Broccoli, Tomato, Bacon Pasta

For anyone who knows me, and you can probably tell by my blog, I am not a huge cooked veggie person. As much as I love cooking and eating healthy foods, there is something about the texture of cooked veggies that I don't enjoy.  I have started venturing into steamed veggies as long as they are still crunchy and not mushy.  So, Joe requested that since I have started eating steamed broccoli, I could make one of his favorite meals.  It is super simple and quick, and quite tasty as well.  You can really put anything on the pasta, but we keep it fairly simple.  This time we used fresh spinach fettuccine from the farmers market but you can use any type of pasta that you would like.  Here you go!

Broccoli, Tomato, Bacon Pasta
Ingredients:

½ lb bacon

½ box fettuccine

½ cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

¼ cup Parmesan

½ cup olive oil

2 cup broccoli

Salt

1 clove garlic

Directions:

Cut bacon crosswise into thin strips.  In a frying pan, cook bacon until crisp and remove with slotted spoon.  Drain.  Save 3 tbs. grease and pour the rest out.  Return the measured grease to pan.  Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling slat water until done.  Slice garlic and tomatoes.  Add oil and garlic to bacon fat and cook stirring 1 minute.  Stir in broccoli, tomatoes, and ½ tsp. salt.  Cook 2 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add bacon at the last minute.  Drain pasta and sautéed ingredients.

 

Whole Wheat Ravioli from Scratch...

So I got a pasta maker a while back and had used it a couple of times, but it had been quite some time since I had used it.  I was feeling inspired to make ravioli after I looked into the pantry and saw we didn't have any pasta.  We had planned on making stuffed shells but I just didn't feel like leaving the house to get pasta, so it was an easier decision to make it!  I am so glad I did because it turned out amazing.  So, here we go.

Start off by making the pasta dough...I love whole wheat flour so that's what I made!

Whole Wheat Pasta Dough
Ingredients
2 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. olive oil
Directions:
First mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a little”pit”  in the middle.  Beat your eggs in a separate bowl, then pour them into the flour mixture. Add the water and olive oil. Stir well until the ingredients are mostly combined. Dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it a little bit to get the ingredients combined well.

The dough is very thick!

Once the dough was made, I put together the pasta roller and rolled out thin sheets of pasta.  The thickness will differ depending on how dry your dough is.  Play around with the thickness of your pasta roller and get the thinnest sheets possible to make the ravioli.

I have a ravioli tray to make the ravioli, so below you will see some pictures of the process. Start by placing one layer of the dough onto the ravioli tray.  We made ours with ground pork that was sauteed before hand and fresh mozzarella. You can really put whatever you want in the ravioli so be creative!

Place about a tablespoon of filling into the tray.

 Place another sheet of rolled out dough over the layers than press the edges together to make the ravioli to press out.

 Out come beautiful raviolis!

 After you are done making the ravioli (I made about 30 or so) it is time to cook them.  Boil the ravioli for about 5-8 minutes until fully cooked.

 We served them with Trader Joe's pasta sauce, and it was amazing!

Enjoy :)

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta, and Prosciutto!

It has been quite some time since I have made a pasta dish, and this week Joe requested that I make one, so of course I wanted to try something new that was a little less heavy than most pasta dishes are!  I love me some pasta but sometimes alfredo sauce, etc. is just way too creamy!  So, I set out to find a recipe that I would love.  Of course, it had spinach and ricotta in it so it had to be good!  Prosciutto is a food that I haven't eaten often here in America, but I absolutely LOVE every time I go back to Slovenia.  To my surprise, the Kroger down the street from us had a huge wheel of prosciutto that reminded me so much of Slovenia and it was VERY good.  So with that, here is a "skinny" version that incorporates so many good flavorful ingredients!  I'm sure you can substitute to prosciutto with other meets if you would like! Enjoy!

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta, and Prosciutto
Ingredients

• 1 pound gemelli (or other pasta, I use whole wheat)
• 1/2 lbs prosciutto (I used a lot because I love it so much but you can use less)
•   1packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed of excess moisture
• 2 cups milk (I used Almond Milk and it worked just fine)
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook pasta a few minutes less than package instructions suggest. Cut prosciutto into thin strips.
2. 
   
   In a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, toss pasta with spinach, half of prosciutto, milk, ricotta, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining prosciutto and Parmesan. Bake until golden, 30 to 40 minutes.