Improvised Pasta and a Possible Blogging Experiment

Sorry it's taken longer to post than I was expecting.  Right now I'm taking a little break from writing my final papers, so I thought I would post.  I've been thinking about conducting a little experiment with this blog, but it will take reader involvement.  If you're interested, you can look after the story about the missing rigatoni and picture.  As soon as school is finished for the year, I should be able to post on a more regular basis, and I have lots of great food I'm ready to share!

I had planned and shopped for a delicious pasta dinner.  It would include rigatoni, spinach, chickpeas, a spicy pepper, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  The beans were soaked and cooked, the spinach was washed, and the pepper was dehydrated and ready to go.  All I had to do was boil the pasta and toss everything together.  I started rummaging through my cabinets and realized I couldn't find the pasta.  I looked in other cabinets; I rechecked the cabinets I had just looked through, and I had my husband look for the pasta too.  We couldn't find the package of rigatoni.  I knew I bought it.  I could picture it in my cart.  I knew I bought it, but I couldn't find it.  The water was boiling, and I had to think of something quick.  I found a package of lasagna noodles, broke them up and put them in the water.  Everything got tossed together and dinner was saved.  While supper was not as good as it could have been, I managed to at least put an edible meal on the table.  The next day I found the rigatoni in the cabinets both my husband and I had looked through twice.  Go figure!

The experiment:

I remember being around 15 and reading magazines in the car on the way to a vacation destination.  One of these magazines featured an article where two women wrote down everything they ate for an entire week.  Both women were then assigned to follow the other woman's eating habits for a week and write down their responses.  I've been fascinated by this idea ever since, and I'm interested in doing that and posting it here.  I'm always curious about what other people are eating, the choices they make, the reasons behind those choices, and the way those choices make them feel.  I think the best way to examine my own eating, which admittedly has been horrible lately is to walk in someone else's shoes for a bit.  If you want to participate then you need to keep track of everything you eat for an entire week with amounts and recipes (I know this is a lot to ask, but I bet some of you do this anyway).  If you want to swap diets with me let me know and I will do the same for you, but it's not required.  If you have a blog and want to blog about this along with me then I will link to your blog on the week I chronicle this.  I'm not sure if I will get any responses for this, but I think it will be interesting to try it out.  I will blog about what I eat and how it makes me feel.  Obviously, I will not engage in any diets that I feel are harmful (below 1200 calories, all alcohol, etc.).  Just something I'm curious about and I bet someone else out there is too!

Weeknight Kitchen: Pasta with Greek Cinnamon Tomato Sauce

This pasta looked amazing, and contained all the things I like in a pasta sauce: white wine, tomatoes, oregano, garlic and goat cheese just to name a few.  It also contained one big problem: Cinnamon.  I have never eaten pasta with cinnamon and other than a few Mexican dishes I have never eaten cinnamon in anything savory.  It turns out that I don't really like it.  This recipe contained a lot of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons, and was a little spicy because of it.  I guess it's a cultural thing that I just didn't grow up with, and I will probably give it another try sometime, but sadly, most of these leftovers were tossed out.  

Once again, if you haven't already, sign up for the weeknight kitchen newsletter from Splendid Table.  Honestly, the recipes lately have not been for me.  I'm still making them though because I like to try new flavor profiles.  I'm making a new one tonight, so hopefully it's a winner.

Weeknight Kitchen: Pasta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

This Weeknight Kitchen recipe really lived up to its name.  It was extremely simple to throw together.  The longest part was halving all of the grape tomatoes.  After the tomatoes were cut I threw them in a baking dish with bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, olive oil, salt, and pepper.  The tomatoes baked while I cooked the pasta, and then everything was thrown together before serving.  I didn't have any basil, so I left it out, but I'm sure the herb would have made the dish even better.This is such a simple recipe, but I would not have thought to go this without it.  I think this summer when tomatoes are fresh I will just bake them like this as a side dish without the pasta.  This made a lot and reheated really well.

I apologize for the less than stellar picture.  The lighting in my kitchen was weird that day.

Quick and Easy Red Pepper Goat Cheese Pasta

It always amazes me when people tell me they simply don't have time to cook.  I look around at many of my co-workers lunches; many are leftovers from the night before or home-cooked meals, but just as many are pre-packaged, frozen meals.  I know that many of my students get these same meals or take-out simply because the parents are "too busy" to cook.  

I guess because food is such a priority in my life I make the time to cook, but it's not really that much time.  The pasta below took about 3 minutes of active time, and the rest was letting the pasta water come to a boil, and then waiting for the pasta to cook.  Now, I did plan ahead and already had the red peppers cooked, but even if you had to chop and cook the peppers, you could do this while waiting for the water to boil.  

Make cooking a priority!  It's better and cheaper for you and your family!  I can't imagine how much my grocery bill would be if I had to rely on a lot of processed foods.  I would really have to change the way I eat.  The quality would be not as good and the meals would not be as exciting.  If you have about 20 minutes then make this pasta.

Red Pepper Goat Cheese Pasta

8 oz cheese ravioli or tortellini

4 oz soft goat cheese

1/2 cup chopped, cooked red pepper (could substitute roasted)

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 Tablespoon capers (optional)

2 Teaspoons lemon juice (optional)

1. Start salted pot of water for pasta.  Meanwhile, cook peppers (saute in olive oil until soft, but still retaining a little crunch).  

2. Place cooked peppers and goat cheese in large bowl.

3. Cook pasta according to package direction.  Drain, saving 1/2 cup of pasta water.

4. Add pasta to bowl with goat cheese and peppers.  Stir to melt goat cheese adding pasta water 1/8 at a time until a "sauce" forms from the melted cheese and water.

5. Top with Parmesan, capers, and lemon juice.  Enjoy!

4-cheese tortellini with mushrooms, kale, and goat cheese.

I had been thinking about supper all day at work.  I work on Monday nights, so it had to be quick because I would have about 2 hours between jobs, and I had other things to do besides just cook.  I thought about what I have in my refrigerator and pantry, and then it hit me: pasta.  I came up with this on the fly, so I'm being approximate on the amounts.  I will make it again and post something more clear.  For now I just have a few pictures and some vague instructions.  This came together in about 40 minutes from start to finish including cleaning all the kale and taking pictures.

The kale was the last produce from the garden.  I'm not sure if I'll have a garden next year, but I will definitely try to grow something in pots at the very least.

In holiday news, I have managed to almost completely kill my rosemary plant again this year.  Does anyone know any tricks/tips to keep them alive.  I've been very diligent about watering this year.  Maybe it just needs more sun than it can get indoors.

4-cheese tortellini with mushrooms, kale, and goat cheese

My supplies, I forgot the mushrooms

Ingredients (once again, I don't really have amounts yet):

• 1 pkg four-cheese tortellini
• 1/2 onion
• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• portabella mushroom cap, cleaned and cup in large chunks
• 1 large grocery bag kale washed and chopped in bite-sized pieces
• vegetable stock
• balsamic vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• goat cheese, 5oz
• Parmesan cheese (I wish I had a block instead of the pre-grated stuff, but I was in a hurry)

Method:

1. In large pan put on water and salt to boil for pasta.

2. While water is boiling roughly chop onion.

3. Place 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in pan and cook onion for 4 minutes on medium high.

4. Chop garlic and add to onion, cook another 3 minutes

5. Add mushrooms.  Cook for 4 minutes.  It will look like this:

6. Add kale, you may have to do this in batches letting the kale cook down before adding more.  Cook until kale is tender, about 7 minutes.

7. Your water should be boiling now, so add your pasta to the water and cook according to directions.

7. Add balsamic vinegar.  I poured and counted to about 5.  Add vegetable stock, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup. I'll measure next time. Simmer together for 5 minutes.

8. Salt and pepper to taste.  I make my own vegetable stock, so I needed to add quite a bit of salt.  If you are using bullion cubes or pre-made stock you won't have to add very much salt.

9.  Add parmesan, about 1/2 cup.  Stir until the cheese melts.  Turn off heat.

10. When pasta is done drain, reserving pasta water and place pasta in a large bowl.

11. Crumble goat cheese over hot pasta and stir until melty.  I added 1 ladle of hot pasta water to help thicken and melt the goat cheese.  

12.  Pour kale, onion, and mushroom mixture and sauce over goat cheese and pasta.  Mix.

13.  Serve and enjoy!

This pasta was so good.  I've done something similar with beet greens, which is great too, but it does turn your pasta pink.  You could also use spinach, but it wouldn't need to cook as long.  You could leave the mushrooms out if you don't like them.  You could also substitute cream cheese for the goat, but you wouldn't get the same tangy taste.