Spaghetti Amatriciana

Ease: 4/5     Kid-friendliness: 4/5     Taste: 4/5     Time: 3.5/6

Prep: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

We eat spaghetti a lot. It's kind of the go-to when we don't know what else to make. So I thought I would look around for alternate (but still relatively easy) spaghetti recipes to "spice" things up once in awhile. Everyone liked this one. The original recipe called for dry white wine. I used a little bit of apple juice instead.

This isn't a traditional amatriciana pasta sauce, because as wikipedia told me, amatriciana pasta sauce is made with dried pork cheek (I doubt my bacon is strictly made from the "cheek") and percorino cheese (never heard of it), but calling it "amatriciana" sounds like a more adult pasta sauce, so I left it in the title.

What you'll need:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 90 g thick cut bacon, chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/2 C apple juice (or dry white wine)
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2.5 C diced tomatoes, with juice
• salt
• 500 g (1 lb) spaghetti
• 1/2 C parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a large frying pan over medium-low heat, warm the oil. Add the bacon, onion, and red pepper flakes. Saute until the onion is softened and the bacon is lightly browned (~6 minutes). 

Stir in the apple juice, and tomato paste. Reduce the heat to low and cook about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and 1/2 tsp salt. Raise the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened, about 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, add 2 Tbsp salt and pasta to the boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente according to package directions (~8 minutes). Drain, reserving ~ 1/2 C of cooking water. 

Add the drained pasta to the sauce and toss to combine. Sprinkle with one-third of the cheese and toss again. Add cooking water until the sauce is a nice consistency. Top with cheese, and serve.

Recipe from Weeknight Cook

Chicken and Spinach Pesto Pasta

Ease: 3/5     Kid-friendliness: 4/5     Taste: 4/5     Ease: 3.5/5

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

I love pine nuts. Love them. And pesto. And my family loves pesto. So I thought I'd try my hand at making some homemade pesto. On the plus side, my husband (my biggest critic), said it tasted better than the jarred stuff (YES!). On the downside, I found it a bit high maintenance. Any recipe that requires me to use a blender, a pot AND a pan, is a lot in my books.

This pesto has a nice mild flavor.

What you'll need:

• garlic, 1 small clove
• 2 Tbsp pine nuts
• 1 1/4 C baby spinach
• 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 C olive oil 
• 2 Tbsp butter or margarine
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lb whole wheat rotini noodles (really, any noodle would work)
• 2 C cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 C feta cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a blender (or food processor), combine the garlic, pine nuts, spinach, and 1/4 C of the parmesan cheese. Chop. You will have to stop a couple of times to scrape down the edges. With the machine still running, gradually add the oil from the hole or spout in the top. Season with 1/4 tsp salt and a couple of grindings of ground pepper.

Add 1 Tbsp of salt to the boiling water. Add the pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally until al dente, according to package directions (~14 minutes). Drain; reserving ~ 1/2 C of the cooking water. Add the chicken to a large serving bowl.

While the pasta is cooking, over medium-high heat, melt the butter or margarine. Add the chicken and cook, until heated through and no longer pink (~ 5-8 minutes). Add the chicken to the serving bowl along with the pesto, feta cheese and remaining 1/4 C parmesan cheese. Toss, adding as much cooking water as required to make a nice consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve!

Adapted fromWilliams-Sonoma The Weeknight Cook: Fresh and Simple Recipes for Good Food Everyday, chicken and arugula pesto pasta recipe.

Mac n' Cheese

Ease: 3.5/5     Kid-friendliness: 5/5     Taste: 5/5     Time: 3/5

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

My daughter's favorite foods in life include apple cinnamon cheerios, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and Kraft Dinner. So on her actual day of birth, I set out to make some homemade mac n' cheese that would rival KD. A lofty quest, I know.

As many of you can attest, the best place to go to get the good, gooey, full-fat recipes is the The Pioneer Woman. She didn't let me down. She's got several mac n' cheese recipes on her site, and they all sounded perfect. I liked It's Not Your Granny's Mac N' Cheese, because it adds some vegetables to the pasta (I am cooking for kids here), and her Macaroni and Cheese recipe because I am partial to baked pasta dishes. So I combined the two. The result? Really really good. Your arteries may not thank-you, but your taste buds will. Cheesy, moist, buttery, sticky...

What you'll need:

• 4 C macaroni
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 C frozen corn
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 1 whole egg, beaten
• 1/4 C (1/2 stick) butter
• 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 C whole milk
• 2 heaping tsp dry mustard
• 1 lb cheddar cheese, grated
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

In a large pot, boil pasta until very firm (I cooked mine for ~6 minutes). Drain and set aside. 

In a large skillet, add olive oil and saute onion, bell pepper, garlic and corn over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Set aside. 

In a small bowl, beat egg. 

In a large pot (really large), melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together over low heat. Cook for five minutes, whisking constantly. 

Pour in milk, add mustard, and whisk until smooth. Cook for five minutes until thick. Reduce heat. Take 1/4 C of the sauce and slowly pour it into the beaten egg, whisking constantly. Whisk together until smooth. 

Pour egg mixture into sauce, whisking constantly. Stir until smooth. 

Add cheese, and stir to melt. 

Add salt, pepper and seasoning salt. 

Pour in drained, cooked macaroni and stir to combine. 

Pour pasta into a buttered baking dish, and top with extra cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and golden on top. Serve and enjoy some serious comfort food!

Pene with Pesto and Potatoes

Ease: 3.5/5     Kid-friendliness: 4/5     Taste: 3/5     Ease: 3.5/5

This is a quick, simple pasta dish. If you like pesto, you'll probably like this. I added a little less pesto than what the recipe called for, thinking my kids might not like such a strong pesto flavor. Turns out they love pesto!

What you'll need:

• 3 white boiling potatoes
• salt
• penne, ziti or other tubular pasta
• 1 C green beans
• 1 C basil pesto
• 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese

Put the potatoes in a medium sized pot, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium, and cook until tender (~20 minutes). Drain and let cool. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add some salt, and pasta. Cook, stirring occasionally, until al dente. 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, add the beans (I added the beans 8 minutes before as they were frozen).

Drain the pasta and beans, reserving 1/2 C of the cooking water. In a large serving bowl, mix a few tablespoons of the water with the pesto. Add the potatoes, pasta and beans and toss to combine. Add as much remaining cooking water to achieve a nice consistency for the sauce. Top with parmesan cheese, and serve! Makes 4 servings. 

Spaghetti Carbonara & Friday Follow Me

Ease: 4/5     Taste: 3.5/5     Kid-friendliness: 0/5     Time:4/5

I gave this recipe a zero for kid-friendliness because it involves cooking with alcohol, and raw eggs. Well, you add hot spaghetti to the raw eggs which I assume (or at least it's what I told myself...) cooks the eggs (but could that REALLY have cooked the eggs??).

With a fresh loaf of French Bread, this recipe would work great for a date night or if you have last minute company and you want an adult tasting meal quickly, and without a ton of ingredients.

Truth moment: I popped mine in the microwave for a minute which sort of ruined the flavour but saved my sanity over the raw eggs. The following day, I added a bit of milk and some butter to the leftovers and warmed them in the microwave  and thought it tasted even better!

What you'll need:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 125 g (1/4 lb) chopped bacon
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 C dry white wine
• 3 eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 1/3 C parmesan cheese, grated
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1/4 C fresh parsley, minced

To make the sauce, bring a large pot of water to a boil. In a large frying pan over medium heat, warm 1 Tbsp oil. Add the bacon and 3 Tbsp water and cook until the water has evaporated. 

Add the garlic and remaining oil and cook until bacon is slightly browed (~ 4 min). Stir in the wine and cook about 1 minute. Set aside. 

In a large serving bowl, beat the eggs with the cheese and 3/4 tsp salt; set aside.

Meanwhile, add 2 Tbsp salt and the pasta to the boiling pot of water. Cook, according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 C of the cooking water.

Working quickly, add the hot pasta to the egg mixture and toss to combine. Add the cooking water slowly until a nice consistency for the sauce is achieved. 

Add the bacon, a generous amount of pepper, and the parsley. Toss again and serve.

Recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks: Williams-Sonoma The Weeknight Cook: Fresh & Simple Recipes for Good Food Everyday

Also, today marks participation in the NEW Friday Follow Me Party! And I know you wanna!