Easy Mac & Cheese for One

I always wanted to try Smitten Kitchen's easy essential stovetop mac'n'cheese, and tonight I did. I'm happy to confirm that it was indeed easy and delicious and that my daughter loved it. I accidentally used too much milk (1 cup instead of 1/2), but it just made for extra sauce. I also didn't have parmesan or pecorino cheese, so I just used grated cheese from Trader Joe's. My daughter didn't mind. Would be happy to double the ingredients and make this a cozy TV dinner (Downton Abbey!) for two.

For what it is, a quick comfort food fix, 8/10.

Here's the recipe:

• Kosher salt
• 4 ounces (115 grams) dried pasta, such as macaroni or another small twisty shape
• 2 teaspoons (10 grams) salted or unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons (6 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) low-fat or whole milk 
• Many grinds of black pepper
• 1/2 cup (1 ounce or 30 grams) finely grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

Bring a small-to-medium pot of very well-salted water to a boil and add your dried pasta. Cook it until firm tender, then drain. 

Return pot to stove and melt butter in the bottom. Using a spoon or whisk, add flour and mix until it disappears. 

Add milk, a tiny splash at a time [I got this wrong, but it didn't mater), stirring constantly so no lumps form. Season with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt and many grinds of black pepper. Bring sauce to a simmer. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in grated cheese until combined. 

Add drained pasta, stir to evenly coat. 

One-pot Orzo with Spinach and Peas

One-pot recipes are the best. This one has become my go-to recipe. Tonight I tried another one-pot recipe from The New York Times, with some simplifications (I didn't have scallions and I didn't have garlic). 1 cup of orzo didn't seem enough for 3 people, so I added another 1/2 cup. Easy and delicious. I think next time I might try mozzarella instead of feta.

What I want to cook

Some kind of pasta & chickpeas dish.

This one by Melissa Clark is labeled 'easy.'
This one looks a little more indulgent.

Pasta with ricotta, although it's something my family doesn't love.
Pleasant pasta

Smitten Kitchen's cacio e pepe, marked as 'foolproof'.
Smitten Kitchen's stove top mac'n cheese.

Mark Bittman's apple crisp recipe

Fettuccine with Asparagus

Another NY Times Cooking recipe. My family isn't keen on ricotta-based sauces, so I picked this recipe, because who doesn't like pasta with butter and cheese? Fresh asparagus and herbs add some green.

Step 4: Drop the fettuccine into salted boiling water. Let cook to desired degree of doneness (cooking time will range from about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes for fresh pasta to 9 minutes or more for dried). Reserve 2 tablespoons cooking water. Drain the pasta

Step 5: Heat the butter in the pot in which the pasta was cooked. Add the asparagus pieces and the fettuccine. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the reserved 2 tablespoons of cooking water and basil. Toss to blend. Serve hot with Parmesan cheese on the side.

I used parsley instead of basil and added some toasted pine nuts (because we had them). It was alright, but will probably not become a standard (too much green for our tween).

One-pot spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and spinach

When I saw this recipe at New York Times Cooking (which I have access to as a subscriber to the paper), I knew it was just right for me. Not many ingredients (I substituted spinach for kale) and ONE POT ONLY. It turned out great. My resident fussy eater (now 11 years old) picked out the spinach, but otherwise it was an overall success. I was even asked to make it again soon!

"In this simple recipe, raw pasta and cherry tomatoes are simmered together in a single pan, cooking the pasta and forming a thick, starchy sauce at the same time. The efficient technique is internet famous, but this is the British cookbook author Anna Jones's simple vegetarian take on the phenomenon, adapted from her book "A Modern Way to Cook." The technique is easy to master and endlessly adaptable: When you add the kale, you could also toss in a couple of anchovies and a generous pinch of red chile flakes. When you season and top with cheese, you could add a pile of fresh chopped herbs, like mint, basil or oregano."

I didn't do any of that, of course. Minimal all the way. This is what you need:

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved (about 2 pints)
• 2 lemons, zested
• ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 bunch kale or spinach, leaves only, washed and chopped
•  Salt and pepper, to taste
•  Parmesan, for serving

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Bring just over a quart of water to a boil. Meanwhile, place spaghetti, tomatoes, lemon zest, oil and salt in a large, dry, shallow pan. (The pan should be large enough that the dry spaghetti can lie flat. )

Add the hot water to the pan with the spaghetti. Cover pan, and bring up to a boil. Remove lid and simmer for about 6 minutes, using tongs to move the spaghetti around now and then so it doesn’t stick.

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4. Add kale or spinach and continue cooking until remaining liquid has reduced to a sauce and the pasta is cooked through. Taste, season and top with cheese. 

 

And that's it, could't be easier, couldn't be more satisfying (at least for vegetarians).  Enough for a hungry family of 3. Easily a 9 out of 10.

Lentil Baked Ziti

New year, new resolutions -- or affirmations of old ones. Making dinner following a recipe once a week. Sounds good? I still don't like meat, don't like to fry things, and don't like most vegetables. My daughter is even more finicky. So here's what I tried last night: Lentil Baked Ziti.



From the recipe description:

This baked ziti is precisely what I want to eat when it’s cold outside. Hearty, saucy, cheesy pasta with redeeming whole grains and protein-rich lentils to keep me fueled for hours.

Here's how I made it:

1 package Trader Joe's steamed lentils (17 ounces, ready to heat)
12 oz pasta
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 generous cup of cottage cheese
1 cube of Trader Joe's crushed frozen garlic
1.5-2 loosely packed cups of grated cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

• boil pasta al dente, drain, put back in pot
• add lentils (I heated them in the microwave first, but I'm not sure that was necessary)
• add garlic
• add 1/2 coup of grated cheese (I used cheddar, because that's what I had, but mozzarella might be better), let melt
  
• pour one cup of marinara sauce into baking dish (I used a 13x9, but I don't think it matters)
• add pasta/lentil mix, spread evenly
• spoon cottage cheese in dollops on top, spread just a little

• add rest of sauce
• add rest of cheese (1 lightly packed cup should be enough, I think I used a bit too much, as you can see in the first picture)

• bake for 30 minutes at 350 F
• if you like a crunchy layer, broil for 3 additional minutes at the end

The dish came out great. It was very satisfying in a "I'm eating pasta and cheese, but it might not be 100% unhealthy" kind of way. Even my finicky 9-year old liked it. About generous portions (recipe says 6-8, but I would make more if I had to feed 8 hungry people in the middle of winter). We'll happily finish off what is left tonight.


Happy New Year!

Mushroom Lasagna

I made this and it was great. Perhaps even better the next day. Served 2 people on two consecutive days. Easy! Even the bechamel turned out fine. Dilettante cooking at its best.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen. To make things easier, I used no-cooking lasagna sheets. They seem lighter than the regular ones, I didn't use a full 225g box (I used 12 sheets).

Mushroom Lasagna
Adapted, only a little, from Ina Garten

Last time I posted, I joked about the number of changes I make to the average recipe. However, Ina Garten doesn’t write average recipes. Her recipes never fail to produce dishes that require no tweaking to receive rave reviews, and this one was no different. The only things I messed with were adding a clove of minced garlic to the sauce, because it’s so wonderful against the creaminess and swapping out portobellos with cremini, or brown mushrooms as portobellos are more expensive, harder to find, break easily and are nothing but overgrown brown mushrooms.

My only gripe with this recipe is the number of pots it uses; I counted 4 in the original (not including the colander, cutting board and knife, ugh) and managed to trim it to 3 in my version, below. However, I did forget all about the inconvenience of dishes once I tasted the final dish — completely and totally worth it.

Serves 6 to 8 (more as a first course) [or, in our case, serves 2 hungry people twice for dinner]

• Salt
• Olive oil
• 3/4 pound dried lasagna noodles
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup (12 tablespoons or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used less, because this seemed like a lot)
• 1 1/2 pounds cremini or portobello mushrooms
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Bring a large, wide (if you use a wide one, you can save a dish later and saute your mushrooms in the bottom of it) of water to boil with salt and a splash of oil, that will help keep your noodles from sticking together as they drain. Add the lasagna noodles and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Make béchamel: Bring the milk and garlic to simmer in a saucepan, or heat it in your microwave, and set it aside. Melt 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons or 1 stick) butter in a large saucepan. If your name is Deb, you will probably brown this butter, too. Add the flour and cook for one minute over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon. Pour in the hot milk, a little at a time at first and stirring until combined. Once you’ve added half of it, you can add the second half all at once, along with 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt, the pepper, and nutmeg. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring or whisking frequently, for 3 to 5 minutes, or until thick. Set aside.

Prepare mushrooms: Discard portobello mushroom stems and/or trim the ends of the cremini stems. Slice mushrooms 1/4-inch thick. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter over medium in the bottom of the large, wide pot you used to cook the noodles earlier, or in a large sauté pan. Cook half the mushrooms with a couple pinches of salt for about 5 minutes, or until they are tender and release some of their juices, tossing to make sure they cook evenly. Repeat with additional oil and butter, and remaining mushrooms.

Assemble lasagna: Spread some of the sauce in the bottom of an 8 x 12 or 9 x 13 baking dish. (Ina recommends the former, I only had the latter; if you’d like to freeze or give this dish as a gift, remember to use a foil pan). Arrange a layer of noodles on top*, then more sauce (about 1/4 of what remains), 1/3 of the mushrooms and 1/4 cup grated parmesan. Repeat two more times then top with a final layer of noodles, your remaning sauce and last 1/4 cup of parmesan.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is browned and the sauce is bubbly. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving. To freeze for future use, allow it to cool completely and wrap two to three times in plastic wrap before freezing. I baked it for 30 minutes covered with aluminum foil and then 15 minutes uncovered. It browned very nicely.

* Burning question: Do you overlap your lasagna noodles on each layer? I think that’s the way it is usually done, but it has been so long since I made lasagna, I couldn’t remember. I decided to line mine up, and ended up with three neat rows down my 9 x 13 pan (I trimmed the ends of the noodles, because I can occasionally be a neat freak) and found it exceptionally neat and pretty to serve, as each piece could have two ruffly edges. This meant I only used 12 noodles total, or about 2/3 of a one-pound box.