Creamy Bacon Parmesan Pasta

Just made this sauce on a whim and I want to write it down so I won't forget to make it again.  I served it over medium pasta shells, and it was a hit with everyone in the family! Start to finish, this takes about 15-20 minutes to complete.  Serves 6-8.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil or butter, or some mix of the two
• 1/4 c. chicken broth, then also 1 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1/4 - 1/3 c. flour
• garlic salt
• salt
• pepper
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• 10 thick slices of bacon-- the good thick, real stuff, not Oscar Mayer/whatever, chopped against the width/grain (so each piece of bacon in your sauce is roughly 1 inch long, but in thin slices, hope that makes sense-- I stacked the strips of bacon into one tall stack, and sliced down the stack, widthwise)
• 1 c. heavy cream 
• 1 1/2 c. whole milk
• Shaved parmesan/asiago/romano cheese to taste

Heat the oil/butter over med-high heat, with 1/4 c. chicken broth and add the chopped onion.  Lightly salt the onions.  Cook 3 minutes, or longer, until softened w/ good aroma.  (While the onions are sauteeing, put water in your pasta pot and start your water boiling.) Add in the bacon and garlic.  Cook approx. 5-8 minutes, still on med-high heat, until meaty part of bacon has turned bright red and is cooked, but not hardened.  Add in 1/2 tsp. salt, and as much flour as is necessary to soak up the oil/juices into the flour.  This will be similar to a roux, except your meat is already in there.  Make sure you scrape the bottom clean, to get up any flavorful bits and keep it from sticking.  Now, add your remaining chicken broth, stir in, and then add your cream, stirring occasionally.  Add in 1/2 tsp. garlic salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, and 2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary.  Stir until thickened, then add in the whole milk, and wait for the sauce to thicken again.  (This whole thickening process can take anywhere from 1-3 minutes.)

Serve over the hot pasta of your choice, and use shaved parmesan/asiago/romano generously to garnish the top.  Enjoy!  (We just did!)

Skillet Elbow Pasta

Got this recipe off the side of a De Cecco pasta box, and I don't want to forget to try it:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. elbow pasta
• 3 ounces chopped bacon or pancetta
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 4 Tbsp. fresh cream
• 4 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 3 Tbsp. chopped onion
• Salt

Cook the elbow pasta for 5 minutes in boiling salt water.  In a skillet, saute the chopped onion in butter until golden brown.  Combine the tomato paste with a little water in a cup and add to the skillet.  Then pour the drained pasta into the skillet & remove from heat.  Mix, and add the 3 Tbsp of fresh cream.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese & serve.

Sounds delicious, doesn't it?

Fresh Pesto

(Great recipe for when you have an overabundance of basil leaves to use up!)

3 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves

2 garlic cloves

3/4 c. fresh parsley

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. melted butter

1/3 c. parmesan

Salt to taste.

Process all ingredients in food processor or blender. Serve over freshly cooked pasta, top with parmesan cheese. You can freeze extra in baggies or ice cube trays for future use.

Lasagna Worth Making

This lasagna happens in several steps. Yes, it takes time to make lasagna... but I guarantee that this lasagna is worth making. Well, I think so anyway... and everyone I've ever served it to has said it's the best lasagna they've ever tasted. So give it a whirl, and tell me if you agree.

Lasagna Worth Making

Sauce Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

1-2 yellow onions

olive oil

1 garlic head

5-8 large tomatoes (or 28 oz. in cans)

6 oz. tomato paste

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/4 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped basil)

1 bay leaf

2 cups water

1. Chop up your onions and garlic. Onions can be diced... garlic needs to be minced.
2. Sautee your onions in olive oil in the frying pan, just enough to coat the onions. Once softened, add in your beef and brown the meat.
3. While meat is browning, chop up your tomatoes.
4. Once meat is browned, add in everything else on the list above: (garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, red pepper flakes, sugar, basil, bay leaf, and water). Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to lowest setting. Simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken.

While sauce is cooking, make the following:

Ricotta cheese filling:

8-10 ounces ricotta cheese (leave undrained)

2 large eggs, beaten

whole milk (maybe)

parsley (if you have it)

• Combine ricotta cheese with 2 beaten eggs. If thick, add a Tbsp or so of milk until it is a smooshable consistency. That's right, I said smooshable.
• If you have parsley, add in about 1 tsp of parsley. Fresh is even better. If not, don't sweat it!

Also, you'll need 1 box lasagna noodles (specifically, you'll need 12 noodles), 1 cup of water and roughly 1 pound shredded mozzerella or meltable white cheese (for those here in Turkey with me, I like the white cheese found at Bim... it comes in 1 kilo blocks, and has a mountain scene on the package. It's the best cheese I've found for general use like this).

Once the sauce is ready, you'll want to have all your ingredients around your 9 x 13 baking dish. To make your lasagna, do the following:

• First, take a serving spoon-ful of the liquidy sauce at the top of the sauce pan, and use it to coat the bottom of the baking dish. This will serve as your greasing of the pan.
• Then, you'll want to proceed in the following order, repeating yourself 4 times (so for each layer, you'll want to use approximately 1/4th of whatever ingredient you're pulling from.):

1. Lasagna noodles-- 3 across
2. Ricotta cheese-- use approximately one heaping forkful on each noodle. Then use your fork to smash down and spread across the noodles. It won't cover it, and that's fine, just get it to where it's evened out throughout the pan, across the noodles.
3. Sauce-- A few serving-spoon-fuls across the cheese mixture. Try to spread it out, but remember to just use about 1/4th of the sauce for each layer. It should almost cover the layer below. (This is where you get to be Madam Chef. If things look a bit dry, use some of that 1 cup of water to just pour over this layer. We want the noodles to fully cook, and so you can just add a splash of water here or there as needed in this layer. Have confidence in yourself... it won't likely mess up either way!)
4. Shredded cheese. Use slightly less than 1/4th of the cheese for each layer, so that you can completely cover the dish on the top layer.

That's it.

Then stick it in a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is nice and browned, and the sauce is no longer liquidy. This is one of my prized recipes, for company, and just for enjoyment by our family as well. I hope you enjoy it too.

P.S. - this meal is easily doubled and you can serve one to your family, and take another to a friend who just had a baby, just had surgery, etc. Lasagna is a classic meal for those circumstances, but homemade is even more of a treat!

Pizza Crust

Best recipe I've found:

Jay's Signature Pizza Crust

In addition to making a great pizza, I've also rolled it out even thinner and then used it to make pizza rolls. (For that, you just roll it out thin, cover it in pepperoni and cheese, and then roll up, beginning at the widest side. Then, cut the rolled "log" into 1/2-inch slices. Cook @ 425 for 15 minutes.) That, too, comes out sensational.

Quick, Easy, and Delicious: Bowtie Lasagna

Here's another recipe via Pioneer Woman:

Billed as a "16-Minute Meal", BOWTIE LASAGNA lives up to the 16 minute promise. Even overseas! :)

Here are the things I changed:

*Because we don't have pre-made jars of marinara sauce available to us here (except at extremely high prices!!!), here's what I did to make the sauce: Instead of dumping in a jar of pre-made marinara sauce, I added an entire garlic head worth of chopped garlic (I like garlic!), and then added in about 1 & 1/2 cups of tomato paste, 1 & 1/2 cups of water, 10 leaves of chopped fresh basil, 1 & 1/2 Tbsp sugar, and garlic salt, pepper, and salt to taste. So, essentially, I made my own marinara sauce in the dish.

*In place of the sour cream, I used ranch dressing. This isn't an overseas change, just a personal preference. It worked great.

This is a yummy, easy recipe!

A Unique & Tasty Pasta Sauce

Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce really is delish.

I've made it twice so far, and I have one alteration to suggest:

*** After sauteing the onions and garlic in the olive oil, throw them in the blender along with the pureed roasted red peppers.

Get it all nice and itty bitty. THEN put it back in the saucepan, add the cream, and pour over pasta. YUM. We roast the red peppers on a metal grate right over our gas burners and follow the rest of her instructions, and it works smashingly. This is delicious enough to just enjoy as a main dish, or you can add in chicken along with it; either way.

ENJOY!

Pizza Chicken Pasta

The other day I tried a delicious recipe from my favorite cookbook-- the Family Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. It goes a little somethin' like this:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Make up about 1 cup (or a little more if you like) of pizza/marinara style sauce. Mine is usually composed of this:

• 1/2 cup tomato paste
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
  
• 1/2-1 tsp basil
• 1/2-1 tsp sugar
• add garlic salt, onion salt, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

Spread that on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Take 3/4 - 1 cup of parmesan cheese and put it in a bowl. Season chicken breasts (we did chicken breast cutlets cut pretty thin and it was tasty!) with salt & pepper, then roll until coated in the parmesan cheese. Place chicken on top of sauce and put in the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, layer pepperoni on top of the chicken and sauce, and cover it all up with a generous layer of mozzerella cheese. Bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted and everything looks all scrumptious.

Promptly serve over pasta. Mmm, mmm, MMMM!

Make-Your-Own Seasoning Mixes

Here are a few from-scratch seasoning mixes I picked up from an online friend:

Chili Seasoning
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp season salt
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Add 1 Tbsp seaoning to 1/2-1lb browned ground beef. (add 1 can diced tomatoes and 1 can beans and you've got chili)

Taco Seasoning
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp onion flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder/salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp sugar

Add to 1 lb (or so) browned ground meat along with 2/3 c water.

Italian Salad Dressing Mix
1 Tbsp garlic salt
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp celery salt
2 Tbsp salt

Mix together. Store in a tightly sealed container.

To use:
1/4 c white vinegar
2/3 c canola oil
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp mix

Cheesy Spaghetti-Lasagna

Ingredients:
~ 8 oz. finely shredded mozzerella
~ 8 oz. sliced mozzerella
~ 3 eggs
~ 8-12 oz. spaghetti noodles
~ parmesan cheese, as desired
~ 1 lb. beef
~ * 16 oz. tomato paste
~ * Basil
~ * Oregano
~ * Garlic Salt
~ * Sugar
~ * Water
* Can strike these ingredients if you just want to use approximately 20 ounces of canned spaghetti sauce.

Preheat oven to 375. Boil noodles according to directions on package. Cook beef until browned.

While those things are cooking, get a separate large mixing bowl. Take tomato paste and add enough water to make smooth, like a spaghetti sauce, approximately 1/2- 1 cup. Add basil, oregano, and garlic salt to taste (I like it with more oregano than garlic salt or basil, and more garlic salt than basil.). Add approximately 1 tbsp (up to 2 tbsp) of sugar (again, to taste). Once beef is browned, mix beef into this spaghetti sauce mixture.

In smaller mixing bowl, beat 3 eggs. Combine with finely shredded mozzerella. If desired, add in 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese as well. Mix together.

Once everything is cooked and ready, layer the lasagne in the following order:
1) spoon small amount of meat sauce mixture into the bottom of the 9 x 13 baking dish, just to lightly wet the bottom.
2) 1/2 of pasta noodles, smoothed out
3) 1/3 of sliced mozzerella, spread out across the dish (it will not cover the noodles)
4) 1/2 of meat sauce mixture
5) other 1/2 of pasta noodles
6) spoon and smooth all of the shredded cheese mixture out over the noodles.
7) other 1/2 of meat sauce mixture
8) top the whole thing with the remaining sliced mozzerella, and (if desired) sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top.

Cook uncovered in 375 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until cheese is melted and starting to brown.