Tomato Parmesan Fettuccini

So, it seems the last time we spoke, I was on a roll. Something like 2 blog posts in a week and I was taking photos of food, coming up with ideas on what to make and blog about, and then life happened.

 

My dog became sick suddenly, and within 4 days passed away. As I was beginning to cope with that loss, my cousin passed away unexpectedly. Still reeling from the first loss, this second loss was like a punch to the gut. Honestly, blogging, even making food, was the last thing on my mind. And then we went on vacation. 14 days. It was nice to get away. It was nice to be with my husband and kids. I've had time to reflect, time for myself, time with family.

Now I'm here, ready to get back to it.

 

Tonight's dinner was inspired by a recipe I found through Pinterest!

Although inspired by this recipe, I did modify it somewhat.

 

Here's what I used:

16 oz. package of fettuccini

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 onion finely diced

2 garlic cloves

3/4 carrot finely chopped

1/2 pound ground beef

28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes

1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

1/2 cup of heavy cream

To taste: salt, pepper, basil, red pepper flakes, sugar

 

 

I started by dicing my onion, garlic, and carrot. I prefer a fine dice. I then shredded my parmesan cheese.

A note about the carrot: First, I would have used a whole carrot, but the minute my son saw I was using a carrot, he swiped about a 1/4 of it. I'm surprised he's not orange with the amount of carrots he eats. Second, the original recipe does not call for a carrot, but I like adding carrot to some of my pasta sauces to cut the acidity of the sauce with the carrot's natural sweetness.

 

I added the olive oil to a pan and turned the heat to medium low. Once warm, I added the onion, garlic, and carrot to the pan. I cooked these on medium low until translucent and soft. If you crank the heat here, you'll burn your garlic and it'll give your sauce a very bitter taste.
                                                                                                                          While that was sautéing, I opened the tomatoes and threw them in a food processor. One tip I learned from the above website was to pulse the tomatoes slowly. Blending quickly will result in a pink, foamy, thin sauce. That's not what you want here. So, pulse a little at a time, until tomatoes are broken down, and sauce is relatively smooth.



Let's take a minute and talk San Marzano tomatoes. A lot of recipes call for them. They are supposed to be the best you can get canned for your sauce. Maybe it's my unsophisticated palate, but I can't tell the difference between the San Marzano and any other canned, whole, peeled tomatoes. Having said that, they're also a little pricey. Having used other ingredients that were relatively inexpensive, still makes this meal pretty cheap. However, if you were making this in bulk (for freezing or giving away or a huge family dinner) I'd use regular tomatoes. If you want a good compromise, use organic canned tomatoes.

 

 Ok, back to cooking, and here's where it gets slightly complicated, but stay with me. I am not a fan of chunky sauce, so I always blend it. However, with a meat sauce, you don't want blended meat. So, I put the onion, garlic, and carrot into a bowl, and then brown the meat.

 

 

 

 

I added salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the meat, to taste. As the meat cooks, I let the onion, garlic, carrot mixture cool and then add to the food processor with the blended tomatoes. I again, process slowly, so that the mixture and tomatoes combine until smooth. Once the meat is browned, I drain the oil from the pan. I then added the tomato sauce to the meat, mixed, and added salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, basil, and sugar to the sauce, to taste. I know what you're thinking, I added carrots to provide sweetness but then added sugar. Well, instead of having to add a tablespoon or more of sugar, I only added a teaspoon.

 

Simmer.

 

A note about the salt. You'll want to add salt to the meat and tomato sauce, but you'll eventually be adding 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese, which can be salty. It's better not to add too much, since you can add some at the end.

 

After adding the cream.

At this point, I began the process of boiling the pasta. Fill your pot, turn on the burner, add salt. The water should taste salty like the sea. I prefer to cook my pasta in a big-ish pot (not the biggest I have though) and waiting until I have a rolling boil. Once there's a rolling boil, I drop my pasta. Now the next two minutes are critical. The temperature of the water will drop when you add the pasta and work its way back up and at the same time, the pasta releases its starches. You'll want to constantly stir your pasta for at least the first two minutes to prevent the pasta from sticking together. In fact, I do a two and two kind of deal. Stir constantly two minutes, let boil two minutes, stir constantly two minutes, etc., until the pasta is done. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it works for me and I don't have sticky pasta. During the first two minute boil, I added the cheese to the sauce and mixed well. During the second two minute boil, I added the heavy cream. When adding the heavy cream you have to stir constantly. I don't know why.

 

 

I need a bigger pan!

Once the pasta is done, save a little pasta water in case you want to thin your sauce. I saved water, but I did not end up using it. Drain your pasta. Add to your sauce. Mix. Done.



 

All that's left is to plate, garnish, and eat. I used more basil and parmesan as my garnish. The basil I cut using a chiffonade technique and I used the potato peeler for cheese shavings.

 

This recipe turned out better than I thought it would. The kids liked it too. This makes quite a bit, so it's a great family night meal; you could serve bread and salad to complete the meal. If you have some leftover, this should be an easy freezer meal as well. Either as a tray for a complete dinner or in quart bags for individual meals.



 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

When your garden gives you basil, make pesto!

The most amazing and inspiring thing happened yesterday.

 

Two friends tried two separate recipes that I’ve shared and liked them.  What?  Amazing!  I was completely inspired to create and share more.  If you try anything, and whether you like it or not, I would love your feedback!

 

Now onto food!  On our menu yesterday was Pesto Pork and Butter/Garlic/Lemon Pasta**

**title subject to change

 

Since basil is something we grow, and grow a lot of, I’ve always wanted to make pesto, but never have.

It's a jungle out there.

 I’ve heard horror stories about using old pine nuts and how they wreak havoc on your taste buds.  Not to mention, they’re rather pricey at the market.  I scoured the internet and found a recipe using almonds.  And by scoured, I clicked the first link. 

 

http://littleferrarokitchen.com/2013/02/basil-almond-pesto/

 

It seemed easy enough, so I was determined to do it. I only had a couple of minor tweaks, but I think that mainly because I over mixed in the food processor.  Oops?

I started by toasting the almonds:

No oil, just almonds in a pan, to toast.

I only toasted them about 3-4 minutes.  Add to food processor.  Take two garlic cloves, or 1 giant clove like the one I got:

 

Listed in my recipe book as a GIANT clove of garlic.

Make sure you cut up your garlic before adding to the processor - this clove I cut into 4. Then pulse away.  In retrospect, I think I pulsed too much, so next time I would pulse until the size of large panko, not fine breadcrumbs.

 

 

 A little too much pulsing...

 

 Next, I measured* out the basil. 

My scale is so well used, that the letters on the buttons have worn off.

The original recipe called for 2 cups, so I stuck to that, initially.  Added it to the food processor.  The recipe also calls for 3/4 cup olive oil.  So to start, I added 1/4 of it to the food processor and the rest I drizzled in as it mixed.  After completed combined, I added a pinch of salt and some fresh cracked black pepper, about 1/4 tsp.

 

Too much liquid, not enough chunk.

Then it was time to taste.  Two things were evident to me right away: first, I over mixed it, it was way too liquidy and not chunkish, like traditional pesto.  Second, it felt like it needed something.  My immediate go-to when something needs a little something, is acid, in the form of lemons.  Mainly because I have a giant lemon tree in my backyard, but also because it adds great flavor.  I squeezed half a lemon, which yields about 1 oz.

It was better, but still off.  A friend suggested adding more basil, so I added the rest in my bag, which was a little under a cup, but a cup would be fine here too. I manually pulsed three times, to leave a little bit of chunk in those added basil leaves and WHATDOYOUKNOW? Amazing. Delicious.  Still on the thin side, but so good, it didn't matter.

It's chunkier than it looks and the more it sat, the better it was.

I decided to use the pesto as a topping for pork.  I used center cut pork chops, about 1-1.5 inches thick.  I seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, knowing that the pesto was going to bring a punch of flavor.  I seared them in olive oil for about 6 minutes of each side.  After, I drained the oil, I put about half a tablespoon of pesto on each, covered the pan, and let sit for a few minutes.

 Big flavor in a small quantity.

Pesto Recipe

1/4 cup toasted almonds

1-2 cloves of garlic, based on your taste

3 cups basil (54 grams used in this recipe)

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 oz lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

This recipe made* 18 tbsp. and I made the serving* 1tbsp.

Macros per serving: 1g Carbs, 11g Fat, 1g Protein

I decided to pair the pork with a simple pasta.  Normally I douse my pasta with tons of cream and cheese, but being conscious about fat these days, figured packing more flavor in the way of garlic and lemon could distract from the lack of fat.

 This pasta was better than I had hoped.

 I used what I had on hand, hence the strange butter measurement, but the rest seems pretty standard.

 

Butter/Garlic/Lemon Spaghetti

39g unsalted butter (a little under 3 tbsp.)

1 tsp. crushed garlic

Zest of 1 lemon (approx. 2 tsps.)

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Squeeze of half a lemon (1 oz.)

2/3 cup of cooking liquid

12 oz. Spaghetti

Salt to taste

 

Macros: 42g Carbs, 7g Fat, 9g Protein – per serving

 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures for the pasta process.  After you boil the pasta (according to package directions) in salted water, drain.  In the same pot, add the butter.  Turn the stove on low-med to melt the butter.  Add garlic and lemon zest.  Turn off stove once melted and mixed – you want everything warm but you’re not cooking anything, and then add the rest of the ingredients, minus spaghetti.  It’s important to taste your sauce before you add the pasta.  If it’s good on its own, it’ll be amazing with your pasta.

 

I didn’t measure* this recipe like I normally do, because 2 oz. of dry pasta = 5 oz of cooked pasta, and the package itself told me there were 6 servings, of 2 oz. dry pasta.

The finished product:

I eat carbs.  Lots of carbs.

 

I topped with a minimal amount of parmesan, because parmesan.

 

*A note about measurements, recipes, servings, yada, yada, yada:

Since I’m big into macros these days, I am very conscious of every ingredient. I keep a notebook next to me as I cook, so I remember to write down everything I add.

Here’s the anal retentive part of me: after I cook, I try and figure out what I’d like the serving size to be.  Like, how much of this would fill me up, and that would be one serving.  I then take my finished product and use my measuring cup, and scoop it into another container until there’s none left and I know exactly how many servings I have.  Example: cooking ¾ cup of rice gives me 10, 1/3 cup cooked rice servings.  Once I know that, I enter it all into a recipe on myfitnesspal and get every detail about the food I’ve made. 

Notice the cross outs, brand names, etc. - I like to be exact.

It sounds like a lot of work.  Totally, and it kind of is. 

BUT, once you do it once, especially to things you cook all the time, you only have to do it once, as long as you stick to your recipe.

 

Happy cooking!

p.s also makes a great gift!

Inspiration: Pesto

You would think with all of the home grown basil I have at home, that I would have made a pesto by now.

Truth is, I'm on the fence quite a bit with pesto.  I like it, but I don't.  Maybe I have just had some bad pesto before?  I'm not quite sure.  I've had really good pesto twice before, once right before I went on maternity leave and my boss bought some yummy chicken sandwiches to my send off party; and the other was a few months ago at a friend's house.  She had asked what we liked to eat and I said we were open, but that I don't do seafood.  We ended up having some pesto pasta mixed with chicken and all kinds of vegetables and it was really good.

Since that dinner party, I have been craving some pesto.  I looked up recipes, but I didn't have the gumption to make my own.  It's silly really.

So, I was at Trader Joes the other day and a jar of pesto caught my eye.  I brought it home and the rest is history.  Magical, yummy history.  I started by remaking the dish my friend had made for me a few months before:

Pasta, chicken, broccoli, and roasted red peppers tossed with a little bit of butter and pesto, topped with basil and parmesan.  Totally yummy.  Served with garlic knot rolls, as seen on Pinterest:

Biscuits rolled out, formed into knots, partially bake, take out, top with butter, parmesan, garlic and oregano.  Throw back into the oven and wait until fully cooked and browned on top.  Also very yummy.

This meal didn't use up my whole jar of pesto, so a few days later when we wanted some pizza, we thought to use it in addition to our tomato sauce.  We bought a ready crust, added tomato sauce (with garlic powder and oregano), pesto, topped with mozarella cheese and chicken.  We cooked it and topped with fresh basil.  Of course, having a cute helper makes the cooking process wonderful!

 

 

Here's the end result:

This was totally yummy and inspired another day (a week or so later, we don't eat pizza every day!) of mini pizza making, this time using biscuits:

 

I know it doesn't look like it, but there's a layer of pesto under that cheese and peppers!  This was a quick and yummy luch too.  Took all of 15 minutes, including baking time, but not including the time it took the oven to preheat. :)

On tonight's menu: something with chicken....stay tuned...