Pasta Perversity

Many of my  veggie heavy rotation dishes  involve heating cantaloupes. A recent refinement I am calling Cantaloupe Ragu. It goes like this: Cut melon in 8ths. Seed. Place in cast iron pan with a liberal dose of decent olive oil. Scatter a headsworth of unpeeled garlic cloves. Roast in 300F oven, turning once, taking care not to overcaramelize the melon drippings. You want some caramelization on the melon, but not too much. Remove melon from peel, (have tried pre peeling, but melon looses too much structure), and return to skillet, and squeeze garlic cloves. Add one or two small hot peppers. Ideally fresh thai dragon or equivalent. I had some confited cherry tomatoes, so I added those, but other forms of tomato would work, too. Start farfalle, and allow sauce to thicken, salt, pepper to taste. (The color will be a bit duller than fresh cantaloupe--somewhere between Texas and Cleveland orange.) Combine with farfalle, and serve with fresh breadcrumbs crisped in a bit more olive oil.) Thus far, not very perverse. Veggie, even vegan--if you have vegan bread crumbs. But, before you serve, find a hunk of dried out pancetta or proscuitto in the depths of your fridge, and use your trusty microplane to create a parmesan-like blizzard of shavings. Veggie pasta--with a meat garnish.  The old vaudeville team of melon and cured pork, in a new and unfamiliar guise.

Comments

[alizinha]

I hope I can still find a cantaloupe at the market so I can try this.

[JL]

I should not be reading this blog. At a moment when I'm confined to a jello, broth, and white rice diet, the Cod presents a way to combine all I hold dear - pork, melon, and pasta - and all I can do is hold back the urge to hurl. I'm gonna check back in a few days. And then, in a couple of weeks, make this dish.