Creamy Ricotta Spaghetti

While I love spending hours in the kitchen, there are some days that there's so much going on that a quick and easy dinner is the way to go.

I recently gave this recipe a try (courtesy of delish). The idea of using ricotta as a sauce intrigued me.

There are only three steps to this recipe. 

First cook the spaghetti and reserve one cup of the pasta water before draining.

Next, saute some garlic and stir in the ricotta, some of the pasta water, and a bit of lime zest. The recipe calls for lemon zest, but that fruit isn't readily available here. Limes, on the other hand, we have by the boatload.

Finally, add the pasta to the sauce and give it a mix so all the spaghetti is coated.

I garnished our plates with a bit of crushed red pepper and chopped basil. Overall, we thought the dish was okay, but not great. The ricotta worked well as the sauce, but it just felt like something was missing from a flavor standpoint.

A number of days later, I made this again. But this time, I added some chopped tomatoes and crispy bacon. That did the trick! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. But imagine a forkful of pasta, drenched in the creamy ricotta sauce, the burst of tomato goodness, and the salty crunch of bacon bits all in one bite. it was delicious. 

I think this is a good, basic recipe that can be a vehicle for almost anything you might have hanging out in your fridge, looking for a home. Have leftover chicken bits? Broccoli? Throw 'em in there and in 20 minutes you can have dinner on the table.

Homemade Pici Pasta

Without a doubt (at least for me), the best holiday David and I have taken was when we went to Florence, Italy. I spent most of the time walking around with my mouth hanging open being awed by the architecture, art, sculptures, and yes, the food. Dear readers, please believe me that I did manage to not chew my food with my mouth open.

Whenever I'm feeling nostalgic about that particular trip or Italy in general, I reach for the books written by Frances Mayes. You may be familiar with her for writing Under the Tuscon Sun. One of her novels that I recently read is Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life. In one chapter, she relates a dinner that was made that included pici pasta. Now I've read this book before, but this particular passage never jumped out at me. Maybe that I've been making my own pasta, it now caught my eye. Whatever the reason, I did some research and found this recipe (courtesy of Italian Food Forever).

I went ahead and made the dough and let it rest for almost two hours. It's interesting that this is the first pasta dough recipe I've run across that doesn't include eggs. 

I divided the dough in half, covering the portion I wasn't using back in the plastic wrap.

The dough got rolled out to about a 1/4 inch thickness.

Using a pizza cutter, the dough was cut into strips.

Then, using my fingertips, each strip was rolled out to form a tube. The technique is similar to making bread sticks.

I let the pici dry for about 25 - 30 minutes, then cooked them in a pot of boiling, salted water. During the time the pici were drying, I heated up some home made pasta sauce.

The end result:

The pici were tender, not at all mushy. The sauce was great. But...I can't say I love this pasta. It just seems somewhat overwhelming with its thickness. Maybe pairing it with a Bolognese sauce would help? I'm willing to play around with it again and maybe try to make the pici a bit thinner. But make no mistake, pici or no pici, this girl is always happy to make a culinary trip to Italy.

Garlic Butter White Wine Shrimp Fettuccine

I'm a girl that can't resist a cream sauce. And when a cream sauce coats shrimp and pasta? I'm all in. And this recipe (courtesy of Pinch of Yum) does not disappoint.

To get things started, I made a batch of homemade fettuccine. 

Yes, the recipe calls for linguine, but I don't have an attachment for that on the pasta maker. I also thought the slightly broad profile of the fettuccine noodles would provide more real estate for the cream sauce. See? Always thinking.

With the pasta done, I heated some butter in a pan, added some minced garlic and gave it a saute for about a minute. Some homemade chicken stock was added, along with some water. The pasta was added and everything was brought to a boil.

I lowered the heat and let the pasta simmer until almost all of the liquid was absorbed.

In another pan, I melted some butter and added the shrimp.

Wine was added to the shrimp, along with some garlic and sage. This is where I deviated from the recipe. Instead of covering the shrimp and letting continue to cook, I added it right into the pasta. My concern was that if I let the shrimp keep cooking, they would be overdone by the time it came to bring all of the ingredients together.

Anyway, with the shrimp now introduced to the pasta, I added cream, Parmesan, a quick squeeze of lime juice, plus some salt and pepper. 

Is this dish low in calories? Not by a long shot. Is it rich, slightly decadent, and unbelievably delicious? Absolutely. Indulge yourself. I promise you won't regret it.

Garganelli (Homemade Penne) *UPDATE*

We love pasta of just about any kind.  I've knocked out homemade spaghetti, fettucine, papardelle, and lasagna noodles -- all courtesy of the pasta maker on loan to us from our friend, Bruce. But our favorite pasta is penne.

I know I can purchase an extruder to go on my KitchenAid to turn out some penne, but I wondered how it was made before all these newfangled gadgets hit the cooking scene.

What I discovered was before extruders became popular, people made each pasta piece individually, often using a contraption like this:

A simple, ridged block of wood with a small rolling pin. Technically, the pasta that is formed using this device is called garganelli. The difference between it and penne is that garganelli has a flap, whereas penne is a perfect cylinder. More info can be found at Cuisinivity.com.

I made a batch of pasta dough using flour, eggs, a little olive oil, and salt. After it rested for about 30 minutes, I divided the dough into four pieces.

With David's assistance, we started the process of rolling out the dough using the pasta machine. The machine we use has its widest setting at #7, the lowest at #1. We started at #7, rolled the first piece of dough through, folded it in thirds, and rolled it again. This was repeated nine more times. 

When we reached the tenth time through, we notched the pasta machine at setting #6 and rolled again. This process of notching down and rolling continued until we reached setting #3, which we thought might be the right thickness.

David cut the dough into 1 1/2 inch squares. At first I thought they looked pretty tiny, but once I rolled them out on the garganelli board, they were just the right size.

After rolling out each piece, the garganelli were placed on a baking sheet, lined with a lightly floured tea towel.

You can view short video at Cuisinivity to see how the rolling process works. I found that not much pressure was needed with the rolling pin, and that occasionally flouring the pin kept the dough from sticking to it.

The recipe states letting the completed garganelli dry, but not for how long. I checked them after a couple of hours and they seemed to have firmed up nicely.

I heated up some homemade pasta sauce, and cooked the pasta in a big pot of salted water. After combining the pasta into the sauce, it was time to plate.

It certainly looked good, but the final test would be the taste and texture. The good news is that we really like the taste of the garganelli. The bad news is that they seemed a tad thick and many of them collapsed.

We suspect that the pasta needs to be rolled out to setting #2 or maybe even #1. We also want to let them dry out more.

All in all, I will definitely be doing this pasta again. Hopefully my next attempt will bring perfection, or something close to it. 

UPDATE: I made this pasta again, but this time used dough that had a bit of wheat flour in it. Also, I let the pasta dry considerably longer. And the garganelli were turned over about half way through the drying time to ensure both sides were dry. When cooked, the pasta was as close to perfection that I think I can get. The garganelli held their shape and the wheat flour gave a nice bit of texture. Success is mine!

Lasagne Bolognese

So right off the bat, I'm going to let you know that this lasagne recipe (courtesy of epicurious) takes time. However the outcome from this labor of love is worth every step, every ingredient, every minute you spend preparing it. Also, almost all of the components can be made in advance.

The day before I wanted to serve the lasagne, I got to work on making the sauces. First up was the Bolognese.

I chopped onion, celery, and carrot, popped them into the food processor, and buzzed them around until finely chopped.

In a large pan, I added ground beef, ground pork, bacon (the recipe calls for pancetta, but it's not available here), and the veggies. All of this was left cook until the meat was well browned. That took about 30 minutes.

Wine was added to the pan and the brown bits got scraped from the bottom. Milk was then added and left to simmer until almost completely evaporated. Then tomatoes joined in, along with homemade chicken stock. Everything got a good stir, and was left to simmer for about three hours.

When the sauce was finished, I set it aside to let it cool. It would then be put in the fridge overnight. And trust, you want to give it time to meld together.

With the Bolognese cooling away, it was time to start on the Bechamel. I warmed up milk in a saucepan and used another pan to melt the butter. Once it started to foam, flour was added and whisked for about a minute. The warm milk got whisked in, about 1/2 cup at a time. The sauce was then brought to a boil, the heat then reduced, and allowed to simmer for about 10 minutes. I added some grated nutmeg and salt, gave everything another whisk, and removed the pan from the heat. After transferring the sauce to a bowl, I pressed plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sauce. This prevents a skin to form. Once cooled, the Bechamel joined the Bolognese sauce for an overnight nap.

As an aside, you've probably noticed that more than a few pots and pans are needed for this dish -- much to the chagrin of my dishwasher, David.

The next day, I tackled the lasagne noodles. The dough is comprised of flour and eggs. That's it! The dough got needed until smooth.

It was then wrapped in plastic and left to rest for about two hours. When ready, the fun really began.

David and I set up the pasta machine and started rolling out the dough sheets. Now this is something that can be done by one person, but it's faster and easier with two people. 

We needed 16 8"-long noodles. As we were rolling and cutting, a very loud thunderstorm was underway. That meant we had three dogs milling around being nervous. As for the cat? She is fascinated by watching pasta being rolled out, so we had to keep shooing her away.

As the sheets were cut, they were placed on stacked pieces of parchment paper. When we achieved the requisite number, I covered the pan with plastic wrap and popped the pan in the fridge.

Later that afternoon, it was time for the assembly. 

The first step was reheating the sauces. While they were coming up to temp, the lasagna noodles needed to be blanched and shocked in ice water.

Bechamel on back burner, Bolognese in the front

Blanching and shocking lasagne noodles

After taking the noodles out of the ice bath, they were layered on a sheet pan covered in paper towels.

Moving on to the home stretch...

With the noodles made and the sauces heated, the final assembly could begin.

Some Bechamel sauce was ladled into a butter pan.

A layer of noodles were put on top, then some Bolognese was ladled on. 

Some more of the Bechamel was added, along with a bit of grated Parmesan. 

This layering process was repeated seven times.

The pan was put into a pre-heated 350 degree oven and left to bake for about 60 minutes.

The lasagne was left to cool for 45 minutes. This is a really important step and don't worry that it won't still be hot. It will be.

And finally, the plating...

There are so many elements that we love. I think, first and foremost, are the noodles. They are so thin and don't overwhelm the dish. In turn, the sauces really shine. The Bolognese is rich and all those meat elements marry together perfectly. The Bechamel also adds a richness quotient, but in a more subtle way. 

In every way, this dish is time well spent. 

Pappardelle with Artichokes and Shrimp

This dish is a great example of adapting ingredients to achieve a tasty meal. When I saw this recipe (courtesy of Alimentari),the combination of flavors sounded great.

Right off the bat, I knew scoring raw artichoke hearts wasn't going to happen. But we can get artichoke hearts in cans and jars, so that part of the recipe could be checked off.

The pappardelle? Well some type of dried pasta would work in its place, but I decided to make my own. 

With the pasta made and cut, it was just a matter of bringing all the pieces and parts together.

I cut up the jarred artichokes and set them and the liquid they were jarred in to the side. White wine and garlic were put into a saute pan and allowed to reduce (keeping an eye on the garlic that it didn't burn).

In the meantime, I got water going to cook the pappardelle. 

When the wine had reduced in the saute pan, I added a bit of olive oil to the pan and tossed in the shrimp. In no time at all the shrimp turned pink, and the reserved chopped artichokes and liquid were added to the pan.

The cooked pasta was then tossed in and it was time to eat.

David and I agreed that the pappardelle was cut just a tad too wide, but other than that we really liked this dish. The acidity of the artichokes is nicely balanced out by the wine reduction. 

Pasta Salads

We've hit that time of year when the combined heat and humidity produces "feel like" temperatures in the triple digits. As much as I love to cook, there are days when dishes that are cool, light, and refreshing are the order of the day. Enter pasta salads.

Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad with Sesame Dressing 
(Courtesy of The Recipe Critic)

While the ingredient list may appear long for some folks, don't be put off by it, especially as about half the items belong to the dressing. 

There were a couple of things I needed to adjust. I used green cabbage, instead of red because I couldn't find any at the market. The red would have really been a great addition to give the salad a pop of color. I also couldn't find chow mein noodles. Again, they would be a nice addition for added crunch.

That all being said, we loved this pasta salad. The sesame dressing was so good that I might just make a batch to have on hand for other salads.

Mediterranean Rice Noodles

(Courtesy of Epicurious)

So this is another recipe where substitutions were made, due to some ingredients being unavailable. For instance, I decided to go with linguine instead of rice noodles. Instead of green beans, broccoli joined the party. And instead of cherry tomatoes, I diced up a couple of regular ones.

In spite of the changes to the line-up, this was still a very tasty dish. The blanched broccoli added its lovely green color and a satisfying crunch.

And should we decide to change up the flavors a bit, I made some Italian dressing that can be drizzled over the salad. If you've never made your own, please give a go. It's easy and so much better than store bought. 

Chicken Bacon Pasta

While putting together my weekly dinner menu, I try to incorporate dishes that are at least somewhat healthy. But then I run across a recipe that blows all those good intentions right out the window. Such was the case for this recipe (The Recipe Critic).

Seriously, who could pass up the opportunity to pair bacon with pasta, smothered in a cream sauce? Not me. 

First off, I fried up some bacon.

While that was cooking, I combined the ingredients for the dry rub that got put on the chicken breasts. Just a quick note -- I substituted thyme for the sage called for in the recipe.

When the bacon was done, I put the strips on paper towels to drain and to be crumbled later.  Some of the bacon fat was taken out of the pan, and the chicken breasts went in to saute for about 5 minutes on each side.

In the meantime, I made the cream sauce that included heavy cream, cream cheese, parmesan, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Swoon.

The pasta got cooked and was added to the cream sauce. Another quick note -- the recipe called for the pasta to be rinsed with hot water. I don't rinse pasta, unless it will be used for something like a pasta salad. As a result, I skipped this step.

Time to bring all the pieces and parts to the plate.

Will it come as any surprise that we thought this was divine? No, didn't think so. The dry rub on the chicken brought some lovely savory and sweet notes to the dish, and the cream sauce was truly wonderful. I will say it was just a tad bit salty, but that was my error, not the recipe.

While clearly not a dish I will make on a regular basis, this is sinfully decadent for those times you want to treat yourself.

Braised Onion Sauce

If you're looking for a rich, decadent pasta dish, the solution can be summed up in three words: Braised Onion Sauce.

What makes the sauce so decadent? How about 10 tablespoons of butter? Yep.

Just warm the butter in a large skillet over medium heat, then add your onion slices.

Now here's the important part -- let them cook down until they are caramelized and almost jammy. 

It will probably take a good hour (maybe a bit more), but it is time well spent.

When the onions reach this stage, the recipe calls for some Madeira to be stirred in. I wasn't able to score any in town, but I did have some Shiraz on hand and decided to go with that.

I had already made some pappardelle, added the cooked pasta and some grated Parmesan to the pan, and gave everything a good toss.

Oh sweet mother of mercy! This sauce was amazing! There's a definite sweetness from the onions, a velvety texture from all that butter, but it all balances out with that bit of tang from the cheese.

Clearly this isn't a meal one should eat on a regular basis, but every now and again, it's a treat.