Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta

Y'all know what a fan I am of fast, easy, and delicious meals. This recipe has it all, folks, plus veggies, too! A hometown friend of mine, Dawn, created this fab dish and was gracious enough to share it with me.

The first two words I saw in the recipe were "goat cheese." SOLD!! I love goat cheese, but rarely have the opportunity to eat it, much less cook with it. The rest of the recipe could have included sardines and sauerkraut (two foods I wouldn't cook or eat), and I would still have made it, just for the goat cheese. Thankfully, Dawn's recipe included yummy ingredients like sun dried tomatoes, broccoli, Alfredo sauce and mushrooms. Mmmmm!! And did I mention this takes no time at all to make? 30 minutes, and you're sitting at the table, enjoying a scrumptious meal!




Sun Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Pasta
Recipe courtesy Dawn Norris
2/3 box of penne rigatte (must use the rigatte…it soaks up the sauce better)
1 package of broccoli-in-the-bag
1 tablespoon butter
Olive oil
½ of medium onion, diced
1 package of sliced mushrooms (if you're like my husband, you can pick these out or omit them. I happen to think mushrooms are quite yummy)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 jar (or more if you love sun dried tomatoes) of sun dried tomatoes, julienned (I couldn't find a jar, so I just used the package from the produce section)
½ of roasted chicken, cut up in big chunks, or 1 package of the precooked Tyson chicken strips
1 jar of Sun dried Tomato Alfredo pasta sauce (Classico is best)
Salt
Pepper
Container of goat cheese crumbles
1/3 cup of parmesan (optional)

Boil your pasta. Use about 2/3 the box of penne for about six people.

While pasta is boiling (that is literally all the time it takes to make this dish), put “broccoli in the bag” to steam.

Put butter and about two turns of olive oil (I always use some of the oil from the sun dried tomato jar) in LARGE sauté pan on medium to high heat. Begin sautéing onions. Once onions start to soften, place the mushrooms into the pan and begin cooking. When mushrooms are beginning to brown, add the garlic, sun dried tomatoes, chicken, broccoli, and jar of sun dried tomato Alfredo sauce. Add salt & pepper to your liking. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Lower heat to very low.

At this point, the noodles should be done. Add the noodles to the sauce pan directly from the pot using a slotted spoon or strainer (you want a little of the pasta water to get into the sauce mix—it helps the sauce stick to the pasta better).

Pour into a big pasta bowl (this feeds at least 6 people). Mix in the container of goat cheese crumbles and sprinkle on parmesan (optional).

Enjoy!

In season - fresh tomatoes

One of Patrick's friends and co-workers, Dennis, gave us some beautiful tomatoes last week. They were red, ripe, and ready to eat. They would have been delicious on tomato sandwiches. But, no one in our household eats tomato sandwiches. Or raw tomatoes. Or any food with large tomato chunks. Caprese pizza is the closest thing to a "real" tomato that we'll eat, and they were on the menu a week or two ago.

So ... what was a girl to do with five ready-to-eat tomatoes? I couldn't let them go to waste.

I did what any technologically savvy girl would do -- I turned to the internet.

We do like tomato soup here at the Witherow house (no chunks, please), and I found a recipe on foodnetwork.com that looked like it had potential, so I decided to give it a try, even though eating soup in the middle of August while it's 90+ degrees outside is a little ridiculous.

Side note - is it weird that I had never tasted tomato soup until college? Or maybe I had graduated college ... anyway, it was not a soup I ate growing up. It is a recently acquired taste of mine. And we don't eat the Campbell's Tomato Soup, either - we go for the good stuff - Wolfgang Puck's Tomato-Basil Soup (I can only find it at Publix). Yum.


Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup
Adapted from Barefoot Contessa's recipe on foodnetwork.com
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped red onions
2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped and seeded (about 5 large)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves, plus julienned basil leaves, for garnish
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup heavy cream (I used half & half instead)
Croutons, for garnish

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and carrots and saute for about 10 minutes, until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and stir well.

Bring the soup to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tomatoes are very tender. Add the cream to the soup and process it through a food mill* into a bowl, discarding only the dry pulp that's left. Reheat the soup over low heat just until hot and serve with julienned basil leaves and/or croutons.

*I don't own a food mill, so I just pureed everything in a blender until smooth and it was the perfect consistency.

Mama Mia!

I love pizza. I could eat it daily. I also really like Caprese salad. Fresh mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes ... mmm ... so good.

Put them together and what do you get? Pure deliciousness, that's what!


This Caprese Pizza is a quick, easy recipe (my favorite kind!), perfect for an after-work, weeknight meal. It's also a meatless dish, so it's great for any vegetarians out there. It's light and summery, too - just right for the hot, hazy days of August!

Caprese Pizza
Bake at 425 degrees
Toppings:
3 medium vine-ripened tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 oz. fresh mozzarella
Coarsely ground black pepper

Crusts:
1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 package refrigerated pizza crust
1 clove garlic
1 oz. (2 tablespoons) grated Parmesan cheese

1. Slice tomatoes into 1/4" slices. Place onto a paper towel-lined cutting board. Sprinkle both sides evenly with salt; let stand 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, for crusts, lightly brush pan with 1 tsp. of oil. Unroll dough onto pan. Press garlic into prep bowl and combine with 1 Tbsp. oil; brush over dough. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over dough.

3. Cut dough lengthwise into thirds. Carefully move dough slightly apart to separate. Bake 11-12 minutes or until bottoms of crusts are light golden brown.

4. While crusts bake, finish toppings. Chop basil; combine with oil and set aside.

5. Blot tops of tomato slices with paper towels. Slice mozzarella cheese into 1/4" slices. Arrange tomato and cheese slices in overlapping rows on baked crusts. Brush basil oil over pizzas and sprinkle with black pepper. Return to oven and bake and additional 4-5 minutes or just until cheese melts.

Ciao; Enjoy!