Category Archives: Pasta

Roasted Tomato Caprese Pasta Salad ~ Recipe

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Cooking, Lunch, Pasta, Recipe, Salad, Vegetarian

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Summer perfect, Roasted Tomato Caprese Pasta Salad will make its appearance on your table time and time again.  On its own, this flavorful, vegetarian salad stands proudly.  Add grilled beef and zucchini, and serve it as a side.  Use up some the cherry tomatoes that are ripening on your plants at home, or pick up a pint from the local farmers market.

 
Here are a few tomatoes that came directly from our plant.  While at the garden, I picked a few sprigs of thyme and basil leaves.
 

Spread tomatoes on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil to coat.  Sprinkle with sea salt and tuck herbs and garlic cloves between the tomatoes.  Roast in the preheated 375 F oven until the tomatoes begin to pop.  Cool slightly.

You might have a hard time saving these sweet-like-candy roasted tomatoes for the salad.  The temptation to eat them right away is quite strong.  Resist!

Gently stir the tomatoes together with cooked and cooled linguine, fresh mozzarella balls, chopped kalamata olives, a handful of basil leaves, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Don’t forget the roasted garlic cloves!  If you have time, allow the salad flavors to mingle for an hour before serving.  Enjoy!

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Lasagna Recipe: Meat Sauce, Sauteed Vegetables and No Boil Noodles

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Cooking, Dinner, Meat, Pasta, Recipe

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There are times when it’s easier to let someone else decide what’s for dinner.  On this particular night, I turned to my brother and asked him to figure out what I should make for a family get together.  “Lasagna!” he said.  Perfect!  This hearty, comforting dish is relatively easy to make, feeds a hungry crowd and is not too time consuming.  Plus, just in time for our trip to Italy, I thought I should make something Italian-esque.

This was the first time I tried using no boil lasagna noodles and I believe I will never return to the other kind.

Lasagna Recipe: Meat Sauce with Creamy Tomato Basil Sauce and Sauteed Vegetables


Ingredients

Filling

1 # ground beef
1 jar creamy tomato basil sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 cups spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced roasted tomatoes, drained

Cheese

1 # ricotta cheese
2 cups grated Peccorio Romano cheese, divided
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Noodles

12 no boil lasagna noodles





Directions

1.  Saute ground beef in a skillet over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes, breaking it up with a back of the spoon into small pieces.  Stir in 1/3 of the tomato sauce, lower the heat to low, and simmer the sauce with the beef as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms.  Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables caramelize, about 12 minutes.  Stir in spinach, season with salt and pepper, and cook just until the spinach wilts.

3.  Stir together ricotta, 1 cup Pecorino Romano, 1 cup Mozzarella, 1 egg and parsley.

4.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

5.  Layer lasagna in a 9×13 baking dish:

  • 1/3 tomato sauce
  • 4 noodles
  • 1/2 cheese mixture
  • meat sauce
  • 4 noodles
  • 1/2 cheese mixture
  • sauteed vegetables
  • 4 noodles
  • 1/3 tomato sauce
  • diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
6.  Bake lasagna in the oven until the cheese melts and bubbles, 30 minutes.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing to serve.  Reheats wonderfully the next day, if you have any leftovers.


What is your favorite recipe for lasagna?

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Vegetarian White Lasagna Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

04 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Cheese, Cooking, Dinner, Pasta, Recipe, recipe development, Vegetarian

≈ 1 Comment

I am thrilled to be once again participating in 30 Days, 30 Ways Macaroni & Cheese Blog launched by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board to celebrate the National Cheese Lover’s Day.  The blog features a brand new mac and cheese recipe every day for 30 days. Be sure to check out all 30 delicious recipes!

Last year, I made individual portions of My Big Fat Greek Mac and Cheese.  This time, I combined the flavors and textures of lasagna and macaroni and cheese with stuffed pasta shells to create Vegetarian White Lasagna Macaroni and Cheese!  Enjoy!

 


Vegetarian White Lasagna Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

For the Stuffed Shells
22 jumbo pasta shells

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/2 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, squeezed dry

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

8 ounces ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup chopped parsley

salt and pepper, to taste

For the Sauce
1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk

4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded

4 ounces smoked Gouda cheese, shredded

smoked paprika, to taste

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  Cook pasta according to box directions, reducing the time by two minutes.  Rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside.

3.  For the filling, heat oil in a large nonstick pan over medium high heat.  Add mushrooms, onion and garlic and saute for five minutes, stirring often.  Stir in spinach and saute for additional three minutes.  Combine sauteed vegetables with mozzarella, ricotta, egg, parsley, salt and pepper.

4.  Spoon the filling into pasta shells, about two tablespoons per each shell.

5.  For the sauce, heat oil and garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in flour and cook, whisking constantly for three minutes.  Pour in the milk, slowly, constantly whisking.  Increase heat and cook the sauce until it thickens, about five minutes.  Off heat, stir in the cheese until melted.  Season with smoked paprika, salt and pepper.

       

    

6.  Ladle 1/2 cup of the cheese sauce on the bottom of a 2-quart casserole dish.  Arrange 11 filled pasta shells over the sauce.  Pour half of the remaining sauce over the stuffed pasta shells.  Repeat with the remaining pasta shells and sauce.

7.  Bake Vegetarian White Lasagna Macaroni and Cheese in the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, until heated through, the cheese is golden brown and bubbly.  Cool for 5 minutes and serve.  A green salad and a glass of chilled crisp white wine go beautifully along with the dish.

Disclaimer: Wisconsin Cheese sponsored this post.  All opinions are my own.  
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Project "You Buy, I Cook" ~ Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Beef, Cooking, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Pasta, Recipe, Rice, Tomatoes, You Buy I Cook

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I love my friends, but let’s be honest – they are a bunch of picky eaters!  Alright, some of them are picky.  Others are perfectly happy to eat whatever, whenever, wherever.  Project “You Buy, I Cook” is my way to share cooking and dining experiences with friends – picky and otherwise.  For the most part, I think the project challenges my friends to eat something new, try an exotic ingredient or discover an unusual flavor combination.

For the latest “You Buy, I Cook” I was the one challenged!  The challenge, posed by my friend Nadiya, was to develop a recipe for Gluten Free and Dairy Free meatballs.  Extra challenge points: no onions, minimum use of spices, and obviously no cheese, milk or bread.

Nadiya showed up with a pound of beef, some instant oatmeal, a few eggs, diced tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  We rolled up our sleeves (and later meatballs) and went to work.


Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce


Ingredients



Meatballs

1 cup gluten free instant oats

1 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning, salt-free

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

1 pound ground beef

Tomato Sauce


Olive oil

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

1-2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions


1.  Combine oats, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and garlic in a food processor.  Pulse until oats are coarsely chopped.  Set aside.  The oats are one of the binders in the recipe and keep your meat balls together.  They also add lots of nutritional value!

2.  In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and water.  If you don’t mind having some dairy in your diet, feel free to substitute water with milk.

3.  Gently stir the oatmeal mixture and eggs with the ground beef.  Mix enough to combine without overworking the beef.  Overworking the beef will result in tough meatballs and who would want those?

4.  Using a scoop, form meatballs (my medium size scoop allowed for 24 meatballs).  Place meatballs on a lightly greased cooling rack set inside an aluminum lined baking sheet.  Refrigerate the meatballs for 30-60 minutes to allow the oatmeal to absorb the liquid and the meatballs to set.

5.  Meanwhile, make tomato sauce by sauteing canned tomatoes in olive oil along with Italian seasoning.  Add a can of tomato sauce and sugar, and simmer on low until the meatballs are done.  If it were up to me, I would start the sauce by sauteing onion and garlic, adding red pepper flakes and finishing up with freshly grated cheese.


6.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove meatballs from the refrigerator and bake for 30 minutes.

 7.  Serve meatballs, garnished with parsley or basil, along with tomato sauce and cooked rice noodles.

Remember, this is a very basic recipe.  Once in your kitchen, feel free to flavor these meatballs with a variety of spices and herbs.  Leave Italy and travel to Turkey or Morocco, using cumin, turmeric, and perhaps even cinnamon.



Thanks for reading! Let me know if you make these Gluten Free, Dairy Free Baked Italian Beef Meatballs with Rice Pasta and Tomato Sauce.  Check out the rest of the “You Buy, I Cook” projects.

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Girl Scout Samoas Chicken Tenders and Noodle Salad Recipe Contest

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Chicken, Lunch, Nuts, Pasta, Recipe, recipe development

≈ 6 Comments


Update:  This recipe has been selected as Top Five! Please, if you like it, vote for the recipe to make it a winner by clicking on this link.  Thank you!


I am not a Girl Scout, but I have eaten plenty of Girl Scout cookies.  When I got a chance to participate in the Girl Scouts of Western Washington Cookie Recipe Contest, I jumped right in.  I picked up 5 boxes of cookies, a combination of Samoas, Thin Mints, and Trefoils and headed back to my kitchen.  I won’t lie, I opened up a box of Thin Mints and ate a few right away, just to get the creative juices flowing.  Creating a recipe with the cookies was going to be a challenge.  I wanted the cookie to stand out and be an integral part of the recipe.  At the end, I chose Samoas – “Tender vanilla cookies, covered with caramel, rolled in toasted coconut, and striped with a rich, chocolatey coating.“

Instead of creating a dessert recipe, I chose to go in a savory direction.  I crushed the cookies in a food processor and used them in combination with Panko crumbs, almonds, and Szechuan and Cayenne peppers as a coating for chicken tenders.  And because you can never have enough cookies, I added extra Samoas to the rice noodle salad.  


Girl Scout Samoas Chicken Tenders and Noodle Salad

Ingredients


For the Chicken
8 Samoas
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon ground Szechuan pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground Cayenne pepper
pinch of salt
1/3 cup spicy brown mustard
1 pound chicken tenderloins

For the Dressing
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1 Serrano chile, seeded and minced
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

For the Salad
8 ounces rice stick noodles
1 cup red bell pepper, julienned
1 cup jicama, julienned
1 orange, cut into segments
1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons mint, roughly chopped
2 Samoas, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons toasted almonds, roughly chopped

Directions


1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil; set a cooling rack on top of the baking sheet.

2.  Pulse Samoas and almonds in a food processor (separately), until coarsely ground.  Combine Samoas, almonds, bread crumbs, pepper and salt in a bowl.  This is the coating for the chicken tenders.

3.  Brush chicken tenders with spicy brown mustard.  Press the tenders into the Samoas coating and place on top of a cooling rack.

4.  Bake the chicken tenders for 30 minutes, flipping half way through.

 5.  While the chicken tenders are baking, cook the rice noodles according to the package directions.

6.  In a large bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients.  Once cooked, rinsed, and drained, add the noodles to the dressing and toss to combine.

7.  Add the remaining salad ingredients to the noodles.

 8.  Serve the Samoas chicken tenders on top of the salad.

When it comes to developing a recipe, you can never know exactly how it will turn out until you eat it.  I can’t tell you how many people warned me that chicken and Samoas would be a weird combination.  Eat your words!  🙂  This salad came together like a happy troop of Girls Scouts.  Spicy and sweet at the same time, this is a healthy and fun way to enjoy Samoas for lunch.  And go ahead, have a few extra for dessert!

What is your favorite Girls Scout cookie?

Please vote for the recipe is you liked it!  Thank you!

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Project "You Buy, I Cook" ~ Salad with Pomegranate and Asian Pear

17 Thursday Nov 2011

Posted by in Asparagus, Cheese, Cooking, Pasta, Recipe, Salad, You Buy I Cook

≈ 4 Comments

A month or so ago  I unveiled my new project “You Buy, I Cook.”  It’s pretty simple and rather fantastic, if I say so myself.  Here’s how it works.  You purchase groceries, I cook (you get to cook and learn with me, if you wish), we eat, you do the dishes.  Everyone wins.

My first project was with Lera.  I came over to make sauteed shiitake mushrooms with lots of fried onions and garlic.  We ate the mushrooms on top of mashed potatoes (the potatoes got a healthy doze of sauteed onions and garlic as well). We drank copious amounts of red wine and hung out on the couch.  It was too dark to take photos, but trust me, the food was delicious and Lera was happy.  Needless to say, there was no help from Lera in the kitchen department, but she is a gem when it comes to cleaning!

The second “You Buy, I Cook” project happened just last week.  Priya showed up at my door with a mystery basket of groceries, and in the midst of my lamb project (come back next week to find out about it!), we cooked lunch.

The contents of the mystery basket were quite exciting!  By the way, on top of being a fantastic salsa dancer, Priya is a photographer. I decided to let her play with my camera while I was cooking.  I’m happy to share some of her photos in this post.

I didn’t want to incorporate all the ingredients in one dish.  Instead, I made a salad and pasta.

For the salad, I quickly combined garlic, shallot, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and whisked in olive oil.  Do you see a piggy whisk?  I bet you wish you had one as well!  My super fabulous friend Diana gave me the whisk a year ago and I love it!

The dressing came out lovely – thick, creamy, punched with garlic.  I drizzled the dressing on top of the assembled salad: mixed greens, pomegranate seeds, slices of Asian pear, and ribbons of cheese.

With the rest of the ingredients, we made pasta.  We roasted the bell pepper and asparagus, coated with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper.  I tucked in a few cloves of garlic along with the vegetables.

While the vegetables were roasting, I cooked the pasta, and Priya chopped up tomatoes.  We mixed tomatoes with the leftover mustard vinaigrette and then combined it with the bow tie pasta.  We ate the pasta along with roasted vegetables.

I’m ready for my next “You Buy, I Cook.”  Who shall be my next guest?

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Dinner for Le$$ – Fettuccine with Shrimp, Garlic and Broccoli Recipe – Fitness Nov/Dec 2011

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Cooking, Fitness, Healthy, Pasta, Recipe, recipe development, Shrimp

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I’m finishing 2011 on a high note – with yet another recipe published in Fitness Magazine – check out their November/December issue!  In the past, I’ve developed four recipes for the Dinner in 20 (September 2010 Curried Shrimp with Mango Couscous, November 2010 Chicken Soba Bowl, April 2011 Lemon Thyme Chicken, and May 2011 Beef Stir-Fry with Avocado Salad). 


This current recipe is the first one for me in the new Dinner for Le$$ section.  Fettuccine with Shrimp, Garlic and Broccoli is a nutritious, healthy, and delicious meal for under $3 per person.  What’s not to like?


For the recipe, I drew my inspiration from home cooked meals that are perfect for a cold fall or winter night.  You get the comfort of pasta, the sweetness of homemade tomato sauce (the secret to sweetness is carrots!) and much needed energy from shrimp and broccoli.  Add extra red pepper flakes for spice.  I hope you give this one a try and let me know your thoughts!  Happy cooking.  See you in 2012.

Go get your copy on the newsstand.  Page 128, November/December 2011, Fitness Magazine.

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Frozen in the Kitchen – Bertolli Steak, Rigatoni & Portobello Mushrooms for Dinner

13 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Beef, Cooking, Pasta, Product Review, Vegetables

≈ 1 Comment

There isn’t much in my freezer.  Sure, I have a few trays of ice, and some individually frozen skinless, boneless chicken breasts.  There’s also a bag with celery sticks (to be used for mashed potatoes) and some frozen bananas (that are more likely to be thrown away than being put to use in a banana bread).  I also keep nuts in the freezer, so there are a few bags of almonds and pecans – the pecans are from one of my students whose father has a pecan tree in his yard in Texas.

What you would never find in my freezer is a frozen entree meal.  Afterall, I cook, I eat, I microwave only to reheat.  But, when I received a coupon for a free Bertolli frozen meal, I decided to give it a try.  And this brings us to an evening when I was too tired to cook, and too hungry to wait for Thai take out.  So instead, I reached inside of my freezer and grabbed a bag of Bertolli’s Mediterranean Steak, Rigatoni & Portobello Mushrooms.

According to the bag, all you need is a skillet with a lid and 10 minutes.  I had it all, and was ready to get “cooking”.  I opened up the bag, to find its contents looking pretty good for something frozen.  Inside were pasta, slices of steak, cherry tomatoes, slices of mushrooms, yellow pepper, and frozen chunks of herb butter (according to the website, this was olive oil, I’m not so sure about it).

It was off to the skillet, to be cooked, covered for 4 minutes.  Disclaimer: I decided not to use all of the noodles, so the photo below is representative of mostly steak and vegetables.  
At the end of 4 minutes, I gave the pasta a stir, added sliced onions, a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes, and continued to cook for 6 more minutes.
It smelled quite delicious.  Upon immediate inspection, I think there was too much sauce for the amount of food.  But perhaps, this was because I didn’t cook all of the pasta.  
I was surprised how tender the steak was and how well the pasta came out.  The overall taste of the sauce, unfortunately was a bit bland and needed some tweaking.  I added fresh Parmesan cheese, julienne of basil, and freshly ground pepper.  This seemed to help a bit.  
Will I buy more Bertolli frozen meals in the future?  I think unlikely – I do enjoy cooking, and usually have the means, the know-how, and the time to do it.  But, if you are short on time, and have to go frozen, this might be a good option for you.  Bertolli really does beat a compartmental frozen TV tray meal.  Let me know if you have tried this before or if you plan on trying it in the future!
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Thinking of Spring/Summer – Pasta Salad

06 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by in Cooking, Pasta, Recipe, Salad

≈ 1 Comment

The last few days in Seattle have been “brutally” cold and rainy.  I miss the sunshine, and I could use a few minutes or hours of warmth.  Flipping through some of my food photos, I came across these two images, both screaming “sun, summer, delicious.”


Summer Pasta Salad:
Whole wheat spaghetti
Homemade tomato sauce (onion, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, salt & pepper, red pepper flakes)
Black Olives
Marinated Artichoke Hearts
Fresh Mozzarella
Torn Basil
Drizzle of Olive Oil

Served at room temperature on a porch