Mahi Mahi and Tomatoes with a Lemon, Garlic, and Oregano Sauce

Everyone needs a meal in their back pocket that looks fancy, and tastes like you cooked all day, without really needing you to do so.  Everyone needs a recipe that will impress without really trying.  Everyone needs this recipe!

It may not look like much, but we've eaten it twice in a week!  Simply put, it's fish covered in tomatoes, and baked with a lemon, garlic and oregano sauce.  But it is just so much more than that.  It's fresh and light and a meal that you can for cheap that you make out of foods that your market may just have year round. 

First, mince your garlic and then slice your tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices. 

Don't mind the bok choy in the back of this picture, you'll see it in another recipe soon!  Back to the fish.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Pat the fish fillets completely dry with a paper towel and season them on both sides with the salt and a few "grindings" of pepper.  Juice enough fresh lemons to make a 1/2 cup of lemon juice - about 1 1/2 lemons.  Combine lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of oregano in a small bowl.  Stir lemon juice mixture until the ingredients are well blended. Then add the fillets to a small casserole dish, pour the lemon juice mixture over the fish fillets and turn them over to ensure that the mixture has a chance to cover both sides evenly.

Place the tomato slices over them and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of oregano on top.
Bake in middle of oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until fillets flake easily when pressed gently with a fork. Serve the fillets at once directly from the baking dish. 

This is best served with something that will soak up the delicious sauce.  My father is convinced that my body is about three fourths pasta, my choice is pretty obviously gonna be pasta, but you can go ahead and use rice or another grain if you feel so inclined.  We found Brussels Sprouts on sale and decided that they would be a great vegetable and steamed them.

Ingredients:
4 mild and firm fleshed fish fillets - we used Mahi Mahi
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cups fresh lemon juice, strained
2 tbsp. olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. dry oregano, crumbled
2 med. sized firm, ripe tomatoes, washed, cored & cut crosswise into 1/4-inch slices

Verdict - I wasn't kidding when I said we've had this twice in one week.  The first was on Valentine's Day, if that gives you an idea of just how much we enjoyed this meal!

Penne with Arugula, Grape Tomatoes and Cannelini Beans

Last month's Pasta with-Sauteed Tomatoes and Arugula still fresh in my mind, and tomatoes still in season in Florida, means that this is a recipe that was begging for updates and remakes all season long.  This week, I used grape tomatoes left over from an impulse buy at Worden Farm stand at the St. Petersburg Morning Market last weekend and arugula from one of my favorite places, Hydro Harvest Farms.  This is a great Meatless Monday dish, but works for any night of the week. 

I did things just a little bit differently this time around.

Ingredients:

Water for Pasta
4 ounces of penne pasta

1/4 cup olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups arugula, stemmed and cleaned
Pint of grape tomatoes, cut in half
1 can cannellini beans, drained with 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Grated Pecorino Romano

Recipe:

Prep all ingredients according to the above specifications to have by the stove ready to go.  Put salted water on the stove set on high to boil for pasta.  Set a large pan on the stove as well.  In the large pan, heat the oil on medium high heat.  When shimmering, add the garlic until lightly tan. It's just not cooking in my house until you can see this:

Add the tomatoes and cook until tomatoes begin to soften and blister.

By this time, the water should be boiling so add the pasta to the water and turn down the heat to medium high.  Add salt, pepper, beans and white wine to the pan.  When the liquid reaches a boil, add the greens to the pan and cook until the greens wilt and the liquids reduce by half.

Drain your al dente pasta and add it with a 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta cooking water to the pan.  Cook the pasta with the mixture for about 5 minutes, or until the liquid has thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Grate some pecorino romano cheese on top and serve.  

Yeah, I love living in Florida this time of year.  Tomatoes and 70 degree days in February is not a bad way to live. 

Pasta with Sauteed Tomatoes and Arugula

Wanna know how I can end up with this? Read on to find out!

 On this weekend's trip to Hydro Harvest Farms, I got the opportunity to give a friend a tour of all the deliciousness growing.  How could I resist this beautiful bounty?!?

 
The Farm has an entire row of arugula in the top towers and some sweet onions growing in the lower-most boxes.  Beautiful sight, right?  It's easy to be seduced by a view like this. I only walked away with one basket full and consider myself sensible for walking away with so little.

With that much arugula, I had to do something and, after I sampled a few leaves, it just screamed "pasta."  Some beautiful tomatoes that survived the Florida freezes were staring at me near the scales and they climbed into my basket too.  A dish started forming in the back of my mind - peppery arugula and sweet and tangy tomatoes would combine perfectly with some sharp and salty Pecorino Romano and Parmesan cheeses over some linguine.

Recipe:

Water for Pasta
1/2 box of linguine
4 tablespoons olive oil
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups arugula, stemmed and cleaned
3 small tomatoes, seeded and roughly chopped
1 cup garbanzo beans, with cooking liquid - or one can, drained with 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Grated Pecorino Romano and Parmesan Cheese

Prep all ingredients according to the above specifications to have by the stove ready to go.  Put salted water on the stove set on high to boil for pasta.  Set a large pan on the stove as well.  In the large pan, heat the oil on medium high heat.  When shimmering, add the garlic until lightly tan.  Most of my recipes start this way, and for good reason....look at this...

 Add the tomatoes and cook until tomatoes begin to soften.  By this time, the water should be boiling so add the pasta to the water and turn down the heat to medium high.  Add a pinch of salt, beans and white wine to the pan.  When the liquid reaches a boil, add the greens to the pan and cook until the greens wilt and the liquids reduce by half. 

By this time, the pasta should be just barely al dente so pull the pasta off the heat and drain it!  Reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water and add it with the pasta to the saute pan and add the grated cheese to the pan as well along with the cayenne pepper and additional salt and pepper to taste.

Cook together for about 5 minutes to allow the pasta to soak up the sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Serve with some grated cheese on top for garnish, if you so choose.

Pasta with Roasted Broccoli

Finding organic broccoli at the Farmer's Market this weekend meant I could finally make the Pasta with Roasted Broccoli I saw on a "Healthy Cooking" website a while back.  I figured that since it was so simple, it must be good.  I mean really, when you have something this good, how can it go wrong.

Yeah, I was wrong.  As my dear husband so nicely put it, this was an EPIC FAIL.  But it has promise, and will be made again.  Pasta with Roasted Broccoli will not beat me, and it will not beat you. Follow these directions, and you will hopefully do just fine....

The Recipe I Should Have Followed:

• 8 oz whole wheat pasta
• 1 1/2 lbs broccoli florets and stems
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, or more
• Salt and Pepper 
• 1/2 cup fresh grated Pecorino Romano 

Preheat oven to 450°.  While your oven is pre-heating, chop the broccoli into florets and trim the stems of their woody outer stem and cut into bit size pieces.  Grate the cheese into a small dish and reserve.  In a baking dish, combine the broccoli, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Roast broccoli about 20 minutes, tossing half way, until broccoli is browned and tender.


(Edit:  I did not follow this recipe, and added far too little olive oil making this very dry pasta with some decent tasting broccoli.)

Meanwhile, boil salted water in a large pot. Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente. In my case, I was using up some whole wheat pasta that I made a few months ago.  Before draining, reserve 1 cup of the water from the pasta.

Drain and toss pasta with broccoli. Add 1/2 cup reserved pasta water (or more if necessary), Pecorino Romano, salt and pepper to taste.

Cook pasta mixture to allow flavors of the sauce to cook into the pasta.  Serve with additional grated cheese.