Buttered Pasta

I have a weakness for uniquely-shaped pasta. I could buy a box or bag of pasta every time I go to the grocery store. I have an entire cabinet devoted to pasta storage, and even though I already have every shape imaginable, I can’t resist picking more up any time I see something that looks interesting.

To feed my pasta-buying addiction, I visit “The Hill” neighborhood here in St. Louis, the old Italian neighborhood with lots of wonderful restaurants and several fun little grocery stores where good-quality tomatoes, olive oil, wine, and balsamic vinegar are the norm. The pasta selection is outstanding, of course, and you can get a lot of neat shapes I’ve never seen anywhere else, all imported directly from Italy.

I made this pasta dish with the last half of a bag of fusilli col buco, which is a long, hollow, corkscrew-shaped pasta. It’s thick and chewy and works great in a dish like this, with simple accompaniments, where the pasta really stars. Bucatini (the straight version of what I used) would work great: it has the same chewy texture but is a little harder to eat gracefully because it is just a little too thick to swirl around your fork. If you cannot find either specialty pasta, you can use fettuccini or linguine – something thick and chewy, not thin.

Although these subtly flavored, buttery noodles are a great side dish to go with any Italian entrée, they are the perfect accompaniment to something delicately-flavored like Chicken Piccata, because the noodles and their sauce will not overpower the Piccata sauce. They’re fast and easy to make, and don’t require a lot of expensive ingredients. There’s just a touch of garlic in them, but it, and the butter, salt, and pepper is all secondary to the pasta.

If you have any leftover noodles, take them to work for lunch – they reheat well in the microwave.

Buttered Pasta
Serves 4 as a side dish (smaller portions)

8 oz pasta
5 oz fresh spinach (least expensive if you buy it from the loose spinach bin, not the prebagged/prewashed kind)
1 loosely-packed cup Italian parsley
4 Tbsp butter
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup snipped green onions

In a large pot (one that has a lid), cook the pasta, uncovered, according to the package directions. Do not overcook the pasta!

Wash and dry the spinach. If the spinach leaves are particularly large, you may wish to roughly chop the spinach. Set it aside.

Chop the parsley – I find the easiest way to do this is to just stick my scissors into the measuring cup and snip away until its all uniformly chopped.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and set it aside. In the empty pasta pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt, a generous quantity of freshly-ground black pepper, and some freshly grated nutmeg (I usually do equal quantities of black pepper and nutmeg).

Turn the heat to medium-low. Return the pasta to the pot; add the green onions, spinach, and parsley, and stir to incorporate everything. Taste the pasta and adjust the seasonings…you may need more salt. Cover the pot (still on medium-low heat), and wait several minutes until the spinach has wilted slightly, stirring the pasta once or twice to give it all a chance to cook.

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Bacon and Spinach Couscous

I’ve been in search of a new couscous recipe. I love my cranberry and spinach couscous recipe, but I make it so often that I’d like to try something different for a change of pace.

This couscous recipe is full of flavor and is easy to make. It’s especially easy if you have a mini food-processor (you can use it to cut up the onion and garlic). The couscous is flavored by bacon, has a touch of sweetness due to applesauce, and is embellished with a bit of cheddar cheese. The combination of flavors results in a pretty tasty side dish.

As with my other favorite couscous recipe, this recipe also uses Israeli couscous, a.k.a. pearl couscous. It is larger in size than regular couscous and the resulting texture and taste is completely different. If you think you don’t like couscous and the only kind you’ve tried is the standard small-size couscous, you should give this type of couscous a try. Here’s what the two types of couscous look like – you can see that there’s quite a difference in size between the two.

Bacon and Spinach Couscous
Serves 3-4 as a side dish

4 thickly-sliced strips of bacon
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped (I splurged and used morels because they were available at the grocery store, but you can use baby portabellas with good results)
1 cup Israeli (pearl) couscous
1 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard
1/4 cup unflavored applesauce
1-1/2 cups chicken stock
3 ounces baby spinach, roughly chopped
3/4 cup shredded white cheddar cheese

You’ll need a deep, wide sauté pan that has a lid. If your frying pan has a lid, that should work.

First, dice the bacon. Place it in your deep sauté pan and cook it over medium heat until the fat has started to render but the bacon is still not crisp. Caution: don’t let the bacon crisp up just yet! Give it a stir every now and then.

While the bacon is cooking, chop the onion and garlic. I like to put them together into a mini food processor because it’s easy!

As I've indicated above, we don’t want to let the bacon crisp up just yet. Once the bacon has released fat into the pan (but before it turns crisp), carefully pour or spoon out as much fat as you can. You can discard it or save it for another purpose. Add the chopped onion and garlic to the pan. Continue to cook over medium heat several minutes until the onions begin to brown – the bacon will start to brown too, and that’s fine. Just give it a stir periodically to keep it from sticking and burning.

While the onion mixture is cooking, chop your mushrooms; stir them into the pan.

Pour in the couscous and stir to combine. Continue to cook over medium heat while you complete the next step…

In a small bowl (I like to use a 2-cup liquid measure), stir together the mustard, applesauce, and chicken stock. Pour the mixture into the pan – stir it to combine the ingredients. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat.

Once the liquid begins to simmer, cover it with the lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook it for 10 minutes, or until the couscous has absorbed the liquid.

While the couscous cooks, roughly chop the spinach and set it aside. Grate the cheese and set it aside.

Once the couscous has completed its cooking time, remove the lid. Stir in the spinach (you may need to stir it in two additions – it seems like a lot of spinach, but it will wilt down to practically nothing). Sprinkle the cheese over the couscous; stir it in to combine it and melt it.

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Sesame Noodle Salad

Last summer my blogger friend E. Lee of Bacon Concentrate blogged about a beautiful pasta salad.  Her salad was so pretty and colorful, it immediately caught my eye on her blog.  She was kind enough to allow me to use it in today's post.  The great thing about this salad is that you can customize the salad based on what you like to eat, or what is fresh and available at your grocery store. I followed her lead and used yellow bell peppers, carrots, and purple cabbage – the color combination looks great!

Usually when I make her pasta salad recipe, I plan to take it to work for lunch. One batch makes quite a bit (it uses an entire box of spaghetti), so I have more than enough to take to work for the entire week (with plenty to share with any interested coworkers!).

And although it’s the middle of winter where I live right now, I am looking forward to making this next summer to take along on a picnic or a camping trip. The salad is served cold so it’s easy to eat at a picnic, and there’s no mayonnaise in it, so it’s easy to store in your cooler without worrying about the mayo going bad.

E. Lee suggests – and I 100% agree – that you should be sure to use sesame oil in this dish. Do Not Substitute Another Type of Oil! If you have an Asian grocery store around, they should carry sesame oil. I have also seen it in the Asian foods aisle at my regular supermarket, but it’s a little more expensive there. My regular supermarket also has American sesame oil, which is sold in the same location as the olive oils. American sesame oil is lighter in color and is not quite as flavorful as Asian sesame oil. Because sesame oil has such a distinctive flavor, if you cannot find the Asian sesame oil, it would be better to use American sesame oil than to substitute another type of oil.

The same goes for the peanut oil used to stir-fry the components of the dish. It produces a great, distinctive flavor and has superb frying characteristics (it can be heated to a very hot temperature before it burns). Don’t substitute something else in its place.

Specialty oils keep in your refrigerator for a very long time. (Sometimes the oil will partially solidify if it is refrigerated: just let it sit out on your counter for 10 minutes before you use it…or if you forget to let it come to room temperature, use a clean chopstick to reach inside the bottle to give it a stir and loosen things up.)

Whenever I make any kind of pasta salad, I always lay my cooked pasta out to dry while I prepare the rest of the ingredients. The salad dressing will cling to the dried pasta better than it will cling to wet pasta, resulting in a better pasta salad. If you don’t have time, you can skip this step, but for best results, make time to let the pasta dry for at least a short while.


Sesame Noodle Salad
Serves 8

1 pound spaghetti pasta (use whole wheat for a healthier pasta salad)
2 green onions, green parts thinly sliced into matchsticks and white parts finely chopped (see the pictures below before you start cutting anything)
2 carrots, thinly sliced into matchsticks
1 yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
About 1/4 of a head of purple cabbage, thinly sliced
4 ounces shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
A few Tablespoons of peanut oil, for stir frying
4 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Asian hot sauce, more or less to taste
1/2 cup coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
Toasted sesame seeds (optional, for garnish)

First, start the pasta:

Break the length of the spaghetti in half. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Once the pasta has cooked, drain it thoroughly and spread it out to dry on a double-thickness of paper towels.

While the pasta is cooking, start chopping up the veggies:

Nearly every cut vegetable should be cut into a long skinny shape mimicking the size/length of the pasta. (If you elect to make this recipe with pasta that is smaller in size, like farfalle, cut the ingredients into shorter matchsticks to match the length of the pasta.)

Chop the green onions:  slice white and light green portions into rounds, and the hollow, dark green tops into matchsticks.  Keep the matchsticks separate from the rounds.

Cut the carrots, bell pepper, cabbage, mushrooms, and cilantro. Keep each ingredient separate from the others and set them all aside individually.

Finely chop the ginger and garlic; place them both in a large frying pan or wok. Add the white/light green portions of the green onions and about a teaspoon of peanut oil; stir-fry over medium-high heat until the ingredients are fragrant and the onions begin to soften. Transfer the ginger mixture to a small mixing bowl and set it aside. Reserve the pan for the next step.

Add the carrots to the empty pan; stir-fry over medium-high heat until they are crisp tender (as you work, you may need to add a little more peanut oil to the pan). Transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Repeat this process with the yellow bell pepper, then with the purple cabbage, then with the mushrooms, adding each cooked ingredients to the bowl with the carrots. Add the uncooked green portions of the green onions to the same bowl.

Finish the dressing:

In the small mixing bowl containing the ginger mixture, add the sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and hot sauce; whisk with a fork to combine the ingredients

Put it all together:

Add about half of the pasta to the cooked vegetables. Drizzle about half of the dressing evenly over the pasta, then use a large spoon to stir the veggies into the pasta.

Add the rest of the pasta, the cilantro, and the peanuts. Drizzle the remaining dressing on top; continue to stir to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Garnish the pasta salad with the toasted sesame seeds. Serve the salad cold or at room temperature.

Thanks to E. Lee at Bacon Concentrate for the recipe inspiration!

Creamy Homemade Stovetop Macaroni & Cheese

One of my favorite comfort foods of all time is macaroni and cheese. When I was younger, still in high school or college, and didn't yet have any culinary skill to speak of, I only made generic “imitation blue box” macaroni (“generic” due to funding limitations and a general distaste for the Kraft company, and “blue box” due to a lack of culinary skill). Now-a-days, I usually make my mac & cheese homemade, but occasionally I’ll bust out a blue box (I like Annie's brand) if I’m having a particularly bad day and just need a quick, inexpensive, and fast meal. I like it served alongside barbecued sausage. I know Mom, it’s not exactly a healthy meal, so I don’t eat it very often!

I do love macaroni and cheese. I get excited when I see it on the menu at sandwich shops, but most of the time it’s a let-down once I’ve tasted it:  it’s usually not all that great. It always seems to be too runny, too gritty, or the cheese sauce tastes too much like the flour used to thicken it. I want a silky, smooth textured sauce over perfectly al dente macaroni – pasta that hasn’t been cooking all afternoon in a giant sheet pan. The sauce shouldn’t be too thick, and nor should the pasta be swimming in it – there should be just enough sauce to coat the pasta.

So, like I said, I’m often disappointed.

I found this recipe in “The Best American Classics,” which is a Cooks Illustrated cookbook. I have a couple of their cookbooks, and while I don’t always agree with what their opinion of “best” may be (“best” is so subjective!), I do agree with them in this case…well, mostly. I’ve written my changes into the version you’ll find here.

This recipe is made on the stovetop. It’s almost as simple as blue-box macaroni (it does require a bit more stirring), yet it tastes so much better. There’s no long baking time involved, so like the boxed variety, you can make it on the spur of the moment. It makes more than a family-sized blue box, so I always have leftovers to take to work.

Speaking of leftovers, the best way to reheat any kind of macaroni and cheese is in a saucepan over medium-low heat, with a splash of milk or other dairy added to help recreate the sauce. I usually don’t put that much effort into reheating lunch at work, so I just stick it in the microwave and eat it even though the texture of the sauce has changed slightly. (It still has great flavor, though!)

The original recipe is written to include a toasted bread crumb topping, but I never bother with it. I like mine topped with chopped tomatoes instead.  Not only is it better for you, but the sweet juicy tomatoes are a nice counterpart to the salty, cheesy pasta.

Creamy Homemade Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
Serves 6-8, unless you are a big macaroni eater, in which case it might yield closer to 4 servings.

1 can evaporated milk
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp hot pepper sauce (like Tabasco sauce)
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 pound macaroni
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
12 ounces sharp cheddar (I used Tilamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar)
1 cup chopped tomato (either 1 cup of sliced "baby" tomatoes, or 1 chopped "regular" tomato should be about the right amount)

In a two-cup liquid measure, use a fork to whisk together 1 cup of evaporated milk, the eggs, hot pepper sauce, 1 tsp of salt, and the dry mustard. Set it aside.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions. Use a large pot, and if you have a nonstick one, use it. (Tip: select a pot that’s slightly larger than what I used in these pictures, because I thought the pot was too small once I got to the last few steps. Oops!). Cook the macaroni only until barely al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, grate the cheese. For this much cheese, I use the shredding (grating) disc in my food processor.

Once the pasta has cooked, drain it and return it to the pot. Add the butter and stir over medium heat until it has melted.

Pour the egg mixture over the buttered noodles. Sprinkle about half of the cheese over the pasta. Stir constantly over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens and the mixture is hot and creamy, about five minutes. Yes, it’s a lot of stirring, but you’ve got to do it in order to properly cook the eggs.  Don’t let the mixture boil; if the pan starts sizzling when you’re stirring, it’s too hot.  (Remember, medium-low heat!)  In general, if it seems runny, you haven’t cooked/stirred it long enough. Keep the heat on medium-low and keep stirring, and it should end up just fine.

As you near the end of the five-minute stirring time, add the rest of the cheese and the remaining evaporated milk. Stir it just long enough to incorporate everything and melt the cheese. Taste it, and sprinkle the remaining teaspoon of salt over the pasta (or salt to taste, because cheeses vary in saltiness).  Stir to incorporate the salt, then taste it again just to be sure things aren't too salty.

Serve immediately, topped with a handful of chopped tomatoes.

I mentioned earlier that I liked mine served with sausage… I love bratwurst, but it’s sooo unhealthy that I rarely serve them. I have found an alternative that I’ve been enjoying lately: chicken sausage!

Costco carries an andouille chicken sausage (sorry, the exact brand is not listed online, but it probably doesn’t matter because the available brands and flavors vary by location anyway. Over the years, I’ve tried several different brands of chicken sausage from both Midwestern American and Western Canadian Costcos, and I liked both of the varieties available from both regions, so maybe your nearest Costco has a brand you’d like).

I also found a different chicken sausage at my local grocery store: Al Fresco brand Sweet Apple Chicken Sausage (it has Maple Syrup in it – yum!). They have several other interesting-sounding flavors, which I haven’t yet tried. It’s more expensive than buying in bulk at Costco, but truthfully, I think it tastes better. (Maybe I just liked it because of the maple syrup. Me?!?!)

By the way, the sausage in the picture at the beginning of this post is the Costco andouille sausage.

Oh, and if you want to slightly lower the carbs in the dish (it is pasta, after all!), you could omit the bun, slice up the grilled sausage, and serve it mixed into the macaroni.

Brown Butter Pasta Sauce on Butternut Squash Ravioli

Have you ever had brown butter pasta sauce? It’s less common, at least, around here (I can’t recall seeing it in a restaurant recently). I do love it, partially because it’s delicious, partially because it’s a nice change of pace from marinara or alfredo sauce, and partially because it’s one of the easiest pasta sauces to make.

That said, to be successful with the finished product, have all of your ingredients ready to go by the time the pasta is done cooking. You’ll need to be able to dump it all into the pot at the appropriate time and if you take too long, your pasta will cool off too much. But that’s the most difficult thing about it. (To alleviate that problem, you could make the sauce in a different pan as the pasta is cooking...but that means you'll have more clean-up...I'm lazy...)

Another thing – yeah, this isn’t exactly health food... It is called Brown BUTTER Sauce for a reason!

We like the Rising Moon brand of ravioli – they have a wide variety of flavors to try. My favorite is the Butternut Squash kind, especially when served with this sauce. Most of the flavors I’ve tried are pretty good, though.



This is easy to make vegetarian – just omit the prosciutto. Add a pinch of coarse salt if you do that, though, because prosciutto’s very salty!

Brown Butter Pasta Sauce on Butternut Squash Ravioli
Serves 4

2 8-ounce packages butternut squash-filled ravioli (16 ounces total)
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
About 3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, finely diced
1 Tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup finely diced portabella mushroom
Freshly ground black pepper


Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauce ingredients:

Roughly chop the walnuts. Toast them in a skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until aromatic and lightly browned. Remove the nuts from the heat and set them aside.




Finely dice the prosciutto; set it aside. Finely chop the sage; set it aside. Grate the cheese. Keep your nutmeg and it's grater close at hand, so it's ready to go too.




Once the pasta has cooked, drain it well and set it aside. Add the butter to the empty pasta pot. Stir it over medium heat until it has melted. Continue to cook the butter, stirring frequently, until it begins to turn golden brown – this will take just a few minutes. As soon as it begins to become golden brown, add the mushrooms, grated nutmeg, black pepper, diced prosciutto, and chopped sage. Over low heat, stir to heat through; the mushrooms will cook very rapidly in the hot butter.

Return the pasta to the pot. Sprinkle the parmesan over the pasta and gently stir to distribute the cheese evenly and coat the pasta with the sauce. Garnish with additional grated parmesan cheese and the toasted nuts.

Cranberry and Spinach Couscous

Here's another recipe from the dinner party I had over a year ago. This recipe uses Israeli couscous (also known as pearl couscous). It's larger in size than regular couscous. It takes only a little bit longer to cook, and is a nice change from regular couscous or rice.



This recipe can be prepped ahead of time. It only takes ten minutes to cook, and can be thrown together very quickly if you have all of it's individual parts prepared. You'll notice all my pictures are of ingredients in storage containers - I put the onions and cranberries in one container, the "sauce" ingredients in another container, and the spinach in a third container so I could easily stir in the necessary ingredients at the right time.

Cranberry and Spinach Couscous
Serves 4

1 onion, chopped finely (I just food-process the heck out of it...easier)
1 tsp vegetable oil
¼ cup dried cranberries, largest pieces chopped
1 cup pearl/Israeli couscous
1 1/3 cup chicken stock (of course you could make it vegetarian by using vegetable stock!)
2 Tbsp dried porcini mushrooms, finely chopped
1½ tsp grainy mustard
juice of 1 lime
½ cup chopped fresh spinach

In a medium, deep skillet with a lid, saute the chopped onion in the vegetable oil. Add the dried cranberries, and allow the mixture to simmer uncovered until the onions are soft and are beginning to brown.




Stir in the couscous, stock, mushrooms, mustard, and lime juice. Cover and simmer on low heat until couscous is tender, about 10 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.




Stir in chopped spinach and heat through. Serve immediately.



The finished product, served with Moroccan Chicken!

Roasted Root Vegetables

Holy it's been nearly a year since I last blogged! As promised, I will post the rest of the recipes from my dinner party of eleven months prior...

One of my favorite side dishes to make is a medley of roasted veggies. It's so simple and easy because it just has five basic ingredients - veggies, salt, pepper, olive oil, and garlic - and you can throw it in the oven and largely ignore it for about 50 minutes.

There's really no set recipe to follow either, just chop up what you have on hand and throw it all together. I always try to include carrots and small cherry/grape tomatoes to bring some color to the mix.

Roasted Root Vegetables
Serves 6, but is easily modified...keep reading on

Basically you want a generous handful (plus a little extra) of chopped fresh veggies for each person. (Sorry, frozen just doesn't work too well here.) So, for six people I'd use:

a handful of cherry tomatoes
some cut asparagus (discard tough ends)
a generous handful of baby carrots
1 large parsnip (peeled & chopped to match the size of the carrots)
a generous handful of cut broccoli florets
a cut onion (or use peeled pearl onions...especially yummy!)
four large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
and something fun like a chopped-up kohlrabi or a turnip (peel and chop as with the parsnip).

You'll also need:
Olive oil
Coarse Salt
Black Pepper

Add additional vegetables or increase quantities if you need more or want leftovers. Need some ideas on what to add? Try chunks of zucchini, butternut squash, green beans, snow peas, potatoes, or cauliflower florets.

Cut all your vegetables to roughly match the size and shape of your carrot pieces.

As you're working, divide them into two categories: ones that cook quickly and ones that take more time to roast. I usually put them into a gallon-sized zip-lock baggie because they're easy to manipulate without leaking.





Quicker cooking vegetables include cherry tomatoes, asparagus (unless the stalks are really thick), zucchini, green beans, or snow peas.

Vegetables that will take more time to roast include thicker pieces of asparagus, carrots, parsnips, broccoli, onions, kohlrabi, turnips, butternut squash, potatoes, or cauliflower. Put the chopped garlic in with this group too.

Pour a generous amount of olive oil over each bag of cut veggies. I usually use approximately 1/3 cup of oil for about six servings (but I will admit that I have never measured it...I just eyeball it...so use whatever you think you need!). Seal up the baggies and turn them over until every piece is coated in oil. The recipe may be prepared ahead up to this point.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You'll need a large roasting pan - big enough to eventually accommodate all the veggies laid out in a single layer.

Spread only the slower-cooking chopped veggies in a single layer in the pan. Generously grind black pepper over the veggies. Sprinkle a generous pinch of coarse salt over the veggies. Give it all a stir to evenly distribute each type of vegetable, then spread things out so there's as little overlap as possible.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Give the veggies a stir, then return them to the oven for another 15 minutes more.

After they've been roasting for a total of 30 minutes, stir in the quicker-cooking vegetables, give it another pinch of salt, and spread the veggies back out in the pan. Return them to the oven for 20 more minutes.

At the end of the baking time, taste the vegetables and add additional salt if necessary.

Optional: If I have it on hand, I stir in a little grated Parmesan cheese and garnish it with a little chopped Italian parsley.