Mediterranean Pasta with Artichokes, Olives, and Tomatoes & Costtini

Mediterranean Pasta with Artichokes, Olives, and Tomatoes
Ingredients:
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 12 ounces whole-wheat spaghetti
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1/2 medium onion , thinly sliced, lengthwise
* 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced crosswise
* 1/2 cup dry white wine
* 1 can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and quartered lengthwise
* 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, quartered lengthwise
* 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes , halved lengthwise
* 1/4 cup grated Rice Parmesan cheese, plus more serving
* 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Return pasta to pot.

Next in a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Add onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, cook, stirring occasionally until browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Add wine and cook until evaporated, about 2 minutes.

Stir in artichokes and cook until starting to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add olives and half of the tomatoes; cook until tomatoes start to break down, 1 to 2 minutes. Add pasta to skillet. Stir in remaining tomatoes, oil, cheese, and basil. Thin with reserved pasta water if necessary to coat the spaghetti. Serve with additional cheese.

Crosttini

Ingredients:
*Olive olive
*Day old bread loaf
*Herbs

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Next slice the bread up into long pieces. Its alright if the bread feels a bit tough.

Mix the olive oil and herbs together well to taste. Using a pastry brush. Spread to olive oil/ herb mix onto each piece of bread. Take bread and put the peices back together so that it looks like a normal loaf again.

Wrap in tin foil and place into heated oven. Heat for 10-15 minutes, until the bread us crunchy on the outside a the oil has seeped through the inside dough.

Jumbo Israeli Couscous

I love Couscous and Israeli Couscous is really the way to go. First of all its great tasting. Second it's only three ingredients. Semolina flour, water and salt; perfect. You can find it at the local grocery store in the international section or at a Middle Eastern market.

Boil this until tender.

Second, use saffron (again saffron can be purchased less expensive at a local middle easter market), salt and pepper and mix/ grind those together. Dice up several Roma tomato.

Drain the couscous and let sit for a few minutes.

Once those are all finished mix those and the couscous in the warm pot.

Pasta e Fagioli

Well I had a craving for a dish that reminded me of my childhood. If you read my profile you know I am from a culture and family that loves to eat. Can you guess where we are from? Thats right, my father side is Italian. While I love my other sides food, German food is a bit heavy for me and has a great deal of meat in it. I love both but the Italian side of food really inspires me. Like most Childhood (And Italian) recipies, this one will need to be adjusted for personal taste.

I love the tuscan take on foods with their attention to fresh veggies and love of pomodoro...that is tomato. So when I went to the farmers market and bought a bag of them I was more then happy to share and partake in this dish. I know that everyone will enjoy it! There is so much to love!

1 cup of white kidney or cannellini beans

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 yellow onion, Finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of sage

2 1/2 cups of fresh tomato, skinned, de-seeded and chopped

salt and pepper

4 cups of veggie stock

3/4 cup of whole wheat pasta (smaller works best. Think shells or elbow)

Cook beans according to instructions and set aside in the sink. they should be tender with the skins cracking.

In a soup pot add onion, garlic and olive oil. Sautee these slowly, stirring until the onions are soft (about 12 minutes). Add the sage, tomato, salt and black pepper and simmer for another 20 minutes. You want all of the tastes to combine together. If you like a little bit of zest add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the mix.

Next add the beans and stock to the veggies. Simmer this for about 30 more minutes. The soup should become more stew like. If it is getting too dry add a bit more water or stock but you might have to adjust the spices so don't go over board.

Next add the pasta to the stew and let that cook to desired tenderness.

Enjoy! Next to it is a bread that I got from the farmers market. Its a yummy vegan rye from Phoenix Rising bakery.

Vegan Pasta

I know it has been a really long time. Just having trouble cooking what with the end of school, graduation and trying to find a new place to live.

But after long last I bring to you another recipe for home made Vegan Fettuccine! I am a huge pasta fan. One of my earliest memories is of standing on a chair with my father making our own home made pasta. Of course at the time I thought it was the coolest thing ever to pour the eggs through the little slot on the electric pasta machine and watch it mix.

These days though I go a little lower tech with a hand crank pasta maker that I got for Christmas. It looks like this and you can find one in a lot of home goods stores what you're looking for. it looks something like this one:

Ingredients:
1+ cups of all purpose flour
1+ cups of semolina flour
2/3 cups of water
1 1/2 table spoon Olive oil
Salt

Start by mixing the two types of flour together, creating a well at the bottom. Set this a side.

Mix wet ingredients and salt together in smaller bowl before pouring it into the well. Mix all of these together, if it is two wet add a bit more flour until it not too wet or too dry.

Take out a manageable piece of dough and run it through the crank that does not have holes. Crank until it is the desired thickness. Switch the crank handle and take the long peice of dough. Carefully crank it through, using your other hand or a friends to hold the pasta coming out on the other side. Place it on a floured baking tray until you are ready to boil it.

Unlike store bought dried pasta, this will only take about three minutes to boil through. Boil water with olive oil and salt in it.

Once drained you can top it with salt but I recommend trying it on its own first. I like to chop up veggies like roma tomato's, onion,and garlic with a touch of fresh basil. But to each his own! Enjoy.


Notes that you can save extra by wrapping it in cling wrap and freezing it.

Red Potatoes and Roma Tomatoes

This is the recipe to the main part of the dish but in the picture (sorry I was out of batteries so I took it on my cell phone.) you will see that I added whole grain gnochhi's as my main complex carbohydrate and a loaf of home made French country bread


1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 pound red potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 Roma tomatoes, cut into bite size pieces


Heat oil in a skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté potatoes, stirring and shaking skillet frequently, until golden brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes and cook, stirring, until tomatoes begin to blister, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Gnocchi Pan Seared In Garlic Onion and Butter

This was just me trying something different with gnocchi's, my favorite form of pasta. These little balls are made with potato and are dumpling like. They are very very filling. You'll love them!

Ingredients:
1/2 a small onion
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of butter
Whole wheat gnocchi's

First boil your gnocchi as directed. You will know that they are done when they float to the top. Set aside to drain.

Mince up your onions and garlic. In a frying pan melt the butter and toss in the vggies. Follow this by adding the cooked gnocchi's and keep them moving in the melted mixture until they soak it up and turn a nice golden color. You can also add salt or pepper at this time to your own taste. Remember. No salt at the table! It's the small things that you can change to make yourself healthier!

Serve with slices of plain or garlic bread.

"I Feel Sick Today" Soup

End of the month and we are not in the food buying place in our budget. But I wasn't feeling so great today so I tossed together this soup. This is again one of those recipies where you can toss in just about anything...chunks of tofu would be a great addition.

Ingredients:
Pasta (Any kind will do)
2 cups of Veggie broth
3 garlic cloves (Chopped)
1 Onion (Chopped)
Soy sauce (Optional)

Start by cooking you pasta as the package directs. Leave it a bit al dante if you can. This means to not cook totally but leave the noddles a bit stiff. Drain and put to the side.

Next heat up your broth. When it is boiling toss in the garlic, onions and pasta. Cook these well so that the veggie broth is soaked into them. If you f ind that your broth is a little bland a teaspoon of soy sauce will salt it up and add a darker colour.

The Onions and garlic will improve your immune systems well being along with the veggie broth. The better and more organic you by the better the chance your body will fight off infection.

Red Bean Pasta

So, as is the life of a college student I am nearly out of food and need to put the last twenty dollars in my gas tank to get to school (I really need a bike). Its time, for any person, vegan or not, to move into left overs mode. Lucky for me this isn't hard and for anything that I do need I can just go to the Arabian market and get what I need for under a dollar.

Pasta with Red Kidney Bean & Thyme

Hand full of dried whole grain pasta
Onion (as much as you want)
1/2 cup of cooked red kidney beans
Pinch of Thyme
Earth Balance butter
Soy Parm (optional)

Cook the pasta to the desired tenderness. The handful should double in size when it is fully cooked so don't worry if it doesn't look like too much. Drain out the water and leave the pasta in the strainer.

Turn down the heat to medium. Toss in Earth Balance and melt about half way. Put in the beans and onion and cook until onions are almost see through. After than toss in the pasta and thyme and mix in with the rest.

Soy parm is actually one of the few (if only) cheese sub that I like. After you pour it into a bowl, if you like sprinkle it with the parm.

Enjoy!


Health note: When you combine beans and any whole grain it releases amino acids and vitamin's that you can only get when they are together!