spaghetti semi-bolognese

We were wandering around the grocery store this afternoon debating what to have for dinner. Mark suggested spaghetti bolognese. I decided that sounded good, then realized that the tomato sauce I usually make isn't actually a bolognese by any means. I started to explain this to Mark and was met with an increasingly glazed-over stare. His reply?

"How about this: you make something with meat and tomato that goes over pasta, and I'll eat it."

So, I did! I'm calling it semi-bolognese because I didn't put any cream in it, I didn't use celery in the sofrito, and I used a lot more tomato than a traditional bolognese.

I started with a "meatloaf mix" of ground pork, beef and veal. I browned it with some salt, pepper and garlic powder, then drained it and wiped out the pan. I added a tablespoon of butter to the pan, then sauteed a cup of chopped onion, a quarter of a cup of grated carrot, and a half a cup of chopped green pepper. When the veggies were soft, I added in two cloves of chopped garlic, and 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. I let the mixture cook down for about 2 minutes, then added about a quarter cup of white wine. This cooked down for another 2 minutes, then added a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, two pinches of sugar, a pinch of salt, and the drained meat. I added a little dried oregano, dried thyme, and some chopped fresh parsley, then let the whole thing simmer until the spaghetti finished boiling. I served it with a spring-mix salad tossed with some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

birthday dinner

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, so it wasn't really an ideal occasion to go out to eat. Instead, I made an epic batch of my favorite tomato sauce and we had a celebratory spaghetti feast! Sorry for the blurry picture. It smelled too good to spend much time adjusting the camera!



The pasta sauce is very quick and simple. I cooked up 4 links of Italian sausage, drained most of the fat, then added a chopped onion, a chopped green bell pepper, and some minced garlic. I let the mixture cook until the onions and peppers softened a little, about 3-4 minutes, then added a can of chopped San Marzano tomatoes with their juice. I added a pinch of salt, two pinches of sugar, a couple teaspoons of dried oregano and a teaspoon of dried thyme, and let the sauce simmer while I cooked my pasta. As soon as the pasta was done, I drained it and spooned the sauce over the top. I added a side-salad, a glass of beer, and voila! Birthday feast!

baked ravioli

The idea of baked ravioli, coupled with the picture of lovely toasted bubbly cheese that this recipe painted totally seduced me. I was a slathering, cheese-craving mess by the time I got done reading it. Must...make...the ravioli, I thought. So, I gave the recipe a try...and while the results were certain edible, I have to say that for the amount of work that went into making it, I feel I'd have been better off just making lasagna.



The recipe called for frozen ravioli, and basically you just parboil it, combine it with sauce, top it with cheese, and bake it. Easy-peasy, right? Yeah, if you like jarred marinara sauce...which I don't. So, I ended up making a batch of sauce to go on the ravioli and adding about 40 minutes to the whole process by the time it was all said and done. Like I said - it was tasty enough, but for probably less money and the same amount of time and effort, I could have made lasagna and probably been happier.

spinach gnocchi

I had a can of San Marzano tomatoes sitting around, and basically I was just trying to come up with a vehicle for some tomato sauce this afternoon. Having an overabundance of leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving got me thinking about gnocchi. The recipe seemed simple enough, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I had a bag of baby spinach that needed to be used up too, so I figured I'd add it in.

In retrospect, the spinach made the process a bit harder than it likely needed to be. I squeezed all the water I thought that I could out of the cooked spinach, but it still contributed quite a lot of moisture to the dough. I found myself struggling to get enough flour into the dough to get it to hold together, but I did finally get it to a point where it worked. I'm glad I took the advice in the recipe (Mark Bittman to the rescue for the umpteenth time) and plopped a few of the gnocchi into the water to see how they cooked up before I went and rolled them and cut them all.

Once I got the dough to the right consistency, the whole process was pretty easy and had a rhythm to it that I enjoyed: roll out a rope, cut the bits off, roll off the tines of a fork, plop into the boiling water, give it a stir. By the time they were floating and ready to come out, the next batch was all cut, rolled and ready to go.

The gnocchi came out on the slightly chewy side, but I think it was because I really overworked the dough trying to get the right amount of flour into it. Even so, they had nice flavor (I put a little nutmeg in them) and went really well with the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce is just my normal formula of onions, San Marzano tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, and some dried oregano, which is totally full of win and I would eat it on just about anything.

chicken parmesan

For the chicken, I took boneless skinless chicken breast halves and split them horizontally to make cutlets. I dipped them in a beaten egg and dredged them in a mixture of bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and dried oregano. They went into a 425 degree oven on a lightly oiled baking sheet and baked for about 6 minutes, then flipped over and baked for another 6 minutes. Meanwhile, I sauteed a small diced onion in about a tablespoon of butter until it was soft, then added a 28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes and their juices, along with three chopped cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt and about a teaspoon of dried oregano. The sauce cooked down and thickened sightly while I cooked the spaghetti (I used a mixture of whole wheat and regular). During the last 2 minutes of the chicken cooking, I sprinkled a little bit of mozzarella cheese across the top of it and put it under the broiler to let the cheese brown. I finished the sauce off with a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley.

I served the chicken on top of the spaghetti with sauce, and a side salad of baby greens and herbs with a quick vinaigrette dressing (balsamic, olive oil, dijon mustard, salt and pepper, whisked together).

The chicken came out nicely crispy but the meat stayed moist, and the sauce was refreshingly simple and very tasty. AND, there was no frying involved!