Keanna's Creamy Pesto Pasta

A few weeks ago, Keanna made creamy pesto with bow tie pasta. At the time, I didn't take pictures to blog it so I had her make it again specifically for that purpose. The first time she made it, she used homemade pesto. Nothing can compare to the taste of fresh, homemade pesto. But in the interest of time, I had her use store-bought pesto this time. Costco currently has it on sale for a really good price.

Over 1 pound for under $5. And it's freezable!!

Keanna's Creamy Pesto Pasta
1½ lb. pasta
1½ c. cream
1 c. pesto
¼ c. grated Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste
Pine nuts (optional garnish)
Fresh basil leaves (optional garnish)

Simple ingredients: cream, pesto, Parmesan cheese, salt, & pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions. After putting the noodles into the boiling water, begin preparing the creamy pesto--the goal is to have the noodles perfectly cooked at the same time the sauce is finished. In a saucier or large sauce pan, heat cream at medium-high just until it begins to boil.

Turn heat as low as it will go. Whisk in pesto, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper.

Transfer hot pasta to a large bowl. Spoon creamy pesto over pasta and gently toss to coat. Sauce will thicken and soak into noodles as it sits and cools, so leave the pasta a little saucy. If desired, garnish with pine nuts and basil leaves. Serve immediately.

Almost any shape will do. Keanna just prefers bow ties.

This time we served it with bacon Brussels sprouts and Dutch crust rolls.

One batch as written above feeds my family of six one dinner and leaves leftovers for a few lunches.

Zucchini Fettuccine Alfredo

Jerry's zucchini is coming in!!  For those of you who don't know who I'm talking about, my neighbor Jerry always provides us with some amazing produce every summer.  Last week he brought us a bagful of fresh zucchini, so I quickly went to work making some dark chocolate zucchini brownies and zucchini fettuccine Alfredo.  It was a yummy night!

First batch of the summer!

If I weren't serving kids, I probably would have omitted the fettuccine and just made zucchini Alfredo.  But I knew that wouldn't go over well with the little ones.  The goal was to have fettuccine noodles and zucchini noodles, but I got distracted while cooking and ended up with zucchini pieces mixed in with noodles.  It really doesn't take long to cook the zucchini.

For the sauce, I started with a recipe I got from Christina, one of the ladies at church.  She's the source of the original Caesar salad dressing that I altered to make my own.  I also altered the Alfredo recipe to accommodate my family of six.

You will notice that most of the sauce ingredients are high in fat.  This is definitely one of those special-occasion recipes.  And of course, you could always add chicken for some protein.

Zucchini Fettuccine Alfredo
1 lb. fettuccine noodles
1 stick butter
2 c. heavy cream
3/4 tsp. salt
1 lb. zucchini, cut into noodles
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil fettuccine according to package directions.  Meanwhile, melt butter in large skillet (large enough for sauce and pasta) over medium to medium-high heat.  Add cream and 3/4 tsp. salt.  Bring to simmer and continue to cook about five minutes, being careful not to let it boil.

With this much butter, you know it's going to be good!

And then comes the cream!

During the last one to two minutes that the pasta is cooking, add zucchini.  Drain fettuccine and zucchini ; toss into skillet with sauce.

Add Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste; toss.  Serve immediately.

With a side of crusty bread, of course.

Meatballs

I've mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of ground meat, which means I don't usually like meatballs.  Regardless of the fact that I don't like ground meat, I don't want to deprive my family of things they enjoy, like hamburgers and meatballs.  I decided to try a recipe that a friend of mine from junior high and high school posted on her blog a while back.  Can I just say that these are so yummy?!  And I don't even like meatballs!  You can find her original recipe here, but I've made just a few changes to it to accommodate the ingredients I had on hand.

Meatballs
2 slices stale bread (I used whole wheat)
1/3 cup cold water
1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup grated onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg
Ground black pepper, to taste
Olive oil

If your bread isn't quite stale (dry) enough, place in a 250 degree oven until dry.  Place staled bread in a food processor and pulse until you have fine bread crumbs.  Add 1/3 cup cold water to rehydrate bread crumbs; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine beef, pork, parmesan, parsley, salt, onion, garlic, and egg.  Mix to combine (using your hands works best).  Season with pepper.  At this point, you can take a little chunk and cook it in a frying pan to taste your seasonings, adjusting if needed.

Gently form the meat mixture into balls slightly larger than golf balls.  You want to be careful not to pack them too tightly, as this will result in tough meatballs.  Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 24 hours.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add as many meatballs as you can fit without overcrowding your pan.  Cook, turning frequently, until all sides are browned; about 6 minutes.  Transfer meatballs to a plate.  Drain oil from skillet and wipe it down; repeat until all meatballs have been browned.  Drain oil and wipe skillet, then return all meatballs to skillet, along with marinara sauce of choice.  Nicole gives her recipe here, but I chose to used jarred marinara (yes, I cheated).  Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer, swirling the pan occasionally until the meatballs are cooked through and the cheese in them begins to melt.  Serve over pasta.

We got several meals out of these.  I'll show you what else I made with them another time!

Angel Hair Pasta with Italian Sausage and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Monday was Robbie's birthday!!  We love celebrating birthdays in our house!  I always make a special dinner and dessert.  The birthday person gets to choose what I make.  And birthdays are one of the rare occasions that I am willing to go slightly out of my spending parameters.

For dinner, Robbie requested angel hair pasta with Italian sausage and sun-dried tomatoes.  This is a dish I used to make a lot (before kids #2, 3, and 4 came).  It is really easy and incredibly flavorful.

I buy sun-dried tomatoes from the bulk bins at WinCo.  You can also buy them in a pouch in the produce section or jarred in the canned tomato aisle.  

I prefer to use my scissors to cut dried tomatoes.

When I was making this a few years ago, I always used pine nuts.  However, pine nuts are currently over $14 per pound in the bulk bins at WinCo.  Consequently, I don't buy them anymore.  This time I used slivered almonds, which ended up tasting excellent!

I usually don't measure when making this dish.  I will attempt to give estimates in the recipe, but feel free to adjust the ratios to suit your taste.

Angel Hair Pasta with Italian Sausage and Sun-dried Tomatoes

1 lb. angel hair pasta

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage or links with casings removed

5 cloves garlic, smashed and roughly chopped

1/2 c. slivered almonds or pine nuts

1 1/2 c. sun-dried tomatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces

Fresh basil, torn

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese

Boil water and cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, brown Italian sausage over medium heat until cooked through.  If there are no drippings, drizzle a little olive oil into pan; add garlic and nuts.  

Saute until garlic is fragrant and nuts turn golden, stirring occasionally.  Stir in tomatoes and basil; cook just until warmed, 1-2 minutes.

Place pasta on plate; top with sausage and tomato mixture.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Served with Caesar salad and garlic bread.

Zucchini Lasagna

Please excuse my after photos.  Fall means not enough natural light
by the time dinner is ready and I'm not using my own camera right now.

Robbie’s parents live near Mt. Shasta.  Consequently, they didn’t get summer weather until much later than we did.  This means their harvest came in later than ours.  A few weeks ago they came to visit and brought a load of zucchini with them!

I wanted to try something new with them, so I decided to make zucchini lasagna.  I didn’t just want to add zucchini to my usual lasagna though.  I wanted to use sliced zucchini in place of the noodles to make a healthier lasagna.  The end result was a success!

I did use one layer of lasagna noodles—I just LOVE pasta too much!  But I was surprised by how much that one layer contributed to the dish.  Had I not made the lasagna myself, I would have guessed there was a lot more pasta.  Simply replace this layer of pasta with zucchini to make gluten-free lasagna.

As far as the zucchini, I tried two ways.  First, I just sliced it into flat pieces with my chef knife.  This worked really well.  The next time I made it, I hauled out the food processor to see if I liked that approach better.  While it was super fast, it sliced the zucchini a little thinner than I would have liked.

Fast, but too thin.

Going along with my goal of a healthier lasagna, I also added shredded carrots.  I found that I like the texture of the carrots shredded on the cheese grater better than those I put through the food processor.

Feel free to add whatever vegetables you desire.  The second time I made this, I added finely chopped broccoli.  Cauliflower, mushrooms, and eggplant would all work great!

As far as the cheese goes, the mozzarella/parmesan/cottage cheese mix I use in regular lasagna would be delicious!  However, I accidentally went healthy on this one.  When making my shopping list for that week, I incorrectly assumed I had plenty of mozzarella and parmesan in my fridge.  When I went to make the lasagna, I realized I had no mozzarella and only a little parmesan—I should have checked.  I ended up just using cottage cheese between the layers and parmesan cheese on top.  It was still super tasty, not to mention easier on the waistline and the wallet.

Zucchini Lasagna

1 jar spaghetti sauce

5-6 lasagna noodles (enough to cover the bottom of your pan)

1 lb. cottage cheese

2-3 carrots, shredded

1 small bunch broccoli, finely chopped

2 large or 3 small zucchini, sliced

Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.  Spread a layer of spaghetti sauce over bottom of pan.  Cover with single layer of lasagna noodles.

Top with 1/3 of cottage cheese; sprinkle with 1/3 each of carrots and broccoli.  Spoon sauce over.

Cover with a layer of zucchini.  Create another layer of cottage cheese, carrot, broccoli, and sauce, covering with 2^nd layer of zucchini.

Repeat again.  You should end up with 1 layer of noodles, 3 layers of filling, and 3 layers of zucchini.  Pour remaining sauce over top.

Yummy layers!

Cover tightly with foil; bake 1 hour.  Remove foil and sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese.  Bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until Parmesan starts to turn golden.  Remove from oven and let rest 5-10 minutes before serving.  

Gluten-Free Zucchini Lasagna

Prepare as above, replacing layer of lasagna noodles with zucchini.

Extra Cheesy Zucchini Lasagna

Prepare zucchini lasagna above.  Decrease amount of carrots and broccoli.  Replace cottage cheese with the following mixture:

1 lb. cottage or ricotta cheese

1 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

½ c. shredded Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

Dash each garlic powder, basil, oregano, thyme, and marjoram

Summer Harvest Pasta (Pasta with Zucchini and Tomatoes)

As I mentioned last week, my neighbor Jerry has been giving me tomatoes from his garden.  He has also been giving me zucchini!  So far I’ve made zucchini bread, zucchini fries, sautéed zucchini with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, zucchini brownies, and pasta with zucchini and tomatoes and I still have a few more zucchini dishes I want to make.

Today I’d like to share the pasta with you.  The quantities I give for the ingredients are all approximate as I was using mostly fresh produce and didn’t bother weighing or measuring any of it.  But that’s one of the great things about pasta—it’s not an exact science.  And I don’t know how much pasta I added to the sauce.  Because my kids don’t like zucchini, I made a bunch of pasta but only put some of it into the sauce.  While Robbie and I ate fresh harvest pasta, they had noodles with spaghetti sauce from a jar.

A lot of advanced-skilled cooks would probably skin the tomatoes before adding them.  Too much time and effort for this point in my life so the skins stay on.

I would also add more salt and pepper when making this for Robbie and myself, but went more conservative for those who don’t like as much salt and pepper.  Just taste and adjust as necessary.

Summer Harvest Pasta (Pasta with Zucchini and Tomatoes)

About ¾ lb. spaghetti or fettuccine, preferably whole wheat

1-2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

5-6 medium tomatoes, cut in wedges or 30 oz. canned diced tomatoes

1-2 tsp. salt plus more

½ tsp. pepper plus more

½ tsp. oregano

Small bunch fresh basil leaves, torn or ½ tsp. dried

1 large zucchini, cut into large chunks

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Boil pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, heat skillet over medium-high heat; add oil.  When oil is hot, add onion and sauté until translucent.

From this...

...to this!

Add garlic, 1-2 tsp. salt, and ½ tsp. pepper; sauté until fragrant.  Stir in tomatoes, oregano, and basil.

Continue to cook until fresh tomatoes are cooked down and heated through.  Stir in zucchini and continue to cook until desired tenderness.

Add additional salt and pepper as desired.  Stir in hot, drained pasta.

A rogue corkskrew snuck in there!

Serve with Parmesan cheese if desired.