Linguine and Meatballs with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Hello everyone! Sorry for my conspicuous absence... work got a little crazy combined with sending me out to LA.  It was a great chance to catch up with great friends who I haven't seen in far too long.  Andrew and Tuany took me to the coolest restaurant I've been to in a long time, Bazaar, and I'm now re-inspired to find more of those gems in NYC!
So after a long day of being outside on what felt like the first real fall day in quite some time, hubs and I both had a craving for old school spaghetti and meatballs.  I went with linguine and meatballs, actually, and after a bit of time (maybe an hour?), this was a delicious take on an old favorite.  Adapted on the go from, of course, my trusty Epicurious app.  What would I do without it?!?

Here's what I used:
For the sauce:
2 28-oz cans of whole San Marzano tomatoes, with the juice
1 really large yellow onion or 2 smaller yellow onions
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
For the meatballs:
1 lb ground beef or other ground meat of your choice
1 cup breadcrumbs - I used the Italian mix
1/3 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper
2 eggs
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup ground parmesan (not shredded - I actually chopped up a block of parm really, really finely since I didn't have ground on hand)
1/3 cup milk

And of course, your pasta.  I only cook what I think we'll eat and then I just have to make the pasta fresh with the leftover meatballs and it tastes like brand new.

To begin, you want to get the sauce started.  Get a large stock pot out and add both cans of tomatoes.  In all the cooking shows I have watched over the years, cooks swear by San Marzano tomatoes, and I have bought into the hype.  I have no idea if they are better than the domestic or not, and they are more expensive, unfortunately.  If someone loves a domestic brand, I would love the name.  I do think the San Marzanos give it that New York pizzeria taste, so I cough up the extra $2-3 bucks a can.  Then I quartered my large yellow onion.  I diced one quarter, and threw the other 3 quarters in there whole (you will remove them and discard later - if that bothers you, then dice finely and add to the sauce.)  Add the 1/4 cup of butter (half a stick) and get the sauce going to a nice simmer and start on the meatballs.

 In a big bowl, add the breadcrumbs and the milk together and stir until combined.  Let this stand for 10 min while you prep the rest of the ingredients. Monitor to see if you have excess milk.  My breadcrumbs absorbed all of the milk, but I did not use fresh breadcrumbs.  I used store-bought Italian blend. If you have extra milk, then combine the rest of these in a separate bowl so you can drain the milk out later.

 To my breadcrumb mixture, I added the chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and parmesan.

Now it's time to incorporate the meat.  I had been hoping to do a ground beef / ground turkey or pork blend (which I think would be delicious) but I got caught walking home in the rain without an umbrella, so ducked into the only nearby grocery store - the Korean market - which didn't have anything but ground beef.
Anyway, put one pound of whatever combination of ground meat you like in a separate bowl.  In a glass measuring cup, I cracked 2 eggs and whisked in the chopped garlic. Add that to the meat and combine thoroughly.  Then add the meat mixture to the breadcrumb mixture.

   Before you roll the meatballs, get the sauce ready.  By now, it's probably been on the stove for about 30 minutes.  So take out the big pieces of onion and discard.  I then used an immersion blender to make the sauce nice and smooth, but I think that is more of an aesthetic thing than a requirement.  An immersion blender is so easy to use and makes the sauce nice and silky.  Look at it steaming away!

Once you are ready, start rolling the meatballs into golf ball sized meatballs and add straight to the sauce.  Make sure they are in one layer on top of the sauce.  Once you are done, cover the pot and let simmer for 15-20 more minutes.  Get the pasta going once the meatballs are done and cook according to the package directions.
Once that is done, plate the pasta, the sauce, the meatballs, and top with freshly grated parmesan.  Enjoy! This fed 3, with plenty of leftovers.  It would probably feed up to 6-8.

Cheesy Baked Mushroom Rigatoni (with peas)

Today's weather was absolutely gross in New York City.  After such a wonderful Labor Day holiday, it was tough enough to be back in the office without having to trek home in the pouring rain!! The only comfort was I knew I was going to make something warm, cheesy, and delicious to make it all better. I turned to my favorite, Epicurious, and adapted another recipe for a cheesy baked rigatoni with mushrooms to make it all better.

This one took some time, so I opened a bottle of red and enjoyed the sound of the rain while I cooked. Here's what I used:
1 red onion
1 package of sweet Italian sausage (4 links)
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (get the dried if you can so that you can use the water that you reconstitute them in. I bought them in the pasta sauce aisle of Whole Foods.)
10 Shiitake mushrooms, though the recipe called for 1 lb white button mushrooms, aka, my worst nightmare. I almost bought cremini but freaked out that they looked very similar to white button mushroom and therefore might taste the same. The shiitakes did okay, but did get a little slimy because they cook for quite awhile. If you are a mushroom expert, you may know a better one to substitute. I used about 10 big shiitakes.
1 TB chopped rosemary
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 can of beef broth (7 oz)
1 cup shredded pecorino romano and I added some shredded Monterrey Jack as well because I had it in the fridge and thought it would be a little melty-er and gooy-er than the pecorino (it was!)
One swirl around the pot of half and half (about 1/4 a cup?)
1 cup frozen green peas
1 lb box of rigatoni

The first thing I did was start a big pot of salted water for the rigatoni and pre-heat the oven to 375.  Then I rinsed the dried porcinis in a small bowl, drained, and added hot water until they were just covered. Let those sit for 20 minutes to reconstitute. You will need this water! Do NOT pour it down the drain when you take the porcinis out! This is where all the delicious flavor comes from.
Then I took the casings off the sausage and chopped to bite size pieces, as well as diced the onion, rosemary, and shiitakes.

Then I heated some olive oil and got the onion going in a heavy pot/dutch oven that can go straight in the oven. I used a red onion, but it will cook for so long that I don't think it matters which type you use.

Once the onion is translucent, add the sausage and cook until it is not pink in the center.  Try to break up the sausage pieces as well as you can.  I had to use a heavy- duty spatula (ok, I actually enlisted hubby to do this while I trekked to the roof in the rain to grab some rosemary.)  It took me about 10 minutes to cook the sausage. While the sausage is cooking, take the porcinis out of the water and give them a rough chop. SAVE the water.  Look how dark it is in the photo below! That is a lot of flavor!

Then I added my fresh mushrooms and cooked a minute or two to soften them.  To that, I added the chopped porcinis, white wine, and rosemary and let it cook down 3-4 minutes until most of the liquid was gone.  Next add the porcini water (I had about 1 cup) without adding whatever grit settled to the bottom of the bowl. Stir that in and add the beef broth. This will now cook down for about 15 minutes, which means it is the perfect time to add your pasta to the boiling water. My rigatoni box said it should cook for 14 minutes.

Not much to look at here, but it was starting to smell DELICIOUS.
Stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom but otherwise it's a good time to shred the cheese, if it's not already shredded.   I got about halfway through this process and I started feeling guilty that this dish was going to be almost all brown and tan (meaning not enough veggies for us!) so I added a half a bag of frozen peas that I had on hand. Problem solved! And they made a delicious addition.
Once the pasta is done, strain it and set it aside just for a minute.
When the sauce has reduced until there is still liquid, but it looks more like syrup than liquid, you are good to go (again, it took about 15 minutes to do so.)  Add the swirl of half and half to make it a little creamy and stir together. Add the pasta directly to the pot and take it off the heat. Stir really well to cover the pasta in the sauce and then gradually fold in the cheese. Yum. Bake covered (or covered with foil) at 375 for 25 minutes.

This was so rich and delicious. The porcinis added such a wonderful flavor and there was just the right amount of creaminess without it being overkill or too rich.  Hubby reluctantly gave out a 10 - he said he is worried to say it was a 10 lest I give up cooking at having reached my goal.  Not to fear, sweetie; I'm just getting started. Enjoy!

Easy Portabella Ravioli with Sage, Walnut, and Shiitake Brown Butter Sauce

I'm not sure what has prompted it, but I have developed a serious love for mushrooms.  About a year ago, I realized that it was only the icky white button mushrooms that have that slimy, chewy texture (you will never see me post with those!) However there are SO many more mushrooms that don't get slimy when you cook them and have more of a woodsy flavor to them.  So I have been exploring with most everything aside from a button mushroom.

I was on my own for dinner, so I made this pasta which sounds hard, but is really, really easy, really fast, and really delicious.  I promise.  And all I had to buy at the store was Trader Joe's portabella ravioli and some shiitake mushrooms, but I keep a pretty stocked kitchen and had some sage on the roof.  If you are not so stocked, here's what I used: 2 TB unsalted butter, 3 shiitakes, 4 sage leaves, 1/4 cup of walnuts, 1 clove of garlic, Parmesan cheese, and one package of ravioli.

The sauce only takes about 3-4 minutes to cook (about the same as the ravioli) so get the water going for the pasta and you can prep everything else while it's coming to a boil.
Chop the walnuts and set aside. Wipe off the mushrooms with a damp paper towel (don't rinse or they get soggy), chop the stems off and discard, and thinly slice.  Chop the garlic and set aside with the mushrooms.

Chop the sage and set aside. I have to share how beautiful this sage is from our roof.  I have never seen such fresh herbs!

Once the water is about to boil, start the sauce with 1 TB of butter in a saucepan on high.  Once it's melted, add the garlic and mushrooms and saute for 2 min.

Meanwhile, add the ravioli to the boiling water.
Add the second TB of butter to the saucepan and let it melt. Then add the sage and walnuts. Let them cook until the sage starts to get crispy and the butter starts to brown.  Be careful! Once it starts to brown, take it immediately off the heat.

Drain the ravioli and add straight to the sauce pan.  Toss the ravioli with the sauce and serve immediately with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.
Deliciously savory!  This would be a great date meal, too, served with an arugula or spinach salad and some crusty bread.

Linguine with Clams

So hubby had a brutal week last week, and after an all nighter on Thurs, was really hoping for a bowl of pasta and a 9PM bedtime Friday night. 

So I obliged and picked up some delicious looking clams from Whole Foods to make linguine with clams. 

I pretty much followed a recipe from Epicurious with only a few minor tweaks. 

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots

3 large garlic cloves, minced

24 small fresh clams (such as Manila or littleneck), scrubbed (I actually used some clams from Maine that were on special, and there were about 15-20 in the bag)

1 cup chopped seeded peeled tomatoes (I did not bother with seedless peeled tomatoes - who has time for that? - I used some leftover grape tomatoes)

6 tablespoons dry white wine

1/2 pound linguine 

1 cup (packed) chopped arugula

First I chopped all the ingredients and had them prepped and ready to go.  I wasn't sure how to scrub clams, but I put them in a big bowl of cold water and rinsed them a  few times until there was no more grit in the bowl. I do know that you have to be really careful with clams so that they don't die - don't ever put them in a  closed off bag and make sure they go directly in the fridge. 

First, get the water on for the pasta.  

Meanwhile, saute the shallots and garlic in a bit of olive oil for about 2 minutes until they are translucent. Add the clams, 3/4 of the tomatoes, and the wine and bring to a boil. Then cover and cook until clams are open. I made a mistake here... I turned the heat down when I covered it since it was really, really boiling. However, when I peaked after 4-5 minutes, none of the clams looked close to opening so I turned the heat back up and cooked for another 6-7 minutes.  So I cooked mine too long. Don't turn the heat down and stay to 8 minutes. 

Then use tongs to take the clams out of the pan and put them in a bowl off to the side and tent with foil to keep them warm. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan along with the arugula and the rest of the tomatoes (still on high heat.) Toss all of it together with tongs and plate with the clams.

 We both gave it a 7 since the clams were overcooked, but it would have been an 8 or 9 if they had been cooked right!