October 15, 2011: Leftover Pork Roast Pasta Recipe

How many times do you prepare a meal one night and find yourself with just a little bit of it left over? This happens to me a lot – particularly when I make a pork roast but there are also times when I have a single leftover chicken thigh or smoked sausage.

The question is what can you do with them? If you don’t want to eat leftovers the next day for lunch or dinner, then your task is to repurpose them. Here’s an easy way to do so.

There’s not a hard and fast recipe for using leftovers to make a pasta dish. I’ll share with you what I did with mine the other night (and this concoction used up a whole bunch of other little bits and pieces, too):

Leftover Pork and Pasta

4 ounces penne pasta

1 t. olive oil

¼ red bell pepper, thinly sliced

2 green onions, sliced on the diagonal

3 mushrooms, thinly sliced

3 small slices leftover pork loin roast, cubed

¼ cup chopped tomato (I used a couple cherry tomatoes)

½ jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained

6 - 7 black olives, sliced

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 leaves basil, chiffonade sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

Shaved Parmesan cheese (use a vegetable peeler)

Cook the pasta according to package directions.

Heat the olive oil to medium in a heavy skillet. Add the bell pepper, onions, and mushrooms. Cook just until slightly softened. Add pork, tomato, black olives and artichoke hearts. Heat through (mixture will be moist from tomatoes and artichoke hearts). Turn heat to low and add cream.

Divide pasta between two plates or bowls. Top each with half of vegetable mixture, basil, freshly ground black pepper, and shaved curls of Parmesan cheese.

This is just one example of a leftover pasta dish. Tomorrow I’ll share additional combinations of meat, vegetables, pasta and sauces that will work with just about any leftovers in your fridge.

October 8, 2011: Slow Cooked Sirloin in Mushroom Sauce Over Pasta Recipe

As the days get shorter, I naturally turn to my crock pot to slowly cook a meal all day long. Of course, crock pot cookery is a natural for tough meats. For this recipe I used a couple of really thick sirloin steaks. Usually sirloin is a fairly good cut of meat but perhaps because of the size of these steaks, slow cooking was an ideal way to make them fork tender. Feel free to use any beef cut, such as chuck steak or London broil (flatiron), in this recipe.

Simply add all the ingredients to your crock pot and let it go all day long!

Slow Cooked Sirloin in Mushroom Sauce Over Pasta

1 pound top thick cut top sirloin steaks

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½ yellow or white onion, thinly sliced

1 T. steak sauce

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

1 T. ketchup

1 t. yellow mustard

1 cup beef broth

4 ounces mushrooms, quartered

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. water

8 ounces penne pasta

2 T. butter

1 t. garlic salt

1 T. fresh parsley, minced (or 1 t. dehydrated parsley)

Combine all ingredients, except mushrooms, in slow cooker. Set to high for at least one hour. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 6 – 8 hours. Half an hour before serving, add mushrooms. If you wish to thicken the sauce, mix together cornstarch and water and add to slow cooker. Increase heat to high. Cook another 20 – 30 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and sauce is thickened.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain. Add butter, garlic salt, and parsley. Toss together lightly.

Serve steaks with sauce over pasta.

Serves 4

September 12, 2011: Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe Recipe

Macaroni and cheese seems to be a universal favorite comfort food. It certainly is for my family, who could eat it every single week. They’re completely devoted to their box of Kraft mac and cheese but every now and then I’ve convinced them to eat outside the box. This is a recipe I found in a magazine some years ago or… okay, well it’s mostly that recipe but not quite. Here’s how I make a “kicked up” version of macaroni and cheese that functions as a hearty main dish.

Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe

1 lb. penne pasta

10 slices thick bacon, cut into small pieces

½ cup diced onion

8 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 roma tomato, diced

¾ cup frozen peas

1 jar prepared Alfredo sauce

2 T. ranch dressing

1 ½ cups shredded Colby Jack or Pepper Jack cheese

Cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain.

In a skillet, cook the bacon pieces over medium heat until cooked through and crispy. Add the onion and mushrooms and cook a few minutes more, until vegetables soften.

In the pot you used to cook the penne pasta or a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Pour into a greased casserole; cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Serves 6

July 2, 2011: Pasta Ponza Recipe

Recently I bought a container of beautiful miniature heirloom tomatoes at the grocery store. They just looked so colorful and yummy, I knew I had to come up with a special dish for them. I found this one, which I adapted, online at the Food Network website; it’s one provided by Giada de Laurentis.

Tip: The one thing I would do differently next time is not roast the tomatoes as this process turned them into mush. I think using them raw and adding freshly toasted bread cubes - use my recipe for homemade bread crumbs here - would be better. Tell me what you think.

Pasta Ponza

½ pound penne pasta
2 cups small tomatoes (grape, cherry, baby heirloom, etc.)
1 – 2 T. olive oil
½ t. kosher salt
¼ t. freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 t. Italian seasoning
1 t. dried minced parsley
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to directions, drain and reserve half cup of cooking water.

Meanwhile, cut tomatoes in half. Toss with olive oil, salt, black pepper and Italian seasoning. Place in an 8 inch square baking pan. Top with bread crumbs and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for half an hour, until the bread crumbs are golden and crispy.

Toss together the cooked pasta, the baked tomatoes, parsley and Parmesan cheese. Add a bit of the reserved cooking water if it seems too dry.