Portabella & Arugula Pasta

This is a quick and easy weeknight pasta and it's not all that bad for you. It will be done in the time it takes to boil water and cook pasta. Make sure you save some of the pasta water, you may need it at the end. Here's what you'll need:

1 lb pasta

Olive oil

4 cloves garlic crushed 

4 scallions cut up

8 oz pkg baby Bella's chopped

5 oz bag of washed arugula

Salt and pepper 

Red pepper flakes

Grated or shredded Parmesan 

Start boiling pasta water. 

Crush garlic, chop mushrooms and scallion and set aside. 

Heat a large nonstick skillet with approximately 3 TBSP oil and cook the garlic and red pepper for a minute. 

Add the mushrooms and scallions 

Cook until the mushrooms get a little color

Season with salt and pepper. Add cooked pasta and arugula. 

Keep tossing together until the arugula wilts. At this point you can add a little water if needed and a drizzle of olive oil. 

Sprinkle a good handful of Parmesan and serve. Easy and good!

Friday Friendly Food

We love pasta with peas, usually I make it with prosciutto or pancetta and a little cream but for Friday during lent it goes meatless. It also went without cream because I didn't have any. It's still a great dish! Here's what you need:

Olive oil

Dry white wine

1-2 onions sliced thinly

4 cloves garlic, crushed

I pint of grape tomatoes halved ( I had 3 plum tomatoes laying around that I added)

1 cup frozen petite peas

1 lb pasta

Grated cheese

Fresh parsley and basil chopped

Red pepper flakes, Salt and pepper

Heat pasta water. 

Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large skillet and add the onions and garlic. Season and sauté until they wilt. 

Splash some white wine in the pan and add the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes start to collapse. 

Add the peas and chopped herbs and keep the heat on low while waiting for the pasta to cook. 

Reserve some of the water and add a bit when combining pasta to the sauce. Sprinkle a good handful of grated cheese on and serve. 

Broccoli Cheddar Soup is nothing new, you can google it and find a bunch of recipes. I like to add potatoes to thicken it.  This is how I make mine:

2 lbs broccoli cut up

2 onions diced

3 carrots diced

3 celery diced

3 garlic cloves crushed 

4 whole potatoes peeled

8 oz shredded cheddar 

2 qts Chicken stock

2tbs butter

2 tbs flour

1 cup milk 

Thyme, salt, pepper

Sauté onion, carrot and celery in a heavy soup pot until they sweat. Season with salt and pepper and add the whole potatoes and the broccoli

Cover with chicken broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add thyme and check seasoning. In the meantime shred the cheese and gather remaining ingredients 

Heat the butter in a small pan and cook the flour for a few minutes. Whisk in the milk and add the cheese, whisk until smooth. 

Blend the soup as smooth as you'd like and return to heat. 

Add the cheese sauce to the hot soup and combine. It's not a pretty soup but it's delicious!

Butternut, Leek and Sausage Pasta

Wow, is this good and It only dirtied two pans! It makes quite a bit so plan on feeding guests or having leftovers for days. I had extra leeks from the other day and lost interest in the recipe I saved them for so this was how it started. 

Here's what you need:

1 lb pasta

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup half&half 

1 lb Italian sausage

1 1/2 leeks cleaned and chopped

1 butternut squash, cut up and roasted

Grated Parmesan 

Salt, pepper and garlic 

Fresh chopped parsley

Start by peeling and chopping squash into 1 inch pieces, season and drizzle with oil. Roast in a 400 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes. While the squash is cooking, clean the leeks (you can substitute with yellow onions).  

Remove sausage from casings and brown in a large sauté pan that has a lid (for later), add leeks and some crushed garlic, salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until softened. Check on the squash every once in a while, move it around to keep it from over-browning. Add broth and cream and slowly bring to a boil, add pasta making sure there is enough liquid to just cover it. Reduce heat, cover and set timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, uncover and stir. The pasta should be almost aldente, add a little water if it's all gone and continue to cook covered for a few more minutes. If there is too much liquid, continue cooking for a few minutes uncovered. 

Remove from heat, stir in grated cheese until it forms a creamy sauce, add in squash, sprinkle with parsley and serve. 

Roasted Brussels Sprout Pasta

I was so excited to see brussel sprouts on sale last week, they are one of my favorites. I didn't have a plan for them so after a few days I roasted them at 375 with a little olive oil, salt and pepper until they were nice and crispy (about an hour). I leave them whole unless they are very big and then they get halved. The outer leaves that fall off and turn really dark are like candy to me. Once they were cool, I froze them in a quart size bag for another day. Today was another day. Per usual, day before grocery shopping, no clue what to make.

Roasted Brussel Sprout Pasta

2 cups roasted brussel sprouts, halved or quartered

1 large onion sliced

8 oz. chopped mushrooms

2-3 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1/2 cup cream or half&half

1/3 cup grated pecorino or parmesan

8 oz. cut pasta

salt and pepper

olive oil

a large sauté pan with a cover

Heat olive oil in sauté pan on high heat, toss in mushrooms. Sauté unseasoned until they get a nice color, remove from pan and set aside.  Brown the sliced onion and season with salt and pepper. Add the previously roasted sprouts and when everything is hot add the cream and the uncooked pasta.

With the heat on high, add enough stock to cover the pasta, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Give it a stir every few minutes.  I used penne and cooked it for about 10 minutes, larger cuts take about 15 minutes.



You want to cook it until the pasta is just done and there is a little liquid at the bottom of the pan. Turn off heat and add the mushrooms and grated cheese.

Continue to stir as the sauce comes together, it's kind of like magic.

What to call this pasta?

Fall mac and cheese, roasted squash baked pasta, cheesy bacon squash penne? All I know is that this might be the best pasta I've ever made. Seriously. If fall had a flavor it would be this for me, you can keep pumpkin spice everything. So here's what's in it:

1squash- carnival, acorn, or small butternut

8 oz pasta cooked al dente 

4 slices bacon

1 onion

2 cups chicken stock

1/3 lb provolone

Grated Parmesan

1/2 cup light cream or milk

1/4 cup flour

Dried rosemary, garlic powder, salt and pepper

Roast the seasoned squash at 400 until toasty and tender. I started roasting in slices before I planned on this dish, I would have cut it in half otherwise. Remove skin from squash and break it up in bite size chunks when done. Cook bacon until crisp, set aside and sauté onion in grease until carmelized. Season and add flour, cook for a minute. Stir in stock until thickened and add cream and cheese. Stir until melted and remove from heat. Combine cooked pasta with cheese sauce and fold in bacon and squash. Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake at 400 until bubbly 10-15 min. Note that I tried to lighten it up with more chicken broth than cream. There is so much flavor going on in this dish that you really don't need it to be any richer. 

On the crafty home front:

Oilcloth wine bags... I'm not sure. 

Pasta CeCe

Pasta with chick peas...one of my favorites! This is a good meatless meal (use white wine and pasta water in place of chicken stock) for lent. Here's how I make mine:

1 can chick peas drained and rinsed

2 onions sliced thinly 

4 cloves garlic chopped or crushed

Olive oil

Crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

Fresh parsley chopped

A few splashes of chicken stock

1 lb pasta

While pasta water is heating, sauté onions and garlic in olive oil. 

Once they are cooked down and carmelizing, season with salt and pepper

And add chick peas. Mash them a bit to break them up or else they will roll all over the plate when you eat. 

At this point you need a little liquid to loosen everything up. A few good splashes should do it (appr. 1cup)

Add parsley and check seasoning. Toss with cooked pasta and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and lots of grated cheese. 

Puttanesca

This is another dish that I can throw together at any given time, which also means it never comes out the same twice. The one thing that is a given is that there will never be anchovies in it if I'm making it. I absolutely love puttanesca sauce made with anchovies but I am still not over my 23 year pregnancy aversion to the sight and smell of them, therefore I can't cook with them. It's very sad. Fresh tomatoes are my usual go to but none today.  Here is how this one was made:

Olive oil

4-5 cloves crushed and/or sliced garlic

I diced onion

Crushed red pepper to taste

Fresh chopped parsley and basil

Tomatoes- canned diced 

1/2 cup Chopped olives- black, calamata, or oil cured

Roasted peppers chopped

2 tbs capers

1 lb pasta

Grated Parmesan

While pasta water is boiling, Sauté garlic and onion (anchovies too) until tender. Add red pepper flakes, olives, roasted peppers. 

Add tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and simmer over medium heat until the sauce cooks down slightly. 

Toss in chopped herbs and cooked pasta. Serve with grated cheese. 

Four Cheese Baked Rigatoni

Warning- this is comfort food at its absolute worst, full fat, bad for you, but really delicious. I cook a lot of healthy food so it's ok to splurge sometimes. We had a party planned this week that was cancelled due to weather (again!) which left me with lots of cheese to use. 

This dish is nothing fancy just really good Mac & Cheese!

1  lb pasta

1 pint heavy cream

An assortment of cheese, grated (approximately 8 oz) I used Gruyere, sharp cheddar, Monterey Jack and Parmesan

2tbs butter

2tbs flour 

Salt, pepper, cayenne, garlic powder

Panko bread crumbs

Fresh chopped parsley

An addition tbs butter

While pasta is boiling, make a roux with butter and flour, just until cooked not brown. Add heavy cream and whisk until thick on medium heat. Season and add shredded cheese, stirring until melted. If it seems to thick, you can add some milk. Remove from heat. Combine with cooked pasta and transfer to a greased casserole dish. In a sauté pan, melt butter and toss in Panko and parsley. Sprinkle on top of pasta and add a few tablespoons of grated parm. Bake uncovered 20-30 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.