Another Easy Pasta Meal

We hope everyone had a great Labor Day with their friends and family. We certainly did! We drove down to DC to see Abbey Road on the River, a Beatles tribute festival, with Erica’s family. Being Beatles fans, we had a great time! And we also ate a lot of good food!

Now, since it was Labor Day and in reality supposed to be labor free, we decided to post a simple recipe today. This dish is extremely easy to make on a busy weeknight and requires minimal clean up. Erica grew up with this dish since her dad made it quite often on their busy nights. Actually, her dad made it for us over the long weekend.

Today’s recipe is another pasta recipe which only needs 2 ingredients other than the pasta. This might be the easiest recipe we’ve posted to date…but hey, it was Labor Day weekend, we deserve a little break.

Tomato and Butter Noodles

Sort of like an adult version of butter and noodles…

• Servings – 3 to 4
• Prep time – 10 minutes
• Cook time – 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound macaroni noodles
• 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper

Protocol

1. Cook your pasta, drain, and set aside.

2. In the large pot you just used, melt 1 stick of butter (or less if you’d like).

3. Once butter is all melted, add in the can of diced tomatoes and heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir a couple of times to make sure they don’t separate.

4. Add the pasta back to the pot and add as much salt and pepper to your liking.

5. Serve right away and enjoy!

-D&E

Sunday Night Mac ‘n Cheese

Good news, Macsurance now covers our mac n’ cheese recipe too! We do, however, require that you have Macsurance before attempting this recipe. Don’t get caught without it!

Alright enough with the legal shenanigans. Today’s recipe by far is our most labor intensive and longest to make. That’s why we called it Sunday Night Mac n’ Cheese because you should attempt to make this on a Sunday night. Let’s just say that if Easy Mac had a big mean older brother, this recipe would be it.

But no need to fear, we are here to walk you through this delicious recipe step by step! The good news is that it can all be done in one pot (and baking dish if you choose the alternate version). And wait there’s more! This recipe can feed one person for about 4 dinners/lunches (it keeps and reheats very well) or 2 people for about 2 more meals. If you don’t want to make that much, you can easily divide the recipe in half…but this mac n’ cheese will still be 100% yummy.

Mac n’ Cheese

You might as well throw out all those Kraft boxes…once you try this, you may never go back to boxed again.

• Servings – 6 to 8
• Prep time – 60 minutes
• Bake time – 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound macaroni noodles
• 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 2 cups shredded pizza blend cheese (1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup provolone)
• 4 cups milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 8 ounces cream cheese (1 package)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup bread crumbs (for alternative version)

Protocol

1. Boil your macaroni noodles. Follow our pasta guidelines.

2. Drain the noodles when they are finished and set aside.

3. In the same pot you boiled the noodles in, melt the butter on low heat.

4. Once butter is melted, slowly incorporate the flour. Add a little bit, stir. Repeat this about 4 times until your roux is finished and has an even consistency.

5. Pour in milk and bring heat up to medium-high heat. Continue to stir for another 5 to 7 minutes. We’re not trying to boil the milk, just get it warm enough to melt the cream cheese.

6. Cut cream cheese into small pieces and add to the milk mixture. Stir until the cream cheese is reduced to very small bits, the important part is that there aren’t large chunks any more.

7. Stir in the Dijon mustard, hot sauce, paprika, seasoned salt, garlic powder, salt and pepper into the sauce.

8. Turn off the heat and add the noodles back to the pot and stir to get all the noodles covered in the sauce. WARNING: trying to add it all in at once will create a big mess. Add in a little bit at a time.

9. Adding one cup at a time, mix in the cheese. You will immediately notice the mac n’ cheese will thicken and become harder to stir.

You can serve the mac n’ cheese as is or you can continue with the following steps as the alternative version:

10. Preheat your oven to 350º F.

11. In a 9×13 inch baking pan (no smaller, this holds the exact amount) pour in your mac n’ cheese.

12. Sprinkle and evenly coat the top with bread crumbs.

13. Put the dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

14. Serve and Enjoy!

-D&E

P.S. – Do you remember this Kraft Mac and Cheese commercial? We do.

P.P.S. – Now we feel old.

Asparagus and Tomato Pasta

Yes we are already putting you to the test to make sure you paid attention to Tuesday’s post! This is our first pasta recipe and you better be ready, because it is not your traditional red sauce and spaghetti. “But D&E, I’m only in college, I thought tomato sauce from a jar would be okay to make?” We only have one quip with tomato sauce from jars…or maybe two or three:

• Why pay the $4?
• You can easily make your own – with more nutritional value
• They just don’t taste good as homemade!

Okay we are done quipping for now. The point we are trying to make is that although you are in college, you can still make a fantastic meal instead of always buying one in a jar, or in a can, or in a box. But don’t worry, we’ll start you off easy with this more original pasta recipe.

Oh, and one more thing (promise it is not a quip) – don’t be afraid of asparagus! It really is delicious and easy to incorporate into a lot of recipes (hint: this won’t be the last time you see it on this blog!).

If you haven’t tried asparagus yet, or you have and didn’t like it, this is the perfect recipe to try (or re-try) it! With so many flavors and textures you won’t even know it’s even there. AWKWARD DISCLAIMER: Asparagus can make your pee smell funny…just wanted to give you a heads up since we were confused when it happened to us.

• Servings – 3 to 4
• Prep time – 10 minutes
• Cook time – 10 to 12 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound of your favorite pasta
• 1 pound fresh asparagus stalks
• 1 can (15 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 4 ounces of crumbled Gorgonzola or grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

Protocol

1. Start the water for the pasta.

2. Rinse the asparagus under cool water and break off the bottom third of the stalk. If you bend the stalk, it will naturally break off where it needs to. Discard the bottom portion.

3. Cut the asparagus stalks into 1 inch pieces.

4. After the water is boiling and you’ve added a pinch of salt, add the pasta to the pot.

5. When there is 5 minutes left cooking the pasta, add the asparagus to the water. For example, we used fettuccine which has a cooking time of 12 minutes according to the box; so, we added the asparagus after 7 minutes of cooking.

6. Drain the pasta and asparagus after the allotted time and set aside. Do not rinse.

7. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan. Add the diced onion and garlic and saute for 2 minutes.

8. Drain the can of tomatoes and add to the sauce pan as well as the basil and parsley. Heat for 1-2 minutes.

9. Add the asparagus and pasta and cheese to the pan and stir to get everything incorporated.

10. Enjoy!

Let us know how this recipe went and if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments below!

-D&E

Pasta Perfection

There are plenty of myths out there on how to properly cook pasta such as adding olive oil to the boiling water, rinsing the pasta after you cook it, or speaking to the pasta with an Italian accent as it cooks. “D&E, how hard can cooking pasta be?” You’d be surprised at how many people still have trouble with cooking pasta (it took Declan months to master it – probably because he is Irish and not Italian). But once you properly learn to cook pasta, you will go far in life…or just in the kitchen.

Step 1 – Measure out the water. The perfect water to pasta ratio is 1 gallon (16 cups) of water for every 1 pound of pasta. Too much water will take too long to boil and too little water will cause the pasta to clump.

Step 2 – Add COLD water to the pot. Hot sink water will contain more impurities than cold sink water. Use a big enough pot that will hold the water and pasta. Make sure it has a large base so that the water will boil faster. This is a pretty easy step.

Step 3 – Bring the water to a fast, raging boil. Also, add a little bit of salt to the water (about 1-2 tablespoons) but don’t add any olive oil! This will season the pasta as well as quicken the time for the water to boil.

Step 4 – Add the pasta to the water and do NOT cover with a lid. Also, do not add the pasta until Step 3 is reached and make sure the water is back to boiling after the pasta is added. Start your timer after the water reaches a boil again.

Step 5 – After 1 minute, give the pasta a stir. After that leave it alone!

Step 6 – Test your pasta after 4 minutes. The proper amount of time it takes to cook pasta “al dente,” or tender but firm, varies for all the different types of pastas. So keep testing your pasta every minute from here on out. The entire time to cook should probably it between 8 to 12 minutes.

Step 7 – Once the pasta is “al dente,” remove it from the heat and drain it immediately into a colander to stop the cooking process. If you wait too long, your pasta will over cook and become too mushy. If for some strange, unforeseen reason, you can’t immediately do this, add about 1/2 to 1 cup of cold water to the pot. This will lower the temperature enough to stop the cooking.

Step 8 – Don’t over drain the pasta, it should still remain moist. Also, NEVER RINSE OFF THE PASTA! Unless the recipe calls for it. After you have drained the pasta, return it to the pot or a pan and add whatever sauce you made to it. This will keep the pasta from sticking together.

Step 9 – Enjoy.

As you can see, cooking pasta is very time sensitive. But, if you remain patient and diligent during the process, you will cook perfect pasta and impress your friends and family! If you have any more questions, email us at declanandericacook@gmail.com or visit this link for more help.

-D&E