No Boil-Ahead Pasta – Spinach and Tomato Version

3 Jul

This idea started a few months ago, when going thru my daily fix of Serious Eats I found a Talk Thread about mac and cheese recipes where you didn’t need to boil the pasta ahead of time.  Based on that thread, that same day I made my Easiest Baked Pasta Ever!!!! Recipe post.

Inspired by the concept, I decided to give it a twist.  My friend Ana asked me to bring something to her daughter’s graduation family get-together a few weeks ago, because I would not be able to enjoy most of what she had ordered thru a caterer.  Wanting to show-off my skills with the audience, I created this recipe.  I am bold (sorry for all the modesty) because I had the guts to make a recipe for the first time for 12 people.

Thanks to all my prayers after the thought came to my mind of how scary it would be to screw this up… the recipe turned out great.  I actually learned a few cool tricks that I may incorporate into new recipe creations.   This pasta is super easy… just throw all the ingredients together in a casserole dish and voila!  The pasta is ready.  No need to even stir the pasta at all… what could be simpler???

 

 

NO BOIL-AHEAD PASTA – SPINACH AND TOMATO VERSION

2 cups whole wheat pasta – macaroni, penne or rigatoni would all work well
3 tbs melted butter or olive oil
2 cups white cheddar cheese, shredded – I used a whole bar Cabot’s Hunter’s Dangerously Sharp variety
4 oz Fontina cheese, shredded
4 oz cream cheese
3 ¾ to a 4 cups of milk
1 tsp mustard
1 cup spinach – you can use fresh or frozen
½ cup chopped tomatoes
Salt and Pepper to taste

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350° F.
  2. In a large casserole dish, about 9″ x 13″, toss the pasta and the melted butter or olive oil, whichever you’re using.  Spread the pasta as evenly as possible to allow for even cooking.
  3. Now, without stirring anything sprinkle the cheddar and Fontina cheeses on top of the pasta.  Add the spinach and the chopped tomatoes as evenly as possible over the cheese.  Add the cream cheese in small pieces on top of the spinach and tomatoes.
  4. Mix together the milk and mustard and pour carefully over the whole thing.  Try not to displace the pasta a lot.  The idea is that now the pasta is all enveloped in the milk and this makes the cheese kind of mix a bit with the pasta.
  5. Place in oven for about 45-55 minutes until golden brown on top.
  6. Allow the pasta to cool off a bit before serving it.

 

People loved the mini pieces of cream cheese… because we placed them kind of last, the cream cheese melts a bit, but does not disappear within the sauce.  Instead, they stay on to like soft pillows of cheesy goodness.  Everybody had something to say about the cream cheese bits… specially my mom and Ana.

I hope this inspires you to be brave and to try new dishes on people even if you’ve never done them before.  My advice… start small and this pasta is easy enough to be a sure hit.

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Some of you noticed the aluminum tray the pasta is in. So, just for clarity and transparency purposes…

I cooked the actual pasta in a glass Pyrex casserole 9″ x 13″ dish.  Because this pasta was to be consumed in the home of my friend Ana, whom I love dearly as if she were my own sister but who is undoubtedly a meat eater, and I didn’t want my Pyrex dish, that has never ever been touched by a non-vegetarian utensil to be forever ruined by someone, that even though, very well intentioned, might try to serve themselves with the same serving spoon as the other meat dishes there or wash it with the same rag as the other meat-including trays.  For that reason, I transferred the pasta when it was cooled off, into this disposable aluminum tray.  Aluminum is not my favorite, but is what’s most accessible at the grocery store and I am sure the majority of the people who consumed it didn’t even care.  I must say I was EXTREMELY LUCKY I was able to transfer it in one piece preserving the look and appetite appeal of the dish.   The photo was taken by friend Ana at her home, with her camera, as I forgot completely to take a picture while at home in the original glass dish.

I hope this clears out any confusion…

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Goat Cheese Toast

28 Jun

When my friend Magda told me about 8-9 years ago that her favorite cheese was goat cheese, I felt kind of lost…  Goat Cheese?  How does that taste like?  Is it soft or hard? Tell me more, tell me more…

So I immediately went to the specialty cheese case in my grocery store to see what this goat cheese was all about.  I was instantly HOOKED!!  I could not believe I had been ignoring the specialty cheese section for so long…  Magda opened up my eyes to the delicious variety of cheeses there are and that there’s more to cream cheese than the Philly kind I love so much… to this day.

One of my guilty pleasures on the weekends (and some weekdays too…) is to make myself a Goat Cheese Toast…  crispy, creamy, tangy – One of my perfect snack foods.

 

 

GOAT CHEESE TOASTS

1 whole-wheat baguette
3 oz of soft goat cheese, make sure it’s without animal rennet
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher Salt
Freshly-cracked black pepper

 

  1. Slice the baguette into 2 halves.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  2. Toast the baguette halves in a 350° F oven for about 5 minutes or just use the toaster setting on your toaster oven.
  3. Take the toasts out (careful, they’re hotter because of the oil) and spread the goat cheese on the bread.  Sprinkle a bit more pepper and drizzle a bit more olive oil for the nice cool finished look.

 

Enjoy alone, with a nice chilled glass of pomegranate juice… or fill the two halves with a few slices of fresh tomato, baby spinach and roasted peppers for an awesome sandwich.

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Cracked Potatoes

27 Jun

Going to my French classes every day this Summer, has made me crave some French-inspired food…  such is the case with these Cracked Potatoes.  I had seen them in magazines, as part of the Gourmet Next Door show and even in several websites…  so I decided they were easy enough for me to give them a try for lunch.

The cool thing is that these look spectacular for company, but with the addition of fresh lemon or lime juice, they tasted fancier than just your regular boiled and “sort of” fried potato… 

 

 

CRACKED POTATOES

10-12 baby red potatoes, scrubbed well and left whole
2-3 garlic cloves, smashed open
2-3 tbs olive oil
Kosher salt – generous for the boiling water and more for seasoning later
2 tbs fresh parsley for finishing
The juice of 1 lemon or lime

 

  1. In a medium sauce pan, boil the potatoes in salted water for about 10-15 minutes.  I try to make them until they’re almost done when pricked with a fork.
  2. When the potatoes are almost done, drain them and let them cool off a little.
  3. Using something flat, like a plate or the underside of a glass bowl (so you can see what’s happening underneath), press each potato slightly until it cracks, exposing some of its flesh.  Be gentle as to not smash the potato completely… you only need a crack.
  4. In a skillet or even in the same pan you used to boil them – just remember that when the potatoes are smashed, they’ll take up more space than previously.   Heat of about 2 tbs of olive oil. Add the garlic cloves that you have just cracked open with the side of your knife.  This will impart a garlic taste to the oil and eventually roast them making them very sweet indeed.   Place the potatoes in the pan and “fry” the potatoes on both sides until the skins look crisp and golden around the edges. 
  5. Try not to add any potato that was over smashed, because this would just fry the insides of that potato and create a nice little mess on the bottom of your pan.  Can you tell I speak from experience????
  6. Right before the potatoes are done, sprinkle with the fresh parsley and toss to combine.
  7. Remove from pan and allow to cool of a little bit.  Sprinkle with a light dusting of kosher salt… and I guess if you have some sea salt or even fleur de sel would make it super French indeed.

 

When you serve them, allow a lemon half for each guest to squirt some lemon juice on top of the potatoes.   This recipe serves 2 or one hungry Madelyn… Mmmmm.

 

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Stealth Shake

26 Jun

I’ve been reading a lot about Green Shakes on the media lately… shakes that include a special, very nutritious ingredient to boost the nutritional value of the shake you’re drinking.

I was intrigued to know how this concoction would taste and I decided to give it a try…  I added all the ingredients I saw in a TV segment, but I was hesitant.  So before I turned on the blender, I added some berries to make sure the taste would be appealing to me.

The result…  The Stealth Shake.  All the nutrition of the green ingredient and all the fruity taste.  A very successful experiment indeed.

 

 

STEALTH SHAKE

1 banana, peeled and sliced
1 handful of fresh baby spinach
1 handful of blueberries, washed
2 strawberries, hulled and quartered
1 cup of pineapple juice
A squirt of agave nectar
2-3 ice cubes

 

  1. Mix everything in a blender for a few minutes and enjoy!!!

 

Can you see the spinach??  And believe me – you’ll not be able to taste it either!!!!  It tasted super fruity and delicious.  A shake filled with antioxidants, this is a great way to include spinach into someone’s diet without them even know it… 

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Stewed Peas

23 Jun

Beans and peas are an acquired taste to me…  and it’s kind of weird because now that I am vegetarian I’ve had to learn to eat these to integrate some variety into my diet.  I would eat some petit pois as part of a paella or an arroz con pollo in my former non-vegetarian life, but I would never eat peas or beans over rice, for example, something that is sooooooo Latin. 

One of the best surprises is sweet peas.  I really like them now.  They are super sweet and delicious.   So the other day I was looking to repurpose a Mexican Salsa I had made which tasted me too much like a sofrito.  And I found that stewing some sweet peas in it was a great way to reuse the salsa and gave the peas the right amount of sauce to moisten the brown rice.  Add some sweet baked plantains (plátanos maduros) and you’re all set.

 

 

 

STEWED PEAS

1/2 cup Mexican Salsa – try this recipe, because I am not sure how this would turn out if you use Salsa from a jar
3/4 cup frozen sweet peas
1 tbs olive oil
Kosher salt, to re-season if necessary

 

  1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add the salsa.  Cook until you start seeing the tomatoes and onions start of get soft and translucent.
  2. Add the frozen peas.  No need to thaw them at all.  The heat from the pan will do it for you.
  3. Cook for about 10 minutes until the peas get a really pretty bright green color and the sauce looks cooked.

 

Serve over rice or use as a filling for a pastelón or lasagna…  I also have added some toasted almonds for the added protein and it tasted awesome.  Trust me…

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