Pesto Madness

As shown by the picture above, my basil has gotten out of control. That's namely my fault because I have not used that much this summer (except for salads mostly). But I finally broke down and made pesto.
I have made pesto before a few times, and while I liked it, I was never in love with my recipe. The first time I followed a prep that was extremely oily. Next I thought there was too much garlic. I figured I should do some research before I attempt a third.
Whatever pesto recipe I look at, I tend to cut the oil in about half. I just think it’s a bit much, and it's much easier to add oil than it is to take it out. I mean, who has a centrifuge in their house? I don't (anymore). I also looked into the garlic in my recipe. I usually just peel a few cloves and add them into the pesto, but raw garlic has quite the bite. After some digging, I came across what Cook's Illustrated does, which is to toast the garlic cloves (in their skins) in a pan for a few minutes. This lessens the harshness of the garlic flavor and allows for a better texture. I also found I did not have enough pine nuts to make all the pesto I wanted, so I simply added some almonds to the mix and found that I really liked the nutty mixture.With my research done, I headed to the kitchen and proceeded to make about 4 cups of pesto. Yes, I had that much basil. The great thing about it is that pesto freezes really well, so I had it for dinner and then froze the rest for future applications. Pesto can be used in a variety of ways, but I think my favorite is simply tossed with pasta, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, and topped with fresh tomatoes.

Basil Pesto Pasta with Tomatoes
For the Pesto-

~2 cups packed basil leaves, washed
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/4 cup pine nuts or almonds, toasted slightly
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt
Pepper

In a skillet over medium heat (probably the same one you used to toast the nuts), add in the garlic cloves, unpeeled, and toast while moving often until a few brown spots appear on the skins, about 5 minutes. Cool the garlic cloves to room temperature and peel. Add the nuts to your food processor or blender and pulse for 3 seconds. Add the garlic, basil, Parmesan, half the oil, salt, and pepper and chop until smooth. With the pesto chopping, drizzle in the remaining oil. Season to taste. You can freeze the pesto by pressing some plastic wrap over top of it and sealing in an air-tight container for up to 6 months. Makes enough for 1 pound pasta.

For the dish-

~3/4 cup Pesto
1 pound pasta
1/2 pound cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Boil pasta until al dente, drain (reserving some of the water) and move to a large bowl. Immediately add the pesto and toss to combine. Add a bit of the pasta water to loosen the sauce. Serve, topping with some cheese and sliced tomatoes. Enjoy!

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Bolognese (that has nothing to do with bologna)

Pasta has, and always will be a great comfort food to me. I love eating it, and I love having an easy sauce to throw together (along with carbonara) to smother it in. This recipe is one I have adapted over the past few years and is my primary red sauce. I prefer the turkey simply because it lets the tomatoes and the body of the sauce shine through more. So beef is totally an option for you if you prefer. The sauce also freezes very well for a rainy day.



Turkey Bolognese (Inspired by Emeril Lagasse)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups finely chopped onions
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 cup finely chopped carrots
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 pound ground turkey (at least 90% lean)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
2 teaspoons fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
½ teaspoon red pepper flake
2 teaspoons salt
2 bay leaves
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup milk

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the onions to the pot and sauté until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Stir the celery, carrots and garlic into the pot and cook until the vegetables are slightly wilted, about 3 minutes. Next add the ground turkey to the vegetables, breaking up the meat, and cook until starting to brown and no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Add thyme, oregano, red pepper, and salt, to taste. Add all remaining ingredients except the milk, lower the heat and simmer uncovered until thickened, about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring from time to time. If the sauce reduces quickly add a bit more stock and continue to reduce

About 10 minutes prior to serving, add the milk to the sauce and stir well to incorporate. Season to taste.

Serve over cooked pasta, such as spaghetti or rigatoni. Serves four.

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Cooking Pasta

Ee all use boxed pasta. It's just a way of life. But what comes with that is an overcooked, mushy mess. Yep, whoever thought up the current pasta directions for cooking that is labeled on the boxes was either asleep or had no teeth. Pasta is meant to be al dente, which means "to the tooth". This does not mean stick to your teeth, it means the pasta should have some firmness, some bite to it. So enough with the "if it sticks to the wall it's done", that only leads to mushy pasta and bad wall décor. Here are a few tips to help your pasta become the mainstay in your dish once more.

- Use a lot of water. For a pound of pasta, you should be using about a gallon of water. This will help in even cooking.

- Salt the water. Use a lot of salt. It has nothing to do with the boiling point and everything to do with taste. Do you not salt the rest of your food? So why should pasta be different. Use about 3 T for a gallon of water.

- Add some oil. 1 T is plenty, and this actually has nothing to do with flavor. It prevents the pasta from sticking and the water from boiling over (really, it works). Most of the oil will be kept in the water and not make it into your dish.

- Don't rinse your pasta. It washes away starch and prevents the sauce from sticking. Unless you need to shock it for later use (cold water will stop the cooking), rinsing your pasta will only cause it to be watery and your sauce to remain on the plate.

- Whatever cooking time the box tells you, decrease it by 2-3 minutes. When that time comes up, taste the pasta. If it is way too firm (and has a dry center), cook it for a minute more. Remember when you toss the pasta with sauce it will absorb a little bit more of the liquid, so undercooking it slightly is not a bad thing.

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Increase Your Kitchen Carbonara Emissions

I am usually good at planning out my meals before I head to the store. However, from time to time I manage to screw something up, forget that I need to make dinner on a certain night, or I am just plain lazy. In these instances I turn to my pasta carbonara. Or the phone for pizza. But this is not about pizza, this is about pasta.

This recipe has a thousand variations. I started with Rachel Ray's because it literally helped to start the relationship with her husband. I mean, it must be good, right? And it is. Garlic, bacon, cheese and eggs not only make a great breakfast, they make a good pasta dish as well. And you can more than likely make the sauce in the time it takes to boil the pasta.

I prepare my carbonara in a pretty simple manor. Chop ingredients, cook bacon, mix remaining ingredients in bowl, toss pasta with bacon, add bowl ingredients to pasta, toss, and eat. More or less that is the recipe you will find below. I like mine pretty spicy, so I held back on the included red pepper flake. Same goes for the garlic. Adjust as you see fit. I also include a tempering step (adding a small amount of liquid to the eggs before adding to the rest of the ingredients). This will prevent the eggs from scrambling and giving you a nice, thick sauce.

Carbonara

1 pound spaghetti pasta

1/3-1/2 pound bacon, chopped
3 T olive oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled and diced
1 t red pepper flake
1/2 c white wine
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/2 c Romano or Parmesan cheese, shredded + extra for topping
1/4 c chopped parsley
salt and pepper

In a large pot, bring water to boil with copiuous amounts of salt and about 1 T oil. Boil pasta until slightly al dente. In the meantime, heat a skillet over medium high heat and add the oil. When hot, add the bacon and cook until slighlty crispy, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flake and cook for one more minute. Add white wine to pan to deglaze and let evaporate almost all the way down. Reduce heat to medium.

While bacon is cooking, in a medium bowl whisk the eggs, cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Add 1 ladleful of pasta water while stirring to temper the eggs. When the pasta is done, drain (don't rinse!) and add to skillet, tossing with the bacon until coated. Add the contents of the bowl to the skillet, stirring and tossing the pasta quickly until the eggs start to thicken and a sauce forms that will coat the pasta. Serve, using extra cheese to sprinkle on top.

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Baked Rigatoni

I have always found that the best time to write blog posts is soon after I have eaten the dish I want to write about. In this case, I am currently feeding my face of this stuff. Because it's tasty and I like food. This dish is getting fast tracked into the blog thanks to something my better half said last night, that she would order it in a restaurant. Never has she said that, and I make a big deal out of it because it’s a huge compliment and its not "maybe we should get pizza" (I get that every other month or so when I make something off the wall). Now, on to the cooking!

This recipe makes use of the tomato sauce from the last post. It also takes inspiration from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a fantastic Italian cookbook that I would recommend to anyone. So what is this baked pan of pure love? Pasta, cheese, and two sauces. Traditional Italian dishes such as lasagna call for two sauces, a red and a white, which allows a creamy texture and still lends itself to full flavor. The red sauce is usually a tomato or Bolognese sauce. In this instance I went with tomato. If you do not have home made tomato sauce, try this instead. Take a jar of tomato sauce from wherever you buy it, and taste it. If you are content with it, use as is. If not, adjust seasonings (salt, pepper, basil, and oregano are good places to start) until you are satisfied. People often just take bottled sauces at their word and find them to be flat once used. If I ever use any kind of pre packaged sauce or something, I always taste it first and adjust its seasonings. This will save you a lot of heart ache in the end.

The white sauce that is used is a béchamel, which is equal parts flour and butter combined with milk. It’s the same sauce I used with my ron con con. However, since we want some of the sauce to be absorbed by the pasta, this sauce will be a bit thinner and contain no cheese. This recipe multiplies nicely and is also my new favorite for pot lucks. It can be prepared in under 15 minutes, which is an added plus.

Baked Rigatoni

2 cups red sauce (tomato or Bolognese)
3 T butter
3 T flour
2 cups milk, heated
½ cup shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 pound rigatoni

Preheat oven to 400°F. On stove, heat a large pot of water to boiling with a copious amount of salt and about 1T olive oil.

Meanwhile in a medium sauce pot over medium heat add butter until melted, whisk in flour and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring often. Add milk a little bit at a time, whisking to make a sauce (adding the milk hot will allow the sauce to come together quickly and prevent lumps). Cook sauce for a minute or so, it should have a creamy but not extremely thick consistency. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Boil pasta until still chewy, about 3 minutes under recommended time. Drain and place in large bowl. Add the white and red sauce and half of the cheese, toss to combine. Butter a baking dish and add pasta mixture. Top with remaining cheese, bake for about 15-20 minutes until top starts to brown. Let the pasta sit for about 10 minutes after removing from oven to absorb the rest of the sauce.

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Macaroni and Cheese (Ron con con)

Wow, I have been writing a food blog for almost 9 months and I have yet to put this recipe up? Chalk that one up to some serious memory impairment. Sheesh. This dish is the first savory dish I ever made on my own. I was 7 and I was hungry, and as any child, I went to my mother and asked her what was for dinner. She replied "whatever you make". Being the hungry kid that I was, I set about trying to make macaroni. Meaning, I got out the ingredients on the counter and asked my mom what to do next. With a little bit of help I turned out a pretty good side dish for dinner (we made pork chops to go along with it). To this day I have altered this recipe very little. In fact, the only change is the cheese split, I used to use all Colby jack (melty) until I discovered how awesome cheddar was in this.

The recipe is straight forward. Make a béchamel sauce (roux + milk), add cheese, add pasta, bake. The secret, super amazing part I credit to my father, who for the longest time mysteriously made better macaroni and cheese than my mom but no one knew why. Turns out he just added a cube of chicken bullion. You know, the stuff I don’t like to use as a substitute for my chicken stock. But it has many other uses. Such as making amazing mac and cheese. That and the fact that this stuff is under a buck for eight cubes gives it a place in my spice cabinet.

One last note is the pasta. I like rigatoni way more than elbows because of the bigger tube that can pick up more sauce, but its totally a preference thing. Oh, and it is sometime referred to as "ron con con" because my girlfriend called it that when she was a baby. No idea why, but it is what it is.

Macaroni and Cheese

1 pound rigatoni noodles (or elbows or some kind of short tubular pasta)
3 T Butter
3 T flour
3 C milk
1 cube chicken bullion (if you have a smaller cube, use two, if large, go one)
8 oz Colby jack cheese, shredded (2 cups)
6 oz sharp cheddar, shredded (1.5 cups)

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir, cooking the roux for about 3 minutes. Slowly add the milk and bullion cube, whisking to combine (if you want it to cook faster, warm your milk before hand). Reduce heat to medium low. When the sauce thickens, add the cheese a little at a time, switching to a wooden spoon and stirring constantly. Add all of the cheese and mix until cheese is melted.

Meanwhile, boil pasta (making sure to heavily salt the water and add a small amount of oil) until al-dente, cooking it a little under (it will absorb sauce). Drain (but do not rinse) and add pasta to a 9x12 baking dish (or something that will hold a pound of pasta and can go in your oven). Pour the sauce over the pasta, mix well, cover with foil, and bake for 20-30 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and delicious.

UPDATE: Feel free to leave comments below, you don't even need to be signed in :)

UPDATED UPDATE: I altered the recipe a bit above, as I mistakenly listed the amounts of each cheese needed.

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