Tri-Colour Italian Pasta Salad

I wish I could claim this one but, to be honest, even though I made it, it came from an Epicure cookbook. Dining Alfresco (which I've made a surprising number of things out of now that I've paged through it again).

4 c bite-sized pasta (I used rotini as it is my pasta salad pasta of choice)
2 c broccoli florets
1 recipe prepared VE Verde Vinaigrette
1 red bell pepper, coarsely diced
1 green bell pepper, coarsely diced
2 c halved cherry tomatoes
1 c cubed mozzarella cheese
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta al dente.
Steam the broccoli until tender crisp and refresh under cold water. Drain and set aside.
Whisk Verde Vinaigrette into large bowl and toss with the rest of the ingredients to coat. Season as you wish.

I'm going to make this tomorrow for my lunches over the next couple of days.
K,J

Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Onion

This is another one of my simple meals. I had never tried this before, but it came out really tasty. Just cook 4-6 ounces of mushrooms (I had 4 ounces leftover from the other day, but I would probably go with more than that next time) and a small chopped onion in olive oil over low heat until caramelized.

Meanwhile, cook one serving of spaghetti. When done, drain the pasta and pour it into the pan with the mushrooms and onion. Cook all together for another minute, and you're done. Serve with Italian bread, and all is well in the world.

The meal ended up costing me just 22 cents (for the onion) since I already had all the other items, so that's good too.

And for dessert, try some oatmeal!

If at first you don't succeed...

..make the Herb & Garlic Cheddar Biscuits again. I set the timer for 20 minutes because 30 minutes at 450F seemed like a hellaciously long time. Well, 20 minutes was still too long but they were definitely edible this time. Next time I'll check at 15 minutes and go from there.

Anyway, to go along side with that I cooked up some packaged gnocchi that I had in the fridge (did I ever mention that making gnocchi from scratch is on my 100 list?). I also melted 2 T butter into a little saucepan and then whisked in about a T of flour, maybe a little more. After it cooked a little bit I added about 3/4 c of milk and 2 T (thereabouts) of Epicure Caesar Dressing Mix and simmered it for a couple of minutes until it started to thicken.

I piled the gnocchi into a couple of whiteware baking dishes, truth be told, it would have worked better to make three of them. The sauce had thickened a little too much so I whisked in about another half cup of milk and then about 1/4 c of parmesan cheese and poured it over the gnocchi. I sprinkled it with bacon bits because I didn't have any real live bacon (that would have completely rocked it) and then threw it into the oven that was still hot from the biscuits for a couple of minutes.

After I pulled the pasta out, I grated a little bit of pecorino cheese over the top of it and served it with buttered biscuits. A little salad with vinaigrette would have finished it off perfectly but it wasn't to be tonight.

Spaghetti with Anchovies, Garlic, and Chili

I got this recipe from the student cookbook Jody gave me, and it was so good that it was almost as if someone came into my apartment and cooked me a meal. It was also the hottest thing I have ever cooked for myself.

4 T olive oil
4 garlic cloves, halved
1 red chili, quartered (Next time, a half a chili will be quite enough.)
Spaghetti
Small can of anchovies
freshly ground black pepper (Actually, I forgot to add this.)

Cook one serving of spaghetti. In a small saucepan, heat oil and gently cook garlic and chili until golden brown. Remove chili and garlic. Add anchovies to oil and cook for about two minutes. Add 1/4 pint of water (or half cup -- thanks, Internet) and boil until pasta is ready. Whisk with fork to break up anchovies, if needed.

Drain pasta and pour over sauce. Toss well and sprinkle with black pepper (or not as the case may be). This is meant to be two servings, but I didn't think anchovies would last all that long, so I used all the sauce over one serving of pasta. Jody did tell me the oil would be flavored with the garlic and chili, but I was shocked at how much flavor there was.

I'm definitely trying this again, though next time with only half the chili.

Ziti with Broccoli and Blue Cheese

So I tried this out of the student cookbook Jody got me for Christmas. I love blue cheese and actually like broccoli, despite being convinced otherwise for many years. It's a pretty simple recipe, though this is the first time I've ever used flour to make a sauce. A whole new world may have opened up.

6 oz. Macaroni (or ziti in this case)
8 oz. Broccoli florets
Knob of Butter (I had to use the Internet to figure out how much this is supposed to be, and I'm still not entirely sure.)
1 T Flour (I've never bought flour before, but there are 32 more ounces where this came from, so watch out.)
7 oz. Vegetable stock (I used chicken stock instead.)
Grated rind and juice of half a lemon (I skipped the rind, as I just had a plastic container of lemon juice.)
2 oz. crumbled blue cheese

Cook pasta for 7 minutes and then add broccoli to water and cook for another 5 minutes.
Heat butter in a small pan, add flour, and beat together with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Gradually stir in stock and bring to a boil.
Add lemon juice and simmer gently for one minute.
Put drained pasta and broccoli in a dish and pour over the sauce.
Sprinkle over the blue cheese and toss well.

Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad, though I had some serious doubts before starting to eat. It was rather soupier than I would have liked. I suspect this was because the broccoli was overcooked and still a bit soggy after I drained it. (Five minutes over a gas stove might be too long for broccoli.) Any other ideas?

Greek Pasta

This one is similar to my earlier all-oval meal with mushrooms. Instead, I replaced the mushrooms with black olives, ditched the garlic, and had feta instead of Parmesan cheese. Also, I cut things in half, so it wasn't quite as oval.

Some black olives cut in half
Some grape tomatoes cut in half
Olive oil
Feta Cheese
Pasta

Cook in olives and tomatoes in olive oil. Toss with pasta, and add feta at the end. Pretty simple, though possibly more advanced than bachelor chow.

Chicken Fusili with Snow Peas

But I didn't use fusili, I used whole wheat spaghetti. I did use snow peas and the rest of that bland chicken from the other night.

1 lb pasta
1 1/2 c whipping cream (I actually used evaporated skim milk because that was a tip on the bottom for a lighter version, I didn't think that my liver would do whipping cream today)
2 T Epicure Caesar Salad Dressing Mix (I added a little extra)
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup cooked snow peas
fresh grated parmesan for garnish and accent.

Cook the pasta and in a separate pan, heat the milk/cream. Add the chicken and peas and continue to heat for 3-4 minutes. I added a couple of tablespoons of parmesan right to the sauce.

I guess it's supposed to be kind of like an alfredo sauce but it I think I let it thicken just a little too much. Still really tasty though, I would not put as much stuff in and maybe simmer the sauce a little longer to let it thicken naturally next time. That dressing mix was really nice in there though.

Oh yeah, this came out of the VE Bella Cucina cookbook (sort of)