pasta – Page 4 – The Kitchen Illiterate

Quick and Easy Dinner: Farfalle with Ricotta, Zucchini, and Italian Sausage

I didn’t think I was going to have anything to share until my return from Barcelona. I had no big dinner plans, no fancy ingredients, nothing, in fact, but whatever was already in the refrigerator, waiting to be used up before I left. And yet, I managed to pull together, in less than twenty minutes, an easy, inexpensive dinner that I decided I just had to share. Sure those multiple hour kitchen projects are fun, but sometimes quick and easy is just as delicious.

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Shrimp and Red Pepper Carbonara; or, What’s the big deal about carbonara, anyway?

Shrimp and Red Pepper Carbonara

I tried to make fettuccini carbonara last year for Mr. X, and the result: scrambled egg pasta. I tried to make a very similar Chinese noodle dish a few weeks ago, and the result? Scrambled egg pasta. I have been having a hard time getting this egg sauce thing down, but this week, I believe I finally perfected it. I decided to jump in there and give it another go, and hey! No scrambled egg pasta! However, I did find myself wondering, What is the big deal about carbonara, anyway? I mean, it was good, sure, but was expecting transcendent, and it was not that.

That’s not to say it wasn’t good, and if you like carbonara generally, I’m willing to bit that you would really like this version, with shrimp and blackened red peppers and, of course, bacon.

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Jambalaya Pasta; or, Everything is Awesome with Sausage

Jambalaya Pasta

When I first started getting into the cooking, I felt a bit of a fondness for Rachel Ray. Her recipes were always easy and creative, and I had a crush on her yellow and green 30-Minute Meals kitchen. But after awhile her overwhelming enthusiasm for pretty much everything started to grate on me. And as I started learning more about food and cooking techniques, I noticed that she occasionally does things to food that aren’t in its best interests. And THEN all of her pre-cut and packaged food started to REALLY grate on me and I haven’t been able to watch since.

But Sunday night, as I perused various cooking websites trying to plan my meals for the week before hitting the market, I came across a recipe that sounded intriguing: a cross between jambalaya and pasta. Yes, it was a Rachel Ray recipe, and I’m sorry but I can’t bring myself to call it what she calls it: Jambasta. No, I will not call anything in my kitchen Jambasta. I will, however, make this in my kitchen again, because it is pretty darn good.

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Andouille and Shrimp with Creole Mustard Sauce

Andouille sausage-y pasta

I have to give a big thumbs up to Bon Appetit for this one: It is fast and easy and absolutely delicious. And I managed to throw it together last night after a few beers, when normal food preparation can sometimes be a challenge for me. True, it didn’t end up quite as saucy as the picture promised, but that is quite likely entirely my own fault for not adding as much mustard as the recipe suggested. Being a relative newcomer to the love of mustard, after all. Regardless of whether you choose to preface your cooking with a night of Guitar Hero at the local pub, it is very worthy of Monday night dinner. And Tuesday night dinner. And even Friday and Saturday night dinner. It is gooood.

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Chicken Florentine, where have you been all my life?

I’ve updated this recipe to make it more streamlined and even more delicious. Check out the updated recipe, and let me know what you think! I’ve also added new photos to this older post.

Who would have thought that the simple combination of spinach, chicken, and cream could create such a glorious dinner? Well, the Italians, obviously, because they are good at that kind of thing. I’m just baffled that it took me so long to realize it. I mean, I love spinach, I love chicken, and I am a sucker for anything in a cream sauce. How has this dish never graced my kitchen? And when can I have it again? It is truly a perfect combination of flavors and textures and all those other things that make food, you know, good. Er. Yes.

I saw the recipe in Giada’s Family Dinners about two weeks ago and it stuck in my head, floating around, taunting me. “You love spinach. You want to cook me!” But I’m a grad student, see, and I don’t have time to be at the beck and call of whatever recipes decide to tempt me. I had to eat frozen veggie burgers (don’t worry, I heat them up first) and macaroni and cheese and pre-made gnocchi from Trader Joe’s while this recipe enticed me and beckoned to my nonexistent free time. Well, finally last night I had some free time. And I only wish I’d made the time earlier, because this is one of my new favorites.

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Slacker Food: Southwestern Mac and Cheese

Southwestern Mac

“Oh my god,” you’re thinking. “Is she seriously blogging about boxed mac and cheese? This is just getting pathetic.” Ok, yes, I am seriously blogging about boxed mac and cheese because, frankly, I’m kind of addicted to it. It is the one processed food product that I can’t give up (well, that and Cheez-Its. Are we sensing a theme?). While the boxed mac and cheese isn’t quite the dietary staple for me that it was about four or five years ago, I still feel the need for it once every month or two. And I still usually make it the same way my mom did when I was growing up: with a can of tuna mixed in.

I can hear some of you now: “Oh man, it’s not bad enough that she’s talking about powdered cheese products, but mixing TUNA in there, too? Gross!” I’ve had many a friend tell me they thought my favorite comfort food meal was an abomination, but I just say they haven’t seen the light. And hey, at least my tastes have evolved somewhat. I avoid the flavorless orange Kraft stuff these days in favor of Annie’s, and I usually make it with cream instead of milk, because I’m crazy like that.

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Bucatini with Shrimp, Spinach, and Tomatoes

Bucatini with shrimp

I have been looking for bucatini in the supermarket and the hippie mart and pretty much everywhere for years, but never managed to find it, until last week. Trader Joe’s started stocking bucatini, and I might actually have cried out in serendipitous joy when I saw it on the shelf. Yes, I’m that kind of crazy person at the supermarket. I had all kinds of glorious ideas for my bucatini, not least another, and hopefully better, attempt at carbonara. Then I went to Philadelphia for the librarian conference and forgot all about my bucatini. Until tonight.

Like many other people this time of year, I’ve been trying to get more vegetables and fish and other good things in my diet. I’m not sure if shrimp is even the kind of seafood that’s all good for you, but no matter. When you add spinach, everything is good for you, right? This pasta was improvised and random and really damned delicious. And bucatini? The hollow core makes it difficult to slurp up the wayward strands. Effective and graceful eating of the bucatini is going to take a little practice.

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Saffron cream sauce, refrigerator pasta, and my new pizza peel

Pasta in saffron cream sauce

Now that the semester is finally over, I’m looking forward to some cooking and some baking and, yes, some blog posting. To kick off the good times, I have a few things to share that I actually did get around to cooking over the past few weeks. I know you’re thrilled.

That up there? That some extra special pasta with a saffron cream sauce. I had a similar dish in two different restaurants, and both times I swooned into my plate and vowed to attempt such a feat in my own kitchen. And for such an incredible dish, it’s actually pretty easy to pull off. Other exciting news? Pizza has returned! I finally got myself a nice, wood pizza peel. Any future disasters with sticky dough and topping-flinging have been averted, and I must say, the first pizza I made using this excellent tool was pretty sweet. The pizza peel is my hero. Pizza experimentation will resume in full force.

And last night? Last night was clean out the refrigerator night, and I managed to put together a delicious dinner in about 15 minutes, and achieve some winter-time comfort to boot.

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Tofu, Noodles, and Peanut Sauce

So, this whole schooling thing is proving way more time consuming than I expected. Updating twice a week? Ok, not so far. It’s actually not that the school work is time consuming. It’s that it is so draining the last thing I want to do when I come home is sit down and write about what I just barely managed to dredge up the energy to cook. Because I have been cooking, and some good stuff, too. Like the above: Tofu, udon noodles, fresh vegetables, and peanut sauce, one of my favorite things in the world.

I may have mentioned before that I have a bit of a thing for peanut butter. Like, I eat it almost everyday. This addiction extends to peanuts, peanut sauce, peanut butter cookies, pretty much anything involving the delicious flavor of that lovely legume, Arachis hypogaea. I’ve experimented with a few different peanut sauce recipes and so far the best I’ve found is from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food. It’s pretty thick, and very strongly peanut-y, but with a nice kick to it. I usually pair it with red peppers and udon noodles, and I find it’s just as delicious cold as it is hot. This sauce has definitely become a kitchen staple.

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Eggplant Parm? Oh hell yeah!

Eggplant Parm

Thank god things finally cooled off a little in this hellhole we call Boston. I wasn’t about to turn the oven on this week, and I had an eggplant in the fridge, patiently waiting to be put to good use. And I was deadset on making eggplant parmesan. “Why,” you might ask, “in the heated hot humidity of August, does a girl want to make eggplant parm?” Well I have no good answer to that question, but it got in my head and I couldn’t shake it out. And finally, today, with nary a trace of damp stickiness in the air, today was my day. Or the eggplant’s day, rather.

I gotta tell you, people, this was glorious. I never made eggplant parmesan before and I rocked its pants off. I wish I wasn’t the only person around these parts who eats eggplant, but hey, more for me. The tomato sauce was light and just the right amount of tang and sweet, the eggplant didn’t mush up at all, the seasonings were just right and the copious gloopy beautiful mounds of melted cheese…oh, that is bliss, my friends. Heavenly cheesy bliss.

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