Growing up in an Italian house meant eating pasta all the time, so here are a few of my favorite recipes!
1. Michael Symon’s Roasted Vegetable Mac and Cheese
Fix it With Food is Michael Symon’s cookbook that my family hasn’t been able to get enough of this year; we’re always looking at new cookbooks for some fresh ideas and this one’s a keeper. Symon’s book is broken down into different categories like dairy free, gluten free, and meat free and this recipe falls into the dairy free category. I was questioning how good dairy free mac and cheese would be at first, but this recipe is a total home run.
Ingredients:
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ pound rigatoni (I use chickpea pasta rigatoni)
1 zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced crosswise to ½-inch-thick pieces
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup unbleached, non-bromated flour
2 ½ cups unsweetened cashew or oat milk
Dairy-Free “Parmesan” Cheese (1 cup raw cashews, ¼ cup nutritional yeast, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, pulsed in a blender)
1 tablespoon hot sauce, plus more to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 500℉.
2. Add 3 tablespoons salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente, about 1 minute less than the package directions. Drain and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, toss together zucchini, tomatoes, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt and a twist of black pepper. Arrange in a single layer on a sheet pan and roast in the hot oven until vegetables are nicely charred, about 10 minutes. Set the sheet pan aside.
4. Place a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil and heat to shimmering, then add the garlic. Cook until aromatic, about 2 minutes. Add the flour and whisk to combine until a sandy mixture forms, about 1 minute. Slowly add cashew milk while whisking until mixture is smooth. Cook until the sauce comes to a simmer and thickens, whisking the entire time, about 5 minutes.
5. Add the Dairy-Free Parmesan and hot sauce and whisk to combine. Season with a pinch of salt and a twist of black pepper. Add the roasted vegetables, drained rigatoni, and parsley and stir to combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning, adding salt, pepper, and hot sauce as needed. Garnish with parsley and serve.
2. Fettuccine Alfredo with Chorizo and Caramelized Onions
My mom’s fettuccine alfredo with chorizo is one of my sisters favorites and she even makes this at college; I also sometimes make this with penne!
Ingredients:
1 pound Chorizo sausage
3 medium onions or 2 large onions sliced thin, the thinner the better
3 tablespoons butter
1 ½ cups heavy cream
1 ¼ cups freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 stick butter (½ cup)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup beef broth—low sodium
1 egg yolk lightly whisked
½ cup chopped parsley
2- 12 oz packages fettuccine
1- 10 oz package frozen peas
Directions:
- Caramelize onions— Melt 3T butter in a large frying pan. Add onion in a single layer as best you can. Cook on low heat for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally in the beginning, more frequently toward the end. Put aside for later.
- Slice chorizo sausages into about ¼ inch slices and brown in a large deep sided frying pan (browning adds flavor). Remove cooked sausage to a dish with a slotted spoon or spatula and reserve ½ T to1 T of oil, discard the rest.
- Put water on for pasta and cook 5-10 minutes prior to the completion of the sauce.
- Add the stick of butter to the chorizo pan with ½-1 T of oil. Melt the butter, scraping the bottom of the pan to mix with the browning bits.
- Add olive oil and cream. Stir and cook sauce until it starts to thicken under medium heat and simmer on low.
- Add peas, onions, and chorizo until it starts to simmer. Add parsley, beef broth, and stir. Then, add egg yolk and mix well.
- Heat until hot, not boiling, and mix in the parmesan cheese.
- After draining pasta, combine pasta and sauce in a large bowl/pot and serve.
*Note: If sauce is too thick add more broth (different parmesan cheeses will thicken to various degrees)
3. Spaghetti and Meatballs
These meatballs are a little different because they don’t contain breadcrumbs—since some of my family eats gluten free we’ve had to change it up, and we’ve taken inspiration from Danielle Walker’s Eat What You Love cookbook. Danielle eats completely gluten free and this is my modified version of her meatball recipe. These meatballs can be served with any red sauce.
Ingredients:
4 eggs
4 pounds ground beef
1 cup coarse almond meal
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
5 large cloves garlic minced
1 ½ teaspoons oregano
1 ½ teaspoons parsley
1 ½ teaspoons basil
3 teaspoons coconut aminos
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 handful fresh parsley
Directions:
- Break up ground beef and add all ingredients with the meat into a large bowl. Using your hands, knead until everything is incorporated (don’t over mix though). Form into meatballs about an inch bigger than golf balls.
- Cover the bottom of a deeper pan with extra virgin olive oil and warm the oil. Pan fry the meatballs until all sides are brown for about 10-12 minutes. Transfer meatballs to a plate.
- Let the meatballs simmer in the sauce for a half hour before eating and serve with your favorite pasta noodle.
These three recipes are my go tos whenever I’m in the mood for pasta and I hope you like them!