Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce

Source: Food Network - Barefoot Contessa

Notes: I will never buy sauce in a jar, can or even ready-made from Whole Foods again. Making this sauce was quick and easy and it was unbelievably flavorful!

If you want to add meatballs or Italian sausages, I would use only half to three quarters of a 1 lb box of spaghetti, because the sauce to noodle recipe was perfect.

Ingredients:

THE SAUCE:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 chopped yellow onion
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped/minced
1/2 cup Italian red wine, such as Chianti (or for alcohol free, use chicken or vegetable stock)
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used a bit more - just eyeball it)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or eyeball it!)
1/2 teaspoon pepper (or eyeball it!)
A few shots of hot sauce, such as Tabasco (optional)

THE PASTA:

1 lb box of plain or whole-wheat spaghetti (I used whole wheat for extra healthiness)
Pot of water
A couple of drizzles of olive oil
Salt to taste

ALSO!:

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:

THE SAUCE:

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent and slightly browned, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine (or stock) and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper and hot sauce, if you choose. Cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for at least 15 minutes.

THE PASTA:

Add olive oil and salt to large pot of boiling water. Once the water is in a rolling boil, add the pasta for 8 to 12 minutes until al dente. Drain water from the pasta and return to large pot. Sprinkle generous helpings of grated Parmesan cheese on top of pasta before sauce! (I learned this from The Silver Spoon, the amazing tome of Italian cooking that I went right out and bought after looking through Mandy's copy!) Next pour sauce over spaghetti and Parmesan. Toss all together with large tongs. Serve in bowls, sprinkle a little additional Parmesan on top of each for presentation and you can garnish with a little parsley or basil, if you like. Then, eat it!

Andrew's Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

• mushrooms, chopped
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots or onions
  
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2-3 Tbsp whisky
  
• About 3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

1. In a 3 or 4 quart saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp butter on medium heat. Add the shallots or onions and cook for a few minutes until translucent. Add a dash of chilli if you have it. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes more, stirring until nicely coated.

2. While the shallots are cooking, bring the stock to a simmer in a saucepan.

3. Add the wine and whisky. Slowly stir, allowing the rice to absorb the wine. Once the wine is almost completely absorbed, add 1/2 cup of stock to the rice. Continue to stir until the liquid is almost completely absorbed, adding more stock in 1/2 cup increments. Stir often to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking and stirring rice, adding a little bit of stock at a time, cooking and stirring until it is absorbed, until the rice is tender, but still firm to the bite. Remove from heat.

4. Fry the garlic, then add the mushrooms. When mushrooms are soft, add them to the rice, along with parmesan cheese, 1 Tbsp butter, and salt and pepper to taste.

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

This recipe is so simple & freakin' delicious- the perfect mix of the sweetness of sugar & tartness of rhubarb. It's rhubarb season now, in spring and early summer. Serve with cream or ice cream. Yum!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/3 cups white sugar
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.
3. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

(stolen from allrecipes.com)

Aunt Irene's Stuffed Cabbage

I asked her for the recipe because I got some cabbage earlier in the week. She wasn't able to post it though, so I said I'd do it for her. :)

******************************

Boil a large head of cabbage until the leaves are soft enough to pull off. (or try microwaving) You'll need to trim down the spines of each leaf so they're flat.

Meat mixture:
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 1/2 lbs. ground pork
1-2 large onions
2-3 cloves garlic crushed/chopped
1 or 2 eggs
1 C rice
salt, pepper, paprika

Mix together meat stuff, roll a heaping tablespoon full in each cabbage leaf. Usually, we do it stovetop, but it takes about 2 hours and invariably burns on the bottom. Last time I did it in the crockpot. I think it turned out well, but it took all day.

Anyway, I usually put in tomato sauce and tomato soup (the soup makes it not so tart)--depending on your size pot, maybe 2 of each. I rinse a can of sauerkraut, and add that somewhere in the middle layer. So once you get the stuffed cabbages rolled up, you set them in the pot of sauce. Probably 2 hours oven/stovetop/6-8hrs. crockpot.

Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
2 t. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake 8 minutes then let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing.
6. Remove from sheet to cool completely. (I use a paper bag.)