Pasta!

The combination of taking a summer physiology course and working left me with very little time to make myself a decent dinner. I have relied on pasta for the last 8 weeks to get me through and here are two recipes that I fell in love with. Simple and quick - just what a busy girl needs.

Lemon, Basil and Marscapone

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried pasta
• 5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1 cup marscapone
• salt and black pepper
• 1 handful torn fresh basil

Directions

• Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water, until al dente.
  
• While pasta is cooking, place the marscapone, with 2 - 3 tablespoons of pasta water, in a skillet over medium-low heat. When the marscapone is melted and smooth, slowly add in the lemon juice an zest. Warm gently, stirring constantly, until heated through - about 4 minutes.
  
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• Drain the pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Add pasta and basil to the sauce and toss well to coat, adding reserved water as needed.

Asparagus with Cream

Ingredients

• 1 lb asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces, using only the tips and tender parts of the stem
• 1 lb dried pasta
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 tbsp finely chopped onion
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• nutmeg, salt, and black pepper
• 2 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan, plus additional to serve

Directions

• Cook asparagus in a pan of boiling, salted water until just tender - about 3 - 5 minutes. Drain and plunge into cold water until completely cooled. Drain and reserve.
  
• Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling, salted water, until al dente.
• While the pasta is cooking, melt butter in a skillet. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally over medium heat, until soft, 5 minutes.
  
• Add asparagus and cream and simmer gently until the cream is just thickened, 1 - 2 minutes.
• Add nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste.
  
• Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Add pasta with Parmesan to the hot sauce and toss gently, adding reserved water as needed.
  
• Serve immediately with additional Parmesan.

Soba with Shiitake and Cabbage

These delicious Korean noodles are good cold too!

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 5 tsp gochujang
  
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 lb dried soba noodles (buckwheat noodles - you can find them in an Asian grocery store)
• 1 lb shiitake mushrooms
  
• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 inch of fresh ginger, minced

Directions

• Combine water, soy sauce, brown sugar and gochjang together until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
  
• Prepare pasta as directed.
  
• While pasta is cooking, heat oil in a large skillet until hot. Take the pan off the heat and then add in the ginger and garlic. Return to heat and add in sliced mushrooms. Cook, stirring constantly, for 5 - 7 minutes or until the mushrooms turn a darker brown color.
  
• Add cabbage, carrot and green onion, and saute until veggies become crisp-tender. Add the sauce and mix thoroughly, until heated through.
• Add cooked noodles to the vegetable mixture and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds for garnish. Serve immediately.
  

Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

A quick, delicious meal that I will never get sick of!

Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta (Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 1 lb of dried pasta, any kind. I used cavatappi.
• Container of cherry (or grape) tomatoes
• 1 small - medium sized block of goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 a bunch of parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
  

Directions

• Cook the pasta according to directions on the package.
• Drain (reserve some pasta water) and then add the tomatoes, goat cheese, parsley, olive oil, and salt and pepper (to taste). If too dry, add some of the pasta water.
• Serve!

Eggplant Parmesan and Pesto Bowties

Even though most people think I can only make desserts, I like to think that I'm pretty good at cooking meals, too. For dinner tonight, Mike and I made eggplant Parmesan and some spinach pesto. We had a nice chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano leftover from Fromagination and we figured we should use it up before it dried out. I think we did a pretty good job. We have a little bit of the cheese left over and a huge piece of rind. The rind will be great in some soup though!


The recipe I used for the eggplant Parmesan is here - I cut the recipe in half and left out the capers. Even after I cut the recipe in half, it still made a lot of food! It's supposedly four servings... but in my opinion it was more like eight. If you make the full recipe, you will need a pan much larger than your normal 9 x 13 Pyrex. I used that for my halved recipe and it was packed full to the top.


Spinach Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fresh spinach leaves, stems off
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 5 tablespoons walnuts
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
  
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan

Directions

• In a food processor, blend together the spinach, garlic, walnuts and olive oil. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
  
• Stir in the Parmesan.
  

I served the pesto with bow tie pasta. The pesto recipe makes enough to coat a pound of pasta.





The meal took 3 hours to make and 3 minutes to devour :)