Introduction: Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Penne Salad with Goat Cheese

I love to cook, but I'm a little absentminded and a lot clumsy. I mess things up, I forget ingredients, and I misread instructions, but I have a blast doing it, and usually the results are okay. Even when they're not, they make for interesting stories.

The first recipe for this blog admittedly sounds a little frou-frou, but it's amazing how easily you can dress up your cooking with words. Like, I could say that I fried a steak in a pan and cut it up, or I could say that I seared a sirloin in extra-virgin olive oil and thinly sliced it. Suddenly I sound like a gourmet chef in a restaurant instead of a teacher/Target cashier desperately trying to keep the smoke alarm from going off.

I chose this recipe because I try to include two vegetarian recipes in every shopping list, but it's hard with a husband as meat-crazy as mine is. Any time I place a vegetarian dish in front of him, he's likely to say, "This is good, but do you know what would make it better? Meat." Yes, no doubt, but that kind of defeats the purpose of making vegetarian meals. Anyway, since most of our meatless meals involve grotesque amounts of cheese and pasta (three-cheese manicotti will make an appearance at some point, I promise you that), I hoped to sneak this veggie-rich dish past my carnivorous spouse.

The first thing I did was preheat the oven. Preheating is important, folks. I know some who poo-poo this step, but then they complain that their cinnamon rolls are underdone, so who wins that argument by default? I also started the water for the penne - I use Target's organic brand Simply Balanced whenever I can because it's affordable and delicious. Seriously, their tortillas (which will also show up in a recipe later) are to die for. I didn't even know tortillas could have a distinct flavor before Simply Balanced showed me the light.

Yes, that is a wooden spoon balanced on top of a lid set inside my cast-iron skillet. I don't have much storage space, okay?

While the water was coming to a boil, I snapped the asparagus and washed the cherry tomatoes, drizzled them with extra-virgin olive oil, and sprinkled them with what I later found out was way too much salt and pepper. I mean, the recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon each and I used 1/4 teaspoon each so it's not like they were drowning in salt, but it was still too much.

Kosher salt, btw, not the other stuff. I'm still too lazy to grind my own pepper, though.

The veggies then went into the oven to roast at 400 F. It was at this point that I realized I had not bought a shallot. This is largely due to the fact that the store where I do most of my grocery shopping doesn't sell shallots, and unless I remind myself a dozen times that I need shallots, I won't remember to go to the other grocery store that does sell shallots, so I usually end up substituting shallots with some onion and some garlic. Do you suppose that was the record for using the word "shallots" in a single paragraph? Shallots.

Anyway, aside from not being wildly fond of tomatoes, regarding onions the husband usually feels that less is more, so I almost never use a whole onion in any recipe, and I almost always have part of one in a Ziploc in the fridge for emergencies just like this. I diced up about a tablespoon of onion and pressed a clove of garlic and called it good on the shallot front. As a little side note, fresh garlic is an absolute must in any kitchen. Garlic powder and garlic salt have their uses, but nothing compares to the rich flavor of a freshly minced or pressed clove of garlic in a dish. Or several cloves. We really like garlic.

The not-shallot was joined by Dijon mustard, honey, and the juice of a lemon. In hindsight, there was quite a bit more juice in my lemon than I had anticipated, and I could probably have used about half that and called it good. As it was I was thoroughly enjoying my lemon corer/juicer that I got when I bought a set of knives and didn't really pay attention to how much juice I'd accumulated until it was too late. Herbs de Provence, salt, and pepper made up the spice of this honey Dijon dressing, and then I had to whisk in some olive oil to make sure it would actually stick to things.

Now, at some point the asparagus had come out of the oven and I was supposed to leave the tomatoes in to get a teensy bit softer. I left them in a little longer than necessary, and the tomatoes protested this treatment by oozing a bit. The pasta had finished and been drained as well.

The asparagus and tomatoes were cool, so I was supposed to cut the asparagus into inch-long pieces (hands up if you keep a ruler in your kitchen to measure this stuff. No? Me neither) and halve the tomatoes. Well, considering the fact that the tomatoes were just this side of juice, I figured I didn't have to do that, but I cut up the asparagus.

And took this slightly sinister picture, for reasons now unclear to me.

It was then officially assembly time. The original recipe calls for arugula, but once again my husband's finicky taste buds come into play - he's not a fan of arugula, considers it too bitter, so I basically substitute spinach in all of my recipes. The spinach, asparagus, tomatoes, and penne were all tossed in one of the lovely glass mixing/serving bowls I got for my birthday last year.

Yes, I am that person. I want kitchen stuff as presents. I also asked for prep bowls and a wok.

When the veggies and pasta were thoroughly tossed, I drizzled in my dressing and tossed that. The goat cheese came last, crumbled over everything.

"What's the white stuff?" I was asked.

The salad was served on plates and was not exactly a rousing success. I liked it, but I love basically everything in this recipe, while the husband is not a fan of half the ingredients. He thought the dressing was interesting, but there was too much of it, and after giving it several tries he's decided he just really doesn't like goat cheese. All in all, I call this a half-flop and probably won't make it again. To fix the problems he had with it would be to change the fundamental nature of the dish, so I guess I will just have to keep searching for a veggie and pasta recipe that we will both enjoy.

Tune in next time for Spicy Green Chile Chicken Lasagna.

Recipe:
Roasted Asparagus and Tomato Penne Salad