Shortcut Pasta Arrabiatta

pasta

Sometimes I just don’t feel like cooking. (Gasp, right?!) Or I just plain don’t have much time to cook. In those cases (and when I’m feeling rich), I go and buy a bottle of Rao’s brand arrabiatta sauce. Yes, I know it’s $8/bottle, but it’s so good. I don’t do this very often, only when it’s on sale. If you don’t want to spend that money, you can easily substitute canned crushed tomatoes (san marzano, please), along with some garlic, lots of red pepper flakes and a bit of dried oregano and basil.

Cheating Pasta Arrabiatta with Sausage

1 lb short pasta, I used Barilla gemelli
1 jar arrabiatta pasta sauce, I use Rao’s
1 lb hot Italian sausage, links or bulk
1 red bell pepper, sliced
fresh basil
parmesan

1. Boil water, add salt, and cook pasta to al dente, timing it so the pasta is done cooking about when the sauce is ready.

2. For sauce, add bell pepper strips to pan over high heat and sear until small black marks appear on the skin. Remove from pan.

3. Remove sausage from casings if in links, and brown in the same pan. Ad jar of sauce once sausage is cooked through, and simmer over medium-low for 5 minutes, or until pasta is cooked.

4. Drain pasta, then return to the pot. Add sauce and sausage, along with bell pepper strips and fresh torn basil. Stir to combine. Add parmesan on the plate to taste.

Serve with garlic bread and/or salad. (My garlic bread is simple and slightly ghetto…Halve French or Italian bread, spread with warmed butter, sprinkle with garlic salt. Pop under the broiler until browned and crisp.)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

These are tasty. What else can I say? Adapted from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 c unbleached AP flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 c sugar
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream
1/2 c water

Frosting:
1/2 c unsalted butter, room temperature
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
3 c powdered sugar
2 t orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Melt chocolate in the microwave (carfully!) or in a double boiler.

2. Beat the sugar and butter until creamy. Add the melted chocolate and beat to combine.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until batter lightens in color, about 1 minute. Add the sour cream and mix to combine.

4. Add the baking powder, soda, salt and half the flour. Mix until blended.

5. Add the water, mix until blended. Add the remaining flour, and mix to just combine, don’t overmix.

6. Fill your cupcake liners 2/3 full, then bake for 13-17 minutes.

7. For frosting, combine everything besides sugar in a bowl and beat to combine. Add sugar and beat until fluffy and light. Cool frosting until the cupcakes are cool too, or else you’ll have frosting oozing all over the place. Or you know, don’t wait until the cupcakes are cool. Oozing frosting is OK sometimes.

Chipotle Chicken Pasta

chipotle

This is not exactly what you would consider a healthy dish. Though, it does get veggie-haters to eat a good amount of veggies. So maybe the veggies even out the massive amount of heavy cream….right?!

Chipotle Chicken Pasta

1 lb short pasta, I use penne
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 c heavy cream
1 c milk
4-6 chipotles in adobo
1 small onion
2 T tomato paste
3 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch lengths
1 large handfuls frozen peas
To garnish: chopped cilantro, green onions and parmesan

1. Cook pasta to al dente, timing it so the pasta is complete around the same time the sauce is ready.

2. Using a stick blender, or a blender jar, combine the seeded chipotles and milk until thick and foamy.

3. Clean and chop the chicken. Brown over medium-high heat until cooked through. Remove from pan. Add onions, garlic and red bell pepper. Cook 5 minutes over medium heat. Add tomato paste and cook until caramelized, about a minute. Add milk and chipotle mixture and bring to a simmer.

4. When the pasta has 6 or 7 minutes of cooking time left, add the asparagus and the chicken to the pan with the chipotle mixture. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add cream and peas, simmer until asparagus is tender and sauce is thickened slightly. Adjust seasoning to taste. Combine the sauce with the drained pasta. Top each plate with green onions, cilantro and parmesan, to taste.

Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

Pho is the ultimate comfort food. Hot, fragrant both, noodles, tender beef, herbs, chiles, fish sauce…Well, it’s my comfort food, anyway. (Don’t be scared, it doesn’t taste fishy.)

I – and many others – have never been able to replicate restaurant pho at home. No one’s sure why. MSG? Stock that simmers for days? Who knows. That, coupled with the amount of time and money this recipe takes, makes me suggest that you only make this if you really, really like pho, and you really, really like cooking. This soup is really good, but not as good as you can get for $5 a bowl at your local Vietnamese place. This is expensive to make, unless you know a butcher you can get soup bones from for free, and yields relatively little. But it is good.

Pho

For the Stock:
3.5 lb oxtail (No oxtails were available, so I used beef neck)
2 1/4 lb beef shank or brisket (I used brisket)
2 large onions
2 carrots
3 in fresh ginger
6 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
6 whole star anise
1 tsp black peppercorns
2 T soy sauce
3-4 T nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce)

For the add-ins/garnishes:
9 oz beef sirloin
8 oz rice noodles
1 onion, sliced paper thin
2-3 thai bird chiles or jalapenos
4 oz fresh beansprouts
1 large bunch cilantro and mint (I did not use mint, and I have also had it frequently with basil as well)
2 limes

1. Make the stock. Put oxtail or soup bones into a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. While that’s boiling, roast your onions over the flame of your gas stove, or under the broiler until the skins turn black. Remove the skins. Roughly chop the onions and carrots and peel the ginger with a spoon.

2. After 10 minutes, drain the soup bones, rinse them, and clean out the pot. You’re getting rid of any scum here. Return the bones and add the other stock ingredients to the pot,except the fish sauce. Add 12 cups of water, and simmer for as long as you can stand it with the lid on, at least 3 hours. After that time, remove the lid and simmer another hour to reduce slightly.

3. When you just can’t stand it anymore and need to eat soon, remove the brisket from the pot, and strain everything into a clean pot through a mesh strainer with cheesecloth or a clean kitchen towel. Discard the solids.

4. Bring the soup to a simmer and add the fish sauce to taste. Cook rice noodles according to package directions. Slice the chiles and onion paper thin, and chop the herbs. Slice the sirloin as thin as humanly possible. The reason this is important is because the sirloin is cooked only once the hot broth hits it; otherwise it is never cooked. It helps to freeze the sirloin for 30 minutes or so before slicing.

5. Assemble noodles in bowls and top with slices of the sirloin. Ladle the simmering broth over top and watch the meat cook! Top each bowl with herbs, lime juice, chiles, bean sprouts and onions to taste. Then drool.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

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Ah, everyone’s comfort food. And a crock pot recipe, to boot!

This is perfect for winter, or summer when you want comfort food but don’t want to heat up the kitchen. OK, it’s perfect any time. I make an entire 6-quart crock full, and plan on having leftovers for a week. I usually make around a dozen meatballs and add 5 hot Italian sausages. We always say we’re going to make meatball or sausage sandwiches later in the week, but somehow we always just got back to pasta. Because mmmm, pasta.

Crock Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs (and Sausage)

For Meatballs:
1.5 lbs ground beef
1 small onion, grated
1 egg
1/2 c parmesan
1 t dried oregano
4 T fresh chopped parsley
2 slices white bread, soaked in milk

Sauce:
1 small onion, minced
half red bell pepper, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c red wine
2 T dried oregano
1 T dried basil
1 T red pepper flakes
3 T tomato paste
3 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes, or whole tomatoes, crushed (I swear by Dei Fratelli brand crushed tomatoes, but whole canned san marzano’s are fabulous as well)

Additional ingredients:
1 lb hot Italian sausage (5 links)
hot cooked spaghetti
parmesan

1. Make the meat-a-balls. Combine everything but the beef in a bowl. Add the beef, and combine well. Salt liberally (if you’re unsure of the seasoning, you can cook a small amount of the mixture in a skillet before shaping the meatballs.) Shape the mixture into balls. I usually make them slightly bigger than golf balls, but size is up to you. Place on a baking sheet lined with silpat or foil, and bake at 450 F for about 20 minutes until browned. They do not need to be cooked all the way through.

2. While the meatballs are baking, sear the Italian sausages in a pan so the casings are brown and crisp, and put into the crock pot.

3. Make the sauce. In the same pan you browned the sausages in, add your onion, garlic and bell pepper. Saute for 5 minutes, then add tomato paste and stir until caramelized. Add wine and deglaze the pan. Add spices and reduce the mixture until there is almost no liquid left. Add one can of tomatoes, bring to a simmer, then pour into the crock pot. Add the other two cans of tomatoes and stir to combine.

4. Place meatballs directly from oven into crockpot. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4 hours. Serve over pasta with parmesan.

Avgolemono

Avgolemono is a Greek lemon and egg soup, usually with a base of chicken stock.

It’s a perfect soup for a number of reasons:
Creamy but with no dairy products – lactose intolerant friendly
Can be made with veggie stock – vegetarian friendly
Super fast and only 5 ingredients – everyone friendly

The only unfriendly bit about this is the amount of eggs if you’re watching your cholesterol. I imagine you could cut down on the amount of egg yolks in the recipe if you’re concerned about it. It really only works out to about 1-2 eggs per serving, though.

Avgolemono

~12 c chicken broth or stock
7 lemons
10 eggs
1 1/2 cups rice
fresh dill for garnish

1. Bring your broth or stock to a simmer and add your rice. Cook until the rice is almost tender, about 5 minutes before it’s finished.

2. Crack your eggs into a large bowl. Juice the lemons into the bowl (through a sieve, watch out for pits!). Whisk that together well, and let it sit and come to room temperature before you proceed.

3. When the rice is almost tender and the eggs are room temperature, temper the eggs by adding a ladle of hot broth while whisking constantly. Keep adding ladles of broth one by one while whisking until you have double the liquid in the bowl than you started with. The egg mixture should now be hot.

4. Add the tempered eggs back into the pot of broth and simmer gently until the rice is fully cooked and the soup has thickened. Top with snipped dill to serve.

Applesauce with Brandy and Vanilla

Applesauce is OK. Homemade applesauce with brandy, vanilla bean and cinnamon stick is way, way better. This stuff is like eating apple pie filling. Maybe add some pastry crust for a mock apple pie? I like mine chunky, so I just use a potato masher. But if you like it smooth, use a stick blender. This is based off a recipe I found in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few years ago.

Applesauce with Brandy, Vanilla and Cinnamon

6 lbs firm, tart apples; I use Jonagold
1 whole vanilla bean
1/2 c apple cider
lemon or lime juice to taste, about a couple teaspoons
3 large cinnamon sticks
brown sugar to taste, about 1/2 cup
1/4 c brandy

1. Peel, core and roughly chop your apples. If you have one of those apple peeler/corer/slicer things, now’s the time to use it. Just take off the little corer/slicer thingy so it just peels them. You’ll end up with apple skin garland!

2. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Throw the seeds, the pod and everything else into the pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every couple minutes, making sure to smoosh the cinnamon and vanilla bean into the liquid.

3. The apples are done when they’re still holding their shape. Mash with a potato masher or stick blender. If you’re worried about the sauce being too thin or watery, reserve some of the liquid and add it back in as necessary as you mash.

Chill if you like, but this sauce is great warm or at room temperature as well!

Herbed Roast Chicken

chix

I don’t roast chickens much, but this was a pretty good one that I might do again when the roast chicken bug bites. It’s adapted from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe.

Herbed Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken, about 5 pounds, cleaned and trimmed of excess fat
1 T fresh thyme leaves, minced
6 scallions, green parts only, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 T butter, softened
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 t salt

For the pan sauce:
1 c chicken broth
2 t flour
juice from half of a lemon

1.Preheat oven to 450 F. Butterfly the chicken by cutting out the backbone, then flattening the breastbone. Make 3-4 shallow cuts on legs and thighs.

2. Mix butter, scallions, thyme, garlic, zest and salt in a small bowl. Slip fingers between muscle and skin of the chicken, forming a pocket. Smoosh half of butter mixture under the skin and spread around. Rub more on the skin of the chicken, reserving 1 T of the mixture.

3. Heat vegetable in ovensafe 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Place chicken skin-side down in skillet and reduce heat to medium. Cook until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven and roast chicken 25 minutes.

4. Using tongs, flip chicken so skin-side is facing up. Using spoon or spatula, evenly coat chicken skin with remaining softened herb butter and return to oven. Roast chicken until skin is golden brown and chicken breast registers 160 degrees and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer chicken to carving board and let rest, uncovered, 20 minutes.

5. To make the sauce, return the pan to medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Add the chicken broth and simmer to thicken, about 5 minutes, while scraping the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and reserved herb butter. Serve over chicken.

Worth Her Salt

A food blog.