One Pot Pasta

This pasta is RIDICULOUSLY easy. (pic and recipe by the linked Lottie and Doof)

Throw a bunch of crap in a pot and cook.

DONE.

You can kinda customize it, too. Add a bunch more herbs, if you want.

It turns out oddly creamy. I think from keeping the starches in the water from the noodles.

One-Pan Pasta (adapted slightly from Martha Stewart Living)

• 12 ounces linguine
• 12 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes, halved or quartered if large
• 1 onion, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
• 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2- 3/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
• 2 sprigs basil, plus torn leaves for garnish
• 2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 1/2 cups water
• Lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Combine pasta, tomatoes, onion, garlic, red-pepper flakes, basil, oil, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and water in a large straight-sided skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil mixture, stirring and turning pasta frequently with tongs, until pasta is al dente and water has nearly evaporated, about 9 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, divide among 4 bowls, and garnish with basil. Serve with oil and Parmesan.

Blue Cheese Mac and Cheese

Recipe from How Sweet It Is, aka the blog where dreams are made.

I saw this recipe last week, and thought, "Holy CRAP, that would make an incredible 'bad' meal!". Friday night, LeGreg and I were figuring out dinner and we brought it up. NO! We were going to be HEALTHY! And, we were. He said that we should save that mac and cheese for some night that involved steak and wine.

The very next morning, my parents invite us over for dinner. Dad is bbq-ing steak. Both of our heads whipped towards each other.

THIS IS HAPPENING.

I got all the cheeses for this from Trader Joes, which wasn't too pricey. Each little triangle was the exact right amount we needed, which was perfect.

THIS

WAS

PHENOMENAL.

ingredients:

1 pound whole wheat mini elbow noodles
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups milk
8 ounces fontina cheese, freshly grated
8 ounces gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
8 ounces buttermilk blue cheese, crumbled
salt + pepper
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup seasoned fine bread crumbs
chopped fresh herbs for topping

directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray.

Bring water to a boil and prepare pasta according to directions, shaving 1-2 minutes off of the cooking time.

While pasta is boiling, heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once sizzling, add flour and whisk constantly to create a roux (FANCY), until golden and bubbly, about 2 minutes. Pour in milk and whisk constantly, stirring until the mixture slightly thickens. Reduce heat to low and add in 6 ounces of the fontina, all of the gorgonzola and about 6 ounces of the other blue. Stir until cheese melts and sauce is thick (I mean...it never got REALLY thick. We probably did this for 20 mins, before giving up. It thickened a LITTLE, but not a lot.). Taste and season with a bit of salt and pepper if desired (I didnt add either).

Add noodles to the baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over top, tossing to coat all the noodles. Sprinkle remaining fontina and blue over top evenly, then cover in breadcrumbs (I just used regular bread crumbs, and added a pinch each of dried oregano and parsley). Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until top is golden and crunchy.

This was absolutely killer. 

It wasn't super saucy, but the flavor was incredible, IF YOU LIKE BLUE CHEESE. If you don't, bugger off. This is not for you.

The Best Lasagna Ever

Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman.

We were trying to figure out what to make for dinner today when I stumbled across a bottle of local made marinara sauce that LeGreg had brought down from his hometown. I knew what to do. Lasagna. Naturally, I totally ended up NOT using that sauce. But, whatever. It got the ball rolling. When I found the Pioneer Woman's recipe, it looked easy enough that I didn't think it was even worth using the bottled sauce that we had.

I was right.

This lasagna was DELICIOUS and pretty simple to make.

A crowd pleaser.

The original recipe uses regular cooked lasagna noodles, but I used no cook noodles. Because, YOU DON'T HAVE TO COOK THEM! Win.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pound Ground Beef
• 1 pound Hot Breakfast Sausage
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 2 cans (14.5 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes
• 2 cans (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Parsley
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Basil
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 3 cups Lowfat Cottage Cheese
• 2 whole Beaten Eggs
• 1/2 cup Grated (not Shredded) Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Parsley
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 pound mozzerella cheese
• 1 package (10 Ounce) No Cook Lasagna Noodles

In a large skillet or saucepan, combine ground beef, sausage, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until browned. Drain half the fat; less if you’re feeling naughty. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons parsley, basil and salt. After adding the tomatoes, the sauce mixture should simmer for 45 minutes while you are working on the other steps.

In a medium bowl, mix cottage cheese, beaten eggs, grated Parmesan, 2 more tablespoons parsley, and 1 more teaspoon salt. Stir together well. Set aside. Cook lasagna until “al dente” (not overly cooked).

To assemble:
Arrange 6 lasagna noodles in the bottom of a baking pan, or however many it takes to cover the bottom, overlapping if necessary. Spoon half the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles. Spread evenly. Cover cottage cheese with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Spoon a little less than half the meat/sauce mixture over the top.

Repeat, ending with meat/sauce mixture. Sprinkle top generously with extra Parmesan.

If eating immediately, let it sit for 20-30 mins to allow the noodles to soak up some of the moisture.

Either freeze, refrigerate for up to two days, or bake immediately: 350-degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until top is hot and bubbly.

Butternut Squash and Pancetta Orecchiette

Recipe and picture from SpoonForkBacon.

I cooked, AGAIN!!! I've realized something.

I cook more when I DON'T have food in the house. If I have to go to the grocery store, then I might as well check out a recipe or two and actually MAKE something, you know?

I got back from my trip, immediately left for another, and came back to bowls full of air and emptiness in my kitchen.

BARE.

I had half a butternut squash leftover from a recipe I made...eh...ok kind of a long time ago. But it wasn't moldy or smelly! My two tests. If it's 9 months past the expiration date but isn't smelly or moldy? Get in my face.

So, a couple things.

1) When I first glanced over this, I was all "Thyme! I totally have that left over, too!". Nope. I had sage left over, so I used that. I have ZERO regrets. It was great.

2) What I love about this type of pasta recipe is that you can pretty much chuck whatever amount of the "topping" ingredients that you have in there. My half a squash ended up being WAY more than the amount called for, I just tossed my whole thing of pancetta in there, I have no idea if it's anywhere near the amount it was supposed to be, AND I halved the actual pasta. I'm a fan of a large topping to pasta ratio.

On the good stuff.

And it was GOOD.

Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:
1 lb orecchiette pasta
3 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, diced (I used the package from Trader Joe's)
1 shallot, diced
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, peeled and diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2/3 cup white wine
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
8 to 10 threads saffron
1 tablespoon minced thyme (....or sage)
2 teaspoons thinly sliced chives
2 egg yolks
1 cup pasta water
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano, plus more for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

1. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Once the water has been brought to a boil, add pasta and stir. Cook pasta until al dente, drain (reserving 3/4 cup pasta water), toss with 1/2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and set aside.
2. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil into a large sauté pan and place over medium-high heat. Add pancetta and sauté for 3 minutes. Drain pancetta onto paper towels and set aside.
3. Pour remaining oil to pan and sauté shallots for 1 minute. Add carrots, celery and garlic and continue to sauté for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add the squash and continue to sauté for an additional 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, stir in the saffron threads (I own saffron now! How fancy of me!!) and cook until the liquid has almost disappeared or until the squash has softened.
6. Return pancetta to the pan, with the vegetable mixture and stir in the orecchiette until well combined.
7. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently fold in the herbs.
8. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and pasta water. Pour the mixture over the pasta and stir together. Sprinkle cheese over pasta and stir until just combined. Adjust seasonings and serve with extra pecorino sprinkled on top.

Egg yolk and pasta water sauce, you say? Huh? JUST DO IT, TRUST ME. I don't even know how, but it works. It works so so well. This was DELICIOUS. It was a pretty easy and quick dish to put together, too. 

Spaghetti with Creamy Butternut Leek Parmesan Sauce

Recipe and picture from Skinny Taste.

So, Susannah mentioned that she was going to make this tonight. Cool. Whatever. Do your think.

She texted me while I was out running errands.

"HOLY CRAP THIS IS SO GOOD".

I had no dinner plans...

Welp...

SHE WAS RIGHT. There are very few ingredients and it's DELICIOUS. My Trader Joe's didn't have the pre-cut butternut squash, so I just bought a whole one and skinned it with a potato peeler. Pretty easy.

I've also never used leeks OR sage, so this was a big deal.

I served it with whole wheat penne pasta....sigh....so good.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb butternut squash, peeled and diced
• 1 tbsp light butter
• 8 oz spaghetti of your choice (use brow rice pasta for gluten-free)
• 1 (1 cup) large leek (white part only)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup fresh shaved parmesan cheese
• 4 sage leaves, sliced thin
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add butternut squash and cook until soft.Remove squash with a slotted spoon and place in a blender, blend until smooth.

Add pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package directions for al dente, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water before draining.

Meanwhile, in a large deep non-stick skillet, melt the butter, sauté the leeks and garlic over medium-low heat until soft and golden, about 5 - 6 minutes. Add pureed butternut squash, season with with salt and fresh cracked pepper and add a little of the reserved pasta water to thin out to your liking. Stir in parmesan cheese and sage and mix in pasta until well coated. (mine was much saucier than this picture, which was perfect for me)

GO DOOOOO ITTTTT!!!!!!!!

Revolutionary Mac & Cheese

LeGreg and I made our way down to lovely Fresno this weekend to hang out with some friends. His friend lives in a pretty nice little area in Clovis, just outside of Fresno, and we ended up having a pretty great weekend.

The weekend was topped off with a collabo dinner of cucumber avo salad, this mac and cheese (from the Macaroni and Cheesecake blog), and bbq chicken.

Fantasticness ensued.

Ingredients:
2 cups dried pasta
2 cups 2% or skim milk
1 cup loosely packed shredded cheddar cheese (we  used extra sharp)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dijon mustard

Directions:

In a small saucepan, add pasta and milk.  Bring to simmer, then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, until pasta is soft, stirring frequently (I stirred constantly. Milk on the stove is a fickle character) and ensuring milk does not boil.

Turn heat off, add cheese & salt & and stir to combine.  Stir in the mustard a little at a time to taste. Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes, then stir again and serve. If not creamy enough, add milk a little at a time, and gently stir.

If you would like to bake it at this point, place in a baking dish and top with a generous sprinkling of cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 minutes until cheese has melted. (We did this, but added some breadcrumbs on top, too)

As a side dish this makes enough for 4 people with no leftovers (can easily be doubled).

This was SO easy and SO creamy and delicious. I mean, seriously? Does a mac and cheese ingredient list GET any easier? Methinks no. There was exactly zero left when we were done with it, so I cant quite yet testify to how it holds up for leftovers. I'm not sure that I ever will...

Pumpkin Lasagna

Yes. 


You read that right. 


Did your jaw drop open when you read that, like mine did?


Because mine totally did. 


Like whoa. 


People. It's pumpkin season. The bestest of all the seasons. It's time for ALL THE PUMPKIN THINGS. I read a blog on Tumblr about a pumpkin shortage on the east coast and I was all "HA! Stupid east coast. They can't get anything right. WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST, BITCHEZ!!". And then I went and bought every single ingredient for this except the pumpkin and only then found out that there is NO canned pumpkin to be found. None. Zero. Wtf. 


In a time of food crisis, I did what any logical person would do. I called my mother. Ok I called my dad. Whatever. My mother's pantry is the like the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter. It possesses just the thing that YOU need. I needed pumpkin. She had it. Epic win. Major perk of working with daddy-o is he gets to be my delivery man for leftovers, random baking experiment goodies, and canned goods. Lucky guy!


So. Let's get to it. 

Recipe is here. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 pound spicy Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 16-ounce box lasagna noodles
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese (I tried non-fat. I'm not a big supporter of non-fat-things-that-are-supposed-to-be-fat things, but it was in the size that I wanted and cheaper. So there. It worked just fine.)
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I used soy cheese in an attempt to not totally kill my stomach with ALL THA CHEEZ. They didn't have just soy mozzarella, though, so I got a blend.)
• 1/2 cup shredded romano cheese (There is no soy romano. FYI)
• 1 large zucchini, very thinly sliced (I used the slicer side of my shredder tower. Perfect.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the pumpkin puree in a fine sieve over a bowl; set aside to drain while you make the sauce.  (Maybe pumpkin puree isn't the same as plain canned pumpkin? I don't know, but my pumpkin wasn't juicy and I don't know what a sieve is....so I skipped this.)

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, 2 more minutes. Add the sausage and cook until brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon. Pour in the wine and cook until reduced by half. Stir in the tomato sauce and herbs and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Season with salt and pepper, cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook as the label directs. Drain and toss with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon olive oil. (APPARENTLY I got the no-boil noodles from Trader Joes. Accidental win! I just put them in the dish dry and they turned out great.)


Mix the strained pumpkin puree with the egg in a bowl (gross) and season with salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella and the romano.


Build your lasagna in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish (I used an 8x8 dish beeeeecause that's the only dish I own. I attempted to adjust the portions accordingly): Start with a layer of sauce, then top with a layer of noodles. Evenly spread half of the pumpkin filling, then half of the zucchini, over the noodles. Top with half of the cheese mixture and cover with some of the sauce. Repeat the layers, finishing with noodles and sauce; sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup mozzarella. Bake, uncovered, 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing.


This was GOOD. Good good. I felt like it maybe had too much sausage, because the spicy sausage flavor sort of overpowered the pumpkin flavor. LeGreg suggested just using regular sausage instead of spicy next time. I'll play with it. That's what she said. 


ANYWAY. I, of course, didn't exactly adjust the portions just right, so it was to the brim. The pic on the website is way prettier than mine, natch, but whatever yo. 


Moral of the story is that when canned pumpkin is available again I'm buying 97 cans to secure my spot on Hoarders and making this 100 more times. 


Pumpkin on.

Pesto Orecchiette With Chicken Sausage

Found in Real Simple.

Two things made me need this recipe in my life. First, I love weird shaped pasta. Spongebob mac and cheese? Hell yes. Weird little circle things? I'm in. Second, I'll eat damn near anything with pesto on it. I wanted to add asparagus to it, but that crap is like $4/bundle right now!! Eff that.

Ingredients

• 12 ounces orecchiette (like little discs)
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (I used frozen ones from Trader Joe's)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 ounces fully cooked Italian-style chicken sausage links, thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup pesto (I used the jarred pesto from Trader Joe's)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

Directions

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions, adding the green beans and peas during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water; drain the pasta and vegetables and return them to the pot.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes.
3. Add the sausage, pesto, Parmesan, and ½ cup of the reserved cooking water to the pasta and vegetables and toss to combine (add more cooking water if the pasta seems dry). 

Ok, that pic looks kinda gross. Mostly because my green bowl blends in the green sauce and is all kinds of tacky 70's-y. I assure you, however, that it's REALLY REALLY GOOD! Super good. I think you could put broccoli or asparagus or other green things in it. 

Cheat Sauce

I didnt take pictures, but I was pretty impressed with how my spaghetti sauce came out last night. You know I like cramming veggies in anything and everything. Last night I sauteed up one chopped (big ol chunks) red bell pepper and one zucchini until both were soft. I threw those in a blender with one small can of diced tomatoes. Blended it for like 5 seconds (basically just until the blender sucked down all veggies. I wanted it chunky). Served over angel hair. Done. In immediate retrospect, I should have thrown a ton of garlic in there. I was starving and in a time crunch, so I'll save that for next time.

Easy Pesto

There once was a boy named LeGreg. Soon after he started dating his girlfriend, he met her mom and they discovered their mutual love of cooking and gardening. "I have to buy her this special basil plant! She'll love it!" he said. His girlfriend thought it charming that he wanted to buy her mother a gift, so she went along with it. The two of them raided every nursery in Chico to find this one variety of basil. Pesto basil, he says it's called. "It doesn't have that weird licorice taste that regular basil has and it makes really good...PESTO!". His girlfriend wasn't convinced that it was worth all the effort to find, but he insisted. And find, he did.

He gave my mom the little basil plant. It has light green leaves, with a creamy white trim. He certainly didn't need any additional points with her, but she loved the gift and planted it not in the herb garden, but right smack dab in the middle of the yard for all to see.

The plant likes her yard about as much as she likes him and grew to be a huge shrub (at the bottom of it in the pic, you can see a brick for size)! I couldn't let ALL that basil go to waste, so yesterday was the day that I was to make pesto for the first time everrrrrr. DUN DUN DUN!! I dug around and settled on this recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup almonds
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place almonds on a cookie sheet, and bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly toasted.
2. In a food processor, combine toasted almonds, garlic, basil, olive oil, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Process until a coarse paste is formed.

I doubled the recipe and it made about 1-1/2c of sauce, and I used a blender. My mom made her own version, the typical garlic/pine nuts/Parmesan cheese. MINE WAS TOTALLY BETTER!! Super good. The almonds gave it a nice nutty flavor (bonus: they're good for you!!). I haven't actually eaten it on anything yet, but the taste test was delish and I'm super stoked about it. Since I used a total of about 1/100th of that basil bush, I'll probably be making a ton more soon. Success!

Angel Hair Pasta with Shrimp and Basil

When my boyfriend gently suggested that I make dinner for him when he got into town, I laughed. He clearly isn't familiar with my culinary mishaps, despite warning him. Off to All Recipes, I go! As usually, I looked for something with few ingredients and high ratings. I found this, and decided that it looked good enough. Little risky making anything pasta-y for my Italian/Portuguese boyfriend who makes phenomenal pasta sauce buuuut....that was a risk I was willing to take.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• 1 (8 ounce) package angel hair pasta (aka capellini. apparently)
  
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1 pound large shrimp - peeled and deveined (I used frozen. Worked!)
  
• 2 (28 ounce) cans Italian-style diced tomatoes, drained (I bought 4-14.5 oz cans. It was a LOT, so I ended up using 3 and it was still a TON)
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add 1 tablespoon oil. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Place pasta in a colander, and give it a quick rinse with cold water.(angel hair cooks in like 2 mins, so next time, I think I'll do this last so that the pasta is still hot)
   
2. Heat remaining olive oil in a 10 inch skillet over medium heat. Cook garlic, stirring constantly, until the garlic is tender, about 1 minute. Do not let the garlic burn. Add shrimp, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes (one of the reviews said that cooking the shrimp twice was too much, so I threw it it after all the sauce stuff and just let it cook in the sauce. Tasted a little 'shrimpy' and I made the mistake of adding the shrimp right at the beginning. I'll add it a few mins later next time, because I think it overcooked a little. Or I'll try following directions and sauteeing it and adding it very last to the sauce. We'll see). Remove shrimp from the skillet, and set aside.
3. Stir tomatoes, wine, parsley, and basil into the skillet. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half, 8 to 12 minutes. Add shrimp, and continue cooking until the shrimp are heated through, about 2 to 3 minutes. Serve the shrimp mixture over the pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

This was pretty easy! And it turned out really flavorful, so I was totally pleased. The boy approved, so I'll file it under success! As I mentioned before, the recipe makes a TON of sauce (I used a big frying pan and it was filled almost all the way up and I didn't even use all the tomatoes it called for). Oh! And this was my first time EVER making shrimp!! I was worried that I had overcooked it, but I think it was ok. It still kinda scares me. Well, that and it's a bit expensive for my taste to use regularly.

(The layout and links are all whackadoo in that first paragraph and Blogger hates me so I can't fix it. SORRY)

Brie Tortellini

Holy easy amazingness, Batman!!! I haven't cooked in approximately a thousand years because I'm NEVER home. A girl gets kinda tired of eating crackers for dinner, though, ya know? Enter the easiest pasta dish eeeeever.

1 package of tortellini (mine was cheese. Pretty sure anything goes)
about 1/2 lb chopped up tomatos (or however much you want)
1/2 cube brie (ish)
chicken (I totally cheated and used that ready to eat bagged cubed stuff. Don't judge me)
sliced fresh basil (I definitely forgot this, but I'm certain it would be perfect)

cook the tortellini as the package says. Drain and return to the pot. Immediately start adding little cubes of brie. Every few cubes, stir it up. The cubes will melt and start turning into a thick sauce. Keep adding until it's to your desired cheesiness. I like mine medium cheesy, so it was about a half triangle. Mix in the chicken and tomatoes, and add the basil last. SO EASY. And hello, the sauce is all melted cheese. Heck yes.

Basil Chicken over Angel Hair

I made this tonight! I love and adore angel hair pasta. No clue why. I think it's the light dreamy texture of it. Since I haven't actually cooked anything at my new place and my personal training client canceled on me tonight, I decided it was a good night to kick back, open a bottle of Downhill Wine, and whip up some food!

1-8oz package of angel hair pasta
2teas olive oil
1/2c finely chopped (I did sliced) onion (I assumed yellow?)
1 clove chopped garlic (one glove? For 4 servings? Yerrite. I did 2. The Ashtons raised me better than that)
2 1/2c chopped tomatoes (I used Roma)
2c cubed cooked chicken breast (oops)
1/4c chopped fresh basil
1/2 teas salt
1/8 teas hot pepper sauce (I used a couple shakes of ground red pepper)
1/4c Parmesan cheese

In a large pot of salted boiling water, cook angel hair pasta until it is al dente, about 8-10 mins (the one I used only took 3 mins!! Keep an eye on it). Drain, and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over med-high heat. Saute the onions and garlic. Stir in the tomatoes, chicken, basil, salt, and hot pepper sauce. Reduce heat to med, and cover skillet. Simmer for about 5 mins, stirring frequently, until mixture is hot and tomatoes are soft.

Toss sauce with hot cooked angel hair pasta to coat. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Other than throwing raw chicken in with everything because I didn't READ THE DIRECTIONS (every teacher I've ever had hates me), which I don't think really negatively impacted it at all, this was a totally easy and freakin tasty dish!! It's a very light sauce, mostly just the juices from the tomatoes, which I liked. The basil and garlic took over the flavor, which suits me juuuuust fine. I'll just go ahead and file this one under success ;)

ps-holy crap my food pics totally suck...I'll have to work on that...