Stuffed Shells

My poor hubby had to have a procedure last week, and any of you who have had one know that you can not eat for 24 hours before most procedures. My husband basically thought this was the end of the world.  "Umm...No food for how long?" was all he could talk about. Gatorade, Italian ice, and broth were not acceptable forms of food for Robert. So he kept "reminding me" me that he would loooove stuffed shells as a reward for going through his difficult time. Well what could I say? Of course, I made him stuffed shells for dinner that night.


1 box large shell pasta
Sauce
1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
2 lb ricotta cheese
Fresh parsley, chopped
2 eggs
3/4 cup Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper
1 lb mozzarella, shredded and divided

1. Boil shells until slightly undercooked, or al dente. Drain and set aside. Don't worry! They will bake in the oven and finish cooking later.

2. Set aside some mozzarella cheese for topping. Stir ground beef into sauce.

3. Mix ricotta, eggs, parsley, most of the mozzarella, pecorino, salt and pepper in a large bowl to blend.
Using a spoon, open the shell and fill with cheese mixture.

4. Pour a tiny bit of sauce to coat bottom of large glass baking pan. Place stuffed shells opening up into baking dish and continue until all shells are filled.

5. Pour sauce over the tray full of shells and top with mozzarella.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Bechamel Sacue with Veggies and Shrimp

I am a huge fan of bechamel sauce and have tried many different variations overs the years attempting to get it just right and finally ended up with this combinations. It's so simple and the best part of this sauce is that you can add various components to switch up the flavor, but keep the same simple, creamy base. Plus, unlike a red sauce which cooks for many hours to sweeten the tomatoes, this bechamel sauce can be made in under 30 minutes and tastes great! But the red peppers do take some time to roast, so skip be sure to put those in the oven before you start your sauce.

Sauce:
2 tbsp flour or Wondra
2 tbsp butter
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup light heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp Pecorino Romano cheese
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley

Extras:
2 large red peppers
1 bunch of broccoli, cut into florets.
1 lb medium cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 lb cooked pasta

Sauce:
1. To make a bechamel sauce, start by making a roux. Heat butter and flour in medium saucepan over low heat stirring continually. Be sure to cook the roux for about 3-4 minutes while the butter melts and mixes with the flour to eliminate "floury" taste in the sauce.

2. While the butter and flour are cooking, heat milk, heavy cream, and garlic cloves in a small pot on low heat just until hot. Be careful not to let either the milk or the roux burn.

3. Slowly stir the hot milk mixture into the roux. Add in black pepper, lemon juice, salt, and nutmeg and continue to simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes, remove the garlic cloves from the sauce with a slotted spoon.

4. Remove from heat and stir in parsley and cheese. Toss with cooked pasta. Your sauce and pasta are ready! You could call it quits right here, sit and enjoy a bowl of pasta. Continue reading if you want to see the extras added to this dish.......

Extras:

There are so many ways to dress up this dish. For this particular meal, I used broccoli, red peppers and shrimp. Roasting the peppers takes awhile, so you want to begin by roasting them before you make the sauce. You can roast them while you work on the other steps.

1. Simply put two red peppers in the oven on 425 degrees on a baking dish. Let the peppers roast for 35-40 minutes, turn 2x throughout the cooking time to ensure even charring on all sides. Remove from oven and let cool thoroughly. Then remove the charred skins and cut into strips. Be sure to avoid seeds on the inside.

2. Next, blanch the broccoli. This step is quick and can be done closer to finishing the sauce. Boil water in a pot and add broccoli florets. Prepare a bowl with ice and cold water and set aside. Let broccoli cook on a boil for 2-3 minutes, just until slightly tender, but not soft. Remove from water with slotted spoon or spider and place in ice bath for 2 minutes and then remove.

3. Toss in the fresh roasted peppers strips, cooked shrimp, and broccoli to the warm bechamel sauce and pasta. This is one yummy meal sure to please everyone!

Also Featured on Homemaker Mondays and Made by You Mondays

Seafood Sauce

My Dad's birthday was coming up, and my Mom and I were on the hunt for a dinner to make Dad with LOTS of fish. We came across this recipe from Dom DeLouise's cookbook, Eat This, It'll Make You Feel Better called Mama's Seafood Sauce. Perfect! A tomato based sauce with three types of fish! Well, it wasn't quite enough.. So we added calamari too, because we wanted LOTS of fish. The end result was precisely that, lots of fish and yummy sauce!

4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup dry white wine
4 28oz can of peeled tomatoes
4 tsp fresh basil
1 tbsp oregano
4 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
3 lbs littleneck clams (be sure to rinse them a few times in the shell so there is no excess grit or sand on them)
2 lbs scallops, cut in half
2 lbs calamari rings (not included in original recipe)
2 lbs shrimp, deveined
black pepper to season


1. Heat the olive oil on medium-high heat and saute onions and garlic until golden brown. Pour in wine and cook for 2 about minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, basil, oregano, and parsley, and continue to cook over medium-high heat for another few minutes, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook for 30-40 minutes, until slightly thickened.

3. Add fresh clams, cover and cook until shells open(about 5 minutes).

4. Add scallops, calamari, and shrimp. Cover and cook until barely firm, about 3 minutes. Add some fresh ground black pepper to season. Remove from heat and serve immediately over pasta (I used perciatelli).


Also featured on Tidy Mom!

Eggplant Parmigiana Stack-Ups

My family is a big fan of the traditional eggplant parmigiana, but I was looking for a way to make it different. So I looked for some kind of eggplant parmigiana "stacks" and found a recipe from Chef Fabrizio Carro on Martha Stewart's website and ended up with a very yummy dinner.

Eggplant Parmigiana

3 medium eggplants (not more than 4-inches in diameter), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1 cup flour
4 cups canola oil
1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese, chopped
6 ounces grated Pecorni Romano cheese (Original recipe called for Grana Padano, but this is what I had on hand)
3 oz grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup packed basil leaves
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 cups Tomato Sauce Recipe (below)


1. Lay eggplant slices in a single even layer on a rack set over rimmed baking sheets; generously season with salt. Let stand 15 minutes to release excess moisture; pat dry with paper towels.

2. Place flour in a shallow dish; dredge eggplant slices in flour, shaking off excess. In a large pot, heat canola oil to 300 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches, add eggplant slices to hot oil and cook, turning once, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain; repeat process with remaining eggplant.

3. Place mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, and Parmesan cheeses in the bowl of a food processor; process until just combined. Add basil leaves and olive oil; process until well combined. Season with fine sea salt and pepper and transfer to a disposable pastry bag.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set six 4-by-3-inch round ring molds in a large shallow baking dish. Place a dollop of tomato sauce at the bottom of each ring mold. Top with a slice of eggplant. Cut a small hole from the bottom of the pastry bag and pipe a layer of cheese mixture on top of eggplant. Top with another dollop of sauce, followed by another slice of eggplant. Repeat process until you have reached the top of the ring mold or have created four layers, ending with a slice of eggplant. Top with a little tomato sauce.

5. Transfer to oven and bake until cheese is melted and eggplant is warmed through, about 15 minutes. Using a spatula, carefully transfer filled ring molds to individual serving plates. Carefully remove ring mold before serving.


Tomato Sauce

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, sliced
2 (28-ounce) cans San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup fresh basil leaves
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes and reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally and taking care not to let sauce stick to the bottom of the pot, about 2 1/2 hours.

3. Remove from heat and, using an immersion blender, blend until smooth, adding basil leaves as you blend. Alternatively, working in batches, you can transfer tomato sauce to the jar of a conventional blender, adding basil leaves as you blend.

4. Season with salt and pepper and reheat to use immediately or let cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. Refrigerate until ready to use, 3 to 5 days.

Fresh Crabs with a Quick Marinara Sauce

My family and I headed down the shore to relax for a quick vacation. We had a great time doing the usual Jersey shore activities of skee ball, waffles and ice cream on Jenkinson's boardwalk, swimming at Sandy Hook, and one of our family favorites, crabbing. Being from this area, I assumed everyone had been crabbing. Now, we are far from experts. Actually, the locals on the pier laughed at us from time to time, but it is something we love to do on summer nights during vacation. My husband, who grew up much closer to the beach than myself, had never been crabbing! Well, he is a now seasoned crabber!

We knew we had to cook those feisty buggers soon so I whipped up a quick marinara sauce! This crab was not quite ready to be caught, because he held on to the rope very tightly. When you are away, you need simple and easy recipes with fresh ingredients. Well, this is it. The fresh Jersey blue crabs with sauce and pasta were lovely!

Marinara Sauce

6-8 blue crabs
4 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup olive oil

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/2 tsp cracked pepper

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp oregano

3/4 tsp parsley (choppped)

1 1/4 tsp pepperoncino
3/4 cup red wine

1. Heat olive oil and fry garlic for one minute. Shake the pan to be sure it doesn't burn.

2. Add tomatoes, pepper, salt, oregano, and parsley slowly, stirring after each addition.

3. Continue to cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes.

4. While your sauce cooks, time for crabs! Bring salted water to a boil. One at a time gently place crabs in the pot with tongs. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.

4. Add red wine and pepperoncino. Continue to cook for 3-4 more minutes.

5. Toss in cooked crabs and let simmer until ready to combine with cooked pasta.

Grandma's Pasta - Aglio e Olio

This simply means Oil and Garlic Sauce. It is one of those dinners my grandma used to make for me and my cousins every time we came over. It was quite possibly my favorite as kid and is still a staple in our household! It's simple and so delicious! And you can make the whole recipe in under ten minutes! This recipe is courtesy of Grandma A. I made it with grilled chicken today and it was so yummy!

Aglio e Olio Sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
5 or 6 cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp dried peperoncino flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp Italian parsley
1 cup Pecorino Romano

1. Boil a large pot of salted water. Add your favorite pasta. I'm partial to lingiuni, spaghettini, or perciatelli.

2. Spoon a few tbsps of olive oil in a large skillet and squeeze garlic cloves through a garlic press and add into the skillet. Simmer on medium-low heat for a minute or two. The garlic will be slightly golden brown. Be sure to stir and not let the garlic burn.

3. Add in the peperoncino flakes, a little salt and fresh ground black pepper.

4. Add in 2 cups of water from the pot of boiling pasta and water. Heat on medium-high for about 4 more minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce during the time. Let sit on very low heat until the pasta is al dente.

5. Using tongs remove the cooked pasta and place in the skillet with sauce. Toss gently.

6. Mix in chopped parsley and Pecorino cheese. Remove from heat and eat!

Thin Crust Grilled Pizza

Thin Crust Grilled Pizza

I made this delicious thin crispy crust pizza for my brother's heritage day at school. Since this was a last minute cooking project, we didn't make our dough, but used fresh dough from the local market. This a quick and easy dinner, lunch, or even individual portioned or cut for appetizers!

1 lb pizza dough
2 cups of Quick Chunky Marinara

8 oz of Mozzarella cheese (smoked mozzarella would be good too)

1/4 Pecorino Romano

Quick Chunky Marinara

1 can of crushed tomatoes

5 cloves of chopped garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

5 Leaves of fresh basil
season with salt and pepper

Quick Chunky Marinara

1. Heat pot with olive oil and cook garlic for a few minutes, until golden brown.

2. Add crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let simmer for 10 minutes

3. Add basil and continue cooking for about 10 more minutes.

Assembling the Pizza:

1. Place pizza dough in a bowl covered with a towel. Let it rest there in a warm place about 45 minutes.

2. After rested, punch the dough and begin to roll out from the center to the edges until thin.

3. Time for the grill! Place pizza on grill and give it a light olive oil brushing. Cook on low for 4-6 minutes, until grill marks appear.

4. Flip over the crust and brush top side lightly with olive oil.

5. Pour on sauce and spread. Add cheese and any other toppings you desire.

6. After another few minutes, check the bottom of the crust for grill marks and for cheese to melt. The pizza is ready to remove, cool, and best of all, eat!

Chicken Francaise

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Fresh Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt
Lemon Juice (fresh if possible)
3/4 Cup White wine
3 tbsp Butter
2 cans Chicken Broth
Olive Oil
3-4 Wondra
1 lb any pasta cooked(I'm partial to the twirlable pasta)

Pound to tenderize chicken breasts. Add flour, black pepper, salt, paprika and garlic to shallow dish. Dredge chicken in mixture and see aside.

Beat 4 eggs and 4 tbsp of water, 1 tbsp lemon juice, parsley, and a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano. Heat some olive oil and butter in skillet to medium-high heat. (I used electric and had it set at 300 degrees.) Dip floured chicken in egg mixture, then re-dip again in the flour mixture and back in the egg mixture. Then drop immediately into the pan. Cook till slightly browned on both sides. Remove chicken.

Leave drippings to start sauce. Add chicken broth, 1/2 cup olive oil, white wine, and a few tbsp lemon juice (depending on personla preference). Simmer about 6-7 minutes to reduce. Then add butter and 3-4 tbsp of Wondra flour. Stir and simmer about 3 more minute; sauce should thicken slightly.



Toss pasta with sauce, add chicken and serve. You can add lemon slices for garnish as well.
Enjoy!

Alfredo Farfalle with Grilled Steak

Ingredients
Alfredo Sauce:
3 tbsp Butter
3 - 4 tbsp Wondra
2 1/2 cups Whipping Cream
One tbsp lemon juice(fresh is better)
Garlic powder
Basil
Oregano
Fresh Cracked pepper and sea salt
1 Cup Pecorino-Romano Cheese

1 lb. Farfalle Pasta
1 Top Round Steak
Garlic powder
Fresh cracked pepper and sea salt
Meat tenderizer

For the Sauce:
Melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in Wondra to thicken. Continually stir while cooking about 3 minutes. Add one cup of whipping cream and lemon juice; stir. Let simmer for five mintues on low heat, stirring continually. Then add all spices. Cook 2 more minutes. Add the remainder of the whipping cream, 1 1/2 cup, and cheese. Stir, set aside.

Boil pasta, drain. Add Alfredo Sauce.

Pound steak and set aside. Mix garlic, pepper, salt, and meat tenderizer in bowl. Rub the dry mix over steak, both sides. Heat non-stick grill pan to med heat. Grill steak for about 7 minutes per side for well done steak. Serve with pasta.
Enjoy!