Pasta with Slow Roasted Tomatoes (2 ways)

I keep buying large amounts of cherry tomatoes and then forgetting about them until it's almost too late. To use up a bunch at once before they go bad, I've been slow roasting them by lining a baking tray with tin foil, halving the tomatoes, giving them a quick mix with olive oil and baking them at 250 for about 3 hours. I've been trying not to use the oven since it's been so hot, but I LOVE tomatoes after they've been slow roasted and it's way better than letting any tomatoes go to waste. Remember to keep the oil - it's good.

I can definitely go for some plain slow roasted tomatoes, but I wanted to share a couple pasta recipe ideas that make good use of them.

Gnocchi au Gorgonzola 

(aka one of my all-time favorite things to make since high school... not healthy)

1 package gnocchi, cooked

1/2 cup Gorgonzola (or blue cheese), cut up or crumbled

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup heavy cream or half & half

a lot of slow roasted tomatoes (in their olive oil if possible)

1 tbsp chives, chopped

In a small saucepan over medium low heat, combine the cheese and butter and heat until the butter melts, stirring to help melt the cheese. Add the cream and stir to combine. Don't let it bubble too much. Mix with the gnocchi, tomatoes and top with chives.

Nice & Simple Pasta - Garlic, Basil & Tomatoes

2 servings angel hair pasta, cooked 

(pictured is fresh angel hair pasta from Ohio City Pasta, bought at the Squirrel Hill Farmer's Market)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

6-7+ leaves fresh garlic, chopped

1 tsp red pepper flakes

lots of slow roasted tomatoes

In a large pan, heat up the oil over medium low heat. Add the garlic, basil and hot pepper flakes and cook until the garlic is toasted a little. Add in the pasta and mix. Serve with slow roasted tomatoes. 

Potluck-Ready Pasta Salad

Back when I was in AmeriCorps we had potlucks ALL THE TIME. People were pretty serious about them, too. Since then, I've learned that potlucks are not quite so frequent in your average office environment. However, we did have a potluck recently when our group of AmeriCorps members finished their one-year term. I made this almost-store-bought pasta salad after work the day before. 

This is pretty much a combo of a few things I picked up at Trader Joe's, so I'll write it up as I made it. Obviously, this is not sponsored by Trader Joe's. I wish!!

Potluck-Ready Pasta Salad

1 bag vegetable radiatore pasta (the multi-colored spiral-y one)

1 container pre-cut Healthy 8 chopped vegetable mix (or do the chopping yourself: red and green cabbages, carrots, broccoli, jicama, bell peppers, radishes and celery)

1 container crumbled feta

1 small can sliced black olives

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp lemon juice

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

1/3 cup olive oil

Combine the pasta, veggies, feta and olives in a large bowl. In a separate small bowl, mix together the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, oregano, dill and olive oil. Pour over the pasta and mix well.

Spring Pasta with Peas, Goat Cheese, and Smoked Salmon

This recipe is like spring in a bowl. I checked out the Fairmount farmer's market which is just a couple blocks away from me. There are about 6ish vendors who all have gorgeous veggies, homemade bread, and jam! I snatched up some garlic scapes and basically the rest of the ingredients for this pasta dish. I also like working with measurements like 1 handful as it is closer to how I actually cook. This recipe is from What Katie Ate. You might recognize her books which I've seen all over. Gorgeous photography and traveling and food. All good things as far as I'm concerned. Also this is the back of the latest bust magazine.

What you need:

1 lb/454 g dried spaghetti

1 heaping cup frozen baby peas, defrosted

400g + plain goat cheese (1 large log)

3 garlic scapes, chopped (optional)

Small bunch fresh dill

Small bunch fresh basil leaves 

Small handful mint leaves (about 16)

1 handful arugula 

Zest and juice 1 lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4- 1/3 cup hot pasta water 

8 slices smoked salmon, torn into strips

Garnish with fresh basil and dill and fresh Parmesan 

What to do:

Cook pasta until al dente. Remember to reserve some pasta water when straining. Return the strained pasta to the cooking pot.

Add peas, goat cheese, herbs, lemon, and olive oil into a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Add as much pasta water as needed to thin to a sauce consistency. Katie heats up the sauce but I skipped this. 

Stir the sauce into the pasta and heat for 3 minutes or so over medium low heat. Then plate the pasta then add the salmon and garnishes.

Note: the garlic scapes make the sauce less smooth but so much more delicious!

Pecan Raisin Spaghetti

This is my attempt to copy the sweet pasta dish on the buffet at Zenith. I think I got pretty close! It's one of those things that doesn't sound good at all, but it works somehow, especially as a side dish.

PECAN RAISIN SPAGHETTI

Inspired by Zenith Tea Room & Antiques

2 servings uncooked spaghetti

1/4 cup raw pecan pieces

1/2 cup raisins

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 pinch cinnamon

salt & pepper

1 tsp brown sugar

extra virgin olive oil

Boil up the pasta according to the directions. Toast the pecans until lightly browned (when they start to smell toasty, turn off the heat). Heat the olive oil in a skillet and saute the shallot and garlic. Once they are lightly browned, add in the pecan pieces and the raisins. Add in the cinnamon, salt and pepper. Let it cook for a minute and then add in the brown sugar and mix it up. Stir it all into the spaghetti and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. 

Kate's Pasta Salad

This recipe is from my high school friend, Kate. It was a staple at her house and recently she made the salad for a mutual friend's bridal shower. I was reminded how great it was and made it twice this month already.

Lately we've been exploring Philly and my hometown with Rexie. We take him to lots of dog parks and restaurants. Yesterday we went to yappy hour with him at Loews hotel downtown. There were about 30+ dogs there and lots of good food for them. They had rice, peas, carrots, and ground beef made special for them. We had doggie themed cocktails. Rex decided to eat about three bowls and then go back for more. He's definitely as into food as we are!

1 lb penne pasta
1 cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 cup black olives, sliced
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup packed fresh basil, thinly sliced
3/4 cup shredded Parmesan
1/3 cup herbed goat cheese, crumbled
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and drizzle with olive oil. Let cool. Toss with all the ingredients together in a large bowl and drizzle with more olive oil and just a touch of balsamic vinegar. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Frittata with Pasta and Cherry Tomatoes

I haven't made this dish since undergrad but it's a quick and easy one. Mainly, it's perfect for summer. I wanted to make a quiche but didn't have butter to make a crust. Anyways, it was a hit with my family (mostly Kelly and Nick) because of the large amounts of cheese I used to make it.

We just spent the past weekend with my cousin Kara and her family (twins + two year old + doggie!). We celebrated my uncle's birthday and helped watch the babies. Mostly we had snuggles with babies and watched Thomas the train engine. It was a blast! Rex was mostly terrified of their dog, Gaia. Probably because she's so refined and he is completely nuts.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups cooked pasta (rotini or macaroni)
5 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1 bunch swiss chard, stems removed
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan, shredded
herbed goat cheese, for topping
1 tsp dried italian herbs
salt and pepper

Grease a 9 inch round pie pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Slice the swiss chard finely and cook in a saucepan over medium heat until wilted. Drain excess water.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Add the italian herbs. Then add in the pasta and cooked swiss chard. Stir to incorporate. Then mix in the mozzarella and season with salt and pepper. Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Top with cherry tomatoes, cut side up. Then sprinkle parmesan and goat cheeses all over the surface. The frittata is done when it is almost firm in the center and the top is golden brown, about 30-40 minutes. If the cheese is browning too quickly, just cover with aluminum foil.
We ate this with fresh gazpacho on the side! Yay summer!

Super Easy Pasta with Avocado Sauce

Hi all.  I finished my first week of work!  I FINALLY got a nanny job.  As part of a nanny share, I'm responsible for taking care of 2 tiny babies (one 3 month old and one 7 month old) and the 7 month old's big sister after kindergarten.  I'm starting out with just the 3 month old for a couple weeks as her mom returns from maternity leave and will transition to having all babies in a couple weeks!  It's so nice to finally be working.  As Michelle knows, too much free time is not my friend.  Speaking of Michelle:

Puppy Selfie

Sleepy Pup

I've been cooking a lot lately and need to catch up on blogging recipes.  Honestly, my favorite thing I've made in a long time was Sesame Peanut Noodles with Beets!  So good.  I had been craving peanut sauce for a while and finally purchased farmers' market beets and was gifted honey, paving the way for this deliciously one point sauce.  


So I guess since this blog requires more than just puppy pictures and updates on my life, let's talk about Pasta with Avocado Sauce. This was a pinterest find, as many of my recipes are lately.  I really didn't alter it from what Damn Delicious came up with.  This was fast and easy, and unlike most my recipes, I didn't have to chop vegetables forever.  It made a bunch, but I have a feeling the avocado will make it brown.  Let me know if you think of any ways to improve or add on!

Avocado with Pasta Sauce

Adapted from Damn Delicious

Garlic Scape Pesto

We're coming to the end of garlic scape season! This meal was made for our 1 month anniversary!!! It was a stormy day and the perfect day for some (super) garlicky pasta. Garlic scapes are garlic flowers. They are cut off at the beginning of the season in May so that the garlic bulb will continue to develop instead of the flower. The younger they are, the more tender they will be. If you wait too long to cut them off, they tend to be really woody. This recipe makes more than enough pesto for this dish. Use the extra for some delicious pizza toppings or to spice up any dish (we added it to quinoa).

1 pound dry pasta (I used orecchiette)
1 bunch fresh bok choy
1 medium onion
3 bunches garlic scapes
1/3 cup walnuts
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Toppings: prosciutto, capers, fresh mozzerella

To make the pesto:

Chop the garlic scapes into 1-2 inch pieces so they fit easily into a food processor. Toast the walnuts until golden brown if desired. Blend the scapes until chopped thoroughly, then add the walnuts and parmesan cheese. Add the olive oil until the pesto is at the desired consistency. Feel free to adjust the amounts of each ingredient to your liking.

Pasta:
Cook the pasta al dente according to the package direction. Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water when straining the pasta. Mince the onion and cook until translucent in a frying pan. Then add a little bit of water and cook the bok choy briefly. Add into the pasta. Add enough pesto to coat the pasta, thinning with the pasta water as needed.
Top with various toppings and serve hot or cold.

Sesame Peanut Noodles with Beets

Hi everyone! I'm back from Vietnam, and I'm glad to see that you have all been prolific while I've been gone. It's great to be able to track everyone's holiday through recipes : ) A picture of Vietnam from one of our hotels in Hoi An:

Kelly plus Nick drinking a coconut in my grandparents' house:

And a really pretty beach in a little cove on Paradise island:

Anyways, I've been craving these simple peanut noodles. This meal is based off of a recipe from Epicurious but I use different vegetables and add fish sauce (of course).

Top photo is with wheat noodles. Bottom is with rice noodles and some coconut milk instead of pasta water.

For peanut dressing

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 5 medium garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or less fresh lime 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 4 teaspoons honey
• 1 squirt of Sriracha sauce
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2/3 cup hot pasta water reserved from cooking the pasta
• Black sesame seeds, to top

For noodle salad

• 1 lb dried whole wheat linguine or rice noodles (pad Thai)
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 4 medium beets, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
• 1 bunch of beet greens, cut into thin strips
• 5 carrots, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips

To make the sauce, just put all the ingredients in the food processor for the peanut sauce part minus the water. Blend until the mixture is smooth and season with black pepper or more hot sauce to taste.

Chop the vegetables.

Saute the onions, beets, and carrots until softened. I like the vegetables to be a little crunchy and you could even eat everything raw if the beets are small.

Cook the noodles until done, about 12 minutes. I like my noodles to still be chewy, so I cook them for less time. An alternative would be to use rice noodles.

Add the peanut sauce to the vegetables along the with extra pasta water and stir to incorporate.

Then toss in the noodles right before serving. This is great hot or cold. The beets turn everything pink! I like to garnish the pasta with some fresh parsley.

Mushroom & Kale Pasta

I keep forgetting to take pictures of my food. Yesterday I brined and roasted a chicken with brussel sprouts and shallots, and it was so pretty and delicious, but there is no picture to prove it. Oh well. It was really good. This pasta dish is not quite so pretty but it's really simple, quick and tasty. It takes several hours less of your time than the roast chicken. Tonight it took me about a half hour, but most of that was just waiting for the water to boil.

My grandma came over for dinner so I ended up making a lot more of this spaghetti than I was going to originally - it's a good thing to make an easy single serving. This photo is kind of misleading - I promise my grandma did not eat KFC instead of my pasta. The box is full of sand tarts, yay. The lantern box, however, really is a lantern.

I really don't feel like getting this into normal recipe form so:

Get the pasta water going, and do that when it's ready. If you're a bacon person, fry up some bacon, one piece per serving. Save the bacon on a paper towel-lined plate. 

Roasted Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

This is mac and cheese on butternut squashy steriods, it is so good. I got an enormous butternut squash at Schramm's and roasted it a couple days ago since I knew I wouldn't have time to roast and make this on the same workday evening. 

So when I did make this it was really quick. Making the cheesy squashy part took about as long as boiling the pasta.

I'm just going to post the original recipe from How Sweet It Is because I'm really not sure about the quantities I used for anything - I made it in a loaf pan with about a third of the huge squash I'd roasted. I also used cream cheese instead of mascarpone cheese. I roasted the butternut squash with cayenne pepper instead of nutmeg. I used a different kind of pasta, I think it's called fusilli, and I used monterey jack cheese instead of mozza and parmesan. No bacon this time. I'm sure it would be great, but I don't think it needs it. I added halved grape tomatoes on top.

---

Roasted Butternut Squash Baked Penne

From How Sweet It Is

ingredients:

1 pound butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small shallot, chopped
1 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
2/3 cup milk
1/2 pound whole wheat penne
1/4 cup freshly grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
sage leaves
crumbed bacon, if desired

Squash Ravioli from Thanksgiving leftovers!

Hi everyone, it's Kate here and it's my very first post! Yay! I'm living in Ohio now, but a Pittsburgher at heart.

Last week, I got some delicious inspiration from this Trib article about reinventing Thanksgiving leftovers. The one that stuck out to me were the ravioli, especially since they're pretty similar to pierogies, a true yinzer favorite.

Squash ravioli: delicious and easy to make!

Instead of incorporating turkey, because we actually ran out of that, I focused on the butternut squash, because we have a ton. So here's a squash ravioli recipe slightly adapted, but mostly the same from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article.

More Pumpkin: Stuffed Shells

Okay, so I'm more than a little bit obsessed with pumpkin right now (or all the time).  I was searching for a recipe for stuffed chicken breasts, but Google apparently likes to steer me away from healthy things because a stuffed shell recipe came up first.  The great thing about pumpkin is that I can somehow justify eating all this cheesy goodness because, hey, there's a lot of vegetable in here!  Plus they're pretty:

I told myself I'd never be one of those girls who posts pictures of all of their culinary achievements on facebook.  These just looked too exciting not to share.  But once I opened that door I couldn't stop.  Now I take pictures of all the new foods I make...maybe it's to prove to myself that I'm not a terrible cook after all.  Or maybe it's to validate the time spent on all of my days off.

I based these loosely off of some recipe that I apparently forgot to save.  If I ever find the original author I'll be sure to credit them here :)

Ingredients:

1 box jumbo shells

1 small container ricotta cheese (I have no idea what size it was. maybe 8oz? 12 oz? I just bought the smallest one)

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used the Kraft 5-cheese Italian blend, but plain mozzarella or parmesan would be fine too)

1 handful fresh spinach, chopped

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp sage

1/2-1 tsp basil

1-2 cloves garlic (or 1 tsp garlic powder)

salt and pepper

1/2 to 1 cup pasta sauce

parsley and grated parmesan (optional, for garnish)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Cook shells according to package directions.

Combine ricotta, pumpkin puree, shredded cheese, milk, and spinach.  Mix well.  Add spices, plus salt and pepper to taste. (I finally got myself a black pepper grinder so I like to use that bad boy as much as possible.)

Fill each shell with that cheesy, pumpkiny goodness.

After arranging shells in the baking pan, drizzle shells with pasta sauce.  Since there is already a lot of vegetable (aka pumpkin) I decided that I needed less sauce than I would normally use with traditional stuffed shells.

Sprinkle with parsley and grated parmesan, if desired.  I find that adding parsley to just about any Italian-inspired dish makes it look way more classy.

Cover and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  Because there's no egg in this recipe, you really only need to heat them til they're warm, so if they start to dry out go ahead and take them out of the oven.

Bon appetit!

Mushroom Mac & Cheese

I had grand plans of having a mushroom-themed potluck tonight, but it pretty much failed.  I did, however, manage to make mushroom mac and cheese.  I'm not much of a photographer, so you'll have to use your imagination...or visit the website I got this recipe from :)

http://www.icancookthat.org/2011/12/mushroom-mac-cheese.html

Ingredients:

• 1 Package cremini mushrooms (baby bellas)
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 Garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• Cooking spray
• 2 Tbs dry sherry
• 2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
• 8 Ounces (1/2 box) uncooked elbow macaroni
• 1/4 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Small can evaporated milk 
• 1 Cup shredded fontina cheese (I used cheddar instead)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F
2. Combine mushrooms, olive oil and garlic on baking sheet covered in cooking spray. Season with salt & pepper
3. Bake at 450F for 15-20 minutes until mushrooms are browned
4. Cook pasta as directed on box
5. When mushrooms are done cooking, put in a bowl with sherry and oregano
6. Keep oven on, but decrease to 400F
7. Add flour and evaporated milk in a large pot and stir with a whisk; Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly
8. Add the cheese, salt and pepper
9. Remove from heat and stir in the mushroom mixture and pasta
10. Put the pasta mixture into a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes
11. Sprinkle with oregano leaves and enjoy!