Billy's Broccoli Rigatoni

I'm sorry for the blurry pictures, but I don't have the patience lately. Especially when there's a big plate of Billy's Broccoli Rigatoni waiting for me. I've posted the recipe here before, but here are a few (albeit blurry) pictures of the seriously-garlicy delish dish that I called dinner tonight.

Quick pasta

This is hardly a recipe, but I've been digging bowtie pasta with homemade pesto, some white truffle oil, and pink Himalayan sea salt. I don't think the kind of salt matters, nor do I think it needs to be homemade pesto, although homemade pesto is lovely. Bowtie pasta, pesto, white truffle oil, and salt = yum.

Broccoli Rigatoni

Anyone else notice that most of my recipes come from Billy? Ah well. This one does, too.

Start with a crown of broccoli and cut or pick the pieces apart to be bite sized (after rinsing, of course).

Boil water in a medium saucepan. Add the broccoli for about 4 minutes. Take the broccoli out of the water but leave the water boiling. Pat the broccoli dry with paper towels, and add about 1/3 of a box of rigatoni. Salt to taste.

In a pan, add a Tbsp or two of good olive oil. Then chop 4 cloves of garlic. The rigatoni takes about 10 minutes to be "done" so heat the broccoli and garlic after about 8 minutes. At minute 10, take 1/3 C. of the boiling water and add it to the pan with the broccoli. 

Strain the rigatoni and add it to the pan. Let it simmer and reduce in the water until all of the water is gone. Add a dash of kosher or sea salt, a bit of crushed red pepper, and some good parm (or mozz). 

The secret is to just undercook the broccoli and pasta so the former stays green and the latter stays al dente. 

Tri-Colored Pepper Spaghetti

This is taken DIRECTLY off the back of the Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Spaghetti box (although I'm modifying their garlic saute suggestions), but it looked good, so I thought I would record it here before I recycle the box.

Ingredients:

1 pkg Ronzoni Healthy Harvest spaghetti 

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp minced garlic

2 ea. of red, green, yellow bell peppers, de-seeded and thinly sliced

salt and pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions. Heat a large saute pan over medium heat with olive oil, and saute garlic (they say until golden brown but, to me, that's a bit too long, so I'd say just a couple of minutes). Toss in peppers and heat until just tender (about 2-3 minutes). Add pasta to peppers and toss until warm.

Timmer's Mushroom and Tomato Pasta

This, I have to admit, is Timmer's creation. But it's easy and very tasty. 

Ingredients:

1 jar sun dried tomatoes in oil & spices

1 package baby portabella mushrooms, sliced

1 pat butter

olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic

salt

dry spaghetti

crushed red pepper (optional)

1. Dump jar of sundried tomatoes, oil and all, into large skillet. 

2. Add 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed and diced

3. Simmer for a few minutes on medium-low or low. You don't want to burn the garlic, which is easy to do. This should just be at a low simmer. 

4. Add package mushrooms (I say at least one pack. I can go close to 2, but I love mushrooms)

5. Add another Tbsp or 2 of olive oil. The mushrooms will absorb quite a bit of oil, although they'll release some of this later in the simmering. But you want to make sure there's some oil in the pan, cuz this is your sauce. 

6. Add a tsp. or so of salt or sea salt, whatever you like.

7. You can add a pinch of crushed red pepper if you like.

8. Cook spaghetti al dente.

9. Drain pasta. 

10. Add pat of butter to sauce. Stir until butter melts.

11. Remove from heat. Add more salt if necessary. 

12. Top pasta with sauce, or add pasta TO sauce and toss. Whatever turns your crank.

Enjoy!

lo mein substitute

This is hardly a lo mein recipe, but it's a decent substitute. It's a recipe I adapted from Menus in Minutes

Ingredients

1/2 tsp corn starch

8 oz dried fettuccine

3 Tbsp soy sauce (low sodium or regular)

3 Tbsp sherry (pref. not cooking sherry)

1/16 tsp ginger OR 1/2 Tbsp grated ginger

1/2 lb raw shrimp

3 garlic cloves

For variation

1 C. fresh sugar snap peas, trimmed

4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces

1 C. packaged, peeled baby carrots

1/2-1 Tbsp olive oil

1. In a small bowl, combine approximately 1/4 C. warm water and 1/2 tsp. corn starch.

2. In a large saucepan, cook 8 oz dried fettuccine

3. In a bowl, stir together 3 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or regular soy sauce, whatever makes you happy), 3 Tbsp dry sherry (you can use cooking sherry, but I'd recommend, you know, drinking sherry), 1/16 tsp ginger (could use 1/2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger instead), 3 garlic coves, diced; and 1/2 lb raw shrimp.

4. Add above soy sauce mixture to large skillet or saucier pan and sautee until shrimp is almost done (2-4 min, approx).

5. Add corn starch mix; cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly.

6. Drain pasta and add to skillet.  Cook and stir about 1 minute, or until heated through.

Variations: 

Step 4. Preheat 1/2 Tbsp olive oil to large skillet or saucier on medium-high heat. Add sugar snap peas and peeled baby carrots. Cook and stir for 3-4 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add 4 green onions, bias-sliced into 1-inch pieces. 

5. Remove veggies. 

Continue with original step 4 above. 

Obvious garlic butter

Okay, so this is REALLY obvious, but I just got done eating this and it was so good I thought I'd post it here. 

Yesterday I roasted some garlic (one clove of elephant garlic, to be exact, but you can go with 4 cloves of regular garlic) [cut the tip off garlic clove(s), place in tin foil, sprinkle with olive or sesame oil, wrap in foil, and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes] and mashed it into about 3/4 a stick of butter. Added just a pinch of salt. I made that to put on some fresh bread. Good stuff.

But TODAY, I boiled up a little rotini, "topped it" with the leftover garlic butter and added a pinch of salt. I chunked up some fresh mozz, threw that in there, and freaking LOVED it. If my fresh basil hadn't been getting gross in the rotter, I would have added a bit of that. I thought about throwing in a bit of crushed red pepper, too, but it was just so GOOD as is (was). 

Obvious, I know, but so good. So so good.

Sesame Noodles

I made this for dinner tonight, and was reminded that it's one of my favorites. I stole this recipe from Shelley Girdner who got it from Deborah Madsen's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. It's a potluck favorite (she brought it to Garrett's dissertation defense cookout) and is good hot or cold. This is one of those recipes that can be a bit pricey for start-up because a few of these items aren't necessarily in everyone's kitchen, but after that, it's pretty cheap. 

You'll need:

1/4 C. sesame oil

3 Tbsp dark (or toasted) sesame oil

7 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp Chinese black or balsamic vinegar (I use balsamic)

3 1/2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp chili oil (I use Mongolian fire oil)

1 Tbsp ginger 

1-2 cloves garlic

1/4 C. cilantro (optional)

1 bunch asparagus

1 bunch scallions

1/4 C. sesame seeds (optional)

1 package whole wheat thin spaghetti or 14 oz. pkg Chinese rice noodles (I use whole wheat pasta)

Marinade:

Combine 

1/4 C sesame oil

3 Tbsp dark sesame oil

7 Tbsp soy sauce

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 1/2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp chili oil

1 Tbsp fresh minced ginger

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/4 C. cilantro, chopped

Mix together and stir to dissolve sugar

The noodles and asparagus:

Rinse asparagus and trim off woody ends (about 1/4 inch on bottom). Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a little salt and asparagus. Boil until bright green and tender firm, just a few minutes. Scoop out asparagus and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Set on towel to dry.

Cook noodles according to package in the (already boiling) asparagus water. (if you're using rice noodles, make sure you pull the noodles apart with your fingers before adding to the boiling water). Strain noodles. (If using rice noodles, rinse under cold water and shake off excess water.)

Rinse and trim the "roots" off the scallions, then thinly slice scallions, including some firm greens.

Toss noodles with marinade, most of the scallions, and most of the toasted sesame seeds and asparagus. Mound them in a bowl or on a platter and garnish with the remaining asparagus, scallions, and sesame seeds. 

Refrigerate leftovers. This heats up fine, but, as I said, is also good cold. It's nice for a summer potluck (or dinner) if served cold. 

[To toast sesame seeds: You can do this on the stovetop or in the oven. If toasting on the stove top, use a wide frying pan. Heat the seeds on medium heat, shaking pan occasionally. Remove seeds when they start to darken and become fragrant (3-5 min). If doing this in the oven, preheat oven to 325 F. Spread the seeds on a baking sheet. Bake until seeds start to darken and become fragrant -- 10-15 minutes. Let cool.]