The Magic Pasta Ingredient - Gardenista
Adding a handful of fresh herbs and edible calendula flower petals to dough will infuse pasta with so much flavor that the only additions you need to turn the dish into a meal are a little butter (OK, a lot of butter) and grated cheese. Photograph by Mimi Giboin. Add a handful of rough-chopped parsley and flower petals to dough before rolling it out. Parsley seed can be sprouted on a window sill. Soak Dark Green Italian Parsley seeds overnight in warm water before sowing thinly just below the surface in an organic seed-starting mix (to make your own, mix equal parts of sand, perlite, and peat). Image by Melkmeisterin, via Flickr. Store Calendula seed in an airtight container. Image via Frugally Sustainable. The common name for Calendula is pot marigold. Easy to grow, it is a Mediterranean native best sown directly in the garden, in partial shade or full sun. Harvest petals individually to use in recipes. Image via Frugally Sustainable. Photograph by Mimi Giboin. Wash and dry leaves and petals before chopping. Photograph by Mimi Giboin. The herb-infused pasta is dressed simply with olive oil, butter, and shaved pecorino cheese.