Pasta

October 19, 2016

Fair Fun and Butternut Squash Lasagna with Sausage

laura.smoak@gmail.com Life, Pasta, Prep Ahead 0 Comments

Let’s call today Wacky Wednesday, shall we? I have no tie-in between the two things I’m talking about today other than the fact that they’re both basic Fall things and that when we came home from the fair we had leftover butternut squash lasagna with sausage waiting in the fridge. That works right?

This past weekend we went to Raleigh to hang out with my sister’s family and go to the fair. I’ve blogged about it before, but anytime we get together with cousins it’s a great time. Throw in rides and fair food, and you’ve got one happy Anna Ruth. Corn dogs, hot dogs, obnoxious square ice cream cones, funnel cake, blooming onion and (the best ever) bagguetaboutit <– srsly, guys, this food truck makes me want to move to Raleigh. We ate things we never eat, and didn’t feel bad even for a second. The kids were troopers and had a ball, and I’m pretty sure we need to make this an annual thing. Here are just a few pictures, but just know I am crying over not taking food pictures because it was so wrong and so right and I wish I had a visual to get me through the next 364 days until we go back. (I’m mainly sharing these pictures so I can have it documented for myself, but enjoy! If you’re just here for the recipe – no prob, bob – just scroll on past.)

Okay, since I’ve already established I have no tie-in, let’s just jump right on into the butternut squash lasagna with sausage sitch. You guys, this lasagna is so basic and so Fall I just can’t help but do and wear all the Fall things. The day we made this, I just happened to buy five thousand pumpkins and mums (while sipping on my PSL, obv), and rocked my favorite boots and scarf JUST BECAUSE this lasagna got me in that kind of mood. It’s so basic and so Fall and everything I need in my life on a cool Saturday made for football watching and lazy cooking.

This is far from a traditional lasagna (read: butternut squash), but the effort and assembly are about the same. You need a little time for this one, which makes it perfect for a weekend meal. (Bonus: leftovers are a’plenty, and – voila – lunches are ready for the week.)

You may remember my love for butternut squash runs deep (read about it here, here and here). It’s just so good and so versatile. Roast it with a little olive oil, Italian seasoning and S&P and it can be used for so many different things. It is also incredibly good with Italian sausage. Fact: I started out making a meatless lasagna, but Italian sausage raised its hand and I just couldn’t say no. You’re welcome.

Ingredients:

2 lbs mild Italian sausage
2 lbs butternut squash – chopped (I buy the pre-chopped container at the store)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt/pepper/Italian Seasoning – to taste
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 tsp sage
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
12 whole grain lasagna noodles
White Sauce:
-3 tbsp butter
-¼ c flour
-2 ½ c milk
-½ c shredded parmesan cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine butternut squash and olive oil on a baking sheet and season with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Cook for 45-60 minutes, or until soft.
Prepare the sausage: Cook the sausage over medium heat until done, making sure to crumble it as it cooks. Drain in a bowl lined with paper towels and set aside.
Prepare the noodles: Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions until al dente. Drain, rinse with water to keep from sticking, and set aside.
Prepare the filling: Put the cooked butternut squash into a food processor (or blender), and add ricotta, sage, salt and eggs. Pulse until the ingredients are well combined, and then puree until smooth.
Prepare the white sauce: in a small sauce pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk, and continue stirring over medium heat until the mixture comes just to a boil and thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the parmesan until it is melted.
Assemble the lasagna: spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

Spoon about 1/4-1/2 cup of the white sauce in the bottom of the dish
Spread four lasagna noodles over the bottom of the dish
Spread 1/3 of the butternut squash mixture over the noodles
Spread 1/3 of the sausage over the mixture
Spread a little of the white sauce over the sausage
Repeat: 4 noodles, 1/3 butternut squash mixture, 1/3 sausage, a little white sauce
Repeat again: 4 noodles, remaining butternut squash, remaining sausage, remaining white sauce
Top with shredded mozzarella

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and turn on the broiler just until the cheese is totally melted and starting to brown.
Enjoy!

Notes: I would definitely go with the mild Italian sausage here. Hot would overpower the other ingredients. Also, regular lasagna noodles will work, but the whole grain gives it a slight nutty flavor that pairs really well with the butternut squash.

July 27, 2016

Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups

laura.smoak@gmail.com Freezer Friendly, Pasta, Prep Ahead 1 Comment

Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups, guys. Sausage. Lasagna. Roll-Ups.

Lasagna is the perfect homemade comfort food, but make it in a roll-up version and it’s just cute as a dang button.

I know what you’re probably thinking….

Wait. Wait. Waaaait. I thought I was reading Miss Foodie Two Shoes. Where is my quick, summer-friendly, spend your evenings at the pool meal?

These sausage lasagna roll-ups are actually two of those three things. Yes, you need a few minutes to put these roll-ups together, but 1) they can be made over the course of a day or two to split up the time, and 2) these are perfect for dinner on nights spent at the pool (though not necessarily for nights that you actually pack up and eat your dinner at the pool, if you know what I mean) because leftovers for days.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you will know I have a few requirements that generally need to be met when I commit to making a dish that takes longer than 2 seconds:

Can I freeze it?
Does it make a lot?
Does it work well for leftovers?
Can I prep it ahead of time and cook later?
Is it easy to double?
Would it be good to feed a crowd (think potluck or casual night with friends over)?
Would it be good to take to friends with new babies?

I don’t necessarily require that alllll of these conditions be met, but the first three and sort-of the fourth are of utmost importance (working mom probs). Lucky for us this dish passes with flying colors.

I have two friends with new babies (see last week’s post re: super mom that hosted Christmas in July with a three week old), and thought this would be perfect for them. A dish like this gives a new mom options. She can either cook it for dinner right away, or she can put it in the freezer and save for a few weeks down the road when the new baby meals have stopped coming.

These sausage lasagna roll-ups are loaded with (duh) sausage, peppers, onions, ricotta and basil, and are so good that you’ll want to assemble and stock your freezer for the {eventual} fall and winter that will be here soon enough. Hey! Look at it as a mental break from the scorching heat dome that is our current situation. (And – happy side note – we’re probably less than two months away from the return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, so just let that sink in for a minute.) Make it for your family, or make it for a friend. Either way you have a win/win situation on your hands. Enjoy!

P.S. Next week is beach week for the Peascoe/Smoak/Avent family, so there’s a good chance I will be totally unplugged and will probably have no recipe ready for you. That’s not definite, but just a heads up in case you get through next Wednesday and are stalking my FB page to see if I’ve posted anything because I just might not. Our meals at the beach are always totally on point, tho, so I’m sure I’ll come back with plenty of yumminess to share!

Ingredients:

15 lasagna noodles (the kind you have to boil first)
1 lb Italian sausage (I use mild for this)
1 small yellow onion – diced
1 green bell pepper – diced
¼ tsp oregano
1 ¼ cups ricotta cheese
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella (divided)
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 egg – beaten
10 basil leaves – chopped
2 cups marinara sauce

Directions:

Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with cold water then lay flat on wax or parchment paper to keep from sticking together.
Cook the sausage in a skillet over medium heat until done. Remove to a paper towel lined bowl and set aside. Drain all but one tablespoon of the sausage grease.
To the same skillet add the onion, bell pepper and oregano and sauté until soft – about 5-7 minutes.
In a bowl, combine ricotta, ½ cup mozzarella, ½ cup parmesan, the beaten egg and basil, and stir to combine.
Assembly:
1. Spray a 9×13 baking dish and add ½ cup marinara to the bottom. Spread so there is a thin layer of sauce covering the bottom.
2. Spread 2 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture onto each noodle, then top with one spoonful of sausage and one spoonful of the onion/pepper mixture.
3. Gently roll the lasagna, making sure to hold in the ingredients as much as possible.
4. Place each roll seam side down into the baking dish (you’ll have to kind of squish the last row in).
5. Once all rolls are made, cover with the remaining 1 ½ cups marinara sauce and 1 cup mozzarella cheese.
If baking immediately: heat oven to 350 degrees. Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 45 minutes, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes.
If freezing: cover tightly with foil then wrap in plastic wrap and place into a plastic freezer bag large enough to fit your dish. When ready to cook, heat oven to 400 degrees, remove plastic wrap and place directly in the oven for 1 hour and 40 minutes, or until heated through. Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of cook time.

Note: you can cook the sausage and pepper/onion mixture the day before, then just make the ricotta mixture while the noodles cook and assemble once they’re done.

Note 2: if you don’t like peppers and/or onions you can leave them out! This would also be delicious with some chopped mushrooms thrown into the veggie mix IMO.

Note 3: Andy and I both agree that mild sausage is best here. As a general rule of thumb we prefer spicy to not, so for us to say that you might want to trust us 😉

January 20, 2016

Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew

laura.smoak@gmail.com Chicken, Freezer Friendly, One Pot Dishes, Pasta, Soups and Stews 8 Comments

Winter has finally arrived in North Carolina…if you need me you can find me bundled up in a chunky sweater and fluffy socks and probably curled up under a big blanket. All that unless there is snow on the ground! People tend to laugh at the South for shutting down when it snows, but I actually love it. As a teacher, Andy is automatically in the group that gets to stay home, and sometimes my office will close or tell everyone to work from home if we’re able. We’ve only had one dusting this year, but snow’s in the forecast for Friday, and I’m really hoping it’s a good one. Last year Anna Ruth was just under a year old and we were dealing with ear infection after ear infection, so we didn’t take her outside much.

This year I have visions of sledding and building snowmen, then coming inside for hot chocolate and warming up by the fire. The reality, though, will be playing trying to get a perfect picture outside for 10 minutes before deciding AR is too cold, then trekking back in and getting snow and dirt all over our mudroom. Then no hot chocolate because this loser mom generally just can’t justify the amount of sugar, and also HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN MY KID HOPPED UP ON SUGAR?? <—I’m sure it’s like most almost two-year-olds, but I try to avoid it as much as possible. I know the day’s coming when she’ll know what sweets are, but for now she doesn’t and, therefore, doesn’t feel deprived by not having them.

One thing I can get behind on a cold, snowy day is this Soul Warming Chicken Pipette Stew. Yes, I just went there. It doesn’t even have to be a cold, snowy day. Below 80 degrees? I’ll have the soul warming stew, please. This is really somewhere in between a stew and a soup, but closer to stew, so that’s what I’m going with. This is so easy – especially when prepped ahead. A couple of variations – if I happen to have it I like to make it with homemade turkey stock and leftover turkey from Thanksgiving or Christmas. Also, *leaning forward, looking at you over the rim of my glasses* I cannot stress this enough – subbing tortellini with the pipette takes it completely over the top. I’ll use tortellini if I have it, but generally just use whatever little tube pasta I have on hand, which in this case is almost always pipette (Barilla brand). There’s just something so fancy sounding about making Chicken Pipette Stew, right? Any small tube pasta works, but then it can’t realllly be called Chicken Pipette Stew…it would be something like Chicken Elbow Macaroni Stew, which would be very sad. Ok, fiiiiine, you can still call it Chicken Pipette – I won’t tell. Anyways, back to the point, this is great for a crowd and freezes really well if there are leftovers. We generally get two dinners and two lunches out of the batch, but Andy eats a lot, so it may go even further for some families.

If you’re making this all at once, you’ll need to give yourself about an hour (though, more than half of that is just time to let it cook). Let’s talk about your prep ahead plan for a minute. When I plan this for a weeknight meal I always dice the veggies and shred the chicken on the Sunday afternoon before. I prepped this during the commercial breaks while watching the first quarter of the #Panthers game. Then the night of it’s simply softening the veggies, adding the other ingredients and stirring occasionally. If you’re making this all the night of, just dice the veggies first, then shred the chicken after you’ve added the broth. Feel free to add any other herbs or spices you like. I like to add a little crushed red pepper or hot sauce, but don’t add it until serving so that AR can eat it. Ok, now it’s your turn – run on to the store and make sure you have everything on hand, so you can have this ready to warm you back up after a long, cold day. Thanks for reading!

I’m looking for a reliable recipe calorie calculator, but when I put the ingredients into a free online counter it came out to roughly 380 calories per serving if you break this into 8 servings. One serving is perfect for me, but Andy generally goes for seconds.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
3 carrots – fine diced
4 stalks celery – fine diced
2 small shallots (or one medium onion) – fine diced
1 tsp Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic – minced
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 (24 oz) can crushed tomatoes (I use the kind with basil, garlic and oregano)
8 cups chicken broth or stock (or 6 cups broth and 2 cups water)
2 cups uncooked short tube pasta (I use Pipette from Barilla)
1 whole rotisserie chicken – skin removed and shredded off the bone (or 3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.
Add carrots, celery and shallots and cook until tender – about 5-7 minutes
Stir in Italian seasoning, bay leaf, garlic, crushed tomatoes and chicken broth. Reduce heat to just under medium, but not quite medium-low. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Bring mixture to a boil then add pasta and cook according to package directions.
Towards the end of the pasta’s cooking time, add the shredded chicken.
Serve hot garnished with parmesan and hot sauce if desired.
Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for three months.

January 13, 2016

5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti

laura.smoak@gmail.com Pasta, Quick and Easy Mains 15 Comments

As promised, I’m coming at you today with my first recipe for Miss Foodie Two Shoes! I’ve been going back and forth (and back and forth) for quite some time trying to decide what I should post first. To be honest, we make so many different things, and our favorites change all the time, so instead of coming with a “signature” dish, I’m sharing a staple we come back to time and time again. This dish is great for company, and it’s what I make to take to friends with new babies almost 99% of the time – and if you’ve received a meal from either my mom or sister, then this is probably what you got. It comes together so quickly. Like, literally, the sauce is done before the pasta water even comes to a boil, so then you find yourself annoyed that you have to actually wait for the pasta to cook and have to restrain yourself from eating the sauce with a spoon…No? Just me? I introduce to you 5 Ingredient Lemon Basil Spaghetti. First though – three major things I learned while creating this first recipe post:

I cannot do natural light photos in the afternoon at my house. I simply have to shoot on the weekends so I can use the light we get earlier in the day.
I’m really excited to learn how to use a natural light simulator for those times when natural-natural light isn’t an option.
I need (a LOT) more practice, and I hope to revisit this post in the future once I’ve improved my skills.

This picture doesn’t do it justice, so you’ll just have to trust me. You guys, this stuff is so easy to put together and it is SO good. It makes a ton, so I like to make it for dinner at the beginning of the week and eat on it for lunches and at least one more dinner. <—- That last part isn’t true. I always have full intentions of having it for another dinner, but I end up taking a few bites here and there until there’s definitely not enough for a meal, so it just makes sense to finish it as a snack. I need help. Seriously, though, this is one of those dishes that I eat straight out of the container with the fridge door open. It’s one of the few things that I can’t decide whether I like better hot or cold…and if you know me, you know I’m allllll about hot food.

You’re only working with five ingredients here (not including salt and pepper), so they have to be good. The key here is the tube of basil. I use the Gourmet Garden brand, and it is equal to three bunches of basil. I’m sure you could do this with fresh basil, but it would just take longer to prepare. Also important here is the lemon zest and juice. In a pinch you can use lemon juice from a bottle, but the zest plays a huge part in giving this that freshy fresh flavor we’re going for. Am I even allowed to say things like “freshy fresh” in my FIRST recipe post? I’m so annoyed at myself right now. Moving on…As with pretty much any pasta dish, you can use gluten free or whole grain pasta, or even any other shape, but y’all this really is best with plain white thin spaghetti noodles. Sorry, not sorry. We generally have this with grilled or panko breaded chicken breasts, but shrimp is also a really good addition to make it a main dish. This week I marinated three chicken breasts in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and dried basil and baked them in the oven. I’m making that stretch for this meal, two lunches and chicken phillies for dinner later in the week. So here we go – yay, first recipe! I’ll stop now, so you can go make this. Once you have that first freshy fresh bite, you won’t be able to stop – you’ve been warned…

Serves 8

Ingredients:

1 lb thin spaghetti
1 tube chopped basil (I use Gourmet Garden)
1/2 cup olive oil
3 lemons (zest and juice)
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions.
While spaghetti cooks, zest and juice the lemons into a medium bowl. Add the basil.
Whisk in the olive oil to emulsify the ingredients together.
Stir in the shredded parmesan and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Drain spaghetti noodles, reserving about ½ cup of the cooking liquid, and toss with the lemon basil mixture. I generally add about ¼ cup of the reserved water, but add as little or as much as you want for your desired consistency.
Serve hot or cold! Store leftovers in the fridge for up to a week.