Fusilli with Fresh Tomato Sauce & Ricotta Cheese

After college I moved to NYC to “grow up,” which means I worked three jobs in attempts to make rent & pay off student loans while having some fun too. Glamorous, right? One of my three jobs was waiting tables  in NYC’s Little Italy. During this time I survived on a few staples for dinner: cannolis, pasta dishes my boss would generously share with me & Chinese food from my favorite place a block away.

I really hadn't thought about these meals until I was watching Giada’s show on Food Network yesterday. She was in Italy making all kinds of pasta. The one dish that she made took me way back to my early twenties when I used to share fusilli (the long curly pasta) with tomato sauce & fresh ricotta with my boss. I easily ate this once or twice (maybe more) a week. Giada’s method was simple & straight forward so feeling nostalgic for it I recreated it from memory of what I learned earlier in the day. 

The one key method for making Giada's simple & super fresh tomato sauce sung out to my inner love of tomatoes - especially fresh summer tomatoes. She took fresh tomatoes & used a box grater to break them down for the sauce. Apparently if you do this in a fancy food processor or blender the heat from those kinds of appliances actually change the flavor of the tomatoes (& we don't want that). I had to try it. I did & I loved it. This maybe my new favorite way to make tomato sauce. It’s so easy & fresh that you’ll be making on the regular too. I think it’s time to get this dish back in my weekly rotation like when I first moved to NYC.

Do you have specific food that reminds you of your first “adult” years? I’d love to hear about them. Leave me a note in the comments below.

PS: remember if you make this pasta be sure to snap a pic & then tag me in your photos on instagram (@mrshoh or #HeatherOMade)!

Better Home Cooking Basics: #23 Buy a Block of Cheese & Grate it Yourself

Skip the prepackaged shredded cheese & buy a block instead. You can grate it or slice it as you need it. It's surprisingly more cost effective (read: cheaper!) & I think it tastes better too.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #17 Cut Fresh Mozzarella with a Serrated Bread Knife

Fresh mozzarella used to be a treat that we would get a couple times a year. We would pile in the car (a giant suburban) & drive down to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx & bring home what seemed like piles & piles of cheese that was usually gone in the blink of an eye. This was usually around the holidays or when my parents got the itch to visit our "Little Italy" in the Bronx.

I've lived in the other "Little Italy" in Manhattan & now Hoboken & have since been spoiled by fresh mozzarella that seems to be homemade & better in each deli I walk into. Hoboken is basically a square mile of cheese & I'm not complaining. You don't have to live in Hoboken or a "Little Italy" these days since most grocery stores carry their own fresh mozzarella.

So now how to cut it. It's soft, kind of wobbly & challenging to get a knife in it & come out with a  straight line. That is unless you use a serrated bread knife. It seems to grab hold of the slippery cheese & cut right through.  If you don't have a bread knife you can try the trick that my husband swears by: stick the cheese in the freezer for about 10 minutes & it becomes firm enough to cut with a sharp knife.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here. 

Kale & Cherry Pepper Mac & Cheese

Well hello from 2014! I realize there has been radio silence from my end since the start of this new year. Honestly, I was debating what my obligatory resolutions would be. I still really don't know but I have a giant list & have definitely been inspired by BexLife's list.  When I figure it out I'll let you know. What's yours?

In any event, the start of the new year makes me want to be a better person - by bettering my relationships & trying new things.  Right before the holidays I was spoiled by some much needed girl time with some of my best friends.  We visited The Celler at Beecher's in NYC (twice for some of us in a week's time) & all agreed that their kale, mama lil's peppers mac & cheese was worthy of multiple repeat orders during the same dinner (!!!). So naturally, I wanted to try to recreate it at home & I think I came pretty close.  It's not baked but rather more of a macaroni with cheese sauce which means less cooking time - yay! Plus, if you're skipping out on carbs this year (or first full week of 2014 at least until you realize that is for the birds) you could probably just make the cheese sauce (although there is a tiny amount of flour in it) & pile it on top of steamed broccoli or spaghetti squash for a low-carb option. Try it yourself & see what you think.

Cheesey Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

If you follow me on instagram you may have already seen the giant pile of mashed potatoes I made for Thanksgiving. We always have several kinds of potatoes, but my cousin Marco insists it's not Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes - so it we had mashed potatoes & it was officially Thanksgiving.  This year I added two of my favorite things to our potatoes - cheese & garlic - & mashed them with a supped up version of the potato masher that my cousin-in-law, Mariah, said would've made Grandma O'Hara proud.

Keep reading for my recipe. How do you make your mashed potatoes? Do you use a food processor or go for the full arm work out with a traditional masher?

PS: remember if you have a ton of leftover mashed potatoes you can reinvent them with this recipe!

Balsamic Glazed Roasted Grapes with Lemony Ricotta Toasts

I really enjoy flavors that mix salty & sweet. Throw in some creamy & crunchy ingredients & you've named all of the attributes I think the perfect snack should have.

I found this recipe on food52.com (yes I enjoy their recipes if you haven't noticed).  It caught my eye when I read roasted grapes & ricotta in one title.  It sounds like my ideal cheese plate all in one. I knew I had to make it.  I didn't have all of the ingredients that the original recipe calls for so I ad-libbed with my own & i spooned mine over some hearty toasts.

It's a pretty unique recipe. I posted this image on instagram & two of my girlfriends debated whether it was a photo of grapes or garlic.  Both are valid responses in my world, but it was grapes in this instance. I highly recommend this recipe, even if you don't have time to roast the grapes make the lemony ricotta & eat it with a spoon.

Chicken Lettuce Tacos

We love tacos at our house. In hopes to keep our sprint fare a little bit on the lighter side I opted to make our chicken tacos with butter or boston lettuce instead.  PF Chang's makes some delicious lettuce wraps so I knew they had a good chance of working & my husband liking them.  All & all they were really good & we'll definitely swap out tortillas for these gluten-free lettuce tacos again. 

What do you eat in your lettuce wraps?

BBQ Chicken & Cheese Quesadilla Pizza

Happy belated Cinco de Mayo! Did you enjoy some salty margaritas or with something deliciously spicy?

I have only been celebrating Cinco de Mayo since my early twenties, probably because that's when I was of the legal drinking age for bars & restaurants to market to me. Even though we didn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo when I was growing up I remember my mom making cheese quesadillas. She would top a tortilla with a  mix of barbecue sauce & salsa together with some green onions, cheese & then another tortilla and pan fry into a crispy snack that was both spicy & sweet.  Taking a nod from my youth and this California Pizza Kitchen-esque BBQ Chicken Pizza recipe I created my own fusion (half bbq have Mexican inspired) Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Simple Cheese Plate at Home

I live on cheese, olives & wine.  It might be one of my favorite ways to spend the happy hours of the day.  Cheese plates seem so chi-chi but really they are incredibly easy to whip up & enjoy.  I put this cheese plate together while we were waiting for our dinner to finish cooking. I think the best way to make a good cheese plate is to combine salty with sweet with a variety of textures. I love olives, but Chris does not, so for my salty element I used some garlicky dill pickles.  I used two cheeses, one hard (parmesan that I shaved with a veggie peeler) and one soft (goat cheese that I cut into crumbly rounds).  My sweet element was fresh clementine segments.  I always love something I can spread so I used the last of the spinach & kale pesto that I had made.  A delicious vehicle for this spread is just as important. Lucky for me there's a bakery around the corner. Even luckier for me, I have a husband who was willing to grab some fresh bread.  Cheese plates are of course delicious with wine.  I know there's a whole sommelier science behind it but I say, drink what you like in good company & if the weather permits - enjoy it all outside.

Happy weekend y'all ;)

Lobster Mac & Cheese

To kick off the new year I had a tough decision to make, what to do with a bunch of leftover lobster meat.  That's right for the first time in O'Hara history there was leftover lobster at our house. Perhaps a bit of background would help.

Chris loves lobster. Usually when something is this 'loved' there are no leftovers.

He's been cooking lobster for me ever since we were dating - I know I'm a very lucky girl.  Every New Years Eve ShopRite seems to have lobster on sale for ridiculous prices. This year Christ got it for $2.99/lb.  Since it was offered at such an incredible price Chris decided the more the merrier, only thing was that it was just the two of us spending some quality time on the couch to ring in the new year. 

After Chris cooked & cracked open all of our fresh lobster I think both of our eyes got bigger as we stared at the pile of lobster meat.  Fear not, we ate as much as we possibly could & then wrapped up the rest for the next day.

I was determined to find something to use the lobster with. Pinterest had a ton of things. Then I was flipping through the pages of the Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof cookbook Chris's mom gave me for Christmas (thank you Mary!) & it was right there, staring me in the face: Ina Garten's Lobster Mac & Cheese.  I promised the resolutions I had mentally made that I would start soon, but for now it was game on with the lobster mac & cheese.

Click through for the full recipe & oodles of photos.

Tomato, Cheese & Egg Crêpe Squares

I love finding inspiration from fellow bloggers, mostly because I like to think they're just like me, a real person who probably lives, eats, dresses & sleeps in an apartment. I've had the pleasure of meeting the creative mind behind Downtown Romantic in the past through my friend Christine. Although I haven't seen Laney in quite some time I enjoy checking in on her blog & chic lifestyle every now & then. Besides her luxe taste in clothes, the girl knows how to eat & everything seems so decadent.  So this past weekend I tried my hand at the crepes recipe on her blog with my own twist with some spicy sriracha salt my sister-in-law gifted me for Christmas.

Click through for my version of Downtown Romantic's crepe squares recipe & photos of how I did it.

Veggie Fettuiccine Alfredo

I watched Mario Batali make this version of fettucini alfredo on TV a while ago & used it as inspiration for our Sunday supper with my own little flare of course.  Click through for my version of his recipe.

Have a great week & happy October (OMG!!! time flies).

Tomato Bites

I wanted to make these little munchies while we watched the JETS game but Chris doesn't care for olives to make these tasty apps more home team I substituted grape tomatoes for the olives.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup grated Cheddar
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 20 grape tomatoes

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour and butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Mix in the Cheddar and Parmesan and knead lightly to combine. Form the mixture into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Unwrap the dough, take a small piece and cover a tomato, making sure the pastry surrounds the olive and there are no gaps. Flour your hands and roll the tomato-encased pastry into a ball; put it on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat the process with the remaining pastry and olives. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (Can be made a day ahead and held in the refrigerator.)
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the baking sheets on the middle shelf of the oven and bake until the pastries are light golden, about 10 minutes. Remove the bites from the oven and arrange on a serving platter.

Fresh Ricotta Cheese

 I made ricotta cheese. Yes, I made cheese! It's way easier than it sounds.  You only need a few ingredients & some basic kitchen tools.  Learn how I made it after the jump!

Tips From a Culinary Agent: Alice

Every single person in my life inspires me in some way. Alice sits high on the list of my inspirational friends.  She knows a thing or two (million) about hospitality & yummy eats.  A couple weeks back when a bunch of us girls gathered at her apt for dinner I couldn't help but snap photos of literally every little  detail that Alice had put into the evening.  Definitely start your dinner party like Alice did (in the photo above) with briny olives, nutty cheeses, fruity olive oils & fresh bread.

Get more tips a la Alice for serving up some snacks for a tasty kickoff to a dinner party after the jump!

Fresh Pasta With No Cook Sauce

Chris & I made the rounds visiting some of our family for Memorial Day Weekend. On Monday, we hung around home base & visited with my aunt, cousins, sister and friends. My generous aunts gifted me my Kitchen Aid Mixer for my bridal shower - I'm not sure how I got on with cooking, baking or life with out it.  To top it off my Aunt Theresa (one of our guests of honor) gifted me the amazing pasta attachment so I felt it was necessary to whip some fresh pasta up in her honor.

I opted for this no cook sauce that I saw the Barefoot Contessa make (as I jogged along on the treadmill, drooling all the while. A complete mind/body work out if you ask me).  It takes minutes to prep but tastes better with time so plan ahead & make it in the morning.  Then just add pasta & tons of Parmesan cheese for dinner.

As always I think you can amp up the garlic & cheese for this dish (& any for the matter).  Just remember that as soon as you drain your pasta, add the sauce right away so that it doesn't get super stuck together.  Don't be shy to add some olive oil if need be.

I'll be making this again soon especially since my husband categorized it as "unfair good" - so he really liked it!

Oh & one more thing, if you're banking on left overs you should just go ahead & triple the recipe - it's that good.

Click through for some fresh photos!