Pasta Recipes: Fettucine Con Spinachi, Basilico, Rosmarino E Timo One Of My Favorite Pasta Recipes

Pasta Recipes

 

[caption id="attachment_1412" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pasta Fettucine With Spinach Basil Rosemary And Thyme Click Enlarge[/caption]

I know that as of late I have been making quite a bit of Italian pasta recipes will require ingredients such as heavy cream, butter and even bacon grease. It is all in the name of flavor and fortunately I hope for most of us this is not a daily diet. There is no doubt that "fat is where the flavor is!" There are of course other alternatives to great pasta recipes or recipes from any country besides using lots of fats and oils for the desired flavors and textures that we want in a fine dish of food. An excellent meal does not always require fat for flavor and hence in this blog post I will be talking about one of my favorite pasta recipes that is not made with lots of fats and heavy cream or butter for that matter.

I sat for quite some time this last week trying to decide what I wanted to cook for you and I did not want to do another one of my heavy pasta recipes. Don't get me wrong I will be doing more of them in the future! I just wanted to give our cholesterol levels a break this week and I wanted to make sure that everyone could eat this dish without having to worry about whether or not they are on a diet. It is for this reason that this week I decided to make one of my best pasta recipes for you and it is a savory pasta recipe that does not use a standard pasta sauce like a red or a white sauce.

This pasta recipe is called Pasta Fettucine Con Spinachi, Basilico, Rosmarino E Timo! or Pasta Fettucine With Spinach, Basil, Rosemary And Thyme. This is a delicious pasta recipe and one of my favorite pasta dishes. This dish is a rustic Italian pasta recipe that can come from any household in Italy! It's wonderfully simple to make and is a heavy hitter in the flavor and aroma department. Just imagine yourself in an Italian household getting ready to make dinner and you get your ingredients together and you get to work on one of your favorite pasta recipes.

There you are chopping the garlic and the aroma of it invades your nostrils and you think to yourself how much you love the smell of garlic. Then you take fresh basil and pull the leaves from the stem of the plant and with each pluck your kitchen is filled with its earthy aroma. This is one of those pasta recipes that will drive your family and friends crazy with the anticipation of eating it! Go ahead and leave a window two open and listen to  your neighbors outside of the window speaking in Italian about "where is that lovely aroma coming from?" You will grin because you know it is you making the pasta recipe! So please watch and enjoy the video on how to make Pasta Fettucine Con Spinachi, Basilico, Rosmarino E Timo! Mangiare Bene! Eat Well!


The Ingredients:
1 Lb Fettucine Pasta.
4 Tbsp olive oil.
4oz fresh basil leaves.
10oz fresh spinach leaves.
6-8 cloves garlic chopped rough or fine your choice.
2 Tbsp dried rosemary.
2 Tbsp dried thyme.
2 Cups Chicken stock. (You may or may not use all of the stock!)
2 Tbsp red pepper flakes.(Depending on how much heat you like you may or may not want to add more or less red pepper.)
Salt and black pepper to taste.
3 oz Gorgonzola as a topping when dish is plated.
Salt and pepper to taste.
The largest saute pan/skillet you can get.

The Method:
(Cook your pasta to aldente' drain and put back in pot with about a ladle full of the starch water and some olive oil to coat the pasta and keep it from sticking together and then put on the back burner to stay warm.)

1. Put olive oil in your saute pan/skillet. Heat on med. high until oil is shimmering.
2. Once oil is shimmering put garlic in oil and cook on med. high til garlic softens and browns a bit. Add pinch of salt and pinch of red pepper flakes to the oil and stir
3. Once garlic is soft and brown add spinach first get it coated in the oil and get it to reduce.
4. Now add the basil and make sure it gets coated with oil and get it to reduce. Don't let leaves burn.
5. Now add 1/2 to 1 cup of chicken stock and raise heat to high to get the stock to boil. Keep mixing the leaves.
6. Reduce heat to med or a bit lower and put lid on skillet/saute for one minute or so. Then take off and spinach and
should now be wilted.
7. Add a pinch of salt and pinch of pepper to taste. We are building layers of flavor.
8. Now add 1 Tbsp of the dried rosemary and dried thyme. Spread it over the greens evenly.
9. Raise heat to medium. Mix everything up in the skillet/saute and make sure the dried herbs get wet.
10. Add a little more of the chicken stock if the the stock in the pan has evaporated from cooking the greens.
11. Now if the greens are wilted to your satisfaction spread them in a circle around the saute leaving the center clear for the pasta.
12. Pour your fettucine into the center of your skillet/saute and turn up the heat to a medium high heat.
13. Add another 1/2 to 1 cup of the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add pinch of salt and pinch of pepper and mix all ingredients together.
14. Now add the last of your rosemary and thyme and mix all of your ingredients together.
15. Add the last of the chicken stock and raise heat to a boil and then reduce to a medium boil and cook for 2-3 minutes this way to allow the pasta to absorb the liquid. You may want to add another 1 or 2 Tbsp of olive oil into the mix as well. No matter what there will be some liquid left in the pan and that is your sauce. The pasta should be shiny and well covered in liquid. After 2-3 minutes turn heat off and cover pan if you have one and let stand for a minute or two.
16. Plate pasta and greens and add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes and then add your Gorgonzola and your are ready to go! Mangiare Bene! Eat Well!

[caption id="attachment_1414" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pasta Fettucine With Spinach Basil Rosemary And Thyme Click To Enlarge[/caption]

Pasta Recipe - Pasta Puttanesca Pasta Of The Whore's

[caption id="attachment_953" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Pasta Puttanesca Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

Last night I felt like making a pasta recipe for dinner and so I decided to make a classic Italian pasta recipe from Campania, Italy called pasta puttanesca! The pasta of the whore's! Also called pasta alla putan or pasta alla putana's. In literal terms pasta puttanesca means "the way a whore would make it."

There are many stories as to how pasta puttanesca came into being as a pasta recipe. In it's most literal sense it was the pasta dish that the "ladies of ill repute" or the "ladies of the night" even though they also worked the day shift would make and eat between servicing their patrons.

There is another version of the story that goes like this: pasta puttanesca was made in the whore houses or brothels and that as the sauce  would cook the wonderful aroma of the puttanesca sauce would waft through the streets would entice and attract the local men to the front door of the brothel. Now to me that sounds a bit romanticized, but it is a true fact of nature that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach!" I would venture to say that between the two versions of the stories of how pasta puttanesca came into being as a pasta recipe, that someplace the two stories will meet in the middle. This pasta recipe is not an "old" recipe that goes back hundreds of years, rather it is a contemporary Italian dish that was created in the 1940's during the WW2 era.

There are two cities in Italy that make the claim to fame for pasta puttanesca and they are Campania and Lazio. There is no way to really tell which city made it first or which story really goes to which city, but either way this is a delicious pasta recipe that I think everyone should try if they've never had it. As with many dishes in this world in Italy everyone makes puttanesca a bit differently. Sometimes it is spicy and sometimes it is not. Some people will add some sugar and some will not. This pasta recipe can range from tangy to spicy to salty. If you are like me you will try to make your puttanesca in such a way as to have all of the tastes expressed! This is what I strive for when I make pasta puttanesca for myself or for others.

In Italian, the puttanesca sauce is called "Sugo Alla Puttanesca." Traditionally, puttanesca is served with common spaghetti but it goes good with just about any kind of pasta from fusili to regate to fettucine! I love to eat puttanesca with my favorite pasta called bucatini. There is an Americanized version of pasta puttanesca that uses onion in the sauce and this is not the traditional Italian way so I would say to avoid doing it that way and I don't use onions in my puttanesca recipe ever! In some traditional puttanesca recipes some will just before serving the pasta puttanesca will add cooked tuna or cooked salmon to the puttanesca sauce just before that sauce goes on the pasta of choice and this is done to add some protein to the dish as well as another layer of flavor and aroma.

For this pasta recipe I will be making the puttanesca with a pasta called orecchiette, a pasta that is shaped like tiny little bowls of pasta that really take the sauce and holds it so that you can enjoy every drop of this excellent sauce. So in this video I will be making Pasta Alla Puttanesca De Orecchiette! Enjoy!


Ingredients:
1 Lb pasta. (Any kind will do, spaghetti, penne, fusili, bucatini etc.)
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
1 can/flat of anchovies, drain the oil off of them and chop them rough or use 2-3 Tbsp. anchovy paste.
1/2 Tsp. red pepper flakes to start. If you want it spicier then use 1 Tsp and it will bring the heat.
1 can chopped black olives. You can use oil cured if you want to peel the meat from the pits or you can use kalamatas.
3Tbsp. capers drained and rinsed.
1/3 cup of olive oil.
3/4 cup fresh basil leaves roughly chopped. If you don't have fresh then use 1Tbsp. dry to start, taste and add more if needed.
3/4 cup of basil chiffonade to add as topping to pasta before serving. You can use flat leaf parsely if you want to.
1 28 oz can of plum tomatoes that you have crushed up by hand and you can use domestic or San Marzano tomatoes.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Grated parmigiano reggiano or grana padano or any Italian grated cheese as preferred topping if wanted.

Instructions:
1. Heat up your large skillet (12 inch if you have one) on medium heat.
2. Add olive oil, garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flakes and saute until anchovies melt into oil and garlic softens.
3. When anchovies melt and garlic softens add olives, capers, tomatoes, black pepper, salt, basil and bring to bubblling and then simmer to desired thickness. Some people like their puttanesca on the thin side and some like it a bit more on the thick side.
4. Add 1-2 Tsp. of sugar to taste(optional)to help cut the acid of the tomatoes and red pepper flakes.

5. While your sauce is simmering put your pasta into well salted water and cook until Al Dente and then either toss the pasta with the sauce and serve or plate some pasta and top with the sauce, basil and cheese.

Hope you enjoy!












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