Tag Archives: yummy pasta

Pork Belly

25 Nov

I can tell when someone really knows me when they bring Pork Belly to my housewarming as a gift.  Thanks to Lillian and Josh, I got to make an attempt at cooking this delicious food.  Honestly, at first, I wasn’t too sure.   When I took out the pork belly and cut it up, however, there was SO much fat on it that I was wondering if it would even be edible.  Oh how naive of me!

Lillian told me it was salted pork belly (which sent me to Google, only to find out that brining is customary for pork belly and doesn’t impact the preparation… shrug… okay!

I found a recipe that sounded good and mixed pork with fruit (basically, I love just about anything with warm fruit).  I put it all together and hoped for the best.

While I’m sure I could have poured off the rest of the fat from the pork, I decided it was much more tasty sounding to use it to cook the veggies in. And OH was it good!  I had leftover citrus cauliflower (it’s yellow and smaller) and mushrooms to play with.  SOOOO good.

I also had some leftover yummy pasta.  So the plate was delicious AND colorful.

Holy crap did it turn out well!  I think this may be one of my favoritist things I’ve ever made.  I’m sure it’s terrible for me, but I could eat this every single day.  In fact, my mouth is watering for it right now.

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RECIPES
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Ingredients:

  • 6 slices of belly pork
  • 4 medium cooking (tart) apples, peeled, cored and quartered (I didn’t peal mine since I love roasted apples with skin)
  • 2 tbsp plain flour (All purpose)
  • 1 1/4 cup cider
  • salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350
  2. Fry the pork in a frying pan until crisp on both sides.
  3. Remove from the pan with tongs and arrange in a baking dish. Surround with the apple quarters.
  4. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the frying pan. (or use the rest for delicious veggies!)
  5. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
  6. Gradually stir in the milk or cider and bring to the boil.
  7. Add salt and pepper, then pour this sauce over the pork and apples.
  8. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (350°F) for 35 to 45 minutes.

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Yummy Pasta

7 Aug

One of the best dishes my mom made growing up was discovered later (highschool time I believe) is something we affectionately called “Yummy Pasta.”  I think it’s great for summer with the fresh tomatoes, however, pine nuts have become SUPER expensive.  Therefore it is great to know someone in the nut industry.  THANKS TRAVIS!!!

It is SO easy and quick to make, and you can make a big batch and have it for multiple meals.  You can also make the pesto sauce in advance and freeze it until you’re ready.

I made the sauce as the recipe called for, but I added some of the fresh basil and pine nuts at the end and chopped it only a few seconds so it had more texture.  It came out quite yummy!

As a side, Mike decided to whip up some spinach and mushrooms with shallots and garlic.  It was absolutely scrumptious and I was very excited to see Mike cooking off the cuff.  I’m pretty sure he threw everything into the pan and just cooked it until it was all soft.

Here is the Yummy Pasta Recipe (you can adjust the amounts if you want to make more or less):

Ingredients

  • One box of mini penne pasta
  • One ball of fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes
  • One container of grape/cherry tomatoes, cut in half
  • 2/3 cup of pine nuts (split in half so it’s 1/3 in each part of the recipe below)
  • 3/4 cup of fresh basil (or to taste), stems removed and cut up leaves
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup of olive oil
  • Salt, Pepper, and Garlic Powder to taste

Directions

  • Cook pasta as directed
  • While pasta is cooking, cut up all ingredients
  • Put oil, basil, and 1/3 cup pine nuts into a food processor and blend to desired texture (add garlic powder at this stage if you like garlic)
  • Drain pasta
  • Toss basil mixture into pasta
  • Add additional 1/3 cup of pine nuts (I use more since I love them)
  • Carefully fold in tomatoes and mozzarella
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Happy Nomming!

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