Pasta with Creamy Gorgonzola Sauce p. 525

This dish reminds of one of my standard meals at our favorite restaurant. Only without the chicken. The sauce is very easy, yet makes the meal.

Start by melting butter. Meanwhile mix crumbled gorgonzola cheese (the good stuff, don't skimp here) with milk. When the butter is melted add in the milk/cheese mixture. Stir this until its a nice creamy sauce. A few lumps are okay, but I found that as I stirred I tried to mash cheese lumps against the side of the pan and this worked well.

Once your pasta is cooked and your sauce done combine the two adding some Parmesan cheese as a final garnish.

One variation is to add arugula and cherry tomatoes. I'm not a huge fan of arugula, but it was tasty. Other things I thought of to add in include: frozen peas, chopped asparagus, and cooked chicken.

Spaghetti with Butter and Parmesan p. 506

Out of my lazy few weeks, I prepared this dish with things I had on hand. I just adore recipes like this one. So easy to adapt to whatever you might have on hand.

It really can't get easier than this. Cook pasta. Toss with softened butter and parmesan cheese. Yes, that is it.

As always, Mark Bittman gives plenty of additions to your spaghetti dinner. I added frozen peas and a fried egg.



Easy, delicious, and I didn't have go shopping. Beautiful.

Pasta Carbonara by Bryan

Bryan cooks! Here's the proof:







I tried to get him to write a post, but he didn't want to. And when I finally convinced him he said to get everything ready. Which is about the same time that my computer decided to not upload pictures. So I'm throwing this together a few minutes before I leave for work. Sorry. But I thought it would be a treat to show ya'll how Bryan does it.

Pasta with Broccoli p. 516

Ingredients: broccoli, olive oil, garlic, pasta, salt and pepper.

Most recipes I have an idea of what they'll be like before I begin. This one I wasn't so sure about. Just broccoli and pasta?

First boil your broccoli for about 5 to 10 minutes. In a seperate pan put your olive oil over the heat and add your garlic. Once the broccoli is boiled add it into the olive oil and garlic. You'll cook it for a few minutes while the pasta is cooking. While it is doing so, smash the broccoli with the back of your spoon. Yeah, I know, a bit different.

In the previous pot with the water, boil your pasta. Once your pasta is cooked add into the skillet with your broccoli and garlic.



Then serve. I topped mine with a bunch of Parmesan cheese, which was nice. Overall it was very easy to make, but just lacked a little pizazz or something. I don't know.

Vodka Pasta Sauce

So a good friend and I were discussing vodka pasta sauce the other day. We’re both fans. But couldn’t decide between using chopped, pureed, or various other forms of tomatoes. I was torn between cooking the version in How to Cook Everything because of loyalty to this blog, but I also deeply love the Pioneer Woman and her many delightful recipes (I pre-ordered my copy of her cookbook just yesterday!). A side by side comparison was in order.



Ingredients: On the left we have How to Cook Everything, except that it didn't take garlic, please ignore it. Also ignore the labels on the cans, I should really start paying attention to what I put in the cart instead of what the shelf says. On the right we have Pioneer Woman's ingredients.

First you start off with your oil and/or butter and onions. Both recipes called for a whole onion, since Bryan doesn't like any bit of onion, I compromised and put half an onion in each. I'm nice like that.

Then things changed.


HTCE said to add the tomatoes. PW said to add the vodka. I should also mention that the proportions of vodka and cream were vastly different. A fourth of a cup to one full cup. I'd call that vast.

For HTCE I used diced tomatoes, PW calls for a puree. So the textures were different as well.


Another significant difference is that PW calls for a cup of cheese when you toss the sauce with the pasta. But I didn't notice a big difference in taste.



Bryan and I each got a bowl of each. Fortunately for all of you, I documented Bryan tasting each one. (For the record, he's not naked, he had just come back from a run and got out of the shower as dinner was ready.)

How to Cook Everything went first:


Happy Face, that's a good sign.

Next came Pioneer Woman:



He decided after the initial tasting that Pioneer Woman won. But ultimately both were delicious and we couldn't decide on a clear winner. It just depends on what kind of texture you are looking for.

As I am typing this I'm eating them both and they are even better the second day, like most pasta sauces. You cannot lose with a delicious, creamy vodka sauce.

Linguine with Garlic and Oil p. 504

Ingredients: salt, EVOO, garlic, spaghetti of some shape or size, parsley.

The other day I happened upon a stellar shrimp recipe and wanted to cook a little pasta to go along with it. The recipe suggested a tortellini or other stuffed pasta, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I just boiled some spaghetti. I turned to this recipe to accompany the shrimp.

Basically, besides boiling the water and cooking the spaghetti, you cook the minced garlic in some olive oil. And pour it over the spaghetti. I topped mine with a little fresh parmesan that I had on hand. (I need my cheese.)

Overall it was fine, a little bit too oil-y tasting for me, and we ultimately threw out the left over garlic oil. But its an easy sauce to whip up if you want a light side dish.



Served with beer shrimp and a salad wedge with a herb vinaigrette.

Fast Tomato Sauce, p. 502

I love this sauce. I can make it while I wait for the water to boil for the pasta. Never will I need to buy the canned or jarred stuff anymore. I’ve made this sauce a couple of times before, but recently made it on a weeknight after a stressful day.

Following this recipe, Mr. Bittman gives 20 easy ways to vary or spice up the sauce. For this time, I think I combined three of the twenty.

2. Garlicy Tomato Sauce says to add 2-10 cloves of chopped garlic to the sauce. I added 4-5.

4. Tomato Suace with Aromatic Vegetables suggests to add 1/3 cup of carrot and celery when you add the onion. Since Bryan doesn’t like onion, and we had the other two on hand, I added those. I didn’t measure the quantities, I just did one carrot and one celery stalk.


Veggies and Garlic ready to go

5. Tomato Sauce with Wine says to add ¼ cup of white wine to the sauce before adding the tomatoes. I had probably ½ a cup or maybe a little more left over and since it was a stressful afternoon, I felt like a little booze might helps things. It always does.

Basically this is how I pulled this sauce together: melt some butter, add the garlic, celery, and carrots (you would add onions here if you are onion tolerant). Simmer for a little while. Add wine if you are and let it bubble for a few minutes.


Then add 1 lb of tomatoes. I had two diced tomato cans on hand, so that’s what I use. I don’t know what the pound-age was. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes while you get your pasta to cook. Viola! Homemade pasta sauce!



One of the variations suggested pureeing the sauce. I think that’s a great idea when you’ve got the chopped veggies in there. But I was lazy and didn’t feel like cleaning the food processor or adding another step. For pasta I cooked some frozen cheese ravioli I got at Sam’s and had on hand. I felt like the sauce was very fresh and not too heavy for a hot summer’s evening.

Pasta Carbonara p. 505-506

One of my favorite dishes at a restaurant that is now closed was a chicken carbonara. So I was excited to try this one. I was perplexed by the recipe regarding the eggs, it was a little vague. But a dear friend, told me to just wisk them and then put the hot pasta in there. It turned out beautifully.



In fact, while we were eating this meal Bryan turned to me to say that he doesn't like eating out as much because it is more of a gamble to see if the food will be as good as mine. He's very sweet, you can see why I like him. Even though he doesn't like my leeks.