For my birthday last summer, I asked for a pasta maker attachment set to go with our Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I had every intention to use it, but it kept on being put to the back burner until a couple of weekends ago. My first try at making and tasting homemade pasta was back in 2009 in Italy, and let me tell you that it was a rather physically demanding task! Especially with my lack of “rolling dough” experience. This pasta set though, took care all of that “dough rolling” for me, and if anything, it made the experience so much more fun!
My good friends Jill and Sarah came to visit me for the day and I thought that it was a good enough reason for me to finally get this pasta maker to a good use. We went out for a late lunch, and then we were back at my house hanging out. I chose a recipe that uses semolina flour that I had previously bought for this very purpose, and the rest of the ingredients are pretty much standard pantry items. The dough came together relatively quick although I had to adjust the water almost five times what it calls for in the original recipe, and I even added an egg. The most time consuming part was the dough rolling; but having friends to help out definitely made this fun. Jill doesn’t really like tomato-based sauce, while Sarah prefers not to have “white-sauce”. So I ended up throwing a bunch of items together (prosciutto, black olives, roasted red peppers, etc), mixed them together in sun-dried tomatoes with half of the dough, and everyone won. Nothing beats homemade pasta with great companies!
Ingredients
4 large eggs, room temperature (I used 5 eggs)
2 tbsp of water (I ended up using about 10, because my kitchen must have been dry)
1 tbsp of oil, plus 1 tsp for cooking water
3-1/3 cups semolina flour
1/2 tsp salt, plus 2 tsp for cooking water
Direction
Place eggs, water, oil, flour and salt in a mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater (the paddle attachment). Turn to low speed and mix for 30 seconds.
Replace the paddle attachment with the dough hook. Turn to mixer back to low speed and knead for 2 minutes. Remove dough from bowl and hand knead for 1-2 minutes. Divide dough into eight pieces before processing with the pasta roller attachment to make the desired pasta. Follow the manufacturer’s direction to cut and shape your pasta.
Boil 6 quart of water. Add 2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of oil. Cook pasta between 2-5 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodle type you make and how “al-dente” you like your pasta.
Yield: 1-1/4 lbs dough
I think everyone needs a recipe like this in their repertoire: a delicious dish that can be prepared in less than 15 minutes. And when I mean, 15 minutes, I seriously mean one person can get it done in 15 minutes. But don’t let the fancy title fool you to think that it’s a fancy dish, because it’s literally translated to “Lemon Pasta”, spaghetti cooked with lemon paste. Most of the ingredients can be found in any well-stocked pantry, all you need to remember to have lemons and fresh basil. As you can see in my picture above, I forgot to grab some fresh basil this time, and it turned out delicious without them. There are so many variation of this recipe, but I really appreciate the simpleness of this dish, it is light and refreshing from the lemon flavoring, but still hearty… because it is still a pasta dish after all. When I use whole wheat spaghetti, I usually double the amount of lemon paste to make sure that the light lemon flavor can stand up to the whole wheat flavor in the pasta.
Ingredients
3/4 pound (3/4 box) spaghetti
Coarse salt
1 lemon
1 1/2 cups finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3–5 tablespoons of pasta water, to thin
Handful fresh basil leaves (from 4 leafy stems)
Directions
Boil the spaghetti in salted boiling water, according to the package directions.
Meanwhile, using a Microplane, grate the zest from the lemon into a large mixing bowl. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl (I like to use the grater as a strainer—one less thing to clean). Add the 1 1/2 cups Parmesan, pepper, and a pinch of salt, and mix in the olive oil to form a wet paste.
When the spaghetti is perfectly cooked, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of the cooking water to the lemon and cheese mixture. Add the spaghetti to the bowl and toss thoroughly, adding another tablespoon or 2 of pasta water if necessary so that the sauce coats each strand. Roughly tear in the basil leaves.
Serve each portion with a sprinkle of coarse salt, a fresh grind of black pepper, and a few gratings of extra Parmesan.
Yield: 2-3 servings
Adapted from My Father’s Daughter
Mac ‘n cheese is a big hit at our house. I love it as a side dish, main dish, or just snack. My all-time fave “baked” mac ‘n cheese is this Grown up Mac ‘n Cheese, with gruyere, blue cheese, and bacon. I had been looking for a simpler mac ‘n cheese recipe that I can quickly do on the stove-top for days that I just don’t have time to grate three different kind of cheeses and wait for it to bake in the oven. I had tried several recipes before deciding this one from Alton Brown that turned out to be a winner at my house. The cheese sauce has perfect consistency and very cheesy. Make sure that you love the type of cheese that is used in the recipe because it will taste like you’re biting into a slice of that cheese.
When I first tried this recipe, I used extra-sharp cheddar cheese, which ended up a bit strong for me. I kept on looking for more macaroni in the sauce. Mixing in pumpkin puree added a very nice flavor balance and toned down the sharpness of the extra-sharp cheddar & it adds a serving of vegetable as well, score right? 
Another cheese that I have tried on this recipe was Fontina, and it had just a perfect balance of cheese (without being too cheesy!). .. yum!
Slightly adapted from Alton Brown via Food Network
Ingredients
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
1 cup of cooked pumpkin puree
Directions
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.
Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy. Add the cooked pumpkin puree. Serve warm.
Yield: 3-4 servings
I have been enjoying the slightly cooler evenings that we’ve had in the past couple of weeks. Not cool enough to demand a thick coat or sweater, but just enough that I crave pasta and a warm crusty baguette from the oven. I was drawn to this recipe by its simplicity; there are few items required, and it reminds me of the cooking class that I took in Bologna Italy back in 2009. Our cooking instructor didn’t use anything fancy. As a matter of fact, I think her recipe was very similar to this one below. She just emphasized the importance of simmering the meat in tomato sauce for an “extended period of time”. She recommended all day, but let’s face it, I just don’t have it these days. So any cooking time for more than an hour should work. I have added this recipe into our weekly menu rotation since it can easily be doubled, freezes well, and it is a fave at my household. Perfect!
Adapted from My Father’s Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow
Ingredients
5-6 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more as needed
3/4 lb Italian turkey sausage, 4 inch long links
1 lb ground turkey (dark meat ideal)
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and finely diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2-28oz can whole peeled tomatoes with their juice
1/3 cup tomato paste
3/4 lb (3/4 box) rigatoni
grated parmesan cheese for serving
Directions
Heat 2-3 Tbsp of the olive oil in a large heavy pan over medium-high heat. Add the sausages and cook, turning them now and then, until browned all over, about 10 minutes. Remove the sausages to a plate and add the ground turkey to the pan along with a healthy pinch of salt and few fresh grinds of pepper. Cook, stirring here and there for 10 minutes, or until nicely browned. Remove to a separate plate.
Add another 2 or 3 Tbsp of olive oil to the pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook these until softened and just beginning to brown, another solid 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their juice along with about 1/2 cup of water. Add the ground turkey, stir the sauce well, and nestle the sausages in.
Bring the sauce to a boil, season to taste with salt and pepper and turn the heat to low. Cover almost completely with a lid (let the steam escape from one side) and gently simmer for 4 hours adding splashes of water every hour or so if the sauce is at all drying out. Uncover the sauce and stir in the tomato paste, barely cover, and simmer for 1 more hour.
When it’s about ready for serving, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt generously. Drop the pasta in and cook according to package directions.
Serve the sauce over the cooked pasta with a nice grating of parmesan on top. Perfect.
I have been in a rut lately with my pasta dishes. I wanted to make something delicious but yet is still relatively easy to make and doesn’t require elaborate preparation. Since we’re now getting into the asparagus season, I wanted to try a new recipe using asparagus and I thought this was a perfect one to try. This dish is simple, quick to put together, and delicious. I didn’t have smoked mozzarella; so I used regular mozzarella–and I think it still tasted fantastic. The recipe recommends ziti over penne, which more resembles the shape of the asparagus pieces. This is a great quick and easy weeknight dinner for the spring. Happy cooking!
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis Everyday Italian cookbook
Ingredients
8 ounces dried ziti, or other tubular pasta
Salt
1 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut diagonally into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
3 ounces smoked mozzarella cheese, diced (about 1/2 cup), or regular mozzarella cheese
3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut crosswise into strips
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil, or 3 teaspoons of dried basil
Directions
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a couple of pinches of salt. Add the ziti and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add sliced asparagus and cook until the pasta is tender, but still firm to the bite, with the asparagus crisp-tender, approximately 2 minutes. Drain both pasta and asparagus, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
In a large heavy skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until it’s fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add pasta, asparagus, 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper along with the reserved cooking liquid, and toss to coat. Remove skillet from heat. Add the mozzarella, prosciutto and basil. Toss everything together to combine. Season more with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to individual serving dishes and serve.
Yield: 4 first-course servings
Pasta can be considered a main staple at our house. Along with pizza, this is a dish that shows up on our menu every week almost all year long. We love the little blue box of macaroni and cheese that takes less than 10 minutes to whip up, but also appreciate the grown up version like this one. The bacon (who doesn’t love them!), blue cheese, gruyere and cheddar really add nice complex flavors to the everyday macaroni and cheese. I’d say that this is something that is worth turning on your oven for in the summer. Happy eating!
Adapted from Ina Garten, as seen on Food Network
Ingredients
4 ounces thick-sliced bacon
Vegetable oil
Kosher salt
2 cups elbow macaroni or cavatappi
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
3 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated
2 ounces blue cheese, such as Roquefort, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Pinch nutmeg
2 tablespoons of fresh unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil leaves
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and arrange the bacon in 1 layer on the baking rack. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bacon is crisp. Remove the pan carefully from the oven – there will be hot grease in the pan! Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and crumble when it is cool enough to handle.
Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don’t boil it. Melt the butter in a medium pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or 2 more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, blue cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and crumbled bacon and stir well. Pour into 2 individual size gratin dishes.
Mix the bread crumbs with chopped basil. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the top of the pasta. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.
Yield: 2-4 servings
My husband Red has been taking over the cooking duty at our household for the past couple of months. This is a recipe that we often make at our house, but I just realized, I have never posted. The recipe was inspired by Ina’s famous Turkey Lasagna Recipe, but we have modified it to the ingredients that we have readily available at the house. It’s a no-fail recipe that will be sure to satisfy your diners. I have also enjoyed them with sliced fresh mozzarella as topping. Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey (the next six seasoning will be mixed into the ground turkey)
2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pound lasagna noodles (no-boil)
15 ounces ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat the olive oil in a large (10 to 12-inch) skillet. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes over medium-low heat, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
Mix the following six seasoning listed under ground turkey ingredient into ground turkey.
Add the seasoned ground turkey mixture and cook over medium-low heat, breaking it up with a fork, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until no longer pink. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the basil, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 15 to 20 minutes, until thickened.
Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with the hottest tap water. Add the noodles and allow them to sit in the water for 20 minutes. Drain.
In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, goat cheese, 1 cup of Parmesan, the egg, the remaining 2 tablespoons of parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.
Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into a 9 by 12 by 2-inch rectangular baking dish, spreading the sauce over the bottom of the dish. Then add the layers as follows: half the pasta, half the mozzarella, half the ricotta, and one third of the sauce. Add the rest of the pasta, mozzarella, ricotta, and finally, sauce. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling.
Yield: 8 servings
Sometimes I forget how simple pasta dishes are! They usually can be put together pretty quickly using ingredients I already have in my pantry and are usually satisfying. One of my all time favorite way to enjoy pasta is a la carbonara. I absolutely love the Tom Cruise’s version of spaghetti carbonara and appreciate that he uses olive oil instead of cream in his sauce. However, I still wanted to try another variation of this pasta dish and the recipe that I decided to try was Giada’s Penne a la Carbonara from her Everyday Italian cookbook.
This dish uses heavy-cream instead of olive oil, so it definitely has a little more depth than the Tom Cruise’s version, but it was still light and delicious. This actually reminds me to a lot of the pasta carbonara that I had during my trip to Italy earlier this summer, so it scored points with Red! It was so good that I was amazed that we don’t make this more frequently!
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb pancetta, diced into 1-inch cubes (I used bacon)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt plus more to taste
1 lb dried penne
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Directions
In a large saute pan, heat the oil over a medium flame. When almost smoking, add the pancetta and saute until golden brown and crispy, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper and remove the pan from the heat.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and cream. Stir in 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp of sea salt, and 1/4 tsp of pepper.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the penne and cook until it is just tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain. Do not rinse the pasta with water; you want to retain the pasta’s natural starches that help the sauce adhere.
While the pasta is still hot, return it to the pot, and quickly toss with the browned pancetta, then the cream mixture. It’s important to work quickly while the pasta is still hot so that the cream mixture will cook, but not curdle. Toss with the remaining cup of Parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley. Season the pasta with more salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the pasta to bowls and serve.
Yield: 4-main course serving
I used to adore Tom Cruise, until his couch jumping stint on Oprah. Then I thought that he was too creepy for me. So creepy that I refused to watch the MI-3 until it went to DVD. However, I kept on hearing raves on his spaghetti carbonara –so I knew that I just had to try it. Plus, I thought that this was a simple enough recipe that if I ended up liking it, we can make this a staple at our house.
The recipe looked simple enough, we basically had everything it called for, except the thick pancetta, so used thick-sliced bacon, and it was wonderful!! This was the BEST spaghetti carbonara that I have ever had (I have never been to Italy before, so it may change this summer! But for now, this was IT). I was licking the plate like there was no tomorrow. Enjoy!
Adapted from Oprah.com
Ingredients
1/2 inch olive oil (for frying pan)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 chopped onion
8 to 12 thick slices Italian bacon
4 eggs
2 packages spaghetti
2 cups grated parmesan cheese
Directions
In a frying pan, combine 1/2 inch of olive oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic, one chopped onion and the Italian bacon cut into small squares. Let simmer for about a half-hour, being careful not to let the oil get to a boiling point.
In a bowl, beat 4 eggs with lots of salt and fresh ground pepper.
Bring a pan of salted water to a boil. Cook both packages of spaghetti until al dente, drain and immediately add egg mixture to pasta. The eggs are actually cooked by the pasta. (Make sure the eggs are thoroughly cooked before proceeding.) Stir the egg mixture until it is well mixed. Pour in the mixture from the frying pan and stir. Finish with the parmesan cheese and serve!
Yield: generous 6-8 servings
