Vegetarian Lemon Basil Pasta

Remember how I told you that I am obsessed with lemon zest and salt right now?  I put it on my granola, I put it on my ice cream, and now, here it is on a fresh summer pasta!  This pasta was me trying to use up a few last (random) things from our kitchen in Austin, but it turned out deliciously!  I was very impressed with the lemon, chickpea, basil blend. 

I really should experiment more often!  And I plan on doing it a lot once we get to the house we are renting this summer.  I just walked through it this week, and I am super excited, because it is beautiful! I think it will be a really great move for us, even if it will only last the summer!  Happy weekend! 

Vegetarian Lemon Basil Pasta:
Serves 4

1 package spaghetti noodles, angel hair or linguine
3-5 Tbs basil pesto (homemade or from the store)
1 14-oz can rinsed chickpeas
1 Tbs olive oil
1 bunch basil leaves, washed and thinly sliced.
1 lemon, zested
1 1/2 tsp sea salt, divided

Preheat your oven to 400°F.  On a rimmed baking sheet, lined with a silicone mat, pour your chickpeas in an even layer.  Pour the olive oil over the top and then toss to coat the chickpeas.  Sprinkle with one teaspoon of sea salt and toss again. Cook for 15-20 minutes, until they are golden brown and slightly crisp.

While you are baking the chickpeas (ideally, about 10-12 minutes baking), prepare your noodles according to package directions.

Once the noodles are done, drain the water out, and immediately mix in the pesto.  Sprinkle the basil leaves over the top.

Once the chickpeas are done, remove them from the oven, pour over the top of the pasta.  Sprinkle pasta with lemon zest and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (if this seems like too much for you, set the sea salt on the table to be sprinkled on individual servings, as needed)


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Sweet Potato Pesto Pasta (30 minute meal)

The last few weeks I have done an insane amount of sewing.  I typically only sew about once a month, but the last 6 weeks or so, I have been doing all kinds of projects for friends.  A few prom dresses, a slip for another dress, some hemming, etc. It has been kinda crazy.  I haven't sewn this much since I was prepping for my craft market a year and a half ago.  

Because of this, I have been trying to cut down on dinner prep.  I often do some dinner prep during the day, but some days I just don't have time to do it.  Enter sweet potato pesto pasta.  I am not even sure where I came up with the idea for it.  I think it was what I had in my fridge, so I threw it together, and it was awesome!  

So fast, super easy and really tasty.  Plus serving noodles to Fox is the cutest, because he slurps them.  This recipe will only take you about 30 minutes from start to finish, and you will have a nice hearty vegetarian main dish. I would serve it with some garlic toast and a green salad.  

P.S. Did you enter my giveaway for a set of cloth napkins or produce bags?  It ends at midnight tonight.  Click on this instagram link here to enter!  

Pesto Sweet Potato Pasta: 
serves 4

1 Tbs butter
1 Large Sweet Potato, cubed
liberal sprinkle of sea salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 package whole wheat spaghetti noodles
3 Tbs Basil Pesto (I used pesto from the grocery store this time)
2 Tbs Parmesan, freshly shredded

Melt the butter in a medium-sized cast-iron frying pan.  Add the cubed sweet potato.  Sprinkle with sea salt and cook it for 8-10 minutes on medium-low heat, until the sweet potato is soft in the middle and beginning to brown on the outside.  Stir it occasionally.

While the potatoes begin to cook, take a medium-sized saucepan, and fill it with 5 or so cups of water.  Bring it to a boil, and add the pasta, and turn the heat down to medium high.  Cook until the pasta is the way you like it (I like mine just barely soft in the middle, about 7 minutes).

Once your pasta is cooked, drain the water, and put in a serving bowl.  Add the oil, garlic powder and a few more sprinkles of sea salt.  Once the sweet potato is finished cooking, pour it over the top, and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Serve immediately.

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Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce

Butternut squash was a totally foreign food to me for many years. I don't think I had ever seen one (that I recognized, at least) until I was in college.  This is not to say that my mom didn't expose us to different foods, because she did, I just think that it wasn't a popular vegetable when I was growing up.

I feel like the internet/Pinterest has made a lot of foods more accessible for your average home cook.  Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it feel like the under-appreciated vegetables like radishes, cabbage, and leeks are getting a moment in the spotlight?  I am still warming up to radishes, but I really like cabbage and I adore leeks now, and previously cabbage was a tolerated vegetable, and I couldn't have identified a leek to save my life.  

Anyway, back to butternut squash.  My first encounter (sorry, Mom, if you fed them to me earlier; I have no memory of it) with them was in college.  I worked in the Theater Department's costume shop, and one of the many perks was that my bosses were incredible cooks, and a few times a month, one of them would bring something delicious to share with everyone.  Those were glorious days! 

One day I peeked into the crockpot sitting on the communal food table, and the substance inside was bright yellow and completely unidentifiable to me.  When I discovered it was butternut squash soup, I was quite nervous.  I think the smell of butternut squash baby food might have come to mind, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it.  

After a moment's debate, I went for it, and--lo and behold--it was like liquid gold.  It was incredible.  Creamy, thick, and delicious.  I immediately requested the recipe and have had a happy relationship with butternut squash ever since.  

This recipe isn't based on that soup at all, but it is creamy, cheesy, and slightly peppery.  I think next time I will add leeks, because the only thing that could make this sauce more delicious is leeks.  

Butternut Squash Pasta Sauce:
Serves 4

1 Tbs olive oil
1 medium-sized butternut squash
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cups water/vegetable broth
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

First, peel your squash.  Slice it in half, then cut off the top and bottom of the squash and discard them.  Remove the seeds and the stringy center. Now chop the remaining squash center into small cubes.

In a large frying pan, add the olive oil and the butternut squash.  Add the garlic powder, salt, oregano, basil and black pepper and stir until the spices are relatively evenly distributed in the squash.  Stir for a two or so minutes on medium-high, then reduce the heat to medium-low and cover.  Stir the squash occasionally to keep them from browning.

Once the squash is soft and can be easily pierced with a fork, dump the squash into the blender and add the broth and milk.  Blend until smooth.  Pour mixture into a stock pot and turn to medium-high heat until the soup is heated through.  Add the cheese and let it melt.

Serve over pasta (semolina pasta, like a macaroni or penne) is a great choice for this one.

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Culinary Adventures: Homemade Pasta with Spicy Italian Sausage and Cream Cheese Sauce

Adam took a quick trip to the library to return some books a week or so ago and he came home with this beauty: 

It is all about a restaurant in San Fransisco (called Flour + Water) that makes loads of specialty pastas.  They have a few different recipes in their cook book for doughs, and lots of tasty looking recipes for homemade tortellini, ravioli fillings, spaghetti type sauces and more.  

Adam was intrigued, and was completely determined to make pasta (I was 100% willing to support that decision).  Thus was born a new series: Culinary Adventures.  We decided that there are a lot of tricky, but fun (and delicious) things to make out there.  You may not be interested in making them, but hopefully you will be interested in the process, which can be super amazing (and time consuming)!  This is the first of many culinary adventures that we hope to have and post here.

Spicy Turkey and Cream Sauce with Bow Tie Pasta
Makes 4 medium-sized servings

Pasta Recipe: 
from flour+water (if you are truly serious about making delicious pasta, I would check out this book from your local library, because the directions are much more extensive (about 4 pages) with many more suggestions, particularly about using a pasta-roller, which we didn't do.  I have given a decent summary of the directions that they give, but if you feel that you require more directions, take a look at the book)

1 cups of well-packed flour
3/4 tsp salt
9-10  egg yolks (about 1/2 cup plus 1/8 cup)
3/4 tsp olive oil
Place the flour on a dry, clean work surface, forming a smallish mound.  Sprinkle the salt in the middle.  Using the bottom of a measuring cup or drinking glass, make a well in the middle with at least a 1/2 inch of flour covering the floor of the well.  Carefully add the olive oil and egg yolks to the well, using the flour as a bowl.

Using a fork, very carefully beat the eggs without touching the flour walls or scraping through the bottom of the flour bowl.  Slowly incorporate the flour walls into the egg, working your way to the outer edges of the flour, without touching the floor of your flour bowl.  Once the dough takes on a paste-like quality, start to incorporate the flour on the bottom.  Once the paste begins to form a solid dough, remove as much as you can from the fork.  Slide a spatula or bench scraper under the mass of dough and flip it and turn it onto itself to clear wet dough from the counter or work surface.

With your hands, knead the dough into a single mass.  The goal is to mix all the flour into the mass.  Use a spray bottle to spritz the dough.  It is dry dough and the books says that "it cannot be overstated how important it is to generously and constantly spritz the dough to help glue any loose flour to the dry dough ball".  When the dough is a solid and stiff mass, scrape any dry bits of flour from the work surface.  Knead the dough with the heel of your hand, rotating the dough every knead for 10 to 15 minutes.

According to "Flour + Water" it is almost impossible to over knead pasta dough, but it won't work correctly if it isn't kneaded enough.  It can spend too much time on the worktable though, and begin to dehydrate.  10 to 15 minutes should be plenty of time.  When the dough is done, it will be firm and bounce to the touch, almost like play dough.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, but no longer than 6 hours.

You can roll out the dough with a hand crank machine, or if you are tough like Adam, you can roll it out by hand.  Slice a section off the ball, and quickly wrap up the rest of the dough in plastic.  Roll the small section out with a rolling pin and flatten it to fit the widest setting of the pasta machine.  The dough will begin to dehydrate, so it is important to do this part quickly.  Roll the dough through the machine, or roll it out by hand.

When you have reached your desired thickness (about 1/16 of an inch or thinner), lay the dough of a flat surface.  Now measure out and cut the lines for the bow ties.  Cut the pasta into small rectangles, and fold and pinch the middle to create a bow.  Lay out on a cookie sheet until all are formed.  Once you have formed all the pasta, add to a pot of boiling water, and let cook until they are soft.  Serve with sauce immediately.

Ground Turkey Sausage:
adapted from Food.com
1/2 lb raw ground turkey
2 tsp dried basil
1 1/2 tps brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Mix all the ingredients except the ground turkey together.  Add the ground turkey and mix to combine.  Place turkey in a frying pan and cook on medium heat until it begins to brown.  Remove from pan and make the sauce.

Cream Sauce:
adapted from Mel's kitchen cafe
3 Tbs Butter
3 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/4 tsp Rosemary
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 cup + 2 tsp milk
1 tsp flour
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Melt the 3 Tbs butter.  Add cream cheese and smoosh with a rubber spatula until mixture is relatively smooth.  Add herbs and stir, then slowly add the milk.  Then add the flour and parmesan cheese.  Salt and pepper if desired.  Immediately serve with ground turkey sausage over pasta.

Enjoy a serious sense of accomplishment for having made homemade pasta.  It is a pretty satisfying feeling!

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