Veggie Lasagna

My grandmother only makes lasagna on Christmas because my dad will be there to eat it. Lasagna is a labor of love & reserved for very special loved ones.  My friend Ashley was up visiting from Texas this past weekend. She is a lasagna worthy friend.  I even whipped up some homemade lasagna pasta sheets to make it extra special. You can of course skip the homemade pasta part & use the boxed lasagna noodles but whatever you do, make this for someone you love sometime really soon, preferably on a lazy Sunday when you have just as much time to make it as you do eat it in really great company.

Creamy Double Pumpkin Pasta

I made fresh pumpkin pasta that I posted about last week.  My lovely sister-in-laws were quick to ask what I served it with so I'm sharing that today. I served my pumpkin pasta with a pumpkin sauce. More is more, right?

In my mind, pumpkin sauce was the perfect match for pumpkin pasta.  Don't worry the pumpkin flavor is actually pretty mild but still tasty (read: it doesn't overdo it). If you don't have pumpkin pasta I would still recommend making this sauce (then you can call your dish creamy pumpkin pasta). It's creamy & when you add the fresh veggies like I did it's a pretty healthful dish (yes there is some cream & cheese in there but the bulk of it is veggies - so eat up!).

P.S. Happy Halloween!

Fresh Pumpkin Pasta

As soon as it turned October I bought not one but two pumpkins. I had high hopes of making something edible with them. Truth be told only one remains because I lost one to mold.  I'm not really sure what I thought I was going to make with them. Growing up we didn't carve pumpkins - we painted them. In hindsight this was probably a very strategic move for my mother, the mother of some very accident prone children, specifically twins - my sister & I.  Maybe that's why I feel bad about cutting up pumpkins & would rather them rot than be destroyed. It's silly I know but that's why they have canned pumpkin. I have no problem peeling open a can & making recipes with pumpkin that's been neatly stored in a  little can just for me.

That being said, the day I bought the pumpkins, I also bought a can of pumpkin home with me too.  Rather than making the traditional sweet pumpkin pie, I opted to add my canned pumpkin to my go-to pasta recipe. I basically just swapped out half the eggs for the pumpkin.  The result was a vibrant tender pasta with a subtle hint of pumpkin.

Homemade Spinach & Cheese Ravioli

I love to make fresh pasta. I find it therapeutic in some sense. So I thought making my own ravioli would bring me the same zen. It did not. It brought on a need for a glass of wine.  I made about half the amount I had anticipated because, well, I guess I'm a quitter. I made the rest of the pasta dough into linguini and called it a night.

If you have the patience that I apparently lack, I encourage you to give these a go. Why not, you can always quit, right? I won't judge.

Pasta with Minty Hot No Cook Sauce

On Saturday, I caught up on some of my DVRed Food Network shows.  I watched Giada make a super easy sauce that looked interesting (mint + habanero peppers!)  & easy (minimal cooking required), so made it that night. Since all you are doing for this recipe is just boiling some water for pasta, this is really a perfect summer dinner.  I bet it would make great left overs - but there weren't any... next time.

Now, I'm thinking that maybe I dreamed the whole thing because I can't find the link on line, so I'll give you my rendition at the very least of what I believed to have watched Giada make.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2. 2 cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
3. 2 handfuls of fresh mint leaves
4. 1 jalapeno pepper (or habanero) - halved with seeds & ribs removed (leave the seeds if you want it extra hot!)
5. 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
6. salt
7. pepper
8. 1/2 cup freshly grated roman cheese*

Make it!

1. Puree the first seven ingredients together in a food processor or blender & set aside.
2. Cook pasta in salted water until al dente.
3. Drain pasta & toss immediately with romano cheese (if you only have parmesan - use that too - this extra cheese helps the sauce stick to the pasta. mmm cheese!)
4. Add the minty hot sauce to the pasta, toss & serve.
5. If you're up to throwing another ingredient into the mix add some cut steamed asparagus.

 

Check after the jump to see if this recipe was hubby approved...

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!

Fresh Pasta

Fresh pasta sounds fancy well it sure tastes that way and it's definitely worth making if you have the time. I'm not going to lie it's time consumptive for sure but the more you do it the easier it is and you can actually build speed doing it.  It's just a little bit more than a handful of steps but you can do it! I strongly suggest a Kitchen Aid Mixer plus the pasta attachment - it will give you days back on your life!

While the pasta takes a while to make it only takes 2-3 minutes to cook since it's so thin, so you can pretend to save time there.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 3 3/4 cups flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 tablespoons of water

 

Make it!

1. Mix eggs, flour and salt together.
2.  Add enough water to make the dough start to stick together but not too wet. I actually think it works better if it's a bit on the drier more crumbly side. If you add to much water, no worries, just add more flour.
3. Knead the dough together so that it forms a rough ball shape. Let the dough rest for about 30 minutes.
4. Tear small pieces of dough off and roll it between your hands or on a cutting board to form a pasta worm.  Run it between the flat plates of your pasta attachment starting with the smallest number (setting 1 or 2). Run it through several times on settings 2, 4, 6 and 7 until you reach desired thickness.
5. Hang your pasta sheet a pasta rack. Work through the rest of your dough until it is all flat sheets of pasta.
6. Change the attachment to the fettucini or spaghetti attachment and run flat sheets of pasta through this - one time only.
7. Hang pasta to dry or if you don't have a rack toss the fresh strips with plenty of flour so it doesn't stick together.