Tag: Italian

  • Spaghetti Carbonara

    Spaghetti Carbonara

    Your family is going to lick their plates clean! This is so very good and rich that after eating it I racked my brain on ways to make it healthier.
    My big decisions? Add vegetables to it! I am thinking one of my favorites like peas, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, mushrooms, or califlower!

    In a pot of hot salted water boil your spaghetti. Get it started, then dice your ham or bacon, I like ham for this dish. Set it aside. Finely dice garlic or if you have roasted garlic like I do in my refrigerator, use that. Set it aside. If you are going to use vegetables that are fresh, then you should blanch them or steam in the microwave until fork tender. Careful not to turn them into mush. Then grate the cheese. I used 1/2 parmesan and 1/2 white cheddar.

    When you add the spaghetti to the boiling water, get your frying pan out and through in the diced ham. You want it to look like it has been fried and it will release some of its water. Remove from the heat and wait for the spaghetti to be ready.

    Wisk the eggs, grated cheese and sour cream together with the spice you have choosen.
    Drain the spaghetti when it is al dente and pour into a large enough pan that you can stir additional ingredients into. I use a casserole pan.
    Add ham, and your while the spaghetti is still hot, pour the eggs and cheese mixture into the spaghetti. You want it hot because it will cook the eggs in your sauce. You need to stir it to avoid scrambling the eggs – not what you want! Add a little of the hot water from the cooked spaghetti if you need more moisture. Stir and then add your veggies.
    If dinner time is a few minutes away, put the casserole pan in the oven at 200 degrees to keep warm.
    You can easily double this recipe for a large gathering!

    2 eggs
    1 cup cheese
    1 cup sour cream

    1 pkg spaghetti
    1 cup diced ham fried
    2 tsp fresh basil or oregano
    Salt and pepper
    Roasted garlic or 4 cloves diced
    Optional: Veggies
    My favorite combinations: peas and carrots, zucchini and yellow squash, broccoli and califlower, mushrooms and green beans
    If you want to spice this dish up, you can either add a tsp of red pepper flakes, or sliced jalapeno peppers!

    Serve with freshly grated cheese.

  • Chorizo Lasagna with eggplant, mushroom and spinach

    Chorizo Lasagna with eggplant, mushroom and spinach

    Sure most of us have had eggplant lasagna or beef lasagna or chicken lasagna, and you can go that direction if you want to, but I had chorizo in my refrigerator and dinner time was approaching…

    Lasagna. Bite me!

    While many people like plain cheesy lasagna, I think it can be better with a few added ingredients.  Not only for taste mind you, but you can add vegetables in there and it is better.  When making casserole or a lasagna, there are flavor givers (chorizo, ground beef) and there are flavor sponges like mushrooms, eggplant that absorb the flavors around them.  For me, this makes a better dish.

    Since chorizo is so rich, I thought by adding eggplant and mushrooms it would provide balance to the dish. 

    2 pounds sauted browned meat and add to the red sauce below. (Chorizo or a combination of ground beef, or chicken or turkey, or italian sausage – removed from the casing.) My husband likes more meat, so he would have liked this lasagna better with more ground beef.  He told me this two times! 

    1 diced medium eggplant saute in white wine

    8 oz sliced mushrooms sauted in white wine

    8 oz fresh spinach

    6 cups Cheese Sauce (either four cheese sauce or alfredo sauce)

    6 cups Red Spaghetti sauce.  (I used garlic and onion sauce. I purposely stayed away from basil or sweet sauce)

    3 cups grated cheese.  (use Mozzarella or a combination of cheeses.  I used cheddar, mozzarella)

    8 oz of cottage cheese

    1/4 cup parmesan for the top

    16 slices pepper jack

    1/4 cup chopped scallions for the top

    1/4 tsp red pepper flakes – sprinkle on the top

    1 package (16 sheets) no boil lasagna noodles

    Once you have the ingredients sauted you are ready to start layering in the pan. 

    Sauted mushrooms and eggplant
    Sauted Chorizo

     Four  layers is your target. I start with a base of red sauce (which has your chorizo in it), top with 4 lasagna noodles or whatever number fits in the bottom of your pan. You can overlap a bit. 

    Next top with cheese sauce, then your vegetables; sauted eggplant and mushrooms; sprinkle with grated cheese.  Next add spinach, pepper jack cheese slices and start over.   The cottage cheese is for one of the middle layers.  Drop it by teaspoonfuls onto the spinach layer.  The cottage cheese lightens the whole mixture and adds texture.

    Pepper Jack over spinach

    Your last layer should be Cheese Sauce with grated cheese, parmesan and scallions and then sprinkle with red pepper flakes.  It will look nice this way.   You’ll notice small parchment paper tucked in along my baking dish.  This lasagna is so deep, and my pan has hand holds, that I need to cover until the dish cooks.

    Ready for the oven!

    Place in the oven at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes covered with foil until bubbly, then 10 minutes uncovered to finish melting the cheesy top. 

    Hot from the oven.

    Let it cool for 15-20 minutes so it holds its shape for cutting.

    You can put this together the morning before or even a week before and freeze.  If you do freeze, just extend your oven time to 90 minutes or so. 

    Serve with a nice green salad.  If you cool it properly you can see all the layers.  

    Cool it properly and it stands up!
  • Chicken Parmigiano

    Chicken Parmigiano

    “I feel like Italian food tonight.”  This is one of those quick dinners you can make in 30 minutes.  If you are going to serve with pasta or rice, get those started, then move on to pounding your chicken breasts.  Turn the oven on to preheat at 350. 

    3 tablespoons olive oil

    3 eggs beaten

    Panko Bread Crumbs

    Season with ground rosemary, salt, pepper

    1 1/2 cups Tomato Sauce or marinara sauce.

    1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella or pepper jack

    16 teaspoons grated Parmesan.

    Pound your skinless chicken breasts into filets. Use a mallet and a ziplock bag to minimize the mess. Pounding the chicken breast, you are trying to get a uniform thickness of about 3/8’s of an inch so the chicken cooks evenly.

    Dip the chicken in beaten egg, and then the seasoned panko breadcrumbs.

    Brown the chicken filets in olive oil, about 3 minutes per side.

    Place on a baking sheet, and spoon over the top a couple of tablespoons of marinara sauce.  Top with your cheeses and then bake the browned filets for about 10 minutes in the oven until they reach 160 degrees on your instant read thermometer.Â