Dark Days #19: Local Pasta Two Ways

with the fish success behind me i thought i'd push myself to make the last dark days post.

this friday i picked up some bacon from our local free-range grass-fed meat supplier. i am anxiously awaiting the announcement of their chickens and in the meantime receive their newsletters regarding sales and special offers. breakfast sausage brought me in, but i couldn't leave without some bacon.

with bacon as my choice ingredient my thoughts turned in two directions: breakfast for dinner or pasta carbonara. i chose the latter and boy was my tummy happy.

pasta carbonara with local bacon and backyard eggs

rigatoni with eggplant puree from this summer

the carbonara was whipped together with backyard eggs, local bacon and cheese purchased downtown at our new cafe-marketplace. for the vegetarians in the group (er, the one vegetarian in the group) i thawed some roasted tomato and eggplant sauce that i prepped during the tomato glut in october and froze.

to round it out i roasted some local asparagus that is slowly finding its way into our grocery stores. its a little early so it is a rare find, but spring is now inextricably tied to asparagus and i'm craving it these days.

i sipped on some boomtown syrah with dinner. the meal was delicious. with friends over, there were some non-local items on the menu that were of course tasty but (of course) not worth mentioning here.