Recipe: Pasta E Fagioli

Ready to eat!

Total Time: 45 minutes, only about 15 minutes prep time!

Difficulty: easy

Husband Says: “It’s good for the most part, instead of sausage balls, I’d perfer it to be more spread out, like ground meat.”

Notes:I pretty much followed this recipe, except for Fennel seed, I didn’t have them, I can’t remember if I was too cheap to buy them, or couldn’t find them. Also, I used bacon instead of pancetta, they are like “cousins”. However, that being said, I think I would add a can of diced tomatoes, if you like tomato flavor. I served this up with some frozen garlic bread sticks  and a Cesar salad! TIP: Make sure you deglaze the pan, meaning, pour in a little chicken broth and with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan. This adds flavor and will be helpful when cleaning time rolls around! Also make this in a heavy bottom pot, like a cast iron pot, I love my Le Creuset deep roasting pot, it’s perfect for soups! (Plus it reminds me of my grandmother, she did buy it for me, but she also makes the most amazing roast and carrots for Sunday lunch in hers!)

Ingredients

just add pasta!

As you’ll notice, I pretty much took this recipe and ran, ran real far with it. I forgot ricotta cheese…oh-no! Well have no fear, the changes I made with this are probably better for you then the ricotta anyway! Also, as I previously stated, I didn’t use wheat pasta, we tried it, we’re not fans, maybe I’ll try it again, but not tonight! Rachael Ray may not always cook the healthiest food, and I”m not knocking on her, cause I love all the pasta and the cheese I can get! If you’ve seen me you know, I love my carbs, everything that’s bad for you, so this recipe is perfect for sneaking in some unknown veggies! Wait and see you’re going to love it!

Recipe: Harvest Vegetable Pasta

Ready to eat!

Cookbook: YUM-O!

Total Time: 25 minutes

Difficulty: easy

Husband Says: “It was good, I’d like tomatoes over the bell peppers, a better mix. I would’ve liked it better with squash, but it was good.”

Notes:Well not only did I not have ricotta cheese, but the store was all out of squash, I’m sure that’s going out of season. So this is what I came up with. I roasted the onion, zucchini, and red pepper in the oven. In the food processor, I mixed dried basil, a garlic clove, parsley, and…BABY SPINACH, with some olive oil. I love love love pesto! This was a perfect Spinach pesto, that’s the secret veggie, the spinach! It’s a perfect way to get your kids to eat it and they won’t even know it. I added in some Parmesan cheese at the end and mixed all the pasta, pesto, and veggies together, it was amazing! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did.

IngredientsVeggies

Pesto Makings

secret veggies

finished pesto