Delicious Creamy Seafood Pasta

Last night we were fortuned to have two of our friends over for dinner. It was a very pleasant surprise! When I learned we would have guests for dinner I had to figure out what to cook. I was craving some sort of pasta with creamy and cheesy sauce, so I just had to think of what else to add to this pasta dish. I remembered I had cooked shrimp and blue crab meat in the fridge and “voila”! I just needed to add some of my other favorite ingredients and a new dish was born!  I hope our friends enjoyed it as much as I did.

Mascarpone Cheese & Seafood Pasta:

Ingredients:

1 cup of mascarpone cheese

4 cups of uncooked pasta

1lb of cooked large shrimp

6oz of blue crab meat

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ cup of sliced green onions or scallions

½ of roasted sweet bell pepper, diced

1 cup of tomatoes, diced

1 tablespoon of olive oil

½ cup of milk

½ cup of parmesan cheese

_1/3 cup of half & half

8oz of fresh baby spinach

1 tablespoon of dried Italian herbs seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking water with the starch from the pasta.

In a large sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Sauté garlic for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and roasted bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese, milk, half &half and stir until mascarpone cheese is fully melted. Stir in green onions, Italian seasoning and spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

Fold in cooked pasta, crab meat, shrimp and parmesan cheese. Stir in the reserved cooking water as needed to obtain the desired sauce consistency (1 tablespoon at the time). Check the seasoning. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Serve immediately topped with additional parmesan cheese if desired.

Note: You can add left-over grilled or baked salmon and cooked clams.

“Life is too short, and I'm Italian. I'd much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0.” Sophia Bush

Ratatouille: A promise has been delivered!

Every time we watch the movie Ratatouille (from Pixar) my 4-year old daughter asks me to prepare this dish for her. After putting it off for awhile, I did some research on the topic. I found out that Ratatouille is a vegetarian dish original from the regions of Provence and Nice in France. It is usually served as a side dish, but it may also be served as an entrée accompanied by rice or bread. There is much debate on how to make a traditional Ratatouille. I chose to simply sauté all of the ingredients together but some recipes call for the layering approach.  Basically, Ratatouille can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. Here is my version of this traditional French dish:

Ratatouille

Ingredients:

½ eggplant

1 zucchini, chopped

2 ½ tablespoons of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 ½ cup of sweet roasted bell pepper

8oz of pure tomato sauce

½ cup of chicken stock or water

8oz of crimini mushrooms, sliced

1 tablespoon of butter

_2/3 cup of onion, chopped

¼ teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

¼ teaspoon of dried marjoram

2 teaspoons of paprika

3 large leaves of fresh basil, chopped

1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped

1 dried bay leave

Salt and pepper, to taste

In a large skillet, heat ½ tablespoon of olive oil. Meanwhile, cut eggplant into 2-inch cubes. Cook eggplant for about 5 minutes over medium heat.

Heat olive in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add garlic and onions. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in eggplant and zucchini. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes.  Meanwhile, in the skillet where you cooked the eggplant, melt butter and add mushrooms. Cook in medium heat for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are golden brown.

Stir in the roasted bell pepper and mushrooms to the sauce pan. Add tomato sauce, chicken stock, rosemary, paprika, oregano, marjoram, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Add bay leave and simmer over medium-low heat for 25 to 30 minutes. Stir gently from time to time (be careful not to break the bay leave). Remove the bay leave and check the seasoning. If necessary, add more salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley and basil. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Tip: Mushrooms shouldn’t be cleaned under running water because they became rubbery and more difficult to cook.