Rigatoni with Sausage, Peppers and Onions

I wrote down this recipe from Giada de Laurentis' Everyday Italian at least two years ago and I'm so glad I've reconnected with it and finally made it. This is a wonderful pasta dish, unlike anything I have ever made, I think. It's rich and flavourful and the addition of the red wine makes it a truly special dish.

It was a little time consuming to make, but worth every minute. To help make this into a weeknight meal, it would be easy to make the sauce ahead and the toss it with pasta when ready to serve. We enjoyed it on a Sunday, which is the day I truly enjoy spending time in the kitchen and I was so happy to sit down and finally enjoy this one. This is definitely one for the regular rotation.

Rigatoni with Sausage, Peppers and Onions
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage
• 2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and sliced
• 2 yellow onions, sliced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 cup Marsala wine
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• freshly grated parmesan cheese, for garnish

Directions

• Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until brown on all sides, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove the sausages from the pan.
• Keeping the pan over medium heat, add the red peppers, onions, salt and pepper and cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, oregano and basil and cook for 2 minutes. 
• Add the tomato paste and stir until incorporated, then add the Marsala, tomatoes with juice and red pepper flakes, if using. Stir to combine, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release all the brown bits. Bring to a simmer.
• Cut the sausages into 4-6 pieces each. Return the sausages to the pan. Simmer uncovered until the sauce has thickened, about 20 minutes.
• While the sauce simmers, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta. 
• Drain the pasta and add to the thickened sauce and toss to combine. Spoon into individual serving bowls and garnish with parmesan cheese.

Recipe from Giada de Laurentis' Everyday Italian

Spaghetti with Quick Meat Sauce

As a wedding gift, I got the pasta maker attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. It could easily be one of those gadgets that languishes in the cupboard collecting dust, but surprisingly, I use it quite regularly. It's usually pulled out when I'm making something for company, but since that hasn't happened in awhile, I thought it would be a treat for T and I to enjoy some fresh pasta.

Since the process of making pasta though is a little lengthy, the idea of a quick sauce to go with it sounded brilliant. What was also amazing about this sauce is that it's an easy vehicle to hide veggies in for unsuspecting picky diners (I'm looking at you, Dad). The second time I made this, I added red and yellow peppers and it was even better.


Spaghetti with Quick Meat Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 12 ounces spaghetti
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3/4 pound extra lean ground beef
• kosher salt and pepper
• 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Directions

• Cook the pasta according to package directions
• Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, garlic and cook, stirring occasionally until soft, about 8-10 minutes
• Increase heat to medium high. Add the beef, 3/4 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon until no longer pink; about 5 minutes. 
• Add the tomatoes and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens, about five minutes. Add the parsley.
• Serve the pasta with the sauce and sprinkle with the parmesan

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef

Another wonderful make-ahead dinner is stuffed shells with ground beef. I have made a similar dish with ricotta and spinach and the premise is the same -- make ahead and bake what you need. Perfect for a healthy weeknight meal.

These are hearty shells, full of ground beef and loads of cheese. Serving them with sour cream is decadent and it's almost like eating a plate of nachos. In fact, my dad, who shared this recipe, even tops them with crumpled nacho chips for an added crunchy texture.

Stuffed Shells with Ground Beef
Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 pound extra lean ground beef
• 6 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature cut into cubes (3/4 of a box of cream cheese)
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1 package of Taco seasoning (make as directed with a cup of water to mix)
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese
• 20 large pasta shells

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• In a large saute pan, cook ground beef and drain off fat
• Add cubed cream cheese, chili powder and mixed taco sauce. Help the cream cheese to blend by pressing on it with a spoon
• Let simmer gently but don't boil off the taco sauce, keep it fairly runny
• Meanwhile, cook 20 pasta shells, then strain under cold water
• Use a soup spoon to stuff each shell carefully (open the shell in the palm of your hand with the points between your thumb and little finger, spoon in mixture with the other hand. This is easiest if the mixture is cooled, too)
• Place each shell in a buttered, oven proof dish meat side up
• Cover and cook for at least 15 minutes (if just out of the fridge, cook for about 30 minutes)
• Remove from oven and cover with cheeses and broil until cheese is bubbling
• Serve with sour cream

Summer Garden Pasta

I was recently given a gift certificate for Indigo and I knew exactly what I wanted to buy -- a cookbook by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. For years, I have enjoyed watching her on the Food Network for her simple, classic recipes and she always just looks so happy cooking! Though I guess if I had her kitchen in the Hamptons, I might too!

Anyway, so I just got two of her books in the mail and they are beautiful. Nice glossy pages with beautiful photos and I was immediately inspired to make three dishes of hers and they were all easy and full of flavour.

The first I made was the summer garden pasta. Angel hair pasta topped with a simple mixture of cherry tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil and garlic. You had to marinade the sauce for a few hours before so all the flavours infused together and it smelled like nothing else. I couldn't wait to eat this one!

Ingredients
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa at Home

• fresh angel hair pasta (make your own using this recipe)
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves freshly minced garlic
• 10 leaves fresh basil, chiffonaded
• 1 cup grated fresh parmesan
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• In a bowl, combine cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil and salt and pepper. Toss and let sit for about four hours.
• Bring large pot of salted water to a boil and cook pasta. Drain.
• Put tomato mixure in a large pan and warm. Add in pasta and toss, fully coating pasta. Add parmesan and stir, letting it melt throughout.
• Serve warm with more parmesan and basil for presentation.

Orzo with Parmesan and Basil

This simple dish is a cross between risotto and macaroni and cheese. It was a super easy weeknight meal and you could enjoy it like we did as a main, but it would also be great as a side dish. This is also one of those great flexible dishes where you can really just add anything you want. For example, I didn't have enough parmesan, so I tossed in some herb and garlic cream cheese. I love those dishes where anything goes!

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup uncooked orzo pasta
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Melt butter in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat 
• Stir in orzo pasta and saute until lightly browned
• Stir in chicken stock and bring to a boil
• Reduce heat and simmer until orzo is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes
• Mix in parmesan cheese and basil
• Season with salt and pepper to taste

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Download the printable recipe for Orzo with Parmesan and Basil

Speedy Beef Stroganoff

Beef stroganoff is one of my favourite meals. It's one of those meals that I could enjoy all the time, and now that I know how to make it, I just might. 

This is easy to make, and not that expensive. It makes a solid four portions, which is what I look for on a weeknight that I can get two nights out of it. You could use various cuts of meat, but I actually just grabbed a package of beef stirfry strips, which meant that they were pre-cut and quick to cook.

Give this a try on a weeknight. You won't regret it.

Ingredients

• 1 lb beef or pork tenderloin, sliced into one inch strips
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 1/4 cups beef stock
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 3 tsp butter
• two green onions
• pkg of egg noodles

Directions

• In a large pan, melt 1 tsp butter a cook onion for about 4 minutes until tender.

• Add beef/pork strips and cook until no longer pink, about 5 or 6 minutes.

• Remove onion and meat from pan. Melt remaining butter in same pan and cook mushrooms on medium heat for about 3 or 4 minutes.

• In another bowl, mix beef stock, sour cream, dijon mustard and worcestershire sauce.

• Add meat and onion back into pan and pour stock mixture over it. 

• Let simmer for a few minutes. 

• Pour over rice or egg noodles and sprinkle with green onion.

Print recipe for Speedy Beef Stroganoff

Easy Cheesy Macaroni

For years, I have had a secret love affair with Kraft Dinner. My mom (smartly) refused to serve it, so it was always a treat to go to someone else's house where it was a staple. There's nothing like writing your name in ketchup on those cheesy noodles!

I have however, come a long way with my culinary tastes, and while I'm still a pretty plain food eater, I do love me some cheesy pasta. So, on a wet, cold and awful day, I decided it was about time to learn how to make my own macaroni and cheese. And four cups of pasta and one entire large brick of cheese later, I sat down to some ooey-gooey goodness.

Now, as a new cook, I don't seem to understand recipes very well. Let me save you the trouble here: 4 cups of pasta and an entire large brick of cheese will leave you with enough macaroni to serve an army -- or least two people for five dinners. I will provide the whole recipe here, but you might want to cut it in half for two weeknight meals. I speak from experience.

Either way, the first couple of days we really enjoyed the treat. Certainly a rich and decadent dinner, though!

Ingredients

• 4 cups Dried Macaroni
• 1 egg beaten
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 2-½ cups milk
• 2 teaspoons (heaping) Dry Mustard
• 1 pound grated cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

Cook macaroni until very firm. Macaroni should be too firm to eat right out of the pot. Drain.

In a small bowl, beat egg.

In a large pot, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over medium-low heat. Cook mixture for five minutes, whisking constantly. Don’t let it burn.

Pour in milk, add mustard, and whisk until smooth. Cook for five minutes until very thick. Reduce heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and slowly pour it into beaten egg, whisking constantly to avoid cooking eggs. Whisk together till smooth.

Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth.

Add in cheese and stir to melt.

Add salt and pepper. Do not under salt!
Pour in drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine.

Serve immediately (very creamy) OR pour into a buttered baking dish, top with extra cheese, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top.

(before baking)

(after baking)

** I much preferred the creamy version before it was baked, but T enjoyed the baked version better. It's nice to try both. You could also add different toppings, such as fresh tomatoes or steamed broccoli
 
Recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Easy Cheesy Tortellini Bake

I love East Side Mario's Cheese Cappelletti. When I used to go for dinner with my skating team at competitions, we would get 30 orders of it. Thinking about it actually makes my mouth water. It is that good.

Well, I have stumbled upon a really close second. It's cheesy and delicious and the awesome thing is that this is hardly even a recipe really because it has just FOUR ingredients. It was such a no-brainer I wasn't even thinking of blogging about it (really, it's hardly cooking), but it is so good that I couldn't keep it to myself.

It would be really easy to personalize this dish by adding tomato, different kinds of cheeses or even different pasta. This is going to be a staple in our house for sure.

Ingredients

• one can tomato soup
• one can milk (fill up the empty can of tomato soup to measure)
• one package of fresh tortellini
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

In an oven safe dish, pour tomato soup and equal amount of milk. Stir. 

Add UNCOOKED tortellini -- yes, straight out of the package. 

Stir to coat. 

Place in oven at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Stir once or twice during this time so all tortellini cooks evenly.

At 40 minutes, spread mozzarella over top and put back in oven on Broil for 10 minutes until cheese is bubbling and browning.

That's it. So easy, so amazing.

Tortellini with Sausage and Peppers in a White Wine Cream Sauce

This pasta dish is rich and delicious and perfect for a cold, rainy night inside with a glass of wine. 

I am still working on my organization in the kitchen and this recipe certainly tested my skills. At one point, I had something on each of the four elements on the stove. But everything came together (after some tense moments!) and it was a great dinner. The clean up? Not as great...

Ingredients

• One package of fresh tortellini (or another cheese-stuffed pasta)
• 2 mild italian sausages
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 medium onion
• 3/4 cup cream (10% is best, but if you have higher, you might want to dilute with milk)
• 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup white wine (optional)

Directions

Remove the casing from the sausages by slicing it down the centre and peeling it off. 

(yes, the recipe says two sausages, but I cooked five to have them on hand, but didn't think about the pics!)

Break into pieces and put into frying pan and cook for about 15 minutes, until cooked through.

Julienne the peppers and roughly chop the onion so the pieces are bite sized.

Heat the 2 tsp of oil in another frying pan and sautee the peppers and onion.

In a large pot, boil salted water and cook the pasta.

In another pot (whew!), mix the cream and the parmesan cheese and heat until it thickens up. Add the garlic and white wine and stir.

Drain the pasta and return to pot. Pour cream sauce over the pasta.

Serve the pasta and top with some of the peppers, onion and sausage.

Download a printable version of Tortellini with Sausage and Peppers

Jumbo Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Ricotta

I'm becoming more flexible in my cooking. For example, I thought I was going to make lasagna rolls until I realized I didn't have lasagna noodles. So I used what I had -- jumbo shells -- and dinner still turned out great!

This is a great meal to make in advance for a couple of easy weeknight dinners.

Ingredients:

• 1 box jumbo pasta shells
• 1 tub ricotta cheese
• 1 box frozen spinach
• 1 cup parmesan
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 egg
• 1 jar tomato sauce
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil pasta in salted water until al dente.

Rinse with cold water and let cool off.

Thaw spinach and press well to drain water out.

In a separte bowl, mix together ricotta, spinach, garlic, egg, parmesan, salt and pepper.

Pour a thin layer of tomato sauce in a lasagna pan.

Stuff pasta shells with a spoonful of mixture. Now, the shells are closed like a clam, so it may look challenging to stuff, but if you put it in your hand lengthwise, squeezing your hand will help open it up to stuff. It doesn't have to be neat.

Arrange in lasagna pan.

Cover with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. (I also didn't realize that I didn't have mozzarella cheese...)

Cover with tinfoil and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.

Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbling.

Download the recipe for Jumbo Stuffed Shells with Ricotta and Spinach

Creamy Shrimp Fettucine

Now that you know how to make pasta, here's a delicious and easy topping for it: Creamy Shrimp Fettucine.

Ingredients:
(serves 4)

• about 6 shrimps per person
• 3 tsp butter
• 3 tsp olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves, very finely chopped (I have discovered pre-chopped garlic = way easier)
• one red pepper sliced
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup cream

Directions:

• Heat the butter and oil over a medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook for a few minutes. Then add red pepper.

• Stir in tomato paste and wine, simmering for about 10 minutes
• Bring a large pot of water to boil and add pasta. Before draining, add about a 1/4 cup of pasta water to the pasta mixture
• Add shrimp to the sauce and raise the heat to medium-high, cooking until shrimp turn pink
• Reduce heat and stir in the cream, cooking for one minute until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste

• Add pasta to sauce and mix together
• Serve to hungry crowd!

Home-Made Pasta

One of my favourite wedding gifts was a pasta maker attachment to go onto my Kitchenaid stand mixer.

While it takes some time, making pasta is actually a really enjoyable activity. It's sort of like playing with playdoh, but it tastes a whole lot better!

I have read many different rules of thumb for making pasta. Some say one egg per 3/4 cup of flour, while others say two eggs per cup of flour. What's a new cook to do? So this time, I added two eggs, and then slowly added the flour until I felt like it had the right consistency and I think I've really discovered that elusive "you'll know by the feel" that other chefs (I say that like I'm a chef, too) talk about!

After making my dough, I let it rest for 30 minutes.

Then I cut the ball into quarters and took one piece to run through the pasta maker, leaving the other pieces covered so they wouldn't dry out.

I ran it through the machine a lot, each time, folding it into a tri-envelope fold and then running the "open" end through the machine.

Once I had all the "sheets" of pasta, I covered them in flour, covered them with a dish towel to rest again for another 20 minutes.

Now, the fun part. Take each sheet and run it through the pasta cutter.

Let rest again for another 20 minutes or so and then cook in salted boiling water for 3-5 minutes.

Don't have a pasta maker? Pioneer Woman tells you how to make pasta without one.

And of course, my sous-chef was instrumental.

Don't have a sous-chef? Not to worry, he wasn't really that helpful.