Italian Wedding Soup

1 lb ground chicken
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
1 large onion
1 bell pepper
1 carrot
3-5 zucchini and/or yellow squash
1 can Cannellini beans
2 boxes chicken broth
Star pasta

This is one of my favorite dishes in the world. I mean, look how good it looks:



It takes a bit longer to make than the typical weeknight meal that I make, but it is so good.

I normally make a big batch and then left overs all week. I even serve left overs of this if I have company.

The vegetables in this soup I vary with the seasons. In the winter, I add traditional dark greens to the soup (escarole or spinach) and in the summer, I like the squash.

First things first. The timing of this soup is important - that is there will be a step where you need to add the veggies quickly to the pot. So I do all my chopping of veggies up front.

Dice the onion and bell pepper and carrot rather small but leave the squash in large chunks.

Now for the meatballs. Two keys to making delicious chicken meatballs for this soup. First, make sure all the balls are about the same size. Second make sure the balls are all very very small. You want small meatballs for this soup.

Here's how I accomplish this:

First I cover my counter in parchment paper so I have a flat surface to work on that I don't have to worry about cleaning chicken goop off of later. Also, I take the rings off my fingers so they don't get chicken in them.

I pour out the breadcrumbs, cheese, garlic powder, salt and pepper into a little pile on the center of the paper.

Then I plop the ground chicken onto the pile of spices and with my clean hands, I mix the chicken into the dry ingredients. I use the wet chicken to pick up any stray dry ingredients. I mix until everything is one consistency - that is, until I have no clumps of chicken without any of the dry mixture.

Next, I form the meat into one giant ball. I divide the giant ball into four quadrants of equal size. Then I take each quadrant and subdivide it into smaller pieces until I have several balls of equal size.

They will be more like blobs of meat at this point - not super meatball shaped yet.

I repeat this with the other quadrants until I've used up all of the giant ball.

Then I divided each meatball into two because I realized I had made them too large.

You want one meatball to fit easily on a spoon with room for veggies and pasta.

After I got the meatballs to the right size, I rolled each ball in my palms - like with play dough - to make them more round and meatball-like.

The next step is to heat a wide pot with oil. You want as much real-estate on the bottom of the pot as possible so you won't have to make too many batches of meatballs. As it is, this recipe will make at least two batches. I find that if I try to squeeze them all into one batch, they stick together and some of them burn before I can get them all turned.

Using tongs, set about half of the meatballs in the hot oil.

Watch the meatballs. When the first ones you put into the pot start to turn white on the bottom, you are getting close. When the white reaches nearly the middle of the meatball, it's time to flip it over.

Using the tongs, flip each meatball to cook the other side. Because these have cheese in them, they might stick to the pot a little. Normally, meat will "tell you it's ready" by being easy to lift out of the pan when it is browned on one side. But these will probably stick a bit as the cheese is melting to the pan. Just be forceful and they will come up.

When they start to turn white on the other side, you can take them out. Don't worry if some of them haven't cooked all the way through - you will be boiling them in the soup and they can finish cooking then.

Using tongs, set the meatballs on a large plate covered in a paper towel to collect any access oil.

The pan will be empty and can get overheated very easily, so quickly add in the chopped "hard" veggies - that is the onion, the bell pepper and the carrot.

Add salt and pepper and stir.

The squash can be set aside for later - it needs less cooking time.

After a few minutes, add the squash. Season and stir.

Next, add the chicken meatballs and the beans. Be sure to drain the liquid off the beans before you add them to the pot.

Season and stir.

Cover the ingredients with chicken broth. This batch took 1 1/4 boxes of broth to cover up. If you run out of broth, just add water.

Cover the pot and bring it up to a boil. While it is heating up, grate 2-3 cloves of garlic. I use a microplane so that the garlic turns into almost a paste. This way it almost melts into the pot.

Add the garlic to the pot. Stir and then let it boil for at least 20 minutes. I had mine on for almost an hour before serving.

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Now for the star pasta. 

Star pasta can be hard to find in the store. My HEB keeps it in the Italian imported foods section and not with the other pastas. It's worth an extra look or two to find, as it makes for a delicious addition. 

I've found that if I make a large batch of this soup and then heat it up over the week, the pasta gets mushy. So I take a ladle and remove some of the soup from the main pot and fill up a smaller put which I cook the pasta in. 

I store the pasta separately in the fridge so it doesn't get mushy. 

I serve the soup with a little scoop of the pasta, two scoops of the soup and then sprinkled with parmesan cheese. 

Now doesn't that look delicious?? 

Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

1 baked or rotisserie chicken*
1/4 pound of pasta
1 small onion
Frozen peas and carrots

*I used the left over baked chicken from the previous post, but I have often made this using a left over rotisserie chicken from the grocery store.

Please forgive the lack of photos for this one, but I had a crazy week.

Take your left over whole chicken an put it in a pot. Cover the chicken with water and then put a lid on top.

Bring the chicken to a boil and then reduce the heat a bit.

Boil the chicken for at least a half hour. I left mine on the stove for about an hour.

Turn the heat off and take the lid off. Let it sit for a half hour so that the chicken cools a bit.

Remove the chicken from the pot (It will still be hot!) and set it on a cutting board.

Pick all the meet off of the bones. Remove the skin and throw it away.

Add the meat back to the pot.

Refrigerate, covered, overnight. It will form into a gelatin. Don't let this scare you. I promise it's delicious.

The next day, bring the pot to a boil. Add salt and pepper.

Add diced onion and boil for 15 minutes.

Add pasta and cook acording to the directions.

Right before you want to serve, add peas and carrots. You don't need to cook these long - just heat them up.

Taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper.

And there you have it! Homemade chicken noodle soup. Hoorah!

Enjoy!

Spicy cheesy shrimp pasta

1/2 onion

1/2 red bell pepper

butter

1/3 lb shrimp (for 2 people) 

milk

2 scoops of ricotta cheese

parmesean cheese 

1/2 lb of pasta (I like the Cavatappi or cork screw pasta)

2/3 cup frozen peas, thawed

Garlic powder

salt

pepper

cayenne pepper

In a small bowl, combine garlic powder, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Cover a baking sheet with foil and lay the shrimp out in a single layer. 

Sprinkle the spices onto each shrimp and dot with butter. Bake these in an oven (I used my toaster oven) for 20 minutes at 350. 

In a large pan, saute the onions and bell peppers in butter and a little oil. 

I was in a hurry, so I covered them to make them get softer faster. 

Take the onions and pepper out of the pan and set aside. 

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in the pan and sprinkle the same amount of flour over it. 

Whisk to combine the two into a paste. 

Pour milk over the paste and whisk to make a sauce. 

When it's all the same consistency, add salt, pepper and ricotta cheese. 

Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the sauce. Remember that parmesan cheese is very salty, so add less salt than you normally would in this dish. 

My sauce was too thick, so I just stirred in some extra milk to thin it out. 

Add the peppers and onions, along with the thawed peas to the sauce. 

Sprinkle some cayenne pepper on the sauce, as much as you like. If the sauce is too salty or spicy at this point, it will even out when you add the pasta. 

Add the pasta to the sauce. Toss together. 

When the shrimp are ready, take them out of the oven. 

Serve the pasta in a bowl and top with the broiled shrimp. 

Enjoy!

Spinach Alfredo Pasta

1/2 onion, diced

1 cup frozen spinach, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

3/4 cup parmesan cheese

Garlic powder 

Salt and Pepper

Special equipment: food processor (optional)

This was made on a day that we had "nothing in the house" because I had not gone to the grocery store. I like it because it is simple and satisfying and I don't need any special ingredients. 

In a pan, saute onion and spinach in melted butter until onions are soft. Sprinkle flour over the veggies. 

                            

Cook for one or two minutes and then add the milk, stirring often. 

Add salt and pepper. Thin the sauce with more milk, if needed. 

Let the sauce bubble for a few minutes and then add garlic powder and parmesan cheese. 

Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. I always like to take the pasta out one minute before the minimum time suggested. (I prefer aldente pasta to mushy pasta.)

Serve with a little more parmesan cheese on top.

Basic Lasagna

1 16oz can of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce

1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

about 1 cup of parmesan cheese

3 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of butter

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1 onion

2 tablespoons of flour

1 box of OVEN READY lasagna noodles

Red Wine

This is a very basic lasagna recipe. You can always add ingredients, like meat (1 or 2 ground sausage links, browned or 1/2 pound of ground beef, for example) or spinach or mushrooms or pretty much whatever you like. The measurements in the above ingredients are approximate.

In the pasta aisle, there are two types of lasagna noodles. I like to use the "no boil" or "oven ready" noodles because they are faster. Check the box. The other noodles you will need to boil. If you have the kind that you do NOT have to boil, then do the following:

In a large bowl, fill it nearly all the way up with the hottest water that comes out of your tap. Pour a touch of olive oil in the bowl. Stack the lasagna noodles in the water, criss cross so that they don't stick to each other. 

In a deep pan, heat oil and add onions, salt and pepper. 

When the onions are soft, add the can of tomatoes. 

Add as much wine as you'd like. :) I recommend about a cup. Boil the sauce until it is not too liquid-y (reduced by 1/3)

In a sauce pan, melt the butter. When the butter is melted, add the flour. You want the same amount of butter and flour in the pan. With a fork, stir these two together to make a paste. 

Let the paste bubble for a while and then add about two cups of milk. Turn the heat to medium-low and stir with a fork until all the lumps are gone. 

The sauce should get very thick, like this: 

Add salt and pepper. Put about twice as much pepper as you normally would - don't worry, it won't be too spicy. The milk and cheese will absorb it and it will just taste flavorful. Go light on the salt because the cheese you add later will be salty. 

Stir and add milk until it is thick but not clumpy. It should look like this. 

This is a "basic white sauce". If you added a lot of parmesan cheese and garlic, it would be alfredo sauce. But we'll do that another time. 

Add the container of ricotta cheese to the sauce. I used ricotta cheese in another dish earlier this week, so I didn't have the whole container. That's ok. 

At this point, the sauce was way too thick, so I added milk until it looked more like sauce and less like paste. 

I let the sauce bubble a bit and then grated some garlic into it. Then I turned the heat completely off. 

Once both the sauces were done, I got my "station" set up. Meaning that I put both sauces close to me, opened the bag of mozzarella and the box of parmesan, with the noodles close at hand. This way, when I start layering the lasagna, I'll have everything I need. 

First, scoop out a couple of ladle's worth of tomato sauce into the bottom of the glass pyrex so that the noodles don't stick when you bake it. 

Then lay out one layer of noodles, covering the pan. For mine, I had two horizontal and one vertical 

Add several scoops of tomato sauce and top generously with mozzarella. 

Add another layer of noodles, but this time, I put the horizontal noodles on the other side, so that when you cut into the layers, they will stick together better and not slide apart. 

Add a layer of the white sauce. Top with parmesan cheese. 

Add more layers, switching the position of the noodles again. 

More red sauce and mozzarella. 

More noodles, again switching. 

More white sauce. 

I didn't count my layers right for this one so I ended up with white sauce on top and no noodles to cover it. Ideally, you'd want to cover this layer of white sauce with noodles and then top with red sauce and cheese, but I improvised and topped the white sauce with red sauce. 

Then I covered it with a layer of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. 

Bake this for 20 minutes or until it is bubbly and the cheese on top melts and becomes a little brown. 

Despite the mix up with the layers, it worked out great. The cheese on top makes a nice crusty layer.

VERY IMPORTANT: After it comes out of the oven, wait 10 minutes. I know. It's hard. But if you cut into it while it is too hot, then it will slide apart and become a soupy mess. Trust me. Set the timer and walk away. When you come back, and cut a slice out, it will all stay together and look like this:

Enjoy!