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I can’t recall if I’ve raved about Heidi Swanson, author of 101cookbooks.com as well as my dearly loved (hence, stained) Super Natural Everyday cookbook, but simply put, I adore and appreciate her so much. I was introduced to her by my friend, Kelly, and have thus learned quite a bit from Heidi. It also doesn’t hurt that her recipes are relatively quick which means less harm to the small kitchen.
I was recently asked by someone who learned that I like to cook what I liked cooking best. For me, it’s not so much the type of food but, rather, I like to follow specific chefs/authors. Heidi is vegetarian and lives in San Francisco. Thus, she has great artisan food suppliers and year round farmer markets outside her door. One thing she has which I come short on though is that she is curious and brave. Among reading her cookbook and blog, I picked up on her use of Harissa which turns out to be a pepper based paste from North Africa. It’s an ingredient which I would never have heard of if it weren’t for Heidi.
That, along with smoked salt and za’atar piqued my interest and will serve as the basis for some spice experiments over the next few months. : )
First up: Harissa.
So, let me share something great with you: Amazon Add On Items. So, let me share something inconvenient with you: Amazon Add On Items.
The idea is that you can’t buy them on your own but should you order something in regular inventory (ie: not Add On Items) you can obviously add it on. The toughest thing to remember is to add things on. One tip: Amazon will let you add several small items on so I was able to buy a book then add the Harissa and za’atar to one order. For some reason, I thought Amazon would be greedy and cap one Add On Item per order.
So… Where did the Harissa get it’s debut? None other than Heidi’s Harissa Ravioli. As Heidi recommended, I tried the Harissa…
And then fell to the floor.
Said a prayer.
And got a second chance at life.
It was h-h-h-h-hot.
With this in mind, I approached the recipe knowing I would need to make a few alterations.
1) I was over feta. I go through fits of this and knew I wanted to omit it.
2) Still riding the fruit/veggie train, I wanted to up the veggie quotient.
3) I was going to cut the Harissa in half since I don’t have nine lives like a cat.
Cook the Book has permission to reprint the recipe from Heidi’s book so if you’re curious, feel free to click over there.
In order to make this with my alterations, I:
1) Used a spinach ravioli from TJ’s (if you know where I can get pretty ravioli like Heidi’s please leave a comment!)
2) I cut the Harissa in half (1 tablespoon)
3) My big change was pan roasting cherry tomatoes with olive tapenade. I just simply cut them in half, added a half-ish tablespoon of olive oil and tossed with 1/2 a cup of tapenade. Just roast at 400 degrees until you hear the tomatoes sizzle and then see them burst.
4) I went crazy and used pine nuts and pumpkin seeds.
5) Despite, the reduction in the Harissa paste, this dish was still hotter than Miami and I decided to top it off with Parmesan.
And the results of this spice tour stop?
Thanks Heidi!
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