White Wine & Sherry Pasta Sauce

I often make a quick pasta sauce by throwing together shallots, garlic, a few spices and some white wine. I use fresh herbs when I can, but often use dried as well.  It usually cooks for only as long as it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta. Other ingredients go in as I have time, inclination or can find in the fridge.  This typically includes things such as sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and chopped spinach. (I’m a stealth vegetable eater.  I don’t like many vegetables so I try to sneak them into sauces and such to up my intake.)  This version include fresh herbs from the garden, mushrooms and tomatoes, as well as the addition of sherry.  I sometimes add diced chicken and sub chicken stock for the white wine. This makes enough for one or two.

Ingredients

• 1/2-1 shallot or (or 2 tsps dried)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1-2 tbsp olive oil
• 3-5 sun-dried tomatoes
• 3-4 small button or baby bella mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Herbs (I used fresh oregano, basil and rosemary, about 1 tablespoon each of chopped oregano and basil and a spring of rosemary).  If you are using dried, frankly I usually eyeball it.  4-5 good shakes of Italian herbs, plus an extra shake or two of basil, oregano and rosemary).
• 2-3 tbsps butter
• 1-2 tbsps Parmesan cheese (to mix in; you’ll want extra to top the sauce when it’s done).
• 1/2-1 c  pasta per serving (Hubby eats gluten-free – his favorite is Tinkyada – the shells are pictured above. I go with regular since it’s so much cheaper than GF pasta and we eat a lot of pasta).

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to directions.

While the pasta is cooking (start when you put the water on), peel and finely chop the garlic and onion. Saute them in olive oil on low heat.  Dice and add the sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms).  If you are using dried herbs, add them now. Cook, stirring occasionally until the shallot is translucent, and the mushrooms have browned.

Adding butter to the reduced sauce

Add the wine and sherry and simmer to reduce and burn off the alcohol.

If you are adding spinach or fresh herbs, add them once the sauce is reduced a bit. (Otherwise they lose a lot of their color). It will generally cook down to the right level in the time it takes to boil water and cook pasta. If you get distracted and it gets a bit dry, just add some more wine or sherry.

Just before serving, add 2-3 pats of butter and stir to melt in. This thickens the sauce (without gluten!).  Once the butter is melted, add the Parmesan cheese and do the same thing. You can add a bit more butter if it seems too thin.

Serve over pasta, with additional Parmesan as a garnish.

Enjoy!  (The joy of using the sherry is that it gives the sauce a deeper flavor and you can go with either red or white wine depending on your mood.)

What will you try adding?

15 Minute Thai Peanut Stirfry

It is finally warming up here (a whole 51 degrees today), and I’m losing my compulsion to cook comfort food.  Tonight I wanted a quick and easy meal that wasn’t too heavy.  The result from a forage in the freezer and cupboards turned up the following:

• 1/3 pound rice noodle sticks  (I got mine from Trader Joe’s but the Asian section of most grocery stores should have them). 
• Grilled chicken breast (1 large breast or about 1  to 1.5 cups cut up) grilled or if frozen, thawed.
• 1/2 a pound of  blanched or thawed stirfry vegetables (again, you can cut your own, or cheat — I had a nice frozen mix with broccoli, carrots, red pepper, water chestnuts, mushrooms and celery. 
• 1 tbsp olive or sesame oil
• 1/2 -3/4 cup peanut sauce (watch the ingredients as they sometimes have trace amounts of gluten)  Mine — from the foo foo store brand section of my local grocery was gluten free and had both fairly low fat and sodium content.)

I was rather hungry and impatient and threw this whole thing together in less than 10 minutes, the longest part is boiling the water.  Cook the noodles al dente (6-8 minutes probably depending the size of the noodles).  While they are cooking, thaw the chicken and vegetables, and start the oil heating in a wok or the largest fry pan you have.  When the oil is very hot, fry up the vegetables and chicken to heat them through and finish the cooking process, 2-4 minutes (longer if they’re raw). Add 2/3 of the peanut sauce and stir fry another minute. Drain the noodles and toss them in the wok, mixing up everything, add the rest of the sauce, and stir. 

Turn off the heat and enjoy. 

Serves two

Lasagna Bolognese



 

It’s been rather cold here in New England the past week and now it’s started to snow (although ironically that means it’s actually gotten warmer).  It’s wonderful to warm up the house by putting on a pot of something that cooks all afternoon, whether stew, chili or tomato sauce.  This week it was tomato sauce, so that I could make lasagna.  I love it for its own sake, and because it means I don’t have to cook when I get home at 7:30 pm, but still get to eat well. 

 

This recipe uses a homemade sauce and GF noodles from Tinkyada, who make the best GF pasta — but obviously you can use regular wheat noodles if you want. 

 

Ingredients

 

1 10 oz. box of lasagne noodles, cooked and drained (I used Tinkyada brown rice lasagne noodles)

4-6 cups of Bolognese sauce

1 egg

3 cups part-skim ricotta cheese

1 cup low fat cottage cheese

2 cups part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided

3/4 cup parmesan cheese, divided

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cook the noodles for about 8-10 minutes (about half the time the box calls for).  Mix together in a large bowl, the ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, ½ cup of mozzarella and ½ cup of parmesan cheese. Ladle a quarter of the sauce into a 9×13 pan. Arrange three to four noodles in the bottom of the pan, arrange half the cheese mixture on it and top with another cup of sauce. Repeat by layering in more noodles, ricotta mixture and sauce. Top with the last set of noodles and the remaining mozzarella and parmesan.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Allow to set for 10-15 minutes before serving to set up.