Category: Pasta

Spinach-and-Ricotta Tortelli with Browned Butter

Recipe here.

I knew when I saw this recipe that, as appealing as it looked, it was going to be a fair amount of work.  I’ve had it sitting in the “someday when we have a lot of free time on our hands” pile for quite some time, just waiting for the perfect day.  I  knew that the kids would want to help with the stuffing and rolling, so it had to be a time when every one was home (difficult) and didn’t have other compelling things to do (near-impossible.)  It was time-consuming, but not terribly, and it took a little patience to get the hang of rolling the tortelli, but it was easiest than I thought and we were more successful than I had feared we might be.  All of the tortellis remained intact during cooking (I cannot boast this level of success with previous homemade ravioli attempts) and they were VERY tasty.  Well worth the effort and definitely something we will be doing again.  After running the pasta disks through the pasta machine, they became VERY long and unwieldy strips, so I cut them in half, but that turned out to be a mistake later, because I was not able to cut as many dough circles out of them.  We consequently had about a third of our spinach-ricotta filling left and our batch of dough made less tortellis than the recipe specified.  I’ll correct this next time by using a slightly larger circle cutter (I have another one that is 3 inches across) and using slightly more filling in each one.  We’ll be trying this again (now that the kids have mastered tortelli-shaping) and maybe experiment with different fillings and/or sauces.

Our batch only made about 52 tortelli, although the recipe states approximately 80.  I think I know what we did wrong, though, and will correct this next time.

We served the tortelli with some sauteed green beans and a grilled New York Strip steak (we just buy one steak and cut it into small strips to split three ways, amongst the carnivores in the family.)  Vegetarian Girl just had green beans and pasta.

We also sipped a lovely Syrah-Sangiovese blend that we brought back from Italy last summer.  We were saving it for a special occasion and figured that making our own stuffed pasta from scratch qualified as one.

Pasta with Squash-Sausage-Sage Sauce

Recipe here.

This was easy-peasy, very low-fat and quite tasty.

I made a few substitutions to the original recipe:

For Vegetarian Girl, I left out the sausage, of course.

I used linguini that I had on hand, rather than make my own pasta.

I deglazed the pan with 1/4 cup of white wine, rather than the specified chicken stock, just to add more flavor and a bit of acid to balance out the rich flavors of the cheese and squash.

This was a great, filling rainy-night dinner.

Chickpea Pasta with Almonds and Parmesan

From January 2008 Real Simple magazine.  Recipe here.

This was quite good and was ridiculously fast and easy.

A one-pan pasta meal?  Unheard of!

I used spaghetti instead of vermicelli, because I already had some.  It took a little longer than 6 minutes to cook, but not much more.  The reduced stock makes a tasty, glaze-y sort of sauce.

The crushed red pepper adds a bit of a kick, so if your family/kids are particularly heat sensitive, feel free to cut back a bit.  Those that like more spice can always add more at the table, although the amount of heat wasn’t too much for my kids at their current ages, it might have been “too spicy, Mom!!!” when they were younger.

We, of course, used vegetable stock to accommodate the Veggie Girl, but I will say that, although this pasta was very nice, it would have been MUCH better with chicken stock instead.  If you’re a carnivore, a bit of cooked, crumbled bacon on top would have been pretty fabulous, too.  We served it with salad topped with balsamic vinaigrette and garlic croutons.

Acorn Squash Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Recipe here.

This lasagna was OUTSTANDING.  I will definitely be making it again.  Boy hasn’t historically been a big fan of lasagna, because he’s not wild about tomato sauce (although he’s getting MUCH more open-minded lately,) but he loved this mellow, rich sauce.  It was SO good.  My only criticism is that I don’t really care for the “no bake” noodles.  They just never seem to reach the right texture; they’re always still just a bit too chewy.  It all depends upon the consistency of your sauce and how much available liquid there is for the noodles to absorb, so maybe I overcooked my sauce and it was too thickened for the noodles to cook in, but, either way, I will be using “regular” noodles when I make this again.

Even with the chewy noodles, though, this was fantastic.

Spaghetti with Roasted Cauliflower with Bacon Herbed Breadcrumbs

Recipe here.

This was REALLY delicious.  To adapt for Vegetarian Girl, I just set aside a few of the breadcrumbs without bacon for her to use.  I also added the parsley to the pasta, rather than to the breadcrumbs.

This made a HUGE amount of pasta.  We ate this for dinner one night and lunch another and then I still had a bit left over that I froze for Hubby to have for lunch sometime in the future.  There’s not a lot of cauliflower in each portion, because it cooks down so much as it roasts, so if you want more veggies and not so much pasta, I would use more (double?) the amount of cauliflower or add some other veggies (thawed frozen peas?  chopped fresh spinach?)

Middle Eastern-Style Flank Steak and Orecchiette with Brussels Sprouts, Gorgonzola, and Brown-Butter Pecans

This dinner tasted a lot better than my stinky photo makes it look.  I overcooked the steak a little bit and I undercooked the brussels sprouts a little bit, but both dishes tasted WONDERFUL.  The pasta was very rich and cheesy and creamy and the steak had just enough spice on it.  Girl, of course, only ate the pasta, and the meat was a tiny bit too spicy for Boy, but he still ate it enthusiastically.  The leftovers would be great tucked into a pita with some tzatziki and lettuce.

I highly recommend d’Arenberg Stump Jump Shiraz with this.  There’s a straight shiraz and there’s a shiraz-mourvedre-grenache blend.  They’re both good, but the straight shiraz is better and the 2008 is better than the 2007, but even the 2007 blend is still pretty good.

These recipes are, again, from Fine Cooking’s website, but I’m including the links…just in case.

Orecchiette recipe here.

Flank steak recipe here.

Multigrain Pasta with Pistou Forestier

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Finished dish (missing the creme fraiche…if you make it exactly according to the recipe, yours will be “creamier”)
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Mushrooms, before roasting
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Finished pistou
I found this fabulous recipe (recipe here) on Serious Eats. It was written by Kerry Saretsky, whose recipes are a never-fail for me. This girl knows her stuff. My favorite Salmon with Lentils recipe is hers, too.
The Girl has recently become a vegetarian, so it has required some creativity to please her at the dinner table, while keeping my two resident confirmed carnivores happy. This dish is rich and hearty enough to be a vegetarian main course (round it out with some salad and a nice dessert,) but is light and healthy enough to be a first (pasta) course, if served in small portions.
OK, now confession time…I didn’t do the prosciutto crisps and the herb chips, because it was just too fussy for your ordinary weeknight. If, however, I were serving this for a dinner party, etc., I would absolutely do them. I also completely goofed up and forgot to add the creme fraiche. At all. And it was still fabulous. Obviously, if I do it again, I will definitely add it, because…pass up creme fraiche? Intentionally? I don’t think so.
Oh, also? I used linguine pasta because I couldn’t find the brand that I wanted in spaghetti pasta.

Chicken Breasts with Orzo, Carrots, Dill, and Avgolemono Sauce

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Chicken Breasts with Orzo, Carrots, Dill and Avgolemono Sauce from Food & Wine magazine
(click here for recipe)
Another dinner that I brought to my brother and sister-in-law, who have a brand new cutie patootie baby.
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I actually tripled the recipe that night and also brought dinner to my friend, S., and her family, as S. has been ill. We also had it for dinner at our house. I was looking for something that would be kid-friendly and fairly universally appealing (nothing too strange, unfamiliar or exotic), since I was making it for so many different people. It was a big job (cooking for 12 people!), but this recipe was actually simpler than it seems.
The only modification that I made was to toast the orzo (in a large skillet, over medium-high heat with a TINY bit of olive oil, just until golden-toasty brown, stirring frequently so that it browns evenly) before cooking it. Doing this adds a wonderful, nutty flavor to the finished dish. I really can’t imagine why the instructions skipped this step, because I always do that when I cook orzo. In my mind, it’s not optional. Oh, and I also cut the carrots into “coins,” rather than matchsticks. Here’s a photo of the orzo, pre and post-toasting:
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This dinner was quite yummy and definitely something that I will make again. It was a hit for all of the recipients, as well. The avgolemono (basically, just Greek lemon sauce, thickened with egg) sauce was delicious and would be good over asparagus, too. My only issue with the recipe is that because the chicken is simmered for a while in a covered pot, it was a bit difficult to judge when it was done. I have a digital thermometer with a probe that can be attached that will beep to alert you when your food has reached the desired pre-set temperature and it was very helpful in cooking the chicken. When I make this again, however, I might brown the chicken in the pan and then finish it in the oven (again, with the assistance of the thermometer,) just to be sure that the chicken doesn’t overcook and get tough or stringy.