Tag: pasta

Pasta with Cauliflower, Sausage, and Big Bread Crumbs

Home for Christmas now, but bringing you another pasta recipe from Carla Lalli Music’s book Where Cooking Begins. Like I said on Tuesday, this cookbook is great for building confidence and creativity in the kitchen with so many options for adjustments based on what you have lying around.

This pasta recipe was pretty easy, and turned out super yummy. The sauce is light but cheesy, the breadcrumbs add a great crunch, and the meat makes it a bit more hearty and filling.

Pasta with sausage is one of my favorite things in the world, but I unfortunately couldn’t find any at the Italian grocery store I go to. I used bacon instead and it was super yummy, so I can only imagine how much better it would be with sausage. I also bought a zucchini and decided to add it into the butter and garlic when I added the cauliflower. This bulked the dish up a bit more, and I’m always a fan of adding more vegetables to my dinners.

I’m listing out below the suggestions Carla gives for adjustments and replacements, as well as what I did. So try out this pasta recipe for an easy weeknight dinner!

Carla’s suggestions:

  • 1/2 pound bacon can replace the sausage
  • If using sausage links, remove casings before cooking
  • Broccoli, Romanesco, or halved Brussels sprouts for the cauliflower
  • Panko can be used instead of fresh break crumbs; toast in same way

What I did:

  • Used bacon instead of sausage
  • Added chopped zucchini in with the broccoli
  • Used red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice (I forgot to buy a lemon oops)

Pasta with Cauliflower, Sausage, and Big Bread Crumbs

Ingredients

  • Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
  • 4 tablespoons (2 oz) unsalted butter
  • 2 cups coarse torn bread crumbs (1/4 inch pieces)
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 pound hot and/or sweet Italian sausage meat
  • 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 pound cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
  • 1 pound rigatoni or orecchiete
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano, plus more for serving
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta
  2. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat until foaming. Add torn bread, season with salt and pepper, and cook, tossing until golden brown and toasted, 4-5 minutes. Transfer bread crumbs to a medium bowl or plate, add lemon zest and parsley, and toss to combine.
  3. Wipe out skillet and return to medium-high heat. Add olive oil and when shimmering, add sausage. Use a wooden spoon to break into 1- to 2-inch pieces, and cook until dark golden brown on underside, 5-7 minutes. Use the spoon to scrape up sausage, then toss quickly to get a little heat on all sides. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate.
  4. Add garlic to drippings in the pan, remove from heat, and stir to coat (there should be enough residual heat to soften the garlic almost immediately). Set skillet aside.
  5. Add cauliflower to boiling water and cook until tender all the way through but not mushy, 4 to 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon or mesh spider to transfer to skillet with garlic and stir to coat with oil.
  6. Add pasta to same pot of boiling water, and cook for 2-3 minutes less than package instructions (it should be very al dente and will finish cooking in the sauce).
  7. Use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer pasta to skillet with cauliflower. Add browned sausage and return skillet to medium heat. Cook, tossing and adding spoonfuls of pasta water into mixture until pan sauce starts to cling to noodles.
  8. Add parm and continue to cook, tossing and moistening with pasta water as needed, until cheese is melted and pan sauce is glossy and abundant.
  9. Add lemon juice and half of reserved bread crumbs and toss to combine. Serve with remaining bread crumbs on top and more parm on the side

Easy Pesto Pasta

I had every intention of getting a couple posts up this week, and I even had them all written! All I had to do was click publish. But then I got incredibly sick on Sunday night… and it lasted until this morning. AND I had a physics exam on Thursday. So obviously no posts made it up. But I still really wanted to share this easy pasta recipe, so here it is 🙂

Now that it’s warming up, I am SO excited to eat pesto all the time. I love pesto. And while it’s super easy to make, I am incredibly bad at keeping fresh herbs alive. Maybe this will be the summer I finally try to do it? But for now we’re sticking to the jarred stuff.

Thankfully, ALDI has really delicious jarred pesto, so I picked some up on my most recent grocery run. And I think last week I made pesto pasta 3 times. Excessive? Perhaps, but it’s delicious and it couldn’t be easier. I did a couple different variations throughout the week, but today I’m sharing the simplest version. Feel free to doctor it up as you see fit! Add whatever vegetables you have on hand (give em a quick sauté first, I love bell peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini), meat like chicken or sausage, or as much parmesan or mozzarella cheese as you see fit.

Also, I’m gonna be quite honest with you, I made this dish in the microwave because I had gotten home from night class and really didn’t feel like cooking. So absolutely no shame if you do the same 🙂

Easy Pesto Pasta

Serves: 1

Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup of pasta, cooked (I had leftover from earlier in the week)
  • 1/2-3/4 cup grape tomatoes, quartered
  • 1-2 tablespoons pesto
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. In a pan over medium low heat, toss the pasta and pesto and heat until warmed through.
  2. Alternatively: in a microwave safe bowl, add the pasta and the pesto and microwave until hot, about 1 minute.
  3. Add the quartered tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and enjoy!

Chicken Parm Pasta

I made this recipe for dinner last weekend and it was a total improvisation. I wanted something that wouldn’t take long to make on Sunday night, and we were a bit lacking in the produce department, so this is what happened. And guys it was so good. And made enough for leftovers for dinner a couple days later!

I know the one picture I got isn’t super great, but I promise this is worth it. A perfect and easy weeknight meal with just a few pantry/freezer staples 🙂

Chicken Parm Pasta

Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 2-3

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces of pasta (I used angel hair, but any shape works)
  • 1 chicken breast
  • Olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • About 1 cup of canned crushed tomatoes (I keep leftovers crushed tomatoes in a tupperware in the fridge/freezer)
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Boil water and cook pasta until tender, according to package directions
  2. Cut the chicken breast into cubes, about one inch.
  3. In a saucepan over medium heat and in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, cook the chicken until cooked through, about 7-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Add the minced garlic and cook about 2 minutes. Then add the crushed tomatoes, the basil, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and cook about 5-7 minutes.
  6. Finish with parmesan cheese and serve over the pasta

Tuna and White Bean Pasta

I made this pasta for dinner on Tuesday night and let me just tell you, it was delicious. Plenty of protein, a little spice, and so quick and easy (ready in 15 minutes!!). Which was especially good because I was a little hangry when I got home that night after my club meeting (big apologies to my roommate <3)

This pasta was another round of improvising with what I had: a can of tuna, a can of Cannelini beans, crushed tomatoes, and pasta. This would be just as delicious if you added more veggies to it too! Just cook with the tuna and beans before you add the tomatoes 🙂

A short post today, but leave any requests or suggestions below! I’m always looking for new recipes to try.

Tuna and White Bean Pasta

Serves: 2-3

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of pasta (I made this with farfalle, but any short pasta will work great)
  • 1 can of white albacore tuna
  • 1 can of Cannelini beans
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Red pepper flakes
  • About half a cup of crushed tomatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Bring a pot of water up to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions
  2. Add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a sauce or frying pan over medium heat. Add the tuna and break up into small chunks.
  3. Add the can of beans as well as the garlic, and the salt, pepper, and red pepper to taste.
  4. Cook until warm, about 5-7 minutes.
  5. Add the crushed tomatoes, and about 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, and cook until bubbling, about 7-8 minutes.
  6. Serve sauce over pasta with parmesan cheese!

Pulled Pork Pasta

I very loosely consider myself the queen of leftovers. I really enjoying having a bit of a “Chopped” competition with myself to see what I can come up with based on the leftovers in the fridge.

Last week I had about two servings of pulled pork left in the freezer, onions and garlic, and leftover pasta and crushed tomatoes (from my tuna and asparagus pasta). So I worked with what I had and made the BEST pasta sauce I’ve made in awhile. There’s not much more to say other than that haha so here it is, my pulled pork pasta sauce:

Pulled Pork Pasta

Cook time: 25 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

  • 2 servings of pulled pork (make sure you have some grease)
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/3 large can of crushed tomatoes
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Basil
  • About 8 ounces of pasta, cooked
  • Cheese, shredded (mozzarella, parmesan, etc.)

Instructions

  1. In about 2 tablespoons of grease from the pulled pork, sauté the onions and garlic on medium heat, seasoning with salt and pepper, until translucent about 7 minutes.
  2. Add the pulled pork and cook for about 7 minutes until warmed through.
  3. Add the tomatoes and season with red pepper flakes and basil to taste, and cook for about 10 minutes until steaming and thick.
  4. Add the pasta to the pan and cook until pasta is warmed through and everything has combined (get those flavors melding!)
  5. Top with cheese and serve!

Tuna and Asparagus Pasta

I feel like when most people see canned tuna fish they think either tuna sandwiches or tuna salad. But canned tuna can do so much more than that! I really like adding canned tuna to pasta sauces because it adds a totally different flavor than chicken or beef or pork but is still so good and so filling.

Last week I had canned tuna and some frozen asparagus so I threw together a quick pasta sauce. It was SO good and super easy and healthy too! Plus this is another recipe where you can throw in whatever veggies you have! I’ve made this same sauce before but with bell peppers and Cannelini beans, but you could also throw in zucchini or mushrooms or spinach. It’s so versatile.

All you really need here is tuna, olive oil, some vegetables, crushed tomatoes, spices, and pasta! And you’ve got a dinner that comes together in about 20 minutes and makes enough to give you lunch the next day.

A note: it can be really hard sometimes, especially as a college kid, to justify buying lots of fresh vegetables because they often go bad before you get the chance to eat them. ALDI has really awesome frozen veggies, so I generally buy half and half of fresh vs frozen veggies. And if you’re turned off of frozen veggies because you associate them with microwaved steamed veggies– they can be so much more! Just sauté in olive oil and garlic and salt and you’re golden. I cook all my frozen veggies like this and I promise, they’re so much better than steamed veggies in the microwave 🙂 Watch the blog cause I’ll probably post my veg recipe soon.

Anyway, here’s the tuna and asparagus pasta I made last week! Let me know what you think of it and what vegetables you threw in, I’d love to know what combos you like.

Tuna and Asparagus Pasta

Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 2 (or leftovers!)

Ingredients

  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • About 8-10 stalks of asparagus, chopped into chunks (or use vegetable of choice!)
  • 1 can white albacore tuna
  • About 1/3 size can crushed tomatoes
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Red pepper flakes
  • 8 ounces of pasta, cooked
  • Cheese

Instructions

  1. In a pan over medium high heat, saute the garlic and onion in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil for about 5 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper.
  2. Add asparagus (or other vegetables) and tuna and saute for about 5 more minutes, seasoning again to taste.
  3. Add the crushed tomatoes and cook about 10 minutes until bubbling. Serve topped with cheese!

Improvisation: Sausage Pasta

IMG_1103One of my favorite things to do is improvise dinner based on what I have in the fridge. It’s liberating to not have to follow a recipe and do whatever I want, and this dinner I made the other day was SO good. Seriously.

I know most people don’t know where to start when it comes to improvising dinner, so I’m gonna share my thought process every time. Past that, it really just takes practice and learning what tastes good to you. I always look through my fridge and first find some protein source (meat, beans, tofu, egg, etc), figure out what vegetable I have, and then decide on some carb (rice, pasta, potatoes). Which these three categories you could make a rice bowl, an improvised pasta sauce, or eat chicken and potatoes like my easy chicken recipe from last week.

I promise, improvising dinner can be really easy, you just have to be a little creative! And use plenty of salt.

So this recipe I made last week was a total improvisation. My roommate and I had Italian sausages in the freezer that we wanted to cook, so I knew those would be my starting point. I also had some leftover plain pasta from the weekend, so that was step two. I decided to use a bell pepper, and onion, and some cherry tomatoes (they were starting to get soft so I figured I’d better cook them) to improvise a pasta sauce! With plenty of cheese at the end, it was amazing. And made enough for lunch the next day!

Feel free to make this recipe as is, or put whatever else you want in it! Any meat or vegetables work, and that’s the beauty of improvisation 🙂

IMG_1104

Sausage Pasta

Cook time: about 30 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 Italian sausages

1 bell pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

About 1- 1 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes, halved

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Salt

Red pepper flakes

Pepper

About 1-1 1/2 cups of cooked pasta

Cheese, shredded (mozzarella, parmesan, etc)

Instructions

  1. In a medium pan on medium low heat, in about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, cook the sausages until done, about 15 minutes. Make sure to turn periodically so all sides cook.
  2. Remove the sausages from the pan and cut into chunks.
  3. In the sausage pan, in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, cook the onions, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and cooke until onions are translucent, peppers are soft, and tomatoes have burst.
  4. Add the chunks of sausage and the pasta and cook until everything is combined and warmed through
  5. Top with desired amount of cheese, and serve.
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