When it rains, it pours, and last week was no exception. After several weeks without rain, we received about 3 inches of rain in 3 days. We are not complaining - our parched garden certainly appreciated the drink. The spinach has bolted but is still offering tender leaves. Peas are coming into their own. The herbs have started to take off. Two more weeks, and the garlic will be ready to harvest.
A few days after the rain, Maggie checked our Shiitake mushroom logs to see if the rain had any effect. Sure enough, the logs were covered with mushrooms, and she was able to harvest 8 pounds for the dehydrator. A couple of days after that, I found another half-pounds or so of stragglers. Rather than dehydrate, we decided to use them as part of a summer garden dinner. We picked some spinach and snow peas, a head of green softneck garlic, and some rosemary. No recipe, just cooking a few ingredients together and adding angelhair pasta.
I heated a skillet with some olive oil, and added washed and dried spinach with the snow peas. Once the spinach was partly wilted, I added in half the head of garlic, which I had diced. Some salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper, and the result was slid onto a plate.
I added more olive oil to the skillet and placed in the Shiitake mushrooms, which I had de-stemmed and sliced into strips. As the mushrooms cooked, I brought a pot of salted water to a boil and added in an handful of angelhair pasta. Once the mushrooms were cooked, I added the other half of minced garlic clove with some chopped rosemary and more olive oil. Once the pasta was al dente, it was added to the skillet with some of the pasta water and tossed to coat. Everything was sprinkled with Parmesan, because it is a cheese and this is Wisconsin. A simple summer garden meal.
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