On Saturday our fridge was empty. We'd had a very difficult week, and overlooked the sad state of our fridge. Not a good thing when you have a family of seven to feed. Seven?! Yes, it's five of us, but when I grocery shop I buy for seven people, because two teenage boys, with their huge appetites, eat for two - at least for two. So, our empty fridge was a major problem.
But when you have a garden, there's always something to eat out there in the warm season, even when the weather has been abysmal, and even when you've just planted it a week before (here). This time we had a dinner of fresh perennial herbs.
I picked some large-leaf sage, made a batter of flour, water and salt, dipped the leaves in it, and fried them. They were supposed to be a side dish, but all got eaten before they made it to the table - hot and crispy right out of the pan.
Next I tossed some chopped sage and rosemary in boiling water, cooked some leftover polenta flour in the infused water, cooled the polenta, cubed it, and used it to enhance a salad of chives, borage blossoms and lettuce leaves.
Then I chopped up rosemary, sage, marjoram, and summer savory with garlic, sauteed the mixture, and used it to season a pasta dish: pasta alle erbe ("pasta with fresh herbs").
So, thanks to the fresh herbs in the garden, nobody went hungry that evening - despite the huge appetites!
