I recently received a nice email from Deiss Kitchenware, a German-based company that makes some snazzy kitchen products. They were kind enough to send me their Citrus Zester and Cheese Grater. I knew I had to make a dish that let me zest and grate my little heart out to try their product, like this recipe for Linguine with Lemon Sauce!
This recipe for Linguine with Lemon Sauce is so simple, and uses mostly ingredients you probably already have on hand. (What? I’m the only person with some Parmigiano Reggiano on hand at all times?)
Ingredients:
4tablespoons (1/2 stick) salted butter
the zest of 1 lemon
1 (16 oz ) box dried linguine
1/2 cup heavy cream
the juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, plus extra cheese to serve on the side
This time of year delivers some pret-ty great produce. All of the green veggies are in season! This recipe from Cooking Light for Spring Vegetable Penne with Lemon Cream Sauce makes the most of some spring vegetables, asparagus and peas.
The pasta recipe is a “two pot meal” so it comes together pretty quickly without giving you too make dishes afterwards!
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 Vidalia or other sweet onion, chopped
1 (10-ounce) package presliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons shaved Parmesan cheese, divided
I had a sad surprise this weekend. I opened my freezer to grab a quart of tomato sauce only to find I was all out!
Time to make another batch of sauce, so I decided to make Homemade Marinara Sauce!
This time around, I have a nifty new tool to help make my marinara sauce: OXO’s new Illuminating Digital Immersion Blender.
The immersion blender has six digital controls so you can pick the perfect speed for whatever it is you need blended. Just turn the dial at the top of the immersion blender to adjust the speed; a backlit LED indicator clearly shows your speed selection.
To start blending, you just press down on the wide, soft-touch power button located on the top half of the blender. The handle is nonslip, even when hands are wet.
source: oxo.com
The head is made of nylon, which won’t scratch your bowls or cookware while it blends.
source: oxo.com
A really nifty spec is the soft-glow LED headlight that illuminates the pot while you blend, which is super helpful when making a large batch of soup or sauce in a tall pot. A softer version of the light remains on the entire time the blender is plugged in for safety.
The immersion blender comes with a measuring beaker with a silicone lid that holds up to 3 cups. You can blend right in the beaker, then top with the lid to store whatever you don’t use immediately.
When finished using the blender, the cord wraps securely around the blender body for tidy, compact storage, great for my small kitchen!
source: oxo.com
The blender is a super helpful tool when making soups, dips, smoothies, and sauces. I used it to make a smooth marinara sauce made with canned whole plum tomatoes and sauteed carrots, celery and onions.
Shakshuka (or shakshouka) is an Israeli breakfast dish of eggs poached in a chunky tomato sauce with spices. It’s a favorite of mine, and easily works as a “breakfast for dinner” option for a busy weeknight.
This recipe can be easily customized to suit your tastes. My version below, adapted from a Cooking Light recipe, has a bit of a Middle Eastern take to it, but could also be made more Mediterranean by adding in olives and fresh basil.
Shakshuka is awesome on it’s own, but is even better with pita or crusty bread, or spooned over rice to soak up the flavors of the dish.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red bell pepper cut into thin strips
1 green bell pepper cut into thin strips
1 yellow or orange bell pepper cut into thin strips
1 red onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper, to taste
1 (29 oz can) tomato puree
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
a few drops hot sauce, or to taste
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese (omit to make dairy free)
2 cups prepared white rice (optional)
pita or crusty bread for dipping (optional)
(note: this recipe is gluten free if served with rice rather than bread)
Late August delivers some of the best produce! I’ve been using a lot of zucchini and yellow squash lately because it’s so darn plentiful right now.
This recipe is adapted from Cooking Light and makes the most of summer squash. I added some lemon juice to the dish to brighten it up a bit, but in general kept the recipe in tact.
Ingredients:
1 medium zucchini (about 8 ounces)
1 medium yellow summer squash (about 8 ounces)
8 ounces uncooked fettuccine (I used spinach fettuccine)
It’s probably no secret that I love pasta. My fiance and I eat it every Sunday night. But its so darn hot in Philadelphia right now and I’ve been craving something a bit less heavy to eat.
OXO must have known my pasta-loving dilemma because they sent me their new Hand-Held Spiralizer, which turns veggies into long thin spaghetti-like strands in no time!
Zucchini noodles (or “zoodles”) seem to be all the rage at the moment, so I was excited to try them out myself!
The OXO Hand-Held Spiralizer creates curly noodles from long vegetables like zucchini, carrots, and cucumbers, while it’s open blade design accommodates round vegetables like beets, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The food holder keeps hands safe from the blade and the easy non-slip grip container makes it simple to turn the Spiralizer. It is also BPA-free and dishwasher safe.
For this recipe, I decided to make a tomato sauce out of the fresh tomatoes I had in my house, so this recipe for Zucchini Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce is a very summery meal!
Note: I was sent an OXO Hand-Help Spiralizer to try for this post. Opinions are my own.
Whew. I am having a crazy busy month, so unfortunately my cooking is suffering. I can never have too many weeknight meal options (ie. meals that can be on the table in 30 minutes or less) at my disposal, so here’s another quick and easy dinner that comes together quickly- Smoked Sausage with Rigatoni! I tend to usually make chicken or seafood recipes, so I am finally doing a quick beef recipe!
This recipe for Smoked Sausage with Rigatoni uses Hillshire Farm’s Beef Smoked Sausage to add some yummy flavor to a quick fire roasted chunky tomato sauce. It’s a great alternative to chicken to snazz up a midweek meal.
The beef sausage cooks up in no time. Using the same pan to cook the sausage and to make the sauce gives the sauce a subtle smoky flavor that’s so tasty!
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz) box rigatoni, cooked according to package directions
1 package Hillshire Farms Beef Smoked Sausage, cut into slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped (~1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil leaves
2 (14.5 oz) cans Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
salt and pepper, to taste
grated Parmesan cheese, optional
#spon: I’m required to disclose a relationship between our site and Hillshire. This could include Hillshire providing us w/content, product, access or other forms of payment.Continue reading Smoked Sausage with Rigatoni
I have recently started using Cooking Light’s new diet plan. Subscribers receive a calorie-driven weekly meal plan for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks customized for their dieting goals and food preferences curated by the editors of CookingLight. It allows you to substitute in other options if you aren’t digging the ones selected, and even has the option to list “Dining Out” or “Leftovers” if you have a non-cooking meal.
So far, I’ve been really impressed with the selection of recipes and how tasty they are. The recipes also take into account time constraints, so they aren’t like 2 hour recipes on a week day (very much appreciated!) If you want to try the Cooking Light Diet Plan along with me, use the code DIETSAVE20 to receive a special discount!
I wanted to begin sharing some of the recipes I have been sent to give you an idea of what options are offered. This recipe for Crab Cakes with Spicy Mustard Sauce was an awesome weeknight meal. It comes together in under 30 minutes and is super satisfying. (I am a huge fan of quick weeknight dinners; in fact, I have a whole section of “weeknight meals” on my blog.)
Ingredients:
1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 green onions, chopped
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), divided
1 pound lump crabmeat, drained and shell pieces removed
I absolutely love cranberry sauce. This not-too-tart and not-too-sweet Thanksgiving staple is always a favorite of mine.
Now I don’t turn my nose up at the canned stuff, but this homemade version for Cherry Port Cranberry Sauce is a really simple alternative. It’s also a bit of a chunky sauce instead of the smooth canned version, so it has a really nice texture to it. Plus, it can be made in 20 minutes!
If you don’t want to use port in the recipe, you can substitute in pomegranate juice.
The September Issue of Cooking Light has a super yummy looking pizza on the front. The pizza shown was a Deep Dish Mushroom and Onion Pizza but the photo made me think of pan pizzas I used to love as a kid.
So I decided to try to make my own in my cast iron pan (paid link) but give it a more “grown up” twist by making a Margherita Pan Pizza.
The result was a nice thick and chewy crust with the perfect amount of tangy tomato sauce, creamy melted mozzarella, and fresh basil!
Almost every Sunday night, my boyfriend and I have pasta for dinner. We typically just have spaghetti or rigatoni with meat sauce. I make the sauce in huge batches and freeze it for later use. Last weekend, I didn’t realize we had used up the last of our sauce until Sunday afternoon! So we needed a quick pasta recipe that we could use instead. (Don’t worry, I made more sauce this weekend so we are safe for the next few weeks!)
This recipe from Food and Wine uses sun-dried tomatoes to make a quick and simple no-cook sauce. The meal was done in under 30 minutes!
Summer months are just meant for barbecue. And not just barbecued foods on the grill; your slow cooker can make some mean pulled pork for you as well! This recipe for Pulled Pork with Bourbon Peach Barbecue Sauce is perfect for a crowd and is great on a kaiser bun with some coleslaw!
I found this recipe in my Cooking Light magazine, made it over the weekend, and enjoyed it during the week for a quick meal to assemble. I also froze half of the pork to bring to the beach for my extended family to enjoy and it held up great! I changed the recipe a bit because I ended up with a 5.5 pound pork shoulder so I altered the amounts to compensate for that.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika
I was feeling a little fancy this week so I decided to challenge myself with a protein I rarely use: duck! I’ve actually only worked with duck twice (Duck Breasts with Cider Farro Risotto and Grilled Duck with Warm Mushroom Salad and Truffle Vinaigrette), but I tend to order it at restaurants quite a bit. I am also on a berry kick at the moment (if you missed it, go check out the Blueberry Coffeecake I posted recently!) so I was really excited to try this Cooking Light recipe for Duck Breasts with Blackberry-Port Sauce. I served mine with some sauteed green beans but Cooking Light also suggests serving the duck over a bed of lettuce. Ingredients:
I was intrigued; I’ve never thought to use beets as a sauce for pasta!
What’s great about this recipe for Gemelli with Brown Butter Beet Sauce and Herbed Citrus Ricotta is that it doesn’t take that much time to make! Beets are typically roasted for 45ish minutes in the oven, but this recipe grates the beets before sauteing to cut down on their cooking time.
I changed the method a bit but the general idea is still there. The result is a beautiful brightly colored pasta with great flavor. It reheats wonderfully as well!
Ingredients:
3 beets, peeled and finely grated in a food processor
1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta
1/4 teaspoon finely grated orange zest, more to taste, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage, plus more for garnish
1 teaspoon kosher salt, more as needed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, more as needed
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 16 oz box gemelli (or other pasta of your choice)
Cooking for your Valentine on February 14th and looking for something really different and fun? This recipe from Emeril Lagasse is perfect for a romantic dinner. I really wasn’t sure what to expect with Vanilla and Scallops, but it highlights the sweetness of scallops nicely. I paired this with a champagne risotto based on a recipe from Giada de Laurentiis to make this recipe for Seared Scallops with a Champagne Vanilla Butter Sauce.
Ingredients:
For the risotto:
2 thin slices prosciutto
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup Arborio rice
3/4 cup Champagne
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the Scallops:
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 cup dry brut Champagne
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup (1 sticks), cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces, plus 1 tablespoon
