End of the Week Pasta

Tonight for dinner I used up a few things that we had leftover and made a most delicious dinner. Chris commented that it was quite good.

I started off sauteeing some sausage. When that was cooked I added zucchini, sliced in 1/2 moons. Next, I added a little white wine and cooked that down. I had leftover sausage and peppers in that delicious Marcella Hazan sauce. That was stirred into the pan. The seasonings were adjusted, a little salt and pepper. 

Meanwhile, the pasta was boiling...

When the pasta was done I added it to the saute pan along with a knob of butter and a little pasta water. I served the pasta with a little bit of burrata cheese on top.

Just delicious! And only 2 pans to wash! Perfect start to the weekend.

Veal Stock Revisited

This week has been an interesting one for dinners. I was away this past weekend and did not cook. I have been paying the price every night. We had Chinese Sunday with leftovers on Monday. Tuesday we were suppose to have Lentil Soup which I had taken out of the freezer. Chris called when he got home and asked where the soup was because what he found in the fridge was a container marked - Veal Stock from Osso Bucco, 12/25/13. Excellent. I was sure I saw Lentil Soup. Anyway, we ended up having Baked Macaroni on Tuesday, not a bad substitute. But still there was the veal stock to deal with. This morning I heated up the stock and added some frozen veggies, there was already onions and carrots in the stock. I boiled some noodles. Tossed them in the pot and added some fresh spinach I had in the fridge. The house smelled so good at 7 AM! And what a fantastic dinner it was. It was nice to know that none of the Veal Osso Bucco went to waste.

Beef Stroganoff

Lets start with the small portion of Roast Beef I had in the freezer, are you following a pattern lately - cleaning out the freezer. Next I found this recipe. I especially like the bit of history that is given at the start of the recipe. The end result was pure comfort. But any meal that involves egg noddles is comforting to me! And as you can see by the photo I substituted zucchini for the mushrooms.

What did we have for dinner a year ago...
Chicken Saltimbocca & Grilled Pork Loin


What did we have for dinner 2 years ago...
Pasta with Peppers and Sand

Chicken Fried Rice

I found this recipe on Smells Like Home blog. I had chicken leftover from last night and I made the brown rice earlier today. Not a bad dish. I would definitely make this again. And I love the way it looks on my rice pattern dish!


What did we have for dinner a year ago...
Ricotta Cavatelli with Vodka Sauce

Italian Lentil & Chestnut Stew and Grilled Cheese & Meatloaf Sandwiches

I love this recipe for Lentil Soup. The chestnuts are an excellent addition. Chris took the photo and it tasted as good as the photo looks!

Now on to the Grilled Cheese and Meatloaf portion of the meal. We had had some leftover meatloaf (yum!) so we made Grilled Meatloaf and Cheese Sandwiches on the rye bread I made on Sunday. Double Yum!

A little bit of baking...

In all fairness I must state that I started these breads on Friday and Saturday. But this is what I had to work with at this morning -

 And this is what I ended up with -

 Let me introduce you to the line up -

 

The Rye Bread is from the Jim Lahey book, My Bread: The Revolutionary No Knead Bread Method.

The Pain a l"Ancienne is from Food 52.

The Hot Cross Bun is a recipe I got from my sister who got it from.... my Mom! This dough is wonderful to work with it and just smells so good. And the finished product... well my sister and I make them every year so that has to say something.

And this is my entry for BYOB Bake Your Own Bread!

 

 Okay where's the butter?

 

Oh yes and I almost forgot about dinner. Last night I made extra Aborio rice to go with our dinner. I am making a casserole that you will see later this week. After preparing the casserole this morning (I do most my by cooking on Sundays for the upcoming week) I still had a bit of rice. So I made Rice Balls. I remember Julie, I work with her, saying she baked her rice balls instead of frying them. I gave it a try. I had some of the amazing sauce from the Osso Bucco that I did not want to waste so I combined it with the Rice Balls and dinner was served, along with a big salad.

Chicken and Broccoli Rabe Calzones

Back on Sunday I made the Pizza dough from from My Bread by Jim Lahey. The recipe makes enough for 1 large pizza and 2 calzones. Tonight we had the calzones. I had the leftover chicken from Saturday night's dinner, Chicken Trombino, which was so delicious I wanted to make good use of the leftovers. So I used it to fill the calzones. Now there was not quite enough for both calzones so in mine I added some broccoli rabe. Usually I add ricotta to the fillings but this time I just used Parmesan and Mozzarella cheeses.

I put a "C" and a "L" on the top of each calzone so we could tell them apart. We topped them with some of that Marinara Sauce I had in the freezer. Delicious!

Grilled Cheese with Roasted Onions and Peppers

Keep it simple Friday. The onions and peppers were roasted on Sunday and went very nicely with the rye bread and cheese. Some Dijon mustard on the side was all the sandwich needed.

We also had some Italian Wedding Soup that I had in the freezer. Love the little meatballs!

Happy Friday!