Fortunately for me, I am not Italian, not even a drop.  I am English- in all of my pasty and reserved glory.  I say fortunately because tonight I committed the ultimate sacrilege, I made Spaghetti Bolognese with fake meat, and it’s not the first time.  It was good fake meat too, Gimme Lean Ground Beef Style (Lightlife Brand).  But most important were the San Marzano Tomatoes, a 28 ounce can responsible for causing an uproar  of exaltation in the foodie world.

Spaghetti Bolognese, or Spag Bog as we called it growing up, used to be my sister’s favourite weeknight meal.  She would request it on her birthdays each year.  Because it was such a staple in our childhood diet (and I think for most kids growing up in the UK), and even though I’m not Italian, I don’t feel too embarrassed about putting my slightly banal (GRE word) version out there.

Spag Bog
Serves 3

1/2 Package of Lightlife Ground Beef
1 Onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1 tsp each of: Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Sage, Oregano
1/4 cup Red Wine
3 tbsp Olive oil
1/2 Dried Red Chili
Parmesan Reggiano Rind
4 Baby carrots
1 Bay leaf
Optional: Sea salt, fresh basil

Dice onion and heat in olive oil for about 5-7 minutes over medium high heat. Add in garlic and herbs and cook for a minute or two. Crumble in the ground beef and chop up in the pan with a wooden spatula. Cook about 5 mins and add in the tomatoes, mush the tomatoes. Cook a few minutes on medium high and add in red wine, red chili, grated tomatoes and parmesan reggiano rind and salt. Simmer on low for about half an hour until the right consistency.  Serve over spaghetti with freshly grated parmesan and fresh basil (if you’ve got any).

Did you know it’s officially Spring?  Yippeeeee!   My apologies for sparcer posting lately.  I have just moved back to Massachusetts for an internship that started Monday.  We drove up over the weekend and haven’t had much time since.  Additionally, I am still trying to figure out where is the best lighting, and haven’t been very sucessful just yet (as you can see above).

We had a bunch of veggies to use up the other day- Artichokes, green beans, mushrooms, so we decided to bung them in a pasta with a white wine creme fraiche sauce, fresh thyme, caper berries, sun dried tomato, and facon.

Spring Pasta!
Serves 4

Pasta- we only had spaghetti but if you’ve got it definitely use a stouter pasta like farfalle or cavatappi
Sugar Snap Peas
Fresh Thyme
6-7 Caper berries
Small container of Mushrooms
1/4 cup Sherry or White Wine
1/4 cup Creme Fraiche
1/4 Cup Veggie Broth
4 Artichoke hearts
Facon- 4 strips
9-10 Sun dried tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
1/2 Red Onion

Cook the artichokes, remove leaves and roughly chop up hearts. In large saute pan, heat some olive oil and cook the red onion a few minutes, add the garlic, and then the mushrooms. When mushrooms have released fluids, add in the white wine or sherry. Add in peas, thyme, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and facon (which you can cook a few minutes in the oven). Cook a few minutes until the wine has reduced and add the stock. Evapourate a little, and add creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper and stir in caper berries, remove form heat.

Cook pasta and add all the fixings to the drained pasta, if you need more liquid deglaze the frying pan with some wine and broth and add that in, too. Serve with fresh pecorino.

This weekend we retreated to the Chesapeake Bay, because our lives are so stressful. But in all honesty, job hunting gets depressing so we went away, bought lots of yummy food, and watched Harry Potter. There are no weekend egg pots this week as I got breakfast in bed.

For dinner on Saturday we put in quite a bit of effort.  For starters we had lemon-butter Artichokes:

Followed by Fake Chicken Marsala:

With a side of spaghetti topped with slow roasted cherry tomatoes and garlic:

Artichokes:

Cut off stems and about a quarter off the top (so no spiky leaves remain).  Remove any scraggly leaves on the base that escaped the cutting and are still very pointy.  Open up and remove the hairy bits inside, scrape them out with a spoon.  Stick  a knob of butter inside the artichoke, squeeze half a lemon in each, and season with salt, pepper, and thyme.  Place in a microwavable bowl, fill half way with water and cover, heat in the microwave for about 15 mins.  Remove from bowl, squeeze some fresh lemon juice over and eat.

Chicken Marsala:

This is secret, and we will give you one very valuable tip- don’t use Quorn chicken, it just doesn’t work well.  Look for this recipe in a couple of weeks once it is perfected.

Pasta:

Slow roast some tomatoes and garlic, see this recipe.  Once done, combine with spaghetti, olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan reggiano.  Add fresh basil if on hand.

This is a simple pasta dish, make it with something like Orecchiette or Wagon Wheels (I can’t remember their fancy Italian name).   Use whatever greens you want- Rappini, Kale, Spinach or Dandelion.  Fresh parsley works will, but could be substituted by fresh oregano if you have that on hand instead.

Lemony Wagon Wheels with Goat Cheese, Spinach and Sun dried Tomato
Serves 4 Hungry Beasts

Pasta for 4
Juice of 1 Lemon
1-2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
Handful of fresh Parsley, chopped
Fresh Spinach
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
10 Sun dried tomatoes, chopped up
2 ounces of goat cheese
Red Chili Pepper flakes

Cook pasta. Place spinach or greens in a strainer, rinse, and then pour over boiling water from a kettle to wilt. Once pasta is cooked, add in Spinach, sundried tomato, garlic, olive oil, lemon, and fresh parsley. Mix well, season with cracked pepper and crushed sea salt, pour into a serving bowl and top with red chili pepper flakes and goat cheese blobs.

I’ve talked about Pasta Amato before.  It’s the best pasta dish (and introduced to me by the Amato Clan), and so quick and simple to make- besides the whole peeling the tomato thing.  Anyway, this time I had to omit the fresh basil as I didn’t have any, so I used an Italian herb blend instead.  To add something special, I baked some ricotta earlier in the day.  I don’t really care for ricotta much… except for when it is baked.  The texture is far better, and mixing in some garlic, thyme, lemon and chili oil really goes a long way.

Pasta Amato with Baked Ricotta
2 Servings

Pasta for 2 (we used elbow this time)
4 Roma Tomatoes
Fresh Basil if you’ve got it
Glug of EVOO
1 garlic clove
Sea Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

1/2 Cup of Ricotta
1 clove of Garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tbsp chili oil
1/2 lemon
Crushed Black Pepper
Sprinkle of Parmesan

First of all, get the ricotta started. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients listed for baked ricotta above except for the chili oil. Spread over a parchment lined baking sheet, drizzle with chili oil, and bake in the oven at 400 for about 30 mins. Boil water, cook pasta til al dente. Peel roma tomatoes and cut into slithers. Throw in a mixing bowl with olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs, toss and let sit until the ricotta is done. Combine tomato mixture and pasta, throw into serving bowls and place of bit of the baked ricotta on top.