Tag: italian (Page 1 of 1)
Basil Pesto Sauce
September 10th, 2016 in Sauces & Dips & Spreads by Julia Volhina
There are so many ways to enjoy basil pesto sauce. It is perfect for dipping bread, works great as salad dressing, pasta or pizza sauce, or pesto butter. Toss some cooked chicken with it to give a salad or a wrap some extra kick. Sky is a limit.
Already pre-made pesto sauces from the store are an option too, however nothing beats freshly homemade one.
And it is pretty easy to do too: just plug all ingredients into a blender, chop until smooth and then mix cheese in.
Pecorino cheese may be hard to find, using shredded parmesan should work as well.
Italian Sausage Pasta
April 9th, 2016 in Chicken, Main Dishes, Pasta by Julia Volhina
This pasta dish recipe is greatly inspired by Zuppa Toscana you can find in “Olive Garden” here in US.
It has distinct Italian taste (thanks to spices in sausage), creamy parmigiano reggiano sauce and any pasta you want, all though I suggest using whole wheat linguini pasta for healthier option.
Using of hot Italian sausage rather than mild one will make the dish hotter obviously, mixing both is an option too.
Serve Italian Sausage Pasta for dinner or lunch, serve it hot, it tastes better fresh, not reheated. Stated amount of ingredients yields exactly 2 portions, adjust amounts if you need more or less.
Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Pasta
November 30th, 2013 in Main Dishes, No-meat, Pasta by Julia Volhina
This is my first take on stuffed jumbo pasta shells, but I will must say it will not not be last: there are so many stuffings these may work nicely with.
In this recipe pasta is stuffed with five cheeses (ricotta, parmesan, provolone, mozzarella and romano), fresh parsley and egg mix.
For sauce I tried something new too: that is canned crushed tomatoes, usually I avoid using canned vegetables, but these worked well for sauce and saved me quite some time too.
Zuppa Toscana (Italian Sausage Soup)
June 22nd, 2013 in Hot Soups, Soups by Julia Volhina
Zuppa toscana (or italian sausage soup with skin on potatoes, bacon and kale) is one of the reasons I usually go to Olive Garden for. Now with this recipe I don’t have to anymore (but I still can :), they also have neat tiramisu).
This soup has very distinctive italian taste because of spices in sausage. By the way either mild italian chicken meat mix with spices or sausages themselves will work for this recipe. I think meat mix is a bit easier to handle.
Using canned broth for this recipe is easier and saves time, but isn’t absolutely necessary, you can cook the broth yourself.
Serve this soup hot, that way it will provide nice warm feeling especially on cold weather. If you need to reheat the soup leftovers, don’t overheat it, just bring to light simmer and serve.
Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables
July 17th, 2010 in Beef, Main Dishes, Pasta by Julia Volhina
Several weekends ago, when I asked Yuriy what should we prepare for dinner, I got an answer – lasagna, and I was intimidated a bit – I never prepared lasagna before. So I spent some time in internet researching recipes and found several I liked. I’ve combined them, added some touch to my taste and prepared this lasagna.
This was my first attempt to make lasagna. And main challenge for me was to properly prepare noodles: according to the instructions on the pack they required boiling before using. I’ve added 2 tablespoons of oil to the boiling water and was boiling them layer by layer and it totally helped to prevent noodles from sticking while boiling.
This lasagna turned out perfectly: balanced combination of meat and vegetables (just how I like it), noodles were very tender, it was totally worth all the time I’ve spend boiling them, getting out of water and trying arrange them in the pan.