Linguine with an English Cheddar and Caramelized Onion Alfredo

Tonight's entry is a guest post from my wife, Mommy Gouda... BDG

What you will need:

1/2 pound linguine

1 1/2C half & half

1 - 1 1/2 Tbsp butter

2 cloves garlic, diced

3/4C grated Parmesan cheese

3/4C crumbled English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions*

1-2Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

2 Roma tomatoes, diced

2C fresh spinach

1tsp Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh chopped parsley

*The English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions can be bought at Trader Joe's.

What you will do:

• Put on a pot of water, bring to a boil, salt your water and cook your linguine.  I recommend drizzling a bit of olive oil into the water while the pasta is cooking to keep it from sticking.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add garlic, both cheeses, basil, sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Cook over med-hi heat, stirring constantly until cheese is melted.
• In a smaller saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat and add tomatoes and spinach.  Cook until tomatoes are warmed through and spinach is slightly wilted.
• Add tomatoes and spinach to the alfredo sauce and stir.  Toss with the linguine and serve.  Sprinkle with fresh parsley for garnish (optional).

Additional options:

• Replace the Half & Half with 1C of reduced fat milk and 1/2C of Greek Yogurt for lower fat and extra protein.
• Add in some grilled chicken or shrimp.

*Mommy note: I blended the spinach into the alfredo sauce so our 2 year old would actually eat it.  And she did!  Photographic proof:

Pasta Primavera - Big Daddy Gouda Style

What you will need:
1 large bunch (20-30) cherry tomatoes
1 large (or 10-12 baby) carrots
1.5 Cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
2-3 small sweet peppers (multi-colored looks nicer)
2 large zucchinis
2-3 green onions (just the whites)
1 tsp savory
1 Tbsp corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:
1 heavy bottom stock pot with lid
1 Japanese Mandolin (optional but highly recommended)

What you will do:
Medium dice your carrots and add them, along with the whole cherry tomatoes, stock, savory, and salt and pepper, to a heavy bottom stock pot over medium high heat.
After cooking for about 10 minutes, slice up the sweet peppers into strips about 1/4“ thick and add them to the tomato and carrot mixture.
Next dice the green onions and use your mandolin to julienne just the skin of the zucchinis. (This is where most of the flavor and nearly all of the nutrients are) If you don’t have a mandolin, peel the zucchini and cut the skin into very, very thin strips.**
The veggie mixture is still going to have a lot of liquid, so when the pasta water is about ready to boil make a slurry by whisking together 1 tbsp of corn starch and about 1 cup of the liquid from the sauce pot. Add this mixture back into the pot and give it a stir.
Lastly add the zucchini strips and green onion to the pot, remove from the heat and allow to sit, lidded, while the pasta cooks. The residual heat from the veggies will cook the zucchini and thicken the sauce.


**Note: If you don't want to waste the inside of the zucchini, you can do this step earlier, dice up the inner flesh and add it to the mixture at the same time that you add the peppers.

Add salt to your pasta water and cook your pasta. Spaghetti or any other thin pasta would work well.

Toss together and enjoy.

Stovetop Marinara

This is a sauce created by one of my my Mother's cousins in New York. It has passed through the family. I have taken it and revised it in places to suit my own personal taste, as well as my family's.

For those of you who know me from the East Coast, this is not the gravy I made back then. That sauce is older than my Grandmother and impossible to accurately measure out. As such, it is unlikely that you will see a recipe for that here.

What you will need:

1 large can of diced tomatoes (I prefer medium to petite because it provides a chunkier sauce)

1 medium can (15oz) of tomato puree

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 Tbsp. of olive oil (regular, not extra virgin)

1-2 oz Chevre goat cheese

2 Tbsp. salt

Basil (fresh or dried) and black pepper to taste

Take the goat cheese out of the fridge and allow it to sit at room temperature while you cook.

Open and drain the can of diced tomatoes in a colander (retain the liquid for later). I like to add about 1 Tbsp of salt to the tomatoes and allow them to drain for 5-10 minutes, stirring them a few times. The idea here is to get the tomatoes as dry as possible so that they brown better in the pan.

While the tomatoes are draining, use 1 Tbsp. of olive oil, 1 tsp. of salt, and 2-3 garlic cloves to make garlic paste. Put a large pan on medium-high heat and put a pot of water on high heat to boil pasta.

When the tomatoes are well drained, throw your garlic paste in the hot pan and allow it to cook until you see the first hints of browning. Then add the drained tomatoes and toss. At this stage, if desired, you can add a pinch or two of red pepper flakes for some extra spice.

You are going to cook the tomatoes for 15 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes. You want them to brown well, but not burn.

Just before the 15 minutes are up, combine the can of tomato puree with the reserved liquid from the drained tomatoes. Reduce the heat on the tomatoes to low/simmer and add the puree/liquid mixture.

Allow the sauce to come to a slow simmer and then cover loosely and continue to cook for 15 minutes.

By this time, your pasta water should be boiling. With about 5 minutes left on the sauce timer, salt your water and add your pasta. I like medium shells, rotini, or rigatoni.

When the time goes off, add a little basil (fresh and dried are different here - so add, taste, and repeat).

At this point, you could be done. This is the completed sauce. What I do here, and what I think really sets it apart, is add about 1 oz of goat cheese (you can add more or less - taste it and add more if you want). Stir this until the sauce begins to get creamy and you don't have any chunks of goat cheese left.

Drain your pasta and toss with the sauce. Serve hot.

**As an addition, I sometimes like to add sauteed vegetables to the sauce right before I toss in the pasta. I like red bell peppers, onions, or asparagus. Or all three.

Important this to remember:

1. Taste early and taste often. The only way to know if you are on track is to taste test.

2. Add ingredients slowly. If you put too much salt in the sauce there is no getting it out.

3. Don't overcook your pasta. Unless you have no teeth with which to bite it, it should be "to the tooth" or al dente.