homemade semolina pata with lemon sauce and parmesan

The sauce for this is so simple. Melt 2 tbsp butter with 2 tbsp olive oil. Once the butter has melted, add 2 medium cloves of minced garlic. Saute for about 1 minute. Add the zest and juice of 2 lemons and cook until slightly reduced. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top with parmesan.

lemon & broccoli pasta

i never exactly introduced this blog. mostly because no one reads it, also because not even i'm sure what i'm doing with it. i'm not exactly a blog person, but i decided to make one for myself... to write anything going on in my life. well it turns out, most of what's going on in my life is what i'm cooking.

right now i'm trying to save up for culinary school (very unsuccessfully), but in the meantime i'm experimenting in the kitchen for myself. i hope to be a baker one day, so most of my interest is in baking, especially breads, but i also try a lot of other foods. it's fun to experiment in a kitchen without meat. i try to make my dishes creative yet simple... delicious though inexpensive.

this lemon broccoli pasta is what we made last night. it's very simple to make but the flavors blend so perfectly. it's the first time we've made it but it will not be the last. i love making a type of pasta on sunday night so that there'll be leftovers for lunch the next day.

the sauce is simple. melt about 2 tbsp butter with 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat in a large sauce pan, then saute 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced, in it. add the zest of 1 large (or 2 small) lemons, then the juice. combine with your pasta and steamed broccoli then top with fresh grated parmesan.

eggplant & spinach lasagne

i've never made lasagne before and i have no idea why! this was insanely easy (though slightly time consuming). I made a quick marinara sauce (cheating and using a can of tomato sauce), and added some frozen spinach and leftover broiled eggplant cut into chunks. I start by sauteeing the yellow onion (diced finely) in vegetable oil over medium heat until they turn clear and start to carmelize. In the last minute or so of cooking the oinons, add minced garlic. Add the tomato sauce and tomatoes and let simmer. Add the eggplant and spinach (sauteed to remove moisture).

For the eggplant, I cut them into circles about 1/2 inch thick or thinner. Sprinkle with kosher salt and let them sit for at least 20 minutes. The salt pulls out some of the moisture in the eggplant which is bitter. Mine were broiled (coat in olive oil, broil 10 minutes, flip and broil on the other side for 15 minutes) which i think gives it a deeper flavor, but they should do fine if you just sautee them on each side for a few minutes.

The cheese mixture is simple. Mix the ricotta and half of the mozzarella with 1 egg. For the lasagne noodles, because the sauce is a tiny bit watery, i only cooked the noodles a little more than halfway (if the package says cook for 9 minutes, cook for abotu 5 or 6).

First, put a tiny bit of sauce in the bottom of the caserole dish to coat the bottom. Then place 3-4 noodles in the pan, overlapping a little bit. Spread a thick layer of cheese on top of the noodles, then another layer of sauce. Add more noddles, and repeat until the dish is full. The last layer should be tomato sauce followed by the other half of the mozzarella, and a little parmesan.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 425, then another 10 with the foil off. You should probably let the lasagne cool a little before cutting, but if you can't wait, i understand! this stuff is yummm!


the sauce ingredients
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 - 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large can of tomato sauce
2 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 tsp sugar
salt
pepper
basil
oregano
red pepper flakes
1 eggplant, salted, rinsed, broiled, and cut
cut spinach, sauteed over medium heat to reduce moisture

the cheese mixture ingredients
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 lb mozzarella, shredded
1 egg


the topping:
1/4 lb mozzarella, shredded
parmesan cheese