Baked Pasta with a Squash, Ricotta and Garlic Sauce

This delicious and cheesy pasta dish is comforting while still being healthy!

My husband came up with the idea to make a pasta sauce from butternut squash. He will come up with recipe ideas from time to time, and then I help him try to implement them. He thought of putting ricotta in the sauce (he really likes ricotta) and I suggested the roasted garlic. We went through a few iterations, and actually decreased the amount of pasta in the end, to make more room for delicious roasted vegetables.

Baked Pasta with a Squash, Ricotta and Garlic Sauce
Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients:
Cheesy sauce:
1 medium butternut squash (or other winter squash), about 2 1/2 lbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 head of garlic
10 oz ricotta cheese (2/3 of a 15 oz container)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 - 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth

Veggies:
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 zucchini, cut into half moons
2 medium heads of broccoli, chopped into florets
1 small head of cauliflower, chopped into florets
Olive oil
salt and pepper

Pasta:
8 oz short pasta (penne, rotini and cavatappi work well) - whole wheat is healthiest!
1 cup shredded cheese (use your favorite)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Peel the butternut squash and cut into rounds. Spread out in a single row on the baking sheet, spray well with cooking spray, and season with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and cinnamon. Bake squash for 30 minutes, flipping over every 10 minutes and re-spraying, or until soft and caramelized.

Roasted butternut squash

Gently remove the outer papery edges of the head of garlic. Using a sharp knife, cut off the top 1/2 inch or so, just to expose the individual cloves. Put on a piece of foil and drizzle with a little oil, then wrap up the foil so it is completely covered. Roast at 400 for around 45 minutes, or until soft and caramelized but not dried out. To save time you can put it on the same baking tray as the squash, and check on it after the squash has finished cooking. Let garlic cool, and then squeeze out the individual cloves.

Roasted and caramelized garlic

Put the squash, garlic, and ricotta in the bowl of a food processor. Add about 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth to start, as well as 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper. Process until very smooth. Add additional vegetable broth, if necessary, to make a sauce-like consistency. I try to make mine similar to a thick marinara, or almost like a can of pumpkin puree. Depending on the water content of your squash, you may need more or less liquid.

Once the sauce is made, you can refrigerate it for up to 3 days before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Line two baking sheets with foil, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400 F. Spread out the onions and cauliflower on one tray, and the zucchini and broccoli on another tray. Drizzle the veggies with some olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until veggies are soft and caramelized. The zucchini might cook faster than everything else, so remove it before it falls apart if the rest of the veggies haven't cooked.

Reduce oven to 375 F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta, stir well to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom, and cook according to instructions on the box. Check 1-2 minutes before the recommended time. Once the pasta has finished cooking, reserve some of the pasta water and then drain the pasta and return it to the pan. Add the squash ricotta sauce and all of the roasted veggies, and mix well. If the sauce is too thick to stir, add a few splashes of the pasta water.

Pre-baking

Spread out well in a 9x13 pan. Cover with foil, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle cheese evenly over the top. If the pasta looks a little dry, add a few splashes of the reserved pasta water (don't stir after you add it). Bake for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

Notes:
Feel free to use any vegetables that you love or that are in season! Sauteed greens would be great, as would some roasted eggplant or sauteed mushrooms.

The squash ricotta sauce can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge for up to 3 days before mixing together the pasta.

You can make this entire dish in advance, and store it in the fridge for up to 1 day before cooking. Increase covered baking time to 30 minutes, and you may have to increase uncovered baking time to 20-25 minutes (keep an eye on it).

Store leftovers in the fridge - they reheat really well!

For anyone counting containers (21 day fix or 80 day obsession), this is:
1 yellow 
2 green 💚💚💙 
1 blue 

Just pair your favorite protein with it and you have a full meal!

Penne with Vodka Sauce

Penne with vodka sauce is one of those dishes I've always been intrigued by. Everyone raves about it, plus cooking with booze always seems like fun. When someone from my lab gifted me with 3 lbs of tomatoes from her garden, and instructed me that they would be best when cooked, I knew I wanted to make this dish. I didn't really think about the fact that I don't normally like tomato sauces. I somehow knew that this would transcend normal tomato sauce.

Almost every recipe I've seen for vodka sauce has started with canned tomatoes, and I would be using fresh. Because of this, I ended up combining a few recipes, and just making everything work with what I had. I'm really pleased with how it all turned out, and would definitely make this again. I'd be curious to see if the flavor profile changes when using canned tomatoes instead of fresh. I would think that using fresh tomatoes would make it taste more, well, fresh. Although they're cooked for so long, that it's possible you end up losing any extra freshness.

Recipe: Penne with Vodka Sauce
Adapted from Serious Eats
Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1/2 small onion, finely diced/minced
1/2 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 tbsp tomato paste
28 oz can crushed tomatoes, or 2 lbs plum tomatoes, peeled, cored and crushed (see below for instructions)
1/3 cup vodka
1 lb penne pasta
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup milk or cream
4 oz goat cheese
parmesan cheese for serving (optional)

Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. This will take a while, so let's get started on the sauce.

2. In a large sauce pan, heat butter over medium heat. Add onion and 1/2 tsp salt, and cook until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, red pepper, black pepper, basil, and tomato paste, and stir well. Cook for another minute, being careful to avoid scorching. Add crushed tomatoes and vodka, and bring back to a hearty simmer. Cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. This will cook off (most of) the alcohol, and reduce the sauce.

3. Once your pasta water is boiling, add the pasta, and give it a few stirs to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. Cook until the pasta is not quite al dente. Drain the pasta, but don't forget to save some pasta water. I like using a scoop to pull out the pasta, so I don't forget, and pour all of the pasta down the drain. Let the pasta hang out in a separate bowl until the sauce is done.

4. Once the sauce has reduced and the alcohol has cooked off, you have a few options. If you like a chunky sauce, then leave it as is. If you want a completely smooth sauce, then (CAREFULLY) put it in the blender. I like it somewhere in the middle, so it isn't really chunky, but still has some texture. To achieve this, I use my immersion blender (also called a stick blender). I can focus on any large chunks, and try to smooth out the sauce, while still retaining some texture. Regardless of what you do, just make sure to be careful! The sauce is hot, and splatters will definitely hurt. Once you have your desired texture, give it a taste, and add any salt and pepper as necessary.

5. Put the sauce pan back over medium heat, and add the milk and goat cheese. Cook 1-2 minutes, until heated through, and goat cheese has melted. Stir in the pasta, and bring back to a hearty simmer. Cook for 3-5 minutes, until your pasta has finished cooking, and the sauce has thickened. Add pasta water to thin out the sauce as necessary. Serve immediately, with a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese (optional, but not really).

Note:
This sauce can be scaled up or down, as necessary. If you want to make just a single portion, I would recommend making the full amount of sauce through step 4, and making just enough pasta for one serving, about 3 oz. Then, put the drained pasta in a smaller pan with some of the sauce, and add 1 tbsp milk and 1 oz goat cheese, and proceed as instructed. You can store the rest of the sauce (without any milk/cheese) in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for several months.

Using fresh tomatoes:
Instructions from The Yummy Life
Start with 2 lbs of fresh tomatoes - plum tomatoes work really well. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Using a sharp knife, score an "x" on the end opposite the core. Add tomatoes to boiling water, putting only a few in at a time. Boil for 30-60 seconds, then remove and put in a bowl of ice water. Continue working in batches until all tomatoes have been boiled. Don't leave the tomatoes in the ice water for too long, or they might start to freeze! Once they are cool enough to handle, remove them from the water, and the skin should pull off pretty easily. Put the peeled tomatoes in a big bowl, and (this part is fun), crush with your hands. For best results, crush one tomato at a time - this way you can make sure you pull out any bad parts, and the core. You should get about 3 - 3 1/2 cups of crushed tomatoes, and use all of that for the recipe.

My tomatoes, crushed by hand (it felt pretty nice)

The diced onion on the right, and some rough chopped garlic on the left. It will be minced more finely before I add it in

The onion cooking in butter, not quite ready

The onion has browned more now, and the garlic, tomato paste, and seasoning has been added in

The tomatoes have been added in, as well as the vodka

This is what I call a "hearty simmer" - with lots of bubbling

My individual serving of pasta - 3 oz of veggie penne

The finished sauce, pulled off to the side so I can use my immersion blender

Pasta and a generous helping of sauce, in a small sauce pan

Back up to a hearty simmer, with the milk and goat cheese added

The sauce is exactly where I want it - thick and creamy, and the pasta has cooked perfectly

Bowl of deliciousness

I wouldn't be me if I didn't add a bunch of cheese on top!

Baked Rigatoni with Brussels Sprouts, Figs and Blue Cheese

I'm not sure how this recipe hasn't made it onto the blog yet, but here it is. This is one of our favorite fall pasta dishes (although you can make it all year round of course). I never would have thought to put these ingredients together, but it works really well! The cheese melts into the pasta water, creating a creamy sauce.

We have made this recipe many times now, and it is pretty adaptable to what you have on hand. We have made it with more brussels sprouts than called for (up to 2 lbs), and we have also made it with less (only 1 lb). This last time, we only had 1 lb brussels sprouts, so we added some cooked swiss chard to increase the greens. In a pinch, we have even used frozen brussels sprouts, but we prefer to use fresh when possible. We have made this with both gorgonzola and blue cheese, sometimes measuring out the exact amount, sometimes just throwing some on and seeing how it tastes. Depending on our mood, sometimes we skip the nuts on top (although it does add a nice crunch). You can also substitute any dried fruit in for the dried figs, although I can't think of anything that would work better. We've never made it with fresh figs, and I don't think I would recommend it. Fresh figs are so delicate, and have such a unique flavor, that I think they are better when eaten fresh (uncooked).

Recipe: Baked Rigatoni with Brussels Sprouts, Figs and Blue Cheese
Slightly Adapted from Mark Bittman
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
8 oz rigatoni (the large kind)
Salt
1 1/2 lbs brussels sprouts, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
4 oz blue cheese or gorgonzola, crumbled
3/4 cup dried figs, chopped
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped almonds, for garnish (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and salt it. Add the pasta and cook 4-5 minutes, until about halfway cooked. It should still be quite firm inside. Add the brussels sprouts to the pot and cook 3 minutes, until the vegetables and pasta are both just barely tender. Drain, reserving some of the pasta water (at least 1 cup), and return the pasta and brussels sprouts to the pot.

Stir in the oil, cheese, figs and black pepper. Add a splash of the pasta water, and stir to combine. Add extra salt and pepper to taste. You want the sauce to be on the thin side, since the pasta will continue to absorb water while baking. Add more pasta water if necessary.

Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick cooking spray, and pour the pasta mixture into the pan. Cover with foil, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil, and make sure there is still some liquid at the bottom of the pan (add more cooking water if there is no liquid left. Bake another 5 minutes, or until mixture is bubbling. Let cool 5 minutes, garnish with almonds, and serve.

Mixed up, about to be baked

Post-baking

Close up, in an attempt to show the bubbling sauce!

A new take on stroganoff - a vegetarian alternative

Joey and I like watching most of the shows on The Food Network. One show we've started watching recently is "Beat Bobby Flay." I used to find Bobby Flay to be incredibly obnoxious and arrogant, so obviously the idea of someone showing him up sounded great. I don't find him to be as bad anymore, but it's still fun watching people try to beat him. There was recently an episode where the chef he was battling chose their signature dish Beef Stroganoff. Somehow, not only had Bobby never made the dish, but he also claimed to have never tasted the dish. Even more miraculous was the fact that he still ended up winning...

Anyway, this started a conversation about beef stroganoff, and the vegetarian version that Alton Brown has made. We looked up his recipe, thought it sounded amazing, and cooked it within the next few days. Let me tell you - it is so so good. It was surprisingly simple to make, and didn't include a ton of ingredients. The flavors all worked really well together - I really liked how the tang of the goat cheese cut through some of the richness. Joey bought some stew meat that he cooked separately, and mixed into his portion.

We made a few changes to Alton's recipe. To make the recipe truly vegetarian, we omitted the beef stock. Instead of just using water, or using vegetable stock (which sometimes has a strong flavor that doesn't work with the rest of the dish), we made a mushroom stock from dried mushrooms. This really enhanced the mushroom flavor, and then we used the reconstituted dried mushrooms in the dish. I've seen mushroom stock sold in stores before, but since we couldn't find any at Kroger, we used this. I think I would much prefer doing it this way in the future instead of buying a pre-made stock that's full of sodium. The only other change we made was with the dairy at the end. We used 5 oz of goat cheese instead of 4 oz, mostly because the log we bought was 5 oz. A cup of sour cream sounded like a lot, so we reduced it to 1/3, and we used greek yogurt instead of sour cream. I've seriously been using greek yogurt as a substitute in everything lately (biscuits and pancakes). It's pretty versatile, and we always have it on hand. I think it gave us the perfect creaminess.

Recipe: Vegetarian Mushroom Stroganoff with Goat Cheese
Adapted from Alton Brown
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
12 oz extra wide egg noodles
3 tbsp unsalted butter
5-6 large portobello mushrooms (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 lbs)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 bunch green onions
1 tbsp all purpose flour
14 oz mushroom stock (see directions below for homemade)
1/3 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
5 oz goat cheese
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Add noodles to 4 quarts of cold water in a 6-quart pot, cover and place over high heat. Cook to al dente, 18-22 minutes (check package for exact cooking time), stirring occasionally.

Note: We added the noodles to almost boiling water and didn't have problems - Alton suggests adding to cold water and bringing them to a boil together. He claims that this helps the sauce coat the noodles better.

Clean the mushrooms well. Remove the stems, and then slice the mushrooms in 1/4-1/2 inch slices. Melt the butter in a 12-inch straight-sided saute pan set over medium-high heat. Increase the heat to high, add the mushrooms, and sprinkle with salt. Saute until they darken in color, soften, and give off their liquid. This can take as much as 10-15 minutes, but keep an eye on it.

Slice the green onions, keeping the white part and the dark green part separate. Add the sliced white part to the pan, and saute another 2-3 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir to combine. Cook until the flour disappears, and the fond (little crusty parts on the bottom of the pan) turns dark brown, about 1 minute. Deglaze with the mushroom stock. Bring to a simmer and decrease the heat to medium-low. Cook for 10-12 minutes, or until thickened.

Add the greek yogurt (or sour cream), goat cheese, and black pepper. Stir to combine, then partially cover and bring to a simmer to warm through - 2-4 minutes.

Meanwhile, your noodles may have already finished cooking. If they finish before the sauce is ready, drain them and spray with some nonstick spray, so they don't clump together. If they finish after the sauce is ready, then great - add them straight to the sauce after you've added the greek yogurt and goat cheese. Stir everything to combine. Garnish with the green onion tops and additional black pepper.

How to Make Your Own Mushroom Stock:
This is really simple. Put 1/2 oz dried mushrooms (I used porcini) in a large heat-safe bowl. Carefully pour 2 1/2 cups boiling water over the mushrooms. Let the mushrooms reconstitute for 15 minutes. Pour the liquid through a coffee filter before using. The recipe calls for 14 oz - if you don't have enough, add some water. (The mushrooms soak up quite a bit of that water, reducing the total volume.) Chop up the reconstituted mushrooms, and add them to the sauce when you add the sliced white bottoms of the chopped green onions.

1/2 oz porcini mushrooms in boiling water

The water turns golden brown almost immediately

Reconstituted mushrooms

Strained mushroom stock - Joey used some to cook his stew meat, so I added enough water to make the final volume equal 14 oz

6 large portobello caps, all sliced up

The reconstituted mushrooms, chopped up, on the left. The sliced white part (and light green part) of the green onions, on the right. The green part of the onions at the top, waiting to be sliced

Cooked egg noodles - ours were finished way before the sauce was ready

The mushrooms have started to release their liquid

We added the reconstituted mushrooms and white/light green onions

See that dark brown stuff on the bottom of the pan - that's the fond. That's where all the flavor comes from!

The stock has been added, and now everything is going to simmer

Lots of sliced green onion tops!

Everything all mixed together

And again

The finished product, with more green onions on top. Delicious!