The sun is out, our 2nd move is 85% done, and it’s Friday! Lets celebrate today with my new favorite pasta recipe.

I discovered Bucatini while watching none other then Lidias Italy. The amount of new foods, techniques, and recipes that this woman has single handily introduced me to is amazing!  I love thicker noodles so as soon as I saw her make this recipe with Bucatini, I knew I had to try them.

This recipe, like many Italian recipes is simple, fast, and delicious. This is definitely something you can make when you are pressed for time but want a tasty satisfying meal.

Ingredients

200g bucatini
1 chunk of country style bread, day-old preferred
1½ tablespoons Coarse sea salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sliced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped
½ cup Pecorino Romano, freshly grated

This made enough for 2 pasta dinners plus leftovers for lunch.

Steps

Cut off the crust of the bread chunk and with your fingers tear the interior of the bread into irregular shreds or grate with a corse grater. For 200g of pasta shread about 1 cup of rough bread crumbs.

Heat the water with a tablespoon of salt until it boils. Add the bucatini.  Cook, partially covered, until al dente.

As soon as the pasta is in the pot, pour 1/4 cup of olive oil into a large skillet, set over medium-high heat and scatter in the garlic slices. Cook for a couple of minutes until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant but still pale. Drop in the torn bread crumbs. Stir and tumble them over to coat with oil. Keep tossing as they start to toast and color, sprinkle over the oregano, and continue stirring and tossing. Lower the heat to avoid burning and, as soon as the crumbs and garlic slices are deep gold and crisp, turn off the heat.

As soon as it is cooked al dente, lift out the bucatini with tongs, let the water drain off for just a second or two, then drop it into the skillet.

Turn the heat up a bit and immediately toss the pasta with the bread crumbs and garlic. Sprinkle on a 1/2 teaspoon salt and keep tossing. If the crumbs absorbed all the oil and the pasta seems dry, drizzle over 1 or more tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and toss well. Taste and season with more salt if needed. Finally, sprinkle on the parsley and greated cheese, toss and serve right away.

Tips from the Chef…

This recipe is SO GOOD. What I love about it, as Lidia says, is every Italian has these ingredients in their pantry at all times, so it is the perfect meal to make when you are out of ideas. It’s budget friendly and your taste buds will love it.

When it comes to the bread, you don’t want to use store bought bread crumbs, or a rock hard piece of bread. You want one that has started to go stale, where the outside is crunchy, but the very center is still a little soft. We used a corse grater, so our crumbs were a bit smaller then if we had tron them by hand, so really, the preference it up to you. You can also try flavoured breads to see if that changes the profile of the dish to something you like more.

As for the Bucatini, I am in love. It’s such a fun noodle, thick and a little bit chewy, with a mind of it’s own. Sometimes the best part of a new pasta recipe is getting to work with a new pasta. Sure they are all taste the same, but the different shapes and sizes add certain elements that change the experience of each dish.

I love PASTA!

There are days when I am a fan of Pesto Sauce, but then there are days where I’m not. I’ve come acorss some good store bought ones, but really, Pesto, for me, only tastes amazing when it’s home made, and given that I don’t have a basil plant (my supplier, Nonna, hasn’t hooked me up yet) I haven’t made home made Pesto in a while.

Then, while watching Lidias Italy (the thing I do EVERY night from 7 – 8 because I am that obsessed) I can across a recipe for Pesto Trapanese. The method is the same but the ingredients are a little different. This is something you NEED to try!

Ingredients

¾ pound cherry tomatoes, very ripe and sweet
12 leaves fresh basil
⅓ cup whole almonds, lightly toasted
2 garlic clove, crushed and peeled
¼ teaspoon peperoncino
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for cooking the pasta
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated

This made enough sauce for 2 pasta dinners. If you’re going to dress the pasta within a couple of hours, leave the pesto at room temperature. You can refrigerate for longer storage, up to 2 days, or freeze for up to a month.

Steps

Put the tomatoes, garlic cloves, almonds, basil leaves, pepperoncino, 1/2 tsp. salt, and Parmigiano-Reggiano into a blender or food processor. Blend for a minute or more to a fine purée; scrape down the bowl and blend again if any large bits or pieces have survived.

With the machine still running, pour in the olive oil in a steady stream, emulsifying the purée into a thick pesto. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Cook your pasta as directed until it is al dente, lift it from the cooking pot, drain briefly, and drop onto the pesto. Toss together, sprinkle with cheese and serve!

Tips from the Chef…

It literally took me 5 minutes to make this Pesto sauce, so talk about quick and simple. As you will notice, the pesto has this great green and red texture to it, until you add the olive oil and it turns neon yellow! It’s like making pasta in the 80s. HA. I also sauteed some chicken in olive oil and added it to the pasta, just for some protein.

If I would suggest anything it would be to do this in a food processor. Maybe it’s just me but I hate using a blender because I find everything gets stuck in the bottom. Maybe I just don’t know what I am doing, but what I do know is that my next kitchen purchase is going to be a food processor!

This is probably one of the best pesto sauce I have ever had. No, it is not your classes Genovese Pesto, but it is a great alternative.

I modified the original recipe a bit, so if you wish to see it click HERE. Lidia has so many great, simple Italian recipes that I strongly suggest you catch an episode of her show or check out her recipes online. I am totally in love with her.

Enjoy!

I think it’s safe to say that everything tastes better with bacon. The saying rings true with Pasta as well.

While taking Italian Classes at the Italian Centre in May we learned how to read and follow recipes in Italian. The recipe that they gave us to read was for Rigatoni all’Amatriciana – Rigatoni with Pancetta. The dish sounded so good we immediately translated it and made it for dinner!

Like most Italian dishes, this was very simple to make and the flavours were wonderful.

All you need is…

200g Rigatoni
1 Large Onions, finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
4 Slices Thick Cut (1/4″) Pancetta
1 Can Diced Tomatoes
Salt & Pepper
Parmigiano Reggiano

Chop up the onion and garlic and saute in oil over medium heat until the onions become transparent.

They suggest cutting the pancetta into very fine juilenne strips, but the butcher didn’t quite cut our pancetta thick enough so it was too hard to juilenne. We just roughly chopped it and then added it to the garlic/onion mix.

Cook everything until the onions are golden brown and the pancetta is transparent.

Next, add the tomatoes, salt & pepper and cook over high heat for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your Rigatoni in boiling salted water until it is al dente.

Once the pasta is ready, drain it and finish cooking it in with the sauce. The remaining juices from the tomatoes will finish the cooking process and will add great flavour.

Finishing your pasta by cooking it in the sauce for the last few minutes is a great trick I learned that really makes all the difference. I now do it with every pasta dish I make!

Top the pasta off with some freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and you are ready to go!

This was such a great simple dish that tasted amazing!

Little bits of pancetta are always a wonderful surprise in any dish you make :)

My Vegetable Casserole was definitely an experiment but since I was working with ingredients I am very familiar with, I wasn’t too worried about it. This was my first time making a dish for a big group of people with out following a recipe! Oh I live on the edge alright ;)

First I thinly sliced 2 yellow onions and caramelized them.
Then I roasted 2 bulbs of garlic and grated a block of Mozzarella cheese.
Lastly I sliced and lightly sauteed 3 zucchini.

I layered all my ingredients in two layers.

Zucchini, Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Cheese, REPEAT!

I popped it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes just so everything would warm through. The veggies were already cooked so it was really just a matter of getting everything to the same temperature and having the cheese melt.

 I wasn’t expecting to use such a large dish, but it was all that Mom had so I worked with it. A smaller dish would have made everything more ‘compact’ which is what I was expecting but it’s OK, it all worked out!

This dish is definitelynot hard to make, it’s just a bit time consuming, especially with the tomatoes! But if you prepare all your veggies ahead of  time, assembling it at the last minute is easy to do.

The flavours worked so well together; it was utter perfection. I treated the girls to leftovers the next day and they were obsessed!

I may have to make this my signature dish.

A few weeks ago my Mom threw a small dinner party for some friends and invited Chad and I along. I wanted to contribute something to the dinner and got this crazy idea to make a Vegetable casserole out of my favorite things. With out having any real recipe to follow I consulted my personal Food Guru Claudia to see what she thought of my idea. She loved what I wanted to put together, but suggested the use of slow roasted tomatoes instead of fresh ones. This is why she is a Food Guru.

I looked up a few recipes on Slow Roasted Tomatoes and settled on this one.

I used 12 Roma tomatoes and sliced them in half.

I tossed them in Olive Oil, Thyme, Basil, & Oregano.

I put them in the oven at 225 degrees and checked them after 4 hours.

After 8 hours they looked pretty much perfect and the entire apartment smelled amazing.

I pealed off their skins, put them in a bowl and set them aside.

It’s amazing how much the tomatoes shrink. I thought I may have a few leftovers to experiment with but alas, they were all needed for the casserole.

These tomatoes were definitely easy to make. I can’t wait to make them again and use them for soups, pastas and salads.

If you have 8ish hours one Saturday, I suggest you try this out for yourself. Times and temperatures can be adjusted according to your stove and how you want your tomatoes.

nom nom nom

Tomorrow I will post the recipe for my casserole!