Meatball Marinara

Hubby's been on a pasta making kick which in turn has made me take an interest in making a great sauce for his fresh made pasta.  In my early cooking days I thought the best way to make a good marinara was to buy a jarred sauce and doctor it up with things like peppers, mushrooms, onions, garlic and sometimes ground beef.  Those sauces were okay, but they were not anything that really gave you that wow factor. Coming up with a homemade marinara sauce that's wow worthy has been on my cooking bucket list for a while now...

I'm happy to say, I've found "my sauce"! 

I sort of threw this recipe together based on a You Tube video I watched (and eventually made the recipe ...to be seen here soon) and two other recipes I found online.  I didn't have all the ingredients for any one the recipes, so I made up my own combining these recipes and using what I had on hand.  Many timesSome times when I experiment in the kitchen, I am not always overwhelmed in a positive way by the results.  The marinara gods were with me, though, and this recipe has that special something something I've been looking for. 

Isn't homemade pasta pretty?

What makes this sauce special is actually the meatballs.  The Italian sausage flavor from the meatballs, perfume the sauce with a mild spice that takes the sauce to the next level.  And if you think turkey meatballs are "boring", I assure you these are not.  In fact, I really want to make this for my dad and not tell him the meatballs are turkey.  He pretty much believes turkey is NOT substitutable for beef.  But I'm pretty certain he'd like these.  The meatballs are tender and the Italian sausage flavor comes through, but doesn't over power.  It really is just right.  At least for me, Hubby and our niece who helped us make the most recent batch.  This recipe is most definitely a keeper.

I remembered to add some fresh grated parmesan...Mmmm

Note - If you are a vegetarian and don't plan to make the meatballs, I recommend following the sauce recipe and adding 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper (depending on your spicy tolerance) to bring a little heat.  Also note, I haven't tired this myself, but this is what I would do based on tasting the sauce before the meatballs go in.   

We've been enjoying the sauce and meatballs over fresh made pasta, though dried pasta would work well too.  And it makes fabulous leftovers for a meatball sandwich! 

Enjoy!

Meatball Marinara
from The Ginger Snap Girl

Serves 6-8

For the marinara sauce:

3 tablespoons olive oil
8 roma tomatoes, cut in 4 slices lengthwise
4 cloves of garlic smashed with a pinch of kosher salt to form a paste
1 medium onion diced
2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes
1/2 can (3 oz.) tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 cup white wine (or use chicken broth if you don't have wine)
1 cup chicken broth

Heat dutch oven or large sauce pot on medium high heat and add olive oil.  Add tomato slices in a single layer (slightly overlapping is okay) and season lightly with salt and fresh cracked pepper.   Cook in oil for 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes start to get tender.  Flip tomatoes over and add garlic and cook on medium high for 2 more minutes.  Stir the tomatoes and garlic.  You should smell garlic and the tomatoes should start to break down.  Add minced onions and cook until tender about 3-4 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low and simmer the sauce.  Cover and cook for 20 minutes. 

While sauce is cooking, make the meatballs (see meatball recipe below).

When the sauce has cooked for 20 minutes give it a taste.  Does it need a little more salt?  Sugar? Pepper?  Add additional seasoning as needed (I've made it twice and added just a touch extra salt at this point).  Use an immersion blender to blend in sauce until smooth (there will still be some chunks, that's okay).  If you don't have an immersion blender, you can puree the sauce in batches in a stand blender and return sauce to the pot.  Add meatballs making sure each meatball is covered in sauce.  With heat on low, cover and cook 30 more minutes, until meatballs are cooked through but still tender, stirring sauce and meatballs every 7 to 10 minutes.  Remove cover and continue cooking on low for 15 minutes. 

For the meatballs:

1 lb ground turkey
1/3 lb mild (or sweet) Italian sausage
1 egg
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon fresh parsley finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined and Italian sausage is even distributed.  Using a medium cookie scoop (about golf ball size) scoop out meatballs onto a baking sheet lined with foil.  Once all the meatballs are scooped, use your hands to roll into rounded balls.  Once all the meatballs are rolled, gently place each meatball in the sauce.

Serve over 1 pound of your favorite store bought or home made pasta.  Garnish with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Simple Shrimp Scampi

Hubby's birthday was in early March.  Birthdays are pretty low key around here.  For me, I'm looking for a mouthwatering dinner with my Hubs.  And of course, cake.  Plus extra cake for breakfast the next day.  We usually go out to dinner for my birthday.  For my Hubby it's even lower key.  He just wants a good homemade meal.  That's it.  No cake.  No pie.  No cookies.  Kinda a birthday party pooper if you ask me.  So I asked my better half what he wanted for his birthday dinner this year.  He said, homemade turkey meatballs with scampi type sauce, roasted sweet potatoes and roasted parmesan zucchini.  The two sides would be no problem.  But, scampi meatballs, huh?  Weird.  Thankfully it wasn't hard to talk him into traditional shrimp scampi since he loves shrimp. 

We eat shrimp at least once a week, sometimes twice.  My favorite way to prepare it is marinated in Italian salad dressing and then grilled (though I don't seem to have that preparation on the blog for some reason).  We eat shrimp straight up with veggies on the side, as a protein in salads and over pasta.  For all the shrimp we eat, I'm a little surprised I have never made shrimp scampi.  Scampi is a luscious and pungent white wine sauce perfumed with aromatic garlic and herbs (we love garlic by the way).  The reason I've shied away from making scampi is because I assumed that it was loaded with a stick or two of butter.  It only took a quick look at my Cook's Illustrated Cookbook to find the right recipe.  And to my surprise, it was relatively light on the butter with just 3 tablespoons divided amongst 4 servings.  Plus the recipe had "simple" in the title.  Simple is good.  And in this case, simple is also delicious.

The dish comes together quickly.  Definitely in the realm of a 30 minute meal. If you buy shrimp already peeled and deveined it's even quicker.  I like to buy frozen uncooked peeled and deveined shrimp to keep on hand at all times.  You never know when you need to make shrimp!

For Hub's birthday dinner I served the shrimp scampi over a toasted flat bread brushed with olive oil (bake in a 350 oven for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly toasted).  You could also use a crusty loaf of french bread, split down the middle.  The lemony, garlic wine sauce soaks into the bread.  It's like garlic bread and shrimp scampi all in one.  Delicious!  Unfortunately I didn't get to photo the bread version.  I made the scampi again a couple of weeks later and served it over pasta.  I felt the sauce was much more subdued in the pasta as compared to the bread version.  Though good with the pasta, I thought the bread with scampi sauce was a "Wowza!" dish.  I'll take seconds please!

Enjoy!

Simple Shrimp Scampi
from Cook's Illustrated Cookbook

Serves 4
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds extra large shrimp (21 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry vermouth or dry white wine (I used wine)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
Pinch of cayenne (I omitted)
Salt and pepper

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a 12 inch skillet over high heat, until just smoking.  Add half of the shrimp and cook about 1 minute, stirring occasionally until opaque.  Transfer to a bowl and repeat with remaining oil and shrimp, transferring the cooked shrimp to the bowl.

Turn heat to medium low and add 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet.  Add garlic and cook until fragrant while stirring continuously, about 1 minute.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the lemon juice and vermouth or white wine.  Return the skillet to the heat and whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add parsley and pinch of cayenne and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the cooked shrimp and it's juices back to the pan and stir to combine.  Serve immediately. 

Mushroom and Herb Chunky Tomato Sauce

I had every intention of getting this post published last Thursday night, desperately trying to stay on the schedule I committed to at the beginning of the year.  As you can see, that just didn't happen.  A busy week at work and preparing for a trip to Chicago, while fighting a cold, got in the way. 

Preparation for this trip was a little more involved because we had to get the house ready for my sister who graciously agreed to babysit our three kitty cats while we were away.  This is the first multi-day trip Hubby and I have taken since our newest feline family member, Oliver, joined us last June.  We have been on a couple of local trips, but those don't count since we we took little buddy with us. 

Oliver is technically still a kitten and quite frankly he can't be trusted when left alone for long periods of time.  I've mentioned before he loves to act quite a bit like a dog, eating toilet paper, rooting around in trash cans and even fetching.  His newest trick is pulling the drain stopper out of the bathroom sink and carrying it around in his mouth like a bone or the prey he just conquered.  He carried the thing all the way downstairs to show Hubby and I what he did last week. 

"Look guys! Look what I found!  Isn't it cool?"

He was so proud, I just couldn't be angry with him.  But I must admit, I am completely perplexed at his choice of "prey". Of all the potential things he could have gone after in the house, how did he decide the bathroom sink drain plug was the way to go?   An answer I'm sure I'll never know. 

But isn't he just adorable?  I may be a little biased. 

What I do know for certain is our little guy still needs a watchful eye, so I was thrilled when my sister agreed to supervise the three musketeers.  Thanks Katie (& Luis)!

These three have a rough life huh?

From top to bottom: Kit Kat, Oliver and Chloe

With our kitties well taken care of, we set off for the mid west last Friday morning.  Luckily we landed in Chicago just in time for a snow storm. Guess that's what we get for visiting the windy city in February!  This trip was busy with family activities (Hubby is from Chicago),  catching up with friends (we lived in Chicago for a brief 3 1/2 year stint), lots and lots of eating and trying to squeeze in some time in the city.  Internet connectivity was spotty, so my hope of finishing this post when we arrived was put off a few days.  Despite the chilly weather, we have had a great time.  We spent Monday afternoon at the Art Institute in downtown Chicago and we managed to eat at our our favorite sandwich place, Potbelly's, 3 days in a row!  (I really wish Potbelly's would come to California.)  I do love Chicago.  But I don't miss the weather.  Next time we'll come back in the fall, when the temperature is a little more moderate for this wimpy California girl.

Now that I've brought you up to speed on our kitty cats and our trip, you probably want to hear about the food?  I saw this recipe for mushroom and herb pasta sauce on Sally's blog, A Food Centric Life and it caught my eye for 2 reasons.  One, it looked like a warm, rich, hearty sauce.  Two, I had all the ingredients in house already and it would be a great way to use up a lot of left over parsley (that otherwise would have ended up in the garbage).  I also liked that this chunky sauce was meatless (though I am certain it would taste pretty amazing spooned over homemade meatballs).

The sauce lived up to my expectations of being hearty and flavorful.  Hubby gave it a thumbs up too! And it was easy to make (once you get all the chopping out of the way).  The sauce is very versatile in that you can tweek it to your liking.  If you like more garlic, throw in a couple of extra cloves.  If you like other veggies, such as red peppers, toss those in too.  I did a few tweeks myself, which are noted in the recipe below.  You could easily freeze the sauce in ziploc bag and defrost it in the fridge the evening before you want to get a quick meal together. 

I definitely plan to make this sauce again.  We served it over thin spaghetti topped with a few shavings of fresh Parmesan cheese, alongside a simple green salad.  But it doesn't have to be limited to just pasta or a pure vegetarian approach.  As mentioned above, it would be great with meatballs or for a meatball sandwich.  It would also pair nicely with a panko crusted eggplant or chicken cutlets, Parmesan style.  So many options!

Enjoy! 

Mushroom and Herb Chunky Tomato Sauce
Adapted from A Food Centric Life

Yields about 1 1/2 - 2 quarts sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups finely chopped fresh parsley, about 1-2 bunches (it was one for me)
1/2 small onion, finely diced
1 shallot, finely diced (I added to the original recipe because I had some shallot to use up)
3 celery ribs, finely diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
8 ounces mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and thinly sliced
1 28-ounce can of crushed or diced tomatoes
1 28-ounce can of tomato puree
1 teaspoon sugar (I added this to the original recipe because my tomatoes had a very acidic bite)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I omitted)
1/2 cup dry red wine

Heat oil in large saucepan or a dutch oven.  Add parsley, onion, shallot and celery and saute until just tender, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.  Add all remaining ingredients (mushrooms through wine) and bring to boil.  Reduce to low and simmer covered for 45 minutes.  Remove cover and continue to simmer uncovered for an additional 20-30 minutes, allowing some of excess liquid boil off.  Serve with pasta, chicken cutlets or meatballs.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti

Delicious.  Easy.  Quick.  And healthy.  What more can you ask for in a dinner? 

My best friend sent me an email last week sharing this recipe.  She recently discovered it in her Cooking Light magazine and it's already been repeat meal in her household several times.   And I can tell you this will definitely be a repeat recipe in our house too.  Hubby loved it.  I loved it.  Those 2 things don't happen every day when it comes to food.

When I make a recipe for the first time, I am especially slow in getting it all together.  It usually involves me reading and re-reading the recipe about 50 times.  I tend to fumble around with the ingredients and my cooking utensils.  Realize I forgot to take out like 3 things.  Despite this being the first time I've made this recipe, it came together in about 30 minutes.  Which is fast for me.  Seems like all the meals that are supposed to take 30 minutes, like Rachel Ray's meals, never go down that way for me.  It's like you have to be an energizer bunny with mad knife skills to pull it off.  But this one really is so simple, and fast. 

A couple of notes.  I used feta cheese, because that is what I had on hand, and it was yummy.  I was anxious to get my pictures taken before the light disappeared so I didn't think to mash up some of the cherry tomatoes to make more of a light sauce on the spaghetti.  After the photos were taken and I sat down to eat, I poked all my cherry tomatoes with my fork and they burst open creating a tasty sauce to coat the pasta.  So imagine the spaghetti in the photos covered in a light red sauce.  If you want to add a little protein some marinated grilled shrimp would go great with this.

Already thinking about when I will make it again.  Must buy more cherry tomatoes.

Thanks for a great recipe Crystal (and Andy too!).


Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce with Spaghetti
adapted from Cooking Light

4 quarts water
2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
2 2/3 cups cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
3/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 1/2 tablespoons chopped or torn fresh basil
2 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled semi soft goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Bring water to a boil in a large pot or dutch oven.  Add 1 tablespoon salt and the uncooked spaghetti to the boiling water.  Cook for 10 minutes or until spaghetti is al dente.  Reserve at least 1/3 cup of cooking water and set aside.  Drain spaghetti and then return to the pan and keep warm.

While the spaghetti is cooking, toss the tomatoes in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, vinegar, 3/8 teaspoon salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes and sliced garlic on a jelly roll pan or baking sheet.  Bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes or until they are soft and lightly charred in places.

Add the tomatoes and any juices from the baking sheet into the pot with the spaghetti.  Add 3 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water to the pan and using a wooden spoon scrape any browned bits off the pan.  Add this water to the pan along with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and warm over medium heat.  Add remaining cooking water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the spaghetti is moist, tossing frequently with tongs.  Stir in basil and parsley.  Sprinkle with cheese and serve immediately.

Penne with Tomato Cream Sauce

This is one of those recipes that always impresses me. The first time I made it I took the first bite and paused...then I turned to my husband, and said "Wow!". For some reason (that I cannot figure out)I haven't made it for probably a year....and tonight, I said to hubby, "Damn, this is good!". Heavenly really. I'm still reeling in the delight of tonight's dinner. The sauce is luscious and has a wonderful depth of flavor. Garlic and red onion almost melt into the pureed tomatoes. A pinch of red pepper flakes give the sauce just the slightest note of heat deep in the background. This goodness simmers for a bit, marrying all the flavors together. The sauce is finished by stirring in cream and evaporated milk. Then topped with fresh chopped basil and freshly grated parmesan cheese and this dish reaches perfection.

Want to hear the cool part? This is a healthy version of Penne Vodka and comes from the Cook Yourself Thin Ladies over on Lifetime. They call it Penne alla "Not-Ka." If you are interested in tasty lower calorie versions of recipes, I recommend checking out the recipes on Lifetime's website or the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook. One of my other favorite CYT recipes is their absolutely delicious Meatballs. I have even served the meatballs with penne alla not-ka in the past. The meatballs are light and pair nicely with the tomato cream sauce. Of course I think the tomato cream sauce is good enough to drink straight up. Man, this is a good sauce!


A few tips for this very easy recipe. Use red onion. Not yellow, white, sweet or spanish. It's gotta be red. Don't overcook the pasta...it will continue cooking when it gets transferred to the sauce. Remember to set aside some of the pasta water to get just the right consistency of pasta and creamy sauce. And lastly, I almost always double the recipe to ensure lots of tasty leftovers for lunch or another quick dinner.

Enjoy!

Penne Alla "Not-Ka"
from Cook Yourself Thin

Serves 4, Calories per serving: 371

2 teaspoons olive oil, plus extra for serving
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chopped red onion
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes in juice, pureed in a food processor
Pinch red pepper flakes
8 ounces penne
1/4 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons evaporated nonfat milk
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the penne.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the 2 teaspoons oil with the garlic over low heat until the garlic begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the onion and 1/4 teaspoon salt, cover, and cook until the onion is softened, about 2 more minutes. Add the tomato, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer very gently 10 minutes. Stir in the cream and evaporated milk and simmer 1 more minute.

3. Meanwhile, after the sauce has cooked 5 minutes, add the penne to the boiling water and cook until just shy of al dente, about 6 minutes. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup pasta water. Add the drained penne to the saucepan and simmer until the penne is al dente, 1 to 2 minutes, adding a little of the pasta cooking water if the mixture is dry. Stir in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan, along with the basil and black pepper.

4. To serve, divide pasta among 4 serving bowls. Drizzle each serving with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan.

Garlic Basil Shrimp with Orzo Pasta

I'm always looking for new healthy dinner options. I have had lots of success with Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave cookbook. Several months ago I also purchased her newest book, So Easy, but haven't made much out of it to date. I recently honed in on a recipe that I thought both hubby and I would enjoy...Garlic Basil Shrimp.

I have made it twice now and it's official. It will be making regular appearances in our dinner line up. I asked hubby this evening if he liked it again the second time. He said, "I really, really, really like it a lot...very much". Let me translate that for you. He freakin loves it. Hubby is somewhat stingy with praise on food. It's something that I used to take personally, but I realize that it's not personal. He is equally stingy even when we dine out...at some pretty amazing restaurants. It takes a lot for a compliment above "it's ok" to come out of his mouth. There are literally a handful of dishes that hubby truly loves. And I'm super excited to add one to the list because I really enjoy this dish as well.


The shrimp is basked in a white wine sauce with fresh garlic, basil, and grape tomatoes served over orzo pasta. Of course I made a few modifications to the recipe. I added a bit of chicken stock and increased the wine...I'm a sauce girl. I would rather have extra than not enough. The other changes I made were to increase the garlic by a couple of cloves and to season the shrimp with salt and pepper before cooking them rather than adding the salt and pepper to the sauce at the end. Oh, and I also omitted the red pepper flakes. We're pretty wimpy when it comes to spicy stuff. The end result is a luscious sauce that has a wonderful depth of flavor but is light at the same time. Delicious!

A side note about shrimp. Do you ever use frozen shrimp? It's wonderful! We buy frozen uncooked, peeled and deveined shrimp from Costco. We buy the 21-25 shrimp. 21-25 is a reference to the size of the shrimp. It means there are approximately 21-25 shrimp per pound. Some charts refer to this as jumbo and others say large. To me, large is a more appropriate description. Frozen shrimp are cinch to thaw and cook up in just minutes. It's one of our go to proteins for dinner!

Anyway, if you want a simple, easy, fresh delicious shrimp in garlic white wine sauce dinner try this recipe out!


Garlic Basil Shrimp
by Ellie Krieger

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 pounds large shrimp (20 to 25 per pound), peeled and deveined
3 garlic cloves, minced (a little extra garlic doesn't hurt!)
1/8 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes, or more to taste
3/4 cup dry white wine (I used 1 cup plus 1/2 cup chicken stock)
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then saute shrimp, turning over once, until just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl.

Add garlic and red pepper flakes to the oil remaining in skillet and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add wine and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Stir in basil and tomatoes and season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Return the shrimp to pan and cook just until heated through.

Mac n Cheese with Chicken & Bacon and Berry Banana Smoothies

I have special guest blogger today. My niece, McKenzie is an aspiring young cook at age 12 and prepared her first meal from start finish this weekend (well 99% on her own...apparently grandma (my mom) was hovering a bit while Kenze was using the stove). I'm just sad I wasn't there to enjoy it. But Grandma raved about how yummy it was. Without further adieu...


I am taking foods class as my elective and our first recipe was to make a berry smoothie. In the smoothie are frozen berries, milk, vanilla yogurt, and one banana. It turned out pretty tasty (these were served for dessert).


Mac and cheese- This was very easy. You just have to boil some noodles and add velveeta cheese, evaporated milk, bacon bits, and chicken. Sprinkle some bread crumbs and plop it into the oven at 350 degrees. This was my favorite.



For dinner I served the mac n cheese with corn and peas mixed together. These were just leftovers from the night before. It made the mac n cheese taste very good! Everyone I cooked for which was my family loved the meal. Hope you enjoy. :)

Spring Pasta

One of the wonderful advantages of living in Southern California is accessibility to fresh produce. (I especially appreciate this after spending 3 1/2 years in the midwest.) We have access to a year round quaint farmers market just down the road from our house. I love strolling the 2 aisles that make up our farmers market on Sunday mornings. Though the market is small, there is a wonderful selection of vegetables, fruits, herbs, fresh eggs, bread (vegan), cheese, fresh pita and hummus and a variety of other vendors that I have yet to purchase from. Our market even has a "worm wrangler" (who also sells Gouda cheese by the way)! I guess the worms are supposed to help your garden? One of these years I'll have to try it out. My garden could use a little somethin somethin!

This Sunday asparagus made its first public appearance at our market. It was so fresh and perfect. I immediately thought of this recipe when I saw it. Last year I came across Giada De Laurentis making Penne with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes on her Everyday Italian show. Initially I was hesitant to make it...the simple ingredients seemed a bit boring. I'm use to pasta dishes that are all about the sauce. Luckily I got over my lack of sauce phobia, because this pasta dish is all that and then some! Simple does NOT mean boring.



You have to use the freshest ingredients for this dish to really sing. The hint of minced garlic intertwined with freshly cooked (slightly crisp) asparagus, fresh peas, zucchini and cherry tomatoes, is so simply delicious! Giada's recipe does not call for zucchini, but it blends in seamlessly. The chicken stock adds a level of flavor and creates the base of a light sauce (and keeps your pasta from drying out). I didn't have fresh basil this week (critters ate the plant I put in the ground about a week ago), but I did have some fresh chives....the only edible item growing in my garden at the moment. The chives worked out nicely. I recommend using fresh herbs (not dried) in this recipe (flat leaf parsley would be nice as well). The cool part about the dish is there IS a hidden sauce....those cherry tomatoes ready to burst out of their skins break up and release all their tomato goodness in with the chicken stock base. Voila! Light tomato sauce. Add in freshly grated Parmesan (use the good stuff) and the masterpiece is complete.


A couple of quick notes. Generously salt your boiling pasta water and don't rinse the pasta when you drain it. Avoid overcooking the vegetables. If you can't get your hands on fresh shelled peas, frozen are good second choice. Cherry tomatoes weren't available so I used a larger variety.

Hubby and I had this for dinner 2 nights ago and he said he forgot how good this dish was. So thank you asparagus! We look forward to several more appearances at the market in the weeks to come.

Penne with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentis

8 oz pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1 cup shelled fresh peas
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 cup grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
I added 1 zucchini quartered in 1/2 slices

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the pasta water.

In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the asparagus (and zucchini) and season with salt and pepper, and cook for 3 minutes until slightly soft. Add the cherry tomatoes and peas. Cook for 2 minutes. Pour the chicken stock into the pan and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until the tomatoes start to burst and the stock is reduced by half, about 3 minutes.

Transfer the asparagus mixture to a large serving bowl. Add the cooked pasta and 1/2 of the Parmesan. Toss well, adding reserved pasta water, if needed, to loosen the pasta. Garnish with the remaining Parmesan and chopped basil.