Creamy Red Pepper Sauce

I was looking for a pasta sauce recipe that wasn't cream-based, because I just noticed that about 112% of my recipes are, when I found this one...

...which is totally cream-based but shhhh. It has vegetables in it! I made a few changes from the original recipe by making it a bit easier, reducing the dirty dishes (oh what, you have a dishwasher? How awesome for you, person-who-sucks), and increasing the vegetable-to-cream ratio.

Ingredients:

• 2 red bell peppers, or any combination of red, orange, and yellow
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced (or more - you can't have too much garlic, that's my motto)
• 1 tbsp dried basil (or a big 'ole handful of fresh basil, chopped, if you've got it) (or probably a spoonful of pesto, mmmm, I bed that'd be great)
  
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup Romano or Parmesan cheese
• 1-2 tbsp butter
• Red pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper
• Chili powder
• Salt and pepper
  
• Olive oil (I never really measure olive oil. Like garlic: it's hard to have too much)

Preheat your broiler. Or preheat your absurdly tiny oven which pretty much is a broiler. Cut your bell peppers in half and remove the seeds, then brush both sides with olive oil and let them roast until the skin has some black spots and the flesh is tender. Then let them sit, in a sealed plastic baggie if you're really on top of things, (or just on a paper towel in the fridge if you're me not) for about 45 minutes.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Remove the skin from the peppers and throw them in the skillet with the garlic, the basil, and the spices. You can purée this mixture later if you want a really smooth sauce, but if you prefer to minimize your dirty dishes then just mash up the peppers with your spoon as you cook the mixture for about 10 minutes over medium heat.

Then add the cream and cheese and stir until it's all a uniformly gorgeous orange-y color. Add the butter, more or less depending on how much you care about your arteries, stir it again, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve over pasta or whatever, seriously, you could actually just eat this sauce by the spoonful.

It's particularly good with cheese ravioli.

Tofu Parmesan

Don't turn your nose up! This is awesome, really!

The trick is to freeze the tofu:

Step 1: Drain the tofu well. (Cut it into three chunks, place it on a paper towel-lined plate, put more paper towels on top, another plate, and then a jar/can to weight it. I wait about 20 minutes, then change the paper towels out and do it again.)

Step 2: Wrap the tofu in plastic wrap and chuck it in the freezer overnight.

Step 3: Take it out of the freezer several hours before you want to use it. You can thaw it in the microwave on defrost.

Step 4: More draining! Slice the tofu into whatever shape you want (for this recipe, slices about a 1/4" thick), then press firmly with paper towels until it is quite dry.

Now that your have your frozen/thawed slices, here's the loosely-prepared recipe:

1 block extra firm tofu, prepared as above
bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
flour
parmesan cheese, grated
2 t dried oregano
1 t dried basil
1/2 t garlic powder
salt & pepper
olive oil
8 oz tomato sauce
4 oz shredded mozzarella

First, you'll need to fry up your tofu slices. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Mix up some bread crumbs with a bit of parmesan, salt and pepper, and any herbage you like.

Lightly dredge each slice of tofu in flour, then dip in the egg wash, then cover with the bread crumb mixture. Pan fry until crunchy. Try not to eat too many pieces before assemblage.

Mix your tomato sauce with the oregano, basil, garlic powder and some salt and pepper. You can use a canned pasta sauce, if you like. I've tried it both ways and found I actually preferred the tangy-ness you get from the plain tomato sauce method. Let this sit for at least fifteen minutes. (I swear, you'll get better flavour if you let it sit.)

In a baking pan, layer sauce/tofu/mozz until everything runs out, making sure you end with a nice layer of cheese. Sprinkle a layer of parmesan over the top and bake at 400 for about 20 minutes, or until nice and bubbly.

I like to serve this with some pasta and garlic bread. And I've made myself really hungry thinking about it.

Spinach Artichoke Lasagna

Ken loves this stuff. And I don't blame him - it's excellent. Allow me to pat myself on the back.

Get these things:

12 lasagna noodles (I use no-cook, because it saves that much time. Obviously, if yours aren't no-cook, you'll need to cook them, or you'll have a very strange lasagna.)

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 14.5 oz can vegetable broth

1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (The original recipe called for marinated. I haven't been able to find marinated, so I've just been using plain hearts. There's nothing wrong with that.)

1 t dried rosemary

10 oz fresh spinach (I use bagged baby spinach, you could also prep your own, or use frozen. Make sure you thaw/drain it first, though.)

3 C tomato sauce (I use what we have on hand - usually a jarred sauce with mushrooms.)

1 C ricotta cheese

4 C shredded mozzarella

4 oz feta, crumbled (You can use plain, or one of the herbed varieties.)

Do these things:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 13x9 dish.

In a big pan over medium heat, sauté the onion in olive oil until it softens a bit. Add the garlic and give it a couple more minutes.

Add the broth and the rosemary, and bring the pot to a boil. Add your artichokes and the spinach. Reduce heat to a simmer, and let it go for about five minutes. (Assuming you're using fresh spinach, you'll want to stir a few times as it wilts.) Stir in the pasta sauce.

Now, um, make it into a lasagna, and then sprinkle the feta all over the top.

HANDY LASAGNA SCHEMATIC
(Key: * = feta, /= mozzarella, - = spinach mix, ~ = noodles, o = ricotta plops)

(top of pan)

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Cover the pan with foil and bake it for 40 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake it for ten more. THEN flip on the broiler and put it under the broiler for three minutes. (Yes, the broiler makes a difference. Don't you want a delicious cheese crust on your lasagna?)

Eat, and enjoy the admiration.

Vodka Sauce

Vodka sauce vodka sauce vodka sauce vodka sauce. This is the best pasta sauce EVER! Sort of. I mean, the carbanara sauce is really good too, but this one is HEALTHIER because it uses real (canned) tomatoes and (slightly) less cream. And it's good. Really, really good. I promise.

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 large shallot (really, it makes a difference. Shallots are good.)
• 1 small yellow onion
• Olive oil
• Butter
  
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 can tomato puree
  
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• Cayenne pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup vodka
• Flour for thickening

Chop the garlic et. al. and sauté for a few minutes in the olive oil and butter (yes, both. Because this recipe just deserves it). Sometimes I add a dash of white wine to make it an extra-drunk recipe. Add the canned tomatoes, the tomato puree, and the pepper and cook for a few minutes until some of the liquid has evaporated. Add the cream and vodka, and thicken with flour if necessary (it's always necessary).

Serve over pasta (yeah, don't forget to cook the pasta) with vegetables, if you like. It goes very well with sautéed mushrooms.

Pasta Bolognaise

Another French recipe, but this time it doesn't call for a cup of heavy cream as a primary ingredient. Go figure. It's actually quite healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 or two cloves of garlic, chopped
• Olive oil, sunflower oil, butter, or whatever
  
• 1 small can of mushrooms, or some sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 small can of tomato paste. Paste, not sauce.
• Sugar
• Cayenne pepper
• Oregano
• Basil
• Salt and pepper
• Some kind of meat, like chopped ham
• Pasta

Sauté the onion and garlic for a little while, add the mushrooms, and sauté for a little while more. Add the tomato paste and some water until you get a good consistency. Then add the herbs and spices. Cook for a while. Keep tasting to make sure you've got it right. Add the meat (it's precooked, right?) and heat through. Serve over pasta.

Frog-eye Salad

Weird name. Yummy salad.

Start with one cup Acini Di Pepe macaroni: Bring 6 cups water to a rapid boil in 3 quart saucepan. Add 2 teaspoons salt. Slowly add 1 cup Acini Di Pepe. Return to rapid boil, stirring to separate. Boil only 2 minutes. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 6 to 8 minutes. Drain immediately and rinse with cold water to chill.

3/4 c. sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. pineapple juice (from canned pineapple shown below)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. lemon juice

In small saucepan, mix sugar, flour and salt; stir in pineapple juice and egg. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until thickened (or cook in microwave). Add lemon juice, set aside and cool.

Combine cooked, cooled mixture with cooled Acini Di Pepe. Cover, place in refrigerator until chilled. Add the following:

2 cans (11 oz. each) mandarin oranges, drained
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple tidbits, drained
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
1 carton (8 oz.) dairy whipped topping
1 c. miniature marshmallows

Stir lightly. Chill at least 1 hour before serving.

Pasta Carbanara

Pasta Carbanara

This is the French starving-student recipe that I lived on when I was in France. We must have had this at least once a week. It's kind of backwards in the sense that I can usually take a complex, healthy recipe and turn it into a quick, less healthy one; with this one, though, feel free to do the reverse. Use real onion instead of fried or dried. Tomato paste or sauce instead of ketchup. Milk instead of cream? No, maybe not. But really. The possibilities are endless.

Ingredients:

• As much bacon as you want, cut into small pieces.
• About 3/4 cup heavy cream
  
• Ketchup
• Soy sauce
• Cayenne pepper
  
• Onion in some form
• White wine
• Flour for thickening
• Pepper

Cook down the bacon and get rid of most of the grease. If you're using fresh onion, add it now and cook until tender. Dump in the cream, then a few squirts of ketchup, a dash of cayenne pepper, and a splash of soy sauce, as well as the dried or fried onion if you're using that instead. I usually heat the white wine in the microwave and use it to make a paste with a couple tbsp of flour, then dump that in. Season with pepper. You probably won't need salt.

Serve over the pasta that you didn't forget to make (you wouldn't do that, would you?) and enjoy.