Alfredo Toss

Whenever we were craving Italian but didn't want to go out, my mom used to make one of two things: her spaghetti or her alfredo. The alfredo recipe was quick and easy, so it made for a great weeknight dinner. When she put Italian sausage in it, we were really in heaven. However, while it taste greats, it's not really alfredo in the most traditional sense. The flavors are all there, but there isn't really an alfredo sauce. Instead my mom would toss fettuccini together with garlic, heavy whipping cream, melted butter, and parmesan cheese (the kind from a can/plastic jar, not the real stuff). The result tasted a lot like alfredo but didn't require you to go through the trouble of making a bechamel sauce and melting in all the cheese.

Justin and I recently visited a friend in Boston and decided to cook dinner for the three of us. Even though it's been years since I've had my mom's alfredo, for whatever reason that's what I thought of when trying to decide what to cook. However, now that I'm older, I don't love the original recipe quite as much as I did as a kid. I'm not a huge fan of the texture of all that powdery parmesan, and my stomach hates me if I eat that much butter or heavy cream. I did what any logical person would have done--I adapted it. Replace the canned parmesan with the real thing. Replace the heavy whipping cream with half-and-half and cut down the amount used. Leave out the butter. The resulting recipe gives you the alfredo flavor you're looking for but with much less trouble. As a bonus, it feels a lot lighter, too, especially if you throw in some veggies.

Lasagna Soup

Sorry for the lack of posts again lately. I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, and trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days is surprisingly time-consuming. With Thanksgiving coming up, too, I wouldn't expect too many posts in the next couple weeks if I were you. That being said, let's get on with it.

I'd like to introduce you to one of my new favorite soups. It's really easy to make, and it tastes delicious. I expected to enjoy this recipe, but I didn't expect to love it quite as much as I do. Justin decided as we were eating the leftovers that it kind of tastes like the adult version of spaghetti-o's, which is probably why I'm in love with it. Spaghetti-o's are one of my inner child's ultimate favorite foods--yes they're terrible for you, I know, but I really don't care. If you're not a fan of canned pasta, however, don't be scared into not trying this recipe. It's really nothing like spaghetti-o's; Justin just thought that the sauce in particular reminded him of it a bit, but in a good way, I swear. Give it a try, and see what you think!

Sausage and Tortellini Soup

It's getting colder outside, so you can expect to start seeing a lot more soup recipes on here. I love soup because it warms you up but also because it tends to be fairly low in calories, as long as you're not making anything that's heavy on the cream. This soup has a wonderful combination of Italian flavors, so it makes a nice alternative to a heavy, pasta dinner. Try it out next time you're craving spaghetti. For an even lighter version, use Italian-style chicken or turkey sausage instead of pork.

Classic Lasagna

Classic lasagna is a fairly simple concept--you stack up some noodles with spaghetti sauce, maybe some meat or veggies, and some cheese, and you bake it. Everyone has their own little twist on it though. Some people don't pre-boil their noodles, and some do. Some people use beef, some use sausage, and some use mushrooms or eggplant. That's why everyone loves lasagna--it can be so easily tailored to suit your tastes. This is what I do when I make lasagna.

Tiramisu

We were having one of Justin's coworkers over for dinner, for which I made my mom's spaghetti and meatballs. I wanted to make something Italian for dessert to go with it, and what's a better choice than tiramisu? It's really great for a dinner party or other special occasion because it seems fancy but is actually really easy to make at home, aside from the part where I had to drive all over town looking for ladyfingers. Additionally, for the best flavor you should make it the day before, also freeing up time to spend cooking the rest of your meal the day of.

Mom's Meatballs

Spaghetti needs meatballs. There's just something classic and wonderful about that pairing; it's one of the ultimate comfort foods. I confess that I have made my mom's spaghetti sauce without making the meatballs before, but it's always just a little sad without them.

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

We ate spaghetti fairly often when I was a kid, and as far as I was concerned, spaghetti sauce came from a jar. If you wanted the "real thing," you got it at a restaurant. People didn't just make spaghetti sauce at home. Well, maybe if you came from an Italian family, but my family's not Italian. For whatever reason, one day she decided that she wanted to make homemade spaghetti sauce. I don't know where she got the recipe, but the day she made it for the first time, my life changed; there's life before homemade spaghetti sauce and life after it.

Chopped Challenge #3: Baked Pizza Roll-ups

It's time for Chopped challenge #3, and this time Justin chose gorgonzola cheese, poblano peppers, diced tomatoes (canned), and... wonton wrappers. Yep. Wonton wrappers. Clearly my first thought was to make some sort of wonton, probably fried. Then I thought about cutting the wonton wrappers in to strips, frying them, and using them as a garnish on a soup or someting. The other ingredients were fairly wide open--he didn't choose any kind of meat, so I could do almost whatever I wanted with the other three ingredients.

I started thinking about what to do with the gorgonzola, and my first thought was pizza. That's pretty much the only way I've ever had gorgonzola before. If I did something pizza-related, I could also use the tomatoes. Wontons often have some kind of pork filling, so I decided to pick up some sausage and go for a sausage pizza kind of filling. I could just toss the poblanos in there and call it done, but I thought it would be nice if there was a dipping sauce to go with the wontons. I settled on a modified version of my easy Alfredo sauce with a poblano twist.

Easy, Light Alfredo Sauce

My mom used to make her own version of Alfredo by tossing pasta with heavy whipping cream, butter, garlic, and Parmesan cheese (the powdery kind from a can, like you put on pizza or spaghetti). She didn't make it into an actual sauce first--she'd just toss it all into a pot together and give it a quick stir. It wasn't true Alfredo, but it was still delicious.

I've made Alfredo sauce from scratch before, and while it isn't particularly difficult, it's sometimes just more work than I want to put in and/or more calories than I want to eat. On those days, I make this sauce, an amalgamation of my mom's Alfredo and from-scratch Alfredo. Instead of making a roux of butter and flour, adding milk or cream, letting it cook until thickened, and then adding cheese, this recipe mixes the butter and cheese (with just a bit of flour) to make a roux. Then all you have to do is add the milk and seasonings. It's super easy. Justin and I like to pour this over baked potatoes with broccoli (and sometimes chicken, too), as well as on pasta.