Pasta with Zinfandel Tomato Sauce and Ricotta
Don’t you just love meals you can make in the snap, but taste like you cooked all day? I work three part-time jobs at the moment (long story) and I also attend culinary school at night, so I understand and adore quick meals that do not taste quick. What makes this pasta sauce so tasty is the addition of a little zinfandel. Now, we are not talking that prissy white zinfandel (and if you like that wine, sorry!), we are talking a...
Mushroom Risotto
When the weather turns cold and the wind begins to howl, nothing warms me up faster than a bowl of creamy risotto. Shockingly, I have never had Risotto until last year! To be honest with you, it was always the last thing I considered ordering because I love pasta so much, but one night at a local Italian place I decided to forgo my usual and try their Mushroom Risotto. It changed my world. From that moment on I knew risotto would...
Pan Seared Polenta with Chicken and Tomato Sauce
Last year I had the opportunity to attend a mushroom event in Dallas where we were provided a cooking demo by Chef Kent Rathburn of Abacus restaurant. My favorite dish of the event was a polenta cake with mushroom ragu. A few weeks after the event I received the recipe for the polenta with mushroom ragu and have made it a few times to great acclaim. While the mushroom ragu is lovely, I love the polenta part of the recipe best of...
Pancetta Risotto Cakes
Do you remember a few months ago when I posted that a recipe I created won a contest and the prize was a trip to San Francisco? At the time I was not able to share the recipe due to the ‘super-secret’ nature of the contest. Well, the contest is over and I am free to share, and share I shall. These are my Pancetta Risotto Cakes and they are among my favorite appetizers to prepare, and consume. They are hearty enough to...
Porchetta
When I was at the FoodBuzz festival back in November I had something that was life-changingly good. It is called porchetta. Porchetta is a pork shoulder with the fat and skin attached. It is slowly cooked so the skin becomes crunchy while the meat becomes ridiculously tender. The skin, attached to the fat cap, is easily removed after the porchetta finishes cooking and I like to chop it into small pieces to garnish the meat. ...
Pasta with Gruyere and Butternut Squash
I’ve said before that butternut squash and I were not always such good friends. Once I discovered that I did not hate butternut squash – I liked it quite a lot in fact – I began to try new recipes so that I could add this tasty squash into my Fall recipe rotation. This recipe was one that I was positive would fail. I was so sure, in fact, I had dug through the junk drawer to find a pizza coupon. Boy was I wrong!...
