Category Archives: Pasta

Deconstructed Lasagna

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I made this a few months back and I keep thinking about it. I need to make this deconstructed lasagna again. It’s calls for all of the standard ingredients for the body that gets combined into one messy mixture, but it’s topped with blobs of creamy spinach dip instead of a ricotta filling or a bechamel layer between the pasta and meat sauce.

Pros of making this dish: I found I used about 1/4 of the normal cheese blend I would have used for a traditional lasagna, and there was a speedier assembly of ingredients since I wasn’t stopping to do any layering. And I didn’t have to wait for a bechamel sauce to be made. I bought and used a spinach dip from the grocery store. I also didn’t have to wait as long for the layers to set up when it came out of the oven.

Cons of making this dish: I couldn’t find one because I didn’t have any Italians eating this with me. 😀 I didn’t like the tang of the spinach dip as much as I thought I would. I will have to source a different brand, or buy a different type of dip next time.

I can’t remember how long I baked this or at what temp, but I’ll use my best guess here. I’d say about I cooked it 30 mins at 350-375 with the casserole lid on.

DIY Hamburger Helper

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A few weeks ago I commented on an Instagram reel about DIY Hamburger Helper. I commented that I’d never eaten the box stuff before and asked what it tasted like. I never got a reply so I forgot all it until someone at work the other day was telling a co-worker she’s never eaten it before. She asked if I’ve ever eaten Hamburger Helper and then asked what it tasted like. Out of us three, not one of us had, and we come from three different age groups. And we all now work at a grocery store. I thought that was odd. What are the chances?

So, the three of us then had this back and forth about making it at home, and why it exists at all. The answer is, women started working outside the home in the 1970s. This product was marketed to every woman who was looking for faster, simpler meal ideas to feed their hungry family each night from the late 1970s onward.

The basic idea of Hamburger Helper has always been a box of small noodles with a cheese powder + curated spices packet, and all the consumer has to cook it with ground meat, veggies, and liquids to make it a complete meal. Easy peasy.

My mom made a version of HH which she could scale up (the box didn’t stretch far enough) to feed her army. So in that spirit, here is the basic idea of what Mum made us based on my memories, with spices I like, smashed together with what I saw in that Instagram reel. The husband and I loved it. I made enough for six big people meals on Monday at lunch, and by dinner tonight (Tuesday), it was all gone (save for one more portion for his lunch tomorrow.)

Aunt Stacey’s Hamburger Helper:
4 C Small Pasta Noodles, half cooked and strained (I only had penne on hand)

2-3 Tbsp Oil
1 Onion, diced
Salt Pinch
1 Lbs (454g) Ground Meat (of choice)

Fry the onion until it starts to soften; place into a small bowl. Lay the meat down in the oil to cook the first side, When the bottom edge is browned, carefully flip the meat over from you to sear the second side. Leave it go a full minute before breaking it up with a potato masher, twisting the tool as you push down on the meat to separate the strands into crumble.

Add to the meat:

1 Garlic Clove, minced (I used jar stuff)
1 Sweet Pepper, diced
1 Tbsp: Italian Seasoning, Ground Onion Powder (or more), Beef Gravy Powder (opt)
1 Tea Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 Tea: Ground Sage, Red Hot Chili Peppers grinds, Black Pepper
10 oz Canned Tomato Sauce (or canned diced tomatoes blitzed)
1+ Cup Whole Milk
1/2 Cup Water

Taste test the liquid. Adjust the flavours here if you want or need to. Add another small pinch of salt.

Bring the pot to barely a boil and drop in the half cooked pasta. Stir the pasta so 90% of it is submerged in the liquid. Lid the pot and drop the heat so it can simmer 10 mins to finish cooking everything and give the flavours time to marry.

Final additions:

1+ C Parmesan Cheese, grated or shredded
4 Marble Cheese Slices or 1 C Marble Cheese Shred

Kill the heat and lid the pot one last time to let the cheeses melt. Uncover and stir to combine everything evenly.

I’m not really sure how long this took to make, but I’d say it was between 20-30 mins. It was just as fast from scratch. The longest part was the time it took the meat to sear so I could start filling up the pan with the other ingredients.

Burger Mac & Cheese Soup

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While tooling around online, I came across this Big Mac & Cheese Soup idea that was perfect for using up some stuff I have kicking around in my fridge. Namely two leftover burger patties, and half a jar of spicy cheese sauce (soo good).

You know I love to play around with recipies to make it my own if I can, but more importantly, I need to make it simple enough to be both fast & dirty, and tasty as hell. I think I nailed this one. Check out what I came up with:

I started by cooking the pasta in water with a beef cube together from the jump. As this pot boiled, I heated up water and chicken stock powder in a small sauce pot off to the side.

When the pasta was done, I reserved about 1/4 cup of the flavoured starch water and drained the rest. While the cheese sauce and ground up burger meat heated through mixed into the pasta, I diced up a dill pickle to stir in as well to keep the Big Mac burger theme going.

I gave it all a good stir together and spooned heaping amounts of the mac & cheese into bowls, and then ladled the chicken stock over top to turn it into a soup. This dish stands on its own without the chicken stock if you’re not into soup. My husband loved this dish as a straight pasta + meal meal.

The original recipe above called for milk in the sauce mixture, but I wasn’t into that idea today, so this is all I used to make this meal:

Burger Mac & Cheese Soup:
2 C Macaroni Pasta
I Beef Bouillion Cube

2 C Chicken Stock

2 leftover Burgers (with an dry onion soup powder in the mixture)
1/2 C Salsa con Queso (found at Walmart)
1/4 C Dill Pickle, small dice

I hope you love making this one. It’s a hearty, tasty meal. It’s also fast and dirty, and tasty enough to satisfy. I really like that the spicy cheese and the onion soup mix did most of the heavy lifting. This is a no-sweat meal to make on the fly when you want to clean our your fridge more than you want to be all gourmet and fancy.

Lush Ramen Noodz

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I love the comforting lushness butter adds to ramen. I used to make it according to the picture above with a basic chicken pack, but I have learned I like it more with less garlic powder and a tablespoon of onion powder. I leave the salt out. The seasoning pack is salty enough. The noodles will end up sitting in a yellow broth made from the egg yolk and the butter knob. Can’t be beat when you are only in the mood for comforting noodles.

 

Garlic ‘Pasketti & Balls Bread

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My husband’s loves this spin on a childhood fave food. It consists of a hollowed out bread loaf that’s been brushed with garlic butter, topped with cheese and spaghetti & meatballs. I put more cheese on top and bake it for 10 mins at 350*F. I let it cook for 10 mins, pulled it to rest 10 mins, and then cut it into slices to serve.

Garlic ‘Pasketti & Balls Bread:
1″ Bundle of Spaghetti
Pasta Sauce, of choice
Frozen Meatballs, of choice
Half Bread Loaf, cut lengthwise and middle mostly hollowed out
Garlic Butter
1/2 C Marble Cheese, either slices or grated, or both
1/4 C Parmesan Cheese, grated

Serves two.

Hollow out the bread and brush the cavity with the garlic butter. Lay down half the marble cheese and top it with half of the parm cheese. Roll the cooked pasta in the pot with the hot sauce and balls. (I cut the meatballs in half to make eating them easier.)

Carefully lay the spaghetti & balls over the cheeses and top with more meatballs. Push it down as you add more to condense it and really get that hot sauce melting the cheese to trap the spaghetti in place. Top with the last of the cheeses, and bake on a sheet pan.

It’s a real challenge to eat this without losing any of the balls or strands of the spaghetti, but that only makes it more fun to eat on some random night when you need something fast to make and filling to consume.

Mac & Pizza Casserole

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Sometimes I get tired of pizza because I’m not in the mood to chew a baked crust. And sometimes I also want Mac & Cheese at the same time as pizza. Enter the casserole version!

I mixed up my normal pizza topper ingredients I like (pepperoni chopped up, any veg I have kicking around, loads of grated mozza + marble cheddar plus a bit of parm cheeses), a bunch of cooked elbow pasta, the white mac & cheese sauce I always make (or close enough), and any spices I want (I stuck with the classic Italian blend).

This got baked covered at 375* for about 30 mins to get it hot enough to melt the cheese properly.

Low-Carb Pasta Alternative

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Ok, so I found this recipe link for a Low-Carb Pasta Alternative buried in my old Pinterest boards. In a board I haven’t looked at in about six or more years. Otherwise, I would have suggested this long ago.

Use that bagged slaw we use for stir-fries. It’s quite versatile. Anyway, if you’re missing pasta in sauce, this might be up your alley, E.

French Onion Soup Mac & Cheese

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I saw this video from Sam The Cooking Guy making his version of this same dish, and thought, I can make that faster using canned soup. This was a lovely tasting change up on the classic pasta dish. One I liked enough to want to make again in the future.

French Onion Soup Mac & Cheese:
2 C Small Pasta
Salt

1 1/2 – 2 C Cheddar Cheese, grated
1/2 C Panko Breadcrumbs
1 1/2 tbsp Dry Rub (of choice)

1 can Onion Soup, hot
1/3 C Pasta Water, reserved

Scoop the cooked pasta into a large bowl to mix with everything else, including some reserved starchy water from the pasta pot. Top with some green herbs or green onion chops, as well as some cracks of pepper.

Smack & Cheese

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(From the archives.)

My husband’s favourite pasta dish is my Smack & Cheese. I call it that in jest, but when you get this dish just right, you won’t stop eating it, It’s a fantastically horrible addiction.

Very basic ingredients were used like bacon, pasta, onions, butter, diced red peppers, milk, and grated cheddar cheese. Half the bacon went into the creamy roux sauce along with the red peppers as the milk was thickening, and it was all blended with the cheese in a bowl off the heat before serving. That’s it! No magic involved, but it tasted like there was some alchemy involved.

The main thrust of this dish is the bechemel sauce with cheddar cheese added at the very end over pasta. That’s it. Very simple, but very tasty when all is said and done.

Note: I don’t use much in the way of salt for this dish. I let all of the salt that is already present in the cheese, butter and cooked pasta do all the heavy flavour lifting while adding some freshly cracked pepper on top at the table. I also use fresh herbs when my herb garden is flourishing during the summer months.

Makes 4.

1. Cook 2C Rotini or any other similar shaped pasta like penne in salted boiling water.

2. Cut 3 Bacon strips in half for frying. Chop coarsely after it cooked and cooled off.

3. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a sauce pot. When it foams up, add about 1 tbsp of oil; swirl it around. Dump in 1/2 C diced white onions and cook down for about five minutes.

Add 2 tbsp flour; whisk in until the butter and onions clump up and the colour starts to turn brown somewhat and the flour cooks a bit.

Add one pile of bacon bits + 1/2 of diced red. Stir to coat a bit. Add 1 1/2C of milk. Whisk to combine the flour and dairy. Stir the pot so the milk doesn’t get scalded or burn on the bottom as it thickens. Taste test. Add a small pinch of salt if needed.

4. Scoop out about 1/3 C of the pasta water for your sauce; set aside. Drain the pasta about 1 minute before it hits al dente. Return the pasta to the same pot off the heat.

5.Grate 2 C of any cheese(s) you have; set it aside.

6. After the milk thickens and coats the back of a spoon, pour the bechamel sauce into the bowl over top of the waiting pasta noodles.

7. Dump the cheese in over the pasta + bechemel. Stir quickly until the cheddar is fully melted and coats the pasta in a lovely amber colour. Use any or all of the reserved pasta starch water to aid the coating process should the bechamel be too thick.

8. Plate your pasta into serving dishes and top with the second pile of bacon bits and some freshly washed and chopped herb of your choice. I love fresh basil or cilantro over my pasta, but go nuts. DH loves to add a few cracks of pepper over his pasta, as well.

Mange!

This entry was posted on July 8, 2011.