Spicy Soup and Pepper Pasta

We had lots of great goodies in our CSA share this week. A great way to use up veggies is a nice chowder. You can throw virtually anything in this soup and it will be delicious. I made a corn chowder with potatoes, onions, green chiles, zucchini, and summer squash. It was delicious, a little spicy, but still great. The sweet corn and the creamy soup was just perfect with the spicy roasted chiles. The potatoes and squash make the soup really hearty and filling. Just perfect.

I also decided to make one of my absolute favorite pastas. I first had this when I went to Mario Batali's restaurant in Las Vegas called Enoceta San Marco. It's in the Venetian Hotel right on the side of the canal in the courtyard. This dish is so simple yet so delicious. Creamy pecorino romano and the bite of fresh ground pepper mix so well together. Paired with fresh peppery arugula, it cuts the creamy and adds a nice crunch. This is a great pasta dish. The key to this dish is the finely grate the cheese and add it very very slowly. If you add it too fast, it will melt and clump into balls rather than slowly melt and create a creamy sauce. This is best if you have a buddy in the kitchen who can constantly stir the pasta while you slowly sprinkle in the cheese. JC is great at doing this!

These dishes paired surprisingly well together. The pasta was rich and creamy and the soup was nice and hearty with a little bite. You could easily serve either solo as an entree. These are great and took almost no time to prepare.

Green Chile Corn Chowder
adapted from Corn Chowder by Tyler Florence

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence (or any other herb mix)
• 6 cups canned chicken stock
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups red la soda potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 bag frozen sweet corn
• 6 roasted green chiles, seeded and chopped
• 3 squash (zucchini or summer squash), halved and sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and herbs and cook until the vegetables are good and soft, 8 to 10 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the cream and the potatoes, bring to a boil and boil hard for about 7 minutes, until the potatoes break down (this will help to thicken the soup and give it a good texture). Add the corn kernels, chiles, and squash to the soup. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until the corn is soft. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

Pecorino and Pepper Pasta
from Linguine with Butter, Pecorino, Arugula, and Black Pepper by Giada De Laurentiis

• Salt
• 1 pound linguine
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups very finely grated Pecorino Romano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped arugula

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the linguine and cook until it is al dente, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Immediately toss the hot pasta in a large bowl with the butter to coat. While tossing the linguine, gradually sprinkle the cheese, pepper, and enough of the reserved cooking liquid evenly over the linguine to moisten. Add the arugula and toss to combine. Season the pasta, to taste, with salt. Serve with extra fresh arugula tossed on top of the pasta.