Let’s talk Garlic Scapes

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basil, cooking, delicious, easy cooking, easy dinner, eat, eating, entertaining, food, fresh, fresh cooking, garlic, garlic scape, make ahead meals, Parmesan, pasta, pesto, quick cooking, simple entertaining

What are Garlic scapes?

They are the curled flower from the top of a garlic plant, are abundant at farmers markets (I just picked up a bundle at the https://carpfarmersmarket.ca/Carp Farmers Market). Available in the spring/early summer they make an easy, fragrant pesto that can be spread on bread or crackers, mixed with ricotta, put on pasta, used with fish, and as a substitute for garlic, onion, or scallions!

You can also slice them on the diagonal and sauté them with other vegetables as a side dish. They are wildly delicious.

Here is how I made my Garlic Scape Pesto that I will mix with ricotta for dinner one night and top sliced steak the next. Ready in less than 3 minutes 🙌

• 2 cups garlic scapes cut into pieces
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup packed basil leaves
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Pinch salt and pepper
• 4 green onions
• 1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
• 2 inch chunk of real Parmegiano Reggiano

Toss it all into your food processor and in 40 secs viola you have pesto!

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Leftovers… are awesome! Try this penne with sausage in a whisky cream sauce done in 9 MINUTES!

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asparagus, BBQ, cheese, cooking, corn, cream, cream sauce, delicious, easy cooking, easy dinner, easy dinners, easy pasta, eat, entertaining, food, fresh, garlic, italian, leftover, light dinners, pasta, quick cooking, simple entertaining, whisky

What exactly are leftovers? Leftovers are the uneaten remains of a hot or cold meal after the meal is over and everyone has finished eating.

As a kid what did that mean? It meant a gross dinner was around the corner. 😬 My mom was an excellent cook but even leftover night was a food bust.

No. Anymore.

Today is Labour Day in Canada or (Holiday Monday) and all the stores are closed. So dinnertime rolled around and I had no idea what to make. So I opened my fridge and grab a ton of leftovers and made a wicked dinner.

Here is what I used:

• 2 cups cooked penne pasta
• 1 bunch of asparagus which I cooked in garlic and oil
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 smoked Serrano chili ( or a chipotle if that is what you have )
• 2 cobs of corn – kernels cut off
• 3 BBQed Italian sausages sliced
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• Splash of whisky
• Parmesan
• Salt and pepper

What did I do?

Melt a bit of butter in a pan, add onion and asparagus after a few minutes add garlic and corn. After 1 minutes add chili, sausage and pasta. After 2 minutes add splash of whisky and stock and cream. Simmer 3 minutes and viola. Season with salt and pepper and top with Parmesan.

You won’t believe this is leftovers!

Soup Addict – Italian Wedding Soup

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basil, butter, cheese, comfort food, cooking, delicious, easy cooking, easy dinner, easy dinners, easy pasta, eat, fall, fall dishes, food, fresh, italian, Italian wedding soup, Italy, kid friendly, leftovers, make ahead meals, Parmesan, pasta, pork, quick cooking, simple entertaining, soup, soup recipes, wedding soup, winter, winter soups

When you live in Ottawa, and it’s the winter and it’s cold than Mars (true story) I crave soup. This delicious Italian Wedding soup always makes feel cozy and warm. Italian wedding soup is a combination of a killer broth, mini tasty meatballs, a small pasta, veggies and greens.

I honestly adore soup.  I love it for lunch with a piece of crusty bread and it makes a great appetizer before dinner. My youngest Holly loves this soup (she loves meat) my oldest Chloe avoids meat like the plague, so I wanted to create a version that would appeal to both kids. Chloe just eats hers minus the meatballs.

This soup is made on the stove 🙂 sorry Instant Pot lovers this is old school 🙂 This soup will keep in your fridge for 5 days and freezes superbly well. Rolling the meatballs are the most time consuming part of this recipe so if you have child labor kids to assist you, use it.

Ingredients

Ingredients for Pork Meatballs (can be done ahead of time and frozen):

• 1 pound ground pork (makes a tender meatball, but you can also use beef)
• 1/2 cup onion , finely diced (about 1/2 medium onion)
• 2 cloves garlic , peeled and minced (or use a rasp)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs or seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons mixed fresh herbs (parsley, basil, rosemary)
• 1 egg

Ingredients for Soup:

• 1 tablespoons butter or oil
• 1 cup onion , finely diced (1 medium onion)
• 1 cup carrot , peeled and diced (1 medium carrot)
• 2 cloves garlic , peeled and minced
• ~3 liters chicken broth – organic if you can (or homemade… I don’t have time for that though :)…)
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• 1 cup orzo, seme di Melone or acini di pepi
• 1 pound fresh tender spinach
• 2 tablespoons finely diced mixed herbs

Instructions

Meatballs:

1. In a large bowl, mix together pork, onion, garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, bread crumbs, herbs, and egg until combined
2. Shape into tiny bite-sized meatballs, roughly 1/2 inch in diameter; place onto parchment covered cookie sheet and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use. Luckily if you live in Canada during the winter you can put these babies outside to freeze while you prepare your broth 🙂 * Refrigerating is important as it will keep them from falling apart in the soup. You need a minimum of 30 mins to set up.

Soup:

1. In a large stock pot, melt butter; add onion, carrots, and garlic. Saute until tender, but not soft (about 5 minutes)
2. Add chicken broth; bring to a boil. Turn to simmer, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.
3. Taste and season with salt and pepper, to taste
4. Drop meatballs into broth; cook 7 minutes. Add pasta of your choice and cook 5 minutes
5. Add herbs and simmer for 30 minutes to meld flavours, adding more broth, if needed. Add spinach for the last few minutes.
6. Serve with crusty bread, or garlic bread (my kids favourite) and top with additional Parmesan cheese. I also love to add a bit of Sriracha to my soup too.
7. Enjoy!

http://www.monicaskitchen.com

The Best Bolognese sauce, hands down. Instant Pot Recipe.

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basil, comfort food, cooking, easy cooking, easy dinner, easy dinners, easy pasta, eat, entertaining, fall dishes, food, fresh, fresh cooking, fresh pasta, gluten free, instant pot, italian, Italy, kid friendly, make ahead meals, Parmesan, pasta, penne, pork, quick cooking, sauce, sausage, simple entertaining, spaghetti, sugar, veal

I can’t say enough good things about my Instant Pot. I bought the 8 quart one this winter and I can’t get enough of it. 

I typically make my bolognese sauce on the stove and it takes roughly 6 hours on a slow simmer to come out perfectly. 
Using my instant pot it took 35 minutes on high pressure and viola my sauce is ready!

The sauté feature is a huge time and prep saver as you can sauté in the actual pot. 

The key to this sauce is the meat ratio and I blitz all the vegetable in the food processor before I add it into the meat. This bolognese sauce is more of a ragu than your typical spaghetti sauce. Also another tip I don’t use beef, I only use veal and pork and prom sausage. This makes the sauce much more mild. 

What you need:

• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork
• 1 1/2 pounds ground veal
• 1 pound Italian sausage meat (casing removed)
• 1 large white onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 celery heart stalks
• 4 garlic cloves 
• 3/4 cups of sundried tomatoes
• 1 huge handful of fresh basil
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 28 oz can tomato purée (try to find San Marizano tomatoes)
• 1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes
• Parmesan rind
• Dried Bay leaves (4) 
• 1/3 red wine
• Splash of heavy cream 

In a food processor add all the vegetables and basil and sun dried tomatoes. Blitz until their are no chunks and you have a very finely diced mixture. Set aside.

Plug in your Instant pot and press the sauté button – it will take a few minutes and it will beep and say hot.

Start sautéing the sausage meat so some of the fat renders down, once crumbly add the  ground pork and cook down and then add the veal. This whole process will take about 10 minutes to brown the meat. 

Once no longer pink, add in the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, basil and sundried tomatoe purée. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Then add in the 2 cans of tomatoes, salt and sugar and bay leaves. Throw in the Parmesan rind and 1/3 cup of good red wine. 

Put on the top of the Instant pot, press the meat/stew button (35 mins on high pressure) and sit back and relax! It will take about 5 minutes to come up to high pressure and then the timer will start counting down. Once it is finished, the Instant pot will shut off automatically. 

This sauce usually simmers on my stove for 4-6 hours. With this instant pot it now only takes 45 minutes! 

Typically a Bolognese sauce is served with a wider pasta noodle but you can serve it on whenever noodle you desire. Before serving add a splash of cream to the sauce. I can’t explain what it does to the sauce but it makes it amazing and rounds out all the meat and tomato flavour. 

This sauce freezes amazingly well (do not add the cream before you freeze it) and this recipe will give you roughly 10~12 cups. 

Mangia! 

Sundried Tomato Shrimp Pasta with Basil and Cream

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comfort food, cream sauce, pasta, pasta dishes, shrimp, sundried tomatoes, winter food

If you love pasta you will love this dish! It is so simple to prepare and only uses a few ingredients. You could pull this pasta off in 15 mins!

What you need for 2 servings:

A small handful of dried fettuccine or linguini
Salt for pasta water
Shrimp 21-25 count (10 to 12 shrimps)
10 thinly sliced sundried tomatoes (dried or oil packed)
1 small onion thinly sliced
5 basil leaves
Red pepper flakes
1 garlic clove
1 tbs oil
1/2 heavy cream
Splash of white wine
Real Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Boil your water add salt, and add your pasta – cook pasta according to package
2. In a sauté pan on Med/high heat add oil and onion, garlic, sundried tomatoes. Cook for a few minutes. Add shrimp. After a minute add a splash of white wine.
3. Remove shrimp, add cream and reduce for 1-2 minutes
4. Drain pasta, add shrimp and pasta back to sauté pan to absorb the sauce.
5. Toss in basil and grated Parmesan.

Taste for seasoning… Anything missing? Add it. Red pepper flakes, salt, pepper…

Devour.
www.monicaskitchen.com

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Just did my first TV cooking segment!

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cooking on TV, Daytime Ottawa, Derick Fage, food, pasta, shrimp, summer pasta

Wow what an amazing experience! I was thrilled to be asked to go on Daytime Ottawa Rogers 22 to do a cooking demo. It was incredible! The hosts were so welcoming! When I have the link I will post. Until then here are a few pictures. 🙂 Can you tell I am excited .

I can’t wait to do it again!

Recipe: Sambuca Shrimp Pasta

Takes 15 minutes to make

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined, remove the tails
1 tsp each of onion and garlic powder
2 tsp old bay seasoning
½ tsp to 1 tsp of chipotle powder (depends on how spicy you would like it)
1 tablespoons butter and 1 tbs oil (olive, canola, corn whatever you have)
1 onion thinly sliced
1 pepper thinly sliced (yellow, orange or red)
2 Portobello mushroom caps –gills removed and thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic finely minced
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 ½ OZ Sambuca (licorice-flavored liqueur)
½ cup of fresh grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese
Handful of freshly torn basil
Salt and pepper
Fresh spaghetti pasta

What To Do:

1. Season the shrimp with onion and garlic powder, chipotle powder and old bay and set aside.
2. Slice onions and peppers and mushrooms and finely mince garlic and set aside.
3. Get a pot of water on the stove and salt it generously for the pasta
4. In a large skillet, melt ½ the butter and ½ the oil over medium heat and cook the seasoned shrimp, just until pink. Cook in batches if your pan is small. You don’t want the shrimp to boil, you want them to sauté. Should take just a few minutes, once the shrimp turns pink remove to bowl and set aside.
5. Add the remaining butter and oil over medium/high heat and sauté the mushrooms for 3-4 minutes until they start to brown. Remove and place in a bowl. Continue to sauté the rest of the vegetables, onions, peppers and garlic. Cook for 3-4 minutes until tender. Remove the pan from the heat and add your Sambuca, place the pan back on heat and reduce for a minute. Reduce heat to medium/low and add in cream and reduce again until you see the sauce thicken up. (The sauce should coat the back of a spoon, if it is too thick and it was reduced too much just ad a splash of cream or water. Taste your sauce. If it needs salt, add salt. If you want to add pepper or extra chipotle do it at this stage.) You should always taste your food for seasoning.
6. Drop your pasta. Fresh pasta takes 1-2 minutes to cook. Add your cooked shrimp back into the pan with the sauce to reheat it but not overcook it.
7. Once pasta is cooked drain it and put it the drained pasta into the pan with the sauce. Proceed to toss and coat the pasta for a minute.
8. Last step toss in torn basil and ½ grated parmesan cheese
9. Serve family style or in 4 pasta bowls and top with remaining parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!!

Five Dinners to Make with Marinara Sauce

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5 meals 1 sauce, basil, easy pasta, eat, food, italian, marinara sauce, Parmesan, pasta, penne, quick cooking, sauce, sausage

So earlier this week I wrote about my simple and delicious marinara sauce. It is a staple recipe to have in your repertoire. Takes 30 mins to make, inexpensive and it freezes very well.

But I also wanted to show you how easy it is to change it up with a few simple ingredients to create 5 different meals. 1 sauce = 5 meals. Curious? I thought so.

First of all you start off with my marinara sauce. It is simple to make and extremely affordable. The whole pot, 8 cups of sauce cost me 8$ to make.

1. Arrabbiata Sauce (Arrabbiata means angry in Italian)

In a medium saucepan, heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Add  (1/2 cup) finely diced pancetta. If you can’t find pancetta you can use bacon or prosciutto. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tsp. of red chile flakes; cook until the garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups of marinara sauce and 1/4 cup torn basil leaves and simmer ~ 10 mins. Toss with 1 package of cooked and drained pasta. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Arrabiatta Sauce

 

2. Penne Alla Vodka

So I always have vodka in my house, but I have never used it to cook with until now. Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Add  (1/2 cup) finely diced bacon, cook for 3-4 minutes until the fat starts to render out. Add 1 finely diced onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tsp. of red chile flakes; cook until the garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 cups of marinara sauce and 1/2 cup of vodka and reduce for a few minutes. Add in 1/2 cup of heavy cream and a pinch of nutmeg. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat. Toss with 1 package of cooked and drained pasta (penne works well). Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Penne Alla Vodka

3. Rose sauce (pink sauce)

In a large sauté pan over medium heat add in 1 cup marinara and season with salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Simmer until hot. Add in 1 cup of heavy cream and a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 5- 10 mins. You can use this sauce for pasta, on top of sauteed chicken breasts, on gnocchi, on spaghetti squash. It is so versatile.

Rose sauce on gnoochi

4. Mussels Marinara (Fra Diavolo)

Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a large sauce pot and sauté 3 cloves of minced garlic for about 2 minutes, being careful not to brown it. Add 1 cup of white wine (Pinot Grigio works well) and bring the heat up to high. Bring the wine to a boil and simmer for another two minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and add 1 1/2 cups of marinara sauce. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and 1/2 tsp of crushed red chile flakes. Once the sauce is at a light simmer, add the mussels (4 pounds of cleaned mussels), give them a stir, raise the heat to medium and cover the pot. Cook for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened, then stir in the parsley. Transfer mussels to a platter. (Discard any mussels that do not open.) Serve with the warm baguette.

Mussels Marinara

5. Sausage and Peppers

This is a classic dish and super easy to make. In a large saucepan with a lid, heat 2 TBS olive oil over medium heat. Cook 4 Italian sausages to brown all sides. Remove and set aside. Turn heat to high. Add 1 sliced pepper and 1 sliced onion, cooking until slightly tender and browned, about 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Stir in 1 cup of marinara sauce and a pinch of pepper flakes. Reduce heat to a low simmer and return sausages to the pan. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until sausages are cooked through. You can serve the sausages whole or  sliced. Serve with polenta or pasta or on a fresh crusty roll.

Sausage and Peppers

As you can see you can make 5 dishes with one sauce. Enjoy!

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com

Simple and Delicious Marinara Sauce

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eat, food, Italy, marinara sauce, pasta, pasta sauce in minutes, summertime, tomatoes

There are so many ways to make marinara sauce and everyone has their personal preferences. A marinara sauce can be whipped up fresh pretty quickly – here’s how.

4 Ingredients

There are a few must haves to make the best marinara sauce in my opinion.

1. San Marzano tomatoes
2. Fresh basil
3. Parmesan cheese rinds
4. Immersion blender

Parmesan cheese rinds as such a depth of flavor to the sauce

I definitely prefer canned San Marzano tomatoes. These tomatoes are picked at their peak in the Campania region of Italy, where they grow in the volcanic soil. They are a low acid, meaty tomato and make an excellent tomato sauce.  Most grocery stores carry the canned San Marzanos now. I bought a HUGE can at Costco for 6$ 100oz. That was a steal because the local grocery stores sell a 28 oz can for 4.99.

If you use tomatoes that you feel are a little acidic, the trick is to add just a little sugar to the sauce.  My mom used to do this all the time. It softens that acidity.

Ingredients:

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 100 ounce can peeled Italian plum tomatoes, seeded and lightly crushed, with their liquid
kosher salt
Parmesan cheese rinds
20 fresh basil leaves
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Mince the garlic cloves with a knife, toss them into the oil, and cook, about 2 minutes.

Carefully slide the tomatoes and their liquid into the oil. Bring to a boil, and season lightly with salt. Lower the heat so the sauce is at a simmer, and cook, breaking up the tomatoes with a whisk or spoon, add the Parmesan cheese rinds, cook until the sauce is chunky and thick, about 30 to 40 minutes. Stir in a huge bunch of basil (mine was from my garden) about 5 minutes before the sauce is finished. Taste the sauce, and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Mince your garlic cloves

Saute garlic in olive oil for 2 minutes. Be careful not to brown the garlic or it will add a bitter taste.

Add the tomatoes

Add the Parmesan cheese rinds to the sauce

Add basil at the end of cooking

Eat

My best tip for making a marinara sauce, though, is to puree it.  Some people think it’s bad to puree the sauce, but I think that’s just wrong.  If you are using canned whole tomatoes, there is something about pureeing the sauce that deepens the flavor.  It makes a big difference. An immersion blender is the handiest thing to have for this.  If you don’t have one, get one – you will love it.  It can be very messy to transfer hot soup or sauce to a blender.

The sauce freezes very well.  I let my sauce cool overnight in the fridge with the Parmesan cheese rinds still in the sauce. I like freezing the sauce instead of canning it, just because it’s so much easier.  I just pour the sauce in a Tupperware container and throw it in the freezer. Or to make a lovely gift for someone, pour the sauce into some jars, add a label and viola! Dinner is served.

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com

Easy Pasta in 15 minutes

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basil, cooking, cooking in 15 minutes, easy pasta, fresh cooking, fresh pasta, mushrooms, pasta, tomatoes

I had a friend pop over for lunch last Wednesday and I needed to make us a quick bite to eat.

The day before I had bought a small little pack of fresh pasta for 2$
and some portobello mushrooms. With a few other ingredients the results were delish!

Pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes and basil

I love using mushrooms because they can actually replace the meat in a dish. Portobello mushrooms when they are cooked have a meaty texture.

Tip! When prepping your mushrooms scrape off the dark gills of the mushroom to prevent everything in your dish from going black.

Ingredients:

3 large portobello mushroom caps
1 onion sliced
Diced up smoked Serrano chili or 1/2 tsp of chipotle powder
Handful of fresh basil
Handful of sliced cherry tomatoes
Splash of white wine or sambucca or both
Heavy cream ~ 3/4 cup
Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Fresh pasta

In a sauté pan on high heat add a touch of oil and sauté the mushrooms until they start to color. Add onions. Salt and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add wine or sambucca. Put pan back on heat to reduce. Add Serrano pepper or chipotle pepper. Add cream and reduce heat to low.

Sauce simmering

In a pot of salted water cook fresh pasta. It takes minutes to cook. I LOVE fresh pasta because it is a great chew to it which goes well with this sauce.

Pasta cooking

Once pasta is cooked, drain and add directly to the sauté pan that has the mushrooms and sauce. Coat the pasta with sauce and let it absorb. Toss in the sliced cherry tomatoes and the fresh sliced basil. Let heat for a few more minutes and put in pasta bowls, top with Parmesan and serve! Delish!

Toss pasta with sauce

This dish takes 15 mins to make. Super fast, easy and tasty, and you don’t even miss the meat. I promise.

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com