I'm in love with pasta. I could eat it every day of the week. I'm also a big fan of making food with what I have in the refrigerator. This weekend I threw together a quick pasta dish that came out pretty tasty, so I figured I would share.

- A box of cooked Fusilli
- 3/4 a stick of butter
- Three medium size cloves of garlic
- A small onion
- A package of sweet Italian sausage
- A cup of white wine
- Half a pint of heavy cream
- Diced tomatoes (I used canned and drained them because the sauce would be too thin with the juice but fresh can easily be substituted)
- A cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta and set aside, or cook during preparation if you can multi-task.

In a large skillet melt the butter. When the butter gets warm, add garlic and onion and saute over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Remove sausage from casing and cut into small chunks. Add sausage pieces to skillet and simmer until brown, but not fully cooked.

Add cup of white wine and let simmer until broth reduces by half.

Add the half of a pink of heavy cream, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese, let simmer while stirring until well mixed.

Add cook Fusilli and let stand for a few minutes so the noodles can suck up the sauce. Enjoy!

-- Ginger

I've always been curious about polenta. How could I not be? It's like Italian grits! I've never made them, or had them in a restaurant, but after buying a box at the neighborhood Italian butcher shop, I decided to give it a shot. However, the box I bought was so authentic that the instructions were in Italian. Excellent. Time to hit the interwebs.Polenta can be soft or firm. Soft polenta is a creamy cereal, like grits. Firm polenta is soft polenta that has has been chilled, sliced and then either grilled, toasted or fried. I decided to make soft polenta one night (again with the grits theme).

I settled on Tyler Florence's Creamy Corn Polenta, since I've always like my grits creamy. I love Tyler Florence, mainly because he's handsome and lives in San Jose. And of course, he can cook! I can dream, right? I found a recipe for http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/polenta-bites-with-caramelized-mushrooms-recipe/index.html to top it with, and sauteed some frozen shrimp (my go-to protein these days). It works for grits, why not polenta? (Can you tell that most of my polenta knowledge was also based on grits?)
I followed the recipe exactly, except I except for using more milk and hot water instead of chicken stock to thin it out (didn't have any on hand). As soon as a whisked the polenta in, the mixture was very thick so I watered it down immediatly, wanting the grains to soak up liquid and be creamy. Maybe this was because I used "polenta express" but next time, I'll use 1 cup instead of a 1 and 1/2. Also, salt it when you put the polenta in, not 20 minutes later. Otherwise you will need tons of salt later (that's just grits 101, girls!)

The camalized mushrooms were amazing. I usual just saute quartered cremini mushrooms (much better flavor than white, they're like miniature portabellas) in garlic, salt, pepper and maybe some white wine if I'm feeling dangerous. But these were just almost easy and so good. Let the wine reduce down for about 10 minutes so the mushrooms can soak up the flavor and the wine can thicken. I'm definitely making those again, but maybe with a little less butter. I later cooked the shrimp in the same pan, with a little salt and pepper.



Overall, I think I'll be sticking to grits when I need some salty, creamy comfort food. But polenta is definitely interesting, and I'm curious to try it firm. It would be great with fish, maybe some green onions? Have y'all ever made/eaten polenta? What was it like?

-Sarah

It's getting cold in this part of the country and there is nothing like a good plate of spaghetti to warm you up.

My brother called me Sunday night to ask me how to make lasagna, so it gave me a craving for some. But since I make my own sauce, its a two step process. I made the sauce this week and there will be a lasagna recipe soon to follow.

Ingredients:

• Three medium cans of tomato sauce.
• A medium can of tomato paste.
• Hamburger meat, at least a couple of pounds if you like a meaty sauce like I do.
• A package of sweet Italian sausage.
• A bottle of Italian salad dressing.
• About a cup of Italian seasoning, available on the seasoning aisle as a blended seasoning.
• A cup of sugar.
• A clove of garlic.

Spray a large pot with Pam or other non-stick spray. I prefer the "High Heat" spray that Pam makes.

Pour the tomato sauce and paste into a large pot and stir to dissolve the tomato paste. Using the tomato sauce can, add about one and half cans of water.

Put the pot over medium heat.

Crumble up the meat and add to pot. Remove the casing from the sausage, crumble and add to pot.

Be consistent about stirring the pot because it will stick to the bottom and burn.

Add the Italian dressing to the pot.

I add about a cup of Italian seasoning, but if you're unsure about how it will taste, add half a cup and then keeping adding until its flavored to your liking. Stir well every time you add the seasoning because it needs to be evenly distributed.

Add the diced garlic clove.

Bring the sauce to a boil, stirring consistently to prevent burning. Allow to simmer for about 30 minutes to cook the meat and sausage.

Add the cup of sugar and stir, this will reduce the bitterness created by the tomatoes and meat.

The trick to making a good spaghetti sauce, in my opinion is a lot of tasting. Don't be afraid to add more of any ingredient. Sometimes the Italian sausage you pick up will throw the other flavors off. The pot I made this weekend had a somewhat citrus taste, so I added some more Italian seasoning to compensate.

-Ginger

I love pesto. I will literally spread it on anything. And once you've made it yourself, you will never buy the pre-made stuff again. They're just not even the same thing. It freezes well too, so if you have lots of basil just make as much as you can and freeze what's left.

1 package basil leaves
1/4 cup of pine nuts (you can also use pecans or walnuts because pine nuts are a little pricey)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup parmesean, freshly grated
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt to taste

I use one of those mini choppers (its $30 at Target and totally worth it) because I'm too poor for a food processor. Put the parmesan cheese in first and grind until crumbly, then add basil, pine nuts, garlic and half of the oil. Mix well, then slowly add the rest of the olive oil until it forms a paste. Add salt to taste. You can also use a mortar and pestle (which I decided to try once, but its not that great and it takes forever. If you do want to give it a shot, grind everything together except the cheese and the oil, then process it all in the mini chopper/food processor.

Store in an airtight container with saran wrap pressed inside the tupperware to keep pesto from turning brown (if it does, it doesn't change the flavor, its just kind of gross looking). You can also cover it with a thin layer of olive oil, but this may thin your pesto out too much. It should keep for about a week or 3 months frozen.

Some of my favorite non-pasta uses of pesto:
-Spread on a turkey sandwich with some swiss cheese, broil for a few minutes for a quick, yummy lunch
-Spread on pizza in place of tomato sauce with some mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, artichokes, onions, spinach and feta. Or just with plain with cheese.
-Mix with some mayonaisse (I hate mayo, but I love this stuff) and put it on a sandwich or hamburger (I got this idea from a restaurant in Los Gatos. They had it on toasted sourdough bread with mushrooms, swiss, bacon, lettuce and grilled onions...amazing!)
-Use for bruschetta with fresh mozarella, ribbons of basil, sauteed mushrooms and a few pine nuts
-Straight out of the fridge on your finger ;)

-Sarah