Sauteed Mushrooms over Pasta

Once again, this is another dish inspired by the sales at the grocery store.

My local grocery store, Safeway, has a club card where you can load deals to your card.  One of my deals was an 8 ounce package of mushrooms for 1.59.  

Last week, the same package of mushrooms was on sale for Buy One, Get One Free - meaning I purchased two 8 ounce containers of mushrooms for only 1.59, or 0.80 each.  HOT deal.

I love mushrooms, and when I saw the recipe for sauteed mushrooms pop up on Lucinda Scala Quinn's blog, I promptly saved it to make over pasta, as I waited for a mushroom sale.

I always buy the whole mushrooms - the pre-sliced mushrooms are too thick for my liking, and I'm such a control freak in the kitchen, I'd rather slice my own mushrooms.  The mushrooms were pre-washed, but you certainly can wash them again.  I'm not a fan of washing mushrooms, as I rinse and then wipe the dirt off each mushroom - it took FOREVER with a container of crimini mushrooms and I'm not eager to repeat the experience. 

My small changes:

1.  I used half and half instead of heavy cream.  Fat free, too.  Calories, people.

2.  I usually do not have wine on hand.  Instead, I squeezed an entire lemon into the mushrooms I sliced.

3.  I halved the recipe.  So yes, I used 1 whole lemon instead of only 1/4th of a lemon for juice.  But I actually liked the intense lemon flavor, and the lemon didn't seem extremely juicy in the first place.

If you make this dish on it's own, slice the mushrooms slightly thicker than I did.

I need to use smaller dishes in my photos.

Sauteed Mushrooms over Pasta, by Lucinda Scala Quinn.  Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds fresh mushrooms
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
• Splash white wine (or extra lemon, like I did)
• 1/4 cup cream (or half and half)
• 3 tablespoons grated cheese (I used Parmesan)

Directions:

1.  Submerge mushrooms in cold water, swish around to wash thoroughly, and drain.  Trim the ends, slice and place in a large bowl.  Squeeze the juice of half a lemon (this is where I used the whole) over the mushrooms and toss.

2.  Heat olive oil in a large pan, and cook garlic until lightly brown, about 30 seconds, over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms, stir, and cover.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for four minutes.

3.  Remove the lid, add salt and pepper, and cook, stirring until moisture has evaporated and mushrooms brown, about five minutes.  

4.  If continuing on to make it as a sauce, do not cook off all the liquid if you are not adding a splash of wine.  Leave a small amount in the pan, add the cream, and the cheese.  Stir to combine until it thickens.

5.  Stir in parsley (I used dried parsley, don't hurt me.)  Stir in cooked pasta and serve.

Pomodoro Sauce

A good hearty pasta always comes with a delicious, hearty sauce.  The simplest of the sauces is a tomato sauce. 

I had printed the recipe for spaghetti pomodoro by Lucinda Scala Quinn ages ago, before I even planned the ravioli, for my "make" file.  I decided to kill two birds with one stone (that's such a violent saying!) by making the pomodoro sauce to go with my ravioli.

Lucinda calls this her "go-to" tomato sauce.  Once again, Lucinda is right.  Always listen to Lucinda!  It is such a great, basic sauce, and I can easily see myself adding ground beef, meatballs... anything.  The recipe also notes that you can add it to any recipe that calls for tomato sauce, such as lasagna, baked ziti, etc.

Once again, I didn't use whole tomatoes.  For one, I didn't feel like busting out a food processor.  Second, the cost per can.  I used petite diced tomatoes, although after watching the video, I might have been better off with tomatoes closer to a puree, or mashing the tomatoes down smaller, as I had large chunks of tomato in my sauce.

A second note - I forgot to get basil.  Woe is me!  I didn't have dried basil either.  I kept my cool and added oregano at the beginning of the simmering process.  Tasted great, actually.

Definitely a winner though.  Maybe I won't buy jarred tomato sauce again.

Pomodoro Sauce by Lucinda Scala Quinn of Mad Hungry

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling.
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 28 ounce can best quality whole tomatoes, lightly pulsed in a blender (I used two 14 ounce cans of petite diced tomatoes)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt (a good pinch)
• freshly ground black pepper
• small pinch of sugar
• 1 sprig fresh basil
• freshly grated parmesan cheese, optional.

Directions:
1.  In a sauce pan over medium heat, heat the olive oil and garlic.  Swirl the pan to coat the garlic with oil and heat until garlic sizzles but doesn't turn brown, about 30 seconds.  Add red pepper flakes and stir. 

2.  Add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and sugar and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cook for at least 20 minutes, but no more than 30.  Add the basil the last five minutes of cooking.  Remove basil before serving.

Serve with your favorite pasta, or use as a sauce in other dishes.  Either way, enjoy!

Old-Fashioned Pancakes

As a kid, I made pancakes all the time - pull out some Bisquick, add liquid and an egg, and then heat up a frying pan and pour out some batter.

Easy peasy.  So easy a 10 year old can do it.

Fast forward twenty years.  I still love pancakes, but I banned Bisquick from my cupboard.  What's a girl to do when a pancake craving strikes?  Make them from scratch!  Pancakes can be made from the staples found in almost any pantry.

Today's recipe is from Lucinda Scala Quinn, Executive Food Director for Martha's empire,  hosts her own show on Hallmark Channel called "Mad Hungry."

Oh to be that little pool of butter, in the middle of a pile of steaming pancake goodness...

The recipe makes 16 4-inch pancakes.  I scaled it down to make two normal sized pancakes and one abnormal sized pancake.  The scaled down ingredients is in parenthesis.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour (0.5 heaping cup of flour)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (0.25 tbsp sugar, or 1/3 heaping tsp of sugar)
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt (0.25 tsp salt, or a pinch of salt.)
• 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder (0.5 heaping tsp of baking powder)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten (a smidge of egg, cook the rest on the side, or use an egg substitute)
• 1 1/4 cups milk (just under 1/3 cup of milk)
• 3 tablespoons melted butter, plus more for serving (0.25 tbsp melted butter for the batter)
• Vegetable oil for the griddle
• Pure maple syrup (or any old syrup)

A note when scaling this recipe down - I would consider omitting the egg, or scrambling part of the egg as a side to your pancakes.  I used one whole egg, and the batter came out really thick.  I had to keep adding milk to thin it out, and I eventually gave up.

The batter smells a lot like Bisquick - you're not missing anything by making this from scratch!  It only takes a little extra effort to measure the ingredients.

Directions:
1.  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Make a well in the center of the mixture, and add the egg, milk and 2 tablespoons of melted butter.  Whisk from the center, slowly incorporating the dry mixture.
(I didn't do that last part, I just threw everything in, and mixed vigorously.  That might have explained why my batter was so thick.)

2.  Heat a skillet, griddle or in my case, a non stick pan over medium high heat.  Swirl the remaining tablespoon of butter in the skillet, or use oil to coat the griddle. (I used cooking spray.  I'm sorry!!)  Pour 1/4th cup of batter per pancake.  When bubbles rise to the surface, flip the pancake over and reduce heat to medium.  Cook until the bottom is golden and centers are cooked, about 1 minute.

3.  As the pancakes come off the skillet, either keep warm in the oven on an oven safe plate, or serve to the hungry, waiting masses.

4.  Serve a stack of three with a pat of butter and real maple syrup.

Syrup action shot, even if it is picture taking fail.  It is really difficult to take these pictures by yourself!

It was delicious.  I love this recipe, although I would want to try it again without the egg or a smaller amount of egg.  I loved the taste of the pancakes - it reminded me of the pancakes of my childhood.  I wish they came out a bit fluffier, but I think that is due to using too much egg and overmixing the batter.  Plus I tend to flatten the pancakes when I flip them over, which is silly on my part, but this is a habit that is hard to break.