Jamie’s Money Saving Meals hasn’t been aired here in Brazil yet but luckily for me there are some episodes available on You Tube – I have watched six of them (not sure if there are more) and really liked the concept: the food looks delicious and not at all hard to prepare, and when I saw him making meatloaf with tomato sauce and spaghetti I knew exactly what would be the next Sunday lunch at my
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Beef meatloaf with spaghetti sauce
Jamie’s Money Saving Meals hasn’t been aired here in Brazil yet but luckily for me there are some episodes available on You Tube – I have watched six of them (not sure if there are more) and really liked the concept: the food looks delicious and not at all hard to prepare, and when I saw him making meatloaf with tomato sauce and spaghetti I knew exactly what would be the next Sunday lunch at my
Ricotta and spinach manicotti and cooking = power
Not until recently I started thinking of cooking as something both empowering and liberating and that comes to my mind when I think of certain passages of my childhood.
In the period between my mom’s death and my father marrying again my paternal grandmother lived with us and she did all the cooking at home. She was an amazing cook – still is at 88 – but she rarely made the dishes I liked – I
The best gnocchi I have ever made + cookbooks that go beyond recipes
It’s not a secret how addicted I am to cookbooks and after I discovered the amazing “Eat Your Books” I no longer felt guilty for buying so many of them because I actually use my books all the time – I cook and bake from them regularly. Some cookbooks I love because of their recipes, while others won my heart over for reasons other than food. Some of them get me really emotional, while others
Ricotta and spinach stuffed shells - a nice idea for lunch on Mother's Day
Nigella promoted her cookbook in several different TV shows here in Brazil and in one of them she baked her chocolate banana muffins – she said that they would be a nice treat for breakfast on Mother’s Day. Her comment reminded me of this recipe I cooked a while ago, the first one I tried from Martha’s wonderful vegetarian cookbook: I find it perfect for a celebration day, since it can be put
SUPER FUN INDIVIDUAL PASTA PIZZAS!!!
INGREDIENTS:
PILLSBURY PIZZA CRUST
PENNE, COOKED & TOSSED WITH YOUR FAVORITE SAUCE
SHREDDED MOZZARELLA CHEESE
INSTRUCTIONS:
LINE ONE LARGE PAN OR 2 MINI PANS WITH PARCHMENT. PRESS CRUST INTO PAN(S) AND PREBAKE ON A PIZZA STONE AT 400 DEGREES FOR 8 MINUTES. REMOVE FROM PANS AND TOP WITH PASTA AND CHEESE. BAKE AN ADDITIONAL 8 MINUTES.
FOR SAUSAGE & SPINACH LOVERS XO
I LAYERED:
ZUCCHINI
YELLOW SQUASH
RED SAUCE
RAW PASTA
MORE SAUCE
SPINACH
CHEESE!
COVERED AND COOKED ON LOW FOR 40 MINUTES! LAST 5 MINS I ADDED IN THE COOKED SAUSAGE SLICES!
Provolone and lemon pasta
I don’t know if the same happens to you, but sometimes I keep certain recipes in my head for a long time – it’s completely unintentional and there are times it takes me forever to actually make the recipe. I first saw this provolone and lemon pasta recipe several months ago (I believe it was last year) and thought it would be very tasty: a pasta sauce made of cheese and lemon? Perfect. Fast
Pasta alla Norma and back from vacation
After 11 wonderful days spent in the unforgettable New York I’m back home – very tired and immensely happy. The best trip of my life to a place I intend to go back to many, many times. My heart is full of joy but my feet still hurt from all the walking, so a quick meal is mandatory: this pasta dish is easy to make and tastes great, despite its simplicity – a weeknight favorite.
Pasta alla
Spinach casserole with orecchiette and cheeses
Talking to a coworker who has lost several pounds, I found out that the on the diet she’s been on gluten and dairy are forbidden. I must say that as much as I would love to lose a couple of pounds, I would never be able to follow that kind of diet: I cannot survive without bread and cheese; I know there are ways of replacing wheat flour for other kinds of flour – the spelt muffins I made a
Spaghetti with gorgonzola + a video worth watching
I have brought you today an insanely quick pasta dish, that tastes great; I actually made it months ago just to use up some gorgonzola I had left from making this gorgeous salad and the recipe turned out to be a keeper - I did not expect less from the wonderful Stephanie Alexander.
And to make this post a little more interesting I will share a link to one of the most beautiful videos I have
Spaghetti with pistachio pesto and roasted cherry tomatoes + The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
After months of anxiety and high expectations I could finally watch "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"; as much as I did not want to resort to a cliché to describe the film it’s impossible for me to avoid it: it is a masterpiece. Perfect in every detail, visually stunning, with a fantastic cast and amazing music. Dark and gloomy as the book itself and as only Fincher – or maybe Cronenberg –
Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs
This recipe combines two types of cheese, black and green olives, lemon, a touch of thyme + a delicious topping in only one pasta dish, which turned out fantastic; I guess I should rename it and call it “Steven Soderbergh pasta” – after all, who besides him can gather so many stars in one single movie? I can only think of the late Altman.
Feta, ricotta and lemon pasta with olive breadcrumbs
Broccolini rigatoni - delicious food in almost no time at all
I love being in the kitchen, but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying quick meals too – they have been a great idea in these cold days, when all I want is to be wrapped in a blanked, reading or watching TV.
After watching several episodes of the wonderful “Jamie’s 30-minute meals” I ended up buying the book - which is absolutely beautiful - and the first recipe I tried was this pasta dish:
Linguine with peas and lemon - and our 6th anniversary
Joao and I celebrated our sixth anniversary last Saturday with a magnificent dinner – great food, some wine... Just beautiful. But all that indulgence called for a simple lunch on the following day – and this recipe instantly popped in to my mind: it’s so good – and quick – I’ve made it three times already.
Linguine with peas and lemon
from Holiday
1½ tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons (28g
Pesto pasta and tuna “meatballs”
My grandmother is a very creative cook – sometimes, too creative.
A friend of mine from school once had lunch at my house and told grandma that the breaded fish was delicious, to what granny replied “oh, sweetie, thank you! But that is not fish – it’s banana skin”. :D
After that story I bet that tuna “meatballs” sound perfectly normal to you. :D
Pesto pasta and tuna “meatballs”
adapted from
Linguine with Mascarpone & Prosciutto
Today I am going to post some "real food" as Mr. Humble likes to call it.Real food and well... a bit of a rant concerning staging food.
Now like most food bloggers, I stage the food that goes onto the blog. Meaning I pay a little more attention to how I arrange my plates than I would were just serving it up for the Humble household table. I think that is an acceptable level of manipulation, as it is entirely possible to recreate.
What I do not employ are tricks like rubbing barely cooked steak with shoe polish to give it that nicely browned look, using shortening mixed with powdered sugar for indestructible ice cream, or hair spray to make my cake slices look moist. You get the idea, taking food and rendering it inedible for the sake of looks.
Anyway, I don't like fooling people and I certainly don't like being fooled myself.
Like I was this weekend when I spotted a gorgeous Moroccan stew. It was lovely with chunks of lamb mingling with garbanzo beans, lentils, herbs and vermicelli.
So I made this stew for dinner Saturday night, following the instructions to the letter, only to have it come out looking like something my dog barfed up. Well, that is if I had a dog and it happened to survive solely on a diet of corrugated cardboard.
The stew was miserable looking. After simmering for two hours the fresh herbs and lamb were now roughly the same unattractive color. The lentils, garbanzo beans and vermicelli mingled in the insipid gray broth. It tasted alright but it looked awful.
So I took a second, critical look at the photo included with the recipe. The herbs shown are bright and vibrant! Clearly they had not been been simmering in a stock pot for two hours. The lamb chunks appeared to have been seared and then placed artfully arranged on top. The Garbanzo beans, neatly piled in the center of the bowl had the glossy, fresh from the can look... this soup was a LIE.
I was pretty annoyed. Okay I was really annoyed. I was going to post the photos of the soup as advertised and the real soup on my blog but it is so utterly depressing that I can't bring myself to photograph it nor inflict that kind of visual trauma on my readers.
Rest assured that I will never pull that kind of nonsense on this blog.
Anyway, lets get to today's lunch.
I'm still making an effort to deal with the surplus mascarpone I have on hand. So I decided to toss linguine with it, mixed with basil pesto.To contrast the creamy sauce, I added salty slivers of pecorino romano and thick pieces of prosciutto. To give the dish a little color and texture I added some freshly toasted pine nuts and a scattering of fresh basil leaves.
A quick lunch for the little Humble and I, one that required less than 15 minutes of hands-on time.
Tasty and pretty, no shoe polish or hairspray needed.
Not So Humble Linguine with Mascarpone & Prosciutto
serves 8
1 lb linguine
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2-3/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup basil pesto
1 cup thickly sliced prosciutto, cut into bite sized pieces
pecorino romano
fresh basil
salt and ground pepper
Boil the pasta according to the package directions.
While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until they are fragrant.
Drain the pasta and then toss with the mascarpone and pesto to coat. Plate the pasta and sprinkle with the pine nuts, prosciutto, shaved pecorino romano, basil and season with salt and fresh ground pepper.
Pasta with Brown Butter, Sage and Nutmeg
This is one of those wonderful pasta dishes that can be thrown together in a pinch from a handful of ingredients that one tends to have on hand. The simple mixture of brown butter, fresh sage and nutmeg creates a marvelously aromatic meal. So satisfying that I tend to overindulge, resulting in my sinking into one of those warm and fuzzy starch induced comas.
Oh yes, I want to go to there.
Not so Humble Pie's Pasta with Brown Butter, Sage and Nutmeg:
2 cups penne pasta
1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
6 tablespoons butter
15-18 small fresh sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
salt
pepper
Parmesan
Serves 2-4
Prepare the pasta according to package directions. Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and place the butter in a skillet over medium high heat and cook until bubbly. Add the chicken and saute till butter darkens and the chicken has cooked through. Take a little more than half of the sage (reserve the smallest of the leaves to garnish with later) and slice them into thin strips and add to the chicken and butter. Sprinkle with the nutmeg and saute briefly until dish becomes aromatic.
Place the cooked and drained pasta into a bowl and add the Chicken, Sage and Brown butter mixture. Sprinkle with a generous amount of fresh ground pepper and salt (to taste) and toss well. Serve the pasta topped with fresh parmesan shavings and a few of the remaining sage leaves.