pasta – Page 3 – Well Dined

19
Mar
2014

Grown Up Tuna Noodle Casserole

categories: Recipes

Okay, I am not a huge canned tuna fan. But I saw this recipe for stuffed shells with tuna, spinach, and roasted garlic topped with bechamel and buttery bread crumbs and I had to try it. I even had a couple of tins of really nice smoked albacore (pretty much the only canned tuna I like). You guys, this is not your grandmother’s casserole.

The first thing that makes this dish special is the roasted garlic, which is super easy to make. Just chop the top off of a whole head of garlic, place it on a sheet of foil, drizzle it with olive oil, wrap it up, and roast away. When it’s done it becomes creamy and sweet and is delicious spread on bread, but we will be using the whole thing in this recipe. Just squeeze to pop out all the cloves – I find this to be creepy but fascinating. All that sweet roasted garlic goes into a creamy bechamel sauce.

The filling is tuna, spinach, and breadcrumbs – simple, but good. After it is all mixed up, half of the garlic bechamel goes in to make it nice and creamy.

Then that mixture gets stuffed into cooked pasta shells. I tried to find whole wheat shells, but no luck. Then you are going to frantically lick the bowl, and the spoon, and your fingers – because this filling is soooooo good. (more…)

12
Mar
2014

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Alfredo

categories: Recipes

Here’s a quick little semi-homemade cold weather meal, perfect for weeknights. I took some store-bought fresh spinach fettuccine and thick sliced roasted turkey from the deli counter, and tossed them with a homemade pumpkin goat cheese alfredo. It’s interesting enough to not be boring, but it’s easy enough to not cause a headache.

The homemade part is the decadent sauce, which involves butter, garlic, cream, pumpkin, goat cheese, sage, and pumpkin pie spice. I wanted to do something a little different, which is why I went with turkey, but chicken would work just as well. And I like how the spinach pasta brought a little color to the table.

Pumpkin Goat Cheese Alfredo
adapted from Closet Kitchen
serves 2

8 oz pasta of choice (I used fresh spinach fettuccine from the refrigerated section), cooked
8 oz cooked turkey or chicken, diced or shredded
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
4 oz goat cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan, grated
1 tbsp sage, sliced thinly (or dried)
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the cream, pumpkin puree, goat cheese, Parmesan, sage, and pumpkin pie spice and simmer until the cheese has melted.

Add in the poultry and allow to warm through. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Toss with pasta and serve immediately.

One Year Ago – Light Pumpkin Cream Cheese Loaf
Two Years Ago – Pinterest Recipes
Three Years Ago – 5 Couscous Dinners

05
Mar
2014

Chicken Parmesan Meatballs and Spaghetti Squash

categories: Recipes

Chicken Parmesan without the guilt? I saw a really yummy looking recipe for Chicken Parmesan Meatballs that I wanted to try, but didn’t want to eat all the carbs involved in pasta. I had also been seeing cheesy spaghetti squash casseroles that looked really good, so I had the idea to combine them.

Ground chicken, onion, Parmesan, parsley, lemon zest, breadcrumbs, garlic, and egg are combined to make the meatballs, which are basted with tomato sauce and cooked in the oven.

Spaghetti squash goes into a casserole dish (I cook mine in the microwave). This is from two medium squashes.

Place the cooked meatballs on top, then the tomato sauce. I forgot to season the squash, oops! So I added more salt and pepper here. (more…)

28
Feb
2014

Range by Bryan Voltaggio

categories: Reviews

Another belated Restaurant Week post brings us to a somewhat new Bryan Voltaggio concept in Chevy Chase – Range. Located inside Chevy Chase Pavillion (across from Mazza Gallerie), the interior is huge and split into multiple dining rooms. Unfortunately, we were sat in the far back in the most remote and boring corner. We still had pretty decent service, though, especially considering how packed it was.

The New American menu has a lot to choose from with a raw bar, charcuterie, wood fired pizzas, and a range of cooked dishes. The cocktails are innovative, and the wine list is good (our server recommended a wine from a vineyard that has a personal relationship with the restaurant and is hard to get elsewhere).

There was a cheese course on the restaurant week menu, so we went ahead and got that. But we also wanted charcuterie, which wasn’t on the RW menu, so we ordered that a la carte – you can see the portion difference in the photo. Both selections were great and the housemade accompaniments were topnotch. I especially liked the mostarda and the fig jam.

My second course was the kale caesar salad with egg emulsion that everybody is always posting about, with good reason! It’s a caesar, but it’s one of the best you are ever going to get.

Jasper choose the beet salad with burrata. Pretty standard combo, well executed.

For my entree, I choose the goat cheese ravioli with meat ragu. Yummy, but the filling was pretty much just goat cheese, and a lot of it. I like goat cheese, but I would have appreciated a better balance.

Jasper choose the lamb with carrot-jalapeno romesco, which he said was awesome.

We had a good time and enjoyed everything we ate. I would like to return to try out more of the menu, especially with a group since the menu seems to be suited for it.

03
Feb
2014

Massaged Kale Salad and Broccoli Pesto

categories: Recipes

Remember last week when I posted about the Butternut Squash and Kale Pizza? And I told you that I had leftover kale? Well, here’s what became of it. I massaged with raw kale with a homemade dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, champagne vinegar, salt and pepper) and let it sit for 15 minutes to break down and lose the bitterness. Then I topped it with some burrata cheese, more olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper. Simple and delicious.

I served the salad as an appetizer, and for dinner we had steak (here’s my method) and orzo with broccoli pesto. I actually like this version of broccoli pasta sauce better than the other version I’ve made, and it has a lot less fat! (more…)

30
Jan
2014

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna with Homemade Spinach Whole Wheat Noodles

categories: Recipes

I had a plan to make spinach and butternut squash lasagna roll-ups last week. But then I decided to add chicken so that Jasper would be more likely to eat it (note that this plan failed, ha). And then I thought it would be good to make my own spinach whole wheat noodles, which turned out to be too fragile to roll up, especially with the heavy chicken added. So it turned into a regular layered lasagna instead, and I’m not even sad. The colors were so pretty, and it was gooey and cheesy and filling.

So here’s where I made a mistake – I thought I would be clever and puree the spinach in the food processor instead of the blender before adding in my flour in order to reduce the number of dirty containers. Except that the food processor didn’t really puree the spinach very well. I even had a moment where I stopped and thought I should transfer it to the blender and decided against it, *sigh*. All those little flakes of spinach made the dough very fragile and difficult to work with, but I stuck it out.

The noodles turned out fine (and they certainly tasted good) when cooked, but they were still too fragile to roll (and not very pretty).

So I just layered them instead and all was well. Now, remember earlier this week when I talked about having leftover butternut squash? Well, this is where it went. I pureed the roasted squash and shallots together to make a sauce. A little of that went on the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles. (more…)

22
Jan
2014

Butternut Squash Carbonara

categories: Recipes

By now, you guys should have figured out that I love butternut squash and pasta together. I could practically rename my blog “The Butternut Squash Blog”. So when I saw someone grate butternut squash so that it dissolves into their velvety carbonara sauce, you know I was all over that. Especially because I had a nasty cold and wanted comfort and didn’t care that the pasta wasn’t whole wheat.

The original recipe used buccatini, which I love, but I couldn’t find any at the store. I did see these gorgeous long fusilli noodles though. I have to say, after having cooked with them twice, I wouldn’t actually recommend these. It takes longer to cook than advertised and the inside is still crunchy (not al dente – crunchy), while the outside has gotten soft so that it breaks apart and doesn’t stay long and beautiful. Sigh.

Anyway, grate up that squash (just a little chunk, not even a whole one) and toss it into a pan with a little rendered bacon fat, butter, and garlic. (more…)

15
Jan
2014

Butternut Squash, Caramelized Onion, and Goat Cheese – Three Ways

categories: Recipes

So I got this combination of ingredients into my head and couldn’t stop thinking about all the ways I could use them. Pasta, pizza, tarts – the list goes on. I decided to caramelize a big batch of onions, roast a big squash, and use them all week in a few different dishes.

First off, I peeled and cut up a large (4 lb) butternut squash and laid the cubes out on a baking sheet. I drizzled them with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg. Then I roasted them at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. I used some right away, and stored the rest in an airtight container in the fridge.

For the onions, I bought one of those bags that has about 5 onions in it, sliced them all, and threw them in a large pan with olive oil. After they turned translucent and soft, I turned the heat down from med-hi to med-lo and let them caramelize. This will take anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. About halfway through, I added a few sprigs of thyme. Once they were really brown, I added a splash of sherry to de-glaze the pan and removed the thyme stems. Again, I used some right away, and stored the rest in an airtight container in the fridge. (more…)

12
Jan
2014

Holiday Roadtrip Restaurant Reviews

categories: Reviews

We had two different events planned in two different states in the weeks before Christmas: a weekend-long birthday party in the Outer Banks and a family get-together in Nashville, TN. We decided it would be fun to connect the events via a long roadtrip, stopping at the Biltmore Estate in NC before continuing on to TN. Biltmore is HUGE. The house is the largest privately owned house in the US, and the grounds cover 8000 acres. It takes 30 minutes to get from the Inn on the property to the house.

We stayed for two nights at the Inn, which is a really nice hotel and spa. They were all decked out for Christmas, and had a gingerbread house replica of the Inn. There are multiple restaurants on the Estate – we ate at the Inn Dining Room the first night, and like it so much we decided to eat there the second night too!

The Dining Room is seasonal, farm-sourced fine dining. I really liked their small plates and respectful treatment of produce. The amuse bouche was a different cream based vegetable veluote both nights and they were both outstanding. I could have eaten a bowl of that for dinner and been happy.

My favorite dish was the fried brussels sprouts with a farm egg, frisee, and bacon. This is seriously the BEST brussels sprouts dish I have ever had. It was eye-rolling good. I ordered it both nights and asked for the recipe, which they gave me! I’ll post it at the bottom.

Another standout was the roasted corn and lobster soup with piquillo peppers. This has been added to my list of favorite lobster dishes, and is in the top 3 lobster bisques for sure.

The pork belly with apple tart and goat cheese ravioli appetizers were also very good and I would highly recommend them. The gnocchi with brie, figs, and bacon was not enjoyable, though. The brie overpowered everything else and the bacon was way too salty. It sounded great on paper, but didn’t work.

The artisan meat and cheese platter was very satisfying, with lots of variety and good portions. I didn’t order any entrees, and Jasper ordered specials both nights. He really enjoyed the seafood special the first night, but did not like the steak special the second night.

Overall, the good outweighs the bad here and I would recommend trying it out if you are ever in the area. (more…)

06
Jan
2014

Butternut Squash, Apple, and Sausage Lasagna Rolls

categories: Recipes

Oh my gosh, you guys. This might be my favorite butternut squash pasta since the life-saving mac and cheese.

Sheets of homemade pasta filled with roasted butternut squash, apple, onion, sausage, and three cheeses; topped with a creamy sage bechamel. It’s totally swoon worthy.

The filling is a little complicated, but totally worth it. While your butternut squash is roasting in the oven, mix up and brown your sausage mixture. Did I mention that you are creating your own sausage, so you can adjust the spices to your liking? And you can be sure that there are no weird preservatives or sugar? Awesome. Anyway, next you saute some onions, garlic, and apple. Plus a little white wine – aww, yeah.

Oh my gosh this filling. It’s insane. You may want to make extra to use in other ways. I’ll talk about that later. (more…)

Tag: pasta