Cheesy Baked Tortellini

This is one of those recipes that you go...hey, I could have come up with it myself. But it is a favorite in the house.

Cheesy Baked Tortellini
Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 2 cups marinara sauce
• 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese (we use ricotta)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves (we skip this ingredient)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (1/4 tsp dried)
• 1 pound purchased cheese tortellini
• 2 ounces thinly sliced smoked mozzarella (regular works too)
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8 by 8 by 2-inchbaking dish.

Whisk the sauce, mascarpone cheese, parsley and thyme in a large bowl to blend. Cook the tortellini in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 2 minutes. Drain. Add the tortellini to the sauce and toss to coat. Transfer the tortellini mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top the mixture with the smoked mozzarella and Parmesan. Cover and bake until the sauce bubbles and the cheeses on top melt, about 30 minutes.

Lasagna

Do you need to have an excuse to make lasagna? Well I created one...mainly I wanted to make sure that there were plenty of leftovers for while I was gone. With it just being the two of us, a whole pan of lasagna will serve both of us 6 times. So lots go into the freezer. And it only improves with the flavors mixing together. So the leftovers are often better than the original.

Lasagna
Recipe adapted from American Beauty pasta

1 lb. ground beef
3 cups (about 28-oz. jar) spaghetti sauce
16 pieces (about 16 oz.) lasagna noodles, slightly cooked
4 cups (2 lb.) ricotta cheese
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In large skillet, brown meat; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce; simmer 10 minutes. 

Lay pasta on a sheet pan. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 5-10 minutes, replacing water when it cools. This will slightly cook the pasta making it pliable but not fall apart.

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, salt and pepper. Spread about 1/3 cup meat sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange 4 pasta pieces lengthwise over sauce, overlapping edges. Spread one-third cheese mixture over pasta; spread with about 3/4 cup meat sauce. Repeat layers TWICE, beginning and ending with pasta. Top with remaining meat sauce; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and additional Parmesan cheese, if desired. Cover with foil. Bake 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil; bake about 10 minutes longer, or until lightly browned.





This has been our go-to lasagna recipe for so many years. This time I added in 1/2 pound of cooked Italian sausage in addition to the ground beef. We always add more cheese to the top than it calls for because we like gooey cheese.

Spicy Sausage Pasta and Broccoli

It isn't often that you find a recipe that replaces one that you love but I think we may have found one. We have a delicious pasta, sausage and broccoli recipe that is absolutely delicious. I was perusing the weekly Secret Recipe Club recipes a couple of weeks ago and someone had recreated this. I Went back to the original recipe and wanted to make it. We finally got around to it on Friday.




Not a lot of ingredients and we have enough for four servings each. So the freezer is now stocked for those handy weeknight meals when there isn't time too cook.

Spicy Pasta with Broccoli and Sausage
Recipe Courtesy of Fried Rice and Donut Holes

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cups broccoli, chopped
1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed (we used the hot version)
1 cup reserved pasta water
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 pound Orecchiette pasta (I used small shells)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain reserving 1 cup of water. In pan over medium high heat brown the sausage, breaking it up as it cooks. Drain off any grease. Meanwhile in a separate pan over medium high heat cook the garlic in oil for about a minute, stirring until golden. Add broccoli, wine, 1/2 cup reserved water, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is tender and liquid is mostly evaporated. Add the sausage and pasta to broccoli mixture and toss to combine. Add the other half cup of water if it needs thinning. Stir in Parmesan cheese and serve.

I tried to do all this by myself but needed dans help at one point because I needed to do three things at once. I started cooking my pasta first. Since no matter how hard I look I can never find orecchiette pasta I used small shells. Dang oklahoma. I also started cooking the sausage because I wasn't sure how long it would take. Once I knew the sausage would be done I started the broccoli. I took the water from the pasta as it was cooking since it wasn't done. It was an awful lot of liquid and I knew it would never be all absorbed if I wanted my broccoli to have any sense of crispness (mushy broccoli is not served in my house). So decided when the broccoli was done to just add the other ingredients and the pasta would absorb some water. And sure enough that worked. We had to get a huge bowl in order to mix the three parts though. Wow did this make a ton. With the hot sausage and red pepper flakes you have to like spicy food to like this. You could use the mild sausage if you wanted to cut the heat back some.

Spaghetti with Onions

So what can you make with just four ingredients that tastes fantastic? Why this recipe, spaghetti with onions.




Yes that is ll the ingredients. This comes from the one Italian cookbook that we own, Sicilian American Pasta. It takes some time but you will be very pleased with the cost and flavor.

Spaghetti with Onions
Recipe by Sicilian American Pasta

3 lb yellow onions, sliced (we prefer sweet onions)
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 lb spaghetti

Sauté the sliced onions in the olive oil with the crushed red pepper over high heat ten minutes, stirring constantly. The onions should start to become transparent.




Cover tightly, lower the heat and cook thirty minutes, letting the onion smelt down. Stir occasionally to keep them from burning. Some of the onion will become glazed and develop a deep caramel color. If there is not enough liquid, you. Ay add a tablespoon or two of the pasta water during the cooking.

Undercook the spaghetti slightly and mix with the onion sauce, tossing in the pot over a warm range.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

We halved the recipe nd had enough for leftovers for the two of us.

Baked Spaghetti

For Mother's Day I asked for Whitney to cook me a meal. I figured I would use her labor and get her to learn how to cook another meal before we leave her to fend for herself for two weeks while we go on vacation. (Don't worry I'll leave plenty of food). After the Crazy Cooking Challenge a couple of months ago for spaghetti with red sauce, I really wanted to try a baked spaghetti. I had never had it so figured this would be a good thing for her to make because there would be lots of leftovers we could freeze. I chose the recipe from What's Cooking Love? and Whitney (along with Dan's help) followed it pretty close.

Baked Spaghetti
(Recipe adapted from Plain Chicken and Life as a Lofthouse)

12 ounces whole wheat spaghetti (can use regular spaghetti)
1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 lb ground turkey (can substitute ground beef)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a skillet, brown the ground turkey over medium-high heat.  Add 1 teaspoon of both the garlic powder and Italian seasoning to the meat.  Cook the meat until it is cooked through.  Drain the fat and stir in the spaghetti sauce.  Then remove from heat and set aside. 

3.  Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pot of water according to the package directions.  Drain the water and place the hot spaghetti in a large bowl.  Add the cream cheese and 1 teaspoon of both the garlic powder and Italian Seasoning to the spaghetti.  Stir until the cream cheese has melted and the spaghetti is covered. 

4.  Spread a small amount of the meat and sauce mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 greased baking dish. Pour the spaghetti over the sauce and spread out evenly.  Pour the rest of the meat and sauce mixture on top of the spaghetti, then sprinkle both cheeses on top. 

5.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Of course they added more cheese to the top because we love cheese. And we didn't have Italian seasoning so they used a mixture of dried basil and oregano. This turned out really moist. The cream cheese kept the noodles soft. You couldn't even tell it was whole wheat pasta (not that I know what it tastes like normally since this was the first time we used it.) Turns out we have enough for 12 servings of spaghetti. So that means we froze 6 servings. Did very nice little individual ones so she can just pull one out and microwave it.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce - Crazy Cooking Challenge

I've wanted to do a cooking challenge blog for so long. Unfortunately I don't have enough recipes to qualify for Secret Recipe Club. And then I found the holy grail of cooking challenge blogs: CRAZY COOKING CHALLENGE. Basically once a month people cook the same kind of recipe that they found on someone else's blog and then post about it. You don't have to have a lot of recipes on your own blog. This is something I could do. So I signed up for it this month and was so lucky that it was a topic that I like: Spaghetti with Red Sauce. I have so many good recipes for red sauces but the whole purpose of this was to find something new. I spent a week going over other people's blogs to find a bunch of recipes. I'm still learning how to find food blogs so it took awhile. And then I needed to get Dan to agree to one of them.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

The recipe I chose was Mom's Spaghetti Sauce by Isabelle at Crumb. I liked it because it had bacon and ground beef. All of the red sauce recipes that I have don't have any meat so I thought this would be a good change.

Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce

6 slices bacon, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 lbs lean ground beef
2 medium carrots, diced
1 small fennel bulb or 2 stalks celery, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups dry red wine
2 cans (796 ml each) pureed tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp hot pepper flakes (optional)

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, fry the bacon in olive oil over medium-high heat until crisp. Add ground beef and cook for 10 minutes, breaking up into small chunks with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until browned. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ground beef to a bowl and set aside.
Add carrots, celery, onion and garlic to the pot, and saute for 10 minutes or until onion is soft and translucent. Return ground beef to the pot.
Stir in the remaining ingredients, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.
Ladle sauce onto cooked spaghetti and serve with a scattering of grated Parmesan cheese.

Ingredients (Pinot Noir was the wine)

I halved the recipe because I knew this would make a lot. I was surprised it didn't have any salt in it and the amount of seasoning seemed small but I follow recipes to the letter the first time I try them. We cooked it just like it said (I used celery and not fennel) and then tasted it after it simmered for 45 minutes. BLAND just like we were afraid of. I think we added another teaspoon of basil, oregano, salt and some garlic powder to get it to taste like anything. It had a good consistency, nice and thick. But since we had to add more seasoning we needed to cook it longer so we had to add some water. We like our spaghetti to have the sauce mixed in so we added some to our cooked spaghetti. After putting it on the plates, I added a little more sauce to the top.

The leftovers tasted better than the original, maybe because the flavors melded together in the fridge.

The good thing about this is I found a great cooking challenge and I can't wait for next month's version. Hopefully I'll get better at finding food blogs and I'll find so many recipes I can't wait to try them all! Check out all the great recipes other people cooked by visiting the sites listed below. I know I'll be looking at them!

Cinnamon Bacon Carbonara

We love bacon. So of course anytime we can cook with it we jump at the chance. We've made this recipe for many years so we love it. It was on Giada De Laurenitis show on food network. We got so many trAditional Italian dishes from her show that are truly delicious. We of course had to make changes since we really don't have pancetta here in Oklahoma. So this is our revised version. We cut it in half so feel free to double it.

Cinnamon Bacon Carbonara

4 slices bacon, chopped
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup grated parmesan
3 large egg yolks
8 ounces fettuccine

Sauté bacon in frying pan over medium heat until almost crisp. Sprinkle cinnamon over bacon and cook until crisp.

Cool bacon. Whisk cream, cheese and egg yolks with the bacon.

Cook you pasta until tender but not done. Add pasta to sauce and cok over medium high heAtuntil sauce becomes thick and sticks to pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This tastes a lot like Alfredo sauce but richer with the egg yolks. The cinnamon adds a really nice flavor sort of like when we add a little bit of nutmeg to our Alfredo sauce. Yummy, yummy, yummy.

You can't go wrong with this recipe. It doesn't take a lot of time to make so it would work on a week night.

Pasta with Tomato and Onion

This is what we made Sunday night. I'm so glad I looked through this recipe book and found the note. It was soooo worth it. We of course had to make changes since we live in the middle of Oklahoma and really can't find what the recipe called for.

Spaghetti with Tomato and Purple Onions
adapted from Sicilian American Pasta

Note this is half the recipe and had enough for leftovers for the two of us

1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 lb bacon, thickly sliced then diced 1/4 inch (being in Oklahoma we used bacon instead of pancetta like the recipe called for)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 lb purple onion, chopped
1 can italian herbed diced tomatoes, somewhat drained
1/2 lb spaghetti (originally calls for bucatini but once again we are in Oklahoma)

Use 1/2 T oil to cook bacon over medium-high heat until crispy. Add 1 1/2 T oil, pepper and onion. Saute until onion is soft. Add tomatoes and saute for one more minute. Then lower heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking (we used a non-stick skillet so this wasn't a problem).

Cook pasta, drain and add to sauce. Stir around and let sit for a few minutes. Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

So easy. It was sweet and had a kick at the same time. The sauce was really thick with the tomatoes turning almost to a paste.

A nice change of pace recipe for us. I'm going to have to write it out and put in my recipe box because I never think to look at my recipe books (I only have a few so never look).

YUMMY!

Rigatoni Florentine

So in our quest to continue eating food that Whitney doesn't like, Dan bought a big thing of fresh spinach this past week. We had spinach salads earlier but I wanted something different. So I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It was really tasty. I cut the recipe in half and supposedly it makes 4 servings now. However it will make six servings in our world, so we'll eat it twice this week and freeze some.

My only changes is to maybe cut back some chicken and add more spinach. Otherwise it was really tasty.

Our finished dish - yummy

Ingredients (Serves 8)

• 1 (16 ounce) package rigatoni pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds boneless chicken, cubed
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 26 ounces spaghetti sauce
• 10 ounces fresh spinach, washed and chopped
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and reserve.
2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through and no longer pink inside. Add garlic to skillet; saute until golden. Add cream and spaghetti sauce to skillet; cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until sauce thickens.
3. Add cooked chicken and spinach and cook until spinach reduces. Then add rigatoni; toss with cheese and serve.