For these projects, you will need…

Posted by Mandy on March 12th, 2008 filed in OTM (on the menu)

OK, so here are two recipes of things I made in the last couple of days.

Shrimp and arugula pasta

Enough shrimp for you and your best beloved(s)
Pasta of choice
Parmesan
Pecorino
Small onion, diced
Garlic, minced
One whole lemon, for juicing
Salt/Pepper
Red pepper flakes
Arugula

Start water boiling, cook pasta to desired state. In the meantime, saute onion until translucent. Add garlic at end, so it doesn’t burn. Add shrimp that have been seasoned with salt and pepper. Add red pepper flake to your liking. When all is cooked together, add juice of entire lemon. Have best beloved grating cheese while you cook–about 1 cup of parm and 1 cup of pecorino. Add cooked pasta to pan with shrimp stuff, dump cheese on top, and add about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of pasta water to make a sauce. Toss in a couple handfuls of arugula at the end so that it stays crunchy. Serve it up.

Combo Casserole

Meat Mix**
Ground Turkey, 1 lb
Bag of frozen stuff (peas, peas/carrots… whatever you have on hand that you like)
medium onion, chopped
enough garlic, chopped
salt/pepper
mushrooms, sliced

Cook this like you normally would.  Onions first, then mushrooms, then garlic is how I do it… add turkey and brown it, breaking it up into chunks.  add frozen stuff.  Cook until warmed through.  Pasta of your choice should be cooking now.  We used half a box of linguine busted in half, then half a box of medium shells.  It was what was open in our pantry.

Sauce
3 or 4 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup AP flour
3 cups milk (I confess… we had whole milk, and I used 1 cup whole milk and 1 cup water. The total 2 cups made a very dense casserole that didn’t have a ton of sauce. If you want it really saucy, like a pubescent 8th grader, by all means, make the sauce with 4 cups of liquid, although make your thickener a little more thick in the beginning)
Cheddar and Moz  (about 1 cup grated each?  Depends on how cheesy you want your sauce)
Sage and Rosemary, chopped.
Melt butter over medium heat, add flour and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until it begins to bubble and smell good (not raw).  Add milk (or milk and water) whisking in about 1/2 cup at a time.  Let simmer, whisking occasionally, until sauce thickens up.  Add chopped rosemary and sage to steep in the mix for about 2-3 minutes (I suppose this can be done whenever you want).  Add cheese, reserving a little for the crust.  Whisk until smooth.

Drain pasta, dump on meat mix, dump sauce on top of that.  Stir to combine.  Taste for seasoning, and then dump all of it into a 9×13 casserole.  bake at 375 for 20 minutes, then add remaining shredded cheese and breadcrumbs (if you like) to top, baking for another 10-15 until crispy.

**The meat mixture (ugh,that sounds awful) makes enough for two casseroles, so freeze the rest of it up after it’s cooled off in your fridge.