Spring is Here!- 3/9/09

Living in Georgia has its perks. Spring arrives here a little sooner than most of the country. Last Monday, the kids in our area had a day off from school because of snow. (An inch and a half is a lot here and there are no plows and road salters so we wait until it melts!) Today, just a week later, the high was 81 degrees!
I have mentioned before that one of the things I love about cooking magazines is the seasonal nature of the recipes. Since March is still winter in much of the United States, my Gourmet is not yet rolling out the asparagus recipes and bringing on the peas. But tonight's recipe did incorporate pasta and veggies. I made the Linguine with Rustic "Meatballs" on page 48 of this month's magazine.
I must confess I'm usually a bit stodgy when it comes to pasta. Marinara sauce, Alfredo sauce, or pesto are my standbys and I rarely deviate from those when making pasta. That needs to change. There are so many wonderful combinations of pasta and this recipe was one of them. The sauce was chicken broth and vermouth, thicken with a bit of cornstarch. It adhered well to the pasta, unlike my watery steak sauce in the previous post. The "meatballs" were simply ground beef that was not broken up and were a lot simpler than rolling balls with egg and bread crumbs. The addition of the celery leaves at the end added a spring freshness that parsley would not have had. Richard enjoyed this recipe too and Eyrleigh ate quite a bit, which is always a good sign. She may be having this one for lunch for a few days as I made plenty of extra. Bring on the spring!