Baked penne pasta

Okay, it's going to take me a couple of days to solve the camera problem (missing cable to connect to computer). I acquired the picture above from a free image site. You're all being very understanding and supportive. Yesterday on Food Network there were not one, not two, but three shows about lasagna. It made me hungry. But I didn't want to have to go out to buy lasagna noodles. So I made “lasagna” with penne pasta. There's probably a name for this but I don't know what it is.

Cook 1 box penne pasta al dente.

Blanch ½ bunch kale leaves for 6 minutes; drain; squeeze out water; chop.

Saute onion, garlic and sausage.

Add 28 oz. tomatoes, bay leaves, dried basil, onion powder, red pepper flakes. Simmer 30 minutes.

Layer the pasta with sauce, penne, kale, ricotta, mozzarella, and then on top, romano cheese.

Repeat layers until everything is used up.

45 minutes in the convection oven covered with foil. 10 minutes uncovered.

That's all folks!

Bean and basil pesto pasta with prawns

Gosh, that picture came out pretty well if I do say so myself. I am always in a hurry to get to the table – I snap and run. Basil pesto is easy to make (if you want a recipe, see “Guest Peter makes pesto with gusto” on this site from 8/23/10). Our garden basil has come through in bumper crop fashion and we’ve got multiple tubs of pesto in the freezer (it freezes very well).

So – last night we wanted an easy, inexpensive, all in one bowl meal. If you look closely you’ll see some yellow and green beans in and among the pasta and shrimp. We’re fond of using ramen noodles in various dishes and mostly save the flavor packets to use, for example, in a poaching liquid for shrimp.

Various pasta shapes lend themselves well to various concoctions. In this case, the farfalle (bow-tie) were perfect in size so that we could eat the whole dish with large spoons. Farfalle actually means “butterflies”. Curiously enough, “farfallino” is Italian for bow-tie. Lesson over.

A word about the shrimp: these are 31-35’s, just because I got a 2-pound bag of them (frozen) for a really good price. Two pounds of shrimp will give us four meals generally. Cook your shrimp in whatever way you prefer. As mentioned above, I simply boiled 2 cups of water, stirred in a packet of chicken flavoring from a ramen package, dropped in the shrimp, took them off the heat and let them steep for 2 minutes or so.

Ok, ok, they aren’t actual prawns, but they lend an alliterative quality to the recipe title. Indulge me.

Bean and basil pesto pasta with prawns
1 box farfalle pasta, cooked according to package directions
2 cups mixed green and yellow beans, cut into 2” pieces
1 batch basil pesto
8 oz. cooked shrimp

Peter tossed the beans in with the pasta and cooked them simultaneously. Convenient, huh? Loosen the pesto with some pasta water, toss the pasta and beans in the pesto. Put in bowls and top with shrimp. (And you call THIS a recipe?)

Baked kale, sausage and mozzarella pasta

If you don’t subscribe to chow.com, think about doing so. They send me a recipe every day – every now and then it inspires me. This one did so. Initially I completely rewrote it. Then, in the end, I went back to it and did an adaptation. The changes? I added Italian sausage, used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, my pasta is different, and because our neighborhood supermarket doesn’t carry radicchio or treviso, I used kale.

Strozzapreti is not easy to find. It’s also not easy to describe. Imagine 2” long x 1” side rectangles which have been twisted into almost a tubular shape. It’s a nice dense pasta which held up perfectly to the pre-cooking and then the baking. Use penne rigate or ziti as did the chow folks. Oh, I also used 2 tbsp olive oil instead of the butter their recipe called for. This casserole is a huge amount of food for Peter and me, probably enough for 4 dinners, but we’ll lunch off it over the next several days.

Baked kale, sausage and mozzarella pasta
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves, minced find
½ medium onion, small dice
3 Italian sausages, spicy or mild, casings removed and chopped up
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, broken up with your hands
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped
½ cup heavy cream
salt and red pepper flakes to taste
1 pound strozzapreti, penne rigate (ridged) or ziti
8 oz. fresh mozzarella, in 1/4” dice
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 400 degrees and arrange a rack in the upper third. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a healthy dose of salt and cook the pasta for ½ the time indicated on the package. Drain but do not rinse.

Heat the oil in the pot you cooked the pasta in over medium heat. Add onion and sauté 5 minutes. Add garlic and sausage and sauté until the sausage is cooked through, stirring occasionally (about 7-8 minutes). Season with salt and red pepper flakes.

Add tomatoes and their juice and kale and simmer until the kale has wilted (8-10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Stir in the cream, taste for seasoning and adjust. Add the pasta and toss to combine thoroughly.

Transfer to a 9” x 13” baking dish. Cover with foil and bake 10 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle both cheeses on top and bake uncovered for 10 more minutes until cheeses are melting and the casserole is bubbling. Remove from oven, cover loosely with foil, and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.