Italian Stuffed Shells - Pasta of the Month

It's that time again, pasta of the month - October.  I couldn't let the day pass without honoring my hubby with this great meal.  Happy Birthday, my man, and many more.

Creme brulee in Italy 5 years ago!

 
Truth be told this is not his birthday dinner.  It came from the archives of "not posted yet".   This amazing stuffed shells recipe is a special dish you can serve to your guests! 

  When I was a working girl, I confess, I actually had these delivered to my door from a frozen food supplier.  They were good, but not exceptionally good like homemade.  I thought these would be time consuming, but if you use prepared sauce they are relatively easy and quick.

Let's pretend I used ready made sauce from a jar.  (I didn't, but it's not a bad idea to streamline the recipe..)  Therefore, I won't give you the sauce recipe, this time...still working on the perfect marinara/bolognese sauce!  I promise, you will impress your guests as this dish comes out of the oven all cheesy and bubbly!

Ingredients:

about 3 cups of sauce (your choice) HINT: I used to saute Italian sausage and garlic to add to the store bought sauce

about 16 large pasta shells

For the filling:

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 handful chopped Italian parsley

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms

1 1/2 cup cubed eggplant

2-3 basil leaves chopped

ricotta cheese (15 oz container)

1 egg

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

For the topping:

1 handful chopped parsley

1 cup grated mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Boil water for the pasta shells, salting it as it starts to boil.  Cook them according to directions, al dente.

In a skillet, heat the oil, add onion,  mushrooms and eggplant and cook until soft.  In a bowl put the ricotta, basil,  parsley and eggplant mixture.  Add the egg and Parmesan and mix well.

Stuffed and ready to bake

Drain and cool the shells and stuff with the mixture.  In a 9x11 baking dish spread about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom.   Place the shells in a baking dish and  pour the remaining  sauce over the top, then add the mozzarella cheese and additional parsley.  Bake for about 25 minutes, allow to cool slightly and serve.    This dish will freeze well before the cooking process so you can make days ahead and enjoy your guests!

Cheesy and Bubbly!!  Yum!

Cobbler and Comfort Food

This time of year there would be a flurry of activity in my kitchen.  It's the perfect time of year for baking with pumpkins, fruits and zucchini.  Last year I was busy baking pumpkin gnocchi, soups, bread puddings and one of my favorites, a pear cobbler crisp!  Oh, how I miss the baking and inventing new recipes.    When I can't work in the kitchen I'll go out to the garden.

One thing I managed to do before the snow hit the other day was to harvest some of my herbs.  With our short growing season (and this year was especially brief), I keep with mostly perennial herbs, like lavender, thyme, and oregano.   A welcome addition to my garden this summer was lemon balm.  Unfortunately, it does not winter very well, so I pulled it, hung it upside down to dry,  and harvested the leaves for that summer flavor  in the dead of winter.  It goes well in recipes for fish, chicken, pastas and desserts.  I'll be planting it again next season!

To celebrate this year's harvest, I'm re-posting my pear cobbler crisp.  Make some and enjoy!  It can also be made with peaches, just as good!

Ingredients:

2 large ripe pears, peeled and sliced
1 T sugar
2/3 c oats
1 tsp cinnamon
2 T crystallized ginger pieces
3/4 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 c milk
dash of cinnamon on top

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 9 glass baking pan.  In a bowl mix the pears, sugar, oats, cinnamon and ginger.  Pour into the pan.  Then mix the remaining ingredients and place over the pears.  Stir only slightly.  Add a few drops of butter and a dash of cinnamon.  Bake for 40 minutes or so.  This is better as it gets cold in the refrigerator, but hard to resist when it comes out of the oven.  The warmth of the ginger makes it a perfect and simple snack cake.

Chicken Curry Cups

For those of you who struggle with weight loss or maintenance for that matter,  here's a recipe to fool your taste buds.  With every diet program I've been on, and there have been many, I try to circumvent the obvious selections, that is, a slab of chicken or a lonely piece of fish, etc.  A great way to do this is to turn to your spice cabinet or stock up on fresh herbs.  Spices have been my lifeline.

The recipe serves one famished person but you can double or triple it for family members.   The inspiration came from my weight loss plan guidebook, however,  I omitted celery and apple from the mix and used more spices.  I served it in a lettuce cup but you can also put the chicken in a tortilla or bread or mix with pasta for a different twist.

Ingredients:

1 6 oz chicken breast , diced, no skin or bone

1/4 c water

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp minced onion or shallot

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp curry powder

dash of the following spices:
garlic powder
onion powder
cayenne pepper
cinnamon
turmeric
stevia or truvia sweetener

Cook the chicken and lemon juice in a small saucepan until barely browned.  Add the water and all the spices.  Simmer until chicken is done and the sauce is thicker.  You may need to add additional water.  At this point you can serve or chill and serve later.  Garnish with cilantro for more flavor.

It's Winter - Soups on!

Last week Fall began with Mr. Winter right on its heels!  Today, a major Winter storm hit but by the weekend it will be back into the mid 70's.  That's how our Northern Nevada fall is....very fickle! 

 We tested the gas stove and the forced air heater this morning, dug out my long pants, and mittens.  All that's missing is the soup on the stove!

I ate alot of soup when I was growing up.  It was the during the Campbell's soup craze, when just about everyone had a few cans in the cupboard.  My favorite was pepperpot. with the tomato base, veggies and I think some mystery meat that may have been menudo.  My least favorite was cream of mushroom, but I grew out of that phase, especially when I used it on my family to cover up dry pork chops!  Then  cream of asparagus rolled off the assembly line and I tried that to make those same pork chops more upscale.  it worked...yuk! 

I don't use very many canned soups these days because I now know that soups are super easy to make from scratch.  (and you can control the salt)

 Last week. tomato basil soup was on the menu, however, it was a "diet" rendition.  To me it tasted like heaven.  Everything tastes like heaven these days when the alternative is egg whites and more chicken!!    I have soup recipes in the archive that are wonderful and not  hard to make, like my chili verde, black bean and Italian bean zuppa.  Just click the above links for the recipe.

Spicy Black Bean Soup



Chili Verde and I think I need new soup bowls!


  Try your hand at making soup, you won't be sorry, and your family will thank you.  Bundle up and enjoy the chilly day!

Simply Baked Cod

It doesn't get any easier than baked cod fish.  To me, cod is the sea's "chicken".  It's very versatile when it comes to the many things you can do with this firm whitefish.  Fish and chips, fish tacos or simply baked cod are just a few ways to prepare it.  For now, I choose to bake...a no fuss recipe.

The first tip is to purchase your fish from a reputable source.  You never know these days.  As I grew up on the ocean I took for granted, at the time, the ease of fresh fish availability.  Being landlocked I tend to scrutinize my selections.  When stores aggressively advertise fish on sale, I'm a little wary.
I guess I've been spoiled by living on the ocean and, also, by being fortunate enough to travel to different coastal regions where the fish is "same day" fresh.  There is a difference!

I purchased the cod "fresh" and got lucky, but you could certainly try frozen fillets. 

Simply Baked Cod

Ingredients:  Serves 2

2 cod pieces, about 6 oz. each

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

a couple sprigs of fresh dill

1/2 Tbsp grated ginger (optional)

1 garlic clove, grated

salt and pepper to taste

squeeze of 1/2 lemon

Place the cod pieces into a glass baking dish with either pan spray or a little drizzle of olive oil

Sprinkle fish with the salt and pepper, ginger and garlic.  Arrange the dill on top, drizzle with more olive oil and the squeeze of lemon.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, maybe less.