Flavoring the Pasta?

If all these great chefs, and I do mean all of them, believe in "flavor pasta as it cooks", with a pound of salt, why do these garlic lovers forget that.

I can put a tbsp.of salt into my pasta as it cooks, but NOTHING flavors it like grating a clove of garlic or two into the water as it boils. Who needs all the sodium when every chef, cook, baker I have met, has yet to do this?

You don't need all that salt, for some good pasta, just some good flavoring...Use a microplane, grate some garlic into the water, a clove or two, depending on taste, spare the salt, and enjoy some GREAT pasta...

Raviolli Take Two

I recently posted a ravioli with a red sauce. This ravioli (which I use premade wonton wrappers for), uses an alfredo sauce.
I mixed cheddar, mozzarella and cottage cheese (as I have said before, you can use ricotta, I just don't love it), and stuffed my wontons, boiled them until they rose.
My alfredo sauce is mentioned in the last article.

Gnocchi!!!!

This was a super fun recipe!! Olive garden makes a delicious gnocchi. I searched for gnocchi recipes and honestly, it seemed too much work. (Giadda's recipes stand out, but again, when you want a quick dish, it seemed too much). I tried to model this gnocchi after Olive Gardens Recipe.
I bought premade potato gnocchi from the store and cooked it per the box. Mean while, I cooked zucchini (peel on) red, green, and yellow peppers, with some onion and garlic, on the stove with a hint of olive oil and water, to cook it tender. Just a hint of water, to save draining.
In another pot, I cooked chicken tenders, in a few tbsp. of olive oil, cut bite size with onion, garlic and salt. (you could use chicken breast, but the tenders cut up super fast and result in size proportionate) .
In my final pot I made a cream sauce, similar to alfredo. There are a few ways I make a cream sauce, some call it a bechamel sauce.
Sauce: Always start with 2 tbs melted butter, 2 tbs flour. Let the flour cook out a bit, 1-2 mins. (you can up the butter and flour, if feeding more, but KEEP it proportionate), this is your thickener.
Variations:
Then add 3-4 cups cream OR
add 2 Cups Chicken Stock (or favorite stock) with 2 cups 1% milk. (I haven't tried it with other milk variances).
I added kosher salt and garlic (3-4 cloves) (grated over a plane, to avoid chunks of garlic).
And then tossed it all together.

Variations on cooking, and the cream sauce:
Some people don't have fresh onion and garlic on hand as I do. You can use onion salt or garlic salt, remember the "salts" have a more potent flavor then the "powders"
When I am making an alfredo sauce, I do as I explained, but only with a light cream or heavy cream. I add 1/4-1/2 cup of parmasean to the mixture. Some people prefer freshly grated, some prefer the typical store bought Parmesan.
I personal find, that while fresh grated is great over the top at the end, the mince store bought, meshes better in the sauce. Again, its trial and error and what each prefers best.

I hope everyone tries this recipe, or uses the alfredo sauce recipe in their cooking! Enjoy!!

Simply Put-Meat Roll

Growing up this was done with ground beef. But switching to ground turkey (or chicken) is an easy substitute. Brown the meat with some salt, garlic and onion. Roll out biscuit dough, (you can easily use bisquick or jiffy, to save time) and then roll the meat in the dough, like a jelly roll. Bake at 375 for 45mins to 1 hour, or until crust looks crispy. You can top with a canned or homemade gravy.

Chips

In my eyes, it's okay to have some junkfood if you make it yourself!! Potatoes sliced with a mandolin for even sizes. (We didn't peal the potatoes). Fried (in vegetable oil, for a neutral flavor) then salted, (kosher salt or sea salt is best) and well dried afterward's. This would work baking the chips for a healthier choice, I still recommend drizzling some extra virgin olive oil (healthy route) or vegetable oil over the top before baking, to ensure crispness. It would work great with sweet potatoes as we have done this too.

Meatless Stuffed Shells

Often times, people will use meat in this dish, I would recommend ground turkey cooked with kosher salt, garlic and onion if you want to add meat. I opted not to use meat, and precooked jumbo shells, then mixed it with sauce (spaghetti sauce works good, I make my own) cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan and cottage cheese. The cottage cheese is a choice. Some people really prefer ricotta cheese, but I am not a fan of its grit. Baked at 350 for 30-45 mins.

Simple Pasta Salad

I was asked for this, because some people just don't understand how to make a simple pasta salad.




Any shaped pasta you like, cooked and cooled. Cucumber, cheese, tomato, and deli turkey, sliced thick. I had to shop around for a "kosher" slicer, because some place slice turkey where they do pork or roast beef, oi. Add some italian dressing and chill, and you have an easy pasta salad.