Farfalle & Cheese - An elegant twist on traditional Mac&Cheese

Brown butter roux made with barley flour, First Light Farm & Creamery cheeses, organic sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and rosemary, and local heavy cream and butter.

Make the roux. Add the heavy cream and tomatoes. Use a stick mixer and blend till smooth. Add the cheese and stir until blended.




Boil one pound of Farfalle (bowtie), though any brass die cut pasta like spugnole, trofie or cappelletti will do.

Chunk up 1/2 pound of Cuba extra sharp white cheddar cheese. Shred another 1/2 pound and fold into the sauce.

Drain the pasta well and slide into a 9x11 casserole dish. Pour the sauce evenly over the top and using a wooden spoon turn over the pasta to coat evenly. The wood spoon prevents the pasta from being damaged.

Sprinkle the chunks of cheddar on top and cover with foil. Put into a pre-heated over, set to 400*.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil the last five minutes to lightly brown the cheese. Set out to cool for ten minutes.









Serve with a wild arugula salad and balsamic, olive oil, and mustard seed braised asparagus. A thick hearty red is best, consider a 2008 Palmina Barbera.

Lemon Garlic Chicken, Wilted Ruby Swiss Chard and Arugula Wild Herb Salad

Most of the herbs in the garden have come in thick enough to start harvesting regularly. The arugula has come in all wild and woodsy and covered in flowers.

It's sharp astringent, nut flavor is an excellent addition to our herb salads. The chard too is coming in fast, so that we have to harvest handfuls every week.

My youngest can't get enough of it's bright flavor. Marinated organic chicken breast from Wegmans. Bake, with 5 tbls of water, covered, at 400 degrees for 15 min. Internal temp. should read 165 degrees.

English sage leaves. Some for our salad and some left out to dry. Will be making more sage ghee later this week.

Wooly oregano, drying on the counter. Will be used in meat balls and an Italian meatloaf I'll be making on Tuesday.

The salad was a blend of arugula, wild herbs, romaine, avocado, fruit salad and heirloom tomatoes.

This was served with a very tasty Santa Cruz Raspberry Lemonade and crusty Lexi co-op bread.