Pasta – Purple House Café

Recipes With Pete

Posted by jessieharrold@gmail.com Dec 28, 2015

I’ve had the good fortune of working with one of my favourite local grocers, Pete’s Fine Foods, to develop a few recipes for some of their most interesting specialty products. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of stepping into the sensory cacophony that is a Pete’s store, imagine finding the largest selection of both fancy imported and local foods – many of which are grown on Pete Luckett’s own property in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia – and getting completely lost in a world of culinary possibility.

The recipe pictured above is a hearty salad of pistachio encrusted salmon, beluga lentils, candied squash, apple and pistachio dust drizzled with a simple vinaigrette of pistachio oil and lemon.

Then there was this duck leg confit that I tossed with papardelle, local chanterelle mushrooms, and an exquisite cherry anise hyssop jam. Though I was a little speculative about my idea to make pasta sauce out of jam (nothing like thinking outside the box…) it was outstanding.

Also, there were these pumpkin chestnut truffles, which were so incredibly devour-able, and yet sophisticated and nuanced in their flavour.

I’m excited to keep sharing with you some of the creations that are coming out of the Purple House Cafe kitchen via Pete’s Fine Foods, and, as always, on my business site, Nalumana Women’s Wellness.

See you soon.

Easy Gourmet: Sausage and Pepper Carbonara

Posted by jessieharrold@gmail.com Aug 20, 2015

To get the full recipe for this dish, head on over to Nalumana Women’s Wellness!

Quick Pea, Asparagus and Bacon Carbonara

Posted by jessieharrold@gmail.com Jun 10, 2014

This summer, may there be….

…cups of tea on the front porch in the morning.

…birds singing, ears open, deep breathing. Pausing. Noticing.

…hammock time.

…backyard bonfires.

…weekend getaways with our pop-up trailer, the woods, and books read by flashlight.

…bike rides. Walks. Lake swims.

…maybe even some surfing.

…time to cultivate my garden and notice as each bud and sprout noses out of the ground.

…frivolous reading of juicy books.

This summer, may there be salt water-tangled hair, a few lazy Saturdays and ice cream. Make that affogatos. More stretching of the body than the mind; I’ve done enough ruminating this winter. May there be enough sleep, enough stillness, enough calm. And, with all of this, may there be the kind of deep happiness that makes my toes curl with gratitude.

Quick Asparagus, Pea and Bacon Carbonara

2014-06-03 04:00:21

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Ingredients

3-4 cups pasta, cooked
4-5 slices bacon
1 cup asparagus, diced
1 1/2 cup peas
5 eggs
1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese to top

Instructions

Begin to sauté the bacon in a large frying pan over medium heat. While the bacon is crisping, boil generously salted water to cook the pasta.
When the bacon is mostly crispy, throw the peas and asparagus into the pan.
While the vegetables and pasta begin to cook, in a medium bowl, mix together eggs and the zest as well as the juice of the lemon. Add a sprinkling of salt and a few grinds of pepper.
When the vegetables are tender and the pasta cooked, drain the pasta and add it to the sauté pan. Reduce the heat to low. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the pasta mixture, stirring continuously as you pour. As long as you keep the mixture moving, the eggs won't scramble but instead thicken to make a lovely carbonara sauce.
Once the sauce has thickened, divide the pasta into 3-4 bowls, topping with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper. Serve.

By Jessie Harrold

Purple House Café https://www.purplehousecafe.com/

Butternut Squash, Proscuitto and Kale Lasagna

Posted by jessieharrold@gmail.com Dec 5, 2013

This lasagna, rich with garlic cream sauce, salty prosciutto, kale for health and heartiness, and sweet butternut squash is for my friend Daina.

While I have aspirations of quitting my desk job to become a writer/doula/blogger/scuba instructor/yogi/traveler/(mom/wife)/(writer!)/adventurer – and necessarily also to find 16 more hours in the day, an excellent nanny, and a wealthy benefactor – my pal Daina really is doing “it.” She’s an artist who I met at my local farmer’s market probably three years ago now, and I fell in love with her art in a way I’ve loved no other.

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Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Pistachio, Brown Butter and Roasted Garlic Pesto

Posted by jessieharrold@gmail.com Nov 14, 2013

I am noticing in myself a compulsion to bake, roast, (bake), broil, simmer, reduce, (bake) lately.

I am very cognizant of the fact that as the trees look somewhat lacklustre, somewhat skinny as their branches clack-clack against one another in the perpetual fall wind, that I experience a primal urge to invite warmth into my home, and an extra layer of fat and flannel onto my body.

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