Spanish Inspiration from Try the World

I don't know where I saw it first, but I clicked an ad for Try the World Food Box to receive a gourmet subscription to a curated box of local food goodies from around the world. The box I received was from Spain, where my brother just spent his spring break. He recalled having tomato jam  served on bread, which I was most excited to try. I was also looking forward to using paprika in everything, like they do in Hungary! To be honest, the box was a bit disappointing. There were a lot of neat things, but most of them required some sort of assembly. I was also a bit weirded out by the canned mussels, but wished the box included some jamon ibierco.

Last night for dinner, I sauteed the mussels with garlic to make a base for a paprika cherry tomato spaghetti sauce. I served it over a bed of baby peashoots and sprinkled it with parmesan for some Spanish Italian action.

For breakfast this morning, I slathered the tomato jam on flax seed bread and topped it with an omelet for an elegant tartine paired with local Louisiana blueberries. As expected, the tomato spread is definitely my favorite part of the box. It's like a fresh light marinara in a jar!

And finally for dinner I made my classic ratatouille, a recipe I derived from my French host parents in Lac d'Annecy. I used squash that I picked up this past weekend at the Crescent City farmer's market and flavored it with olive oil, herbes de Provence, paprika, and persillade, a mix of dried garlic, onion, parsley, shallot and salt from Mont-Saint-Michel and the French box. I served it with brown rice steamed with the canned mussels.

So tell me this, box, who brought who around the world?

canned mussels

spaghetti with mussels in a paprika cherry tomato sauce

local squash

local blueberries, ratatouille + mussels in brown rice