British Soldiers

Anglophiles, this one's for you. We find inspiration in the most unusual things, don't we? I do anyway. Here is an fun little pasta creation that I made, inspired by a lichen called British Soldiers (see photo below). I actually own a nearly 3-inch thick, 828 page book on lichens called Lichens of North America. I hear you snickering but it's actually fascinating, and imagine what other inspirational photos I might find in it?! Even more fascinating, I am delighted that this beautiful lichen is growing on our cedar shingled shed. Aside from the perfectly named soldier reference, this lichen also reminds me of an underwater barnacle of some sort. To make this pasta dish I cooked a wide, tube-like pasta, filled it with a velvety ricotta cheese mixture of goodness, spooned a thin basil pesto sauce on it, then "capped" each soldier with a small, roasted tomato.

This red capped lichen is called British Soldiers because of it resembles the uniforms worn by English soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Lichen is not just one organism, but a fungus and algae living together to form a new organism.