I'm a little late on this week's entries, mostly because I'm still recovering from this weekend's LA Times Festival of Books.  If you're not familiar with it, the LATFoB is pretty much the country's biggest public book fair and the place to go to meet and hear your favorite authors.  We had a booth there for the very first time, and it was a really great experience, both thrilling and exhausting.  It was pretty amazing to meet so many people at our booth and so flattering and satisfying to have fans tell us how much they like the cookbook.  The day was full of surprises, especially running into people I knew.  Even our San Francisco-based book designer Mehdi totally surprised me by showing up unexpectedly at our booth on Sunday. 

A highlight of Saturday was meeting Wil Wheaton who stopped by our booth to say hello.  Wil wrote a nice review of our book a few months ago for LA Weekly.  Our friends were SO very impressed.  Keep in mind that both Wona and I were not only engineering students at MIT but that we spent years at high tech startups...our techy, nerdy community of friends adores Wil Wheaton.  Just to put it in perspective: When we got a half-page feature in the Wall Street Journal, they were like, "oh.  Wall Street Journal.  good."  ... But when we told them that Wil Wheaton liked our cookbook, they said, "THE Wil Wheaton ??!!!?? CRUSHER! AWESOME!" We received total geek cred for that. 
Anyway, I felt like an idiot because I didn't recognize him immediately at LATFoB, but well...I lived in LA for years and couldn't spot a celebrity even once.  I have to say that Wil seemed like such a great guy via his writing, and he was exactly that way in person. A very nice guy.  He mentioned that it was tough to find good, easy vegetarian recipes.  Having been a vegetarian myself for years, I agree.   So let's cook something up.

These two recipes are ones that I used to love making as a light dinner and still do.  I made them both tonight and the kids loved them. 

Stir-Fried Pasta with Sundried Tomatoes

When I was in grad school, my housemate Tom would make a dish very similar to this one.  Tom was a reallly good cook and the only male grad student I've ever known who had a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine.  The ingredients in this dish seem really simple but somehow they come together with such great toasty flavor and a lot of that has to do with the light stir frying of the pasta.  It's a really fabulous dish. 

1 bag (16 oz) fusilli pasta
1 jar Julienne Sliced Sun Dried Tomatoes
1/2 cup packed finely chopped Italian parsley
2/3 cup toasted pine nuts
3/4 cup Freshly Shredded Parmesan

1.) In a large pot, boil the pasta in salted water according to instructions on bag.  Drain completely.
2.) Drain the jar of sundried tomatoes and reserve the drained oil (it will be nearly 1/2 cup's worth!).   In the same large pot as before, heat 4 Tbsp of this oil over high heat.  Add the pasta and stir with a spatula or spoon.  Stir fry the pasta this way for a couple minutes, stirring to keep the pasta moving around.  Don't worry if some of the pasta starch sticks to the bottom and browns/toasts.
3.) Remove the pasta from the heat and add sun dried tomatoes, parsley, pine nuts, and Parmesan.  Toss together and serve.

Note:  Don't fret about the pot being hard to clean.  Any pasta starch stuck to the bottom of the pan will wash right out after 5-10 minutes of soaking.  Really, I promise.
Use the remaining reserved oil to saute veggies or add to another dish.

Serves 4

Spinach Pesto Pasta Salad

Yesterday we were at Trader Joe's and my kids saw these little individual prepackaged pasta salads that the demo chef was sampling out.  They tried it and asked if we could get it.  I took a quick look and promised them an exact knock-off when we got home.  I admit I took it down a slightly different path, but my son gave it a happy thumbs up and said it tasted just as good as he remembered.

1 bag (16 oz) fusilli pasta (I used Brown Rice Pasta for this one)
1 7-oz container of refrigerated Genova Pesto
1/2 bag of baby spinach (3 oz)
1 16-oz container heirloom cherry tomato mix
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1 container Ciliegine (fresh mozzarella balls), drained

1.) In a large pot, boil the pasta in salted water according to instructions on bag.  Drain completely.
2.) In a large bowl, add the pasta and the pesto.  Stir to distribute the pesto throughout the pasta.  Add the spinach, tomatoes, pine nuts, and mozzarella balls.  Stir gently to combine.

Note: If you want to boost the protein level, you can use quinoa pasta which is available at grocers like Whole Foods.  The texture of quinoa pasta can be iffy depending on the brand, but it's a great source of a complete protein.

Serves 4

(Tune in on Friday...I'm mulling over a meatless but meaty Moussaka recipe...)