Penne with Chickpeas, Tomato and Feta

Way back in the olden days, when I was young and crazy, I used to post to this blog everyday. CRAZY! Because my family couldn't eat decadent, rich dishes all the time, this blog saw a lot more everyday, healthy things.

So, as proof that we still enjoy a mostly clean eating lifestyle, I am posting an everyday dinner recipe. In life, I tend to follow the 90/10 rule. 90% of the time I eat healthfully and mind my portion sizes, and 10% of the time I eat what I want, in massive, astonishing quantities. Since about 10% of my total calorie intake comes from the stuff I eat 90% of the time 90% of my calorie intake come from the stuff I eat 10% of the time, I figure it all equals out to zero (or something like that). Maybe I should write a diet book... what do you think?

Anyway, here's a nice healthy dinner recipe, that lands squarely in the 90% - healthy eating category. Based on my math equation above, you are now entitled to finish this meal off with about a half a chocolate pecan pie topped with whipped cream and an irish coffee. Enjoy.

Whole Wheat Penne with Chickpeas, Tomatoes and Feta
adapted from Cooking Light Magazine, March 2010
Serves 4 (with leftovers if two are finicky children)

8oz whole wheat penne
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cups halved cherry tomatoes
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 yellow bell pepper, julienned
1 (15oz) can chickpeas
3oz feta, crumbled
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook and drain pasta. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid.

2. In a large skillet, saute onions and garlic until translucent. Add peppers and chickpeas, saute another minute or so. Add in tomatoes and continue cooking for two more minutes.

3. Stir in the cooked pasta and reserved cooking liquid. Continue to cook until everything is heated through.

4. Remove from heat and toss with lemon zest, feta, basil and season with salt and pepper.

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes and White Beans

No, your computer monitor is not on the fritz!! I am actually posting TWO DAYS IN A ROW!

I just had something else to post, and I figured I'd better get it up now, before I forget.

About a month ago, I suggested to my husband Mario that we start having one meatless dinner per week. He was a little reluctant, but as long as I promised not to feed him anything strange (by his definition strange would include tofu), I managed to convince him that this was a good idea (or at least not a horrible idea)...

So, I'm working hard to show him how good meatless meals can be, and I think this dish went a LONG WAY towards that. It was delicious, and he went back for a second huge helping!

This recipe is from Ellie Krieger, and I got it from the Quick and Fresh, Fine Cooking Magazine. I remained true to the recipe, only I cut down the olive oil from 3 tbsps to 2 tbsps.

Penne with Roasted Tomatoes, Garlic, and White Beans

3 large ripe tomatoes (2 pounds)
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 15.5 ounce can of white kidney beans, drained and rinsed.
8 ounces of penne pasta
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1. Slice each tomato into wedges and discard the seeds (I forgot to seed mine, and it made my sauce a little juicier, which was OK). Toss the tomatoes in 1 tbsp of the olive oil and spread on a baking sheet.

2. Throw the unpeeled garlic cloves on the baking sheet too.

3. Roast at 450F for about 35-40 minutes until the tomatoes are starting to char.

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook the penne. When the penne is about 1 minute from cooked throw in the drained and rinsed beans (to get them hot).

5. Drain the pasta and beans and return to the pot.

6. For the sauce, remove the garlic from the baking sheet and squeeze the flesh out into a small bowl. Mash it, and add the lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and a dash of salt. Stir to combine.

7. Add tomatoes to beans and pasta. Add the roasted garlic sauce and the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

8. Serve with Parmesan.

Tomato Cream Penne with Artichokes and Chorizo

I apologize, everyone must be getting so bored with seeing this same soup bowl over and over again. I'll have to start trying to be more creative with my photo staging.

Years ago when Mario and I were in University, we had a standing date night every Wednesday with another couple at a local Italian restaurant. This restaurant, which is now closed, had half price night on Wednesdays. The four of us would order 1 medium pizza with Italian Sausage, Tomatoes and Onion and have a slice each for an appetizer, and then we would each have a main course. Mario and I usually ordered the same thing (a testament to how good this meal was, because normally Mario won't order the same thing as me). We loved a dish called "Tortellini Hayden", it had bacon, artichoke hearts, onion, and tortellini in a tomato cream sauce. It was so good and it came with a nice hunk of baguette toasted with garlic butter (all this for around 10$ a person).

I have made numerous attempts over the years to re-create "Tortellini Hayden", sometimes more successfully than others, but I have never recorded exactly what I did, so each time I have to start from scratch figuring it all out.

This dish isn't exactly the same, it has chorizo along with the bacon and penne instead of tortellini, but overall it was inspired by the original "Tortellini Hayden" and if anything, the chorizo was an improvement.

This time, I wrote it down...

Tomato Cream Penne with Artichoke and Chorizo

1 can artichoke hearts (quartered)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 cup chopped chorizo sausage
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp each basil and thyme
ground black pepper to taste
1/2 lb dry penne
2 cups strained tomatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
Freshly grated Parmesan

1. Saute bacon and drain fat, reserving about 1 tsp of the drippings.

2. Return bacon and tsp of dripping to pan and add chorizo, garlic and onion. Saute until onion is soft.

3. Put penne on to boil.

4. Add artichokes, tomato sauce and spices and allow everything to simmer while pasta cooks.

5. Drain pasta and add to sauce along with cream. Stir until cream is incorporated and heated through.

6. Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan and serve.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I was inspired to make this dinner after watching an episode of Everyday Italian on the Food Network last week. Giada made a lovely looking Linguini Carbonara with a fried egg on top. I loved the idea of the egg, but I think I made too many other changes to the recipe, to really claim that this is her recipe. Giada's version had fresh basil and asparagus. Mine has bacon and oregano.

Everyone loved this dinner, even the kids. I do have a "lighter" version of Spaghetti Carbonara that I have been making for years. It uses a can of 2% evaporated milk for the sauce (I will post that one sometime). The "light version" is very good, but frankly, this one just blows it away.

But, if you are counting your calories, or watching your fat intake.... CLOSE YOUR BROWSER NOW and run! Run very very fast ... all the way to your treadmill. Then hop on and run some more (about 3 hours should do it). Only then can you come back and make this dinner.


Spaghetti Carbonara

Garlic Aioli:
2 egg yolks
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup canola oil
salt and pepper to taste

12 oz spaghetti
4 eggs
2 tbsp butter
8 slices bacon
Parmesan cheese

1. Prepare Aioli. In a food processor, or with a hand blender. Add in the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, and oregano. If using a food processor turn it on, and add oils - canola first - in a slow stream. If using a hand blender, you can add the oils all at once, and then blend them up. Season and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, cook the bacon slices and boil pasta in salted water.

3. Fry the eggs, sunny side up in 2 tbsp of butter. Season with salt and pepper.

4. To assemble, toss cooked pasta in aioli (just enough to coat the pasta - I only used half). Arrange pasta on plates, top with 2 slices of bacon, a fried egg and some shaved parmesan. Make sure you serve this with a salad, because this recipe is a little light on veggies!

Creamy Gorgonzola Spaghetti with Toasted Walnuts

I have always had a small weakness for anything in a cream sauce. I know it's bad of me, and I have always been a little jealous of Mario who actually PREFERS tomato based sauces. We will be out for dinner in a fancy restaurant, and I will scour the menu trying to guess which meals might be lower in calories. Finally, I resign myself (with difficulty) to ordering some sort of pasta in tomato sauce or grilled chicken. Then the waiter stops at our table, and out of my mouth, totally involuntarily, comes.... "I'll have the tortellini with bacon and sausage in the brie cream sauce, please... oh and could I have side order of lard with that?".

The waiter leaves, and Mario is just looking at me with one eyebrow raised (he knows WAY better than to speak at this point)... "WHAT???".... then the guilt starts to set in, "Oh, I should have ordered the grilled chicken".... Mario offers to call the waiter back.... "no no, that's OK".

Here is one of my favorite at home versions.


Creamy Gorgonzola Spaghetti with Toasted Walnuts
serves 4

12 oz spaghetti
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 4 ounces)
1/2 cup chives
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
Parmesan cheese

1. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water.

2. Meanwhile, melt butter in non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add flour and whisk for one minute.

3. Gradually whisk in whipping cream, white wine and chicken broth. Boil and stir until mixture is thick.

4. Add crumbled Gorgonzola and whisk until cheese is melted and smooth.

5. Drain spaghetti and mix into sauce. Stir in walnuts and chives (reserve a little of each to sprinkle on top).

6. Place in a large serving bowl and top with Parmesan cheese.

Pumpkin Tortellini with Brown Butter Sauce

In order to say thank you to my site sponsor, E-meals for You, for maintaining their very lonely and solitary spot over on my sidebar, I thought it would be nice to cook up another one of their recipes and post about it. You can see the last recipe that I posted from their site, right here.

Well. WOW. That about sums up this recipe. I fell in love with this. It is a great combination of fall flavours and I think this would be a great meal to serve for guests. You can make it a little in advance and just lay a damp tea towel over the tortellini so they don't dry out. Then just plop them into a pot of boiling water when you are ready to eat.

Claire and Marco loved this. Well, Marco picked out the hazelnuts, and Claire picked out the figs, but in the grand scheme of things that's nothing! They ate the tortellini stuffed with the pumpkin and goat cheese! The filling inside the tortellini was very good. It made the whole house smell wonderful while I was cooking it, and I have to admit I had more filling than I had wonton wrappers, but that's NOT a complaint, I just grabbed a spoon... voila, problem solved!


Pumpkin Tortellini
from E-meals for You

3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 15oz can pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp thyme, dried
1/2 tbsp sage, fresh
1/2 tsp nutmeg
8 oz goat cheese, room temperature
1 packet wonton wrappers

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are soft.

2. Add pumpkin, salt, pepper, thyme, nutmeg and sage. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Remove from heat, stir in goat cheese and blend until combined.

4. Cut wonton wrappers into 2" squares. Place 1 tsp of filling in the center of each square. Dampen edges and fold into a triangle. Pinch edges to secure. Pinch the two ends together to form a tortellini.

5. Cook in boiling, salted water for 4-5 minutes, until tortellini float.

Brown Butter Sauce with Figs and Toasted Hazelnuts
from E-meals for You

14 tbsp butter
2 tbsp fresh sage, chopped
1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup dried figs, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/3 cup romano cheese
2 tbsp honey

1. Melt butter in small non-stick pan. Add sage, hazelnuts, figs, salt and pepper.

2. Cook until butter turns light brown. Remove from heat and serve over pasta.

***WARNING*** CONTINUE READING ONLY IF YOU THINK YOU MAY BE INSANE

For those of you that would like to make your own wonton wrappers, as I did, here's how:

Wonton Wrappers

1 egg
1/3 cup water
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

1. In a medium bowl, beat the egg. Mix in the water.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Slowly add egg and water, mix well.

3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough until elastic. Cover dough and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

4. Divide dough into four balls and roll out, very thin (about 1/16"). Cut into small squares.

5. Use in any recipe that calls for wonton wrappers.

Lemony Scallop and Spinach Pasta

This is what we had for dinner last night. On Monday nights Mario and I play Dodgeball, so I needed a nice quick dinner. The kids complained because usually when Mario and I are going out and there's a babysitter coming, it means chicken nuggets or kraft dinner for them (and they love that!). However, since we had time to eat before our game, I wanted to have a proper dinner.

This was so quick. In the amount of time it took the spaghetti to boil, I was able to prepare everything else, and then just toss it all together in a big bowl. Claire and Marco weren't too keen on the scallops, but they ate everything else.

I got this recipe from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, "The New Dieter's Cookbook" from Better Homes and Gardens. The recipes in this book are low in calories without sacrificing flavour AND (this is the important part....) without having serving sizes that wouldn't be enough to satisfy a 2 year old. You know when you make a recipe from a diet cookbook and you think its gonna be great, then you realize that the nutritional information is based on 8 servings, but the recipe only makes enough to realistically serve 2? Well that won't happen with this book. The Lemony Scallops served 4 with 358 calories and 8 grams of fat per serving, and I only ate about a sixth of the recipe.

I have never made a recipe from this book that I didn't love! Here are some of the others that I've already posted:

Stuffed Peppers
Dark Chocolate Souffles
Pork Chops Stuffed with Barley and Apricot
Orange Crusted Snapper
Chicken Breasts with Dumplings
Saffron Chicken with Peppers

Lemony Scallop and Spinach Pasta

1 lb fresh or frozen scallops
8 oz dried spaghetti
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cups fresh baby spinach
1 cup coarsely grated carrot

1. Rinse scallops and dry with paper towel (if large cut in half).

2. Boil pasta, drain and cover to keep warm.

3. Saute scallops in butter with garlic, lemon zest and red pepper flakes over medium heat until cooked through (about 3 minutes).

4. Add lemon juice, spinach leaves, grated carrot and pasta. Toss to coat.

Pasta

This is a recipe that my Mom has been making for as long as I can remember. Growing up in our house this meal was simply known as "Pasta". We'd come home from school and throw our bags and our coats on the floor and yell out, "Mom. What's for dinner?", and when my Mom replied, "pasta" we knew that this was what she meant. It could never mean something else. Macaroni and Cheese was one thing, Spaghetti was another, but pasta was always THIS.

I still remember the first time, years ago, that I made this for Mario. I told him, "Honey, you are going to LOVE this meal!". He replies, "Great, what is it?"...."Pasta!" He kept looking at me, eyebrows raised with expectation.... finally he asks, "so...what's in it?"

Duh! Pasta! Geesh, it's really a fortunate thing for Mario that he found me, I brought a little sophistication into his life (he grew up on a farm, you know).

Oh, and last night at dinner, 4 year old Marco declares: "Mommy, this is the best Pasta in the whole wide world"... See? he gets it.


Pasta

1 lb lean ground beef
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 tsp oregano
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 5.5oz can tomato paste
2 cups water
2 cups small pasta shells
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups mozarella cheese, grated

1. In a large pot, brown beef and drain fat. Stir in onion soup mix.

2. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, and water. Bring to boil. Stir in pasta and let simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

3. Stir in Parmesan cheese and pour everything into a 9"x13" dish.

4. Top with Mozarella and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Gnocchi with Meat Sauce

So... what do you get when you assign 9 men the task of whipping up a fabulous dinner for 18 people? You get a fabulous dinner.... and a very very messy kitchen!

We had 18 people for dinner and a party on the weekend and to make things fun, we had the men do ALL the cooking. They had to pick the recipes, bring the ingredients and do all the preparation at my house (without any help from the girls).

The primary objective of this exercise was to allow us girls to stand off to the side with our drinks and laugh at their ineptitude. But unfortunately they all turned out to be modern men who know their way around a kitchen, and aside from a "plastic wrap injury", there are really no major casualties, and no major flops to report.

It was a great party, although I am not sure my neighbours would agree. One of the guys who shall remain nameless (it was Roger) kicked a soccer ball and hit their window. They moved in just a few days ago, way to make a great first impression, huh?

I will be posting everyone's photos and recipes (in no particular order) over the next week or so. I am going to start with Roger's Gnocchi recipe, because I think he was most excited to see his recipe in print. Roger did everything by "feel" and didn't really have amounts to give me, so I watched him fairly closely and made the gnocchi again myself a few nights later so that I could measure the amounts (and use up all the extra sauce).

The sauce was prepared by Mario (yes my Mario - just because I don't normally let him near the kitchen, doesn't mean he can't cook!!)

Gnocchi
made by Roger (Ladies... he is single, and he cooks!)


6 medium size russet potatoes (about 750g)
1 egg
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp butter
2-3 handfuls of flour (I used just a little over 1 cup)

1. Boil the potatoes in the skin until soft, but not falling apart.

2. While still warm, peel the skin off the potatoes.


3. Mash the potatoes (preferable with a potato ricer). No lumps please.


4. Add egg and butter. Begin adding flour, a handful at a time until the mixture forms a soft dough that can be worked, but is not sticky.


5. Divide into 4 smaller balls and roll out on a floured surface into a 1" diameter log. Cut into 1" sections (these will look like little pillows). Cover with a tea towel and let sit.


(Don't let those doughy hands keep you from your beer!)

6. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and add salt. Drop gnocchi in batches into the water. Cook until they float (about 2-3 minutes). Scoop out and add next batch. Serve warm with meat sauce (recipe to follow).

Meat Sauce
made by Mario (not single, so don't even think about it!)


1 1/2 lbs ground beef
6 oz pancetta, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 large stalk celery, diced
1 1/2 cup dry red wine
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 cups (approx) beef broth
salt and pepper to taste

1. Saute Pancetta with onions, carrots, and celery. When the onions are almost cooked, add the beef. Cook until beef is no longer pink.

2. Add the wine and simmer until mostly reduced. Add the tomatoes and about half of the beef broth.

3. Simmer for about 2 hours, adding more broth if the sauce is starting to dry out. Salt and pepper to taste.

Orzo with Shrimp

Following the very challenging Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart recipe I posted yesterday, I though I would be kind and post a very simple "un-screw-up-able" recipe for Orzo with Shrimp.

I have this bad habit, I surf around on the internet looking at blogs and recipe sites, and when I see something I like, or a new idea strikes me I create an e-mail in my g-mail account and save it as a draft. I looked in there yesterday and there were 97 drafts. Some of them were notes to friends I had started and not finished, but about 80 were recipes or new ideas for recipes. I started to sort through them and clean them out. I noticed this one and I had everything at home that I needed to make it.

Mario and I loved this, but neither Claire or Marco were fussy about it. Claire wanted me to "mash" the tomatoes so they would be more like spaghetti sauce. I also made the mistake of serving this with a large slice of garlic bread, which was just enough to take the edge of their hunger, so they wouldn't eat their pasta.


Orzo with Shrimp

1 cup uncooked orzo
2 cups diced tomato
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions
1 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3/4 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1. Toss the raw shrimp in 2 tsp olive oil and the clove of garlic. Let sit.

2. Boil the orzo for 5 minutes, drain.

3. In a large bowl mix orzo, diced tomatoes, green onion, lemon rind, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, chopped fresh basil and salt and pepper.

4. Place mixture in a greased shallow baking dish. Cover and bake for 25 minutes at 425F.

5. Just before ready to serve, saute shrimp over medium-high heat (no need to add more oil, the 2 tsp the shrimp have been sitting in is enough). For about 2 minutes until cooked. Serve over pasta.

Penne with Mascarpone and Walnuts

I had a really nice weekend. Mario and I were invited to a dinner party Saturday night, so I got to eat a fabulous meal (prepared by somebody else - YAY). On Sunday, I got to meet a fellow food blogger from Ottawa. I got together with Quellia from All Things Edible for a coffee and a nice chat. It was really nice to hang out with somebody who understands this weird food blogging obsession of mine!

I actually didn't end up doing that much cooking this weekend, so I had to go back to last week to find something to post this morning. This was our dinner Thursday night, and you don't hear me say this too often.... the kids loved it. This was the first time we had these Barese sausages, we really enjoyed the flavour and the kids were drawn to the spiral shape. There is absolutely no recipe to go along with the sausages, we just grilled them on the barbecue.

The sidedish, however, was a nice creamy pasta that I made because I needed to use up the rest of the tub of Mascarpone that I bought to make the Mascarpone, Fig and Proscuitto Bruschetta. The pasta was delicious.


Penne with Mascarpone and Walnuts
adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Website

6 oz dry whole wheat penne
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 tbsp butter
4 oz marsarpone cheese (you could also use cream cheese)
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
freshly grated pepper

1. While the penne is boiling, heat the butter in a saucepan and cook green onions for about a minute.

2. Add cheese and stir until melted. Stir in Parmesan and walnuts.

3. Drain pasta and toss with sauce. Season with freshly ground pepper.

Penne with Grilled Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Mint

I've been cooking up a healthy, nutritious storm ever since I got home from my camping trip. I think I just ate one more roasted marshmallow than my metabolism (or even the metabolism of a marathon runner) could reasonably handle. So prepare yourselves for a bit of a calorie slow-down on Janet is Hungry (don't worry though, it never lasts long).

This was what I made for dinner on Sunday night when we got home from camping. It has no meat. I seldom make dinner with no meat, because Mario is a real "meat and potatoes" sort of guy. But he really liked this. The recipe made so much that he was able to take it for lunch on Monday and Tuesday. He ate it cold for lunch, and said it was just as good cold as it was hot.

I found this recipe in the August 2007 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I made some changes (as usual). The original recipe called for zucchini, but my regular grocery store had sold out and I really didn't feel like traipsing all over the city for zucchini. I also used goat cheese instead of Ricotta Salata which is a firmer salty Ricotta that I would have probably had to get at a specialty store.

I served the pasta with garlic and olive oil bruschetta and a salad with fresh peaches.


Penne with Grilled Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Mint

1 large eggplant
olive oil, for brushing
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced
2 pinches dried red pepper flakes
1 pound penne
3 tbsp olive oil
3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese (about 3oz)

1. Slice eggplant in 1/2" slices and brush lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with coarse salt and pepper.

2. Put the pasta on to boil.

3. While the pasta is cooking, grill eggplant on BBQ for about 5 minutes per side, until browned.

4. In a large bowl add balsamic vinegar, olive oil, red pepper flakes and fresh mint.

5. When the eggplant comes off the BBQ, cut it up into bite size chunks and add to bowl. Add pasta to bowl and toss. Toss in the crumbled cheese (save a few pieces to sprinkle on top).

Chicken Orzo

I bought a package of Orzo for the first time a couple of months ago, and I've had my eyes peeled for a good Orzo recipe ever since.

I was still scouting out recipes when on Saturday, the package of Orzo fell out of my pantry cupboard and landed on Marco's Tonka truck, splitting open. I have a wall of pantry cupboards in my kitchen that go right to the ceiling, and in general when you need to get something out of them you have to employ a very quick-handed and highly skilled "open-grab-close" technique.

Needless to say, following a successful Orzo salvage operation, I decided it was time to try a new recipe.

I pretty much improvised this entire meal, and made things up as I went. I was very pleased with the results, and I will definitely make Orzo again. Although, it took me 5 minutes at the dinner table to convince Claire that it wasn't rice. She thought I was trying to trick her into taking a bite (not that I wouldn't do that).

I also really really wanted to add a tablespoon or so of chopped up capers to this recipe, but I turned my fridge upside down and couldn't find any.... don't ask me who ate all the capers. I'm sure I had a bottle. "The Missing Caper Caper"...yeah - sorry that wasn't very funny was it?

Chicken Orzo

1 cup orzo
2 tsp olive oil
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
2 oz proscuitto
1 chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup white wine
1 can (28oz) diced tomatoes
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup mozzarella
1/4 cup Parmesan

1. Cook Orzo in boiling water for 7-9 minutes. Drain. (HOT TIP: MAKE SURE THE HOLES OF YOUR REGULAR COLANDER AREN'T TOO BIG OR YOU WILL POUR ALL YOUR ORZO DOWN THE SINK AND YOU WILL HAVE TO COOK MORE... not that happened to me, or anything...)

2. Chop raw chicken into bite sized cubes (this is really easy to do, if your chicken it still a little frozen). Heat olive oil and saute chicken, onion, and garlic. Once chicken is almost cooked, add proscuitto and cook a few minutes more.

3. Drain tomatoes, reserving about 1/2 cup of the juice. Add tomatoes, 1/2 cup juice, wine, and herbs.

4. Simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in Orzo and Mozzarella cheese.

5. Dump all out into a big pasta serving bowl and sprinkle with Parmesan.

Italian Sausage with Whole Wheat Penne

I hate to admit this, but sometimes in the winter we make this meal once a week! And since we can't go the entire summer without having it at least a few times, I save it for rainy days. It is just so good and so easy to make. You don't even have to remember to take the sausages out of the freezer in the morning because they slice easier when they are mostly frozen. You can add whatever vegetables you like - we usually stick with mushrooms, onion, green pepper. When I have them, I love to add canned artichoke hearts. The general rule to follow is about equal parts meat and veggies.

Italian Sausage with Whole Wheat Penne

1 package hot Italian sausages (5-6 sausages)
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
freshly ground pepper
2 cups whole wheat penne
freshly grated Parmesan

1. Slice Italian sausages into 1/4" slices. Brown in a skillet and drain fat.

2. Add green pepper, onion and mushroom. Sauté until cooked.

3. Add canned tomatoes and freshly ground pepper. If you are using spicy Italian sausages I fund that no other seasoning is necessary, but if you prefer mild you may want to add a tsp of some Italian seasoning (oregano, basil etc).

4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta. Continue to simmer sausage mixture while pasta cooks.

5. Here is where you have a choice: you can serve the sausage mixture OVER the pasta, or mix it all together in the skillet (always prefer the later). Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan and serve with salad.