Tag: pasta sauce

Categories
Main Dish

Put a little pep in your pasta with veggies and feta

Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.
Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.

I have to confess that I have never been much of a cyclist. I finally learned how to ride a bike—mostly because I was embarrassed that my younger sister was (literally) riding circles around me.

We would go out riding occasionally, and I rode a bit when I was in college, but it has never turned into a full-blown hobby, partially because my lack of height means I can barely touch the ground while on the seat, and it always freaks me out just a little bit.

I keep thinking I need to get over my fears and ride more, though, not only for my health but also to save some gas money here and there.

With the Bike Across Kansas folks coming through our area this week, I’ve been thinking a bit about it, although I’m certain you’ll never see me sign up for such an ambitious trek.

I keep thinking the benefit for those folks is they likely can eat whatever they want on their way across the Sunflower State. Carbo loading is probably a must to keep up.

So, if you’re like me and not planning on biking across our great state but would still like to eat like it, I have a great pasta dish to share with you this week.

This recipe comes from “Sweet Cindy’s Honey.” You can find her on Pinterest @sweetcindyshoney or on her website at https://sweetcindyshoney.com/. I added onion and garlic to my version below and changed up how the peppers were roasted.

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Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

Roasted red pepper pasta comes together easily in a blender with fresh vegetables, feta cheese and a touch of honey to create a delicious sauce.
Course Main Course
Keyword feta cheese, honey, minced garlic, pasta, pasta sauce, red pepper flakes, roasted red peppers, vegetarian, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 2 large red bell peppers
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
  • 8 ounces dried pasta I used medium-sized shells
  • 1/2 small yellow onion diced
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup feta cheese
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Wash and dry your bell peppers, and drizzle 1/2 tablespoon of oil over the peppers, using your hands to coat them thoroughly. Place them on the baking sheet, and turn the broiler in your oven on high.
  • Let the peppers char on each side under the broiler, checking on them every few minutes until the outsides of the peppers are blackened on all sides.
  • Remove the peppers from the oven and transfer them to a large bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Let them sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.
  • Cook your pasta according to package directions. When it’s done, save about 1/3 cup of the pasta water in case you need to thin your sauce.
  • In a skillet, heat another 1/2 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add in the diced onions. Saute until they are soft and toss in the garlic. Saute for just a couple minutes until the garlic is fragrant and just starting the brown. Remove from heat.
  • In a blender or food processor, add the other two tablespoons of olive oil, the onion/garlic mixture, feta cheese, honey, chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
  • Carefully remove and discard the skin from the charred peppers, discard the seeds, and then rough chop the peppers before adding them to the blender.
  • Blend the mixture until it is smooth. If it is still thicker than you like, blend in a little pasta water until you reach your desired consistency. (If the sauce got a bit cold, add it to your skillet, along with the pasta, to reheat it a bit.)
  • Serve immediately with the cooked pasta.

You can easily add a protein, too. We sauteed some shrimp to add to the mix, but it would also be delicious with chicken or even a rope sausage. You could also wilt some spinach into the sauce, if you wanted to.

The flavor of the sauce was fabulous, and it reheated really well, too. It was kind of nice to do something other than tomato sauce with pasta for a change.

This was definitely a nice, filling dinner. Now I need to get back on my bike so I can justify making it again.

This piece first appeared in print on June 15, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Crockpot Main Dish

Pantry clean out calls for finally using my noodle

Crockpot lasagna is easy to put together and creates a great, hot dinner without standing over the stove for hours.
Crockpot lasagna is easy to put together and creates a great, hot dinner without standing over the stove for hours.

After weeks of opening my pantry and sighing deeply at the mess and disorganization, I finally pulled every last item out this past weekend.

Joey came into the kitchen to find boxes, bags and containers on every countertop.

“Today’s the day, huh?” he said, and then he wisely made himself scarce.

He knows better than to get in the middle of my crazy when I’m trying to organize.

As I dug through the pile, I discovered several things. One: At some point, I purchased corn starch, forgot I purchased corn starch and purchased corn starch again. Two: I have way more cupcake liners than I thought I did. And three: For some reason, I spent some time in the past collecting half-full boxes of lasagna noodles.

I’m not really sure what to do with my wealth of cornstarch, and the cupcake liners are now tucked away in a much better location, so I turned my attention to the lasagna noodles, but since I’d already spent a bunch of time cleaning, I decided I needed an easy recipe to try.

The one I found fit the bill: a crockpot lasagna.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Big Oven.” You can find the original post at https://www.bigoven.com/recipe/easy-crockpot-lasagna/229584.

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Crockpot Lasagna

Crockpot lasagna is easy to put together and creates a great, hot dinner without standing over the stove for hours.
Course Main Course
Keyword crockpot, easy dinner, mozarella cheese, parmesan cheese, pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, slow cooker

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 small yellow onion diced
  • 6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3-4 cups mozzarella cheese divided
  • 15 ounces ricotta cheese I used low-fat
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons dried parsley
  • 1 cup fresh spinach cut into ribbons
  • 24 ounces spaghetti sauce
  • 6 to 9 uncooked lasagna noodles I used a combo of regular and oven-ready

Instructions

  • In a large skillet over medium heat, brown and crumble the ground beef, along with the onions.
  • While the beef and onions cook, add 2 cups of the mozzarella, the ricotta, parmesan, egg, parsley and spinach in a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
  • Once the beef is cooked through, drain off as much fat as you can, and add the minced garlic, sauteing for a few minutes.
  • Add the pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of water to the skillet. (To really help clean out the jar, pour the water into the jar after you dump the sauce in the pan, and swish it around before adding it to the pan, too.) Add any seasonings you want to spice up your pasta sauce. (I added oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to mine.) Cook the sauce for a few minutes to let it all heat through.
  • In a large crockpot, add about one cup of the sauce to the bottom. Layer in as many noodles as you can fit in a single layer (break them, if necessary).
  • Spread half of the cheese mixture on top.
  • Add about two cups of sauce and add another layer of noodles.
  • Finish out by spreading the second half of the cheese mixture on and topping with the remaining sauce.
  • Cook on low for four to five hours or until your noodles are cooked through.
  • About 10 minutes before serving, top with the rest of your mozzarella and cover to let the cheese melt.
  • (I ended up putting this together the night before we wanted to eat it and refrigerated it in my crockpot. I plugged it in and cooked it on high for four hours, since it started out cold, and it cooked up great.)

This was pretty darn good, made for great leftovers, and it took way less time than a traditional lasagna. You could easily kick this up a notch with fancier sauces or subbing in half the ground beef with sausage, too.

And now I’m down to just one partial box of lasagna, which fits my newly organized aesthetic much better. I still sigh when I open my pantry, but it’s a sigh of happiness now.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 16, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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