Casserole
With Summer heating up and all the farmer’s markets in full swing this recipe that is adapted from Parade Magazine is just the thing for a meatless summer dinner. This dish is sweet from the tomato’s, and rich and creamy from the cheese sauce. Serve with a side salad and your dinner is done! This is a make again recipe for us as we all went back for seconds!
INGREDIENTS
5 Tablespoons of unsalted butter, divided
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 cups milk (I used 1%)
Salt
1 pound spiral pasta
5 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese plus 1/2 cup for topping
8 ounces Italian cheese blend
6 ounces grape tomatoes (about 1 cup)
1 jar (8.5 ounces) sun dried tomatoes julienne cut in olive oil, drained
1/4 cup Italian panko crumbs
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large pot with water cover and bring to a boil. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat melt 4 tablespoons of butter, add flour, Italian seasoning and nutmeg.Whisk for 2 minutes to get the “floury” taste out. Add milk whisking to combine. Add salt and your pasta to your boiling water. Cook about 7 minutes or until pasta is cooked Al Dante.
Add the 5 ounces of Parmesan cheese to sauce and stir, add Italian cheese stirring until cheese is melted and smooth. Reduce heat to simmer. Meanwhile slice your grape tomatoes in half and drain the sun dried tomatoes. In a microwave safe bowl, add the last bit of butter and microwave until melted. Add the breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese stir with a fork until combined. set aside. When the pasta is done drain and return to pot. Add sun dried tomatoes and grape tomatoes. Stir in all but about one cup of cheese sauce and stir until combined. Pour pasta into baking dish and smooth out with a spoon Pour remaining cheese sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the panko topping and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the oven to broil for about two minutes to brown the topping. Remove from oven.
NOTE: This recipe can be made early in the day and stored in the fridge until you are ready to bake. Follow the directions until it goes in the oven, then store in fridge. When you bake it, just bake covered with foil for 35 minutes or until warmed through then uncover and broil for just a couple minutes to brown the topping.
Enjoy,
I really enjoyed this dish. It is a great comfort dish on a cool night. It is also one that would be great for a potluck or to bring to a friend or neighbor. You can easily change this to your families favorite pasta sauce or your favorite sweet or spicy sausage! Serve with a salad and your dinner is done!
INGREDIENTS
24 jumbo pasta shells
1 pound sweet sausage (or spicy, or a combination)
1 (26 ounce) jar of your favorite pasta sauce. I used a garlic tomato sauce
15 ounces of Ricotta OR cream cheese
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 Tablespoon of butter
1 cup Parmesan cheese
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta according to package directions being careful not to overcook. When the shells are done, drain them and mix in the butter, letting the butter melt.
In a large skillet, cook the sausage until no longer pink. Drain, stir in ricotta cheese, salt, and pepper stirring well. Add the pasta sauce, stir well and add the Italian seasoning. Take off the heat.
Spread some of the sauce mixture on to a 13×9 pan, add the shells in a single layer. Top the shells with the sauce mixture making sure you get some of the sauce IN each shell. Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy,
This is an easy and delicious weeknight dinner that comes together very quick. This makes an 8×8 dish and this was finished by three of us in one sitting! I will definitely be doubling the recipe next time as I think even the leftovers would be great!
INGREDIENTS
1 rotisserie chicken (you will need 1- 1 1/2 cups of chicken)
3 cups fried rice (leftovers, or from your favorite box)
1 small package of frozen steam fresh veggies of your choice. My veggies had mini corn, broccoli and carrots.
1 bottle of honey Teriyaki marinade and sauce ( I used Ken’s)
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook fried rice according to package, if you are not using leftovers.
Mix 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken with 1/4 cup of Teriyaki marinade.
Steam vegetables. Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl and add 1/4 cup more Teriyaki sauce.
Pour everything into a 8×8 prepared pan. Bake 350 Degrees oven for 10-15 minutes.
Take out of oven and drizzle a little more marinade over top!
Enjoy,
As you could guess by the title this recipe came about during Halloween due to the amount of garlic in the recipe. It is requested MANY times through the year… not just during Halloween. This week is Robby’s birthday and as you can guess this was his dinner request. I have been making this for a very long time and is always a favorite.
INGREDIENTS
2 whole garlic heads
Olive oil
1 pound Jimmy Dean hot sausage
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
2 Tablespoons butter
1/3 cup flour
5 cups 1 % milk
1 cup fresh Parmesan
1 cup Gruyere cheese
dash of nutmeg
salt
pepper
1 pound uncooked penne pasta
DIRECTIONS
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the top of the garlic heads off, drizzle with olive oil. Wrap garlic in foil and bake for one hour. Cool ten minutes, separate cloves and squeeze garlic into a small bowl. Set aside. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees
Cook pasta until al dante. Brown sausage in a LARGE saucepan over medium heat, stirring to crumble. Once cooked through. remove sausage from pan and stir in rosemary. In the same pan melt butter over medium heat, add flour to the butter stirring with a whisk. Gradually add the milk whisking until slightly thick. (about 10 minutes). Stir in roasted garlic, cheeses, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix sausage, pasta and cheese sauce together and place in a 13×9 pan and bake for 15 minutes until bubbly.
Take out of oven and let rest for five minutes. The sauce will thicken as it sits.
Enjoy!
This is another Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) recipe with just a couple slight changes. One change is that I dislike mushrooms, you will not find mushrooms in my mac and cheese. The second change is that I do not add Fontina cheese but instead up the amount of Gruyere cheese, as I love the nutty flavor the Gruyere gives. The rest of the recipe is the same. I also used only one pound of macaroni instead of 1 1/2 pounds.
To make this recipe a little easier I usually cook my bacon and caramelize the onions one day in advance.
INGREDIENTS
Salt
Pepper
8 slices thick cut bacon (cooked and chopped)
2 whole onions (peeled, halved and thinly sliced)
5 Tablespoons of butter
1/2 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
4 ounces goat cheese
1 pound elbow macaroni
1/4 cup flour
2 cups whole milk (I use 1%- it worked just fine)
1/2 cup half and half
2 whole eggs, beaten
4 ounces crumbled Gorgonzola
DIRECTIONS
In a large skillet over medium low heat, sauté onions in one tablespoon of butter, stirring occasionally until golden brown. This takes some time…don’t rush, you really want the onions to caramelize. Grate the Parmesan cheese and Gruyere cheese and unwrap the goat cheese. Cook the macaroni until just under cooked. Drain and set aside.
To make the sauce, Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter into LARGE pot over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour , whisking to combine. Let the roux cook for a minute or so continually whisking. Pour in the milk, still whisking, cook for 3-5 minutes until thick and bubbly. Add the half and half, 1 teaspoon of salt , plenty of black pepper and stir to combine.
Spoon about 1/4 cup of the hot white sauce into the small bowl with the beaten eggs, stirring with a fork as you drizzle the white sauce in. Once combined pour the mixture into the pot with the white sauce, stirring constantly.
Add the Goat cheese, Parmesan cheese and Gruyere cheese. Stir to melt. Add the cooked Macaroni to the sauce and stir to coat.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish. Lay half of the cooked onions on the bottom of the pan, followed by half of the macaroni, half of the Gorgonzola and half of the bacon. Repeat layers, ending with the bacon on top!
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until hot and bubbly!
Enjoy!
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