Eggplant Parmigiana, Gorgonzola Pasta, and Pesto Pasta

It's been pretty busy here with school, so I haven't had much time to update lately. I have made Eggplant Parmigiana with stuffed mushrooms and Fred made Gorgonzola Pasta for Valentines. I am making Pesto Pasta tonight!

The Eggplant Parmigiana was awesome! I don't have the recipe for the stuffed mushrooms, we just kind of winged it.

Ingredients:

2lbs eggplat
salt
3 balls mozzarella
3/4 cups fresh basil leaves
2 14 ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes (I used pureed)
1/2 cup flour
pepper
2/3 cup olive oil
2 ounces Parmesan grated

Method:

Rinse eggplant and cut in half. Take the halves and chop into smaller lengthwise slices. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for 15 minutes,

Drain mozzarella and slice thinly. Chop basil and tomatoes add to bowl with the juice from the can, salt and pepper.

Pat the eggplant dry. Make a plate with the flour and pepper. Dredge the eggplant through the flour mixture to lightly coat it. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil to a pan and heat on medium. Start adding the coated eggplant and cook it until it is golden brown.

Line casserole dish with non-stick spray. Put a layer of eggplant down, then tomato mixture, then top with mozzarella cheese. Continue doing this until you run out of ingredients then sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and add small pats of butter on the top. Cook for 30 minutes or until golden. Let rest for 10 minutes then serve.






The Gorgonzola Pasta was AMAZING!! It was a bit rich but I highly recommend it!

Ingredients:

8 ounces Gorgonzola
1 small onion (we used scallions)
1 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 pound pasta (we used linguine noodles)
salt and pepper

Method:
Cut Gorgonzola into small pieces. Peel onion and garlic--chop them both finely.
Heat butter and oil in pot until butter melts. Add garlic and onion then sautee briefly. Turn heat to low and add cream and Gorgonzola stirring until it melts--sauce should be slightly thick.
Prepare pasta. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

Both of these recipes were absolutely stunning!

Lemon Cream Spaghetti

Tonights dinner was Lemon Cream Spaghetti. It was good, but not awesome. I think I would have made it differently. I would have added shrimp.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
-1 lb spaghetti (I used linguine noodles)
-2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
-1 lemon
-1 tablespoon butter (I used 3)
-1 1/2 cups tender shelled peas (I used steamfresh)
-8 ounces heavy cream
-salt & pepper

Method:
Boil water and prepare pasta according to the instructions on box
While pasta is cooking, melt butter in pan. Add garlic and peas--sautee briefly. Zest lemon into sauce and add cream. Bring to a simmer over medium heat until sauce is slightly reduced. Stir in 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Salt & pepper to taste and remove from heat.
Put the sauce on top of the noodles and serve.

I might try this again, add more butter, shrimp, less peas, and modify the amount of lemon.

Lasagna With Two Sauces

Tonights dinner is Lasagna with Two Sauces. One sauce is a cream sauce, the other a tomato. It sounded really good and I wanted to try my hand at a different kind of lasagna.
While making it, I noticed that I did not have enough sauce. I made extra cream sauce and it still wasn't enough and the tomato sauce barely covered the last layer. My noodles on the other hand were plentiful.

Here are the ingredients:

1 lb Lasagna noodles

Cream Sauce:
1/4 cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour (scant)
4 cups fat-free milk
1/4 teaspoon each salt and ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Tomato Sauce:
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 med. stalk celery, minced
1 med. carrot, finely shredded
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I used my garlic press)
1 lb lean ground beef
1 tablespoon butter
1 1/4 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 14 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes (juice included)
Salt & Pepper
(recipe also called for panceta, but I had no clue what it was and couldn't find it.)

Layering:
8 ounces lasagna sheets
salt (for boiling water)
2 balls fresh mozzarella (1/2 lb)
4 tablespoons Parmesan
1 tablespoon butter

Method:

Cream Sauce:

Heat butter over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, salt and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute; cover and keep warm. If sauce thickens, beat in small amount of milk. Sauce should be the consistency of heavy cream.

Tomato Sauce:

Heat olive oil and butter in pan. Add the carrot, onion, garlic, and celery (after chopping them up). Saute briefly then add ground beef. Cook beef until crumbly and brown. Add tomatoes (chop them up) and beef broth. Simmer for an hour salt and pepper to taste.


Cook lasagna and set to the side.

Dice the mozzarella and grease the pan you are baking the lasagna in. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Add cream sauce to bottom of pan, then noodles. Next add the tomato sauce layer, the cream sauce layer, and mozzarella. Add another layer of noodles and repeat. Do this until top layer and cover everything with Parmesan cheese and bits of butter.

Bake for 40 minutes

Everyone gave it a 9 or 10...Grandaddy even said it was the best lasagna he ever had!

February is Italian!!

OK, yes I have been a slacker and have not updated my blog....but I got sick, got schooled, and got busy....so now while I have a few minutes while my one pasta sauce is boiling, I am going to update. This month is Italian. I wanted to try to add French to this month as well, but it was reallllly freaking hard to do and seeing as I was so sick and busy, it wasn't practical either (plus there are less days in this month....).

Yesterday I made some homemade pasta sauce with bowties. It was really easy......SUPER easy actually.

Ingredients:
-4 cloves of garlic (I used my garlic press here)
-1 onion
-4 cans of diced tomatoes (I like using the kind that has seasonings like basil/oregano)
-3 tablespoons olive oil
-seasonings to your likening ( I used rosemary, oregano, parsley, italian seasoning, cilantro, & basil)
-1/2 cup red wine
-1/2 cup white
-pinch of sugar
-Salt & Pepper to taste
Just take the olive oil and heat it up. Then sautee garlic, onion and seasonings for under 5 minutes. Then add white wine. Cook another minute. Then add tomatoes and a pinch of sugar. Bring to a simmer and add red wine. Taste to see if more seasonings are needed. Cook for at least 4 hours, preferably six or longer.

For the bowties, I just cooked them normally then added a tiny bit of olive oil and rosemary at the end.

It was yummy... I also made some garlic bread using Italian bread with butter and garlic powder...super easy as well.


Now I am making a 2 sauce lasagna, it smells awesome and is looking good. I will make another post and give you the recipe there!! Now I need to go check on it!