Linguine with Spinach Pesto and Shrimp

Another crazy long day at work, and my family was off at water polo scrimmages and would not be home until late.  If my solo dinner was going to happen at all, it had to be super simple and tastey enough to make it worth even that much effort.  Mmmmmm, spinach pesto was in the fridge and some shrimp were in the freezer.  Add a little pasta for comfort.  Perfecto!

Sometimes we buy those bags of frozen shrimp and just make them all up in one perfect low country boil kinds of meals, but lately, we’ve just kept frozen shrimp in the freezer to use a small handful in this or that.  Makes us feel pampered and like we’re “all that.”

The pesto made with just barely enough oil had me a bit worried about whether or not it would properly coat the pasta.  The resolution was a to spoon some spinach pesto into a mixing bowl, add a bit of pasta water before dumping the pasta in the colander, and voila, success!

Linguine

Spinach Pesto

Handful of Shrimp

oil

Parmesan, grated

Directions:

1.  Boil water for linguine and cook according to package instructions.

2.  Thaw a handful of shrimp.  Heat a saute pan over medium heat, add a bit of oil to coat the bottom.  Dry the shrimp and add to the pan when it is hot.  Flip over each shrimp after 1 minute, cook for another minute, and turn off heat.

3. Place 3 TBS spinach pesto per serving into a mixing bowl, and add 1 TBS pasta water as pasta finishes cooking, and mix.

4.  Drain pasta and place in bowl with pesto.  Gently mix to coat the pasta.

5.  Plate the pasta, top with shrimp and parmesan.

Gremelli and Asparagus

Oh asparagus! How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Last night, after a quickie pasta dinner, there was still lots of pasta left over. Time to raid the vegetable bin and make a pasta salad! And what was waiting there for me, just begging to be included in the fun? Asparagus. While many dishes that I toss together with bits of this and that from the pantry are better than prison food, I wouldn’t specifically shop for the ingredients to make that dish again. Not so this time. This my friends, is a winner. Part of the love in this dish (yes, that’s a shout out to Carla from Top Chef!) is the pasta itself. Costco carries this brand in 6 packs, and it is truly worth keeping some on hand.

The red wine vinegar gives this a nice tang while the Parmesan rounds out the flavors. Enjoy.

No notes were taken during the creation of this dish, so bear with me on the directions.

Ingredients:

half pack of gemelli or similar pasta, cooked al dente

1 bunch asparagus, but into 1 inch pieces

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 tsp dried basil

3 TBS flat leaf parsley, minced

1 TBS olive oil, plus 1 tsp for cooking

1 TBS red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet to medium high, add oil and asparagus. Quickly cook so that the outsides of the asparagus begin to darken but the insides are still crisp, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt and pepper. Add pasta and mix gently. Add Parmesan and asparagus to pasta and combine.

Sunday Gravy and Meatballs

Sunday Gravy, I hardly knew ye. How in the world could a fairly well rounded (albeit non- New Yorker, New Jersian, Rhode Islander) have been so clueless about Sunday Gravy? Just another term for some basic marinara with that “My Grandmother makes the best …” theme? Not on your life! What a grand idea to slowly warm the meats in the tomato sauce then remove them before serving. The layers of flavors in the gravy just have to be experienced first hand to believe. If you’ve never made Sunday Gravy, definitely give this a shot. Don’t let the list of ingredients spook you a bit … they are all available at your local grocery store, after putting it on the stove you still have hours to read other food blogs (grin!), and this recipe will feed your family for several days. Nice.

Ingredients for the sauce:

2 TBS olive oil

1 1/2 pounds pork country ribs

1 1/2 pounds Italian or fennel pork sausages

8 garlic cloves

1/4 cup tomato paste

3 28 to 35 ounce cans Italian peeled tomatoes

1 cup water

1 cup red wine

salt and freshly ground pepper

6 basil leaves, torn into small pieces

Ingredients for the meatballs:

1/2 pound ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 cup homemade bread crumbs

2 large eggs

2 tsp garlic, finely minced

1/2 cup Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

2 TBS flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper

2 TBS olive oil

Ingredients for service:

1 lb shells or rigatoni, cooked and still hot

Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

Sauce directions:

1. Heat oil in large heave opt over medium heat. Pat the pork dry and put the pieces in the pot. Cook, turning occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until nicely browned on all sides. Transfer pork to a plate. Brown the sausages on all sides in the same way, and transfer to a plate.

2. Drain most of the fat from the pot and add the whole garlic cloves. Cook for about 2 minutes or until golden. Remove and chop finely. Add tomato paste to the pot and cook for 1 minute.

3. With a food mill or food processor, puree the tomatoes with their juice. Add to the pot along with the water, wine, chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Return the pork and sausages to the pot and bring to a simmer. Partially cover the pot and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 4 hours. If the sauce becomes too thick, add some more water.

4. To serve, remove the meats from the sauce and set aside to serve separately at this or another meal. Toss the cooked pasta with the sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Meatballs directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients except the oil in a large bowl. Mix together thoroughly.

2. Rinse your hands with cool water and lightly shape the mixture into 2 inch balls.

3. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet. Add the meatballs and brown them well on all sides. (They will finish cooking later.) Transfer the meatballs to a plate and refridgerate.

4. 30 minutes before dinner, add the meatballs to the Sunday Gravy.

5. To serve, top pasta with meatballs or serve them separately.

Notes:

* Yes, the canned tomatoes do need to be Italian. They are different. Just get the Italian ones.

* Splurge on the cheese. Get the really hard hunks of good stuff. You’ll be thankful.

* When digging out the meatballs, Italian sausage, and pork ribs from the pot, realize that a good amount of the pork ribs will simply have disintegrated into the gravy, and most other pieces will fall apart as you lift them from the pot. Mmmmmm.

* This recipe is a combination of those from the Sopranos Family Cookbook and Food Blogga’s recipe on NPR.

* Both recipes actually called for half the garlic, and just cooked it in the oil and discarded. After one try that way, we doubled it (a good call in my book for most anything!) then found that the mild cooked garlic was lovely when added back to the gravy. Without an Italian grandmother to honor, I just followed my heart.

* If you can plan ahead to make homemade bread crumbs, its so worth it!