Red Wagon Farm

Jimmy Nardello Italian Frying Peppers

Posted on August 31, 2021 by mo

One of the sweet peppers we grow at Red Wagon is called Jimmy Nardello aka ‘Jimmy’s’. It is classified as an Italian Frying pepper, it looks like this.

Jimmy’s are long irregularly ‘finger’ shaped, medium thick walled very sweet almost fruity flavored peppers. They are about twice the size of a shishito.

In my mind they are more versatile than a shishito. You can prepare and eat them like a shishito. Pan fry them whole in olive oil and a little salt, hold them by the stem and enjoy.

One of my favorite ways to eat Jimmy’s is to cut them in half and seed them.

Fry them cut side down with a little olive oil and salt until they are a little soft.

Then flip them over and add some mozzarella, provolone or Manchego cheese and cook until it is all melty.

Jimmy’s are much more flavorful than bell peppers, even better than red bells IMO, so they are good in egg dishes like omelets or scrambles , add them to roasted or pan fried potato dishes, pizza, sandwiches or any pasta dish.

I made a simple marinara sauce last night and added some Jimmy’s. Unless I am putting cheese in Jimmy’s I leave them basically whole. I cut the stem off and dig the seeds out with my fingers then rinse them in water to get the seed all the way out.

You can see I kind of broke the wall of the pepper to get the seeds out. That’s ok. I think it is easier than cutting them in half and seeding and I like the texture of the pepper cut into rings for the most part.

I fried those and added some sauce and eggplant I had in the refrigerator.

Bell peppers are good, but Jimmy Nardello’s are special. I hope you try them.

Have a great week, see you at pickup.

Posted in 2021, Peppers Sweet, Recipes | Comments Off

Potato Green Chile Stew

Posted on August 24, 2021 by mo

Roasted chiles are coming our way this week! There is so much you can do with a bag of roasted chiles; make a casserole or cornbread or a delicious green chile sauce.

Or you could make this potato chile stew.

This is a Deborah Maddison recipe so you know it is yummy and approachable. It’s a one pot dish, it’s quick and easy to make and it is endlessly adaptable. Do you have some zucchini or corn? Throw it in. Don’t have onions? Use leeks. This is already a hearty dish but you could add some ground meat, plant based meat substitute or rotisserie chicken while sweating the onions and have a real stick to your ribs dish.

You will have everything you need to make this in your CSA share this week except the lime. This makes 4-6 generous servings.

1 pound green chiles or poblano chiles, roasted and peeled
2 tablespoons oil
1 or 2 onions diced
1 teaspoon each of ground coriander and cumin
3 garlic cloves minced
1 1/2 pounds of potatoes peeled and chopped into 1 1/2-inch chunks
Salt and pepper
1 tomatoes or more of you have them
3 cups water
Juice of at least one lime. It isn’t in the original recipe but when I tasted it it really needed some lime.
Optional additions; sour cream, yogurt, mushrooms, cilantro, shredded cheese, tortilla chips, flour tortillas, avocado, ground meat or roasted chicken or plant based meat option.

Chop everything up and heat the oil in a pan and sweat the onions for 4 or 5 minutes.
Add everything else in one dump when the onions are soft and simmer covered for 45 minutes to an hour until the potatoes are really soft.

I wanted my stew a little thicker so I hit it with an immersion blender for just a minute.

You could make it totally smooth if that is what you wanted or leave it really chucky.

This is a great base recipe that really benefits when you put your own spin on it and have some fun. And don’t forget the lime.

Have a great week. See you at pickup.

Posted in 2021, Peppers Roasted, Recipes | Comments Off

Eggplant Omelet

Posted on August 17, 2021 by mo

I’ve seen recipes for a dish called tortang talong. It is basically an eggplant omelet with Asian flavors and ground pork. I’ve never made it with pork but I took the idea and simplified it just a little and made this.

My version is really easy to make, it’s so easy in fact this is a no recipe-recipe.

You start by blackening your eggplants so you can peel the skin off easily. Like making baba ghanoush.

You can do this on a grill or on your gas stove top. Cook them until they are good and dark.

I think you can do it under a broiler but I haven’t tried that.

Set the blackened eggplant aside to cool and get your eggs and anything else you want to put in your egg omelets. I had six really small Asian eggplants it was more than enough for two of us for dinner and I had leftovers for lunch. I haven’t tried using Italian eggplants but I don’t know why it wouldn’t work. It will take a little longer to blacken them is the only difference I see.

OK. Now peel the eggplant and leave the stem attached, it’s pretty and handy for turning the eggplant in the pan.

Naked eggplant.

Smoosh them flat with a fork.

If you have made French toast you can make this.

Scramble eggs in a shallow bowl and add some herbs and scallions, or ground meat or chopped vegetables.

Heat a pan and add a few tablespoons of oil. Dip the eggplant into the egg mix and swoosh it front and back a few times to get the egg into the indents of the eggplant. Put the eggy eggplant in the hot pan and fry for a couple minutes each side. The eggplant is cooked so you are just cooking the egg and herb coating.

Flip them over and finish cooking.

We had this with rice and I made a dipping sauce with mayonnaise and siracha which was really nice.

This was really fun to make and eat. I want to play around with this method with other flavors. I’ll report back if I come up with anything yummy.

Have a great week. See you at pickup.

Posted in 2021, Eggplant, Mo's Favorites, Recipes | Comments Off

Zucchini Butter Pasta

Posted on August 10, 2021 by mo

A few years ago I posted a recipe for zucchini butter. It is super easy to make and stores well and makes great topping for toast or tasty grilled cheese sandwich filling (grilled cheese zucchini butter dipped in tomato soup = yum). The recipe uses 2 pounds of zucchini so it is a great recipe to have in your back pocket this time of year.

A couple weeks ago on social media I saw a picture that someone posted using zucchini butter as a pasta sauce.

It looked and sounded delicious. So I made some.

I made the zucchini butter exactly as I did in the former post so I won’t repost that here.

To make zucchini butter pasta follow this recipe and add it to a cooked half box (8 ounces) of spaghetti or any pasta. I used the whole amount of zucchini butter, that was enough for two of us for dinner and two lunches today. I added a little parmesan cheese. You can leave that out of course.

I also topped it with some roasted crushed almonds, red pepper flakes, lemon zest and basil. The crushed almonds and lemon zest really took this over the top.

I hope you try this it was delicious. I can’t wait for lunch today.

Have a great week.

Posted in 2021, Recipes, Zucchini | 1 Comment

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