Caprese Pasta - Italian Mac n Cheese

I'm taking a break from my Thanksgiving turkey leftovers to use up some fresh tomatoes and basil from our garden and some mozzarella that's been hanging out in the fridge for a while.

The result...Caprese Pasta! I like to think of it as Italian Mac n Cheese.

Put a pot of water on to boil for the whole wheat penne. While that's heating up, lightly brown some garlic in some olive oil. Chop up some tomatoes (I used our Juliets) and toss them in and let them sizzle a while. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar in just to cut any acidity from the tomatoes, and sprinkle a little flour in to serve as a thickener. Stir occasionally and let that go while the pasta cooks. Cut some fresh basil into ribbons (chiffonade) and toss some in, reserving some for the final plate.

When the pasta is finished cooking, reserve a cup of the pasta water before draining the pasta. Then toss the drained pasta into the sauce and work it all together. Put in a little water, a little at a time, until the sauce gets to your desired thickness. Then mix in some cubed fresh mozzarella and mix that in to melt.

Plate, toss on some more fresh basil ribbons for garnish and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

-J

Pasta Primavera with Chicken Sausage

Tuesday I was jonesing for some pasta. I've cut back on carbs since the beginning of the year. Not totally doing the Atkins thing, but cut way back on 'em. So since we were getting another produce delivery from Orlando Organics on Wednesday, I decided to use up all the remnants of our produce and use a half box of whole wheat penne on the shelf. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I went to the grocery store and actually only bought TWO things! I got some of Publix's Greenwise Mild Chicken Italian Sausage and a grated cheese blend with Romano, Parmesan and Asiago.
First, I browned the sausage on all sides in a cast iron skillet. When that was done, I took it out and using the same skillet, browned some chopped onion, garlic, bell pepper, all sprinkled with salt, in olive oil. Put in some chopped carrot and parsnips. When they were somewhat cooked, I sprinkled about a tablespoon of flour over the whole thing and mixed it in to make a little bit of a roux. Then in went some frozen chicken stock. I sliced the cooled sausage, which was mostly cooked, but not quite thoroughly, and put that back in the skillet with the veggies and stock.
While the sausage was cooling, I put on a pot of water for the penne. Salted it. When it boiled, I put in the half box of penne and cooked it for a minute less than the box said. When it's done, save some of the pasta water. You can use it to add a little juice to the sauce if necessary. Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot.
Dump the veggie/sausage/sauce in with the pasta, and toss. Add some of the pasta water if it's too dry. Sprinke on some of the grated cheese blend, salt and pepper to taste, and serve!
Enjoy!
-J

Homemade Pasta Carbonara

So the cake I made on Friday used 6 egg whites...which meant I had 6 egg yolks just sitting there in the fridge looking for meaning in their lives. Their collective destiny was fulfilled in a marvelous way on Sunday. I used them in the homemade pasta I was making to use in Pasta Carbonara.

It was a collective effort between Mike and me. I made the pasta in the afternoon, very similarly to how I made the Peanut Butter Pasta, but without the peanut butter. I used the rest of the whole wheat flour I had on hand. It rolled out beautifully, and I hung them to dry on the tented cooling racks as before.

Michael browned some pancetta perfectly, and then added some mushrooms and onions to the same pan after removing the pancetta. When they were softened and yummy looking, he added some halved baby carrots and let them blend. I heated up some frozen homemade chicken stock, and added some herbage to the pot. While that was warming, I beat the remaining egg yolks and set them aside.

Mike boiled a big pot of water and added some salt. I tossed in the dry noodles. At the same time, I put some chopped tomatoes in with the veggies in the pan. Five quick minutes later, the pasta was happily floating on the top of the water, so I checked, and it was done. After reserving some of the cooking water, I drained it.

Just because I didn't feel like dragging out my enourmous pasta serving bowl, I put the veggies in the now empty pasta pot over low heat. The noodles went in next and I tossed them to combine. I whisked some of the hot stock into the beaten eggs to temper them, then tossed them in with the noodles. Tossing them about 2 or 3 minutes made sure the noodles were well coated and the eggs were cooked. I added the rest of the stock, a little bit at a time, tossing and turning the pasta with tongs the whole time. They soaked up the sauce and got really well coated. I tossed in the pancetta, and sprinkled on some Parmasan cheese. 

This got placed in some serving bowls and that's it!

Success!

My Thai?

This entry isn't about using  up leftovers, really, but I just had to write about it. I mean, all those leftovers have to start from some first creation, don't they? Here's the story of one...

I don't know how I came to be so obsessed with the idea of Peanut Butter Pasta, but I did. I did some web research but didn't see anything from anyone about actually making pasta with peanut butter in the dough. I found lots of recipes for noodles in peanut sauce, which sounds good, but not what I was after. I've had several varieties of flavored pasta from Papardelle's, so I thought if anyone has done it, they would've...but no, they only sold some peanut sauce, no PB pasta. So I became even more intrigued, and I decided I HAD to try it. The way I saw it, there were only two possible outcomes...

1) It would be really good and I'd finally have my own truly unique food creation...

or, more likely...

2) It would be so heinous that it would be completely inedible and I would deny ever even THINKING of it, and would try to erase it from my consciousness.

So last Saturday, I decided to try it. I consulted my Italian cooking book, and came up with a plan of attack. Then I got to work. I'll detail the specifics below, but I don't want to keep you in suspense. Which way do YOU think it went???


Hmm?
Hmm?


Huh?
Want me to tell you?


Ok.


IT WAS FANTASTIC!

Here's how it went.

1. Beat 2 eggs with 2 Tbsp. of homemade peanut butter. Add to mixing bowl.

2. In separate bowl, combine 1 c. of unbleached all purpose flour with 1 c. whole wheat flour.

3. Slowly add the flour to the egg/pb mixture. I didn't add quite all of the flour. Probably had about 10% left in the bowl when the dough looked to have enough.

Right about here, I decided it was too dry and I added one more egg mixed with one more Tbsp. of peanut butter. It still seemed a little dry, but I didn't want to add any more than that.

4. Put dough hook on mixer and mix away.

5. Check dough. Let it mix some more.

6. Check dough again. Fret that it's resembling PB cookie dough. See if patting dough together by hand helps. It does. Draw encouragement from that and try dough hook again.

7. Heave one large, dramatic sigh.

8. Turn off mixer, take dough out of bowl and release on lightly floured counter.

9. Knead dough by hand for a few minutes. Fret more that it resembles cookie dough. Try not to dwell. Add a teeny tiny bit of peanut oil to the dough and resume kneading. All told, I kneaded it for about 8 minutes.

10. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest on counter for about 45 - 60 mins. Let it go. Try not to worry what will happen next.

11. Unwrap and pat out a bit on lightly floured counter.

12. Grab rolling pin, dust with flour and apply elbow grease. To my great surprise, it rolled out beautifully!

Keep in mind, I usually have problems rolling out pie dough and cookie dough. They tend to stick no matter what I do. This time, though, I was able to roll, turn, flip, rotate, stretch, whatever, and it just kept responding remarkably.

13. Once I got it thin enough, almost see thru, but not quite, it was time to cut the noodles. I had read somewhere about rolling the dough up and cutting into the desired width, but thought that it'd just stick to itself, so instead, I doubled it over on itself. Then, armed only with a ruler (for a straightedge) and a pizza cutter, I went to work. I wanted them to be about the width of fettucini noodles, so I eyeballed the width to be about 3/8 - 1/2" wide and ran the pizza cutter along side the ruler. Then I carefully picked them up in case they got compressed from the ruler. I did get a little bit of breakage from where I was pressing on the ruler, but nothing too bad.

14. Now...drying. How am I gonna dry these beauties? I propped up two cooling racks long-wise, so they looked a little like a pup tent. Then I draped the long noodles over them so they could get lots of air circulation on both sides.

That's it! Now all I had to do was let them dry until I wanted to cook them up and make a Sesame Shrimp Sauce.  (I took inspiration from Pad Thai to create this dish.)

15. After marinading some 16 - 20 count shrimp in Drew's Sesame Orange Marinade for an hour or so, I stir fried them in a mix of a small amount of sesame oil and a bit more peanut oil. When they were pink, I removed them from the skillet and added some sliced scallions and matchstick carrots. Stir fried them for a few mins and then covered them to let them steam a little bit. Then I added some bean sprouts and stir fried them for a few mins. Next it was time for the shrimp to get back in the mix. I added them back to the pan. Next I threw in a few handsful of rough chopped peanuts and about half of an anaheim pepper that I'd chopped. (I removed about half of the seeds.)

16. While all that was going on, I put the dried noodles in some boiling salted water and let them go for about 5 - 6 mins.

17. When all the noodles were floating on the top, I tasted one to see if it was cooked enough. It was, so I drained them in a collander. I added about a Tbsp of peanut oil to the same pot and put the pasta back in there just to give it a touch more peanut flavor.

18. Now I dumped the noodles in a big pasta serving bowl, and put the sauce on top. After tossing with tongs, I added some uncooked peanuts, a little more chopped pepper and grated some lime zest over the whole bowl.

19. To serve, I put some in each pasta bowl, with some bean sprouts to one side, and a wedge of lime.

I can't tell you how shocked and excited I was when I tasted it and it really was good! I was especially happy with the raw peanuts in the dish, and for some reason found that surprising. I can easily see doing this same thing with chicken or almost any type of protein.

20. Next time you think you can't do something just because you don't think anyone else has...forget that! Do it anyway!

-Enjoy!