Penne with Basil, Spinach, and Ricotta Pesto

These days, we often plan our dinners in a kid-friendly fashion in hopes that our son will eat a nutritious meal.  I refuse to make a completely different dinner for my son because I don't want to instill bad habits, but I also think that in order to do this, you have to make something appropriate for kids.  For example, something super spicy or full of alcohol probably isn't wise!

Because I work during the week and my husband stays home with the boy, he makes dinner during the week, and I get the weekends to be creative.  Usually by the weekend, we've run out of everything, and we haven't planned anything specific.  I'm too tired to go shopping, and this gets done during my hubby during the week anyway.  So, we usually have some sort of clean-out-the-fridge dinner.

This night, we had penne with a unique (I think) and good pesto.

Penne with Basil, Spinach, and Ricotta Pesto

1 pound dried penne pasta

2 cups basil leaves

1/4 pound baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 ounces ricotta cheese

olive oil

Bring large pot of water to boil and cook penne according to package directions.

Heat medium skillet over medium heat and drizzle with olive oil.  When hot, add garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add spinach and cook until wilted.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  There is no need to drain the spinach.

Place spinach mixture and basil leaves in a food processor with enough oil to thoroughly chop and puree the greens.  Place the puree in a bowl with ricotta cheese.  Add hot pasta.  Toss and enjoy!!

Pasta and Bean Stew

My grandmother made this dish for us, and I find it yummy to have a bean gravy with your pasta. This version is a vegetarian version derived from “Food and Memories of Abruzzo, Italy’s Pastoral Land,” by Anna Teresa Callen.

Beans:
1 pound cranberry beans, picked over and washed
1 celery rib with leaves
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 sprigs fresh parsely
2 bay leaves
1 piece of Parmesan rind (a large hunk of the hard rind left from a Parmesan wheel)
Sauce:
1 medium onion, quartered
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 4 pieces
1 sprig fresh parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 16 oz. can pureed tomatoes
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Freshly ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Pasta:
1 cup short pasta, such as tubetti or lumachine

Soak beans and drain and rinse. Place beans, celery, garlic, parsley, and bay leaves in a large soup pot. Add 2½ quarts of cold water. Bring to a boil. Add the Parmesan rind to the beans. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until the beans are tender, about 2 hours.

To prepare the sauce, place the veggies, including the parsley, in a food processor to chop finely. In a 10-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the chopped vegetables. Cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 to 8 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes and tomato paste, stir, add pepper and the red pepper flakes. Cook the sauce over medium-low heat at a simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes.

With a slotted spoon, remove the celery, garlic, and parsley that was cooked with the beans. Place these in a food processor with 1 cup of the beans. Puree and return to the pot. Add the sauce, bring the soup back to a boil, reduce heat to low, and summer 10 to 15 minutes longer.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain. Add the pasta to the beans and bring the soup back to a boil and cook until the pasta is done, 5 to 8 minutes. Let the soup rest 5 minutes before serving.

Multi-grain Penne Rigate with Goat Cheese and Ricotta Salata

On Friday nights, I'm exhausted by the work week I've just completed. I'm always happy to see that I've planned an easy and comforting meal for those nights. The ideal for me is to have a warm meal in minutes and watch a movie wrapped in a blanket.

This week, I left the planning somewhat open, but I knew that I had penne rigate in the cupboard and tomatoes and veggies. From other recipes, I had goat cheese and ricotta salata left, so a new pasta dish was born!

The beauty of pasta is that you don't need to know much about cooking to prepare a sauce of your choice with the pasta shape of your choice. It's always a wonderful fall-back.

We usually buy fresh pasta from our hippie friend at the farmer's market, but he told us the week before that he'd be spending some time in Amsterdam. We always miss his presence! He's become our weekly friend, the only person who noticed my husband's new glasses, the only person who could sense that my husband and I had been fighting one week (he said, "you guys need a vacation"), and the only person who asked how we were holding up after having my parents visiting for the weekend. So this week, as an alternative, I bought multi-grain dried pasta at the store. It's good, but not like the fresh pasta from a friend!



Penne Rigate with Goat Cheese and Ricotta Salata
Serves 4

14.5 ounces dried penne rigate
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 sun-dried tomato Tofurky sausages, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup pine nuts
3 multi-colored heirloom tomatoes, chopped
1/2 jar pasta sauce
4 tablespoons goat cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons ricotta salata, grated
1/2 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, add pasta and cook according to package instructions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and heat until fragrant. Turn up heat to medium-high and add sausages and cook until slightly browned. Add red pepper, red pepper flakes, and pine nuts and saute until pine nuts are slightly browned. Add chopped tomatoes and cook until heated through. Add sauce and cook again until heated through. Mix in parsley and take the sauce off the heat.

Combine pasta and sauce in a large bowl. Serve immediately with 1 tablespoon each of goat cheese and ricotta salata per serving.

Penne with a Chickpea-Tomato Sauce

The sauce for this pasta is actually a recipe for chickpeas to be served on their own. In my Italian mother's household, pasta and beans are a staple for lunch, so she decided to use this recipe for chickpeas as a sauce for penne or shells. They're statisfying and include carbs and protein. Here, we served it with salad and two different kinds of focaccia. It heats well as leftovers.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 1/3 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
* 1 tablespoon dried oregano
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
* 1/2 cup dry white wine
* 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained
* 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
* salt and ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, and stir in the onion, garlic, and oregano. Cook and stir about 10 minutes, until onions are tender.
2. Mix tomatoes into the skillet, and cook until heated through. Mix in wine, and continue cooking about 15 minutes, until thickened.
3. Stir garbanzo beans and feta cheese into the skillet, and cook 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat, and allow to cool about 5 minutes before serving.

Creamy Pumpkin-Sage Potato Gnocchi

We brilliantly forgot one ingredient from each recipe we planned to make this week, so I made dinner on-the-fly with ingredients already stocked in the cupboard, refrigerator and freezer. It turned out very well!



Creamy Pumpkin-Sage Potato Gnocchi
1 lb. fresh potato gnocchi
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig fresh sage, chopped
1 can pureed pumpkin
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to a boil in a large pot and cook gnocchi until they float or according to package directions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat until hot. Add garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add sage and saute for another 30 seconds. Add pumpkin and cook until heated through. Add maple syrup, salt and pepper. Turn off heat. Add creme fraiche and mix until all lumps are gone. Add hot gnocchi and mix well. Serve hot, topped with grated parmesan.

Spinach Papardelle with Tuscan Kale

Our farmer's market has many food items besides produce, including a fresh pasta stand. I love spinach pasta and wide noodles, so for me, spinach papardelle is a dream! This is a creation using the leftovers in the fridge plus a couple of items from the farmer's market.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chopped fennel bulb
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 bunch Tuscan (black) kale
parmesan cheese
1 pound fresh spinach papardelle

Heat olive oil in large skillet. Add chopped garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Add fennel and pepper and cook for 5 or so minutes until tender.

Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for the pasta and wash and slice the kale.

Add kale to skillet, cover and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package instructions.

Add pasta to skillet, mix and top with parmesan.