Penne with Italian Sausage and Creamy Tomato Sauce

We have been so fortunate to have a great traditional Butcher shop so near our house. I can actually walk from our house to their store. How convenient is that! Sadly, they will soon be moving to another town and we will miss them terribly. Thankfully though, we often visit this town and so we can continue to get our favorite meat combos from their shop and still enjoy cooking with them. We just need to buy in bulk and have our cooler ready for the long haul. :-)

Italian Fruit Salad

  

 

It's that time of year when so many summer fruits are in season. Summer time is my favorite season in Michigan because beautiful berries and other fruits abound. My favorite local fruits are Blueberries and Cherries! I think the Michigan variety are the best. Juicy, plump and just oozing with fruity goodness! Blueberry season has officially began and soon we'll be going blueberry picking. Me and the tots can't wait to do so! If only this season will never end. :-)

Rigatoni with Creamy Garbanzo Bean Sauce

I say it again - necessity is the mother of invention.... It's the case with our latest recipe. I had some cooked Garbanzo beans that needed to be used but didn't want to make a hummus. I already used half of it to make a sautéed dish so I figured, am sure I can use these for something else that I have never done before. So off I went to the pantry and found this box of Rigatoni noodles and then the light came up - how about a pasta dish?

Smoked Salmon Pizza

My family loves Salmon! I have at least three salmon recipes now and there are two more which I haven't posted yet. It's just such a versatile fish and not to mention so easy to cook because it just absorbs and contrast or complement the flavors you add to it. You simply cannot go wrong when you cook with this fish.

Cavolfiore Fritto (Deep-fried Cauliflower)

When we went to Spain, in Barcelona to be precise, in 2010 hubby and I enjoyed the fried vegetables being sold at a vegetable fast food shop on La Rambla, a pedestrian street mall. We were there almost everyday while we were touring the city. It was just so good we kept on coming back. There was a variety of vegetables that they offer but our favorite was the cauliflower. And since then I really hoped that I could make it at home.

Lemon Ricotta Cake

  

Before I had my new Kitchen Aid Mixer (Pro 500), I thought I was doing well in making cakes. Then I tried baking this most delicious and amazing Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake and realize that I actually couldn't have done this with my old and cheap mixer that's now been buried 6-feet under (figuratively speaking).

Baked Apples in White Wine (Mele al forno)

Ever since I made the Baked Pears in white wine recipe, I have been quite in-love with fruits baked in wine! They are a great way to make fruity desserts that are relatively lower in fat than those which are bathed in cream and sugar. It's truly delicious, too!

This time I tried using apples instead of pears and I baked them in a spiced wine sauce - Italian style!

Pasta Primavera (Springtime Noodles)

It's Spring! According to the calendar anyway and despite the fact that we still see some snow on the ground. But why let that spoil our fun? Spring means lovely produce, fresh food and so much deliciousness! So to officially welcome Spring here's a favorite Spring dish - Pasta Primavera - loaded with all the lovely vegetables coming our way when true Spring comes into full swing!

Cheesy Baked Spaghetti Bolognese

When company's coming and I want an easy but delicious comfort food, I always rely on Baked Bolognese. I didn't think it would work the first time I tried it but people who had them seemed to like them and I always had good feedback. So I thought, it's about time I share this delicious baked pasta to all of you. For the Bolognese Sauce, here's the recipe. It is absolutely indispensable for this dish. So if you don't want the same old recipe for Baked Pasta - try this!

Ok I must add that this is not very diet-friendly so serve this only occasionally, like when company's coming. It makes a huge batch (9x13 casserole dish) so you can still manage with some portion control! It's so good though that every calorie is worth it! :-)

Ingredients

1 recipe for Bolognese sauce*  
1 block of Cream cheese, softened at room temp
1 (8 oz) tub of  Sour cream
12oz - 1 lb Spaghetti, cooked al dente
2 cups, shredded sharp cheddar cheese (or your favorite Cheese)*

*To ensure that your Baked Bolognese won't be greasy, try to drain the extra drippings from the sauce, if you're bothered by it anyway.

*I use Parmesan cheese, too. You can adjust the amount to taste.

Procedure 

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine the softened cream cheese and sour cream.

Using a 9 x 13 baking dish, layer the ingredients in this order - place half of the spaghetti on the bottom, spread evenly on the pasta half of the cream cheese mixture and then on top spread out the bolognese. 

Repeat the layer.

For the final touch, sprinkle the shredded cheddar cheese on top.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 30 mins or until the cheese is melted and the pasta layer is heated through. Enjoy with some Salad and Garlic Bread!

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Spaghetti All'amatriciana (Spaghetti with Bacon and Onion)

When it's wintry and cold nothing sounds more comforting than a big plateful of pasta! I specially love it when the pasta sauce has some extra kick in it with the addition of some chili peppers...sure to keep you fired up and warmed up. Here's an easy Italian style pasta dish - Spaghetti All'amatriciana (Spaghetti with Bacon and Onion) that's great for these chilly days!

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 ounces / ½ cup pancetta or guanciale (or bacon), chopped
1 onion, chopped finely
1 lb. tomatoes, fresh or canned, diced
4 fl. oz. / ½ cup white or red wine
½ teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ tsp. red chili flakes (or your desired heat level)
½ lb. / 8 oz. spaghetti or any desired pasta
Grated parmesan cheese, to pass around

Procedure

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Add the chopped onion and bacon and cook in medium heat until onion is tender and the bacon gives up its fat about 10 minutes. In the meantime, boil the water in a big pan for the spaghetti to cook in.

Add the wine to the bacon and onion and raise the heat and cook until the liquid boils off. Place the rest of the ingredients in the pan except the chili flakes, pasta and cheese and simmer for about 15-20 minutes or just until slightly thickened. Stir in the red chili flakes during the last 5 minutes of cooking. You can add the chili flakes earlier with the other ingredients - I add it towards the end 'cause I don't want a very spicy sauce since I have kiddies to feed. If you don't want a spicy sauce at all, then you can omit this.

Cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and toss with the sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Enjoy!



Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

The Filipinos have their own version of Pasta sauce. Sweet and spicy meat sauce using tomato sauce or ketchup and some chopped hotdogs thrown in - think Jollibee Spaghetti. It may sound weird to some but Filipinos love it. I do like it, too to be honest. It is flavorful after all. I grew  up with this since this was often our snack for recess during our elementary years. I say this for a fact since  my mom was the Home Economics teacher who help managed the canteen in the public school I attended. I was content with this version of meat sauce (Filipino style for sure!) until I tasted the real thing - I am saying the real Italian Bolognese. You see, a few years ago my husband and I were walking down our street and then we chanced upon a Garage Sale and saw this lovely book "The Ultimate Italian Cookbook" by Carla Capalbo being sold for a whopping $2. I thought then  that it was expensive for a garage sale but the book looked like new and I loved the pictures [hahaha :-)]  so I said, why not? Now it has become one of my priceless treasures and am sure glad it was a $2 well-spent!

One of the many recipes in this book was this beautiful Bolognese Sauce. I was very intimidated at first because it recommended nearly 2 hours of cooking and then some red wine. I haven't really cooked with wine yet at this point (nearly 10 years ago....) and I wasn't sure if I could do this. Oh well, I am one to try a recipe at least once and then see how it goes.

I have never turned my back on this Bolognese Sauce Recipe ever since! Yes, it does take a long time to reach that perfect flavor - but that's a small sacrifice to make to achieve the most wonderful meat sauce that I have ever tasted. I have shared this recipe with a few friends, they've made this and came back to me with a big thank you! They loved it. I served this to some of our guests who came to our house for a visit and to no surprise - they have loved it, too. Now, thanks to this bolognese sauce, I love cooking with wine. I don't drink alcohol but I sure love to cook with it. Makes a huge difference in taste - so from stews, to pasta sauces or even Asian dishes I sure love wine in them!

Try this bolognese sauce - it may take a little effort than a stir-fry and some waiting time - but trust me - a dish this good is worth all the time and effort in the world! Enjoy!

Ingredients 

2 Tablespoons Olive oil

2 Tbsp Butter
4 garlic cloves, crushed  or finely minced (I do whatever strikes my fancy when I make this)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3-4 pancetta (Italian bacon) or regular streaky bacon strips, finely chopped or cut (I use kitchen scissors to cut them and if you don’t like the fat you may trim them out, which I usually do too when I use regular bacon)
1 medium carrot (or about 8-10 pcs baby carrots), finely chopped

1-2 celery sticks, finely sliced

1 lb / ½ a kilo ground beef

¾ cup red wine (white is fine but I prefer the stronger taste of red)

½ cup milk

3 roma tomatoes, diced or 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon each –  dried thyme and oregano

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb spaghetti or any favorite pasta cooked al dente.

Chopped fresh parsley to garnish (optional)



Procedure

Heat the olive oil and butter in a deep saucepan. When the butter has melted, sauté the onions and garlic just until aromatic, about a minute.

Add the chopped bacon and cook until it begins to render its fat between 3-5 mins.

Stir in the veggies (carrots and celery) and cook for a further 3-4 mins. Add the ground beef and crumble with a fork to separate. Cook until it is no longer red. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.



Pour in the red wine. Raise the heat slightly and cook until most of the wine has evaporated. Add the milk and continue to cook until it evaporates, too.



Stir in the tomatoes with their juice (if using canned) and the herbs including the Bay Leaf. Bring the sauce to a boil and then simmer uncovered on the lowest setting, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour (pref. 1 ½ hours). Don't worry, it's meant to be a little drier than other pasta sauces. In the end, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, to correct the seasoning, if necessary.

Garnish with fresh chopped parsley (if desired). Serve with parmesan cheese on the side. This recipe is indispensable for lasagna or for Baked Bolognese. Enjoy!

If you wish to print the recipe, there's a print-friendly icon at the end of the post. Click on the "remove images box" for easy printing.

This recipe was adapted from "The Ultimate Italian Cookbook" by Carla Capalbo.

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Italian Sausage Ragù

Sausage and Pasta are one of the best combinations of food I can think of. The sausage adds robust flavor to the dish while the pasta just readily absorbs the sauce that you mix with it - what a lovely marriage of flavors! When we buy Italian Sausages from our favorite butcher chances are we are having a good pasta dish for dinner! So that Mark can join in he gets his own Brown rice pasta so it's gluten-free and, naturally, everybody's happy.

A ragù is basically an Italian pasta sauce containing meat and tomatoes; in other words, a meat-based sauce. The best example would be Bolognese sauce, which is truly one of my favorite pasta sauces. I am hoping to share pretty soon the Bolognese sauce that I always make for my family so watch this space.

However, a truly super-delicious Bolognese sauce cannot be achieved in a hurry. It can take up to 2 hours or more of slow cooking on the stove-top to get that perfect taste. It is so worth the wait, I must say! Sometimes if I have the luxury of time, especially if I plan ahead, then Bolognese is my number 1 choice. But when I want something flavorful but kind of in the 30 minute range this is my next best choice. It's a pretty easy dish and doesn't need 2 hours to achieve the right flavor although I must say that when I tasted the left-overs the next day - it was even better. That's the beauty of this dish, you can enjoy it the first time and if ever you find yourself having some left-overs then you're in for a yummy treat the next day! So enjoy this easy but flavorful Italian Sausage Ragù.

Ingredients

1-2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 lb Hot or Sweet (or combo) Italian sausage - diagonally cut
1 medium onion, chopped
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup red wine
3 plum tomatoes, diced or pureed in a food processor or 1 (14 oz) can diced/crushed tomatoes (juice included)
1 1/2 Tablespoon dried parsley
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
Salt and Pepper, to taste
12 oz Penne (or your choice of pasta)
Parmesan Cheese, to pass around

Procedure

Over medium heat, brown the sausages in a little olive oil in a deep frying pan. Transfer to a plate.

Bring a big pot of water to boil to begin the process of cooking your pasta. Cook the pasta according to package directions or until al dente (tender yet still firm to the bite, not mushy).

In the same pan where the sausages were cooked, saute the onion until it starts to soften, roughly 3-4 minutes. Add in the garlic and continue to cook for another minute. If it dries out too much, you may add an additional 1 Tablespoon olive oil to it.

Pour in the wine and bring to a boil. Deglaze the pan by using a wooden spoon to remove the browned bits on the bottom. Stir in the diced/crushed or pureed tomatoes (if canned, add everything including the juice) and the dried herbs. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Simmer on low, uncovered, for about 15-20 minutes or until the wine taste is no longer too prominent and the sauce has thickened. Add back the reserved sausages and cook until heated through, another 5 minutes or so. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. And if you wish to enhance the flavors some more,  sprinkle a little bit of brown sugar on the dish (not to sweeten) but just to balance the flavors. This is my natural substitute for MSG. Keep warm until the pasta is ready.

After the pasta has cooked, drain it well. Place in a large serving bowl and then pour the sauce on top. Toss well and serve. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese for added flavor! Delish!

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Penne with Peppers, Fresh Tomatoes and Basil

This pasta dish is full of deliciously fresh flavors and  so perfect for using your summer produce!! So seriously yummy you won't miss the meat!

I love going to the farmer’s market to buy fresh produce which I can immediately use for easy stir-fries or pasta dishes. Usually, I would buy some fresh ripe tomatoes, colorful peppers and fresh herbs which I love to use in making fresh pasta sauce. While browsing the internet, I chanced upon this recipe - Penne Pasta with Peppers, Tomatoes and Basil from Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta. Since I had the ingredients needed for the dish, I began to work on it and simply adapted it to what has now become a favorite summer pasta dish.

According to Hazan, it makes a difference if you peel the peppers before you use it as it removes the bitterness coming from its skin and brings out its sweetness. I followed his advice and it was spot on. I also peeled the tomatoes as recommended by him and the result is a really juicy yummy tomato sauce.

This is such a simple dish but really big on flavor. Unbelievably delicious!

If you wish to print the recipe, there's a print-friendly icon below. Click on the image box and tick on remove photos for easy printing.

Ingredients

  

1 Tablespoon Olive oil

3 Tablespoon  Butter

4-5 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium onion, chopped
2 bell peppers (red & yellow), peeled, seeded, cut lengthwise into thin strips, then diced

1 1/2 lbs ripe tomatoes (about 2 large beefsteak tomatoes or your fave one), peeled and diced

10 fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Penne or any pasta of your choice

Parmesan cheese to pass around

Procedure

Cook the pasta according to package directions while making the sauce.

Heat the oil in a skillet. Add the butter and let it melt, don’t let it burn. Once the butter has sizzled and melted, add the garlic and cook for about a minute. Add the onion and sauté until it’s soft about 4-5 mins. 
When the onion has softened, add the peppers and season with a little salt. Cook for about 8-10 mins or until fully tender. Stir in the tomatoes and continue to sauté for another 10 mins until the tomatoes have reduced and the liquid released has dried up a bit. Halfway through, stir in the chopped basil.

When almost done, season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the freshly cooked pasta of your choice to the sauce and mix until the pasta is fully coated. Serve immediately with parmesan cheese on top. Oh, yum!

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Spaghetti with Zucchini

I love the Farmer's Market! I can get all my local produce during their peak season. For me fresh is best, indeed. One of the lovely summer veggies is zucchini or courgette, also known as summer squash. Zucchini is very versatile for it is not only great with savory dishes, it's perfect for baking too. Add it to a sweet bread recipe and you're sure to have a yummy moist bread. My favorite is the combo of zucchini and blueberries but I will do that for another post.

Spaghetti with Roasted Peppers and Bacon

It's summer time! That means bell peppers are aplenty. That also means they are cheaper than usual. When this time comes, I load my fridge with bell peppers 'cause they are one of my favorite veggies. Not only are they pretty to look at - love the variety of colors -they are packed with Vitamins A, C, B6 and folate. Very nutritious, indeed. In fact, I read somewhere that those who are trying to lose weight need to include bell peppers in their diet because the vitamins in them provide tremendous health benefits for both fat burning and overall good health. Ok, I am sold!

I especially love to use roasted peppers in pasta. The taste is so subtle and yet quite wonderful.

Here is the recipe, originally from Giada De Laurentiis' book Everyday Pasta, which I have adapted. Her version is meat-free because it was used as a side dish. I wanted to make it more of an entree or a stand-alone meal, hence, I added some bacon to give it a more robust flavor.

Enjoy!


Ingredients

6 large bell peppers, choose your fave color
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
6 strips of bacon (chopped or you may crumble it later after you've cooked it)
1 large onion
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup white wine
1 14 oz can chicken broth
1 lb spaghetti
1/2 cup fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
Grated parmesan cheese, to taste

Procedure

Roast the peppers under the broiler or, better yet grill them above the flame, until their skins turn brownish-black and start to pull away. Turn the peppers occasionally and roast/grill for roughly 20-25 mins (broiler method).

Set aside the peppers until they are cool enough to handle. Others place them inside a plastic or paper bag as it helps make the peeling of the skin easier. Remove the skins and seeds and cut them into strips.
Heat a little oil in a large deep pan. Add the bacon. Cook the bacon until brown and crisp. Transfer to another plate and set aside. You will use bacon as topping later. I remove half of the accumulated fat on the pan too but you can use all of it if you wish.

Stir in the chopped onion and saute for about 3 mins. Deglaze the pan with a little wine to remove the brown bits on it.

Add in the pepper strips. Season with salt and pepper and continue to saute for another 2-3 minutes. Pour in the wine and chicken broth and simmer on low heat for about 15-20 mins.

While you are simmering the peppers, begin to cook the pasta.

When all's done, check the seasoning on the pepper sauce and mix in the pasta, parsley and some parmesan cheese. It will be a little watery but once you put some cheese, it will thicken. The cheese can sometimes stick to the spatula so I only put a small amount and just add more on my plate.

Don't forget to sprinkle the crumbled bacon on top! Have a fun Italian dinner!