Vacation Day Bolognese

Wow! A Vacation Day!!! Sorry, but I was fortunate to work through the pandemic so any day off for me is a big event.

I was home all day. There was a heat wave taking place outside, but inside we had AC and I made Bolognese Sauce and homemade Tagliatelle.

Today I used the recipe from the La Cucina magazine site. It was a toss-up between this recipe and Lidia Bastianich's. La Cucina won the coin toss. Oh, the house smelled quite nice this morning!

I made the whole recipe, which is for 4 people, and I will freeze the extra sauce. 

I also made enough pasta for 2 meals. I will freeze 1/2 of what I made.

Ingredients-
extra-virgin olive oil
1⁄3 lb. pancetta
3⁄4 lb. ground beef
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1⁄2 small onion
1⁄2 cup red (or dry white) wine
1 1/4 cups puréed tomato passata
3⁄4 cup beef broth
1⁄2 cup milk
salt – pepper
1 lb. fresh egg tagliatelle

Method-
Chop the pancetta. Trim the celery, carrots, and onion, and mince them all into fine pieces.
Heat a pan with a drizzle of oil, sauté the pancetta, add the vegetables and gently sweat until soft.
Add the meat and sauté for 5 minutes.
Add ½ cup wine and allow to completely evaporate.
Add the tomato passata and stir for a few minutes. Add ½ cup milk and cover with the broth.
Cook the meat sauce for 2-3 hours, adding more broth every now and then while adjusting the seasoning.
Cook the tagliatelle in salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes, drain and serve with generous amounts of sauce.

Hot Dogs and Pasta

The last time I made this recipe was in 2016. Next time will be sooner. The pasta was made with Parmesan cheese folded in before the last roll on the pasta machine. Why don't I do that more often???

I used hot dogs and pancetta. Why not! No complaints from the other side of the table.

The Pasta recipe
Ingredients-
3 cups flour
4 eggs
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Method-
Place the flour, eggs, and salt in a food processor. Pulse to combine. With the machine running, gradually add the oil then 1/3 to 1/2 cup water until the mixture forms a dough (the dough should stick together if pinched between your fingers). If necessary, add additional water, 1 teaspoon at a time if the dough is too dry.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Gather the dough into a ball and knead until the dough is smooth 5 to 8 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

When you are rolling out the pasta dough and you get to the second to last setting and sprinkled the pasta with Parmesan cheese and then folded it in thirds and put it back through the pasta machine, putting the setting back 2 places. (You should be at setting 6 and that is when you add the cheese. After the dough is folded over you put the machine back to setting 5 and proceed.). And then continued rolling until you got to the lowest setting. 

Hot Dogs and Pasta

Ingredients-
4 hot dogs, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
8-ounce broad egg noodles
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon fresh parsley
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Method-
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil; add the pasta and cook until al dente, about 5 minutes; drain.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet. Cook the hot dog pieces in the butter until browned. Add the hot dogs to the drained noodles with 2 tablespoons butter, parsley, and Parmesan cheese; stir until butter is melted and the hot dogs are coated.

Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
or reload the browserDisable in this text fieldEditEdit in GingerEdit in Ginger×

Fettuccini alla Nerano

Yes, we tried the latest food craze. Fettuccini alla Nerano. And yes it is as delicious as everyone has said.

Back in 2018, I made a recipe for Zucchini Sauce. It quickly became my go-to recipe. Suddenly there was Fettuccini alla Nerano. The differences... hmmm. The zucchini is fried and refrigerated overnight... The pasta alla Nerano used both provolone and Parmigiana. That's all. The recipe I used in 2018 was from Bon Appetit.

If you have not seen the Stanley Tucci show, Searching For Italy, please watch it. It is a love letter to all things Italian. 

So here is how I made Fettuccini alla Nerano. Last night I fried the thinly sliced zucchini in safflower oil. And that was not easy to find!!! I got the last bottle at the store. I put the fried zucchini in a paper towel-lined bowl and sprinkled them with salt. Into the fridge they went until tonight.

At the start of the frying.

The end of the frying.

Tonight I started the pot of water for the homemade fettuccini. In a saute pan I heated some olive oil and added the zucchini.

I tossed in some diced prosciutto because I had it in the fridge. I added a knob of butter and once the pasta was dropped in the water I added a bit of the pasta water. You want to get a sauce-like consistency.

I cooked the pasta until almost al dente and added it to the saute pan to finish cooking. Some more pasta water was added to maintain the sauce-like consistency and then I added grated provolone and parmigiana. I tossed in some chopped basil and that was it.

And yes it was delicious. It was simple ingredients lifted to a stellar level. It was just zucchini and cheese. I might heat up a little for a late-night snack...

Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
or reload the browserDisable in this text fieldEditEdit in GingerEdit in Ginger×

Pasta and Bread

I am very happy that it is Friday night. What a week.

I am typing this as I am wearing a knee brace. It might be a sprain or it might be a torn muscle. Stay tuned...

This dinner was all about comfort food. My favorite homemade pasta recipe, thankfully already made and in the freezer. The zucchini was thinly sliced and sauteed in olive oil and butter. I saved a cup of the pasta water and put the cooked pasta in the pan with the zucchini. Added more butter and parmesan cheese. Slowly stirring the pasta to mix and adding the pasta water as needed. It is basically the Fettucini Alfredo recipe I make with sauteed zucchini added.

The bread was a gift from Mary Capazzo. Her husband is Mario of Mario's BEST Breads.  This was perfect for dinner. The crust was crunchy and the bread was absolutely delicious.

Fettuccine Alfredo

Good Friday. What a season of Lent this has been. Tonight we had one of our comfort foods.

The pasta recipe as always is from Tide and Thyme. I only made 1/2 of the recipe. Just enough for the 2 of us.


Fettuccine Alfredo -

Ingredients-

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces

Dried egg fettuccine

1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 cup) 

Method-

Melt butter in a large saute pan.

Cook fettuccine in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente.

Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water, then drain fettuccine in a colander.

Immediately toss the fettuccine with butter and salt in the sauté pan, then slowly add 3/4 cup cheese, tossing constantly and adding enough of the cooking water to keep pasta moist.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Vacation Day Dinner

Gotta love the vacation day. Made some of my favorite recipes today.

Homemade Italian Bread.

Homemade Pasta.

Marcella Hazan Tomato, Butter and Onion Sauce.

Chicken Parmesan, my way. 

Dinner is served!

Homemade Fettuccini with That Sauce

Homemade Fettuccini, recipe from Tide and Thyme, the only recipe I will ever use and the sauce is Marcella Hazan's Tomato, Onion and Butter Sauce. It does not get better than that.

On Sunday I made a pot of "the Sauce." Have a couple of containers in the freezer. With the abundance of amazingly delicious tomatoes, it seemed like the right thing to do.

It was a damn good dinner. I had to force myself not to go back for seconds.

Nothing better than freezer food.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This was a delicious dinner. I love the slow cooker. We had a lot of activity going on at home today. The slow cooker enabled us to have a fantastic meal with little work. I found the recipe for Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore on fitslowcookqueen.com.

I used all chicken breasts for the recipe.

Of course, there was a lull in activity so I took advantage of the time and made some homemade pasta. The recipe I always use for pasta is from Tide and Thyme.

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients -
3 lbs chicken breast or thighs
1 onion, sliced
15 ounces crushed or diced tomatoes
15 ounces tomato sauce
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Method-
Add all ingredients to the slow cooker.
Stir to mix well.
Cook HIGH 2-3 hours or LOW 4-6

Friday Night Pasta

I am sure could come up with a more clever title to tonight's post but I can barely believe I even made dinner. This week my co-worker was on a much-deserved vacation.  That left me to do her job and mine. Dear God. I feel like I should buy her flowers on Monday welcoming her back. When I got home tonight I had a Vodka Gimlet, thank you Chris, and stood in front of the refrigerator and decided what to make for dinner. There was leftover grilled zucchini and sausage from last night. There were some sliced salami and a small zucchini. The recipe came together quickly.

I diced an onion and sliced the small zucchini. The saute pan was heated up with olive oil and the onion and zucchini were added. I seasoned the pan with salt and pepper. I added a knob of butter, and about a 1/4 of a cup of white wine. Next, I tossed in sliced salami and the grilled zucchini and sausage. I added chopped fresh parsley and fresh oregano.

Meanwhile the homemade, yes homemade, pasta was cooking in salted water. Disclaimer: I made pasta on Sunday and froze it!

I added the cooked pasta to the saute pan along with about 3/4 of pasta water. Some cheese, crushed red pepper. Adjusted the salt and pepper.

We had a hit. It was delicious. The sauce was just spicy enough. All we needed to add was a couple of glasses of wine.

Happy Friday!

Spinach and Egg Fettuccine Alfredo

The pasta recipe I use is from Tide and Thyme. This recipe never fails me. Today I split the recipe in 1/2 and made 1/2 egg pasta and the other half spinach pasta. For the spinach pasta, I just microwaved 1/2 of a package of frozen chopped spinach. I squeezed out all of the water that I possibly could. I mixed the spinach in with the flour before adding the egg, olive oil, and water. Next time I might not add all the water to the spinach dough. I probably could have gotten a little more of the water out of the microwaved spinach.

The Alfredo sauce is from Epicurious.

Ingredients-
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
Dried egg fettuccine
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (1 cup)

Method-Melt butter in a large saute pan.
Cook fettuccine in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente.
Reserve 1/2 cup pasta cooking water, then drain fettuccine in a colander.
Immediately toss the fettuccine with butter and salt in the sauté pan, then slowly add 3/4 cup cheese, tossing constantly and adding enough of cooking water to keep pasta moist.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Dinner was delicious and light. The bread was an olive and rosemary bread I made last weekend. I took it out of the freezer earlier today and heated it up for dinner.

This Is My Favorite Summer Pasta Recipe

Okay, I LOVE this recipe. It is so flexible. I made a couple of changes from the last time I made it. That is what makes this the perfect recipe. Instead of Pancetta I used Andouille sausage and omitted the lemon. I had the homemade pasta in the freezer. Just perfect. Chris loved this. It was just spicy enough. Just remember NOT to toss the pasta water. You will need it for your sauce.

Ingredients-
¼ cup olive oil
2 pounds assorted summer squashes and zucchini, quartered lengthwise, sliced
Kosher salt
1 diced Andouille sausage
12 ounces ziti, or other large tube pasta
2 ounces Parmesan, grated (about ½ cup), plus more for serving
½ cup basil leaves

Method-
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add squash; season with salt. Add the Andouille sausage. Cook, tossing occasionally, until squash begins to break down and gets jammy (they may start to stick to the skillet a bit, which means you are there!), 12–15 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until very al dente.
Transfer pasta to skillet using a slotted spoon or spider and add ½ cup pasta cooking liquid. Cook pasta, adding 2 oz. Parmesan in stages along with more pasta cooking liquid as needed, until sauce coats pasta and pasta is al dente. Toss in lemon juice and most of the basil.
Divide pasta among bowls and top with more Parmesan and remaining basil.

My Perfect Vacation Day

Yeah, vacation day! And it was cool out. Not what you are usually looking for in a vacation day. But I was able to make bread, pasta, and sauce. All three were part of very delicious dinner.

The bread was the No Knead French Bread. The recipe can be found on the Noshtalgia website. It is an amazing dough to work with.

The pasta was from Tide and Thyme. The only pasta recipe I use. I had more than enough for tonight's dinner and I was able to put some in the freezer.
 

The sauce was, of course, the Marcella Hazan Onion, Butter and Tomato Sauce. This time I diced the onion after it had cooked for almost an hour. I sauteed some Pancetta cubes and cubed zucchini and added that to the sauce. Wow!!!

Cacio e Pepe e Roasted Vegetables

This was a snap to make. Of course, I did have a couple of advantages. The first is that it does help to have homemade pasta in the freezer.

 

The second advantage was that I roasted the vegetables last night.  I mixed Brussels sprouts, zucchini, yellow squash, red pepper, and carrots with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, and thyme. They were roasted for about 30 minutes, stirring a couple of times, on 375˚.

Tonight, while the pasta cooked, I heated up some butter, about 2 tablespoons in a large skillet on low heat. Once it foamed, I added a lot of cracked black pepper. Added in a ladle full of pasta water straight from the pot and bring that “sauce” to a boil.

Before you drain the pasta save some of the pasta water. Add the pasta to the butter-pepper-sauce pan  and add 1/4 cup of cheese, and swirl it all around until it's melted. If it looks dry—you want it to glisten!—add a bit more pasta water. After that’s all cooked for a minute, add the vegetables and a whole bunch of grated Parmigiano. Serve with even more freshly cracked black pepper if you would like.

Pasta Primavera

I love when I have homemade pasta that was in the freezer. Tonight I sauteed zucchini, yellow squash, orange pepper, and sweet onion in some olive oil and a knob of butter. The vegetables were seasoned with salt and pepper, thyme, parsley, oregano, and crushed red pepper. I added a little white wine and let that cook down a bit.

Once the pasta was just about done I added the pasta along with a little pasta water to the saute pan. At this point I added about a tablespoon of butter. That was stirred and simmered for a few minutes. Feta and parmesan cheese were sprinkled on top.

And we finished up our leftovers from Luciano's.

Homemade Pasta and Homemade Bread

 

Yes I went into the office today. Yeah on a Friday! Traffic was actually not too bad. I did leave 5 minutes early, but I did get in a 1/2 hour early. Whatever! Tonight's dinner came together quickly. But first I had to fix myself a Blood Orange Vodkatini.

Then I started dinner. I had made the pasta last week and put it was in the freezer. The leeks were also from the freezer. The last time I bought leeks I cut up the extra leek and cleaned and froze it. Nice. I walked into the house at 6:05 and dinner was on the table by 7:00!

Pappardelle with Arugula and Prosciutto, from Bon Appetit May 2013

Ingredients -
1/2 pound pappardelle or fettuccine
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 leeks, white and pale greens only, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest plus more for serving
1 bunch arugula, thick stems trimmed, leaves torn (about 4 cups)
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan plus more for serving
Freshly ground black pepper
3 ounces prosciutto, torn into 1-inch pieces

Method -
Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Drain, reserving 2 cups pasta cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring often, until softened but not browned, 5-8 minutes.
Add pasta, 2 teaspoons lemon zest, and 3/4 cup pasta cooking liquid. Cook, tossing and adding more cooking liquid by 1/4-cupfuls as needed, until a glossy sauce forms that coats pasta, about 4 minutes.

Add arugula and 1/3 cup Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine. Add prosciutto and toss again. Top pasta with more lemon zest and Parmesan.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

A few of my favorite things on one plate. Homemade pasta. Escarole and Beans. Sopressata. Burrata Cheese. Heaven. And I think Chris liked this dinner too. I made the pasta using my new(!!!) food processor. I am a newbie at making pasta in a processor. I used a different recipe for tonight's pasta. I found this recipe on the Food Network site. The dough seemed moister than the recipe I have been using. I have to tell you it was a lighter pasta. We could have eaten the whole pan, but we did not. And the whole idea of making the pasta in the food processor was amazing. No more egg running over the side of a wall of flour and mixing everything on the table top.

Besides homemade pasta there was the Sopresseta and Escarole and beans. A perfect combination on any dish, from pizza to pasta. I sauteed a sliced onion in some olive oil and than added the cubed Sopresseta. Next I added the chopped escarole which had been cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes and drained. (The water the escarole was cooked in was added to the pasta water.) I seasoned everything in the saute pan with crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Half a can of drained Cannelini beans were added as was 2 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 cup chicken broth and 1/4 white wine. After the wine cooked down. I added the cooked pasta along with a little of the pasta water. I cut the Burrata cheese into 4 sections and added it to the top of the pasta. Delicious!

And if it is the weekend I had to have baked something. 

 

Last week I jumped into baking English Muffins. This week I made Whole Wheat and Honey English Muffins. The recipe said to make 10 muffins. For some reason I did not want 10 muffins. I wanted 8. Well, we know have 8 Extra Large English Muffins. Luckily they are really good!