health and beauty.

Now what about those appetizers!!!! Appetizer recipes come in all shapes and sizes and from all 4 corners of the world. The French refer to them as hors d'œuvres or in the case of a one-bite appetizer they are called an amuse-bouche. Antipasto is the Italian equivalent of hors d'oeuvres, meaning “before the meal" typically consisting of savory cold foods such as cheeses and raw or marinated vegetables, as well as cold cuts and cured meats such as prosciutto. These tasty little morsels of food, no matter what you want to call them, can be as simple as a slice of mild cheese with a cracker to a hearty soup of onions and French bread. An appetizer refers to a small portion of food served before a meal, but it can also refer to the first course of a meal. As the years have gone by appetizers have evolved into a whole new meaning and with international influence can become a meal in itself.

They are referred to as "orektika" in Greece but are outshadowed by the more popular mezes table which can be an array or appetizers or little plates. The little plates are shared by everyone at the table, which provides a wonderful variety of flavour and texture sensations for each guest. Mezes is usually translated from Greek to English as "appetizer's", but, this translation does not do justice to the fundamental role mezes play in Greek tradition. Zorbas the Greek sums up the essence of Mezes the best....

"On the coast I felt for the first time what a pleasant thing it could be to have a meal. We started eating and drinking, the conversation became animated. I at last realized that eating was a spiritual function and the meat, bread, and wine were the raw materials from which the soul is made."

Similar to mezes, Spanish tapas can be practically anything from a chunk of tuna, cocktail onion and an olive skewered on a long toothpick to meat with sauce served piping hot in a miniature clay dish. They are served day in and day out in every bar and café in Spain. So much a part of the culture and social scene that the Spanish people invented the verb "tapear" which means to go and eat tapas! Here tapas have evolved into an entire cuisine where we hit the tapas restaurants and order as many different tapas we feel we can eat and combine them to make a full meal. Just like in Greek tradition the serving of tapas is designed to encourage conversation because people are not so focused upon eating an entire meal that is set before them. When last in San Francisco we discovered a fabulous Catalan tapas place run by a food blogger Brett Emerson called Contigo. He chronicled the birth of his new Spanish restaurant on his blog In Praise of Sardines.

According to The Joy of Cooking, the original tapas were the slices of bread or meat which sherry drinkers in Andalusian taverns used to cover their glasses between sips. This was a practical measure meant to prevent fruit flies from hovering over the sweet sherry. The meat used to cover the sherry was normally ham or chorizo, which are both very salty and activate thirst. Because of this, bartenders and restaurant owners began creating a variety of snacks to serve with sherry, thus increasing their alcohol sales. The tapas eventually became as important as the sherry.

Sliders with Shallot-Dijon Relish

Distance prevents the 5 ladies of our Virtual Supper Club from gathering as a group in each others homes but we have enjoyed getting to know one another and have developed an international appetizer bar from the pages of Cooking Light magazine that is sure to bring smiles when your family and friends visit your home this holiday season. See us on their blog Test Kitchen Secrets!!! What better way to enjoy each others company virtually as well as begin the holiday season than with tapas and appetizers.

For our virtual feast I was delighted with these see-through Windowpane Potato Chips. Fresh herbs were sandwiched together between 2 paper-thin slices of potato. Very impressive for your guests and a sure-fire conversation starter. I continued on with another delicious appetizer Sliders with Shallot-Dijon Relish. These were perfect tiny tidbits and it was hard to stop at just one. Helene brought spicy Grilled Pepper Poppers which had our taste buds hopping here. Shelby really enjoyed this challenge. She outdid herself with tiny flavourful bites of Harvest Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Tarts....so good!!!!Aggie delighted us with Mini Frittatas with Ham and Cheese. These were quick to make and were devoured even quicker. Her West Indies Shrimp rounded out our cocktail party with finesse!!! Jamie WOWED us with her Warm Cranberry-Walnut Brie . She says this brie was unbelievable! So simple to make but OMG delicious. She also treated us to some amazing seafood Mini Crab Cakes with Herbed Aioli . Check out each of our blogs for photos and links and enjoy the party!!!!

I am in San Francisco at the Foodbuzz Festival as we speak. Can't wait to tell you all about it!!!!

I leave you with this thought......

Canadian Chef Josée di Stasio and a Recipe for Pasta with Tuna & Sun-Dried Tomatoes

If you have been following More Than Burnt Toast you will know I started a weekly feature to highlight Canadian Chefs a few months back. Other commitments slowed my progress down, but now we are back in full force to bring you all that Canada has to offer!!! Through your TV networks, or perhaps on other blogs, or even just right here on More Than Burnt Toast you may have heard of some of our Canadian chefs. For those of you who haven't, I hope you will find it interesting to see what our chefs are up to, a little about their history and how they came to love what they do. For the next few months I will continue to feature one of our Canadian chefs each week. There will be some chefs you have heard of and adore and some lesser known who are up and coming. As the eleventh installment in my Canadian Chef series I introduce you to:

Josée di Stasio

Josée di Stasio is the host of the popular television cooking show, à la di Stasio in French -speaking Canada. Up to a few years ago she was a very happy food stylist working in the magazine and television advertising world in her native province of Quebec. Her friend, the popular francophone broadcaster Daniel Pinard, asked her to substitute for him on a TV show and she rapidly became one of "la belle province's" top culinary stars.

As a result, the award-winning cookbook author, television host and chef, has been a household name in her native Quebec for years. She has several French language cookbooks on the market and has just had one of her best selling cookbooks (which are based on the recipes from her cooking show) translated into English. The books were published initially in French, the first in 2004 and the second in 2007. With their full-colour photographs its is like having a friend in the kitchen.

She is rapidly becoming a darling for English-speaking Canadians too. I must admit to not being familar with her show until after the release of her English version book earlier this year. You know how that goes and once a person comes into your limelight you see their name everywhere!!!! Josée's casual but elegant recipes are simple to prepare and perfect for entertaining family and friends. Her delicious new book has a wonderful selection of classic and contemporary recipes always with an Italian flair and always using seasonal ingredients. Josée di Stasio's cooking is ultimately Italian, which means using few ingredients which allows the true flavours of a dish to shine. From "Pesto" to "Biscotti Double Chocolat"... the recipes are bursting with an Italian flavour!

She is focused on the sheer pleasure of cooking and its accessibility and loves the idea of people using her recipes as a guideline or a "jumping-off point". She wants to encourage creativity among cooks from beginners to the well-seasoned. She is a self-described lover of food with a gift for creating simple dishes and getting others to understand that they, too, can be creative in the kitchen. “I want to be a support for cooks, for them to want to make a recipe once and then play with the ingredients the next time,” she says.

This fall, Josée di Stasio presented the fourth season of her popular cooking show À la di Stasio. The show is in French but she draws you in with her inviting and funny personality... the fact that you only have a general idea of what is happening is AOK. The show, like di Stasio, is focused on the sheer pleasure of cooking and its accessibility. She likes recipes that don't require great long ingredient lists and dishes that go directly from oven to table. "If Jamie Oliver epitomises modern Anglo-Italian, then perhaps Josée de Stasio has added a French-Canadian twist." She is certainly proud of her roots.

I have yet to get my hands on a copy of her book but I discovered thisdelicious recipe on the Internet. If you close your eyes you can imagine yourself sitting in a vineyard somewhere in Italy....or in the Okanagan Valley. It has the complex and robust flavours of tuna packed in oil and sun-dried tomatoes with a touch of lemon zing.

I am headed to San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Festival on Thursday so the pages of More Than Burnt Toast will be silent for a while. The festival promises to be an experience of a lifetime where we will have a "hands on tasting, eating, drinking, networking and learning" weekend. We will be meeting many amazing foodie friends, and return home with awesome experiences to blog about. My partner and I at BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine will also be headed for a day of touring Napa Valley wine country. I can't wait to tell you all about it!!!!

**Pasta with Tuna and Sun-Dried Tomatoes**
a recipe by Josee di Stasio

Printable Recipe

4 tablespoons (60 mL), store-bought or homemade sun-dried tomato pesto*
zest of one lemon, finely grated
juice of 1/2 a lemon
aprroximately 1 tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
15-20 black olives, pitted and chopped
200g (7 oz) spaghetti, or other shaped pasta
1 (198g /7 oz ) can tuna (packed in oil), drained and flaked
finely chopped Italian parsley, arugula, or basil, to taste
salt and freshly-ground pepper

**********************************
In a bowl, mix together the pesto, the lemon zest and juice, the oil and the olives.

In a large pot, cook the pasta in boiling, salted water following the manufacturer's instructions. Remove 60 mL of the pasta cooking water and set aside, then drain the pasta.

Mix the hot pasta with the sauce, adding enough of the reserved pasta water so that the sauce clings lightly to all the pasta. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the tuna flakes and mix gently. Divide into two serving bowls, and garnish with the fresh herbs.

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
Makes 3/4 cup (180 mL)

1 cup (250 mL) sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
1/2 cup (125 mL) basil leaves
About 1/3 cup (80 mL) olive oil (or the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes)
Salt and freshly ground pepper

******************************
Drain the tomatoes. If the sun-dried-tomato oil is good quality, use it to make the pesto. In a food processor, pulse-chop the tomatoes and the basil. (At this point you can added extra flavourings, such as 1/4 cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, 1/4 cup (50 mL) pine nuts or toasted almond batonnets, a pinch of chopped garlic, or a dash of hot pepper paste).With the motor running, gradually add the oil until the paste is well mixed but not chopped too fine; you want to maintain a slightly chunky, toothsome texture. Season to taste.

Serves 2

"Life in Food is so Rich"

You may also enjoy Josée' other recipes:

Steamed Spiced Chocolate Pudding

Pasta pepe e Cacio

Ham & Egg Ramekins

Fresh Fennel & Italian Sausage on Fennel