What To Do With Extra Pizza Dough

Not sure why but this week when I fit the pizza dough into the sheet pan last night there was a lot of excess dough. Odd but I made good use of it. I had some olives that did not make it into the Chicken Bake last week. I chopped them up and tossed them with oregano, parsley, and crushed red pepper. The dough was rolled out into a rectangle and brushed the top of the dough with olive oil. The olive mixture was spread over the dough and then rolled up into a spiral and sliced. The buns were placed in a greased baking pan and put in a 450˚ oven for about 20 minutes.

The Olive Spirals were perfect with our Pasta Fagioli

Now about the Pasta Fagioli. I made this yesterday, along with 12 dozen Anginettes. (More about the cookies later this week.)

I sauteed a chopped onion in olive oil. Added a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes. Seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and basil. No, I don't use measurements. You have to season your food for your audience. Chris loves oregano so I go heavy on that. I love crushed red pepper so... The beans were drained, rinsed, and added to the pot. I cooked the pasta and stored it in a container with water in the fridge. Chris just drained it and added it to the pot tonight.

We both went back for seconds. Delicious!

Cooking With Nonna

I bought my brother-in-law the cookbook, Cooking with Nonna, for his birthday. I have been following the Cooking with Nonna blog for awhile. This is where you can find those recipes that your grandmothers and aunts cooked when you were growing up. When I purchased the book for Ralph I got myself the Kindle version. This week we had 3 meals from the book. I will not be putting the recipes on my blog because I think you should buy the book. Sorry, but it is filled with recipes you will want to try. Trust me.

Pasta Fagioli. The recipe in the book called for dried beans. Well, of course, I did not have time to soak and cook the beans so I used canned beans. Wow, this is the recipe I have been searching for. This may be my go to Pasta Fagioli recipe.

Lemon Chicken. I can not even attempt to describe how moist and delicious this was. The recipe is similar to the chicken cutlet recipe I have been using but the cutlets are fried. The sauce of chicken broth, white wine, and lemon juice so light and flavorful.

And the Stuffed Artichoke. Wow! The recipe in the book instructs you to scoop out more of the inside of the artichoke than other recipes I have used. The bread crumbs are toasted, yes I used fresh breadcrumbs.  An absolutely perfect dish and Chris ate more of the artichoke than he usually does.

Thank you to all the Nonnas that helped write this book.

Pasta & Fagioli

One of my favorite things to make is Pasta Fagioli. It a meal I never really looked forward to when I was little. I have told you the story of my Dad telling me the beans were ice cream beans. After years I have come to appreciate the frugality of the dish. Beans are very inexpensive and the pasta can be any type you might have on hand. Usually the dish is made with cannellini beans. I was so sure I had a bag in the pantry. Nope. But I had Ceci beans. Well a fine substitution if I do say so myself. The basic recipe is from Cucina di Barbara. That recipe uses gnocchi. I have made it with gnocchi and loved it. But tonight I used Rienzi, i bambini elbows with carrot and squash. I love this pasta. And yes the pasta is the color of carrots, the color balance is not off on the photo!

My version of Pasta & Fagioli, adapted from Cucina di Barbara

1 onion
1 carrot
Dried chili
300 g. Ceci beans
A tablespoon of tomato paste 
1/2 pound cooked pasta of your choice
Sea salt

The evening before, put the beans to soak in a bowl with plenty of water.
 Chop the onion and carrot and let them go over medium heat for 10 minutes in the saucepan, with olive oil and chopped chilies. Rinse and drain the beans. Add the beans to the onion and carrots, let them go for a minute, turning them often.
Then add the water (about 1 liter) and reduce the heat to minimum. Let cook, covered, following the times marked on the label (about 1 1/2 hr).
A few minutes before turning off, add a tablespoon of tomato paste, salt and pepper.
Cook the pasta and mix well together.

When I sat down for dinner, I noticed a little friend was eating too.

Pasta Fagioli

Back in October I made Pasta Fagioli. I had some in the freezer and all I had to do was add the cooked pasta. We had almost no leftovers! I brought some over to my Dad's. I am pretty sure he will like this.
We had some of  the bread I made yesterday. This batch came out much better than the last time I made this bread. Practice, practice practice.

And speaking of bread you may notice a new button over there on the right. BYOB-Bake Your Own Bread. This is going to be fun! I love baking bread. I just wish I had found out about this earlier in the month. I could have posted the Marble Rye and Pain l'Ancienne. And the English Muffin Bread. Oh well there is always next month.

Pasta Fagioli

Back in December I made a batch of Pasta Fagioli and put some in the freezer. And that is what we had for dinner tonight. It was as tasty as when I first made it. Actually probably better this time.