Pasta Bolognese

My constituents asked me to make Pasta Bolognese this week. It is one of our very, VERY favorites and has been for years. It always feels like somewhat of a special occasion when it's the meal on deck. I can send my husband a picture of the sauce simmering on stove and it has the same effect as if I would have texted him the words "I love you."

This week, I went to my blog to look up the recipe to make sure I had all the ingredients I needed to throw it together and was horrified to realize I HAVE NEVER POSTED IT ON MY BLOG. How could this be? This, one of our top pastas! I'm so sorry to have held out on you.

I think it's fair to claim that, at this point, we are Bolognese connoisseurs. I made this dish for the first time pre-kids, when our addiction was just in it's beginnings. My husband and I went though a phase where we ordered Pasta Bolognese every time it was on the menu. You may think I'm kidding but we were mildly obsessed. We loved my version but somehow got the crazy idea in our heads that it was our mission to find the absolute BEST version out there. Over the course of 5 years, I'll bet we ordered the dish at restaurants upwards of 30 times. Each time we'd raise our glasses in cheers and take a bite. And then we would agree that the pasta was good but it wasn't quite a knock out. Nothing in the restaurant world quite suited our fancy but it took years before my husband finally spoke these long sought after words:

"Honey, I think your version is the best."

Hallelujah! If that's the only time he ever says that, I can die happy.

I really can't take too much credit myself. Most of it goes to the former Gourmet Magazine and their ingenuity. I have played with their version some, easing the chopping process, altering the meat mixture, and at times adding more vegetables when I'm channeling my inner dietitian.

This recipe is an excellent make-ahead option for nights when dinner needs to happen in a hurry. Take yesterday, for instance. It was the last day in March and us sun-starved Pacific Northwest folk looked at our weather apps in disbelief as temperatures were supposed to push mid-70s. I knew it would be in my best interest to spend the afternoon out in the sunshine, thawing off winter. But my fans had been begging for pasta Bolognese which can take nearly 2 hours in total with its 1 1/4 hours of simmer time. It dawned on me that I could do both. I just needed to start early.

I started at lunch time, first sautéing the veggies and then adding the milk. The recipe follows a stepwise pattern where you add one liquid at a time and then wait until it evaporates to add the next. My older two were at school and the youngest was miraculously napping and so I decided to indulge myself with some sunshine ahead of schedule and ducked out onto my front porch with a book. Between chapters, I popped back indoors to give the sauce and stir and add the next ingredient. By the time preschool pick up rolled around, the sauce was finished and I threw it in the fridge until dinnertime when it would be ready to go with a quick reheat.

This recipe is another great one to bring to others. I'm in that phase of life where babies are dropping like hotcakes and my peers are in need of great dishes to deliver to the new parents. This is probably one of the top 5 questions I get asked: "What is your favorite recipe to bring to others?"

If you decide to make this one, let me be the first to caution you - if you make a double batch (so you can have some for dinner too!) USE TWO SEPARATE POTS. I tried making a double batch in one big kettle before and it didn't turn out well. There were too many ingredient and too little cooking surface area for it to work properly. The liquid ingredients also took FOREVER to evaporate. So, just make it easy on yourself and cook your double batch in two pots side by side. Enjoy!

Pasta Bolognese
(adapted from Gourmet Cookbook)

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic
1 onion
4 carrots
4 celery ribs
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup dry white wine
28 ounce can whole tomatoes including juice
1 ½ - 2 pounds dried rigatoni
Shaved parmesan cheese

Dividing into two batches as needed, pulse garlic, onion, carrots and celery in a food processor until finely chopped. Set food processor aside. In large saucepan or dutch oven, heat oil and butter over moderately high heat until foam subsides. Add chopped garlic, onion, carrots, and celery, and saute until just beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute. Toss in beef and pork and cook, stirring and breaking meat apart, for about 4 minutes, or until meat is no longer pink. Add milk and salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until most of the milk is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Coarsely chop canned tomatoes and their juices in the set aside food processor (no need to clean it!) Stir tomatoes into the sauce and cook at a bare simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 1 hour and 15 minutes (sauce will be thickened). Season sauce with additional with salt and pepper to taste. Sauce may be made ahead and chilled for 2 days or frozen for 1 month.

When ready to serve, bring 7 quarts of water to a boil. Cook pasta until al dente (about 11-12 minutes) and drain in a colander. Toss pasta with sauce (reheated if necessary) and sprinkle with shaved parmesan.

Serves 6-8 (fewer if you are Croziers - we LOVE pasta!)

Baked Pasta Caprese with Chicken Sausage

If you are in my life and you've had a baby, there is a 96% chance you've already had this dish. Either this one or my other go-to, Kung Pao Chicken Tacos. This is by far our favorite travels-well-freezes-well-doubles-well-makes-ahead-well-everyone-likes-it dinner out there which makes it a perfect drop off dish when someone welcomes a new baby. I usually get asked for the recipe so I'll just cut corners here and put it out there on the Great Ol' Internet.

There was a season of my life back in college and then shortly thereafter when I was on a freezer meal kick. It all started when, as a poor nutrition student, I nabbed a job working for Dream Dinners in West Seattle. Does everyone remember this craze? People would book a session, sometimes even a group of people as a sort of a girls night, go into one of their stores, spend an hour or two throwing ingredients into disposable containers and then leave with 5-10 freezer meals to cook at a future date. It was super hip for awhile there and I just checked and it's still in business so people must still do it. It's a super awesome idea and there have been times where I have stocked my freezer with my own "Dream Dinners."

Anyway, back to my college days. I don't recall the exact chain of events but I sort of had an "in" (or at least I tell myself I did) as one of the founders of the company happened to be a dietitian. I pulled the whole I-Wanna-Be-Like-You card and landed a job working for them. It wasn't actually nearly as glamorous as I'd envisioned, but it looked good on my resume and, in retrospect, gave me some good insight on what types of dishes freeze well. Plus it paid well and helped me put away just enough savings to make it through my 9 month nutrition internship in Texas that followed graduation. I spent a lot of my college afternoons in the store, filling containers at each of the prepping stations with the needed ingredients for each of the recipes. One the participants arrived, I would stand awkwardly in the corner, available for any questions they might have or to refill anything that was running low. Then, when the night came to a close, I would toss unused ingredients and clean up shop for the next day.

This pasta dish never went through the rotation while I worked at the shop, but I stumbled upon it when I, as a dedicated employee, purchased the Dream Dinners cookbook. They call the recipe Summer Pasta, but I've since changed the name as I always felt a little silly telling someone who had just had a baby that I was bringing them "Summer Pasta." In December. Obviously, it's much more flavorful in the summer months when the basil and tomatoes are at their finest, but these days you can find those ingredients year round and I can vouch that it's still pretty tasty in the winter.

I've tweaked a few other items in the recipe and always use whole wheat penne instead of regular. I also like to add red pepper flakes for a little kick but if spicy isn't desired, leave them out and increase the black pepper to 1 tsp. You can mix up the flavors some by using different varieties of chicken sausage - Italian works great as does anything with sun-dried tomato.

 As written, the recipe makes a pretty large batch but I usually like to double it and then transfer the contents into three gallon-sized ziplocks as a double batch can easily be stretched to feed the family (depending on their size) for 3 meals. Correction. It feeds them for two meals because I keep one of the bags for us! ;) I've included instructions on how to eat the dish tonight, or how to freeze it and then bake it at a future date. So without further adieu...

Baked Pasta Caprese with Chicken Sausage
(adapted from Dream Dinners)

1 pound whole wheat penne
12 ounces precooked chicken sausage, sliced 1/4-inch thick
8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 ounces plum tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Heat a large pot of water to boiling and cook the pasta as directed to al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Combine the remaining ingredients together in a large bowl and stir to mix. Add pasta and toss.

To serve tonight:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour pasta mixture into a 9 x 13 inch pan coated with cooking spray and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated and the mozzarella is just starting to melt.

To freeze:
Pour combined pasta mixture into 1-2 gallon zip locks (depending on whether you want to have one big meal or stretch it to two) and freeze. Thaw in fridge 1-2 days before baking as directed above.

Serves 6

Pasta alla Norcina

Guys! So I totally made my own sausage! As in made my own sausage. I know, right? You're really super impressed. Either that or you have stopped reading entirely, declaring me out of touch. I promise it isn't as hard as it sounds. It's not the pipe-into-a-casing kind of sausage. It's the much more doable squash into a patty kind. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, though this dish has made a bi-monthly appearance at our table for quite some time now, this was actually the first time I have ever prepared the recipe. My husband, my canned-soup-used-to-equal-dinner-in-his-mind husband, was the one to get us all addicted to this masterpiece. He was the one who found the recipe initially and then he's been the one to whip it up and serve it to guests on numerous occasions. Without fail, they look at me and swoon and applaud and I bask in it all until my conscience can no longer stand the unfair praise and then I blurt out "I can take no credit! Graham played chef tonight."

We love this recipe so much that I actually pulled out one of my kitchen boxes from our tower of belongings that are currently taking up residence in my in-law's garage. I needed to unearth my food processor. Needed to. So that I could prepare this recipe, of course. If you don't have a food processor, it is possible to still make this recipe, it just takes some fine chopping skills and I'm lazy and have three kids and don't really have a spare second I care to dedicate to mincing mushrooms and so I cheat. 

The recipe is a little more involved than simply boiling pasta water and heating sauce, but my mini sous chef and I still managed to put it all together in under an hour. This was another 9 AM make-ahead beauty that reheated nicely when the dinner hour finally rolled around. If you don't have orecchiette pasta (which I forgot to buy this time around), any small noodle with a nice curve to hold the meaty sauce will do. 

I wish this dish sported some amazing nutritional component but there really isn't much I can tote other than that it is 100% amazing and everyone is 100% happy when it's on the menu. I've often thought some sautéed kale would be a lovely addition but so far I haven't had the guts to mess with such a good thing. The dish is light and creamy and totally lovely paired with a glass of chilled white wine. It can be dressed up for company and it's also perfect for a casual weeknight dinner. Enjoy!
 

Pasta alla Norcina
(from Cooks Illustrated)
 

Kosher salt and pepper

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

8 ounces ground pork

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, trimmed

7 teaspoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 pound orecchiette

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, grated (3/4 cup)

3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

      Grease large dinner plate with vegetable oil spray. Dissolve 1⅛ teaspoons salt and baking soda 4 teaspoons water in medium bowl. Add pork and fold gently to combine; let stand for 10 minutes.

 

Add 1 teaspoon garlic, 3/4 teaspoon rosemary, nutmeg, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper to pork and smear with rubber spatula until well combined and tacky, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer pork mixture to greased plate and form into rough 6-inch patty. Pulse mushrooms in food processor until finely chopped, 10 to 12 pulses.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add patty and cook without moving it until bottom is browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip patty and continue to cook until second side is well browned, 2 to 3 minutes longer (very center of patty will be raw). Remove pan from heat, transfer sausage to cutting board, and chop into 1/8- to 1/4-inch pieces. Transfer sausage to bowl and add cream; set aside.

Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large Dutch oven. Add pasta and 2 tablespoons salt and cook, stirring often, until al dente. Reserve 1 1/2 cups cooking water, then drain pasta and return it to pot.

While pasta cooks, return now-empty skillet to medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil, mushrooms, and ⅛ teaspoon salt; cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in remaining 2 teaspoons oil, remaining garlic, remaining 1/2 teaspoon rosemary, and ½ teaspoon pepper; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in wine, scraping up any browned bits, and cook until completely evaporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in sausage-cream mixture and ¾ cup reserved cooking water and simmer until meat is no longer pink, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and stir in Pecorino until smooth.

Add sauce, parsley, and lemon juice to pasta and toss well to coat. Before serving, adjust consistency with remaining reserved cooking water as needed and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6

 

Carbohydrate Lovers and Sweet Corn and Mushroom Truffle Pasta

It is no secret that we are a house full of pasta lovers. And that's the understatement of the year. I laugh because most recipes from health-related sources usually say a recipe containing a pound of pasta serves 8. And really it should, if you're exercising proper portion control (and trust me, I'm all about portion control). Talk to my kids though. The oldest two alone can put away 1/2 pound of pasta in one sitting. My husband and I consider it a success if we are able to make it to the end of the meal with satiated hunger pangs when pasta is on the menu. The pasta just gets devoured!

I am aware of this. And so I plan around it. We don't serve pasta every night because I don't want my kids to subsist on carbohydrates alone (and they would). I also strive to prepare healthful pasta recipes, using whole wheat noodles when possible, and incorporating vegetables. But it is important to me that my kids to learn to control their own food intake and not feel like mommy and daddy are "policing" their every bite. So when pasta is on the table, they can have at it (and they do). I usually serve one of their favorite fruits or vegetables as a side dish and this often helps temper their pasta intake some and encourages variety. But there are some nights when they pick around the veggies and protein and literally eat only the noodles. ONLY NOODLES! Nothing else. And this is normal and OK.

I plan to pepper my blog with posts about nutrition and feeding kids as it is a topic I am extremely passionate about. I also happen to be in the trenches myself with my own 3 children. It can be incredibly challenging to maneuver the conflicting messages available about raising healthy eaters. I am hoping this space can be a place where you can not only find new recipes, but also ask questions and use it as a resource for feeding your own family well.

With that said, I'll share one of our favorite pasta recipes. :) It came from Emeril Lagasse of all people (as in BAM! Kick it up a notch!) and I think I happened upon it back in 2008 when Graham and I discovered this delicious thing called truffle oil. I know the judges on Top Chef would balk at the use of the "fake" oil form of the mushroom but I'm fresh out of real truffle (wink) and I don't have a gajillion dollars to spend on my dinners. And, I guess more importantly, I'm not on Top chef. So the oil it is!

Anyway, if you love mushrooms, you have to try this stuff. Truffle oil isn't exactly cheap (except when compared to the actual truffle mushroom!) but a little goes a long way. You can find it at most supermarkets these days, at specialty shops, online and at Cost Plus World Market.

This dish is another summer favorite, showcasing sweet corn when it is at it's finest. For me, "exotic mushrooms" usually means a combination of shitake and cremini because those are the options readily available at Trader Joe's. I also like to buy their diced pancetta cubes and dried linguine for this recipe. And what the heck does it mean to chiffonade basil? Basically it's a technique used to create long, thin strips. To chiffonade, stack a handful of fresh basil leaves on top of one another and then roll together into a cigar. Thinly slice perpendicular to the roll, creating ribbons of basil. But if that feels out of your level of kitchen comfort, chopped tastes just the same! ;) Enjoy!

Sweet Corn and Mushroom Truffle Pasta

(from Emeril Lagasse)

1 pound fresh fettuccini pasta

8 ounces pancetta, julienned or cubed

2 ears of sweet corn  
1 pound assorted exotic mushrooms, sliced
Kosher salt and pepper
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
Drizzle of white truffle oil
3 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons chiffonade fresh basil
Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling water until al dente, about 4 to 5 minutes for fresh pasta or about 8 to 10 minutes for dried. Remove the pasta from the water and drain completely. Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan or skillet, over medium heat, render the pancetta until crispy, about 5 minutes. Remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside. Using a sharp knife, remove the kernels from the cob. Add the corn to the pancetta fat and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the garlic and continue to sauté for 1 minute. Toss the pasta with the corn and mushrooms, reserved pancetta, a drizzle of white truffle oil, the cheese and basil and serve.

"Serves 8" (or 4-6, if you have little carb-lovers)