Archive for category Pasta
Chicken and Noodles
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Chicken, Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta, Poultry, Vegetables on March 3rd, 2010
(Oh I have so many things to post. . .) I know everyone has their own version of this dish as it is comfort food at its finest. I loved the fact that with this recipe you made the noodles yourself, which was surprisingly, not difficult! Feel free to vary the recipe and let me know how it goes.
You’ll need:
1/2 c all purpose flour, plus more as needed
1/2 large beaten egg
2 tbsp fat free milk
3 c fat free low sodium chicken broth
1 c diced cooked chicken (about 6-8 oz)
1.5 c no salt added frozen mixed veggies (or choose your own fresh)
1/4 tsp dried thyme, crumbled
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 c water
3 tbsp flour
1. For the noodles, mix first 3 ingredients until you form a ball. Lightly flour a cutting board and kneed the dough for about 1-2 mins. Cover with a dry dish towel and let rest for 15 mins.
2. Roll the dough out to a 9 x6 in rectangle. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into strips about 3 in long and 1/2 wide. Cover with dish towel and set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, stir together the broth, chicken, veggies, and seasonings (not water and flour). Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high. Add the noodles; cook for 4-5 mins, stirring occasionally.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the water and flour together and stir into the mixture. Cook for a few more minutes until it has thickened a bit. Serves 3 (1.5 c servings)
Nutritional Information:
Calories: 235
Total Fat: 2. 5 g
Cholesterol: 40 mg
Sodium: 328 mg
Carbohydrate: 29 mg
Fiber: 3 g
Protein: 22 g
Salmon Cakes with Lemon and Capers/Fettuccine in Tomato Broth
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta, Seafood, Side Dishes, Vegetables on February 8th, 2010
Implementing healthy, low-cal recipes has taken on much more significance for me recently so I am very happy to share those with you that actually taste good and are easy to put together. These two were a suggested pair and so with the success of the tuna cakes I decided to try these yesterday afternoon. Big smiles all around for these!
Salmon cakes:
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 tsp capers, rinsed and drained
1 tsp black or green peppercorns
1 med garlic cloe, coarsely chopped or 1/2 tsp bottled, chopped or minced
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
whites of 2 lg eggs
1/4 cup fat free, cholesterol-free or light, reduced-calorie mayonnaise dressing
1/4 cup cornmeal
12 oz salmon fillet, skin removed
1. With a mortar and pestle crush and grind together first 5 ingredients. Transfer to medium bowl. Add lemon juice and using your mortar make a paste.
2. Stir in egg whites, mayonnaise, and cornmeal.
3. Rinse your fish, pat dry and cut into 1/4 in thick pieces. They don’t have to be uniform so don’t feel you have to be really precise. Stir this into your mixture.
4. Preheat large skillet over medium heat and spray with vegetable oil spray. Form 4 patties about 3/4 in thick. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, turning only once. Enjoy!
For Fettuccine:
14.5 oz can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 c fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
2 pepperoncini (Tuscan peppers), stemmed, seeded, and minced
2 med garlic cloves, minced or 1 tsp bottled minced
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8-9 oz fresh fettuccine
6-8 oz sliced or coarsed chopped fresh mushrooms
2 large zucchini, grated
3 tbsp chopped fresh basil or 1 tbsp dried, crumbled
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp shredded/grated Parmesan or Romano
1. Heat large, deep skillet over high heat. Put in first 7 ingredients and stir. Bring to a simmer. Gently stir in pasta, mushrooms and zucchini. Cook for 2 minutes stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-high. Cook for 2 minutes or until tender. Stir in basil. When read to serve sprinkle with cheese if desired.
You may be wondering. . . zucchini? I was very, very surprised at how creamy the fettuccine came out because of this vegetable. No heavy creams, butter, or loads of cheese (which we all love) but this had an alfredo consistency with a different flavor. It was excellent 
Nutritional Information:
Salmon:
Calories: 160
Total Fat: 3 g
Cholesterol: 44 mg
Sodium: 245 mg
Carbohydrate: 11 g
Fiber: 1 g
Protein: 20 g
Fettuccine:
Calories: 217
Total Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 1 mg
Sodium: 430 mg
Carbohydrate: 43 g
Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 10 g
Pasta Bolognese over Egg Noodles
Posted by Van Santos in Italian, Pasta on January 25th, 2010
Having had an impressive Bolognese sauce at Bravo! I wanted to give this one a go in my kitchen. I finally settled on the base recipe found here.
All the goods!
Needed for the sauce:
1 cups grated carrots
1/2 large red onion, diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 shallot, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon oregano flakes
1 tablespoon dried basil flakes
1/2 6-ounce can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup red wine
1 tbsp, 1 tsp Worcestershire
salt, pepper to taste
1 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes
1/2 cup half-n-half
Fresh Parmesan cheese
Let us get right to it!
- Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat.
- Add grated carrots, onions and shallot and cook for three minutes.
Onions, Shallots, Carrots.. oh my!
- Add ground beef and cook for a few minutes until brown.
- Mix in oregano and basil.
- When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients add tomato paste and heat.
- Add garlic and stir to combine.
- Add red wine and stir together.
- Add Worcestershire and stir.
- Add canned tomatoes.
- Finally add in half-n-half, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes.
And there you have it, you are done! Bolognese sauce over Egg Pasta
Bolognese Sauce Over Egg Pasta
Enjoyable dish, one that seems to get better after the sauce has sat for a few days. Make some of the kick-ass garlic bread and you are ready to go.
Seared Tilapia with Lemon-Tarragon Sauce and Spinach Orzo
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta, Seafood, Vegetables on January 24th, 2010
Although I much prefer “meatier” fish like salmon or mahi-mahi, this was very, very good. The tilapia is seasoned very well here and so it doesn’t have that “fish” smell and taste to it. And I love it when I find recipes that have an accompaniment included!
For Tilapia:
1.5 lbs fresh/frozen tilapia or other lean whitefish
1 tsp seasoned salt ( I used more though)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 c dry white wine
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp snipped fresh tarragon or 1/4 tsp dried tarragon, crushed
1. Rinse fish, pat dry and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Prep your skillet with oil and cook fish until it flakes easily (approx 4-5 mins total). Set aside in dish and keep warm.
2. For sauce, add wine and lemon juice to skillet making sure to scrape up any crusty bits from the fish. Whisk in mustard and tarragon and heat through. Serve over fillets. I yielded 6 servings. Enjoy!
For Spinach Orzo:
Prep 8 oz dried whole wheat orzo, drain. Immediately toss orzo with 5-6 oz package of baby spinach, 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel and 1/4 tsp salt. Season to taste with fresh ground pepper.
Mmmm. . .good!
Nutritional Information (for both together):
Calories: 294
Total Fat: 7 g
Cholesterol: 57 mg
Protein: 28 g
Carbohydrate: 28 g
Fiber: 7 g
Sodium: 448 mg
Spinach and Tofu Stuffed Shells
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Italian, Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta, Vegetarian Entree on January 12th, 2010
Unless you tell, no one will ever be able to tell that the tofu provides the creaminess in this dish!
You will need:
18 dried jumbo shells
8 0z frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dried
2 tbsp green onion (green and white parts)
1 tsp bottled minced garlic
14 oz soft silken reduced fat tofu, drained
1 c loosely packed fresh basil, stems removed and chopped
whites of 2 large eggs or egg substitute equal to one egg or 1 large egg
2 tbsp shredded parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
pepper to taste
1.5 c tomato based meatless pasta sauce
12 oz no salt added tomato sauce
2 more tbsp parmesan cheese
1. Cook shells according to package directions and carefully rinse in cool water. Heat a large skillet over med heat, remove from heat and then spray down. Cook spinach, green onion and garlic until all liquid has evaporated and spinach is heated through. Put in a large bowl. Crumble tofu into spinach and mash/combine well. Stir in basil.
2. In a small bowl which egg whites and add parmesan cheese, nutmeg, pepper and stir this into spinach mixture.
3. Mix tomato sauces together and place half this mixture in a 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Fill pasta shells with spinach mixture and top with remaining sauce and parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 mins at 350. Makes approx 6 servings. Enjoy!
Assembling the shells. . .
Your end product!
***I would have put in a tad bit more garlic and if you wanted something “heavier” you can use a meat based sauce as well. Regardless, this was perfect paired with salad and don’t forget garlic bread if you want the whole “complete” Italian deal (refer to Van’s Truly Kick-Ass garlic bread!).
Nutritional Information (per serving – 3 shells):
Calories: 195 (Yup, that’s right!)
Total Fat: 2 g
Cholesterol: 2 mg
Sodium: 374 mg
Carbohydrate: 31 g
Fiber: 4 g
Protein: 12 g
Good Ole Spaghetti and Meatballs
Posted by Van Santos in Italian, Main Course, Pasta on January 4th, 2010
I was asked to make Spaghetti and Meatballs so I thought, hey, why not. Never did that before now seems like a good time to expand the old recipe book. To start, I used the sauce recipe that I used in the Kitchen Scrap Lasagna (I mean, why re-intent the wheel on that one) and focused on the meatballs.
Here is what I used:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1/4 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
1 Green Onion, chopped
1 tsp freshly ground oregano, basil and dill (respectively)
1 tbsp minced garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste
You…
1) Preheat oven to 325
2) Take your ingredients and mix until all items are throughly blended
3) Shape meatballs and place on cookie sheet (like so)
Meatballs, lined up.
4) Bake for 25 minutes
5) Serve over Spaghetti and top with your sauce of choice
Meatballs, ready to go!
Meatballs are not all that hard to make – it all comes down to having the base recipe and tweaking as you see fit. That said, what are your favorite metaball recipes?
What suggestions do you have that can really make an impressive dish out of something so simple?
Have fun.
Spicy Fettucini Alfredo with Crab
Posted by Van Santos in Main Course, Pasta, Seafood on December 27th, 2009
The sauce wasn’t overly rich, or so I thought. If one wanted to create a dish that had thicker sauce I would suggest adding more cheese.
Fettuccini di Tina
Posted by Van Santos in Italian, Pasta on December 23rd, 2009
Tina has introduced me to the wonders of dry white wine vinegar. I’ve made a few changes to this knock-out recipe that Tina Culbertson posted a few days back. Let us get to it!
Required Items for Fettuccini di Tina
2 tablespoon minced garlic
And I give you Chicken di Tina.
Sausage and Spinach Lasagna
Posted by Eileen Devlin in Low Calorie, Main Course, Pasta, Poultry on December 13th, 2009
Okay. . .so here goes another night of cooking! I’m sure many of you have made a lasagna in your lifetime, so here is another variation. This dish turned out very well and is perfect for cold weather comfort food!
You will need:
8 oz uncooked bulk turkey sausage/extra-lean ground beef
3/4 c chopped onion
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
1 c bottled roasted red sweet peppers, drained and chopped
2 tbsp snipped fresh basil/2 tsps dried basil, crushed
1 tbsp snipped fresh oregano/1 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp black pepper
6 dried whole grain lasagna noodles (I used whole wheat and just customize the size length of the noodles to your baking dish)
1-15 oz carton light ricotta cheese
1-10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 c shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1. Preheat oven to 375 and prep your baking dish. In a large skillet combine sausage, onion, and garlic and brown the meat. Don’t forget to drain the fat!
2. Stir in tomato sauce, red peppers, dried basil and dried oregano (if using), and black pepper. Bring to boiling then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes and stir occasionally. If you are using fresh basil and oregano add it at this time.
3. In another bowl stir ricotta, spinach and egg white together.
4. Place the bottom noodles (Two says the recipe - depending on your dish size. I had shorter noodles so I used three to fill up my dish) in the prepped baking dish. Put 1/3 spinach mixture, then 1/3 meat mixture, then some mozarella. Repeat two more times but do not put the mozarella on just yet. Cover with a sprayed piece of foil and bake for about 40 min (since whole wheat/whole grain takes a little longer).
So here is the first layer . . .
5. Remove foil and sprinkle remaining mozarella and bake for about 5 minutes more. Makes 8 servings!
Fresh and ready to go!
Mmmm delish!
Side note: This *is* a lower calorie version of a ‘traditional’ lasagna. If you didn’t want to go that route then obviously you can go with different meat/sausage and use cheeses that aren’t skim. There is no extra sauce leftover – just for those of you who happen to want more – so keep that in mind. You can always make 1/2 more of the recipe’s meat sauce if you want, especially for leftovers.
Nutritional information:
Calories: 237
Total Fat: 7 g
Cholesterol: 42 g
Protein: 18 g
Carbohydrate: 25 g
Fiber: 5 g
Sodium: 613 mg
Bacon and Tomato pasta
Posted by Van Santos in Food, Pasta on December 11th, 2009
When I couldn’t sleep a few days back I went searching for a number of dishes I want to make. As a result, over the next several weeks you’ll enjoy the results of my evening with insomnia and it starts with this dish – Bacon and Tomato pasta.
For this adventure you’ll need:
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 16 ounces spaghetti pasta
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon or pancetta, chopped
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup red onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 3 tablespoons garlic, minced
- 2 cups Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup red wine
- 4 tablespoons basil
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For my version I substituted Chili powder for the Red Pepper Flakes and also added dried Parsley.
You’ll have two things at once going on here, just be ready for it.
- Add 2 tablespoons kosher salt to a pot of boiling water, and the pasta and cook until tender
- In a large saute pan over medium heat, add bacon and saute until bacon is crispy.
- Remove bacon to drain on a paper towel-lined plate and remove 3/4 of the bacon fat from the pan.
- Add extra-virgin olive oil, onions, and red chili flakes. Cook until onions are translucent, add garlic, cook for 2 minutes then add tomatoes and saute for 5 minutes.
- Deglaze with wine.
- Drain pasta and add to the tomato mixture pan.
- Add basil and bacon.
- Toss with Parmesan, and add salt and pepper, to taste.
Your end result should look something like this…
Now here is the good new and the bad news.
The dish is good; however, the dish is NOT a main course. Seeing the effort time one needs to put into making the creation there is almost diminishing returns taking place.
Ok, on to the taste.
The wine, garlic and bacon mix perfectly. Add in the basil and there is a delicate addition to the dish that helps tie everything together. Yes, next time I make the dish, and I will make it again, I will give it a shot with the red pepper flakes. But was it stands it has the ability to add a little something to your meal.
Just remember, it’s not a main dish! it IS a main dish.
UPDATE:
Tina made a version of the dish and enjoyed it!
Pumpkin goat cheese casserole
Posted by monicajane in Pasta on November 29th, 2009
Joanne has been doing a delightful series of winter squash recipes. She has kept all the different things one can do with this versatile veggie on the forefront of my mind. All of her creations are delightful. The one that inspired this dish is the Butternut baked zitti. You will see that it was only an inspiration because my dish turned out totally different. But the basic nuts and bolts, you’ll see, are similar.
- I roasted a very large pumpkin and used half of it for this. Not sure how to do amounts. I blended the roasted pumpkin meat with 6 eggs and the blender was full (6 cups of pureed pumpkin and egg combined)
- 1 very large onion diced
- 3 tbls of my frozen pesto (use some combo of dried or fresh basil and garlic if you don’t have pesto)
- 1 lb soft fresh goat cheese
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cayenne
- 8 oz elbow quinoa pasta (any pasta you like is fine)
- Salt to taste
I blended the pumpkin and eggs in a blender after roasting the pumpkin until nice and soft. I then let it cool before blending.
I sauteed the large onion until very soft and stirred in all the spices and herbs. While it was hot I blended in the goat cheese until it was softened and thoroughly mixed. I put this mixture into the pumpkin and egg mixture.
I boiled the pasta just enough to get the crunch out. So it was uber al dente. It cooks the rest of the way in the oven and in this instance I wanted to be sure the casserole was not too moist.
I mixed the pasta into the egg, cheese and pumpkin mixture and put it all into a baking dish. It was quite goopy. I was not sure it would set, but it did after about an hour and a half at 350 degrees. It turned out quite nice. Total experiment.
Chicken in tomato and basil sauce with goat cheese for pasta
Posted by monicajane in Food, Main Course, Pasta, Poultry on September 27th, 2009
Once again a recipe using my delightfully inexpensive all-natural chicken legs.
Ingredients:
three large chicken legs cut in pieces and skinned (or not, to your liking)
2 – 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 tbls butter
1 tbls olive oil
head of garlic diced
1 tsp red chili flakes
Salt to taste
3/4 cup white wine (red wine would be good too)
lots of fresh basil (see picture)
5 oz fresh goat cheese round
Brown chicken and garlic in butter and olive oil. Add the wine while it’s on high and let it boil down a tad. Add the tomatoes and the basil salt and red chili.
woops, a little steamy!
Cover and put heat to medium or medium low. After about 20 minutes uncover so that some of the juices will evaporate and turn the chicken pieces. Cook for another 20 to 30 minutes.
Once the chicken is done and the sauce has cooked down some add the goat cheese in cut and bits and stir in until melted.
Note: This is not a super thick sauce, it can be runnier than what most Americans consider pasta sauce should look like. In fact Italians do not eat the super thick tomato sauces we often see in America–I tend to cook my red sauces somewhere in the middle of what Italians and Americans like as I’ve been influenced by both cultures. I don’t imagine most of you know my parents are Italian and so I grew up eating as an Italian. All my cooking is very much influenced by my father in particular though both my parents are very good cooks.
Stuff like goat cheese are ingredients I’ve added as my culinary experience grew outside my home. We did not eat goat cheese in my home.
Chicken with white wine, shitake mushrooms and goat cheese sauce
Posted by monicajane in Food, Main Course, Pasta, Recipes on September 7th, 2009
The first part of this dish I diced lots of garlic (about a whole head of it) and sauteed it in olive oil. I then browned the chicken in the oil and garlic and topped it off with fresh rosemary and thyme from the garden. Salt and fresh ground black pepper, as well.
Once it was browned I poured in one cup of white wine and let it boil and then lowered the flame and covered the dish as it looks above.
I had dried shitake mushrooms which I brought to a boil in water. Above is what they look like before and after. I allowed the mushrooms to stay in the hot juices until they cooled and then I poured the left over juice into the cooking chicken and cut up the mushrooms in bits which also went into the pan with the cooking chicken.
When the chicken was completely cooked I took out the meat and added 1/3 of a pound of goat cheese into the juices. It looks like the above picture.
I then boiled some pasta and made the final dish. The picture unfortunately came out awful, but the food was delicious.
Basil — from the garden to a bowl of fettucine
Posted by monicajane in Food, Pasta, Side Dishes on August 11th, 2009
In our garden
Huge colander full of fresh basil
Pile of fresh cleaned basil next to food processor ready with a bunch of olive oil
The garlic ready to be coarsely chopped and tossed in
Pine nuts a top of some of the processed basil
parmesan/romano a top the pine nuts
finished! and yes that is the WHOLE pile of basil
Fettucine al pesto
Ground beef and eggplant lasagna
Posted by monicajane in Food, Main Course, Pasta on August 9th, 2009
I took a whole bunch of pictures of the process of this lasagna and managed to leave out the layer of eggplant!! How very annoying.
Here is the progression, sans eggplant. First a layer of pasta, then the first layer of meat sauce.
Then a hefty layer of parmesan:
Then a layer of cultured cottage cheese (yes it’s got a bit of a yogurt flavor)
Then the layer of EGGPLANT that is missing then you repeat the whole thing (the second time I did not put eggplant as the first layer was pretty thick–I sliced them in circles and lay them down on top of the cottage cheese) Then this is the finished product before cooking. After the second layer I finish with a layer of pasta and then just s tiny bit of sauce and cheese to top it off lightly:
This is overflowing so I put it on a cookie rack in the oven.
So the recipe:
Red meat sauce
1 lb grass fed beef (I have a very inexpensive source for organic ground beef so I’m eating red meat a whole lot more than I used to!)
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
14 oz can diced tomatoes (these happen to have roasted hot peppers in them so the sauce will be spicy!)
1/4 cup frozen pesto sauce (from our garden)
Salt to taste
Saute onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Toss in beef and brown. Pour in can of tomatoes and the pesto sauce. Cook just long enough for flavors to blend. (this is a meat heavy sauce…I don’t like heavy tomato in my lasagna)
So I cooked the lasagna pasta before I started all this. I used brown rice lasagna pasta. I only cook the noodles for about 5 minutes. I take them out when they are still very firm as they cook a lot in the oven and aid in keeping the lasagna firm and not watery.
Also before putting this together brush slices of eggplant with oil and put under broiler for a couple of minutes until soft.
I placed one layer of pasta at the bottom of the dish then put a layer of meat sauce, followed by a generous amount of parmesan, followed by a layer of cottage cheese then a layer of eggplant.
Repeat.
Finish with a last layer of pasta, a very small bit of sauce, parmesan and lastly I put a small layer of mozzarella for looks.
Cook for (I just went to check on it) it was perfectly done and took about 50 minutes. I did not heat the oven up first though so go by how it looks on top…nice and lightly browned, like this:
It did not overflow. You can of course use a cheese other than the cultured cottage cheese. I used it simply because it needed to be eaten and I cook completely based on what is currently in my fridge.
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