Zucchini Pasta - the quick version! (GF or not)

made this tonight - Rora loved it! i was able to easily make a gluten and gluten free version to suit those who don't like GF pasta... it's not low fat but honestly you need the oil so i don't care lol

this is based on a recipe i got from a marcella hazan cookbook and learned when living in italy.

 around 1/2 cup olive oil
4-5 baby or small zucchinis, ends cut off and sliced finely
500g pasta (gluten free or regular)
salt and pepper
around a cup of diced or grated mozzarella cheese of any quality (or pizza cheese like me haha! it was still GOOD!)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

heat water for pasta and add pasta to boiling water. cook accoridng to directions.

heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan, over a medium heat. it needs to be hot enough to slightly bubble, but not smoking at all, or browning. add the zucchini and cook, stirring occasionally until the zucchini is see through.

add salt and pepper and stir. keep hot.

when pasta is done drain well then tip into the zucchini saucepan. add egg and cheese and stir well until mixed through and egg is mostly or totally cooked. serve.

YUM!

Creamy Pasta Dish - kind of Boscaiola / Carbonara Cross (GF, TMX)

based on the recipe posted here

parmesan cheese, cut into 1cm cubes
around 6 shortcut pieces of bacon, cut into approx 1" pieces
4-5 mushrooms, or more if desired
1 packet (300g) San Remo gluten free spiral pasta
1 200g container sour cream
1 375g tin lite evaporated milk
1 tspn oregano
1 tspn chopped garlic (i had to use dried as i'm out of every other kind)
good sprinkle salt if desired
600-700g warm water *
2 eggs, lightly beaten
chopped parsley if desired

place parmesan in bowl, chop for 5-10 seconds on speed 10, place in bowl
place bacon and mushrooms in bowl, turn to closed lid, pulse on turbo once or twice until chopped
saute for 3 minutes on varoma speed soft
add all other ingredients except eggs and parsley
cook for 15 minutes at reverse 100' speed soft
remove measuring cup from lid, on reverse speed 3 or so pour eggs & parsley through lid.
place in thermoserver for 5 minutes before serving

no photo as it looked a bit like cat vomit LOL

Macaroni Cheese, second draft (GF, TMX)

Rora and I were much happier with this version, though the sauce is still quite thick. i didn't taste it myself. here's the original

200-300g cheese, cut into chunks (this time I used feta and tasty)
25g butter, cut into cubes
1 tab GF plain flour
350g low fat milk
410g water
1 packet (250g) San Remo GF pasta

put cheeses in TM bowl and chop for 5-10 seconds until in smaller pieces, place in another bowl.

place all other ingredients in TM bowl. cook for 12 minutes on 90' reverse speed 1

scrape sides down and mix with spatula. add cheese and cook for a further 5 minutes on 90' reverse speed 1 - you might need to mix the cheese through on speed 4 for a few seconds before it starts cooking.

leave to sit for up to 5 minutes and serve.

Gluten Free Product Review, and TMX directions

Rora and Emelia love this stuff for a weekday lunch!! I don't mind it, but am happy to leave it all for them, Geoff's comment was that it was a 'bit bland', probably why the girls like it so much ;)

With some minor changes to Harmony's directions I can now have a hot GF lunch ready in 20 minutes despite barely lifting a finger hehe

Basco Macaroni & Cheese
serves 2-3

1 packet Basco Macaroni and Cheese
250g hot water
120g milk

Put all ingredients in TM bowl.
Cook for 16 minutes at 90 deg on Reverse and Speed 2

More on Lana's sauce, and GF pasta making...

it was delicious!

the kids enjoyed theirs and ryan had seconds.

we had ours in a lasagne which i layered with Thermomix bechamel sauce (the thermomix stirs and cooks it all for you ;)) and dried GF lasagne. it was sooo good though quite rich.

thanks again to Lana and i definitely recommend giving her recipe a try!

I also had a go at making gluten free pasta last night! i was going to use it as the Lasagne noodles but didn't realise it had to rest in the fridge for an hour first. i used this recipe and it worked well. i made my own chia meal in the thermomix, and also milled polenta to make the grittier corn flour it called for.

so i left it over night and then had a go at making it with my new (replacement) pasta maker. which worked perfectly at first and then was nearly totally unusable by the time i was not even half way through the batch of pasta (the roller that rolls it into a sheet just seems to stick and is nearly impossible to turn, this is the exact same thing that went wrong with the first one - DON'T buy a Benzer brand pasta maker!!!!)

this dough is very different to work with compared to regular gluten pasta dough. it breaks quite easily, though i found adding a little extra oil helped. it then would stick into a huge lump as it 'fell' below the pasta maker, so i had to make very small amounts and literally toss them in GF flour (i just used a commercial plain blend) and then they would be fine.

they took minutes to cook and they were very yummy! unfortunately because of the SNAFU with the pasta maker i didn't make enough for a meal so geoff and i had it as a side dish (with pesto) with our dinner. i am keen to try again but not sure what to do with the stoopid pasta maker :( the fettucine cutter / roller works perfectly but the sheet roller won't work at all now. i'm wondering how frustrating it would be to just use a rolling pin (i was just squashing with my hand in the end lol)

oh and i forgot to say i made the dough in the thermomix of course ;)

Macaroni Cheese, first draft (GF, TMX)

Ok, this was not a success but was nearly a complete success! plus rora likes it and it's very simple (once i get the formula right ;)) so i want to note this to know where to start next time...

if you want to experiment yourself please remember all ingredients are VERY approximate!

100g parmesan cheese, cut into chunks
200-300g tasty cheese, cut into chunks
25g butter, cut into cubes
1 tab GF plain flour
350g low fat milk
350g water
1 packet (250g) San Remo GF pasta

put cheeses in TM bowl and chop for ummm 10 seconds until in smaller pieces (i didn't do this and should have!) place in another bowl.

place all other ingredients in TM bowl. cook for 16 minutes on 90' reverse speed 1

scrape sides down and mix with spatula. add cheese and cook for a further 5 minutes on 90' reverse speed 1

mix with spatula and serve.

a quick simple pasta bake idea

thanks to the friend who shared this :)

~~~~~~~
I do one if I have any left over chicken from a roast chicken dinner (or you can cook up some chicken thigh fillets)

all you need:
fry one large or two med onions (you can also add chciken here if you are cooking chicken from scratch)
mix in 1/2 a jar of sundried tomato pesto
add some cream (I usually add 1/2 jar)
mix and simmer for a couple of minutes

add to cooked pasta in oven proof dish
add shredded chicken from roast chicken (or thigh fillets)
top with cheese

put in oven for about 20 min

easy and yummy
~~~~~~

random links

i need to clear out my bloglines and i don't have the time or patience to put these into my othe rlinks posts, so just posting the lot here! thanks to all those who've shared these yummy recipes!

apple pie

black & white chocolate bark

Eggnog Bread Pudding with Bourbon Cranberries

Mocha Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate Covered Homemade Marshmallows

Sour Cream and Green Onion Biscuits

CrockPot Chai Tea Latte Recipe

CrockPot Roasted & Spiced Nuts Recipe

Asian Coleslaw

Hummingbird Cake Recipe

Capsicum and Tomato Relish Recipe

Pasta alla Vodka

Polenta Casserole with Fontina and Tomato Sauce

Sauteed Kale with Smoked Paprika

curried pork empanadas

vietnamese baguettes

caramelized onion dip

brown butter brown sugar shorties

pie crust 102
pie crust 103

parmesan grissini (tmx)

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake
cream cheesecoffee cake
Chili Cheese Souffle
Spiced Apple Cider
French Breakfast Puffs
Strawberries and Brown Sugar Cream

garlic cheese biscuits (scones)

peanut butter pinwheels

mexican meatball soup with rice & coriander

wheat-free banana loaf

white chocolate holiday bark

cranberry cinnamon rolls

lemon shortbread
brown sugar shortbread

sweet & sour grilled pumpkin

buttermilk cranberry scones

sweet potato biscuits with bacon and thyme (scones)

rosemary garlic sweet potato fries

panforte (tmx)

Bandh Gobhi Massallam (a whole cabbage smothered in a nutty curry and baked until tender)

Mughlai-style Indian tomato soup

Lasuni Dal Palak (daal)

Dahi Wale Aloo (potatoes)

Thermomix Very Quick and Easy Creamy Sundried Tomato Sauce for Gnocchi

i couldn't be bothered starting from scratch with the pasta sauce (the 5 year old remember?) so i did a cheats version that was very nice:

4-5 sundried tomatoes

chop for 3-5 seconds on speed 4

add in one jar pasta sauce (we use aldi organic usually but this time i used the aldi olive one) and a little cream if you have some that needs to be used up, or leave out if you don't want it.

cook for 8 minutes on 80'c speed 2

pour over gnocchi, top with parmesan if desired.

Thermomix Potato & Sweet Potato Gnocchi

no pictures sorry, a one hour long tantrum by the 5 year old ensured that, but here is a bit of a method for this. i may need to edit it next time as i'm not sure my brain was really focusing on gnocchi :(

for 4-6 people

350g Sweet potato, peeled and cubed
650g desiree potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 egg
2+ cups flour
salt & pepper

steam the potatoes & sweet potatoes. i did mine in the microwave but of course you could do it in the varoma if you wanted and didn't have your mind on when the noise was going to stop...
(you would probably use about 500g water, 12-15 mins (??) varoma temp, speed 2
they need to be really soft but not falling apart.

drain them well and let them cool as much as you can (last time i kept them in teh fridge overnight and this worked well.

put about 500g in the tmx and chop til they're fine - but be careful! you don't want to make glue out of them! (have done that before with a food processor, NOT pretty!) i did speed 6 for about 30-40 seconds i think.
remove to another bowl and repeat. add the first batch back in and add the other ingredients.

mix on speed 6 until well mixed, again keep an eye out for gluey tendencies! i was very distracted by the 5yo at this stage and mine was done for 2 minutes and was OK thank goodness, so glue must be less likely at this stage ;p

put a large pot of water on to boil.

remove from tmx and place on a floured surface. knead until smooth, adding extra flour until the dough is no longer sticky. my dough was very sticky at this stage (i think the sweet potatoes have more water than regular potatoes) so i had to add a LOT of extra flour, but it was fine in the end.

cut the dough into 4-6 pieces and then take one. roll out on the floured surface until you have a sausage that is about 2cm thick. cut into 1cm pieces with a knife (i used a bread knife so i didn't cut my silicone mat). i actually just cook them like that because we don't care what they look like!

but if you want them to look pretty like "real" gnocchi just roll them a little into a ball then press into shape with a fork.

to cook them you need boiling water - just drop one sausage worth of gnocchi in at a time (i found it took the exact time to make the next sausage-worth as it did to cook each batch of gnocchi). they are cooked when they flat on the surface - use a large flat slotted spoon to remove & drain them. you can serve them straight into a bowl.

top with sauce and cheese as desired.

of course you can swap the sweet potato for pumpkin, or use more potato and a little black olives etc etc - the options are endless!

Pasta Salad

Geoff wants this printed out so he can make it, so here goes lol (of course there are a million versions, this is just one with what we have on hand today)

small or fancy pasta, cooked (and cooled if time)
tin of corn, drained
frozen peas, cooked, drained and cooled
ham, finely chopped
capsicum, finely chopped
black olives, sliced
parsley, finely chopped
kidney beans, drained ???

dressing - mayonnaise and / or pesto

mix well

as you can see from the pics it was a HUGE hit!

Flavours of Italy...

i just found these two recipes on the floor (don't ask) and thought i should type them in before throwing the paper out so it can no longer decorate my floor! i'm pretty sure that i have had these recipes for a long time - probably 14 years from when i lived in italy! i suspect they are marcella hazan recipes but have no notes to say where they came from. i'm sure i'd made them both and they were both good :)

both recipes are for 4-6 people

Zucchini with Bacon
680g firm young zucchini, soaked in water 20 mins
6 tabs olive oil
5 medium onions, sliced very thinly
110g smoked bacon or pancetta affunicata, cut into 3mm strips
salt & freshly ground pepper

scrub zucchini after soaking. trim ends & cut into 5mm slices
choose pan large enough to hold everything. put the oil, onion & bacon in and turn heat to med. high. stir occasionally until onion is pale gold. add zucchini, turn once or twice. cover and turn heat to med. cook 12-15 mins, uncover, add S&P. cook uncovered 2-3 mins, stirring frequently.
may be reheated gently


Penne with Rosemary & Bacon
60g butter
2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
2 tspns fresh whole rosemary or 1 tspn dried leaves chopped
340g smoked bacon or pancetta affunicata, cut into 3mm strips
450g penne
50g freshly grated parmesan

in a 20-25cm pan put 40g butter & garlic & turn heat to medium high. saute until garlic is deep gold. remove garlic & add rosemary. stir once or twice then add bacon. saute until bacon is lightly coloured but not crisp.
cook pasta, drain and toss immediately with bacon sauce. add remaining butter and parmesan. toss and serve

Pasta with Prosciutto & Peas

needing a quick dinner after work on monday i decided to give this a go, based on Celeste's recipe at Sugar and Spice. of course i made a few changes lol (and totally missed the bit about the lemon zest and juice, will have to try that next time!)

serves about 4-6

500g spiral pasta (spirals catch the sauce better :))
8-12 slices proscuitto
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
1.5 cups baby peas, frozen
2-3 tspns cornflour
1 tin evaporated low fat milk **
parmesan

cook pasta according to packet directions
lightly fry the proscuitto, onion, garlic and pepper until proscuitto is crispy and onion and garlic are soft. *
add peas and gently fry, stirring occasionally, until peas are starting to soften.
add cornflour and mix well so everything is coated
add evaporated milk and cook until thickened, stirring most of the time.
immediately mix through pasta, top with parmesan to serve.

* actually you don't need to fry proscuitto as it does not require cooking, however i actaully had half proscuitto and half pancetta, which does require cooking ;)
** you can of course use cream like celeste, but i rarely have cream in teh house and get enough calories from other sources lol

Chicken & Ricotta Canneloni

thanks for this one Jackie :)

Chicken and Ricotta Cannelloni that I made last night:

serves 4

1 tbs olive oil
1 sml onion, finely chopped
2 garlic gloves, crushed
400g chicken mince
30 low-fat ricotta
good pinch nutmeg
4 fresh lasagne sheets
700g bottle italian tomato sauce
1/2 cup low fat grated cheese

preheat oven to 180C. Heat olive oil in non-stick frypan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cooking for 2 min until soft. Add chicken mince. Cook until it changes colour, breaking lumps with a wooden spoon. Transfer to bowl and allow to cool. Add ricotta and nutmeg, season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Cut each lasagne sheet in half crossways, forming two small rectangles. Place 1/3 cup of chicken mixture on one long side of pasta, about 2cm from edge. Roll up.

Spread half tomato sauce evenly over the base of 1 large baking dish. Arrange cannelloni in dish. Spoon over remaining sauce and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake for 35 minutes until pasta is cooked. Serve with salad leaves

Variations: for vegetarians replace chicken with 500g steamed spinach.

Links - Pasta & Rice

baked ziti with rapini & chicken meatballs

broccoli, sage & bacon pasta sauce

pasta with proscuitto and peas

Sweet:
indian spiced rice pudding

Quick, easy and healthy - oh and yummy!

spaghetti with vegetable and bean sauce
Originally uploaded by brazen20au

spaghetti with vegetable and bean sauce

serves 6

1 packet spaghetti (cook and drain according to directions)

around 1 tspn olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
several garlic cloves, chopped as desired
1 red and 1 green capsicum
1-2 sticks celery, finely diced (we have a lot of celery leftover from teh party lol it wasn't a very nice bunch :()
4 baby zucchinis, diced into 1cm pieces
several mushrooms, sliced (i use my tupperware egg slicer, done in seconds ;))
3 medium tomatoes, cut into 2cm dice
1 jar pasta sauce (i was going to use more tomatoes but they weren't ripe enough to make a nice sauce)
few tablespoons tomato paste
around 1/3 cup white wine
1 stock cube (chicken or vege)
1/2 tspn italian herbs
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

heat oil over medium heat and cook onion and garlic til starting to soften
add vegies except mushrooms and gently fry for 5 or so minutes
add the rest of the ingredients and simmer covered until the vegies are softened but not soggy (about 15 mins).
serve spaghetti topped with sauce and a little cheese (tasty or parmesan)

Minestrone & TM31 bread

well, i could have sworn that i'd already posted a Minestrone recipe on my blog but i can't find it!

so here's the one which geoff gave to me based on the one his mum used to make...

Geoff's Minestrone

Serves 4

Another of Geoff’s favourites, based on June’s recipe!
You might want to add extra liquid (water or stock) if it’s too thick.

3 rashers of bacon, fat & rind trimmed
1 large onion, peeled & diced
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 large carrot, peeled & diced
¼ cabbage, shredded
800g diced tomatoes
approx 250g pasta shells
1 jar pasta sauce, try garden vegetable
chicken stock cube
1 can kidney beans
2 cups water
parmesan cheese, grated

1. Lightly fry bacon & onion until onion is transparent.
2. Add garlic and fry, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add all other ingredients and simmer until pasta is cooked.
4. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
5. Serve with crusty bread. Enjoy!

and here's how i made it tonight...

Tonight's Version

6 shortcut rashers of bacon, diced
1 large onion, peeled & diced
1-2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 large carrot, peeled & diced
1 small green capsicum, finely diced
a handful of green beans, topped and tailed and cut into 8mm - 1cm pieces
800g diced tomatoes (i used tins)
approx 250g pasta shells
about 1/4 cup white wine
beef stock powder or cube
1 can borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
1 can butter beans, drained and rinsed
around 5-7 cups water
parmesan cheese, grated


1. Lightly fry bacon & onion until onion is transparent.
2. Add garlic and fry, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add all other ingredients and simmer until pasta is cooked.
4. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
5. Serve with TM31 bread. Enjoy!

TM31 bread
i made this tonight - had my first try at plaiting - it's really hard to plait bread as compared to hair lol
anyway, i was too lazy to brush with milk or water to get the seeds to stick, so drizzled olive oil over it - discovered that the top remained really soft instead of going crunchy!

Macaroni Bake

this one has no instructions - i'm assuming you would gently fry the first4 ingredients, mix everything togther in an oven proof dish and back in a 160-180'c oven til the pasta is cooked.

3oz butter
1 onion
1/4 cup celery
1/4 cup capsicum
1/2 cup creamed corn
250g macaroni (uncooked)
3 eggs
1 cup tasty cheese, grated
2 1/2 cups milk
S&P

we are still sick ("just" colds this time!) but i haven't been motivated or inspired to do much good cooking yet again. a lot of the organic express order from last week just went into the compost tonight :(

anyway, i have decided a meal plan of easy meals is called for. it's hard balancing the fact you obviously need healthier food when you're unwell but it's harder to actually DO it.

at least last night we had a good (delicious) meal - mum cooked! we always have a family meal to celebrate birthdays and last night's was a roast chicken dinner with a ton of vegies - mmmmm

tonight was quick and simple (otherwise it would have been a choice between takeaway or baked beans on toast for the second time in a week LOL)

spaghetti aglio, olio and - not pepperoncini (the traditional) - parmigiana
spaghetti, we use one packet
olive oil, ummm maybe 1/4 cup?
garlic, finely chopped - i used about 12-15 small cloves, you do need quite a bit though as it provides most of the flavour!
parmesan, grated / shaved / chopped whatever, maybe about 1/3 cup *
parsley, finely chopped, optional

cook spaghetti, drain
heat oil over lowish heat while you chop garlic
gently cook garlic until translucent (you do not want to brown it! if you were using chilli you'd cook it now too)
mix all ingredients and serve :)

* if you want the chilli (it's really really good!) just leave out the parmesan, finely chop one small red chilli and add with the garlic, don't breathe the fumes!!!

to follow we are having homemade (thermomix-made) chocolate custard :)

Pasta with Pesto and Pumpkin

OK, i hesitated in posting this because the food snob in me thinks it's not really a recipe LOL but then i decided if someone else could get some joy out of it (and it was REALLY yummy! we had guests for dinner and everyone went back for seconds and g had thirds) i would...

500g spiral pasta
1 red onion, finely diced
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
6 shortcut bacon pieces (or 2-3 rashers), diced into 1cm dice
pumpkin, diced into 1cm dice
small amount pine nuts, lightly toasted (i just toast in the microwave, doing 20-30 seconds at a time and stirring in between)
1 jar Barilla Pesto alla Genovese (you can buy this in any supermarket, it is my favourite by far)
white wine splash, optional (i wanted to use this but given i was cooking for friends and their children i wasn't sure how they'd feel about their kids having wine in their pasta! as it was the kids all ate the spag bol and rory was the only one to try this pasta)

1. cook pasta according to packet directions
2. fry onion, garlic and bacon over a medium heat for up to 5 minutes. add pumpkin and cook until just tender but not starting to fall apart. (if you were using wine you'd add it half way through the pumpkin cooking process)
3. mix pumpkin mix, pine nuts and desired amount of pesto through the pasta, serve with parmesan cheese if desired