Valentine's 2016 - More Manicotti!

Today we're finally sharing our Valentine's meal! True to our tradition [2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010] we made manicotti. Not only do we have manicotti on Valentine's day but we have a new recipe. There's been spinach manicotti, traditional meat manicotti, manicotti with crepes, and a lasagna roll up (we were a tad bit liberal on manicotti that year). This year we're back to a vegetarian manicotti as it featured roasted vegetables.

Originally our Valentine's day was going to include hosting some dear friends but there was some snowy winter weather that changed their plans and they weren't with us for Valentine's supper. Because of our initial plans of having friends stay with us over the weekend I made the manicotti at the end of the week and froze it until Valentine's day. I actually doubled the recipe and froze an extra casserole too! Enough chatter about the manicotti please enjoy the recipe. You can access my google doc here that contains the full Valentine's menu.

Roasted Vegetable Manicotti inspiration from oh my veggie
   Serves 6
Ingredients
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
1 tbsp. olive oil
salt + pepper to taste
1 package manicotti shells
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, divided
1 c. mozzarella cheese, divided
2 c. marinara sauce

Directions
   Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   Combine vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper; toss to coat. Transfer to baking sheet and roast for 30 min, stirring after 15 min, or until vegetables are softened and just starting to brown. Set aside.
   Cook manicotti shells to al dente. Drain and run under cold water until shells are cool enough to handle.
   Meanwhile, stir together ricotta, egg, salt and pepper. Fold in roasted vegetables, 1/4 c. parmesan cheese, and 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese.
   Spread 1 cup of marinara sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish. Using a spoon, fill each manicotti shell with vegetable mixture. Place finished manicotti in dish and top with remaining sauce and cheese.
   If you're planning on eating the manicotti the same day you make it, reduce oven temperature to 350F and cook right away. Cover casserole dish with foil and bake manicotti for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes more.
   To freeze: Place plastic wrap directly on top of manicotti, then cover casserole dish with lid. Freeze for up to 1 month. To bake, preheat oven to 350F; remove lid and plastic wrap and cover with foil. Heat for an hour, then remove foil and bake about 15 minutes more or until manicotti is heated through and cheese has melted.

Do you have a favorite manicotti?!

Blanco Fake Bake

One of our favorite quick go-to meals is a fake bake pasta and sweet Italian sausage dish. We don't make it a whole lot though because it's not terribly healthy. We are big believers in all things in moderation and since it has a fairly simple ingredient list we keep it in our rotation. Recently our CSA shared a butternut squash and sweet Italian sausage penne recipe. I was definitely intrigued with it but wanted to jazz it up a little bit. So I decided to use it as inspiration for a Blanco Fake Bake and put a twist on one of our favorite dishes. Instead of tomato sauce there's a cheesy bechamel sauce to tie everything together. I also added some kale to this one! Everything comes together in a broiler safe pan and I used the same pot for making the bechamel sauce as boiling the pasta which means I only got two pans/pots dirty for this! There was quite a bit of prep (hello peeling and dicing butternut squash) but after everything was prepped the dish cooked itself quickly.

Blanco Fake Bake

   Serves 4-6 

Ingredients

1 lb sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion, diced
1 butternut squash, 1/2" chunks
Salt and pepper
2 garlic gloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh oregano
2 cups kale, stems removed and chopped
8 oz mozzarella, 1" chunks
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup parmesan
1/2 pound whole wheat penne

Directions
   Start a pot of boiling water for pasta. Saute sausage in large saute pan (ideally broiler safe). Once crumbled and lightly browned add onion and butternut squash. Add salt and pepper and stir everything together. Place lid on pan to allow steam top cook the butternut squash. Meanwhile boil pasta according to package directions (the time it takes to cook the pasta should be good for the squash to soften).
   After the pasta is done, drain and toss with a tablespoon of evoo. Set aside. Turn the heat down on the sausage-butternut mixture and stir in garlic and oregano. In the now empty pasta pot prepare the bechamel sauce. Melt butter and then stir in flour. Whisk until flour is incorporated. After 1 minute slowly whisk in milk. Once the mixture is whisked together let simmer and thicken 2-3 minutes. Add in parmesan cheese.
   Assemble the pasta dish. Turn on the broiler. To the saute pan with the sausage-squash mixture add the bechamel sauce, pasta, kale, and mozzarella. Stir together. If you do not have a broiler safe saute pan put the pasta mixture into a broiler safe casserole dish. Place under broiler for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is bubbling and browned. Serve immediately.

Grandma Pizza

When it comes to your basic tomato and cheese pizza, there's still plenty of room for variety - crust style, amount and type of cheese, tomato sauce vs. chopped tomatoes, and seasonings. Whitney picked out this Cook's Country recipe that makes a tasty thin-crust pizza with chopped tomatoes and mozzarella. I've made a few different pizza crust recipes before and found this one easy to make and work with, and it came out of the oven perfectly crisp. Given the time to make it I would probably still prefer my Chicago pizza imitation, but we really enjoyed this one.

Cook's Country Grandma Pizza
   Serves 4
Ingredients
   For the dough
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 C water
1 1/2 C bread flour
2 1/4 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
   For the topping
1(28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (2 cups)
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil

Directions
   Coat rimmed baking sheet with 2 tablespoons oil. Combine water and remaining 1 tablespoon oil in 1-cup liquid measuring cup. Using stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix flour, yeast, sugar, and salt on low speed until combined. With mixer running, slowly add water mixture and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium-low and mix until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10 minutes.
   Transfer dough to greased baking sheet and turn to coat. Stretch dough to 10 by 6-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1½ hours. Stretch dough to corners of pan, cover loosely with plastic, and let rise in warm place until slightly puffed, about 45 minutes. (If the dough snaps back when you press it to the corners of the baking sheet, cover it, let it rest for 10 minutes, and try again.) Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 500 degrees.
   Place tomatoes in colander and drain well. Combine drained tomatoes, oil, garlic, oregano, and salt in bowl. Combine mozzarella and Parmesan in second bowl. Sprinkle cheese mixture over dough, leaving ½-inch border around edges. Top with tomato mixture and bake until well browned and bubbling, about 15 minutes. Slide pizza onto wire rack, sprinkle with basil, and let cool for 5 minutes. Serve.

Orzo and Fresh tomato sauce with ground pork and eggplant

We're sharing a "throw together" meal today. When I was meal planning I loosely came up with this recipe but Patrick and I put it all together in the kitchen as we were making it. We had ordered eggplant for our CSA and two were in the box. The recipe I was requesting the eggplant for only needed one so here we were with another lone eggplant. What to do??

Alongside that lone eggplant were three tomatoes that I had thought I would need for another recipe but over estimated. So with the eggplant and three tomatoes I thought an Italian dish would work well. We'd do a fresh tomato sauce tossed with sauteed eggplant. We added in an onion from the pantry and a pound of ground pork from the freezer with a few other odds and ends to pull it all together! It was a success, I'd say!

Fresh tomato sauce with ground pork and eggplant & Orzo
Ingredients
1/2 lb whole wheat orzo
1 lb ground pork
1 onion, diced
1 medium eggplant, diced into 1" chunks
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium or large tomatoes, rough chop
1 8 oz can plain tomato sauce
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions
Boil water and prepare orzo according to package directions.

Meanwhile in a large pan saute ground pork until loses pink color. Then add onion and eggplant; continuing to saute. Once the onion is translucent and the eggplant has softened add in garlic. Then add in fresh tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Warm through. Add in cooked orzo and Parmesan cheese.

Seasoned tomato sauce

Sharing another canning adventure today! This time it's a seasoned tomato sauce. I had already loaded up the freezer with peeled, deseeded, and chopped raw tomatoes and then I thought a seasoned tomato sauce would be a nice complement to all those frozen tomatoes. This recipe is from the Ball Fresh Preserving website and I was very happy with it! It does take a lot of work though - straining out all the seeds and skins is no easy task.

I canned four pints of this at the beginning of August. Before we knew it we were opening up a jar for a quick pasta dish and making pasta with vodka sauce. It was great and worth the effort!

Basil-garlic tomato sauce [half recipe] from Ball

Ingredients for Half Recipe

10 lb tomatoes (about 30 medium)

1/2 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 large)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1-1/2 tsp olive oil

2 Tbsp finely minced fresh basil

1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice per hot jar

3 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions

   Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.

   Wash tomatoes; drain. Remove core and blossom ends. Cut into quarters. Set aside.

   Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until transparent. Add tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

   Puree tomato mixture in a food processor or blender, working in batches. Strain puree to remove seeds and peel.

   Combine tomato puree and basil in large saucepot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until volume is reduced by half, stirring to prevent sticking.

   Add 1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice to each hot jar. Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.

   Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check for seal after 24 hours. Lids should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

It's Always Caturday

They love getting on the refrigerator!

Pasta peperonata

This pasta caught my eye because it had peppers and mascarpone in it! We made this in July and at the time while I was putting together the meal plan that would feature this dish I knew that peppers were abundant on our CSA and that I had half a container of mascarpone in the refrigerator I needed to use up. Win - win! And another win because we both loved this dish! The peppers and onions really caramelize in the pan before you make the sauce and the flavor it builds is phenomenal.

Jamie Oliver's Pasta peperonata

   Serves 4

Ingredients

2 red peppers, deseeded and sliced

2 yellow peppers, deseeded and sliced

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated

2 handfuls fresh oregano, leaves finely chopped

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 handfuls Parmesan cheese, grated

2 heaped tbsp mascarpone cheese (optional)

1/2 lb penne

Directions

   Put all the peppers in a large frying pan over a medium heat with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Place a lid on, and cook slowly for 15 minutes until softened. Don't rush this too much, as cooking the peppers slowly like this really helps to bring out the flavour. Add the onion and cook for a further 20 minutes. Then add the garlic and toss around, keeping everything moving in the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes most. Have a little taste, and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Add the vinegar - it will sizzle away, so give everything a good toss. Then add one handful of the grated Parmesan and the mascarpone and turn the heat down to low while you cook the pasta.

   Meanwhile put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions. When cooked, drain in a colander, reserving some of the cooking water. Put the peppers, pasta and oregano leaves into a large warmed bowl. Give them a good toss together, then add a little of the pasta cooking water and a few good lugs of extra virgin olive oil to coat the pasta nicely. Serve straight away sprinkled with the rest of the Parmesan.

It's Always Caturday

... watching what's going on outdoors

Spaghetti with garden sauce

This simple spaghetti with garden sauce was not originally in my meal plan. It's the result of what happens when your kitchen becomes overrun by vegetables and you need to regain control of your refrigerator and counter top. A few weeks ago after we had gotten a CSA box my dad so kindly offered us many vegetables. I am not one to turn down vegetables! After I picked up the vegetables I looked at the meal plan and quickly decided some shuffling needed to happen so that we could accommodate our current vegetable stock. 

And that's when this spaghetti with garden sauce came about. I sauteed every fresh vegetable that I thought would work in this dish that wasn't going to be used up in the remainder of the meal plan. I also added in some ground beef and used our fresh tomatoes as the sauce!

Here's what we did
   Saute 1 lb ground beef; once it loses it's pink color add the veggies.
   We added (all sliced and diced appropriately) - 1 zucchini, 1 onion, and 2 carrots. Add a bit of salt and pepper to the mixture.
   Meanwhile in your blender place cored and seeded tomatoes (we probably used about 8 medium tomatoes) with 2-3 cloves of garlic.
   After the vegetables have softened a bit add the blended tomatoes to the pan. Simmer for 10-15 minutes to reduce the liquid and cook your spaghetti.
   It's worth noting that this will not in any way resemble a spaghetti sauce you're used to unless you add a thickening agent. We chose not to and let the tomato and veggie sauce simmer with the lid off while the spaghetti cooked. This reduced the sauce quite a bit and left us with something we were pleased with.

It's Always Caturday

Dupree playing with a felt flower

Melina's Fresh Pasta

Last year for Patrick's birthday I surprised him with a pasta making class hosted by Melina from Melina's Fresh Pasta. If you're local and interested in pasta making we loved the class and would highly recommend it - here's the post we shared about it (mentioned towards the end)!

Melina's Fresh Pasta products can typically be found throughout the area at local farmers markets, through some of the co-ops, and a few of the local food home delivery companies. The past few months we've been giving Papa Spud's a try which is one of the local food home delivery companies that supplies Melina's Fresh Pasta. There was a groupon to try Papa Spud's and I thought it would be a great way to bridge the gap from the end of our CSA season to when it began. Now that our CSA has started back I'm not sure if we'll be double dipping into the various produce box programs ... but I digress, back to Melina's!

The other week when I was completing our Papa Spud's requests I thought it would be a great opportunity to try some ravioli from Melina's Fresh Pasta! Much to Patrick's surprise I tried a fig and gorgonzola ravioli - being adventurous! The products come frozen so we had the option to toss it into the freezer and save it for a "rainy" day when everything was falling apart and we needed a quick kitchen meal.

Well that rainy day came much sooner than we expected! We prepared the ravioli the same week it arrived. I think we were just drained from a busy weekend and start to the week and just needed an easy meal! We served the ravioli on top of spinach so it would wilt a bit and drizzled the plate with a little evoo and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese!

So good, so easy! We may need some more Melina's Fresh Pasta on hand to save us from those "rainy" days!

Valentine's Manicotti

Alright folks! I promised in my St. Patrick's Day cupcake post the other day that I would be trying to get our Valetine's post up soon and here I am following through on my promise! I present to you today our traditional Valentine's manicotti! If you're new to the blog then allow with me to share our past Valentine meals - 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. I don't think we ever intentionally set out to make manicotti a traditional Valentine's meal but after we had done it two years in a row I guess we stuck to it!

We do enjoy putting a different spin on the manicotti. The first year we tried a spinach manicotti and then the next three years were a traditional tomato sauce based manicotti, and then last year we did lasagna roll-ups with our homemade pasta. This year we were ready to mix it up again! We decided to do a more authentic manicotti - made with crepes!

We loosely followed this recipe for the authentic manicotti but mainly used it as inspiration.
For the crepes we followed our recipe from Mario Batali we've been using for quite awhile now.
For the filling we mixed together 2 lb ricotta, 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan, salt and pepper, and an Italian seasoning blend. We would put about 1/4 cup of that in the crepe and then some slices of fresh mozzarella.
And for the tomato-meat sauce we used some frozen homemade bolognese sauce.

We served the manicotti with a side salad and then mini tiramisus for dessert!! They were amazing!

Tiramisu for Two from Jenny Steffens Hobick
Ingredients

1/2 cup of whipping cream
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
4 ounces of mascarpone cheese
8 lady fingers
1/3 cup of strong coffee or espresso
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 small chocolate barDirections
To make the cream filling, whip the whipping cream until thickened - about 3 minutes.  Add sugar and vanilla and whip together until stiff.  Incorporate in mascarpone cheese slowly until well combined.  Set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together coffee and sugar.  In two parfait glasses or other sort of individual serving bowls, put two lady fingers in the bottom of each.  Pour 1/4 of the coffee mixture on top of the lady fingers in each glass.  Spoon in 1/4 of mascarpone cheese and whipped cream mixture into each.  Top with two more lady fingers and coffee mixture.  Top with the remaining cream mixture.
To finish, make chocolate shavings with a vegetable peeler on a bar of chocolate.  Refrigerate up to 2 days.

It's Always Caturday

Nacho thought he would be part of the Valentine's decor

Balsamic Chicken

I visited my parents in January for some quality time at home. I was able to help my mom clean out / organize my bedroom, hang out with my grandparents, and go to a bridal shower for a high school friend. It was such a nice weekend. And one of the benefits of the weekend was bringing back this delicious recipe that I knew Patrick would love. Mom found this Balsamic Chicken recipe in a Parade paper and it was submitted by Joy Bauer, the nutritionist on the Today show. She claims that it is packed with eight super foods (and why) and I agreed with her. Here they are:

The Super 8

Chicken breast: low-fat protein

Tomatoes: cancer-fighting lycopene

Peppers: fiber, vitamin C

Onions, garlic: antioxidants

Vinegar: blood sugar regulator

Greens: vitamin C, iron and folic acid

Quinoa: protein, heart-healthy magnesium

Balsamic Chicken from Parade & Joy Bauer
   Prep time 20 min | Total time 55 min | Serves 4
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 large red bell peppers, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
¼ tsp coarse salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper
⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
1 (15-oz) can diced tomatoes, well drained

Directions
   Coat a large sauté pan with oil, and preheat the pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and bell pepper and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add chicken breasts to the pan and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Add vinegar and tomatoes, and bring liquids to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer uncovered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with quinoa and sautéed greens.

When I made our quinoa I added the spinach at the end to wilt it and so we served the balsamic chicken on a bed of the spinach quinoa.

Dupree using Nacho as a cat pillow

Lemon Chicken Fettuccine

This recipe popped up on my Pinterest feed and I thought it sounded incredibly light and delicious. It's a lemon chicken fettuccine with mushrooms and cherry tomatoes - all things we love. Unfortunately it didn't turn out quite like I had hoped but I still wanted to blog it because I think with a couple of tweaks it could be that incredibly light and delicious pasta dish I envisioned (thoughts below the recipe)!

Lemon Chicken Fettuccine
   Prep time 10 mins | Cook time 20 mins | Total time 30 mins | Serves 4-6
Ingredients
8 oz fettuccine, cooked (we used homemade on this night)
3 tbsp Pompeian Arbequina extra virgin olive oil
3 to 4 boneless chicken breast halves, cubed
salt and pepper, to taste
1 pint sweet grape tomatoes, halved
8 oz mushroom slices
¼ cup loosely packed fresh flat leaf parsley
For the dressing
2 tbsp Pompeian Arbequina extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder (substituted 1 crushed garlic clove)
salt and pepper, to taste
grated parmesan cheese, optional

Directions
   Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add cubed chicken pieces. Season with salt and pepper; cook until chicken is browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. Add halved grape tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and parsley; frequently stirring, continue to cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add cooked fettuccine to chicken mixture and cook until heated through, stirring frequently.
   In a cup or a jar, combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic powder, salt and pepper; shake it or stir it until thoroughly mixed. Stir into pasta mixture.
   Remove from heat. Taste for salt and pepper; adjust accordingly. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese. Serve.

What I'll do different next time

1. The cherry tomatoes completely stewed down into the sauce; next time I will not add them with the mushrooms (and I really started to add them later when I made it but I really wanted to follow the recipe as is). I would add them when the cooked fettucine is added because they just need to be warmed through.

2. Patrick and I both commented that the lemon flavor was lacking; I will do 2 juiced lemons and add some zest to the pasta.

We made the homemade pasta with 100 grams of whole wheat flour and 200 grams of all-purpose flour (our pasta template is 100 grams for each egg and at least half should be all-purpose so that it won't have problems rolling out). Most recipes will say the 100 grams flour/1 egg should be estimated for 1 person but we are finding that, for us, 200 grams flour/2 eggs is appropriate for about 4 servings. 

Served with a side salad and red wine

Nacho and his hippo toy

Flatbread pizza

We made something similar to these flatbread pizzas a year ago. The flatbread is a quick alternative to use in lieu of rolling out crust. These come together very quickly. Now that Patrick has resumed his orchestra rehearsals I need to plan something quick for those evenings where he runs out the door for the evening practices. Revisiting this recipe was just what I needed a few weeks ago!

This meal fit into the meal plan when we were on Week 1 of our challenge. Week 1 was to include two fruits or veggies with every meal. I'm not really sure how liberal we were allowed to be with counting the veggies. Officially this meal included 5 different veggies - cherry tomatoes, artichokes, onions, red peppers, and spinach. I decided to lump the pizza and toppings as one vegetable (much to Patrick's dismay) and then did the side spinach salad.

Inspiration from this Roasted cherry tomato and artichoke flatbread pizza
Here's what we did
Toss 1 cup of grape tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper, and some balsamic vinegar. Broil until the tomatoes burst. Use an immersion blender to puree the tomatoes and spread over the pitas as sauce. Top with shredded Parmesan and follow with sliced artichokes and sauteed peppers and onions. Follow with Italian seasoning and a bit more Parmesan. Place the flatbread pizzas into a pre-heated 375F oven and warm through until cheese melts.

Cats sharing the kitchen stool and 

wondering what's going on

Homemade bow tie pasta

Patrick and I are really getting the hang of homemade pasta making. After our most recent venture Patrick exclaimed "wow I'm getting really good at this!"

Here's our post on how we do it. For a quick recap: in the food processor we combine one egg per 100 grams of flour per serving. So we typically do 2-3 eggs and the appropriate amount of flour. Once processed we pat the dough into a 1" thick rectangle/square and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then we section it up and let the pasta maker do the work.

On this particular night I wanted to get fancy and make bow tie pasta! For the bow ties after the dough had been rolled through the roller to the desired thickness I used a paring knife to slice the sheets into 2" vertical strips then went back and made 1" x 2" rectangles. After the rectangles were done I went through and pinched the middles together to create the bow tie.

In this picture you can see that I worked on a floured 

cutting board to make the bow ties. I would work with 

one section at a time (so roll it out, cut it, pinch it, and make

the bow ties) before rolling out the next section. I kept the

 pasta dough under the bowl to prevent it from drying out while

I was working on the bow ties.

Here are my finished bow ties! I kept them spread out until 

Patrick got home from work and we cooked them.

This was made towards the end of summer and I used all sorts of fresh vegetables from the CSA. The only thing not sourced locally was the flour for the pasta and onion used in the sauce!

I wanted to keep the sauce focused on our CSA produce so I sauteed red bell pepper with an onion then added in chopped roma tomatoes. Once the tomatoes had stewed down a bit I transferred this to our blender and blended until there were no large chunks. During this time I browned the sweet italian sausage in that same pan. After it had browned I returned the tomato mixture back to the pan and finished the sauce with a touch of cream. Finally we tossed in the bow tie pasta.

Tossing in pasta

Finished product

It was a perfect night for some al fresco dining on our back porch. 

We served the pasta dish with a caprese salad. Yellow roma tomatoes topped with fresh basil, fresh mozz cubes, and a drizzle of nice balsamic.

And there was also a bottle of champagne on this particular evening! I had given it to Patrick on the day of our closing and it finally seemed like a nice night to have it. At this point we felt "settled" into the house - I mean, look, we were able to use the pasta roller - and it felt like the perfect time to celebrate a little.

If you're interested in some of our other attempts and recipes that we enjoyed, here are some quick - Spinach pasta with cherry tomatoes, Straw and hay pasta, Fettucine with wild mushrooms, and (one of our first attempts) Beet pasta and cheese ravioli.

Spinach pasta with cherry tomatoes

In a continuation of our unofficial series on homemade pasta dishes, today we're presenting a spinach fettucine. Making pasta in the food processor is so easy, and also makes it really easy to add mix-ins. This time we just added some cooked spinach to the flour and egg. The hardest part of these veggie pastas is getting the water out of the vegetable before adding it to the pasta. When the vegetable has too much water, you have to add a lot of flour to compensate and you dilute the tasty fresh egg flavor, and cause yourself a lot of frustration because it seems like no matter how much flour you add, the dough is still sticky! I always find wringing spinach to be tedious but some extra effort on that front definitely would have helped this time around. In the end though we had some delicious spinach pasta tossed with some onions, tomato, and sauce.

Homemade spinach pasta
Blanch some spinach and wring it dry. Pulse flour and spinach in food processor. Add eggs. Add more flour (because you didn't dry the spinach enough) until the mixture resembles a ball of dough. Roll out and cut into fettucine.

For the sauce
Saute 1 medium onion in olive oil until softened, add 2 cloves garlic and saute until fragrant, then add halved cherry tomatoes and a few more tablespoons of olive oil with salt and pepper. Simmer over medium heat for 10-15 minutes until tomatoes soften. Add in 2 tbsp butter and sliced spring onions, finish with 1 cup cream.

Served with delicious French loaf

Margherita Risotto

Patrick and I feel like we've got the technique for risotto making down. In my opinion risotto is a slightly glamorous meal to make so I like to plan it for a relaxing weekend or when we have something to celebrate. On this particular occasion my mom was in town for the weekend and I thought she would would enjoy some risotto!

Basic risotto is almost like a blank slate. You cook the arborio rice with some onion, white wine, and then slowly add chicken stock to the rice as it continues to absorb the liquid throughout the cooking process. Then when it's just about done you can throw in any sort of seasonal vegetable. We also love it served with seafood.

It was almost like we wanted to move past these risottos and add a different dimension. This margherita risotto was just what we were looking for -- there's a tomato base for this risotto! This was quite tasty and worth the experiment. Some fresh hydroponic basil and mozzarella also went into the dish. Read on for the recipe!

Margherita Risotto from Strawberry Plum blog
   Serves 4
Ingredients
1 small white onion, minced
1 c. arborio Rice
1 c. dry white wine
1 14 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
2 c. chicken or vegetable broth (homemade or low-sodium), warm (keep it at a low simmer on an adjacent burner)
1 Tbsp. butter
10 large basil leaves, torn
1 medium ball fresh mozzarella, torn in bite-sized pieces
extra virgin olive oil

Directions
   Heat about 2 tsp. olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, lightly salt, and sauté until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and toast for about a minute until the rice is dry and makes clicking noises as you stir it around the pan. Add the white wine and let the rice absorb almost all of it. Add the crushed tomatoes, let the liquid come up to a bubble, then reduce the heat to a simmer. When the rice has absorbed most of this liquid, add about a third of the warm broth. Simmer, stirring frequently, adding more broth as the rice absorbs the liquid.
   After about 20 minutes, the rice should be cooked (but not mushy!) and you are ready to finish the risotto.
   Remove from heat. Add butter and season to taste. Scatter the mozzarella and basil over the top and gently stir to combine. You want the mozzarella to melt a bit but you still want to be able to see pieces and taste its freshness. The basil will wilt a bit but retain its fresh summery flavor.
   Divide risotto between warm bowls. Drizzle with a touch of good olive oil and garnish with a couple of pretty basil leaves, if desired.

Valentine's 2013

Happy almost Valentine's Day! I'm declaring February "the month of love" on the blog. And by that I mean I'll wrap up any lingering wedding posts. If it doesn't get posted this month then it's not going to make it on the blog. But I promise to work really hard to draft these wedding-related posts and get them posted. I thought it would be fun to detail our wedding attire and where some of our inspiration came from.

In the meantime, we'll kick off  "the month of love" with our meal from last Valentine's Day. The post got delayed because of wedding planning but also because Patrick and I have a tradition of having manicotti as our Valentine's meal: see 2010 reference, 2011, 2012, and more details on 2012. I didn't want to bore you with more manicotti but I thought it was still appropriate to share because, even though the entree is the same, I made us a personal cake for dessert! Made it in a tin can! It was so cute!

Personal Red Velvet Cake. Perfect for your Valentine!

Valentine's Day is in just under two weeks too. If you need a dessert idea I highly recommend this!

Here are a few snapshots from Valentine's 2013.

Manicotti circa 2013 Valentine's

I'm not really sure what inspiration I had for the personal cake. I somehow managed to find the two blog posts that I used for this dessert last February. The original mini vanilla cake recipe is from The Baker Chick blog and I made this adapted mini red velvet cake from Ashleigh Homemaker blog.

Mini Tin Can Red Velvet Cake from Ashleigh Homemaker & The Baker Chick

Ingredients

1 egg white 

2 tbsp sugar 

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted 

1 tsp vanilla 

1/4 cup minus 1 tsp. flour 

1 tsp cocoa powder 

1/8 tsp baking soda 

1/8 tsp baking powder 

1 1/2 tbsp buttermilk (milk is fine too) 

1/8 tsp vinegar 

1/2 tsp red food coloring 

dash of salt 

empty 15 oz aluminum can with the top lid completely removed 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350. Make sure your tin can is completely clean and dry and use an organic brand if possible. Coat it with either butter or cooking spray and flour. Cut a small round of parchment paper and place it in the bottom of the can. 

In a small bowl whisk together egg white and sugar well. Add the butter and vanilla and mix again. Add the dry ingredients, whisking softly to combine. Fold in the buttermilk, vinegar and food coloring. 

Pour the batter into the can and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely, then turn the little cake out onto a plate. Slice off the rounded top of the cake and eat it and then slice the rest into 3 pieces, the lines created by the can will help to make them straight. 

Frost with your favorite frosting. I like cream cheese frosting, which you can easily make a small amount of. Just combine about 2 T unsalted, softened butter, 2 oz softened cream cheese, 1/8 C powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla. Or use store bought if that's what you have on hand. Enjoy!

Chilling in the fridge until ready to be served.

I think Patrick was impressed! I tried to keep dessert a surprise but I think he opened the fridge when he came off after work and saw it chilling on the top shelf.

Patrick and I are deviating a bit from the manicotti this year; will keep you updated on our plans after they unfold! No worries; there is still manicotti in our future.

Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti

Patrick and I have been trying to incorporate more ground turkey into our diets. At our past trip to Costco we purchased ground turkey here which means we have lots in the freezer (about 4 pounds). Having meat in the freezer enables me to plan week long meal plans and avoid multiple grocery store trips during the week.

This particular meal is a good example of being aware of what's in the pantry and always being mindful to use what you have. The ground turkey for the meatballs we had recently purchased. Eggs, breadcrumbs, and various spices for the meatballs are all items we regularly keep on hand. The sauce was made with veggies on hand and San Marzano tomatoes. I happened to have onions, carrots, and celery to start the base of the sauce but typically I don't always have carrots and celery at my disposal. If this was the case then I would've just made the sauce with onions which I always like to have. We have also started buying the 28oz whole, peeled San Marzano tomatoes from Costco; they come in a pack of 3 and are a really great deal. Patrick and I enjoy Italian enough that we have no trouble using these.

This particular meal is also a good example of couple teamwork in the kitchen! Patrick was in charge of the meatballs and I was in charge of the sauce.

Read on for what we did!

For the sauce
Heat two tablespoons oil in medium to large pot. Chop one onion, two carrots, and two celery stalks. Add veggies to pot, stir, and season with salt and pepper. Once veggies are tender, add tomatoes (28 oz can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand) and stir. Add 1/4 cup of red wine and a bay leaf then let simmer while meatballs and pasta are cooking. Before serving, remove bay leaf and puree the sauce.

For the meatballs
Mix some ground turkey, eggs, herbs, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper together. Form into balls, place on a baking sheet, and spray with some olive oil. Bake at 400 until there is some browning and meatballs are cooked through, about 20 minutes.

We served this with a side salad.
Do you have a favorite meatball recipe?

Fettucine with Wild Mushrooms

Patrick and I bypassed a traditional basic pasta when we first attempted homemade pasta. Instead we went straight for something a little more challenging: making beet pasta for ravioli. That wasn't too hard and really tasty! For our next pasta adventure we thought we should backtrack and make a simple egg fettuccine.

That was a bit more challenging than the beet pasta! I think the reason was there are varying ratios of egg to flour floating around cookbooks and the Internet that it was hard to find the right consistency for the pasta. With the beet pasta recipe the amounts for everything were precise. We'll keep you updated when we find a pasta recipe suitable for blogging. For Christmas Patrick's family gifted us the KitchenAid pasta maker stand mixer attachment so we will definitely be brushing up on our pasta making skills!

In the meantime enjoy this wild mushroom fettuccine recipe. You can certainly make it with dried pasta. It was delicious!

Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms from Williams-Sonoma Weeknight Fresh & Fast

Serves 2
Ingredients
1 Tbs. olive oil

1 1/2 oz. pancetta, chopped
3 large shallots, sliced
2 tsp. minced fresh thyme or rosemary
1/2 to 3/4 lb. wild mushrooms, such as chanterelles, shiitake and/or cremini, sliced
   we used cremini
Coarse kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
6 oz. dried or 9 oz. fresh egg fettuccine
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley for garnish

Directions
   In a large fry pan over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the pancetta and sauté until brown, about 2 minutes. Add the shallots and thyme and sauté until the shallots begin to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the broth and simmer until syrupy, about 3 minutes.
   Meanwhile, bring a large pot three-fourths full of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta, stir well and cook until just tender, about 8 minutes for dried pasta or 4 minutes for fresh.
   Drain the pasta and add to the mushroom mixture. Stir over medium heat until coated, then stir in the cheese. Taste and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Divide the pasta between 2 warmed shallow bowls. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Is there a recipe you're trying to master in the kitchen??

Beet Pasta and Cheese Ravioli

Attention! Attention! After nearly four years of food blogging and almost three hundred fifty posts we finally did it! We made fresh pasta! It's something we've always aspired to do but never quite followed through.

In April 2012 we exclaimed our excitement with making our first risotto. We've mentioned from time to time that we keep up with the blog to connect with family and friends but also as a record for our meals. We can easily search the posts for something we've made before and have the recipe at our disposal again quickly. We certainly felt the blogging absent earlier in the year when we were too busy planning a wedding. There were definitely things I wanted to make again and became frustrated when I realized I didn't blog it and couldn't find it again! I'm reminding you of this because we don't view ourselves as expert cooks. Trying something new for the first time is very daunting. But, I imagine, what might be different between you and me (and why we do a food blog) is because we find it exciting! I think it's so much fun to spend time in the kitchen experimenting with a new recipe.

Now, onward to the fresh pasta! I'm not sure why we didn't try a basic pasta to make sure we had the fundamentals of pasta making down but I really wanted to make beet pasta! And so did Patrick! I gave him the option of making beet stuffed ravioli with wonton wrappers (an easy option) or homemade beet pasta with cheese stuffed ravioli (the hard option). He chose the hard option without any input from me.

We followed a recipe from the Eat Live Run blog and have it for you below (my notes are in italics):

Three Cheese Beet Ravioli
Ingredients
   for beet ravioli
3 small/medium beets
4 cups flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
   for three cheese filling
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of black pepper

Directions
   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Chop off the beet greens and roots from beets. Wrap beets loosely in tin foil and roast for 45 minutes to an hour until tender. After roasting, you'll be able to easily peel the beets (the peel will just slip off). *Whitney note: I usually just cut the skin off* Place beets in a food processor or high-speed blender and process until smooth. Note that the beets will probably still be a little chunky here, and that's okay. Just process them as much as you can so you have a smooth pasta dough.

   Mix in the eggs and continue to process. Then, add the flour, salt and olive oil---mixing until a dough forms. I transferred my beet mixture to my Kitchen Aid mixer for this part, but you could also just knead on the table or mix well with a wooden spoon.

   Now, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare the filling. Mix together all filling ingredients and beat until smooth. Set aside.

   It really is easiest to use a pasta maker to roll out the beet ravioli dough. However, you can also use a rolling pin. Just be sure to roll the dough very, very, very thin. It should almost be see-through! Thick dough leads to dense, stone-like ravioli...and no one wants that. *Many thanks to Richard for letting us borrow his pasta maker!*

   Once your dough is rolled out thinly, cut or stamp four inch squares of dough. Place a teaspoon of cheese filling in the center of one of the squares then top with another thin square. Seal edges together with fingers.
   Patrick and I had a little trouble with a ravioli cutter so our method for making ravioli was to lay one rolled beet pasta strip onto the cutting board and the dollop the cheese mixture every 3 inches or so. Then we placed a second rolled beet pasta strip over the first one and pressed around the cheese mixture. Finally we took a fluted pastry cutter and cut out the cheese ravioli squares.

   Drop ravioli in boiling water and cook for only about four minutes. When they float, they're done! Drain and serve immediately.

We served with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly grated parmesan!

We can't wait to make pasta again! We deemed this a success.

Bonus beet fettuccine with extra beet pasta.

We had a lot of fun with our pasta kitchen adventure! I made sure to share this before Christmas since it's a "red" dish and quite festive!