Cheap Burgundy Pesto With Mozzarella

(A "What's In the Fridge?" Adventure Pasta!)

Ingredients:
Pasta
1 cup of cheap wine
4 cloves garlic
olive oil
A bunch of basil, fresh or dried
Any other green herbs you have lying around that you think will work, fresh or dried
Cayenne pepper (optional)
Mozzarella
Grated romano or parmesan cheese.

Cook your pasta.
During this time, chop up garlic and put in a skillet with olive oil and wine, on medium heat. Add cayenne pepper if you're into that, as well as a ton of basil and other green herbs according to what you have and your whims. I had dried basil and a random container of dried "italian herbs" I inherited from a roommate.
Keep the heat on your wine-oil-herb situation to medium low. It can bubble but don't let it go crazy. But it's OK to reduce it somewhat.

When your pasta is ALMOST BUT NOT QUITE DONE, drain it and transfer into the wine-oil-herb situation to finish it. You can turn the heat up a bit. Let it cook a few more minutes.

Chop your mozzarella into small cubes and toss it in, mixing carefully to distribute it well.  Add a small ton of grated romano or parmesan (use your own judgment of what "a small ton" is) and mix well.

Serve!

Lemon-Spinach Stuffed Shells (Vegan!)

This is one of those "random stuff in my fridge and cabinets" creations that worked out well.

Ingredients:
10 large shell pasta pieces
Half a large container of fresh spinach
Half a lemon
Olive oil
A few cloves of garlic
Salt, coarse ground pepper
Other spices according to your whim (I throw in a pinch of turmeric and cayenne to almost everything these days)

You can obviously up-size this dish if you're cooking for a crowd. Just bear in mind that fresh spinach shrinks a LOT. Next time I do this dish I might even do more spinach; there's room.

Boil water and add shells. They need 10 minutes or so to cook (or just make them according to the package directions or your own preference).

While they are cooking, chop up garlic finely & start it off in a generous splash of olive oil. Heat should be medium-low. Chop your lemon into a few pieces--squirt as much as you can and then toss the lemon pieces into the pan to continue to add flavor.

Once the garlic is browned, add the spinach. Be careful not to overcook--spinach should be a bright dark green when ready so it does not loose its flavor and nutrients. Remove from heat as soon as it looks close to done (it will keep cooking for a little bit off the burner).

Drain shells & spread on a plate. Scoop spinach into shells bit by bit. I did 2 rounds of this so I didn't end up with very uneven filling amounts.

Then, carefully place each shell back into your pan (add a little oil if you need to for non-stickiness) and let it simmer on low for a few minutes to cook the delicious lemon-garlic flavor right into the pasta.

Sprinkle with salt and coarse ground pepper and serve!

(Fake) Sausage and Mushroom Pasta

Ingredients: 

Tri-Color Rotini - 3 oz dry (1/3 of a 12 oz package)
Whole Wheat Rotini - 2 oz dry (it would be like 1/8 of a 16 oz package)
Gimme Lean Fake Ground Sausage  - 1/4 of a tube
Garlic - 2-4 cloves
Onion - a few slices, diced (optional)
White button mushrooms - 3-4
White Wine - 1/4 cup
Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
Breakstone's Whipped Unsalted Butter - 1 tablespoon
Biazzo - Whole Milk Mozzarella Cheese - 4 oz
Sage (to taste)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
Cayenne pepper (to taste, optional)

Cook your pasta according to package instructions or your whims.

Chop up your garlic and start it off in the butter and olive oil. Break/roll your fake sausage into small bite size bits and add them. Here you can add your chopped onion if you choose, or you can wait and add it raw at the end, which is my preference. Add some cayenne pepper here if you want this spicy.  And add your chopped mushrooms too.
When the sausage has browned, add the white wine, sage, salt and pepper and any other spices that appeal to you. Cover and let simmer until mushrooms and sausage are fully cooked.

Toss with pasta and serve!

Total Calories: 1202
Calories per serving: 401
(Calculated with the MyFitnessPal.com recipe calculator)

Pasta with Red Pepper Pink Sauce

So my friend Larrin introduced me to Aunt Suzie's in Park Slope (and if you're in Brooklyn and it's date night and you feel like reasonably-priced yumtastic Italian food, you should go).  They have this awesome red pepper dipping sauce that they serve with their bread and butter and it's like, the best thing ever that happened.  I ate there recently and it got me to thinking.  "Red peppers!" was what I thought.  And I kept thinking it, for a while.  And so a sauce of my own was born.

Ingredients:

-1 or 2 fresh red bell peppers

-a 16-ozcan of Hunt's tomato sauce*

-A pint of heavy cream**

-half an onion or one small onion

-some butter and some olive oil

-some fresh garlic (half a head of regular garlic is now my standby)

-black pepper, paprika

-pasta obviously (shells or rigatoni are good for this)

*I like Hunt's because they don't add anything; it's just pureed tomato, not random spices not of my choosing.  You could use something else if you want.  But I'd be a little sad.

**Dude, organic is so much better I can't even tell you.

OKAY SO!

Start your pasta.  Just make it how you make it or follow the directions on the box.  But don't leave it in forever and let it get all mushy, that would be Sad.  

Chop up your garlic rather finely.  Also, cut up your red pepper.  I like to cut into kindaskinny strips and then cut the strips in or thirds.  It gives you a nice size that's not unmanageable.  

Put some olive oil and some butter in your saucepan and put it on a lowish heat and put in your peppers and your garlic.  After the butter has melted sprinkle on a generous amount of paprika too.  The whole point of this sauce is to be Sweet Red Peppery.  Cover it.  Let it simmer.

While you're letting it simmer, chop up your onion.  Add it whenever you're ready.  Let it simmer a while more (don't let things stick to the bottom though, be mindful and have a spatula around).  Let your red peppers get a little bit soft before continuing.

Also, check your pasta while all this is happening!  The pasta can sit and wait for the sauce if it gets done first.  Don't let it get mushy!  I won't tell you again.

Add your cream, and then your tomato sauce. Also sprinkle on some black pepper (like half a teaspoon? Sure).  Turn heat up to medium and stir well and let it simmer.  At this point it's good to have the pot partially covered; like mostly covered but with a crack for steam to escape.  Keep an eye on it, you want it to simmer but not really boil and you'll probably have to turn the heat down fairly soon to accomplish that.  Also stir from time to time. 

You want to let your sauce simmer for a while (I say ten minutes should be good) so your flavors get all nice and mixy.  Then take it off the heat and pour it over your pasta and mix and serve.  

This is nice with fresh steamed broccoli.