Pleasin' with Parppardelle's Pasta

All us foodies out there know the pure, singular joy of making as many ingredients from scratch in our recipes as our time and our wallets will allow. However, foodies get to also enjoy the magnificent ingredients of others on their own or part of our own meal creations; we really do, it's in the charter. I love this club.

I have recently moved to a new part of Orlando to me, but old to most residents, called Winter Park. The Winter Park community is just that, more of a community and less of a tourist spot or university town. Since moving I'm also trying to make more positive economical, social changes such as buying produce from local growers, using cloth shopping bags, and visiting private restaurants and markets when my dogs are barking too loud to be schlepped around my kitchen. While doing two of these activities at two completely different times, I was introduced to a gourmet pasta company called Pappardelles Pasta out of Colorado.

The first time I met Pappardelle Pasta was at our Lake Eola Sunday Farmer's Market in downtown Orlando. Under a welcoming, shady tent two gentlemen helped me to taste as many of their delicious, flavorful, raw pastas as my little heart desired. While I tried MANY, the Sweet Valdia Onion, Lemon Basil, and Fruit pastas all really tantalized my taste buds. Alas, at $4.00 a half-pound I could only bring home two telling myself I'd go back for the fruit pasta.

Not only are these pastas gourmet and flavorful, them come packed with awesome recipes. I made the recipe that came with the Sweet Valdia Onion pasta and served it with my mozzerella stuffed meatballs (no picture, I could just kick myself). The Lemon Basil went to Mr. T. (Pete's Dad) and we actually ended up eating my meatball dish and his shrimp dish using the Lemon Basil pasta in one Sunday night dinner! It was very, very bella!

My second encounter with Pappardelles Pasta arrived in the form of a gift. When I came home from the market that day, I gave Pete a menu from a new restaurant/market right around the corner of our place that sells this stuff in the store PLUS making their own new age, American bistro style food with a healthy touch. This magical place is The Virgin Market in Winter Park, FL. One day Pete wanted to get lunch with his business partner some place new, so they visited The Virgin Olive Market. Upon eating a wonderful lunch, my wonderful boyfriend brought me home a half-pound of Lime Cilantro Pasta and a half-found of that same Lemon Basil pasta.

Beer-battered Tilapia with Fresh Peppers Salad and Lime Cilantro Pappardelle Pasta

Instead of following a Pappardelle recipe, this time I opted for making pasta ala Rachel 'Tha Pizza Cutta' Style. I make a killer beer-battered tilapia so I whipped up some of those, but first I mixed a fresh salad of cilantro, a red bell pepper, a orange bell pepper, celery, red onion, fresh lime juice, and salt and put it in a covered bowl in the fridge while I prepared the fish and pasta. Once the pasta is cooked and dressed lightly with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper and the fish is on the place, break out the salad, put it on top of the pasta and THAT'S IT! Savor these light, exuberant flavors over and over again; I promise you will not only love it, you'll devour it.

Italian Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Lemon Basil Pappardelles Pasta with Lemon Butter

Even though I've had "0" success in the commercial recipe contest racket, I'm still trying. This dish was born out of practice for the National Chicken Cook off. I love this Italian Stuffed Chicken Breast and will blog about that on its own later, but look at how beautiful that Lemon Basil Pappardelle Pasta is! Making it even more special, Pete made the pasta and the lemon butter that dressed it. Of course, Pete and I LOVED it!