Ground Chicken Parm.

Picked up several pounds of cheap ground chicken at the grocery the other day. Made a few patties for sandwiches and such. Standard dredging. Nothing special. Would have been better on a loaf instead of slices, but a good thought to have.

Bolognese Sauce.

Never made a a bolognese sauce so I tried the one from Closet Cooking. I used a lot more celery and carrots since I don't eat many vegetables and minced them myself instead of running through the food processor. Turned out pretty chunky. I thought it was weird to use both canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Should be a better way to do that. Pretty tasty. Camera is way busted now.

Pasta alla Formiana.

From Cinnamon & Spice. It's convenient since there's no cooking the pasta beforehand. Simmered in a can of crushed tomatoes, a lot more oregano than would seem right (1/4 cup). I didn't have the fresh tomatoes to line the pan.

The result is pretty good. All the oregano gives it a nice earthy, rich flavor. The strong, reduced tomato taste really covers for the lack of any other heavy seasoning. I didn't even use salt, nor did I think it needed it.

Italian Sausage and Kale Ragu.

Saw it here.

A whole bunch of kale is way too much for only a pound of sausage, I think. Also, I used macaroni because it's what I had. AM more assertive pasta like penne would have been much better. It seems a bit too generically salty for my taste. Maybe too much sea salt, but I don't think I used that much. And maybe needs more ricotta. Or in a bechamel with the kale more finely chopped with more effort in removing the stem. As far as silly leafy greens go, I still prefer red Swiss chard.

Pork Ricotta Meatballs.

From Elise. Forgot picture. But still good.

The ones I defrosted came out a bit dry and gave me gas.

Mini Calzones.

Trying to use up some dough I had in the freezer and some Italian sausage I got on sale. The dough turned out pretty workable. Mushrooms, green peppers, onion, ricotta. I skipped the sauce because I didn't think I would have enough room, which I didn't. The main difference from the last time I tried to make calzones was that I think I used all wheat flour then and I rolled the dough much thinner this time. Pretty tasty. I'll freeze a couple.

Pasta Bake.

I forget that pasta bakes are awesome. Sausage, mushrooms, wheat rotini, baked with sauce and mozz. I overcooked the rotini.

Stuffed Shells.

Pretty straightforward. Ricotta, Italian sausage.

Meatballs with Ricotta.

Woo, gigantic meatballs.

Calzone.

Let's be serious here. Is there a fundamental difference between pizza and a calzone? Or a stromboli? The only thing that's different is the interface and implementation. The policy remains the same.

Seeing as this was my first shot at making dough, I'd say it turned out reasonably well. I was a little short on ingredients even though I went out of my way to buy Italian sausage, so I only had green peppers, onions, and had to make one with mozzarella and the other with provolone.

I went sauce-less because I thought I would have sauce on the side, but I actually haven't gotten around to that for some reason. The dough was pretty simple and turned out well, with a bit of sweetness showing through from the honey. I'd be interesting in making more diverse crusts. It all freezes quite well.

Spinach Tilapia Alfredo.

Throwing random stuff in my fridge together before it went bad. Mushrooms, jar of alfredo, sauteed spinach and garlic, flaked tilapia. Fish and alfredo actually works really well together.

Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi.

Sourced from Elise. The spinach and ricotta sub for the potatoes in regular gnocchi. I need to work on my dough-manipulating skillz. I couldn't get them to pillow as nicely or evenly as Elise, but they still tasted pretty good. In any case, they're like noodle dumplings, don't involve much work or time (though the dough does need to chill for a bit), and cook up quickly. I have a couple baggies in the freezer, and word on the street is that they hold up nicely.

Supreme Pizza.

Mushrooms, green pepper, onions, black olives, Italian sausage. Thin crust was not a good container for all of this. I miss Chicago-style pizza.

Meatballs.

It's surprising that I haven't made meatballs. Actually, I don't think I've had spaghetti and meatballs since I moved out of the dorms. I looked at a few recipes to see if anyone did anything particularly interesting. The surprising addition was milk. I though it would just make things watery, but it turned out awesome.

Minced onions, mushrooms, garlic; breadcrumbs, eggs, milk, salt, pepper, parmesan.

Salami Pizza.

I got the idea the other night when a classmate ordered a pie by phone rather than by a website or third-party website. Italian salami. Must be ordered through a live person.

Under the hood, short frenched onions, green pepper, and mushrooms. I was going to add olives, but I forgot about it until much later.

I have to say that fresh tomatoes on a pizza is one of the best toppings ever. Also, another random pizza that I've had that turns out to be really good is mushrooms and jalapeños.

And a swirl of Genoa salami. I was looking for a leaner salami, actually, but I didn't see one at the deli. But salami is far superior to pepperoni. It's bigger, thinner, less greasy, and crisps much, much better. All that trouble we used to go through to get pepperonis on top? Nothing compared to salami on top.

Eggplant Parmesan.

It's been awhile since I've actually put some effort into making something. And the last time I tried making this was in high school. I've gotten smarter and handier with a knife since then.

The rounds were slotted and stuff with minced mushrooms, mozzarella, and Parmesan. I cut garlic powder into the flour and oregano into the bread crumbs. (I've also gotten better at breading things.)

I pan-fried them for a few minutes each side to develop a crust and then baked them for another 10 or so. In retrospect, I should have baked them a bit longer. And added butter.

I used that trusty GV Green Pepper & Mushroom sauce and added some crushed red pepper which I had finally gotten around to buying. All in all, it was pretty ok, but there's a lot of tweaking to be done.

Manicotti and Cannelloni.

I made half a dozen of each. The cannelloni was hot Italian sausage, bella mushrooms, and onions. The manicotti was just ricotta. I had initially thought to use spinach and ricotta, but I forgot about the spinach until after I had already stuffed the shells. So it just went on top. I figure a bit of green all around wouldn't hurt. It turned out mostly ok, but nothing to write home about either.

Lasagna Bastard Child.

I had a grand plan for this. I really did. But it turns out the box of lasagna noodle was more than half empty so I had to improvise.

Originally, I was going to use spinach and zucchini to spruce up the place, but as I was layering, I realized I didn't have room for zucchini. Also, I forgot about it until the very end. Seriously, why are baking dishes so damn shallow? So, I laid down lasagna, ricotta, baby bella mushrooms, spinach, Italian sweet sausage, and a pile of half-cooked spaghetti, modestly sprinkled with a shredded blend of whatever Wal-mart thinks is Italian.

I winged it, and I'm glad that things turned out ok. The spinach was an awesome addition. It adds a really smooth, buttery texture to the dish. So, basically, it's a pile of stuff on top of lasagna noodles and covered by spaghetti. It's so casserole. I need to keep on the lookout for a deep dish pan so that I can finally realize my dream of a Leaning Tower of Lasagna. Seriously, if I had the space, I could make a pie with something for everyone, not too much, not too little of anything.

Chicken Cacciatore.

Picture coming soon.

Sadly, I don't have my camera here tonight which really is a shame because I know that this will not look nearly as appetizing cold or reheated. Source. (SR has been a favorite source of mine for awhile. Lives up to its name quite well.)

I actually moved from pan to baking dish since I didn't have a cast-iron skillet large enough for this (someday, I'll have a set of iron cookware.). I interpreted thinly sliced onions to mean Frenched onions. (They smell better in the pan this way.) I'm still working on a good way to French onions quickly. Standing them up and holding them only works about halfway through. Sauteed onions in the pan a bit before adding chicken thighs, peppered, salted, basil'd, and oregano'd before flipping the meat-side down. I cut the garlic this time since I've been eating a lot of garlic lately (in lentils and rice [which was mildly disastrous] and in Korean food) and the white wine since I didn't have any. After a good sear, I transferred them to a baking dish (where I had already moved some onions for a bed) and added tomatoes. I subbed, in place of plum tomatoes, canned pear tomatoes in bay leaves. Covered with the remainder of onions and made sure the tomatoes were well distributed.

At 350 for 40 minutes with foil (which may or may not have been necessary), then another 20 at 400 (because I was getting annoyed). I let it sit in the oven for another 10 or 15 with everything off to let it cool to edible temperatures. I was concerned because it looked a little too reduced at this point, but it was just the liquid that had settled instead of boiling like mad.

The meat was nearly falling off the bone but not quite (which is exactly right). The Frenched and sauteed onions really made a difference. A different tomato and some more spices would have helped, but overall, it turned out very well. Would go well with yellow rice or plain, sliced potatoes and a glass of red.

Addendum.

Reheated for a late dinner tonight. It looked way better fresh out of the oven.

Italian Sausage Lasagna.

This ended up being a disastrous monster. It was supposed to be a hearty lasagna with veggies and Italian sausage but I ran out of space way too fast.

I started with two jars of GV spaghetti sauce (Green Pepper & Mushroom and Onion & Garlic) and a box of oven-ready lasagna. Layer sauce on bottom; add layer of lasagna; add sauce, add ricotta, add sauce, add layer, add sauce. At this point, I was already almost overflowing. There was no way I was going to fit everything in, so I nixed the squash. I put the not-very-well-crumbled Italian sausage and sliced baby Bella mushrooms on top and covered with mozzarella. Now it definitely was overflowing. And proceeded to happily boil over in the oven. It turned out reasonably well in the end though with the sausage lending a lot more flavor than ground beef would have.

The picture is actually from a microwave reheating the next day. The mozz didn't seem to want to re-melt and was a little dry; also, you can see I added a bit too much water to the mix. Seriously. It took longer to reheat it than it did to eat it.