Quick Cheesy Pasta

I was short on time making supper one night and needed something to go with our grilled chicken. I had no pasta sauce of any kind in the house and so decided to try something for a creamy cheesy side. It took only minutes and turned out great.

Ingredients:
Pasta
¼ cup milk (I used 1%)
2 Laughing cow light cheese
1 tsp Italian seasoning.

Directions:
1. Cook pasta according to the package instructions.
2. Drain the pasta and place it back in the pot. Over low heat add the milk, cheese and seasoning.
3. Stir the pasta until the cheese has melted and the pasta is coated.
4. Serve and enjoy.

Reviews:
This turned out great! It was quick and easy, but oh so creamy and delicious. You would never guess that I made it with light ingredients.

Bolognese Sauce

I have tried a few different Bolognese sauces over the last year or two, trying to find one that I loved. I have eaten at a couple of places that have tasty ones, so I kept trying. While browsing one day I came across bell'alimento, and here delicious looking Ragu alla Bolognese. I knew I had to try it.

I have made a couple of changes, as I was looking for something with a little more tomato in it (also requested by O) that day, but the original sauce is also amazing! I highly suggest checking it out, and all her other yummy looking recipes!

Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 carrots - peeled & minced
2 stalks of celery - minced
1 clove of garlic - minced
1 onion - minced
1 6oz can of tomato paste
2 cups red wine (I used a Shiraz)
1 ½ lb of ground beef
½ lb of ground venison (or beef)
water
s/p
3 cans tomato sauce

Directions:
1. In a large, deep pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.
2. Once hot add the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Saute on low heat for 20 to 25 min. The veggies should be soft and tender. Don’t forget to stir it once in a while.
3. Add the meat, salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is brown through.
4. Add the tomato paste and brown for 5 minutes. Add the wine and allow to reduce by half (10-20 min).
5. Put enough water in the mixture to cover the sauce by 1”. Let the sauce simmer on low for a MINIMUM of 1 hour, best is 2-3 hours. If the liquid gets too low, add a little more.
6. ½ hour or so before using the sauce, add in the tomato sauce and stir. (If you want you can add a little basil and oregano – I did this to ½ the sauce.)

Read more: http://www.bellalimento.com/2009/11/10/bolognese-sauce/#ixzz0eK7fPZ87

Reviews:
Both the original sauce found on bellalimento's sight and this version are amazing, just depends on how much tomato you feel like. I am in love with this sauce and I can see I will be making it again in the near future (after the leftovers in the freezer run out).

This recipe make a lot of sauce, and so I have some in the freezer just waiting for me. I am looking forward to see the results of freezing on the sauce. I used this sauce to make lasagna (coming very soon!).

Pasta at Home

Homemade Pasta
I love puttering in the kitchen once in a while. One day it was cool outside and I wanted a yummy meal and felt like spending a little time working on it. I was going through blogs and stopped when I came to Pastor Ryan’s Bolognese sauce on Pioneer Women. This looked deliscious, and part of that was the homemade pasta. I knew this is what I wanted.
Now making pasta really isn’t very hard, especially with only 2 ingredients. However, it can take a little time and patience to roll it out thin if you don’t have a pasta roller/cutter (which I do not).
Ingredients (per person)
1 egg
½ cup flour

How too:
1. Make a well in the center of the flour and drop the eggs into the well.
2. Mix by hand until the dough comes together, then knead on a floured surface until you get a smooth elastic dough.
3. Shape the dough into a ball and let rest for about 30 min. (or store well wrapped in the fridge for a day or two).
4. Roll the dough as thin as possible. I often will hang it over the back of a chair, or the side of the counter and let it stretch itself thing as well.
Cut into thin strips, keeping the strips separated so they do not stick and form a clump.
5. To cook, drop the noodles into boiling heavily salted water. They will only take 1 -2 min to cook (generally when they are all floating, they are done).
I sprinkle mine with a little bit of italiano seasoning after taking them out of the pot.

Reviews:
I love homemade pasta, O thought they were great and so did our friend. I was snacking on them even without the sauce (recipe to come later).

Stuffed Manacotti

When I have some odds and ends in the fridge I feel like using I generally tend to make manacotti. I don’t follow the traditional recipe, or any recipe for that matter and it turns out a little different each time. I love experimenting with the different flavors and the tasty combinations that come out of it. I am going to share with you some of the most common mixes that I use, to which I will usually add whatever odds and ends of veggies and cheeses I have in the fridge.

The reason I am sharing this? I am slowing becoming obsessed with freezer meals. These make a fantastic freezer meal, just stuff the shells and freeze. Then when you want to eat them you can pull as many out as you would like, put them in a dish, top with some sauce and cook. You could freeze them as a ready to go in the oven dish as well, but I find freezing individually gives me more flexibility.

I am sorry for the lack of amounts for these recipes, but I just toss things into a bowl and then stuff as many shells as I can with what I have. Make the mixture look right to you and your family’s preferences.

Chicken Alfredo Manacotti
Ingredients:
Cooked chicken (this can be breasts that have been cubed or shredded, or ground chicken, or even turkey)
Ricotta cheese (you can substitute cottage cheese if you want)
Veggies, finely chopped (I love using greens with this, green pepper, broccoli, spinach)
1 box manacotti noodles
Alfredo sauce*
Cheese for topping (cheddar, mozza, swiss, Parmesan)*

Spinach Manacotti:
Ingredients:
Ricotta (or cottage) cheese
Chopped baby spinach (or frozen chopped spinach)
Manacotti noodles
Pasta sauce (I use a can of tomato sauce, with Italian seasoning added to it)*
Cheese to top (cheddar, mozza, parmasan ect).*

Sausage Stuffed Manacotti
Ingredients:
Cooked chopped sausage (or ground sausage filling cooked, ground beef cooked)
Ricotta cheese (or cottage cheese if you prefer)
Veggies finely chopped (shredded carrot, zucchini, peppers, onion, spinach ect)
Manacotti noodles
Pasta sauce (or tomato sauce with seasonings of your choice)*
Cheese to top*

* if you are freezing individually, you will not need these ingredients until you are ready to cook the dish.

Preparation
1.In a bowl mix together the ricotta cheese, veggies and meat. If it looks a little dry you can add a tbsp or two of the sauce.
2.In a large pot cook the manacotti to eldante, if you overcook them they will split and be a little harder to work with. We will be baking this, so they will soften up more.
3.Using a small spoon (teaspoon) spoon the filling into each of the cooked noodles. Place the noodles in a casserole dish if you wish to cook them for supper (or freeze as a put together dish), or on a cookie sheet to freeze.

To cook:
1.Take the stuffed pasta out of the freezer and let thaw a little, in a casserole dish.
2.Pour the sauce over the stuffed pasta, and sprinkle cheese on the top.
3.Bake at 350F for 20-30 minutes (if they went in frozen you may have to cook them a little longer. If they look like they are getting a little dry, cover them). The cheese on top should be bubbly and the manacotti should be hot through.

Tortellini and Spinach in a Rose sauce

I had tortellini with a rose sauce last winter in a small café, and since then I have been looking for a good recipe. I have finally found one. This came to me as an email recipe from Allrecipes, and I couldn’t wait to try it. I have made a few (okay well maybe more than a few) changes to the original to make it suit my tastes a little more, so here is my recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
1 can tomato sauce
2 tbsp Italiano seasoning (I use a clubhouse mix)
1 tsp garlic salt
Pepper to taste
¾ cup 1% milk
¾ cup cream
2 tbsp flour

Cooked tortellini of your choice

Directions
1. Combine the tomato sauce, seasoning , pepper, spinach and garlic salt in a saucepan and heat.
2. In a separate bowl combine the milk, cream and flour.
3. When the sauce is heated, add the milk and cream mixture to the tomato sauce. Heat for about 2 minutes until the sauce thickens.
4. Top the cooked tortellini with the sauce
5. Sprinkle the a little parmesan cheese and enjoy.

Reviews:
I loved this, and it as close as I have gotten to the dish I had at the cafe. I love this and can't wait to make it again (which will be soon!). O liked it as well and said it was a keeper.

Pasta with Red Pepper Sauce

We eat a lot of pasta in our house – it is delicious, it is cheap and O loves it as a pregame meal. Due to the amount of pasta consumed in our house, I often crave something new to do with my pasta other than tomato sauce or cheese. When watching the food network one day I heard a mention of red pepper sauce, which brought back memories of the delicious red pepper soup my little brother makes (sadly I don’t know how he does it, I really need to find out on of these days) and I decided that sounded like a great idea. However, in my dreams of soup I didn’t notice what show this was on and so had to go looking for a recipe. It just so happens that while browsing some blogs I found the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Red Pepper Sauce.

I made a few changes, and came up with a delicious sauce.

Ingredients:
2 red peppers
½ medium onion chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
½ cup half and half cream
2 tsp parsley
Parmesan cheese
¾ pound pasta

How to:
1. Roast the peppers until the skin is charred ( I used the BBQ for this), then place in a Ziploc and seal. Let them sit for a few minutes.
2. Cook the pasta according to the directions, drain and swet aside. Do not rinse, as the starch helps the sauce adhere to the pasta.
3. In a sauce pan sauté the onion and garlic until softened.
4. Remove the skins from the peppers (They should peal off), and remove the seeds. Place the peppers in a blender with the onion and garlic. Puree until smooth.
5. Pour into the saucepan and add the cream, heat.
6. Mix with pasta and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Review:
This was delicious, I really enjoyed having something new for a sauce. I will make this again. O figured it needed a little more pepper and salt, but enjoyed it.

Summer Garden Pasta

Alright, so I know I haven't put up anything other than baking for quite some time - I swear I am cooking things other than brownies and cupcakes! Well summer is here, and I was a little anxious for the light summer foods, so I got a bunch veggies when I went to the market and then had decide what to do with them. I found this recipe for Summer Garden Pasta, and decided to modify it my needs.

Summer Garden Pasta al la Vikki

16 ounces bowtie pasta
1 small to medium zucchini sliced
2 small to medium green peppers
1 medium to large red pepper
1/2 medium oinion finely chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tpsp butter
1/2 a tomato chopped
1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt

Cook pasta according to package directions, when al dente drain and set aside. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, saute the zucchini, peppers, onions and garlic in butter until crisp-tender.
Add both and tomato; bring to a boil. Cook and stir until liquid is reduced by half.
Stir the pasta into vegetable mixture. Cook 1 minutes longer or until heated through. Transfer to a large bowl. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and salt; toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Reviews:
I thought this was great, it was nice and light with a good sumer feel to it. Owen liked it, but of course thought it could use a little meat or something more. He did enjoy it though, and finished up the leftovers (it made a lot of food, so I actually had leftovers!).