whole wheat angel hair with basil pecan pesto

it is really embarassing how much i post about pasta dishes. pastaholics unanonymous right here. it's truly a love-hate relationship.

i often hear friends and family use "healthy" and "low calorie" or "dietetic" interchangeably. Although it's a safe bet that most healthful foods are not super calorie dense, healthful does not translate to low cal and low cal foods are certainly not always healthy. That being said, this is NOT a low calorie dish, however, it is healthy as it contains whole grains, good fats, protein, and fiber. (and it's bomb.com/flavortown)

traditional pesto is made with fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, and parmigiano cheese. (in that order in terms of quantity) I didn't have pine nuts so I used toasted pecans because it was all I had, and moving my tush to the store is rarely an option by 7:30 pm. I also added some spinach into my pesto both for color and for an extra boost of veggie super powers, and ultimately, because it allows me to justify the pasta in general.

I got beautiful local Texas spinach :) farm to table spinach is a totally different [better] breed of vegetable both in taste and in appearance.

Whatcha Need for 2 Servings...or for one ME size portion:
8-15 basil leaves, washed and DRIED
about 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1/8 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese (more if desired)
whole wheat linguine, angel hair, or spaghetti
1/4 cup pine nuts, pecans, walnuts, whaaateva kinda nuts ya got (except peanuts...just trust me on this one)

DO IT:
put a pot of water up to boil.
wash the basil leaves, pat dry dry dry.

toast your nuts. in a dry saute pan over medium heat, flipping frequently for about three minutes.

Smash your garlic cloves.

Combine basil, garlic, nuts, parmesan cheese, a handful of spinach, half the olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper in the blender. If it doesn't blend that means you don't have enough oil in. once its moving in the blender, stream in a bit of olive oil so it thickens and emulsifies. 

Put the pasta into the SALTED boiling water. You know you've missed your salty friend, admit it, embrace it, and move along.

In the last minute of cooking the pasta, add in a handful of spinach and remove 1/3 cup of pasta water and set aside.

Strain the pasta. While the pasta and spinach are in the strainer, pour a dollop of the pesto into the hot pasta pot. 

Add the pasta back to the pot and mix. Add more pesto as desired/necessary (pesto is very necessary). If the pasta appears very thick add a few drops of pasta water at a time until the desired sauciness is reached. After all, you are your own sauuuce bosss. Adjust salt and pepps as needed.

FEAST!!!!!

pumpkin ravioli with pecans and sage brown butter

My heart beats for this type of dish. 

I want to make a list about this dish. Here it is:

1. I used pumpkin ravioli and butternut squash ravioli but I should have left out the butternut squash, it wasn't nearly as delicious and plump and flavorful as the pumpkin. 
2. I know that it doesn't look so beautiful because the two different raviolis don't match etc. The taste makes up for what the aesthetics lack. 
3. Pumpkin ravioli is widely available this time of year at your normal grocery store, if not, you can definitely find it at a specialty store like whole foods, balducci's etc. Or just buy a pasta roller and make it yourself if you're feeling motivated. 

The Shtuff:

pumpkin ravioli (approx 5 per person if you're normal, 9 if you're me)

2 T room temp butter

1 handful of pecan halves

a little less than 1/4 cup chiffonade-ed sage leaves, loosely packed (loosely packed means you're not packing it into the measuring cup)

salt

VAMANOSSSSSSS! : (i'm going to do this in list-ish form because list's are a good thing)

1. boil a large pot of water, LARGE, the ravioli request that you please don't crowd them in the jacquzzi. 
2. kind of chiffonade up some sage, just chop it relatively thinly and so it's not totally busted looking. Always remember to respect your food. Respect the sage, bro.

     3. Once the water is boiling, SALT it. See my Mountain Salty McSalterstein as an example:

        4. Heat a medium saute pan over medium high heat, add the ravioli to the water-it takes about 4 minutes    cook depending on the size. Once your pan is HOT HOT HOT Add the butter to the saute pan, it should kind of sizzle and immediately start to brown. Add the sage in and let it fry up for a minute. Drain the pasta.

Notice the butter is brown-ish looking, this is the key. Don't burn it! just get the pan hot enough so it immediately turns the butter a caramel color, not a mucky brown. You'll know by the smell :) 

     5. add the pecans to the sage butter, toast 2 minutes. 

       6.  Toss the pasta in the saute pan, add a small pinch of salt, garnish with a few sage ribbons. 

 and it's party rocker time!

Now for a quick photo montage of my pasta..

Enjoy with a nice mug of spiced whiskey cider :)  

(my mug is half full  because I sipped as I cooked)

I'm about to rock your pasta world.

I love pasta.
I don't believe that "spaghetti night" is synonymous with a drab, whatever meal. \
Pasta is indeed very easy, but it is also very easy to make delicious.
A handful of people have stolen this dish from me, including some of my peers in culinary school. Just remember, this is 100% an Allie Dobin original creation, all of those people learned it from me-I assure you.

Let the world rocking commence...

That is not cheese on top. That is an egg. My poor photography skills have yet again botched up my plating. I guess that's why I'm a cook not a photgrapher. 

What You Need: (and trust me, you do NEED this pasta in your life)
spaghetti, angel hair, linguine..whatever ya got.
olive oil
garlic
cherry tomatoes or regular tomatoes
crushed red pepper
fresh basil
1 egg
salt

Ok, so usually the way i would make the sauce for this dish is to heat up olive oil and thinly sliced garlic in a saute pan. Add about 10 halved cherry tomatoes, salt, crushed red pepper and saute until tomatoes are softened, about 7 minutes. Being careful not to burn yourself with spewing lava tomato juice, smash the tomato halves with a fork, add basil, add pasta.

However, today I had my panko roasted tomato halves left over from last nights dinner (see winner winner chicken dinner post) so I did something a little different, and still totally delicious.

So, boil water. If you are doing the cherry tomato method than make the sauce as described above while the water boils. If you are using larger tomatoes or leftover tomatoes from the previous post than do as follows.

preheat the oven to 350. mince up one clove of garlic.
chiffonade some basil. chiffonade is fancy for slice into ribbons. you do this by rolling the leaves onto themselves into a little cigar type thing and then slicing perpendicular-ly.

put 2 tomato halves onto a baking sheet along with some olive oil, salt, and the minced garlic clove. bake for about 7-10 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft.

While the tomatoes are going, add salt to the boiling water. S-A-L-T. For one serving of pasta you should add this much salt. 

if you don't believe me i dare you to cook a batch of pasta without salt and a batch of pasta with salt. taste the pasta without any sauce and see the incredible difference for yourself. or, just trust me, and salt the water.

add the pasta and let cook about 8 minutes, until al dente. 

while the tomatoes and pasta are going (this goes for either tomato preparation) prepare the piece de resistance...the runny fried egg. heat a saute pan on low heat. add some olive oil and add an egg. 

You want the egg to heat slowly so that there is no brown and so that the yolk is super runny. As soon as the white's have set (all the part that is clear in this picture will be white) flip the egg over and turn the heat off. and put the pan on a burner that wasn't just hot. now the pan with the egg will just hang out until you are ready for it in about 2 minutes. Since the pan was on such a low heat and is now off the heat completely, the small amount of heat remaining will result in a perfectly over-easy egg.

Take the tomatoes out and, using a fork, smash them up.

If using the cherry tomato in a saute pan method, just let the sauce hang out on a really low heat while the egg and the pasta finish cooking. 

Drain the pasta, reserving some of the pasta cooking water on the side. 

Either add the pasta to the saute pan with the cherry tomato garlic mixture or if using the method I used tonight, return the pasta to the cooking pot and add the mushed up roasted tomato mixture. If the consistency is really thick you can add some of the reserved pasta water to thin it out, if not just toss the water, adjust the seasonings on the pasta and add the egg on top. 

Then. Then!! THIS IS THE BEST PART!!! THEN! you take your fork and you stab the egg yolk a lot so that it just oozes all over your pasta...like this:

Now, you mix it all up so that the egg yolk is everywhere!

Enjoy!! This might be my favorite dish that I have ever created. Everyone who I have shared it with has thoroughly loved it and I know you will too!!

mac and cheese proscuitto cup cakes....

sorry that I don't have a better picture. I hate cupcakes. I hate the cupcake trend that is sweeping the nation.
However, if that cupcake is a savory mac and cheese pig concoction...LEGO.

I adapted this recipe from a picture I saw on chow.com but I used my mac and cheese recipe that you can find on this blog. Follow the recipe for the cheese sauce but do not add any buffalo sauce and skip the whole chicken, onion, garlic filling part.

Buy some proscuitto. And all the stuff for the mac and cheese.
preheat the oven to 375
rim a muffin pan with 2 slices of proscuitto per muffin cup. (no oil necessary thanks to the ever lovely bacon grease) pop it into the oven for about 10 minutes.
take the muffin tin out and fill the proscuitto lined muffin cups with spoon fulls of the mac and cheese topped with some panko and some extra shreds of cheddar.
back into the oven until the tops are golden and bubbly and the proscuitto cups are nice and crispy.
use a spoon to remove and let your taste buds experience a whole new world, a magical place that they never knew.

how to snag a date.

This is a food blog, so why am I beginning by offering dating advice? Well. This mac and cheese is guaranteed to get you a date with whomever you make it for-after all, nothing says true love like a creamy, spicy, cheesy casserole.

a side note: I plan to take step by step pictures for the rest of my recipes but when I made this last night I didn't plan to start keeping a blog so all we have is a picture of the final product in my bowl. Don't panic though, its pretty hard to make cheese, butter, pasta and buffalo sauce taste bad.

What You'll Need:
1 lb of medium size pasta shells (medium is important, the small ones don't soak up enough of the saucy cheesy goodness)
2 1/2 cups of half and half
4 cups medium grated sharp cheddar (don't get reduced fat, this isn't the time to count your calories, trust me)
2 cups of medium grated jack cheese or mozzarella 
3 cups of shredded chicken (rotisserie, breasts, left over thighs-whatever you have on hand or is cheapest at the store is fine!)
1 T of flour
12 T or 1.5 sticks of unsalted butter
as much buffalo wing sauce as you desire, i use about 1/3-1/2 of a cup total 
1/3 cup sour cream (okay, here you can actually use the light version if you really care that much. and if you do decide to use light sour cream then congratulations, instead of making a 1,000,000 calorie dish you're now making a 999,980 calorie dish. Was that right? I can't do math which is why I cook.) oh also, if you don't have sour cream you can use 1/4 a cup of cream cheese instead.
1/2 of a small yellow or white onion, diced
2-4 garlic cloves, minced, depending on your relationship with garlic use more or less. i use 5-its a serious relationship.
1 cup of panko bread crumbs, you can use regular breadcrumbs but, true fact, panko are the breadcrumbs of Mt Olympus.

The Run Down:
preheat the oven to 350, oh and make sure you have some kind of casserole dish or cake pan that will work. There have been times that I've sent myself into a deep depression after making the whole recipe only to realize all i have in the house are cookie sheets. (for the record, I found a way-stainless steel bowls anyone?)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a handful of salt (yes, a handful-whenever you're making pasta).
Add the shells, stir once right away and then every couple minutes give it a stir until its just short of al dente, about 7-8 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, add 2 T of butter to a saute pan over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, add the garlic and chicken, stir to incorporate and let them get to know each other for about a minute or two before adding some buffalo sauce magic. (about 1/4 of a cup...or more if you're feelin spicy). Let those flavors hang out for a few until thickened slightly and then take the pan off the heat and set to the side.

Your pasta is probably ready to be drained and you can let it sit in the collander for this next part, or you can choose to make the pasta once all of these steps are finished-whichever you prefer.

Melt 1 T of butter in a sauce pan (with talllll sides), once melted add the flour and mix with a whisk or spoon until there are no lumps in the roux mixture (culinary talk for flour+butter). Whisk in the half and half and let thicken slightly, about four minutes before adding about 1/4 of a cup more buffalo sauce. Whisk in 3 1/2 cups of the cheddar cheese and all of the jack cheese slowly so that no clumps form. Whisk frequently until all of the cheese has melted--you'll know when it looks right because you will think, "wow this looks like cheese sauce heaven". At this point you can add in the sour cream. Pour in the pasta and mix it all up!

Spray you're baking dish with some non stick spray and pour in half of the mac and cheese. Cover the top of this layer with the chicken and buffalo sauce mixture and then top with the second half of the mac and cheese.
Melt about 2 T of butter in the microwave, once melted combine the butter and the panko and cover the entire top of the dish. Then, if you like to party, add the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese on top.
Bake for 20-40 minutes (I bake it as long as I can stand to wait before eating it) and then devour.