Roasted Vegetable Tomato Pasta

I think I crossed a line in making this dish.

This dish calls for vegetables to be roasted at extremely high heat for long periods of time.  Which might not be that big of an issue for most people.  But I chose to make this dish on one of the only hot, humid summer days we've seen in Boston so far. 

And I live in 300 square feet. 

Bad idea on paper.  Even worse idea in reality.

Making this dish filled my tummy with a delicious meal and my fridge with lunch leftovers, but it also made for a very uncomfortable night of sleeping.  Why do I torture myself?  Can't I order takeout like normal Beacon Hillers?

Pasta with Roasted Vegetables:

• 2 zucchinis, chopped in chunks
• 1 onion, quartered
• 1 eggplant, chopped
• 1 or 2 tbsp EVOO
• 4 roma tomatoes, quartered
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 box of pasta - a sauce catching noodle
• Salt/Pepper

The chopping is the most tedious part of this recipe.  Preheat your oven to 400 and start chopping up all your vegetables.  Tomatoes go into a baking dish to roast and the zucchinis, eggplants and onion (tossed with EVOO) go on a rimmed baking sheet. Salt the tomatoes a bit and sprinkle with basil or oregano.

 

 

 

It doesn't really matter which one you roast first.  I did the tomatoes first and then tossed in the vegetables.  Flip a couple times.  You want to roast them for about 35 minutes, giving them a bit of carmelization.  While you're roasting, fire up a salted pot of water and start cooking your pasta.

 



Confession: I ate a lot of these straight off the pan. I love roasted vegetables. Or any vegetable for that matter...

 

 

When the tomatoes are done roasting, they go into a food processor for a few quick pulses until they are pureed.  Life just got easier for me, as my mom and her fiance got me a pretty red food processor for my birthday.  Woo!  It has a much bigger capacity than my mini one and doesn't take up all that much room in my cabinets.

 

 

Now comes the easy part - in a bowl, add your vegetables and tomato puree.  Add in pasta one cup at a time until you reach the desired mix.  I had extra pasta, as I didn't want pasta that didn't feel as though it was covered in sauce.  Sauce is the most important part - pasta is just a vessel in which to shovel lots of sauce into your mouth.  Yep, I said it.

 

Best part of this - low calorie, great caramelized flavor from the vegetables and a very control amount of sodium.  YUM!

 

Lazy, lazy picture taking these days.

 

But delicious!

Pasta with Goat Cheese and Tomatoes

The week I left for Thailand was a very busy week.  I had a full fridge, but also a busy social calendar.  As I was preparing to leave Friday morning, I took a look in my fridge and thought, what a waste.  I had gorgeous tomatoes, goat cheese, fresh arugala, herbs.... so many things that would clearly not make it to the other side of being gone for 11 days. 

So I did what any self respecting person would do.  I cheffed and froze.  Cheffed and froze. Which means that I threw together a pasta dish I had been meaning to make and I literally put everything else into the freezer.  Herbs.  Cheese.  Ricotta.  Leftovers.  In it all well.

It's awesome being single and getting to make judgment calls like this. 

With everything packed and ready to go for Thailand, I whipped out the i4 and got to work on a recipe I had been drooling over at The Chubby Cook.  I haven't met Scott, but I consistently drool over the amazing creations that come out of his kitchen.  And his food photography is top notch.  Head over there and prepare to get hungry.

Pasta with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes and Argula (as adapted from The Chubby Cook)

• 1 box rotini or other pasta which will catch the sauce
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, rinsed and dried, or four medium size tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 ounces goat cheese
• 2 cups loosely packed arugula
• Salt and Fresh Cracked Pepper

See what I am talking about here?  These tomatoes were gorgeous and just asking to be cheffed up.  It would have been a crying shame to let them go bad.  If you can't find cherry tomatoes (neither Trader Joes, nor Shaw's had any!), you can go with four or so really good looking tomatoes.  When sliced, try to retain the juices, this is a key element in making the sauce. 

You know the drill - heat a tablespoon of EVOO in a pan.  Once it's hot, add in the tomatoes.  Keep these moving around the pan so they don't burn.  The juices will start to loosen out of the slices and the tomatoes will begin to soften. If you're using cherry or grape tomatoes, some will start to burst.  Cook about six minutes and add in the garlic for another few minutes.   There's no science to it, so feel it out.

Now it's time to add in the goat cheese.  You're going to go from red to pink almost immediately.  I didn't need any extra salt, but it did definitely need some fresh ground black pepper.  Depending on how thin your sauce is at this point, add your reserved pasta water to achieve desired consistency.  I didn't need any at all.  Remove from heat and add in argula.  Stir to wilt it a bit into the sauce.   

Take your pasta in bowl, add in the sauce.... and

SERVE! 

 I topped with a bit of parmesan. And at 9 o'clock in the morning, right before I left on a 20 hour trip to Thailand, I ate a bowl of this. Awesome. It's fresh. It's light feeling. It's tasty and I can't believe how fast it all came together. I packaged the leftover into tupperwares and into the freezer they went. You know, along with the rest of the goat cheese, ricotta, herbs...  I then quickly did some dishes, wiped down the kitchen and plopped on the couch for a moment of peace before heading off on the vacation of a lifetime.

Walnut-Sage Pesto Pasta

Happy Valentine's Day!  To all of you in a relationship, go nuts!  Do something special for each other and share something uniquely the two of you!  To all of you who are rocking independence - don't sweat it!  It's just a Hallmark Holiday, that shouldn't make you feel any less awesome than any other day.

I've ripped this recipe out of a magazine at the gym probably four weeks ago.  I'm not sure why I haven't made it yet, I've had all the ingredients.  I finally got around to making this last night and it was extremely tasty.  And easy - I think 20 minutes top to put it all together.

Walnut-Sage Pesto Pasta

• 1/3 cup walnuts
• 6 ounces dried pasta of your choosing
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 packed Tbsp fresh whole sage leaves
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 2 Tbsp EVOO
• 4 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat up your oven to 350.  Pour out your walnuts onto a baking sheet and bake for roughly 8 minutes.  Toast until light golden brown and fragrant.  Set aside to cool.

Before toasting

After toasting

While the walnuts are toasting, get a salted pot of hot water going on the stove.  Cook your pasta according to the instructions.  Be sure to reserve the pasta water, you're going to need some of it later.

Sage... so fresh, so fragrant!

Combine your parsley, sage leaves, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor or blender.

Give it a solid whiiiirrrrlllll until it's finely pulsed into a pesto like consistency.  Add in the EVOO, blend.  Add in 3 tablespoons Parmesan and give it a final pulse or two.

In a bowl, add pesto and a 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water.

Add in your pasta and mix well.

Now, you might realize that yours looks more green than mine does.  That is because I completely forgot to add in the parsley!  Ugh!  Such a crucial, crucial ingredient!  Don't get me wrong, my dish, sans parsley, was really good, but I think the lighter, fresher taste of the parsley would have changed the dish considerably.  Mine was very rich, and very heavy.  I ate it as my entrée, but it was probably better suited as a side dish. I must really remember to slow down and read a recipe in it's entirety!

Continue to add in pasta water in small batches, to create a creamier sauce.  You won't need much, but it's helpful to loosen up the noodles and builds a bit of light sauce to coat the noodles.

Serve in bowls and top with remaining Parmesan cheese.  Crack some fresh pepper over the top... and Bon Appetit!!!

My new Nikon took these pictures!  I love it!

A Minnesotan Christmas Eve Meal

I have had free reign on my cooking creativity for quite a few months now.  My sous chef (slash dining companion) has an adventurous palate and an open mind - a quality that rates extremely high on my list.  He may give an honest opinion, but at least he'll be open to guinea pig status.  (In turn, I promise takeout if my food sucks.)

So my mom sent me an email a few weeks ago saying she didn't have any good ideas of what to make for Christmas Eve meal at her fiancee's house.  I automatically jumped at the chance to design a menu.  Visions of stuffed mushrooms, simply simple sweet potatoes, rosemary bread rolls and the like danced in my head.  I had an extravagantly delicious meal mentally planned... and then I was brought back down to earth.  Mom informed me that mushrooms were not liked and sweet potatoes were not preferred.  This was my Minnesotan family, and unfortunately adventurous palates are not part of their personalities.  So I was tasked with designing a menu that I felt proud of while suiting the rather bland taste buds of my family. 

Enter the dilemna of chefs trying to cook for a group of people.  I'm not the first to encounter such a challenge, nor will this be my last.

I enlisted my mother as a trusty sous chef (and dish washer) and away we went:

• Slow Roasted Turkey and Sausage Apple Stuffing 
• 12 pound Turkey was slow roasted at 325 degrees for 4.5 hours.  Slow roasting requires less basting than higher temps.  I stuffed the turkey with the stuffing, and put the rest into a casserole dish - it went in with the turkey for the last 30 minutes.

I was busy cooking, so I forgot to take a picture of the final product, but I can assure you my turkey and stuffing looked semi similar to this one.  (Righhhhhhhhhhhtttt...)

• Buttermilk Parmesan Mash Potatoes 
• I made these as is.  Although I would have preferred to use a potato masher to make these, my mom's fiancee didn't have one.  Against my will, I was forced to use a beater to mash the potatoes.  Use extreme caution - over beating potatoes with a mixer/beater can result in potatoes that have the consistency of glue.  Also, be sure to use warm milk - it keeps the potatoes from getting too starchy.  Milk can be room temperature or simmered before adding to potatoes.

• Broccoli Au Gratin with Parmesan Toasted Breadcrumbs 
• our Burnsville Cub Foods didn't have Gruyere cheese, plus I thought it might be too much for my family's limited palate, so I used a mixture of grated parm and mozzerella.  I used a considerable amount more than the recipe called for as well - probably a cup.  I also toasted the breadcrumbs in a skillet - melted butter, add breadcrumbs, small amount of grated parm, keep it moving.  Added a delicious crunch. 

Excellent stuffing making an appearance in the background.

• Spicy Green Beans 
• this was my favorite dish.  Probably because it was so clean (my mom tells me I eat clean, and after this Christmas feast, I feel like crap and totally believe her).  I added a PINCH of crushed red pepper and sauted with the garlic.  This added a perfect amount of kick - not overbearing, but enough flavor. 

• Holiday Mac 'n' Cheese
• created from a mix of this and this.  Basically, I made a Roux (mix of flour and mix, whisked well) and I whisked the heck out of it until it was boiling, then continued to boil and whisk for about two minutes until it was thick.  Once it was thick, I removed from heat, added a ridiculous amount of medium cheddar, mozzerella and a chipotle jack.  (In a Kelley world, I would have used a blue, a gouda, and other exciting cheeses, but again, MN family - God love 'em.)  Then I had my mom earn her keep, put some back into it and stir away until then were melted.  This was my most disapointing dish.  After Marry Me Mac 'n' Cheese, this toned down "safe" dish just didn't make me want to marry myself.  Actually, I probably wouldn't have even made out with myself drunk at a skeevy bar.  Regardless, my  mom liked it and she was happy, so all was right in the world.

Overall, I think I did pretty well.  My mom was a HUGE help.  I have always wondered why anyone might possible need a double oven... and yesterday I learned why they come in handy.  Sweet Baby Jesus.... I had a mild panic attack thinking of my 4.5 hour turkey taking up the entire oven.... how would I possible heat my other dishes?  But I tented the turkey after I pulled it out to keep the heat in and threw all the other dishes in the oven for 30 minutes while my mom's fiancee carved the turkey.  In the end, all was warm, all was cooked.

Success!

Slow Cooker Tomato Rotini Soup

Want to wake up, throw some ingredients in a pot and arrive home 8 to 9 hours later to a delicious home cooked meal?  Below is the simplest soup recipe... if you mess this up - I suggest you plan to live on take out for the rest of your life.

Slow Cooker Tomato Rotini Soup:

• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 4 cups tomato juice
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 medium carrots, sliced (about 1 cup)
• 2 medium stalks of celery, chopped (about 1 cups)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 1/2 cups rotini pasta (about 4.5 ounces)
• Shredded Parmesan cheese, optional.

Four Steps:
1 - Chop ingredients

2 - Throw in a crock pot, set for 8 to 9 hours on high

3 - come home from work, add pasta.
4 - Cook for 20 to 30 minutes on low and serve.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.  What I can tell you is that I added WAY too much pasta.  I did much closer to the whole box (okay, fine, I did the whole box) and the result is less soup like and more pasta like.  It's still soupy - like a minestrone in both flavor and consistency - but the pasta was overkill.  I should have stuck to the recipe.

Also - it makes about 1,000 servings.  My freezer is filled with tupperware of this soup and I've eaten it for lunch for three days in a row now.  It's very good - but next time I would half the recipe.  My freezer isn't that big!

Farfalle with Tomatoes, Onions and Spinach

Need a quick, easy, AND healthy weekday meal?  I got one for ya:

Farfalle with Tomatoes, Onions and Spinach from Cooking Light:
1 tablespoon, plus 1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces uncooked farfalle pasta (or pasta or your choice)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped vertically chopped yellow onion
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 cups baby spinach
3 tablespoons fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
3/4 cup crumbled feta

To get started, cook your pasta.  You can use a variety of different pasta shapes.  I knew there were a lot of different pasta types, but I didn't know there were this many.  This is a useful website for learning more about what types of pasta work best for various different dishes.

Don't forget to quick rinse your pasta when it's done cooking in either cool water, or a splash of EVOO.

As it seems many of my dishes lately start out this way - olive in a medium heat pan- saute onions and oregano.  There's about 12 minutes on this.

Add garlic, saute for another 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes and vinegar.  I didn't realize that I didn't have white wine vinegar - so I used a mix of both white wine and regular white vinegar - about two tablespoons of each.

Heat until tomatoes soften.

Once the tomatoes are softened, add pasta and spinach and continue to heat until spinach softens a bit - about two or three minutes.

Sprinkle with Feta and freshly ground black pepper and serve!

It seemed too easy.  It took hardly any time, was light on calories, fresh.... and surprisingly flavorful.  I thought it would be sort of boring given it's lack of any "sauce", but it was really good.  I even went back for seconds.

Shrimp fra Diavolo

I have a new love in my life and it's called Shrimp fra Diavolo.

Seriously.  I love it.  I'm drooling a bit over my keyboard just thinking about it.  Below is an incredibly easy recipe that takes zero time - perfect for a weeknight after a long day of working.

Shrimp fra Diavolo

Pasta (of your choosing)

Olive Oil

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic - minced

16 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 to 3 teaspoons red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon basil

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 to 1 pound of shrimp

1/8 cup parsley, chopped

Shaved Parmesan

Step 1: Heat Olive Oil and sauté onions until translucent and soft.  Add garlic and sauté for a two more minutes.

Step 2: Add in herbs and red pepper flakes.  I used about 2.5 teaspoons of red pepper flakes and my sauce was pretty fiery.  Had some kick.  Made ya sweat.  So if that's not your thing, I would suggest using less.  I will probably do just over 1.5 tsps next time.  Allow the herbs and peppers to sauté into the onions - about a minute.

Step 3:  Add canned tomatoes and parsley to the sauce pan and reduce heat.  Simmer for about 20 minutes.  Stirring frequently.

Step 4: Add a little evoo to a pan and lightly sear your shrimp, heating until pink, but not overcooking. 

Step 5: Chef pasta according to package instructions.  I choose a wheat angel hair.  Strain, set aside.

Step 6: Add shrimp to the sauce and allow to heat together for a minute or two.

Step 7:   Serve over pasta and top with shaved Parmesan and chopped parsley.

Step 8: Pour yourself a glass of red wine and enjoy!

Calories:  This is a low cal dish.  Keep it light by not over using the EVOO and not overdoing it on the pasta.  I like to eat pasta out of a bowl instead of a plate - it keeps your portions down.  One pasta serving size is 220 calories - which is about the size of one hand cupped.  

Shrimp fra Diavolo- so healthy and so tasty!

Ravioli Vegetable Soup

There's been a clear chill in the air lately... a very familiar Fall crispness has arrived.  It's time to pull out the down comforters, throw open the windows and park your butt on the couch on Sundays.  It's also time to dig out the crock pots and start making some seriously warm and hearty meals.  As I planned out a weeks worth of menus this past weekend, I saw a glaring trend - most everything was very fall feeling - squash, apples, pumpkin, soups.  Subconsciously, I must be ready for a change in season.

I bring to you:

Ravioli Vegetable Soup
1 bag of frozen peppers, thawed and chopped
2 cloves minced garlic (or crushed)
1 Tbsn Olive Oil
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 can of crushed tomatoes
1.5 cups of water
20 oz of chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 package of ravioli of your choosing (anywhere from 6 to 14 ounces is fine)
1 zucchini
1 Tbsp of dried basil
Salt/Pepper to taste


Heat a little EVOO in a saucepan and when heated, add in peppers, garlic and red pepper.  Allow to cook for a few minutes, constantly stirring as to not stick to the bottom of the pan.  Let the flavors heat together as you saute.  Take a deep breath..... this is one of my favorite smells.  Peppers and garlic... OH MY!

Add in your tomatoes, broth, water and basil.  Allow to come to a boil. Again, keep stirring.  You don't want to burn any to the bottom of your pan.

Once boiling, add in your raviolis.  According to the recipe I followed, you're supposed to cook them three minutes less than directed on the package.  I imagine this is so they don't get mushy.  Don't sweat this... I didn't time mine.... I was doing dishes and I turned around and they had floated to the top.  This was a clear sign to hurry up and move on to the next step. Typically, when raviolis float, they are done cooking.

Attention!  We've got floaters!

Reduce heat a bit and add zucchini's.  Cook on medium heat until they are firm/tender/soft.  Not too soft... not too firm.  Fine balance.  (As you can see here, I clearly need a BIGGER saucepan.)  (And someone to clean up this splattery disaster on my stove.)

Add fresh ground pepper to the soup and serve.  Ta-da!

This homemade soup was wicked easy to make... and what I love most about it is that you can tailor to your tastes.  Love Zucchini?  Add more, add less.  If the soup feels to thick, add more broth.  Mix up your herbs to add different flavor.  Go nuts kids, it's your show.  It was a perfect creation for a leisurely Sunday.

I got five separate servings of this.  I separated into tupperwares and froze two of them for a later date.  If you decide to freeze, fill up to the top of the tupperware, leaving about a cm or half inch free.  This will allow the soup to expand a bit (which it will), but not so much that it forces itself out of the tupperware.  But it also reduces the space for freezer burn, so you can keep it frozen longer.

Total calories:  Approximately 1,200 - five servings: 240 each.

Marry Me Mac & Cheese

Sometimes I get so inspired by an idea that I just can't fathom not doing it rightthatsecond.  I have limited patience.  I am impulsive.  I am okay with these traits and believe they should be embraced.  Especially when they lead me to the dish I am about to share with you.

Remember the fabulous picnic I had recently?  Believe it or not, not all of the cheese was consumed in the original picnic (that would have been a miracle).  I have had three blocks of cheese stankin' up my fridge for a few weeks now.  And believe me, when you live in 350 square feet, cheese stankin' up your fridge means cheese is stankin' up your entire studio.  It needed to be dealt with.  And since I value my pennies these days (meaning I would not throw it out), I went to the intraweb for some inspiration.  Once I came across a Mac & Cheese, I browsed several recipes.  I didn't find one that I thought fit perfectly, so I used them more as a guide.  I could not wait to get home and put my ideas to work.  So I didn't wait - I went home and cheffed it up over my lunch hour.  Impulsive much?

Marry Me Mac & Cheese

1.5 cups of Milk

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp Flour

2.5 cups Soft Cheeses - cubed

1 Tbsp herbs

8 oz pasta shells

Heat the milk and butter in a saucepan.  Watch closely - the milk should not boil.  Make sure the pan is big enough to accommodate all the cheeses later on.  I splurged with whole milk because there's not anything even remotely healthy about this and whole milk makes things taste better because it's thicker.  

That's right kids - I'm living on the edge with my whole milk.  WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! Somebody hold me back!

Delicious Blue Cheese

Note about the cheese:  you want to use soft cheeses.  Cheeses that will melt well. Parmasean is not an example of this.  I used a gouda, a blue cheese and a Mobay.  Oh, what's that you say?  You don't know what Mobay is?  NEITHER DID I.  Despite growing up a second and a half away from Wisconsin, I don't know jack about cheese.  Especially not fancy cheese.  I stood in front of the cheese case at the Trader Joes for an extraordinarly unecessary amount of time pondering.  In the end, exhaustion won out and Mobay happened to be within reach.

Mobay... moldy crusts removed.

I WIN!  Even if on a technicality... 

Once the milk is near a boil - add flour and whisk.  Keep whisking.  Do not let sit.  If you keep whisking, the mixture will thicken up a bit and you want this.  Takes about a minute.  You'll know when it ready because it will be thicker and fluffier.

Now, reduce the heat to low and add in your cheese.  Keep stirring as the cheeses begin to soften.  Keep stirring until all the chunks are melted.  The blue melted first in my cheese, so my first tastes were sort of nervewracking... leading me to believe that I possible had created a lethal cheese combination.  But once it's all melted and smooth, take a taste.  Isn't that AMAZING?  Don't you at the very least want to date yourself?  I did.  Mine was so damn good, I would have proposed to myself right then and there.  I love cheese. And my genius self.

Step 1

Keep working it....

Exactly!

Pour over your shells of choice and into a glass baking dish.  I chopped up some bay leaves and threw in some rosemary and thyme.  Other good spices would be sage, but I didn't have any on hand.


Toss in the oven at 375 and bake for about 25 minutes until the shells have browned a little bit on top.  If you are out of time, you can make ahead of time and refrigerate until you're ready to bake.  Making it right away is probably better though as the cheese breaks down a bit if you cool and then reheat in the oven.  Don't get me wrong, it's still really good, but I have a feeling it is not QUITE as good as it would have been if made right away.

Divine.  Delicious. Easy.

Give it go!  This recipe is merely a guide - jazz it up with your favorite cheeses and herbs!  Such a major upgrade from the typical box cheddar stuff - but barely more work.


What cheese would you use to make your own version of Marry Me Mac & Cheese?