Pasta Georgina

I've been working lately on assembling a binder full of our favorite recipes - the ones that we eat and say to each other, "Why don't we eat this every week?" My hope is that if I have them indexed in one location that I'll remember them better when I'm doing my meal planning, but the problem is that there are so many of them. I also have a binder of recipes I want to try, and a third binder of recipes I like well enough to keep... The "Foods We Eat" project is taking much, much longer than I imagined it would.

I have the recipes organized by categories that I have listed in my four week menu plan. My menu plan has general headers for each day of the week, like Mexican on Thursdays or leftovers on Wednesdays, then within each I have slightly more specific ideas like for Italian I have pasta, pizza, and polenta. Then when I'm planning my menu for the week, if the idea is pasta, I choose a pasta recipe based on what sounds good and what produce is seasonal and what I happen to have on hand. I haven't much stuck to the days of the week thing - I tend to switch the days around based on what ingredients need to be used before they spoil and what our schedule is and how long the meals take. In general it has helped me a lot with my meal planning and has worked better than any other system I've tried because of its flexibility.

Z is in Hershey right now for a big cross-country meet. They got a hotel suite and cooked their dinner last night. Her coach recommended a dinner of pasta on Thursday, so we had Pasta Georgina - one of our last chances to have it this summer, as the season of fresh tomatoes and basil is coming to an end. I got this recipe from Kretschmanns, our CSA farmer and I can't find the recipe right now, so I'm going to write it from memory. Sorry no photos lately - our camera is getting repaired.

Pasta Georgina
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbs. minced fresh ginger (this is the surprise in the recipe)
4 large summer tomatoes, chopped (about 4-5 cups)
1/2 lb cubed mozzarella
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the garlic and ginger in olive oil until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and simmer until most of their liquid is gone (I've also added 2 cups chopped kale with the tomatoes, and it's good). When you're ready to serve the pasta, stir in the mozzarella and basil, add salt and pepper to taste, and toss it with about a pound of your favorite pasta, then serve. This is a recipe that is strong enough to work well with whole grain pasta.