Baked Portabella and Spinach Pasta

Mushrooms, cheese, pasta - these are some of my favorite foods.  I first had this baked mushroom and spinach pasta at my friends house.   I made her give me the recipe right then.  It's delicious, hearty, relatively healthy and crowd pleasing.   She and I both have this on heavy rotation in our homes and it works for so many possibilities.   I can make it in my smaller casserole dish and have it for our little family of four.  I can double it and serve it for a party.  It's a great vegetarian alternative to baked ziti on a buffet.

It's also pretty adaptable.   It calls for portabella mushrooms, but you can use whatever you have.  I have used button mushrooms.  I have used 3-4 large portabella caps.  I've used a pack of baby bella mushrooms.    You can use fresh or frozen spinach.  You could add other veggies if you wanted.

The recipe comes from allrecipes.com and I made a point to read some of the reviews before making it. Some people said they hated the addition of soy sauce to the base sauce.  Personally, I like it.  It heightens the earthiness of the dish that you get from the mushrooms.  

When we remember to participate in Meatless Mondays, I always know this will be a winner.  Both of my kids inhale this pasta.  Even the spinach seems to be a non-issue to my pickiest little eater.

Baked Portabella and Spinach Pasta
recipe adapted from allrecipes.com

8 ounces uncooked pasta (penne works best, but any small shaped pasta will do)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 pound portabella mushrooms, thinly sliced
1stick of butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chiffonade of fresh basil
2 cups of milk
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
10 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 cup soy sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly great a casserole dish.   Bring a pot of water to boil.  Place the past in the pot and cook 8-10 minutes until al dente, then drain.

While the pasta cooks, heat the oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Stir in the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms let off their liquids.  Add the spinach and cook until wilted.  Remove the spinach and mushrooms from the pan and set aside.

Melt the butter in the pan and add the garlic.  Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.   Add the flour, stir to combine and cook until browned.  Gradually stir in the milk, whisking while it heats to keep any lumps out.   Cook until thickened about 2-3 minutes.  Add 1 cup of the cheese and stir until melted.   Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Toss the pasta, mushrooms, spinach and soy sauce together.  Transfer to the baking dish, top with remaining cheese and bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and browned on top.

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Pinto Bean and Rice Burgers

It is very rare that I am so excited about something that I have to blog it the very day I make it.  But as I was eating lunch today, I could not wait to share.   These pinto bean and rice burgers were so delicious that I can barely wait for lunch tomorrow.  

Mind you, I am a burger and fries kind of girl.  I think I could live on cheeseburgers.   But I wanted to try something a little healthier. I made this for lunch, thinking that Nico would not love if I made this for dinner.  Now, I'm not so sure.  He may love them, too.   Hearty and meaty from the beans, they are certainly very filling.   It's crispy on the outside, has plenty of crunch from the scallions, and full of flavor.  I loved the contrast of the cool toppings I put on mine, too.  Avocado, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber.  They were great on a whole wheat roll, but they'd be delicious on a bed of salad greens as well.   

I went out on a limb and made a full size batch of these, which yielded 9 burgers for me.  I ate one and Liam ate one.   He gobbled it up so fast at Evie's swim lesson, I felt bad that I didn't bring more.   The rest are in my freezer waiting for lunch over the next few days.  I am curious to see how well they cook from frozen, or if I should defrost them first.  I will report back tomorrow, I promise.  

These were so simple to put together that next time I may double the recipe, just to keep these on hand. I'll keep these on hand for a quick and delicious lunch, but also as a great option for our vegetarian friends when we grill this summer. 

*Update: I highly recommend defrosting these before cooking them.  

Pinto Bean and Rice Burgers

recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Every Day Food, June 2012

2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 3/4 cups cooked white rice

1/3 cup dry breadcrumbs

3 scallions, green and white parts, thinly sliced

2 large eggs, beaten

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Mash the beans until a coarse paste forms.  I did this in my food processor, but you could most certainly mash them with a fork.   Add rice, breadcrumbs, scallions, eggs, salt and pepper.   Gently fold with a rubber spatula until completely combined.   Using a large spring loaded ice cream scoop, portion into patties.  Should yield 8-9 patties, depending on your scoop size. 

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add the patties and cook for 3 minutes per side, or until browned and cooked through.   If you are cooking all the patties, then transfer the cooked patties to a wire rack and tent with foil while you cook the remainder.  Otherwise, to freeze the remainder, transfer to a parchment lined plate and freeze them. Once frozen, stack them with parchment paper between each patty, wrap and foil and store in a labeled zip top bag.  

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Parmesan Chicken

Parmesan chicken is on heavy rotation in my house.  This is one of my family's top favorite dinners.  It's simple, its quick and delicious.  A crowd pleaser.  One thing I love about it (as the primary cook in this house) is that it's great for a quick dinner for 2 or can easily feed a crowd.   I can put the cutlets in a low temperature oven to hold them while I make more cutlets.  I can cook them in advance and warm them just before serving dinner.  It's flavorful enough to be the star of the show with a simple salad, but I've also made this as a stand in for "fried chicken" and served it with macaroni and cheese, beans and cole slaw.

When I first heard "parmesan chicken" on Barefoot Contessa, I thought of heavily breaded chicken topped with heavy marinara and a blanket of gooey melted mozzarella.  It did not strike me as an elegant meal that Ina Garten would serve.  But I watched anyhow, and instead I discovered a lovely alternative to grilled chicken. Sure, its breaded and cooked in oil.  But this is not at all heavy like a chicken parmesan.  

Of course, Ina makes her own breadcrumbs and for a quick weeknight meal, I do not.  I will use whatever boxed breadcrumbs I have on hand (even Panko), if I don't have any home made breadcrumbs in the freezer.  The crunchiness you get from the addition of grated parmesan cheese is what makes this chicken so delicious.   And I like to add lemon zest as well, which compliments the lemon vinaigrette I typically use on the salad.

You can use chicken breast, chicken tenders or even diced chicken to make nuggets.  This recipe is elegant enough for a dinner party, and yummy enough for a kid's birthday party.

Parmesan Chicken
recipe courtesy of Barefoot Contessa Family Style, by Ina Garten


4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 extra large eggs
1 1/4 cups seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, optional (or chives, or whatever herbs you have hanging around)
zest of 1 lemon, optional
unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil

Pound the chicken breasts until they are 1/4 inch thick.  (I usually ask the butcher to do it for me!)

Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl.  In a second bowl, beat the eggs.  In a third bowl, combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley and lemon zest.  Coat the chicken on both sides in the flour, then dip both sides in the egg mixture, and finally dredge both sides in the bread crumb mixture, pressing lightly to adhere.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil in a large sautee pan and cook 2-3 breasts on medium low heat for 2-3 minutes per side, or until cooked through.  Add more butter and oil as you cook each new batch.  You can keep the chicken breasts warm for 15 minutes on a sheet pan in a 200 degree oven.
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Cherry Pie Ice Cream

When I saw cherries at the grocery store last week, I practically hurdled over someone to get to them.  I've been watching like a hawk for them for several weeks now.  Back in March I had told a friend that at the first sign of cherries I would bake her a pie.  So we bought our first round of cherries, brought them home, and Evie promptly ate half the bag.

I had so few left over that for Memorial Day, I made roasted cherry brownies.  They were a big hit.  Had I not phoned it in with a box of brownie mix at the 11th hour, I might consider blogging them.  (How's this?  Roast some cherries on 350 for about a half hour.  Put them in a pan and top with your favorite brownie mix and bake about 10 minutes longer than usual.)

Anyhow, the second bag of cherries came around and I was determined to make pie.  With ice cream.  And somewhere along the way the pie became part of the ice cream.

Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense, right?  Pie a la mode is such a simple pleasure right?  My favorite part of pie a la mode?  Pie crust and ice cream together.  Not necessarily the fruit filling, but the pie crust.  Tender, buttery, crisp contrasted with the sweet, soft, vanilla ice cream.   As easy as it would have been to make cherry ice cream, I really wanted bits of pie crust.

At first, I wasn't sure if I'd bake strips of pie crust and toss those in with cherry flavored ice cream, but that seemed like cheating.  Plus, I do love how the pie crust takes on the flavor of whatever filling it is cradling.   What could I do?  I made pie specifically so it could be cut up and folded into ice cream.  Sounds crazy, no?  Maybe.  But worth it.

I decided to do mini pies in my muffin tin.  It worked out well because I really only needed 6 mini pies for the ice cream and it left me with several mini pies, which can be frozen.  (Theoretically.  I say that as if we froze them and as if we didn't snack on them for the last few days.)  If I'd done a large pie, I'd just have a cut up pie mess.

While the pies baked, I got to work on the custard.  I used David Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream, which was amazing.  I did it exactly as his recipe states except that I didn't chill the custard overnight.  I let it chill for a few hours before I got impatient and tossed it into the ice cream maker.   I'm not sure if it mattered that I didn't chill it.  If it did, I really can't imagine this ice cream getting better.  It was so full of vanilla flavor.  The cherry pie filling was subtle and not overwhelming and the pie bits were everything I wanted them to be!

One thing I'd like to work on perfecting is the vein.  You know how everyone likes a vein in their ice cream?  Be it chocolate swirl, or caramel, the vein is something my husband and I fight for.   When I made the cherry pie filling, I strained out a lot of the excess liquid before filling the mini pies, so the juices wouldn't ooze out of the pies too much.  As it sat and cooled, it set up nicely, so I thought it would make a nice vein in the ice cream.  I added it in a stream as the ice cream maker churned and all it did was fold into the ice cream giving it a subtle pink color and a light cherry flavor.   Still incredible, but not what I'd intended.   I'll figure it out.  And I will make this ice cream again.  Or blueberry pie ice cream.  And in the fall, I'll make pumpkin pie ice cream.  And apple pie ice cream...   I could go on and on.

Cherry Pie Ice Cream
For the cherry pie:
I edited my usual cherry pie to make slightly less.  I used about 2.5 cups of cherries, but halved the rest of the ingredients.  It did come out a bit soupier than usual, but as I mentioned above, I pressed a lot of the liquid out.   2.5 cups of cherries yielded enough filling to fill 12 mini muffin tins lined with pie crust.  Once cooled, I quartered 6 pies for the ice cream.

For the vanilla ice cream:
recipe courtesy of David Lebovitz

1 cup whole milk
a pinch of salt
3/4 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the milk, salt and sugar in a sauce pan.  Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a knife, then add the bean pod to the milk.  Cover, remove from heat and infuse for one hour.

Set up an ice bath by placing a 2 quart bowl into a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water.  Pour the cream into the smaller bowl.

In a separate bowl, stir the egg yolks together.  Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour.  Scrape warmed yolks and milk back into saucepan of milk.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat resistant spatula, until the custard is thick and coats the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream.  Stir over the ice until the mixture is cool.  Add the vanilla extract (I realize as I type this that I forgot to add my vanilla extract!) and refrigerate to chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer instructions.  Once the ice cream has set, stir in pie pieces and reserved filling juice.
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Strawberry Nutella Panini

This dessert panini is so simple.  It's ingredients are simple enough to have on hand all summer.  If you find yourself with an impromptu gathering at your house, you've got dessert covered. 

A word of warning:  It may be a little too simple.  Please don't hold me accountable if you find yourself snacking on this a few too many times this summer.  

Strawberry Nutella Panini

1 pound cake (home made or store bought, I used one from the freezer section for this)

6-8 strawberries, sliced

Nutella

Cut the poundcake into slices.  Spread each slice with Nutella and layer sliced strawberries onto one side of each "sandwich".  Top with another Nutella/poundcake slice and grill on a griddle pan, George Foreman or panini press for 1 minute.   (If using a griddle pan, grill on each side for 30-45 seconds.)

Serve immediately. 

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Triple Nutella Chocolate Cupcakes

I've been on a little bit of a Nutella kick lately.  Truth be told, I'm always on a Nutella kick.   My husband is an even bigger fan than I am.   He hates peanut butter and always says Nutella is "his peanut butter".  And what kid doesn't love it?  Did you know that there is a World Nutella Day?   It happens to be Evelyn's birthday, February 5.   There are even two Nutelleria locations, one in Frankfurt, Germany and one in Bolgona, Italy.   Oh, how I wish I'd known about this when I was in Bologna 5 years ago!  I think I could die happy in a Nutelleria.

So yes, I'm on a kick.  I made the Nutella tart a few weeks ago.   There was a conversation on Facebook that happened between some friends of mine and I, and one friend confessed she'd never tried Nutella.   Since she was coming over that Friday for a play date with our daughters, I decided I needed to right that wrong.   After careful consideration, I decided to make these cupcakes.

Chocolate Nutella cake.  Filled with pure Nutella.  Topped with Nutella buttercream.  How better to indoctrinate someone, right?   Truth be told, I wish I'd gone purist for a first timer.  But these cupcakes were a dream.   And I think my friend fell in love.  There were 5 of us at my house, and the recipe made 48 cupcakes.   (Had I known before I started baking, I would have halved the recipe.)  But it was all good.  We had a block party that night, so I brought along the extras.  And Nico's colleagues benefitted from this baking frenzy as well.

I have a few more Nutella posts coming this week that I am excited to share.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one!

Triple Nutella Chocolate Cupcakes
recipe courtesy of Family Kitchen, originally from Good Life Eats
For the cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup Nutella
2 1/2 cups buttermilk

For the filling:
1/2 cup Nutella

For the Buttercream:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup Nutella
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   Sift together flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until they are pale yellow and thick in consistency.  Add in the butter and mix to combine.  Add the Nutella and buttermilk, beating to combine.

Add in flour mixture, 2 cups at a time, mixing after each addition.  Scoop batter to fill lined cupcake pans 2/3 full.  Bake for 15-18 minutes until tops bounce back when lightly touched. Allow to cool in pans 5-10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

While cupcakes are still warm, fit a pastry bag with a round tip and fill with the 1/2 cup of Nutella.  Insert the tip into the top of each cupcake in the center and squeeze the Nutella into the cakes, about 1 tablespoon each.  Allow cupcakes to cool completely.

Beat the butter and Nutella until creamy.  Mix in vanilla extract.  Add in powdered sugar and mix well. Add cream until desired consistency is reached.  Pipe buttercream onto filled cupcakes.



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