great greek pasta

So, finally a recipe that isn't originally from 6 o'clock scramble.  (I think I've exhausted most of the vegetarian ones in there anyway. :)
I found this recipe in my saving dinner book.  It originally had chicken in it.  I have adapted it to not have chicken although I did serve it with the option of chicken - which all of my children chose.  (I just used some pre-cooked I had in the freezer - thawed it in the microwave and added it on top.)  I had mine without the chicken.  Either way it was a nice pasta salad.  I did not use all of the pasta.  Would definitely have been too dry.

Ingredients

• 1 pound rigatoni (I didn't use it all -you'd be fine with 12-16 oz.)
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• 1 cup diced onion (I used sweet onion)
• 1 large tomato, chopped (I actually used 1 roma and a few cherry tomatoes)
• 1/2 cup Feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teapsoons oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• Optional, chopped, cooked chicken

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile in a large skillet, saute onion in butter until fragrant.  Add garlic and saute a bit more.  Reduce heat and add tomato, feta, lemon juice and oregano.  Stir to combine.  Add pasta and stir until completely heated through.  Salt and pepper to taste and serve.

black bean pasta

This pasta was super fun to make.  The recipe comes from the book The Everyday Gourmet by Sari Haag.  It came highly recommended on a couple of food storage sites I have visited, but I find it to be somewhat confusing in a lot of areas, and horribly indexed.  Definitely better than my whole food's kitchen's book, but still quite lacking.  However, there are tons more recipes, and they are categorized and tabbed - it's just that so many of the recipes refer you back to another recipe -or call for another recipe as an ingredient, or refers you to another recipe for the remainder of the instructions IF it is in the book (none of the bread mixes or biscuit mixes are in the book), the page number isn't listed and you have to hope you can find it in the index.  OK, sorry, enough ranting about the book.  It just annoys me that the thing cost $25 + and isn't better organized.
However, I really did like this recipe.  Like I said - super fun to make.  I know, who calls noodles super fun to make.  They are actually a bit tedious.  However, these actually turned out blue, and who doesn't love a funky blue noodle that has extra fiber and protein in it to boot?  Of course, in the book, the directions are all of 2 lines. Mix the 2 flours and proceed with the same method to make Homemade Egg noodles (see index)  Of course I've written it all out.  Have fun.
As with most things I make with bean flour, I think they smell very strongly of beans before cooking, but after cooking these just tasted like normal pasta.  You could sub out pretty much any dried bean flour for black beans, but like I said, I loved the blue tint these had from the black beans.

Black Bean Pasta

Ingredients

•¾ cup durum semolina (pretty sure I found mine at HEB.  It is by Bob’s red mill)

•1/3 cup black bean flour

•1/8 teaspoon onion powder

•1 teaspoon olive oil

•2 Tablespoons water  (or so said the original recipe.  I used 7 or 8 Tablespoons.  I’d start with at least 4.

Directions

1.Mix black bean flour, onion powder and durum semolina flour together. 

2.Knead in the olive oil and water.   Knead for 8-10 minutes –until you have a nice cohesive ball of dough.   (I’ve been experimenting with making pasta lately and it has been hard to know what the dough should look like.  Pasta dough is dry when compared to bread dough.  It should not be sticky at all.  However, it shouldn’t be so stiff and tough that it can’t be rolled thin either.  Add enough  water that is can be kneaded nicely, isn’t super stiff, but isn’t yet sticky.  When I started making pasta, I made it too sticky.  That makes it stick to the counter or pasta roller and makes it very hard to work with.  Once I figured out the right consistency, it really isn’t too bad to make your own pasta.   It does require hand kneading which is 10 minutes, but rolling and cutting go pretty quickly.)

3.After kneading,  Roll the dough in a ball and cover with a bowl or towel to rest for 1 hour.

4.Roll the dough out to the desired thinness either on the counter with a rolling pin, or with a pasta roller.  When you have reached the desired thinness, cut dough into strips (noodles) with a sharp knife, pizza roller, or the pasta roller.   (Or if your super fancy,  just run the dough through the pasta attachment of the kitchenaid or bosch.) I used the pasta roller method and cut spaghetti noodles.  (Mostly because I’d never done it before. )

5.Let hang on a rack for 30 minutes or store dried noodles for weeks in a jar. 

6.Cook in boiling water until the noodles float to the top.  

bowtie alfredo with broccoli

Here's another quick and easy meal that was enjoyed by everyone.  Benjamin had seconds and then thirds.  (That is awesome because usually at dinner he looks at the dinner and says I don't like it before even trying it.)  I found this idea in my six o'clock scramble book as well.  I didn't really make many if any changes, but I am posting because I do have suggestions for next time.  Alone this sauce was absolutely delicious, but mixed with the pasta, I thought it lost too much flavor so I'd like it to have a bit more flavor and would up the Parmesan, and garlic next time, maybe even an bit more salt and pepper.  As it was this time, we just topped it with additional Parmesan.    I loved that this made a lot - enough for left overs - even with 3/4 boys having seconds.  That is always nice. (especially when the food is good.)

Ingredients

• 1 package (16 oz) bowtie pasta
• 1/2 pound broccoli florets (I actually used some frozen that I had that needed to be used up.  I probably threw in a good 2-3 cups worth - not sure the weight)
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese (can also use cottage cheese)
• 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 Tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic (use 1 1/2 -2 next time)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (use 1/2 cup next time)
• 1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to directions on box, adding broccoli during the last 2 minutes of the cooking time.  (Since my broccoli was frozen and caused my water to completely stop boiling, I did cook it a little longer than my original pasta cooking time - just until the broccoli was done.)  
2. While the pasta is cooking, combine ricotta, yogurt, butter, garlic, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, basil, pepper and salt in a food processor.  Blend/process until smooth.
3. When the pasta and broccoli are done, drain them.  Return to the pot and stir in cheese/walnut sauce.  Serve.

chicken pasta salad

Here is yet another recipe from recipe shoebox.  This one was OK.  I think I would have liked it better if there were less pasta.  It was better the first day than as left overs, and it made a lot, so I may 1/2 the recipe next time.  The left overs seemed like they absorbed the dressing and were a bit dry.  Of course I did cut the oil way down.  Certainly more oil would have helped.  :)

Ingredients

• 1 container pre-cooked chicken
• 1 pound rotini noodles
• 2 heads broccoli, finely chopped
• 1 cup diced red, yellow and orange bell peppers (I use the baby ones -it would be about 2 regular size)
• 1/3 cup diced onion
• 1 can sliced olives
• 1 cup shredded cheese (optional - I did not use it)
• 1/3-1/2 cup ranch dressing

Dressing ingredients

• 2 envelopes dry Italian dressing mix
• 6 Tablespoons cider vinegar
• 6 Tablespoons water
• 6 Tablespoons oil  (you may want to use more - original was 3/4 cup, but a bit less water too)

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Rinse with cool water to cool.  I did this while chopping all of the veggies.
2. Combine chicken, chopped vegetables, and olives.  Set aside.  Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over vegetables and chicken.  Mix together.  Add ranch, cheese if using and pasta.  Fold together.  Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving if desired.  (I did not.) 

Spinach pasta casserole

Somehow I ended up with a baked rigatoni and spinach pasta casserole only 2 days apart in my actual menu plan a couple of weeks ago. (both pasta sauce based meals)  I don't think I'll blog about the other because this was the better of the 2.  They were very similar only  this one also included spinach -giving it more veggies and in fact was vegetarian.  I ate the left overs a couple of days and so did Duncan - cold even in his school lunch.  That is my new judge of how good a meal was - will anyone eat the left overs?  This meal passes that test.

Ingredients

• 10 oz pasta (I used a twist pasta, but any would do)
• 1 egg
• 1/8 cup (2 T) oil (I use a healthy blend)
• 10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained - or 10 oz fresh, chopped and sauteed until wilted (that is what I did, but I always have fresh spinach I need to use.  frozen would be quicker and easier.)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 39 oz jar pasta sauce
• 8 oz mozzarella cheese (although I didn't measure and probably used a bit more)
• small sprinkle of Romano cheese (you could certainly use more, I just worried about some picky eaters and only used a little)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, drain, and place in a large bowl
3. In a small bowl, mix together egg and oil.  Add to the pasta and toss.  Add the spinach, bread crumbs and Italian seasoning and toss again.
4. On the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish, pour half of the spaghetti sauce.  Add half of the pasta mixture.  Sprinkle half of the mozzarella.  Repeat the layers, topping with a bit of Romano.
5. Bake for 45 minutes till bubbly and slightly browned on top.

Italian pasta salad

This is yet another recipe that started out in $5 dinner mom's book.  I love that book for ideas but somehow always manage to change the recipes somehow or another.  This one started as a chicken pasta salad with a homemade vinaigrette, (named summer pasta salad) but it used Italian style diced tomatoes which made me want to give it an Italian spin so it became a pepperoni pasta salad with Italian dressing.  I really liked it the way we made it.

Ingredients

• 1 package (16 oz) bowtie (or other) pasta
• 1/2 package sliced pepperoni, chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 cucumber, seeded and diced
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 can (15 oz) Italian-style diced tomatoes, drained
• 1/2 cup light Italian dressing

Directions 

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Rinse with cool water.  
2. Combine noodles with remaining ingredients in a large bowl.  Can let set for a while to allow flavors to blend or serve right away.

Baked Mostaccioli

This was an interesting recipe - kind of like a lasagna with a different noodle.  I originally had wanted to make a slow cooker lasagna yesterday, but there was no way I was going to get it into the slow cooker on time with my busy schedule.  However, my piano students all canceled so I actually had time to make dinner at dinner time.  Yea.  I stuck with the same theme since I had wanted to try this when I saw it in my healthy cooking magazine anyway.
Upon reading the recipe, I decided it wasn't going to be flavorful enough for me so I changed a few things - doubled the tomatoes, used Italian style rather than regular, omitted water...  I debated adding extra Italian seasoning and didn't.  I wish I would have.  I did double the pepper, but it wasn't spicy at all.  I totally forgot the put the Parmesan on top.  That would have helped.  With all these complaints, don't get me wrong, this was good.  I just wished it had a bit more flavor and would add some extra Italian seasoning next time.
This was kind of a quicker version of lasagna for me.  I liked that.  I got everything together quickly while the noodles cooked, it tossed together in the pan quickly and was ready to go.
One last fun fact - I had no idea what Mostaccioli pasta was.  I searched for it at the store, but couldn't find it.  The picture in the recipe looked like penne, so that is what I used.  I just looked it up online - Mostaccioli is a pasta that looks just like penne but is smooth.  I even found a picture of it - apparently Barilla makes them, but I couldn't find it at the store.  I suggest just using penne.

Ingredients

• 8 oz uncooked mostaccioli  (I think I had about 9.5 oz. left in my box.)
• 10 oz. lean ground beef (use what you want here - original was 1/2 lb turkey, I used a pre-cooked I had that weighte 9.something already cooked.)
• 1 Tablespoon dehydrated onions (could use 1 small onion chopped, but I was going for speed.)
• 2 14.5 oz cans Italian style diced tomatoes
• 1 6 oz. can tomatoe paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper 
• 1 16 oz. container fat free cottage cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I forgot this, but it would have been good.)

Directions

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, cook ground beef and onion until no longer pink.  Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat;  cover and simmer for 15 minutes (I only let mine simmer until my noodles were done.)
3. Add the marjoram to the cottage cheese container and stir.
4. Spread 1/2 cup meat sauce into a 9 X 13 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Layer with 1/2 of the pasta, meat sauce, and mozzarella.  Top with all of the cottage cheese mixture.  Layer with remaining pasta, meat sauce and mozzarella.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  
5. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.

Spaghetti with cheesy tomato cream sauce

This recipe is from the Food Nanny's book.  It isn't my favorite book of all time, but it has a few decent recipes. This one wasn't bad.   I did make some changes -  I prefer to saute my onions in butter, so I changed that, but I used 1/4 what it called for.  I also cut down on the Parmesan cheese -afraid to make it too strong for the kids.  I subbed out a can of crushed tomatoes for diced.  I was going to sub out part milk for the cream, but ended up going out with DH for dinner, so I went ahead and used full cream for the kids.  They can use the fat right?  The recipe said to only use 8 oz. of noodles, and that it was only 4 servings.  I did a bit more than 8 oz. of noodles and it wasn't enough.  I'd use the full box next time.  I now have left over sauce but no noodles.  I actually added some pre-cooked chicken to the top at the end to add some protein to the meal.  It turned out pretty good.  Had a great creamy basil flavor. It definitely needs the fresh basil for this flavor though.  If not using fresh basil, I'd probably season it with oregano instead.   Definitely one to keep in mind for a quick spaghetti sauce with a bit different flavor than our normal sauce.

Here's how I made it.

Ingredients

•  1 Tablespoon butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup cream 
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used fat free)
• 20 fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (or 1/2 teaspoon dried, but it wouldn't be the same.)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1 lb precooked chicken (if desired)

Directions

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.  Drain
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high head.  Add onions and garlic and saute until softened.  Remove from heat and the rest of the ingredients.  Cook over low heat "until the sauce coats the back of a spoon"  10-15 minutes.  I just cooked 10-15 minutes.  It never really boiled or simmered over a low heat.  
3. Serve over pasta.  Top with chicken and additional Parmesan if desired.

Lemon pasta

I made this lemon pasta to go with the chicken salad we had the other day mostly for the baby who I knew wouldn't even try the salad. Unfortunately, he wouldn't try this either. I found the recipe on the sisterscafe. However, I lightened it up a good deal taking out a Tablespoon of butter and a Tablespoon of oil. I could probably take out another Tablespoon of butter and still be just fine, to me the flavor of this dish is in the lemon, so I used a bit more lemon in the sauce. I should have cut the cooking time back (I think since I had lightened it.) The flavor was great, but I wish it would have been a little more saucy, but that could easily have been remedied by cooking less time. I also added mozzarella on top instead of pure parmesan since my smaller kids are more fond of milder flavors.

I think this could easily be a main dish if you added chicken, and it would be tasty. Especially with the grilled lemon chicken from the previous salad recipe.)

Ingredients

• 1 pound Thin Spaghetti
• 3 Tablespoons Salted Butter
• 1 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 whole Lemons, Juiced And Zested (about 3 Tablespoons juice and a heaping teaspoon zest)
• 2 cups Sour Cream (I used fat free - HEB makes a great brand)
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• Grated Parmesan Cheese and/or Mozzarella cheese
• Flat-leaf Parsley, Chopped
• Extra Lemon Juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook spaghetti until al dente. In a skillet, melt butter with olive oil over LOW HEAT. When butter is melted, add minced garlic. Add the lemon juice and zest, the salt and sour cream and stir until smooth. Pour mixture over drained spaghetti and stir together, then pour spaghetti into an oven safe dish. Bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for an additional 7 to 10 minutes. (I baked only 7 minutes more but I don't think I would do any more, just remove after 15 minutes - I'd have to look at it though.) When you remove it from the oven, squeeze a little more lemon juice over the top. (I didn't do this because I was making way too much dinner this day, but it would be tasty, so I leave it in the instructions.) Top with mozarella and Parmesan cheese (I then covered mine to let the cheese melt) Top with chopped parsley. Add more lemon juice as desired. (wish I would have done this, but the flavor was pretty good with the extra lemon in the sauce.)

7/26/2010
I remade this today with the following ingredients:

• 12 oz (3 cups) elbow macaroni (I wanted to use bowties, but had open boxes of elbow)
• 2 Tablespoons  Butter
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 3 whole Lemons, Juiced And Zested (about 3 Tablespoons juice and a heaping teaspoon zest)
• 1 15 oz. container sour cream (I used fat free - HEB makes a great brand)
• pinch  Salt
• Grated  Mozzarella cheese

I also just put on the cheese and baked it for 15 minutes.  It was much better in the moisture arena but super lemony.  I may cut it back to 2 lemons with the lesser amount of pasta.

Tossed macaroni

This is another recipe out of the kitchen aid recipe book/manual. Again, not my favorite recipe, but better than the last one. Duncan really liked this one. It was actually pretty good if you got a bite of bacon, but I thought it needed more bacon. We actually fried up the rest of the pound of bacon for people wanting seconds. I did up the peas a bit because my package was either 12 oz or 16 and the recipe called for 10. I also had to laugh at the recipe's instructions to crumble the ricotta with a fork??? Does ricotta crumble? Never in my experience. I just mixed it. I took a few extra pictures of this one because I actually made my own macaroni noodles using the pasta attachment for my kitchenaid. I'd never used that attachment before, so that was kind of fun. The noodles by themselves were pretty good - a little salty for my tastes, but not salty at all in the recipe. I've included the noodle recipe here as well.



Noodle ingredients

• 4 large eggs (7/8 cup but I didn't measure mine - probably should have because I had to add water.)
• 1 tablespoon water but I needed 2 maybe a little more
• 3 1/2 cups flour

Directions

1. Place eggs, water and flour in bowl. Attach flat beater. Turn to speed 2 and mix 30 seconds.
2. Change to dough hook. Mix at speed 2 and knead for 2 minutes. (at this point mine looked like bread crumbs, so it didn't really knead. I went on to hand knead, and could get it to stick together, but decided it needed more water, so put it back in the bowl and added water until it would actually stick together in the bowl.
3. Hand knead 30 seconds to 1 minute. Cover with dry towel and let rest 15 minutes before extruding through Pasta Maker.
   
4. For Macaroni I put it through the machine, and stopped it when it was 6 to 8 inches long. I then layed those noodles on towels and tried until I could break them apart.

Tossed Macaroni instructions

• 1 1/4 pounds ricotta cheese or small curd cottage sheese.
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces - definitely use 1 lb.
• 1 package (10 oz.) frozen green peas, thawed
• 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese (I totally forgot this. It probably would have been way better with it in. That's what happens when you cook with your spouse I guess. You forget steps and/or think the other guy has done them already.)
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 pasta recipe of macaroni or flat noodles, cooked and drained

Directions

1. Place ricotta cheese in a serving bowl and crumble with a fork. Add butter and noodles; toss two or 3 times -we stirred the ricotta, and stirred in the butter and noodles to coat.
2. Cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Add peas and saute 2 minutes. Drain fat.
3. Add bacon and peas to noodles and toss (stir.) Add Prmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Toss again and serve immediately.