Pasta with Fried Sage and "what's-in-my-refrigerator

I had a busy Saturday, so all of my plans for baking flew right out the window. I did manage to pay my first visit to my favorite place to by locally grow and fresh, organic produce-- "The Farm" (that I blogged about in March). I regretted that I didn't bring my camera, but I'll be sure to do that next week. I bought some beautiful strawberries, that were so sweet and freshly picked. While browsing around at all the beautiful produce, Sarah (who has managed the business for several years) asked if I saw the fresh garbanzo beans. I winced. Remember, I don't like garbanzo beans! However, I had never seen fresh garbanzo beans.

So, I popped one in my mouth, and the flavor didn't scare me away. Fine. I'll try them!

Time ran away, so I decided to make pasta. I had some heirloom grape tomatoes, fresh mozarella, pancetta and a LOT of sage. I decided to fry some sage in some leftover butter:

Once the Sage Leaves were crisp, I used the leftover butter and LOTS of garlic and added the tomatoes and garbanzo beans, and then roasted these in the oven for a little under 10 minutes.

I found a bag of farfalle pasta that I cooked until al dente. At the last moment, I decided to add the diced pancetta to this and to cook some chicken in a separate skillet (seasoned with only salt & pepper and a little balsamic vinegar), because I hadn't eat much all day and I really wanted some protein.

This dish turned out to be really delicious-- especially when I added fresh mozarella and let it turn nice and gooey. The boys had second helpings (and so did I).

As for the garbanzo beans... I think, next time, I'd par-cook them or steam them. These were a little crunchy, but I liked this far better than the texture of canned ones. Yes, there will be a next time. Maybe I can learn to like these after all!


I am also thrilled to have spotted my first two tomatoes-- from our 20 container plants!

Our "Early Girls" are living up to their promise of producing fruit in record time.
I also spotted my first bell peppers, Eureka lemons (almost ready) and potential Meyer lemons (which seem a little late, but we shall see...)

Spring has certainly blessed our home garden, with promises of so many fresh vegetables and fruits. I can hardly wait!

Hopefully, tomorrow, I can make a strawberry cream tart. I have a few more recipes to upload, if I could just slow my life down a bit. Honestly, I wish I had the time to blog every day. I will, once my summer vacation rolls around on July 1st. That's when I plan to get busy with canning tomatoes and making jams. Whoo-hoo!