Roasted Garlic & Cauliflower Pasta

Wow this was such a tasty dish! I made it over the weekend and served it to company. But really once I tasted it all I wanted to do was hoard it all myself. And then I ate the leftovers for 2 days and couldn't stop dreaming about it in between.

The cauliflower and garlic are both roasted. For those who may not have tried roasted garlic and are balking at the 2 entire heads of garlic called for, never fear! Roasting the garlic really mellows it's flavor/bite and turns it into something wondrous indeed. I took the liberty of adding some cream and chicken broth to the original recipe and didn't regret it one little bit. And the toasted walnuts on top were the perfect finishing touch.

I think you'll find that this is the perfect accompaniment to many, many main dishes (I'll share what I served it with in a later post) and it could easily be a meatless main dish in it's own right. It's filling and oh so tasty!

Roasted Garlic & Cauliflower Pasta

{Adapted from Mels Kitchen Cafe}

2 heads garlic, papery skins mostly removed (but keep it intact), top 1/4 of heads cut off from pointy end of garlic and thrown away

6 T olive oil

1 head cauliflower (the bigger the better in my opinion)

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t sugar

1 pound fusilli or rotini or campanelle pasta

1/4 t red pepper flakes

3 T fresh lemon juice

1 cup+ fresh grated parmesan

1/4 cup chopped, toasted walnuts

chicken broth

heavy cream

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place trimmed heads of garlic, cut side up on a square piece of foil and drizzle with 1 t or so of olive oil. Gather foil up and around garlic to seal well. Place foil packet directly on rack of heated oven. Roast until garlic is very tender, about 40 minutes. Set aside to cool. (May do this a few hours ahead of time and just leave garlic out till ready)

Adjust oven rack to middle position and place a large rimmed baking sheet on middle rack to preheat. Trim outer leaves off the cauliflower and cut it into bite size pieces. Toss in a bowl with 2 T oil, salt, pepper, and sugar. Remove hot baking sheet from oven and carefully spread cauliflower out on it. Sheet back into the oven and roast cauliflower until it's browned and tender, 15-20 minutes.

While cauliflower is roasting bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add 1 T salt to water and stir in pasta; cook until al dente. Meanwhile squeeze cooled, roasted garlic out of skins into a small bowl. Using a fork, mash garlic well until it's a smooth paste. Stir in red pepper flakes and lemon juice. Slowly whisk in remaining 1/4 cup olive oil.

Drain the pasta and return pasta to pot. Add the chopped cauliflower, stir in garlic sauce, 1/2 cup of chicken broth, cream, and 1 cup of cheese. Adjust the consistency by adding more chicken broth and/or cream. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts and additional grated cheese. Serves 4-6.

Chicken Tetrazzini

Don't let the plain jane-ness of this plate deter you. This is one delicious meal. It can be made with chicken or turkey (leftover turkey is terrific) and as casserole's are wont to do, it feeds an army. It's creamy and cheesy and wonderful. And it's a good take-in meal, especially when made in a disposable oven-friendly pan.

No bells and whistles here just good old fashioned comfort food that never disappoints.

Chicken Tetrazzini

{My friend Carolee suggested added sauteed mushrooms and toasted almonds, sounds divine!}

12+ oz. spaghetti noodles, cooked and drained

2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped/shredded (or leftover turkey)

1 onion, chopped

1 green pepper, diced

2 T butter

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/4 cups milk

2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook noodles until tender and drain. Saute green peppers and onions in butter till softened. In large bowl combine soups, milk, cheese, and sauteed veggies. Stir. Add chicken, salt and pepper to taste, and noodles. When all combined pour into greased 9X13 casserole dish and bake until warmed through and bubbly, about 30-40 minutes.

Thai Peanut Noodles

I'm a huge fan of asian noodle dishes. They are inevitably what I gravitate towards at any asian restaurant. But I'd never even considered making them at home until a couple years ago when this recipe showed up on Our Best Bites. The list of ingredients has absolutely nothing bizzare, no fish sauce or oyster sauce in sight. Just basic ingredients you can find in any well-stocked pantry and an amazing flavor with a little heat (to taste of course), crunch (thank you peanuts) and refreshing toppings that really make the dish (hello green onions, cilantro, and lime). If you love noodles you're gonna love these, guaranteed.

Thai Peanut Noodles

{Original recipe from Our Best Bites. I've adapted it to our tastes, mainly by doubling the sauce ingredients. We like things saucy, plus I find the noodles soak it up pretty quick and less seemed like it would be non-existent. Feel free to double or not according to your families tastes. However, doubled amounts are what I've written out below}

1 cup chicken broth

6 T peanut butter

2 t sriracha chili sauce

3 T honey

6 T soy sauce

3 T fresh minced ginger

5-6 cloves garlic minced

12 oz linguine noodles

chopped green onions

chopped cilantro

lime wedges

chopped peanuts

Cook noodles in salted water. In the meantime combine chicken broth, peanut butter, chili sauce, honey, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until smooth and remove from heat. Toss cooked noodles with sauce. Add chopped peanuts to taste. On each serving sprinkle green onions, cilantro, and squeeze a wedge of lime.

*If desired, you can add meat to this dish by stir-frying shrimp or thinly slice (partially frozen first helps) chicken in some veggie oil with a couple cloves of minced garlic, some fresh ginger, green onions, soy sauce, and a small squirt or sriracha chili sauce.

Could Not Be Simpler Tomato Sauce

This recipe has been floating around the blogosphere for quite some time. I found it via Smitten Kitchen, but she found it via so-and-so, who found it via another so-and-so, and so on. At first I thought tomatoes, butter, and an onion? This cannot be good! Too few ingredients that don't seem to have much flavor. But put the 3 together and it's a whole new story! It's simple and refreshing and I quite liked it. I'm sure my husband would have liked some sort of meat added in, but I liked it's non-meatness so left it as is. I did take the liberty of blending it up, rather than just crushing the tomatoes as the original recipe calls for. I'm a smooth sauce kind of gal, not so much chunky tomato sauce loving and I also decided I couldn't let the onion go to waste so I blended it in with the sauce instead of removing and discarding it. I added some shaved parmesan and if I'd had it would have sprinkle some basil chiffonade on top as well. But feel free to do as you please with it! It's an easy light dinner or lunch kind of dish, we added a hearty salad to our plate just to fill it out a bit more. Some crusty grilled bread would be great on the side too.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onion

{Slightly adapted from recipe source: Smitten Kitchen and elsewhere}

1 28 oz can whole stewed tomatoes

5 T butter

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved

Salt to taste, if needed (I didn't need it)

Shaved parmesan, optional

Basil chiffonade, optional

Hot cooked spaghetti noodles

Place tomatoes, butter, and halved onion in 3 quart heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Let come to boil and then reduce heat to maintain a steady simmer for at least 45 minutes, stirring occasionally and crushing tomatoes as you go. After 45 minutes you may either remove and discard onion and serve as is over pasta, or blend it all together and serve with shaved parmesan and basil on top. Easy as pie!

Chicken Fetticine Alfredo

I'm back! Sort of. I have at least this one recipe to post. Coming off vacation it's always hard to get back in the swing of things, especially cooking since all I really want to do is keep eating out!

Anyhow, this recipe is a serious tried and true for us. I started making this clear back when Derek and I were first married, going on 10 years, and probably a thousand times since. We love it. The problem is, it's a serious fat bomb! Heavy cream, butter, parmesan cheese and that's IT! See? That's a mind-boggling amount of fat and calories. But rather than not making it at all, we just make it "sparingly". Although it's quick and easy and so good that we want it to be a regular, we try to save it for just every once and awhile.

It's a classic, pure alfredo sauce with nothing fancy added and cream, butter, and cheese are just good enough to not need anything more, except maybe some blood pressure meds on the side! ;0) Please try it and for once don't let yourself worry about health consequences, sometimes food just need to be ENJOYED!

Chicken Fetticine Alfredo

1/2 cup butter

1/2-1 cup heavy whipping cream, I ere on the side of more cream, equal amounts butter to cream is a just a little too crazy-fatty for me (as if cream's any better than butter though right?!)

3/4 cup grated parmesan

fresh garlic or garlic powder to taste

plenty of black pepper

1 extra large or 2 regular chicken breasts, cooked however you'd like.

8 oz. cooked fetticine noodles

*Note: Anymore I don't follow this original recipe to a "T", but probably would the first time just to see what I like. Now I usually double this recipe, but don't use a full cup of butter, more like 1/2 cup butter to 1 1/2-2 cups of cream or thereabouts and the cheese is whatever amount floats my boat. Also, for the chicken I season mine with season-all or garlic pepper, saute it briefly on both sides in some olive oil so that it gets a good brown crust going and then pop it in a 400 degree oven to finish cooking while I make the sauce and noodles.

Start pot of water boiling for noodles and get those going. Once noodles and chicken are cooking, in a good size skillet melt butter and cream over low heat stirring frequently. When butter is melted add cheese and season with garlic powder (is using-for fresh garlic saute it for a few seconds in the melting butter and then add cream and so on) and lots of fresh ground black pepper. Chop up cooked, seasoned chicken and add to sauce or serve on top. Spoon over cooked fetticine noodles or toss all together. Fresh parsley or basil on top is nice sometimes and we even occasionally add some halved grape tomatoes to ours. Get crazy!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

This recipe was recently posted on Mels Kitchen Cafe (her recipes NEVER disappoint) and looked like a great toned down (aka quick-er) option for Chicken Parmesan. And it was. It's also a great pantry meal, chances are any well-stocked pantry will most likely have all the ingredients on hand. The sauce offers the best of red sauce yumminess. It's a little bit tangy, a little bit sweet, and with only a handful of ingredients doesn't take all day. The chicken is terrific. I love breaded chicken cutlet's but sometimes dislike the extra steps it takes to get them there. So with just a light, quick dredging in flour even I can't complain. Add to it all the fact that the chicken eventually finishes cooking IN the tomato sauce and you have a recipe for success. The flavors all meld together with melted cheesy goodness. It only took me about 30 minutes to make too. This will be a regular with us for sure!

Skillet Chicken Parmesan

{Recipe Source: Mels Kitchen Cafe}

2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced

28 oz can crushed tomatoes

14.5 oz can petite diced tomatoes, drained

1/2 t dried oregano

1/2 t dried basil

1 t sugar

1/2 t salt

1/2 t black pepper

3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided

3 chicken breasts cut in half lengthwise to make 6 thinner cutlets (next time I think I'll be pounding out the chicken then cutting each in half, I wanted more tender chicken and think this would help)

Garlic salt

1/2 cup flour

2 T oil (vegetable, canola or olive)

3/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I had leftover fresh mozzarella that I sliced and it was so good!)

3-4 slices provolone, cut in half

Hot spaghetti noodles for serving

In medium bowl, combine garlic, crushed and diced tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup parmesan. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat 2 T oil until over medium heat until rippling and hot. Thoroughly dry chicken cutlets and season with garlic salt. Place flour in a shallow dish and dredge seasoned cutlets, coating both sides. Place 3-4 cutlets in hot pan and let cook only 3 minutes per side until there's a nice golden crust. Remove to plate (they'll finish cooking at a later point). Repeat with remaining cutlets.

Wipe skillet of excess oil and pour pre-mixed sauce contents into the pan, taking care of splatters. Turn heat to medium and gently nestle all 6 browned chicken cutlets into the sauce. The chicken should be mostly covered with sauce. Cover the skillet and simmer on medium low for about 15 minutes.

Uncover and place mozzarella, provolone, and grated parmesan over each chicken piece. Cover and cook 5 minutes more until cheese to melt-y. Serve over hot spaghetti noodles.

Serves 6

Fetticine with Chicken, Bacon, and Tomatoes

We are big time pasta eaters in our house. This recipe is a favorite and what's nice about it is that it's a bit "lighter" than your typical pasta dish, since it's cooked with broth rather than a typical red or white sauce. Of course the bacon isn't exactly light, but who cares? It's so good with it! Actually you could easily leave it out or leave the chicken out, maybe add some mushrooms (what a great idea, I'm so using those next time!) and/or onions and use it as a meatless main dish or a nice side dish to something else. The original recipe calls for turkey tenders which would be yummy, but those are not something I regularly have on hand so I opt for chicken. And if prosciutto's your thing, use that instead of bacon. Just thinking about this dish makes my mouth water and wish we had more left-overs. So good!

Fetticine with Chicken, Bacon, and Tomatoes

{Adapted from my friend Carolee}

1 pound fetticine

2 T olive oil

1 1b chicken breast (or turkey) chopped into bite-size pieces

6 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cups chicken stock

2 cloves garlic, minced

2-3 T fresh basil or 1/2 tsp dried

3 tomatoes diced, grape is good

1/2 cup give or take fresh parmsan, grated

Garlic powder/salt (or Kosher salt) and black pepper to taste

Get pasta going in a large pot. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in large skillet. Add chicken, seasoned however you like (garlic salt is my choice), and cook until browned and cooked through. Add chicken stock, garlic, and basil. Let simmer for a minute. Add cooked and drained noodles, chopped tomatoes, and grated parmesan. Season, taste, adjust as needed. I usually add more basil and parmesan once I've tasted it. Right before serving sprinkle on cooked crumbled bacon. Enjoy!

Easily serves 4 as a main dish.