Tag Archives: weeknight pasta recipe

A Pasta That’s Elementary and A Wine That’s Elemental

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An easy and nourishing vegetarian pasta dish with the buttery taste of pine nuts.
An easy and nourishing vegetarian pasta dish with the buttery taste of pine nuts.

One can never have too many simple, no-brainer pasta recipes to fall back on during a hectic weeknight. Nor one that goes so perfectly with a freshing wine that’s breaking new ground in packaging.

“Penne with Broccoli, Pine Nuts & Ricotta” is ideal for those times when you have leftover ricotta from baking a sweet treat.

This quick and nourishing vegetarian pasta dish is from the cookbook, “The Mediterranean Cook” (Smith Street Books), of which I received a review copy.

It was written by Meni Valle, an Australian cookbook author of Greek heritage who’s an expert on Mediterranean cuisine.

Arranged by the seasons, the no-fuss recipes include “Watermelon & Feta Salad with Flaked almonds, Honey Vinaigrette & Mint” and “Pumpkin & Feta Piet” in spring-summer; and “Green Minestrone” and “Roasted Eggplant with Cannellini Beans” in autumn-winter.

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No-Cook Tomato Sauce Pasta For The Scorching Days of Summer

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Beat the heat with this fresh, no-cook tomato sauce with basil and mozzarella over pasta.
Beat the heat with this fresh, no-cook tomato sauce with basil and mozzarella over pasta.

When it’s way too hot to contemplate cooking most anything, and your gardening-goddess friend Annie gifts you a bushel of home-grown tomatoes, what do you do?

You make “No-Cook Tomato Sauce Pasta.” And thank the stars that you did.

This recipe comes from Bon Appetit magazine. But I tweaked it a little by making enough sauce to coat not 12 ounces of spaghetti, but 1 pound, so it can serve four easily. I also added in a generous handful of diced whole-milk mozzarella to go with all the fresh, torn basil leaves.

Thanks to my friend Annie with the super green thumb.
Thanks to my friend Annie with the super green thumb.

The result is a fresh, bright tasting pasta that comes together in a cinch and tastes every bit like a Caprese salad with noodles.

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Any Night’s Right for Pasta Aglio E Olio Con Peperoncino

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Classic olive oil-garlic-hot pepper pasta gets a boost.

Classic olive oil-garlic-hot pepper pasta gets a boost.

 

You gotta love a recipe that’s so easy yet so sublime that it can be both a quick clean-out-the-pantry desperation dish, as well as a fit-for-company dazzler.

“Pasta Aglio E Olio Con Peperoncino” is exactly that.

It’s straight-forward enough to whip together on a weeknight when you don’t know what else to make after coming home after work. And it’s special enough to make for spur-of-the-moment guests who come calling unexpectedly.

It’s from “House of Vinegar: The Power of Sour, with Recipes” (Ten Speed Press), of which I received a review copy. It’s by James Beard Award-winning Chef Jonathon Sawyer of Cleveland’s Greenhouse Tavern. You may recognize as a competitor on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef Gauntlet” and the Cooking Channel’s “Chopped.”

House of Vinegar

As the name implies, the book is all about how vinegar can transform dishes. Depending upon how much you use, it adds noticeable tang, rounds flavors, and can help tame and balance sweetness, bitterness and saltiness.

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Get Ready to Inhale: Fettuccine With Preserved Lemon and Roasted Garlic

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It only takes a handful of ingredients to make this sensational pasta dish.

It only takes a handful of ingredients to make this sensational pasta dish.

 

How many times do you come home pooped, cranky and starved, only to peer into a half-empty fridge and wonder what in the world you can eat to make you feel a whole lot better fast?

“Fettuccine with Preserved Lemon and Roasted Garlic” will do the trick.

Especially if you keep a handy-dandy jar of home-made preserved lemons in your fridge at all times like me. Which you should.

Particularly if you grow your own little pot of rosemary. Which you ought — because it comes in so handy.

And most readily, if you keep a stash of already roasted garlic in your fridge or freezer. Which you need to promise yourself you’ll do, because you’ll use it for so many things, including the tastiest garlic bread on the fly.

HomemadeKitchen

The pasta recipe is from “The Homemade Kitchen: Recipes For Cooking With Pleasure” (Clarkson Potter), of which I received a review copy.

The cookbook is by Alana Chernila, a Massachusetts food writer and cooking teacher who blogs at EatingFromTheGroundUp.

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