Pasta

Ingredients
1 butternut squash
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 medium shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
¹⁄₄ cup white wine
1 pound orzo
4-6 cups chicken broth
1 cup Parmesan cheese
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of cayenne

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 425*F.  Cut squash in half, scoop out seed, brush with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Bake 45 minutes, or until for tender.  Cool, scoop out squash and mash.  Measure 1 ¹⁄₂ cup of butternut squash and reserve the rest for another recipe. 

2. Heat remaining oil in large saucepan over medium heat.  Add shallot and cook, stirring, until tender.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. 

3. Stir in orzo and cook until slightly toasted.  Add wine and cook, stirring, until completely absorbed.  Working ¹⁄₂-1 cup at a time, add chicken broth.  Stir often until chicken broth is completely absorbed before adding more. 

4. Once pasta is tender, add butternut squash, cinnamon and cayenne.  Stir to heat through.  Add Parmesan and remove from heat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Comments
I’m still not quite ready for the winter that winter squash represents, but a butternut squash called to me and I decided to try out this recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride.  It was very tasty but I did find the cinnamon to be a little off-putting.  I might omit it next time.  Otherwise, this orzotto was very simple, just like a good risotto! 

Shown here with random grilled steaks and Sundried Tomato Butter.

Internet - Confections of a Foodie Bird

Ingredients
2 pounds tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch red pepper flakes
¹⁄₄ cup olive oil
1 pound short pasta (I used rotini, I’m not sure if this was the right choice.)
¹⁄₂ cup fresh basil, chopped

Instructions
1. Put tomatoes, garlic, salt, vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, and oil in large bowl.  Stir well and let sit for 1-2 hours. 

2. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.  Cook pasta as directed on packaging. Drain well.

3. Add pasta and basil to bowl with tomato sauce, stir well and serve. 

Comments
This recipe is from The Parsley Thief and it reminds me quite a bit of various Pasta Caprese (recipes I’ve made in the past, just without the mozzarella.  It’s pretty basis but completely delicious, a great way to use tomatoes at the peak of summer.  I’d recommend using a more cup-like pasta shape such as shells or orechiette.  The rotini made for a very slippery pasta dish! 

As you can see from the picture, the sauce was pretty thin and tried to take over the entire plate.  I’d suggest eating this from a bowl with a spoon instead of on a plate with a fork. 

Shown here with Baked Pesto Chicken.

Internet - The Parsley Thief

Ingredients
1 pound spaghetti, or other pasta
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
2 pounds ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
2 medium red bell peppers, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
¹⁄₂ teaspoon pepper
32 ounces tomato sauce
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 425*F. 

2. Bring large pot (or Dutch oven) of salted water to boil over high heat.  Cook pasta 2 minutes less than directed on packaging. Drain well. 

3. Combine pasta, milk and eggs in Dutch oven. 

4. Brown ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in large skillet over medium heat.  Drain if necessary and return to skillet.  Add chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring, 2 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce and cook 5 minutes. 

5. Spread meat sauce over pasta.  Top with cheese and place in oven.  Bake 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling. 

Comments
This recipe is from Blog Chef.  The guys really enjoyed it but I wasn’t super enthused.  It had potential, but I believe I’d make some changes in the future.  First off, I’d use a pasta shape that’s easier to stir, like penne.  Then I’d reduce the meat to 1 pound and add some black beans, corn, or some frozen southwest veggie blend that contained black beans and corn.  I think those changes would make the dish quite a bit better.

Internet - Blog Chef

Ingredients
1 pound egg noodles
2 pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
¹⁄₄ teaspoon ground black pepper
¹⁄₂ teaspoon garlic salt
2 cups tomato sauce
2 cups cottage cheese, creamed (I blended it with my hand blender.)
2 cups sour cream
2 cups green onions, chopped
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 350*F. 

2. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.  Cook pasta 2 minutes less than directed on packaging.  Drain well.

3. Brown meat in Dutch oven over medium heat.  Drain if necessary and return to pot.  Add salt, pepper, garlic salt, and tomato sauce.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Stir in cottage cheese, sour cream, green onions, and pasta.  Top with cheese. 

4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and casserole is heated through. 

Comments
This recipe is from allrecipes.com.  It’s sort of like homemade Hamburger Helper and it’s pretty much delicious.  The sour cream and cottage cheese add a nice tanginess and, even if you don’t like cottage cheese (which we don’t), it’s fantastic.  We devoured this both at dinner and for leftover lunches the following days.  I used lower fat varieties of cottage cheese, sour cream, and cheese - all worked well.

This is probably more of a winter food than a summer food, but it’s a delicious, filling, and warming meal any time of year.

P.S. Do you like my new pretty red bowls?  We finally (after 14 years) broke enough of the old ones that I had to buy a few new ones!

Internet - allrecipes

Ingredients
Butter, for greasing
4 cups small tomatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size
¹⁄₄ cup capers, rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil plus more for drizzling
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
¹⁄₄ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¹⁄₂ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 pound ziti or other short pasta
1 ¹⁄₄ cups Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
¹⁄₄ cup fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375*F.  Butter 8 by 8-inch baking dish. 

2. Combine tomatoes, capers, olive oil, salt and pepper in baking dish.  Toss to distribute.  Sprinkle breadcrumbs over tomato mixture then drizzle with olive oil.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until top is golden.  Cool 5 minutes. 

3. Bring large pot of salted water to boil over high heat.  Cook pasta as directed on packaging.  Reserve 2 cup pasta water, and then drain well.  Return pasta to pot. 

4. Pour tomato mixture onto pasta.  Add cheese and stir well.  If needed, thin out sauce with some pasta water.  Season with salt and pepper, top with parsley, and serve. 

Comments
This recipe is from Ezra Pound Cake.  It was very tasty.  The roasted summer tomatoes were fantastic.  I could really taste the summer in this dish.  The capers added quite a bit to the dish as well, in that unique caper way.  I really enjoyed this dish and would certainly make it again in the future during tomato season.  I’m sure this would even be tasty with grocery store grape tomatoes in the winter! 

Shown here with simply grilled chicken.

Internet - Ezra Pound Cake

Ingredients
6-8 ounces bacon, chopped
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 pound pasta of choice
1 cup beer (I used some hefeweizen, since that’s what we had.)
2 cups grape tomatoes
3 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat.  Once bacon begins to crisp, add onion and continue cooking until bacon is crisp and onions are tender. 

2. Meanwhile, bring large pot salted water to boil.  Cook pasta as instructed by package directions and return to pot. 

3. Once bacon is crisp, add beer and tomatoes to skillet.  Increase heat to high and bring to boil.  Then reduce heat to low and simmer until tomatoes begin to pop. 

4. Combine eggs, egg yolks, Parmesan cheese, and garlic in small bowl.  Mix well to combine.  Working 1 tablespoon at a time, mix 3-4 tablespoons beer from bacon-mixture into eggs to temper.  Stir egg mixture into pasta, then stir in bacon-mixture until everything is well combined. 

Comments
This recipe is from Babble and it’s a different take on the standard Carbonara (recipes using beer and bacon instead of wine and pancetta.  Lance and I both thought the beer was a little bit overwhelming but, as Art pointed out, I did use a fairly powerful beer so it makes sense.  A milder beer would have given us a milder beer taste.  Obvious, right?  I think that I might use this recipe in the future, just with the usual wine and added peas, just to see what happens.  I’m sure it will be delicious.

Internet - Babble

Ingredients
2 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium onion , diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium zucchini, diced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
¹⁄₂ bouillon cube (I used vegetable bouillon)
¹⁄₂ cup Parmesan cheese
1 pound pasta
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. In medium saucepan cook bacon until most of the fat renders.  Add onion and cook until softened.  Add garlic and zucchini and continue cooking until zucchini softens.  Remove zucchini mixture to large bowl. 

2. In now-empty saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute.  Pour in milk and stir constantly until sauce thickens and becomes smooth.  Add zucchini mixture and bouillon to pan then puree with immersion blender.  (Likewise you could put the zucchini mixture in a food processor at the end of step 1 to puree it before adding it to the cream sauce.) 

3. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce five minutes.  Stir in Parmesan then taste for seasoning, add salt and pepper as necessary. 

4. Meanwhile, bring large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta as instructed by packaging.  Drain well. Toss pasta together with sauce and parsley. 

Comments
This recipe is from Kayotic Kitchen.  I chose it because I had a lot of zucchini on hand and wanted something new to do with it.  The sauce probably generated enough sauce for 2 pounds of pasta, or at least a pound and a half.  This is probably because I used entirely too much zucchini.  Oops.  It was definitely tasty, but I’m glad I didn’t just dump the pasta into the sauce and stir it all together.  The bacon added that great bacony flavor to the sauce, but it’s easy to omit if you want.  I used an immersion blender to mix everything together because it’s easier on my dishwasher than the food processor.  Be sure to check for seasoning at the end and don’t over salt prior to adding the Parmesan which can be quite salty!

Internet - Kayotic Kitchen

Ingredients
1 pound pasta, any shape will do
2-3 cups broccoli, cut into small pieces
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
¹⁄₂ cup butter
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups heavy cream
¹⁄₈ teaspoon garlic powder
¹⁄₈ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¹⁄₄ cup Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded

Instructions
1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta as instructed by packaging.  Add broccoli to water during last 3 minutes of cooking time.  Drain well. 

2. Heat olive oil in large skillet and cook chicken, stirring occasionally, until done.  Combine chicken with pasta and broccoli. 

3. Melt butter with garlic in medium saucepan (or empty pasta pot) over medium-low heat.  Stir in cream, garlic powder, and pepper.  Simmer, stirring frequently, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until thick.  When sauce reaches desired consistency, stir in Parmesan cheese. 

4. Pour sauce over chicken, pasta, and broccoli and stir until well combined. 

Comments
This recipe is from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  Alfredo is one of Art’s favorite foods so I’m really not sure why this is the first time I’ve ever cooked it.  It seems like something I would have tried sooner considering how much he loves it!  Maybe I was worried that mine would never stand up to what the restaurants serve?  I’m not sure.  Regardless of this, I finally made alfredo and Art loved it.  This is a pretty mild recipe, but you can easily increase the pepper, or use white pepper, if you’d like those flavors.  It’s nice and creamy and tastes great over the pasta, broccoli and chicken.  I think it might be even better if you grilled the chicken breasts first and then chopped them up for this dish because you’d get that delicious grill flavor in the mix as well.  This was definitely a success!

When waiting for the sauce to thicken you will go through a period where you’re thinking, “is this it?  Is this really thick enough?“  And then BAM, it will get really thick all of a sudden.  Try to wait for that to happen no matter how hard it is to be patient!

Shown here with Caprese Salad.

Internet - The Girl Who Ate Everything

Ingredients
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
12 tablespoons olive oil
6-8 Japanese eggplant, cut into ¹⁄₂ inch slices
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
Pinch sugar
16 basil leaves, torn or cut into small pieces
¹⁄₄ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 pound fettucine, fresh or dried
¹⁄₄ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated

Instructions
1. Cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat until cooked through.  Remove paper towels to absorb excess grease. 

2. Heat 10 tablespoons oil in same skillet over medium heat and fry eggplant slices in batches until light golden brown on outside and soft all the way through.  As each batch is done, set aside on paper towels to absorb excess oil. 

3. Add remaining oil to skillet and sauté garlic until fragrant, about 30 to 60 seconds.  Add tomatoes, sugar, and bring to boil.  Lower heat and simmer until reduced by half, about 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Cut eggplant into bite-size pieces.  Add eggplant, basil, red pepper flakes and sausage to sauce, season to taste with salt and pepper. 

5. Meanwhile, bring large pot of salted water to boil. Cook pasta as directed by packaging.  Drain well, reserving 1 cup pasta cooking water.  Toss pasta with sauce, adding pasta water if necessary.  Serve with Parmesan cheese. 

Comments
This recipe is from the Gourmet Traveller.  I added sausage because we love sausage.  This was super tasty and I probably should have doubled the recipe because I don’t think we had any leftovers at all.  I didn’t cut the eggplant into pieces but it would have been better if I had so that everything was of a similar size.  I used Japanese eggplant from the market, but you could easily use larger eggplant if that’s what you’ve got access to.

Internet - Gourmet Traveller

Ingredients
1 pound short pasta
2 tablespoons butter
12 ounces prosciutto, thinly sliced then cut into small pieces
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
4-5 cups fresh spinach (I used the whole bag shown here.) 10 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups mascarpone cheese
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded or grated
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 cups reserved pasta water

Instructions
1. Bring large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain well, reserving 2 cups of cooking water.  Return pasta to pot and toss with 2 tablespoons butter. 

2.  Sauté prosciutto in large skillet over medium-low heat until it begins to curl and shrink around the edges, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Remove prosciutto to a plate. 

3.  Add 1 to 2 teaspoons olive oil to skillet and sauté garlic and spinach over low heat until garlic is fragrant and spinach has wilted.  Add pasta water to cover bottom of skillet, mascarpone, and lemon peel.  Stir until mascarpone has melted.  Increase heat to medium-low, add Parmesan cheese and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.  If sauce is too dry, add extra pasta water. 

4. In pasta pot or skillet, combine pasta, spinach-cheese sauce, prosciutto, lemon juice, and parsley.  Stir well to combine and add extra pasta water if thinner sauce is desired. 

Comments
This recipe is from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice and it was certainly nice!  It’s hard to go wrong with prosciutto though, it’s such a powerful meat.  In fact it was almost overpowering in this dish!  Thankfully we all love prosciutto and we devoured this both with dinner the night I made it and the next few days with leftovers.  It heated up very well for leftovers, which is always a bonus for a household that relies on dinner leftovers for lunches. 

Lance was very surprised when I informed him that the pasta sauce came from mascarpone cheese, he’s not a super huge lover of cheese but he loved this dish anyway.  I served it with a very simply prepared fish which worked well due to all the strong flavors in the pasta.

If, like me, you are prone to forgetting to reserve pasta water, a good way to remind yourself is to put a measuring cup into the sieve when you put it in the sink before you start cooking.

Shown here with Broiled Cod.

Internet - Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice