Tag Archives: pasta

Linguine with Easy Meat Sauce

I remember when I was younger, my mom would often make spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner. She would brown the beef in an electric skillet and let the tomato sauce simmer with the meat for what seemed like forever. This recipe for Linguine with Easy Meat Sauce tastes just as good as her spaghetti dinners and can be made in a fraction of the time. Fresh linguine, which takes no time at all to cook, is topped with a meaty, tomato-y sauce, shaved parmesan cheese and chopped parsley. I used ground turkey in place of the lean beef and the recipe still tasted great. I was really looking forward to having these leftovers to take for lunch this week but after my friend and I got home from a night on the town Saturday, we ended up devouring every last bite of it. I just might have to make more!

This is one of Cooking Light Magazine’s “Superfast” recipes (dishes that can be made in 20 minutes). I’m happy to say that I was chosen as the “Superfast Fan of the Month” for December 2011! For more Superfast recipes (and to find out how you can be a Superfast fan like me), check it out here.

The ingredients:

Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, add turkey, onion, garlic, oregano, and salt to a skillet and cook over medium-high heat until turkey is thoroughly cooked.

Stir in tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.

Add in undrained diced tomatoes and bring to a boil, cooking for 1 minute. Reduce heat and cook for 3 minutes.

Top each serving with parmesan cheese and chopped parsley.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Ground turkey for ground beef

Overall Rating: Love It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna

I have a very vivid memory of the last time I ate butternut squash: It was March 2003 and I was in a restaurant in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas where I ate butternut squash soup while President Bush declared war on Iraq on a nearby television. I’ll never forget it. It was the first time I’d had butternut squash and may be why it’s been so long since I’ve tried it again. I was a vegetarian then and although I liked the soup, I remember thinking it was very rich and I couldn’t finish it. This recipe for Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna is the first time I’ve ever cooked anything with butternut squash before. If you aren’t sure how to peel or cut a butternut squash, check out this website which helped me. The butternut squash is roasted in the oven with garlic until soft and sweet. Meanwhile, onions are slowly caramelized and spinach is wilted in a pan on the stove. These soft veggies are all piled between layers of no-boil lasagna noodles (one less step!) and a creamy, cheesy bechemel sauce. This vegetarian lasagna takes a little preparation but if you like a savory dish with a hint of sweetness, you’ll probably like this.

The ingredients (ignore the diced tomatoes, my mistake!):

Peel and chop the butternut squash. Add to a baking sheet with sage and garlic (leave garlic whole, not chopped like I did) and roast in the oven for half an hour at 425°F. Once mixture has cooled slightly, pour into a bowl and mash with a fork.

While squash roasts, sauté the onions in oil for a few minutes. Lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes until soft and caramelized. Set aside in a bowl.

In the same pan used to cook the onions, add water and spinach and cover until spinach is wilted. Add spinach to bowl with onions.

In a separate saucepan, bring milk, thyme sprig and bay leaf to a boil. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Discard the thyme sprig and bay leaf and return the pan to heat. In a small bowl, combine remaining milk and flour. Add mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil.

Once bechemel is thickened, add salt, cheese, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg.

In a baking dish, layer bechemel sauce, lasagna noodles, and veggies (in that order) and repeat, ending with noodles.

Cover last layer of noodles with remaining bechemel sauce and bake at 425° for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese over top of lasagna and broil until golden brown.

Additions:

Parmesan cheese on top

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

Italian four-cheese for fontina (because I had it on hand)

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine

Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Any day now, one of our national channels will be showing the classic animated special, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. It seems only fitting that I break out my pumpkin recipes this week (if you don’t like pumpkin, you may want to check back next week!) in honor of this seasonal favorite. My first recipe is the savory Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells.

Jumbo shells are filled with pumpkin, ricotta, cheese, and fresh herbs and baked in tomato sauce. These shells are SO good! The woodsy sage in the ricotta mixture blends well with the pumpkin and the basil provides a freshness to the whole dish. Stuffed shells sometimes seem more work than they are worth but if you use a storage or freezer bag to stuff the shells, the whole process will be much easier.