Planning a vacation can sometimes be difficult but made easier by a full stomach and a glass of wine! Thus, this week while finalizing some plans for a fast approaching Europe trip to the England and Switzerland, I made some, what I will call, comforting sausage ragù pasta. Why is it comforting? For one I love Italian sausage and cook a lot with it: sausage buns, sausage skewers, sausage and rapini or broccoli pasta, etc., so something about it is comforting. Second, is because meat sauce reminds me of my nonna's and mom's recipe that combines our homemade tomato sauce and either ground veal, beef or both. The two together? Sausage + Sauce = Perfection! I call the sauce a ragù and not a meat sauce as my mom and nonna make because it is thicker and less sauce-y than theirs due to the use canned diced tomatoes; in terms of tomatoes I like Pastene Diced Tomatoes with Spices limiting the need to flavour the dish with my own, saving tasting and time. However if not available, add some bay leaf, oregano, italian parsley, salt and pepper to taste - you can also add crushed red pepper flakes for some heat, but be aware of the amount added if you choose to also use hot italian sausage! As for the pasta, well, you can make whatever type you prefer. Personally, I am not a fan of long pasta and prefer short types like penne, fusilli, rigatoni, etc. But the best with any meat sauce/ragù has to be fusilli, gemelli or a shell type pasta, they allow the meat to get stuck in between the folds of the noodles - getting a bit of everything with every bite! Hope you enjoy! Happy Cooking! :)
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Surviving Monday, the worst day of the week (in my opinion), is a great challenge and sometimes needs a little encouragement. Encouragement can be treating yourself to a bag of chips, a chocolate bar, a cup of tea during a break, writing a blog post, or a libation once you get home. So for this Monday I give you my White Wine Strawberry Peach Spritzer. This drink is perfect for a Monday summer cocktail because it is light and not too boozy. Also, its great for those who have leftover wine from a weekend dinner party. I've written the recipe to use a large wine glass, this is because it does need to hold a larger amount of liquid. I use a wine glass that can hold a whole bottle of wine!!! If you don't have one, a highball glass is also perfect for this cocktail. Additionally, if you don't want to water down your drink with ice, you can use frozen strawberries and even frozen peaches to keep your drink cold - this is especially useful for those hot summer days! Happy Drinking! :)
I do not pretend to be a chef. I'm just a curious scientist in training, that loves to do experiments not only in the lab but in the kitchen as well. So last Monday, after a day of experimentation at work I decided to continue in the kitchen creating what I will call "Alfredo" Sauce for Two (even if I was home alone because it makes enough to cover 2 servings of pasta). This all started because one of my extremely guilty pleasures is Knorr Sidekicks Pasta side dishes, more specifically the creamy bacon carbonara or the creamy garlic raffaello. I can eat a whole package to myself, which is usually a whopping ~750 calories and thus reserved for the days I have gone to a spin class. So in the aim to reduce my caloric intake while still satisfying my need for creamy white pasta sauce I have created a comparable dish that I will certainly make again. My "alfredo" sauce is quite simple. I've named it "alfredo" because I do not use any cheese, which is a staple in any alfredo sauce recipe found (so maybe it's more of a béchamel sauce, but who cares). Additionally, it is lactose free since I also use lactose free milk. Personally I prefer Natrel's Lactose Free 2% Milk. After diagnosing myself as lactose intolerant (I drank a glass of milk on an empty stomach and watched what happened), I tried many different brands and Natrel was by far my favourite. To me it tastes the most like regular milk and is not as sweet as many of it's competitors. This said, I suggest using whatever milk you keep in the fridge, and not to buy lactose free just for the sake of this recipe - however if you do have one of the sweeter lactose free varieties it may impact the taste of the sauce. Apart from the sauce itself, I decided to use meat stuffed tortellini as my choice of pasta, but you could easily replace it with any pasta you wish and follow the package instructions on how to cook it. Also, I added frozen mixed vegetables since I so happened to have some in the freezer, again following the package instructions on how to cook them and tossing them in when I mixed the sauce and pasta together. Since I believe the sauce can be quite versatile, feel free to try adding different vegetables, spices, and cooked meats - I know I want to try adding bacon!
Happy Experimenting! :) |
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