When I got to Sunflower Market,
they had an old-fashioned wooden stand set up close to the entrance. This stand was filled with a display of tomatoes and onions, right and left, leaving a center section filled with fresh green Hatch chilies. They were trucked in from Mesilla Valley of New Mexico that day.
Since they are in season and fresh only a few weeks out of the year, I had to buy some. The one’s I got were ‘medium’ in the heat range.
Pasta sounded like a good way to use them so I got out some Angel Hair pasta and filled a large pot with water. I turned on the gas grill outside and laid the whole passel of chilies on the grate to roast. Keep an eye on them and turning them occasionally. It doesn’t take more than 10 minutes if your grill is hot. When the outsides became black with crackly grill marks, I put the chilies in a bowl and covered them for 15 minutes. They steam themselves and as they cooled the skin was easy to pull off. I also de-veined and de-seeded them.
I made a green salad and dressed it with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
A package of Shitake mushrooms from Trader Joe’s needed to be used so I gently sautéed them in butter and then seasoned them with salt & pepper and moved them to a bowl.
Next I peeled about 10 cloves of garlic and cooked them over very low heat in about ½ cup of olive oil until they were soft and sweet. These were combined with the mushrooms and the sliced roasted Hatch chilies.
I had a half of a tomato left over from sandwich making, so I seeded and finely diced it.
When the pasta was ready, all I had to do was to drain it (saving about a ½ cup of the cooking water just-in-case) and combine with the vegetables and Parmesan cheese.
Each bite of the dish was cheesy, salty and hot enough from the chilies to make you sit up and notice.
Pasta, vegetables, cheese, green salad and a glass of wine….heavenly.
Read Also:
