Spaghetti, Subways...and Apples

I find that more often than not, I make pasta either for or with my dinner. It's usually due to forgetting to defrost some meat before leaving for work and not wanting to take the time to make rice. Tonight's inspiration came as I was watching Everyday Italian last night. Giada made a really simple pasta dish that looked delicious and I instantly got food envy. It even has a simple name: Spaghetti with Olives and Bread Crumbs.

As the spaghetti cooked I chopped some black olives (the recipe recommends using kalamata - which I don't have - as well as green olives, which I'm not in love with, so black olives sufficed) and heated some olive oil over medium heat. In the process, I was also talking on the phone, looking at the recipe, and being distracted in general, so I didn't realize just how high the heat was on the oil. When I added my bread crumbs in to toast them, it was instant brown.

It wasn't burned brown, just...brown. According to the recipe, it should've taken two minutes for this to occur. I immediately removed it from the heat, allowing the residual heat to continue toasting the bread crumbs, then added my pasta to the mixture.

Since Giada recommended reserving some of the pasta water (due to its starch content), I attempted to get all the pasta out with tongs, which was fairly successful. The bit of water that I did ad actually helped to evenly distribute the breadcrumbs, who knew? I finished it by stirring in some parmesan cheese and some pepper.

The result was great! Not necessarily mind-blowing, but a good amount of flavor for few ingredients. As Giada mentioned on the show, you won't need to add more salt considering the bread crumbs and olives have enough themselves, especially if you opt for the green as well. You're also supposed to finish it with fresh parsley, but I only had dried herbs...and I kind of forgot about that step until just now. Regardless, I was satisfied.

[image courtesy of pinterest]

Another interesting find today is pictured above: Apple Nachos. Being the dessert freak that I am with a hint of a health nut, I'm stoked about these. It's sliced apples, topped with melted peanut butter, slivered almonds and chocolate chips. I find nothing wrong with this...and intend on trying it in the near future.

As for city living, today got off to a rough start. Turns out I can't keep track of 30 days use of a Metrocard and had the oh so embarrassing moment of trying to board the bus with an expired card. I did have cash on me, but decided to just get off the bus so as not to hold the line up any longer and walked to the LIRR stop instead. Once inside Penn Station I was able to make my way to the A,C & E trains to get a new card for the month. I wasn't late to work thankfully, but was definitely flustered. Luckily my day went well and I was introduced to a delicious sandwich at Gourmet Garage.

This weekend I head upstate to the land of Stewarts stores and considering all my trips are centered around food, I'm sure I'll have much to report and possibly more pictures to post!

Aglio, Olio, e Pepperoncino

That would be the name of this dish in Italian! Luckily, Giada included that in her little side note on the recipe. I didn't figure it out for myself. I AM very excited to take Italian next semester though. Then when I talk about these recipes I can really sound like Giada on her show :) Pictured above is my dinner. Whenever I watch the Food Network, the chefs always say things like "Look at how pretty this dish is" or "Look at those colors" and now, I think I can relate. Seriously, how good looking is that meal?

For those not fluent in Italian (myself included), the dish is called Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Red Pepper Flakes. I have my own personal anecdote that goes with this dish. This past summer, my father and I went out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. The food was great and the portions were huge as usual. My dad decided to order pasta with aglio and olio. It's usually a pretty safe bet for a satisfying meal. When they brought the food out, the first thing I noticed about my dad's plate were the mass amounts of chopped garlic covering his pasta. I kid you not, there were MOUNDS of chopped garlic. One can expect a good amount of garlic in such a dish, but this was ridiculous. My dad took only a few bites since the garlic was so overpowering and that was enough for my mother to pick up on the scent when she got home that night.

That being said, I was a little hesitant about making Giada's version. Luckily, I'm on break right now for school so if garlic was seeping out of my pores, I wouldn't be forced to interact with anyone or sit closely in a packed lecture hall.

I started by making the spaghetti up in the kitchen and bringing it back to my room. It cooked fine without any problems. I've finally gotten the whole cooking-basic-pasta thing down. Next I fired up the old reliable electric frying pan. The first thing you do is heat the olive oil. The recipe makes four servings with 1/2 cup of olive oil, so for my one serving, I used two tablespoons (I would've tried to cut back on the oil in this one, but it's really the essence of the dish). You then add the garlic (peeled, but NOT chopped) to the oil. The original recipe calls for five cloves, but for a single serving I opted for just one.

You saute the garlic for about a minute until it's golden brown. If you over cook it, it will be bitter and I was sure not to do so. Once it has been sauteed enough, you remove the garlic from the oil, then add the red pepper flakes. I didn't really measure these out because 1) I like spice and 2) I don't really think you can add too much! You saute the red pepper flakes for about a minute as well. Next, you add some salt and some reserved pasta water. The original recipe says to add two tablespoons, but since I was on top of my game today, I did the math and figured out that I only needed to add one teaspoon. I have also seen this done a number of times on Food Network when they make pasta dishes, and I never really understood why. I now know that adding some of this water adds a bit of starch to a sauce and gives it more substance. This step is actually Giada's "secret" to this dish.

And now, a lesson in following directions. It says to CAREFULLY stir the reserved pasta water into the oil mixture. I figured it wouldn't be a big deal if I just poured it all in at once, so I did. I swear someone set off firecrackers in our room when I did this. The mixture crackled like crazy and started spitting and hit my arm as I stirred it all around. Had I CAREFULLY added it, I probably wouldn't have jumped out of my boots once I had done so, or singed my arm. You live and you learn.

After the water has been added, you toss the drained pasta in the sauce for a minute to coat all of it (for this reason, you should NOT rinse the pasta with water. I usually don't anyway, but if you do, the natural starches will be washed away and the sauce won't stick to the pasta). Once you transfer this all to a plate, you add chopped parsley, basil, and mint as a finishing touch. This is an instance in which nothing but fresh herbs will do.

As I mentioned before, I was a little hesitant to try this dish because of my past restaurant experience. However, because the full, peeled clove of garlic is sauteed in the oil in this version, it adds the perfect amount of garlic flavor. It acts more like a backdrop to the dish rather than overpowering the entire thing. I had never had fresh mint in a savory dish before and it worked really well with the crushed red pepper. It adds a nice "clean" taste to it and balances out the spice a bit. There was just the right amount of oil as well.

So Giada's recipe has forever changed my view of this traditional meal. And I think it may restore my father's faith in it as well. If my parents are lucky, maybe I'll make this for them when I'm home on break :) I will be cooking AGAIN tomorrow night since, as I said, I'm on break! Come back and check out how my Scampi on Couscous pans out!

Olive Juice

This.....was fantastic. Not only was it quick, but it was extremely easy, and extremely flavorful. Tonight I made Giada's Tomato Sauce with Olives--the second recipe from the "Everyday Sauces" chapter in the "Everyday Tomato Sauces" section. The recipe requires four cups of her Marinara sauce which I highly recommend making the night before.

As I said in my post from last night, I made the Marinara sauce again much more successfully this time. I didn't forget any ingredients and managed to sustain only one minor injury. On top of all this, I didn't have to leave my room to make it (take a bow electric frying pan) and was able to watch BOTH So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. After making the sauce, I stored it in the fridge over night (I only had to make a half batch this time so I made it fit in one container).

The sauce, as expected, was even better the next day (I snuck a taste around lunchtime) so I was really excited to add a new dimension to it. For this sauce, you start by sauteing one and 1/4 cup of olives in 1/4 cup of olive oil. Me being the food cop that I am swapped out actual olive oil for EVOO spray, and only used six ounces of olives...because that's all that came in the can i had bought. I should also mention that you need to halve the olives before sauteing them. To this, you add one and 1/2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper (gotta love that spice!) and cook it for three minutes. After that, you reduce the heat, and add the marinara sauce.

As I let this heat, I ventured upstairs to cook some spaghetti to go with the sauce. I thought I was on the right track seeing as I even brought a lid for the pot with me this time. I let the water come to a boil, measured out the proper amount of pasta, and added it to the water (which I also remembered to salt!). I never break spaghetti before adding it to the pot and rarely have issues with it, until today. The spaghetti kept trying to escape the pot and I continuously tried to push it back in. It DID cooperate eventually, but some of it had hit the burner and created a kind of gross burning smell in the kitchen. I'm sure the kid that was doing his homework in there (yes, doing homework in the kitchen) was probably wondering how I managed to burn pasta, but it all worked out.

When I got back to my room, the sauce was heated all the way through and I drained my pasta. I had about a cup of pasta with a cup of sauce, and a little Pecorino Romano on top. This sauce...was money. It was much more rich in tomato flavor this time around, but still very fresh. The olives balanced out the richness with a bit of saltiness and the crushed red pepper gave it just enough spice. As I was eating it and re-reading the recipe, I realized I hadn't added the 1/2 of thinly sliced fresh basil, but then remembered I was feeling creative last night and had already added it then. The basil isn't very prominent in the sauce, but it keeps it light.

Again, dinner: successful. Tomorrow night is my first time attempting some semi-homemade pizza, and Sunday marks my next Giada mission. I will be delving back into the "Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto" with the Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Red Pepper Flakes recipe. YUM!

When Life Hands You Lemons...

...make Lemon Spaghetti! Or lemonade. But I promise that the former will be exponentially more delicious. Tonight was recipe number three out of Everyday Italian and if you haven't figured it out by now, it was Lemon Spaghetti. It is the first recipe from Chapter Three which is Everyday Pasta, Polenta, and Risotto (side note: I really like my approach to this book. It's nice to have each chapter introduced slowly, don't you think?). The first section of this chapter is once again, Fresh From the Pantry, so the recipes are fairly simple.

This recipe was incredibly simple and I highly suggest that you give it a try. That being said, I did make some modifications to it in order to make it a bit healthier (I'm sure Giada won't mind. She doesn't understand what it's like being over a size 2). The first thing the recipe asks you to do is make the sauce. It serves four, and calls for 2/3 cup of EVOO, 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of lemon juice, and salt and pepper (though those are measured in almost all recipes, I usually just do it to taste). For those who don't know, I am a Weight Watchers point counter and have certain point values that I find acceptable for each meal. When I entered this one into the recipe builder, I decided that 14 points for a serving just wasn't going to fly with me. Therefore, I made some changes for my single serving dish.

First, instead of using that much EVOO, I used just one tablespoon. Since it called for the same amount of cheese, I also used just one tablespoon of that. I didn't actually measure out the lemon juice for it (it has a point value of zero as it is), but the recipe said either 1/2 cup or the fresh juice of two lemons. I bought one lemon and squeezed it to death and that was fine. You then whisk it all together.

Next, I cooked up one cup of angel hair pasta. The recipe calls for dried spaghetti, but that wasn't as readily available to me and I had a little over a cup of angel hair left in the box. I really don't think it matters, though I do love dried pasta. After cooking the pasta, you need to reserve one cup of the water if you're making the full 4 servings. Seeing as I only made one, I saved 1/4 cup.

Once the pasta was drained, I put it on a plate, added my water (I didn't even use the whole 1/4 cup. It's just to keep the pasta moist), then added the sauce. I also sprayed some fat-free olive oil spray on top of this just to give it more of the olive oil taste without the olive oil guilt. On top of that, you add some fresh chopped basil (or dried if you're on my budget) and some grated lemon zest (...or not. I don't have a grater and something tells me that trying to finely chop a lemon peel will NOT have the same effect).

Here is my explanation for the picture. Just as I was sitting down to take the picture and eat this delicious meal, my phone rang. It was Katie and she was at the door so I had to run downstairs to let her in. As we walked back to my room I started telling her a story and as we sat down in my room I began eating without thinking about the purpose of the meal. Just as I had about two bites left, I remembered that I hadn't taken a picture and I simply could NOT let this blog be posted without one (I like to have proof that this all actually happens). I quickly took one between bites and there you have it!

My next cooking day is Friday when I take on Grilled Shrimp (dun dun dun...). Let's hope this turns out better than the tuna. I'm sure I will have some updates in between cause a girl's gotta eat!