Category Archives: Italian

May 8, 2010 · 10:38 pm

Italian Baked Chicken and Pastina

The recipe calls for pastina, but you can use any little pasta you may have in your pantry.

Ingredients:
1 c. pastina
2 T olive oil
1/2 c. cubed chicken breasts
1/2 c. diced onion
1 garlic clove, minced
14.5 oz. can Italian diced tomatoes with juice
1 c. mozzarella cheese
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. grated parmesan
1 T butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cook pasta according to directions on the box. When pasta is done, drain and put in a large bowl.

In a large skillet, add olive oil and chicken and cook on medium high heat. After about three minutes add onions and garlic. Cook until chicken is done and onions are soft.

Put the chicken mixture in the bowl with the pasta.

Add the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese to the bowl. Stir to combine.

Spray a casserole dish with cooking spray. Pour the pasta mixture into the casserole dish.

In a small bowl mix bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture.

Dot the top of the casserole with small pats of butter.

Bake until the top is golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.

What did the family think? Hubby LOVED it. I thought it was okay. I really liked all of the cheese. Our child who loves pasta and doesn’t like chicken only ate the chicken and the other child ate it all up.

Adapted from a recipe at tarahsfoodreviews.wordpress.com

1 Comment

Filed under Chicken, Easy, Italian

April 30, 2010 · 5:44 am

BLT Rigatoni

This is a recipe from the lovely Rachel Ray. It is quick and easy and a nice twist on regular pasta.

Ingredients:
1/4 pancetta or bacon, cut into slivers
Olive Oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 c. dry white wine
4 ripe tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 lb. penne, rigatoni or similar pasta
1/4 c. chopped fresh basil
2 c. fresh spinach, chopped
3/4 c. fresh paremesan

Directions:
Cook pasta per the directions on the box.

In a medium skillet, cook pancetta for about six minutes. Put pancetta on paper towels to drain off oil.

In a medium saucepan, heat 3 tbspns. of olive oil. Add onion and garlic and cook until softened.

Add the wine and bring to a simmer.

Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and simmer over low heat, stirring, until sauce thickens a bit.

Divide cooked pasta into four bowls (or however many servings you need). Top each serving of pasta with the tomato mixture. Top each serving with the pancetta, basil and spinach, toss, drizzle with olive oil and top with parmesan.

Did I change anything? Yes, I took out the arugula and added spinach. I am not a big arugula fan.

What does the family think? They liked it! We are pasta eaters, so that’s not a huge surprise.

Chicken Pastina Soup

This has pesto in it and as far as I am concerned anything with pesto in it is good. 🙂

Ingredients:
1/2 c. water
(2) 14 oz. cans of chicken broth
1 lb. chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces, precooked
2 1/4c. chopped carrot, celery and onion mix
Salt and pepper to season
1/4 c. uncooked pastina (tiny star-shaped pasta)
3T pesto (or more if you’d like)
2T lemon juice
1/4 c. shredded parmesan

Directions;
Bring water and chicken broth to a boil in a Dutch oven.

Stir in veggies and chicken and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

Add pasta and cook 4 minutes.

Stir in pesto and juice and simmer for one minute.

Serve and top with parmesan cheese.

We usually have this with a yummy fresh baguette from the bakery.

Did I change anything? No! This recipe is perfect and simple as is. However, if you don’t have pastina, I am sure you could use some other little pasta. Also, sometimes I can’t find the celery, carrot, onion mix in the freezer section at the grocery, so I will either just make my own mix of veggies or use the Italian frozen veggie mix that has zucchini in it.

What did the family think? Hubby and I love this soup. The kids aren’t too keen on soup of any kind.

Adapted from a Cooking Light recipe

CrockPot Veggie Lasagna

I got this recipe from A Year of Slowcooking, my favorite place to get CrockPot recipes. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
26 oz. jar of pasta sauce
10-12 oz. container of ricotta cheese
8 slices of mozzarella cheese
2 c. shredded Italian cheese mix
1 large eggplant, don’t peel
3 summer squash, don’t peel
1 bag of baby spinach
2 T warm water

Directions:
Slice the squash and eggplant into long thin pieces about 1/4 in. thick. (These are going to be your “noodles”).

Pour about 1/4 cup pasta sauce in the bottom of the CrockPot.

Layer in a few pieces of eggplant and squash.

Smear some ricotta on top.

Add a couple slices of mozzarella and a handful of baby spinach.

Top with more of the sauce and continue layering until your CrockPot is full and/or you’ve run out of ingredients. Make sure you leave enough pasta sauce to cover the top and then put the Italian shredded cheese of top of that.

Measure two tablespoons of warm water into the spaghetti jar, cover it, shake it and pour the water on top.

Put the lid on the crockpot and cook on low for 5-8 hours. (The veggies need to be tender and the cheese melted.)

Did I change anything? I did change a few things from the original recipe. I left out the mozzarella cheese just because it sounded like a lot of cheese. Also, the original recipe called for sliced mushrooms and I left those out because hubby doesn’t like them.

What did the family think? Well, I learned something about hubby the night I made this… he doesn’t like eggplant. I had no idea. He couldn’t eat it…it set of his gag reflex. I, on the other hand, thought it was one of the best lasagnas I had ever eaten. Go figure.

1 Comment

Filed under Italian, Vegetarian

April 23, 2010 · 8:20 am

Penne with Blue Cheese, Pesto and Asparagus

I am ready and willing to try anything with pesto and I absolutely love blue cheese, so I knew this one was going to be a winner before I even tasted it.

Ingredients:
8 oz. penne
1/2 c. pesto
1/4 c. crumbled blue cheese
1/2 lb. frozen or fresh asparagus spears

Directions:
Cook pasta per the directions on the box.

Put pesto and blue cheese in a mixing bowl and mash them together with a fork.

During the last 3 minutes of the penne cooking time, add asparagus to pot and cook until bright green and crisp-tender. Drain penne and asparagus well in colander. Add to the bowl with the pesto and stir to coat them well.

Did I change anything? Yes. The original recipe called for walnuts. We didn’t have any walnuts so I didn’t make it that way. I am sure it is tasty either way.

What does the family think? The first time I made this I made it just the way it’s described above. My hubby said he felt like it needed some meat, so the next time I added a little shredded chicken in it and we have been eating it that way ever since. Either way it’s good. Our children are kid of purists when it comes to pasta…if it doesn’t have red sauce then it’s not pasta.

3 Comments

Filed under Chicken, Definitely Making it Again, Easy, Italian, Six Ingredients or Less

April 22, 2010 · 5:07 am

CrockPot Pizza Soup

I had a Crockpot for about five years before I even took it out of the box. Now I probably use it at least once a week and it’s usually on days when I know we are going to be getting home late and it’s so nice to have dinner ready and waiting for us. I also love how awesome our house smells when we walk in the door. 🙂 I found this recipe over at my favorite CrockPot website.

Ingredients:
14oz. jar of pizza sauce
3 empty jars of water
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
2 already cooked Italian sausage links
1 c. pepperoni, cut into quarters
8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 T dried oregano
1/2 c. macaroni noodles (or a pasta about that size)
Shredded mozzarella

Directions:
Wash and prepare green peppers. Dump them into the crockpot. Cut up the sausage into small pieces–I sliced, then cut the pieces in fourths. Add to crockpot. Cut up the pepperoni, add it, too. Add basil and oregano. Pour in the pizza sauce, and follow with three empty jars of water.

Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours. Everything in this is already cooked, so you are really only heating through and allowing the flavors to meld.

Thirty minutes before serving, add the dry pasta, and turn to high. My pasta only took 20 minutes to soften quite nicely.

Garnish/top with shredded mozzarella cheese.

Variation: The great thing about this is that you can add whatever you would normally put on a pizza. The original recipe called for mushrooms and onions, but we don’t get those on pizza so I left them off. There is a lot of room to play around with this recipe and add/take away whatever “toppings” you do/don’t want.

What did the family think? Sean and I liked it. I told the boys it was like pizza so they ate it.

2 Comments

Filed under Definitely Making it Again, Everybody Ate It, Italian, Super Easy to Make

April 16, 2010 · 8:58 pm

Classic Tomato Spaghetti (Version 1)

Don’t freak out when I tell you that this recipe includes tuna and cinnamon. Yep. Tuna and cinnamon in pasta. It is a Jaime Oliver recipe and I tried it just for you. My family unknowingly volunteered themselves as taste testers. This is a simplified version of Jaime’s recipe:

Ingredients:
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 lb. dried spaghetti
1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes-Italian style
1 can tuna (drained and flaked)
1/2 tspn. ground cinnamon
Crushed red pepper (a few shakes)
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions;
Cook pasta according to directions on pasta box.

In a skillet combine tomatoes, tuna, cinnamon, lemon and crushed pepper and heat through.

Put pasta in individual bowls and pour sauce on top.

Next time: I am not sure I will make this dish again. It was okay, but it definitely wasn’t my favorite. If I do make this dish again I will make twice as much sauce. The recipe above only made enough sauce for my hubby and I. I had to break out a jar of pasta sauce for the kids. I will say, however, that if I hadn’t made the sauce I would have never known there was cinnamon in there. If you are feeling adventurous I would definitely try this recipe. It’s easy, that’s for sure. Jaime Oliver’s website has a few variations on this sauce though, so maybe I will try another one in the next few weeks.

What did the family think? I thought it was just okay as did my hubby. The kids didn’t get to eat it since there wasn’t enough for them which, quite frankly, I think they were totally fine with.

Spinach Tortellini with Tomato Sauce

This is great pasta dish with a little twist…salami.

Ingredients:
2 T. olive oil
1 oz. salami, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 28oz. can of San Marzano plum tomatoes, drained (save juice)
5-6 fresh basi leaves
Pinch of sugar
Salt and Pepper, to taste
8 oz. dry spinach tortellini

Directions:
Cook tortellini per the directions on the package.

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the salami and garlic and cook for about one minute. Crush the tomatoes into the skillet using your hands. Let these simmer for about four to five minutes and then add the tomato juice, basil, sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes and stir well.

Drain the tortellini and serve the sauce on top of the noodles. You may want to put the noodles in individual bowls for each person and then put the sauce on. We do that because some people in our house like more sauce than others. Enjoy!!!

This is great with a salad and a glass of wine. Have some parmesan cheese at the table to sprinkle on top.

Did I change anything? I didn’t really change much from the original recipe other than the type of pasta. I think I probably ended up adding more than 1 ounce of salami too. It just didn’t seem like enough.

What does the family think? We will eat pasta in any form, shape or size, especially if it has tomato sauce on top.

4 Comments

Filed under Definitely Making it Again, Easy, Everybody Ate It, Italian

April 13, 2010 · 4:08 am

White Beans and Italian Sausage

As I am going through my recipes I am realizing that we eat a lot of Italian food around here. This is what we had for dinner tonight and it was the first time I had ever used this recipe. I made my own version though because the version I found on-line talked about soaking beans and simmering for a few hours. I don’t have time for all that. So here’s my version:

Ingredients:
2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 lbs. Italian sausage (sweet, mild or hot)
2 14.5 oz cans of Italian-style diced tomatoes
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat olive oil over medium heat and add garlic. Saute garlic for a minute or so and add Italian sausage. When Italian sausage it completely cooked add beans, tomatoes and red pepper flakes. Keep on burner until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.

Next time: When I made it this time I only used one can of tomatoes. I put two cans in my directions up above because I think it needed more. Also, I used mild Italian sausage this time. Next time I will definitely use a spicier version.

We had this with a baguette hubby had picked up at the store and we had some grapes so I put those on the table as well.

What does the family think? Hubby and I liked it enough to have seconds. The boys ate it, but mostly just ate the sausage.

2 Comments

Filed under Definitely Making it Again, Easy, Everybody Ate It, Italian

April 11, 2010 · 10:31 pm

Italian Sausage, Peppers and Tomatoes

I use the internet a lot to find recipes. I found this one a while back and I love it because it is super easy and everyone loves it. Here is my variation:

Ingredients:
6 whole Italian sausages (hot, sweet or mild)
2 14.5 oz cans of Italian-style diced tomatoes
1/2 large onion cut in thin strips
1 1/2 cups (approx.) frozen bell pepper strips
2 T. olive oil

Directions:
Place the sausages in a pot of boiling water and cook for about ten minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add onions and bell peppers. While onions and bell peppers are cooking cut sausages into “coins” and add them to the skillet. Cook until onions are tender and sausages are cooked through. Lastly, add the tomatoes and cook for about five more minutes on medium.

Variations: You might want to add one can of tomatoes and see if that is just right. Some people might prefer two cans…it depends on how much you like tomatoes.

We always have this dish with some fresh Italian bread or a baguette. You can dip the bread in the bowl to soak up some of the juices. Yummy!

What does the family think? Hubby and I love this dish. The boys mostly just eat the sausage.