Pasta with Vodka Sauce

One of the simplest, quickest, and most delicious sauces is Vodka Sauce.  Most of the ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already!

Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons butter
3 oz pancetta
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup vodka
1 35 ounce can plum tomatoes
1/4 cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 pound short cut pasta

Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Putting a lid on it will help it boil faster.  Once it boils, toss in a few tablespoons of salt.  Pour in the pasta.  I used mezzi rigatoni but any short cut is perfectly fine. Follow the box for how long to cook for.  Once cooked, strain the water off and set aside.

In a large skillet, heat up the butter.  Finely chop the garlic and put it into the butter.  Stir around for 2 minutes to heat the garlic, but not brown it.  Chop up the pancetta and put it into the garlic and butter along with the crushed red pepper flakes.  Continue to move all of the ingredients around the pan so nothing burns.

After the pancetta has begun to brown, which should take about 4-5 minutes, pour in the vodka and scrape everything off the bottom of the pan with your spoon.

Allow the alcohol to cook out of the mixture for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile put the tomatoes in a blender and puree until smooth.  Pour this into the pan.  Allow to cook for another 5 minutes. Now you can pour in the cream and parmesan cheese.  Cook everything together for another 5 minutes.

Add in your pasta and toss together for another 1-2 minutes until the sauce completely coats the pasta.  Serve hot and enjoy!

*Justine's Tip*- Cook your pasta 1-2 minutes less than the packaged directions and finish cooking it in your sauce. Pin It Now!

Stuffed Shells

Lasagna has always been on of my favorite recipes.  Here is something very similar but with a slight variation because its shells.  Also a quick tomato sauce is included, but feel free to use any store bought sauce if you are short on time!

Ingredients:
12 oz box jumbo shells
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1/4 onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups mozzarella cheese, split into 1 1/2 and 1/2 cup
1 egg
1 cup parmesan cheese
8 oz container frozen spinach
20 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup store bought alfredo sauce or heavy cream (optional)
4 basil leaves
dried parsley
salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil a large pot of water.  Once water has boiled, add 2 tablespoons of salt and toss in the jumbo shells.  Allow to cook about 14 minutes.  Drain and allow to cool in colander.

In a small sauce pan heat the oil and saute the crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, and onions on medium heat until they become translucent.  They will also smell fantastic!  This should take 5-10 minutes.

Then add the tomato paste and stir together with the garlic and onions.  Fill the empty can with water and dump into the pot.  Stir together until completely combined.  Stir in the 2 cans of tomato sauce and fill only one with water and empty into the pot.  Stir until combined. I know this water in a can thing sounds crazy, but it gives it the perfect consistency and flavor!  Leave on a medium low flame and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Put the frozen spinach in the microwave and cook according to the package.  Drain as much excess water as you possibly can.   

Mix the spinach with the alfredo sauce or heavy cream as well as one egg.

Stir in the ricotta,  1 1/2 cups mozzarella, and parmesan cheese until combined.

Line two baking dishes with about 1/3 of the tomato sauce.  Then stuff each shell with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of filling and line in the baking dish.

Cover the top with the remaining tomato sauce and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes in the oven.  Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese melts.  Serve and enjoy!

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Florentine Lasagna Rolls

Ingredients:
Filling:
1 lb ricotta cheese
1 cup bechamel sauce (recipe to follow)
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained completely
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt
pepper

Bechamel Sauce:
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons flour

Lasagna:
1 lb. lasagna noodles
4 cups tomato sauce (I just made a quick one with canned sauce and add some garlic and sauted it for a half hour)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you are making everything else.

In a small sauce pan eat the oil up for the bechamel sauce.  Once it is hot, whisk in the flour until it is thick.  Then add the milk and stir vigorously. Turn the heat to medium and allow the sauce to thicken for about 10 minutes, stirring every minute or so.

Defrost the spinach in the microwave.  Once it is completely defrosted, put it in a kitchen towel and squeeze it and drain it completely.  It should be completely dry. 

In a large bowl stir the ricotta cheese, drained spinach, bechamel sauce, egg, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.  Be light on the salt as the cheese is very salty. 

Once the water has boiled, salt the water and put the lasagna noodles in being careful not to break them.  Cook them based n the package directions, usually abut 14 minutes.  Once they are cooked, drain the noodles and allow them to cool for a few minutes.  Try to separate them without burning yourself and lay them over the sides of the pan.

In a 13 x 9 inch baking dish, lay the sauce on the bottom just to cover.  Take one lasagna noodle and place it flat on cutting board.  Put about 1-2 tablespoons of filling on one end and roll it to the other.  Place it in the pan.  Do this with every other lasagna noodle.  Once they have all been made and are in the pan.  Cover the top with the rest of the sauce.

Bake covered for 40 minutes.  Uncover the lasagna and sprinkle some mozzarella and parmesan cheese over the top if desired.  Put back into the oven for another 15 minutes or until top is golden.  Serve and enjoy!

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Lasagna

Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lb lasagna noodles

5 cups tomato sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

½ cup parmesan cheese

1 lb ricotta cheese

1 egg

2 tablespoons parsley

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Once the water has boiled, add salt and the lasagna noodles.  They take about 10-12 minutes to cook.  Stir them every so often so they do not stick together.  Once they are finished cooking, strain in a colander and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Then separate the noodles and lay them over the sides of the colander so they do not get stuck together.  Be careful, steam gets trapped in between the noodles and will release when you separate them. 

I usually make a homemade sauce, but if you want you can use a store bought.  Heat it up for a few minutes in a saucepan beforehand.  In a large bowl mix together the ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.  Then add the egg and parsley.

In a 13 x 9 inch baking dish, pour a little sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Then layer 3 noodles across the bottom of the dish.  Take a few teaspoonfuls on each individual lasagna noodle.  Spread it across so the entire noodle is covered.  Then spoon sauce over the top of the cheese layer.  On the next layer, use 5 noodles and lay them in the opposite direction of the first layer.  You can cut off the extra and use that on future layers.  For the last layer, leave 3 noodles for the top.  Lay them on the previous layer and just pour sauce on top of that without any of the cheese mixture.  Sprinkle with a little bit of parmesan cheese.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40- 45 minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

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The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Appetizer

Calamari Fritti
Tutto Italia
Disney World's Epcot Italy Pavilion
Orlando, FL

So obviously this is one of my favorite restaurants if you have read my cannelloni al forno post.  Fried calamari may look very simple, but it is very difficult to cook well.  The breading either comes off and is soggy or the calamari is chewy and tough or there is just no flavor.  These are cooked perfectly.  A good amount come in each order (It fed my starving family of four) but honestly you could never have enough of these delicious bites.  Each calamari or squid is cut into ringlets that are the perfect size.  I do have to say it makes me sad that they don't serve the tentacles because I personally love them, but maybe it freaks out some Disney guests. So back to the calamari.  They are absolutely fried to perfection with the perfect amount of crust on the outside.  The crust is flavored with herbs and spices, I am assuming things like basil and parsley and other italian ingredients.  The crust is the perfect golden brown and is so crispy.  The calamari itself is so tender and juicy.  Not even a little bit tough.  Now they serve these calamari with a classic marinara sauce that has at least 2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes on top.  My parents said it was delicious, but since I hate tomato sauce I leave it off of the calamari.  For me the best topping for these calamari is a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.  Now what is the most annoying thing about squeezing fresh lemon juice?  The seeds of course.  But this restaurant has thought of everything.  They wrap the lemon in a yellow cheesecloth that catches all of the seeds but allows the juice to go right through.  Pretty cool right?  And has soon as that lemon juice hits the hot calamari it starts to glisten a little.  You sink your teeth in and you hear the amazing crunch.  Then you taste that tender calamari and you know this is one of the best appetizers you have ever eaten.

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Baked Rigatoni

Here is a really easy recipe that is also very delicious. It is almost like baked ziti except I use rigatoni because I like the way the sauce binds to this shape of pasta.  Most of the ingredients can be found in your kitchen right now and it is very quick to make and also great for a crowd.  Enjoy this delicious pasta dish!

Ingredients:
1 jar of store-bought tomato sauce or homemade sauce (my mom's recipe for tomato sauce will be up soon, obviously it is WAY better than the store-bought)
1 lb rigatoni pasta (ziti or any other short pasta will work too
1 8 oz bag or block of mozzarella cheese (don't use fresh here because there is too much moisture and will make pasta wattery)
1 lb ricotta cheese
5 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons fresh parsley
2 teaspoons garlic powder
salt
pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Bring pot of boiling water to boil.  Put a handful of salt into the water, then add your pasta.  Stir pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes.  Drain the pasta and pour into a 13 x 9 greased baking dish. 

To the baking dish add the ricotta cheese until every noodle has been covered with the sauce.  Then add your parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  Stir to incorporate.  Next add the sauce to the pasta and ricotta mixture and stir until everything is evenly coated.  Now add 3/4 of the shredded mozzarella cheese and all of the parmesan cheese.  Stir until everything is evenly mixed.  Add the additional mozzarella cheese on top and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown and bubbly.  Enjoy!

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