During September we are focusing on Quick Weeknight Meals, ways to nourish yourself and others during the busy autumn season. But we're also breaking that down into a few favorite regions of cuisine, starting with that of Italy. We'll be talking Italian food and quick, easy meals of pasta and other Italian-inspired dishes all week long! So, to kick it off, tell us: What's your favorite pasta recipe?
Personally, I love orecchiette with sausage and spicy greens. I also love pretty much any ravioli or pasta with butternut squash.
What about you? What is your very favorite pasta recipe?
Pictured above:
• Pasta with Mint Pesto, Peas and Ricotta Salata
• Pasta alla Norma
(Images: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan; Emma Christensen)
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Spicy italian sausage or chorizo, with tomato, peppers, garlic, chili etc. Also can add tiger prawns if you fancy it. Yum :-)
I am also in love with the orecchiette, broccoli rabe and spicy sausage combo. I know we are not supposed to be toying with raw egg right now, but I still enjoy spaghetti carbonara. You can't go wrong with bacon, eggs and spaghetti!
Yay for Italian Week!! I can't wait to see what else you guys having coming up.
Brandon
PS - I am part Italian ;)
My favorite pasta is anything that involves pesto!
It's so hard to choose! One recent favorite was fettucine with pesto and sauteed mushrooms. Yesterday my husband made a wonderful sauce with grated zucchini, tomato puree, and fresh basil, that was out of this world. He served it over these ring-shaped pasta with a sort of "calamari" name because they look so much like calamari. I can't remember the exact word.
I've made homemade fettuccine a couple times and it is tough to beat. Had that once with my husband's vodka cream sauce. YUM.
Oh, SO hard to narrow it down...I could pick something different every day... In the spring I crave pasta with ricotta, fresh shelled peas, lemon zest, and lots of parsley. Last winter I started making a pasta dish with roasted butternut squash, sage, caramelized onion, and a little bit of sausage that I'm craving now as fall approaches. My husband's favorite is carbonara, which I make on the "light" side (relatively speaking!), more egg and parmesan, just a little half-and-half, plus bacon, peas, and parsley. I hate heavy cream sauces, much prefer tomato or olive-oil based sauces.
Let's see... I seem to revert to making fish with pesto or chicken/beans/spinach with an olive-oil parmesan sauce.
I'd have trouble picking my favorite, but hands down the one we eat most frequently is the simplest:
- blanched broccoli seared in a hot pan with
- garlic, rosemary, oregano, hot pepper flakes or chili powder
then tossed with
- olive oil, lemon juice and zest
- a bit of butter or parmesan or both
- whatever pasta is handy (in our house, this is usually either whole wheat penne or cheese ravioli)
- a spoonful of pasta water.
It's a staple because we always have the ingredients on hand, it's fast, and it's delicious --- one of those dishes that becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Oohh....must I pick only one?? If I had to narrow it down I would say it would be anything with pesto. I just love the stuff.
Gnoocchi alla Gorgonzola - hands down!
http://lapsushumanus.blogspot.com/2004/12/ode-to-gorgonzola.html
Hmmmmm!!!!
Where to start, eh? I eat a lot of pasta, in all manner of ways. I've been shying away from rich heavy tomato-based sauces recently, as I did those to death whilst I was at university, and I've been concentrating on fresher flavours.
Here's what I ate last night: stick pasta on to boil, fusilli is good for this dish.. The inspiration for this comes for my favourite bruschetta topping, and would probably be miles better if the ingredients were allowed to sit overnight. Measurements are for wimps, just do it to taste. Chop baby plum tomatoes, fresh sweet basil and fresh oregano, dice red onion, and crush garlic. Put everything in a bowl, add a decent amount of extra-virgin olive oil, chilli flakes, salt, a pinch of sugar, a dash of lemon and lots of cracked black pepper. Mix it around and leave to sit whilst your pasta cooks. Drain pasta, add to pan with contents of bowl, and warm through. You want the raw notes coming through, your onions should not be colouring. Serve with garlic ciabatta and more black pepper and parmesan to taste. Variations on this theme add pancetta or other cured meats.
My new favorite would have to be spicy pasta with braised fennel, bacon, and parmesan! Soo tasty we could eat it every night.
http://theweekendgourmande.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/kitchen-firsts-pasta-with-braised-fennel-and-bacon/
Classic favorite would be my childhood skillet mac and cheese!
http://theweekendgourmande.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/favorite-mac-and-cheese/
No red sauce for me either, this is how I like it:
-fry 2 cloves of chopped garlic in a few tablespoons full of olive oil
-toss in some cherry tomatoes
-fry a few slices of good italian raw ham
- meanwhile cook some really thin pasta noodles(spagettini or something)
Toss everything together and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste!
Delicious with garlic bread and a good glass of red wine!
Tortelini's & Raviloli.
I love stuffed pasta!
I made pasta last night. My go to recipe is sauteing a chopped red onion in a mixture of EVOO and butter, then throwing in quartered cherry tomatoes, the juice of one lemon, kosher salt, pepper, and lots of crushed red pepper. I let that cook down and then toss with multigrain pasta and highly quality parm. it is DELICIOUS.
I love making fresh pasta. Here are two of my favorite recipes:
Four-cheese ravioli with mushrooms
Fresh fettuccine with pesto, broccoli, and mushrooms
Boil whole wheat penne, dump over a wide bowl of baby spinach, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Add lots of parm, salt, and pepper. Toss.
Fettuccine with alfredo sauce. Is it authentic? No. Do I care? No.
Carbonara, with good quality pancetta, and using fettucine (fresh or otherwise). Still good with spaghetti or shaped pastas, but fettucine holds the sauce the best.
With our family (and my readers), this pesto made with collard greens, served with pasta and salmon, is always a hit:
http://thesweetest3.com/?p=1845
You guys always post what I am cooking! Last night I made a red sauce with spicy Italian sausage. How did you know??
Putanesca!
uhm... all the ones with pasta?? mmmmmmmmmm pasta...
Bucatini All'Amatriciana or Fettuccine with Bolognese Sauce
our really quick and easy stand-by is whole wheat spaghetti, a big dollop of pesto, an extra drizzle of olive oil and chunks of roasted chicken, shredded - mix it all up and you've got a fast and delicious dinner!
My stand-by is whole wheat pasta (usually fusilli or gemelli) with spinach, goat cheese (if I'm feeling healthy, I'll opt for a Laughing Cow Garlic & Herb wedge instead) and pesto grilled chicken, with a little salt, olive oil, and pasta water. I use the famed Meat, Cheese, Greens pasta template from a Kitchn article all the time!
I love meaty ragu. While I love the classic bolognese, I prefer my ragu without tomatoes. My favorite is ground beef and pork cooked with sweet spices in milk for hours and hours. I always make an extra big batch and keep some in small portion sizes in the freezer for a quick weeknight dinner.
Love fresh pesto with something green from the garden, and really good alfredo, but honestly, my favorite is a little angel hair with some freshly shaved parm and lemon zest with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Nothing fancy, just light and salty and tasty.
orrachetti with broccoli is my all time fave. I am loving simple spaghetti recipes lately too with garlic breadcrumbs, parsley, lemon & chili flakes
Meat sauce
oh oh oh my new favourite post.
So many carbs. My eyes are as big as saucers right now imagining all the different ways for me to fatten up. (We're talking literal drool here people.)
My favourite way is probably just to make a quick ricotta (because honestly what could be more delicious or easier) and to cook my pasta in the leftover water. throw some sage in the ricotta and mix it all together with some parmesan and/or some prawns. Maybe some extra lemon if I'm feeling frisky.
It allows me to be lazy. It's two pans. It's hearty. It's delicious. It's cheesy. That's all I need in life, really.
Ricotta & zucchini gnocchi - Easy, fun & DELICIOUS. I sauce mine with homemade pesto & roasted tomatoes, or classic marinara.
I normally clip recipes from here, and never make them, the recipe for Pasta alla Norma was the exception. It turned out great! I skipped the sauteeing the eggplant step entirely. A great dinner enjoyed by all!
I am Italian and I live in italy. So Ican decribe what i am cooking right now: rigatoni with homemade sauce made out of fresh tomatoes, garlic, red hot italian peppers, extravirgin oil (from tuscany) and fresh basil. At the end i will add fresh grated parmigiano reggiano cheese.
high quality ingredients are fundamental
no way I can pick just one, here are some of my favorites:
-mix ricotta with pesto, toss with hot spaghetti and top parmesan cheese
- make a mixture of raw chopped tomato, minced garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil and toss with hot spaghetti and top with parmesan cheese
- saute yellow squash and onions, crumble in some spicy sausage, mix in a tablespoon of dijon mustard and a little pasta water to make a sauce. Toss with whole wheat penne and top with parm cheese, drizzel of EVOO and fresh black pepper (I know sounds weird but it's REALLY good)