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Posts Tagged ‘Tasty Tidbits Tuesday’

Linguine with Marinara Sauce – Deliciously Light Summer Dish

Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, Uncategorized, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , on August 12, 2014| 3 Comments »

Marinara Sauce aka Sailor's Sauce

Marinara Sauce aka
Sailor’s Sauce

I love pasta! Actually other than my passion for ice cream, pasta is my favorite food.  Think about the various shapes, the many ways to prepare it and of course the myriad sauces.  This particular sauce is one from my own childhood.  We often had spaghetti with marinara sauce on Fridays – those were the days when Fridays were meatless.  I think it’s a wonderful light summer sauce and a great way to incorporate a vegetarian dish into your weekly dinners.

MARINARA SAUCE

3 TBS olive oil

2 cans of whole Italian plum tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic – thinly sliced

Red pepper flakes – 1/2 to 1 tsp

1 medium onion – chopped

3/4 cup of fresh basil leaves – torn

2TBS fresh oregano – chopped

Salt and pepper

Add olive oil to pan ( I used my braising pan)

Squish the tomatoes into a bowl and set aside

Add onion and garlic to pan and sauté till onions are soft and translucent and garlic is fragrant

Add the tomatoes and pepper flakes to the pan, cover and simmer for about 20-25 minutes until sauce thickens.

Add the basil leaves and oregano, season with salt and pepper

I cooked the linguine and would have added it directly to the pan except that this batch of sauce was huge.  I scooped out enough sauce to fill a quart container and then added the pasta to the pan.

I sprinkled it with grated parmigiano-romano cheese and served it in the braising pan.

 

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Orechiette with Brocoli Rabe, Oregano and Lemon Zest

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Tasty Tidbits Tuesday has been missing in action more often than I would like to admit.  I made the pasta dish I featured a week or so ago – the Penne with Cauliflower and Swiss Chard.  OMG, I have to tell you it was sooooooo delicious.  It had a delightfully light flavoring yet strong enough that you could savor every bite.  I admit I couldn’t taste the  Swiss Chard but since it added a different texture and the goodness of a dark leafy green vegetable, I was happy it was in it.

Actually it wasn’t the ingredients as much as it was the cooking technique that brought such flavor into every mouthful.  If you recall, the cauliflower was blanched for 3 minutes in the pot of boiling water that would also be used to cook the pasta.  So when the pasta was cooking in the water that the cauliflower had been in, it absorbed a light flavor that was as I said, delicious!  

Well my passion for pasta got me thinking about how many of my Tuesday recipes were pasta dishes and so I’ve decided to make a new category on the blog; We Called It Macaroni.  And I’m going to be publishing a LOT of pasta recipes! I’m no Lydia however, I’m taking on the job of educating my readers to the joys of Italian cooking, particularly PASTA, and taking them beyond red sauce and meatballs!  You can now search the blog category We Called It Macaroni for any of the pasta recipes published previously.  “Mangia”

Lovely light and flavorful pasta dish.

Lovely light and flavorful pasta dish.

Orchiette with Brocolie Rabe, Oregano and Lemon

Coarse salt and ground pepper

3/4 orchiette or other small pasta shape

1 bunch broccoli rabe (1 lb) – trimmed, cut into 1 1/2 ” pieces

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 TBS fresh oregano leaves, for serving

2-3 TBS fresh lemon juice , for serving

In  a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to directions, adding broccoli rate 4 minutes before the end of cooking.  Meanwhile, in a small saucepan heat oil, garlic and red pepper flakes over medium heat until garlic begins to sizzle, 2 minutes.  

Drain pasta and broccoli rabe and return to pot.  Add oil mixture and toss to coat;  season to taste with salt and pepper.  * I always sprinkle a little Peccorino-Romano or other Italian grating cheese on top of my pasta dishes

To  serve, sprinkle oregano over pasta and drizzle with lemon juice.

** As you can see, this recipe uses only olive oil as the sauce for the pasta dish;  Therefore you should definitely use the small pasta shapes such as orchiette and secondly when I see a recipe calling for so little sauce I often save a cupful of the pasta water to add to the sauce. Also I would use as many garlic cloves as I wished and just shake the red pepper flakes in and not measure.

***  You can also add cherry tomatoes with the garlic and cook them till they burst, add yet another dimension of flavor and texture to your dish.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food

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