Tomato Alfredo Pasta

This recipe is super easy and so delicious! It’s a great way to change-up a regular tomato or Alfredo sauce! If you’d rather keep it a little more on the lighter side, you can always lessen the amount of the Alfredo sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb Farfalle pasta (or any kind you prefer)
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic finely minced
• 1 – 28oz. can diced tomatoes
• 5-6 fresh basil leaves chopped
• 3 TBSP olive oil
• 1 TBSP butter
• 3/4 cup of half and half
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Boil pasta according to directions.  I like mine al dente so it’s not too over cooked.  Reserve 1/3 cup pasta water.
• In a large sauce pan heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook about 1 minute.
• Stir in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer.  If you like a thinner sauce you can substitute the diced tomatoes for a can of crushed tomatoes.  Or blend tomatoes in a blender or with an Emerson blender to get the consistency you like.
• In a separate pan, melt butter for the Alfredo sauce over medium heat.  Whisk in flour and stir until smooth and begins to brown.
• Whisk in half and half into the flour mixture and season with salt and pepper.
• Bring to a simmer and whisk continuously until thickened.
• Whisk in parmesan cheese.  The sauce will get pretty thick at this point, so this is where you will add in the past water you reserved.  You may not need it all, so add it in a little at a time. You just want to thin out the sauce a little bit.
• Add the basil to the tomato sauce and stir together.
• Add the Alfredo sauce to the tomato sauce and mix together and then add your pasta to the sauce and mix well together.
• Serve and top with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Lasagna Cupcakes

Yes, that’s right I said lasagna cupcakes and may I say, they were delicious!

When my dear friend Becky (from thepinksamurai.blogspot.com) asked me to do a blog post/recipe for her, I knew I had to come up with something good! Who doesn’t love lasagna or cupcakes for that matter? This post is my ode to my love of Italian food and lasagna for that matter. It’s a classic dish but with a spin! It’s actually a perfect dish to serve when you’ve got company over! It looks like you spent hours trying to put them together but it really doesn’t take much time at all! I!was inspired after watching the food network this weekend when I saw a recipe for lasagna cupcakes but I decided to take a more traditional route to the recipe that I saw and this is what I got!

I got 12 lasagna cupcakes out of the recipe, just enough to fill 1 cupcake tin. You can always cut the recipe in half if you aren’t trying to feed an army! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Becky, this one’s for you!

Ingredients:

• 1 package of wonton wrappers (you will need 48 for 12 cupcakes)
• 1/2 lb sausage with skins removed or already packaged without skin
• 1-2 jars of tomato sauce or you can make your own tomato sauce if you have a recipe
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 3/4 cup of grated parmesan
• 3/4 cup of ricotta
• 1 tsp of salt and pepper
• 1 cupcake/ muffin tin

Directions:

• Remove sausage from casing and sauté on stove in a medium skillet until no longer pink making sure to break up the pieces as much as you can. In a medium sauce pot add tomato sauce and sausage and cook together until your sauce is heated through (unless using your own recipe like I did).

For the cheese filling:

• In a medium bowl, mix together ricotta, 3/4 cup of the mozzarella, parmesan, salt and pepper.

To begin assembling cupcakes:

• spray inside of cupcake tin with cooking spray. Lay 1 wonton on bottom of each cup. Spoon 1 tsp of meat sauce in each cup and then add 1 tsp of the cheese filling and then cover with another wonton. Turn the top wonton about 90 degrees so the corners are opposite of the one beneath it. Repeat these steps until you have 3 layers, when you have the last wonton layered spoon a little more meat sauce over top and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and a pinch of parmesan. I recommend covering as much of the top wonton wrapper with sauce as much as possible. The edges will crisp when baked.
• Place in oven with a cookie sheet underneath to catch any sauce or cheese that drips over. Bake for 20 min. Let them sit for about 10 minutes before trying to eat, they’ll be super hot! They should come out of the cupcake tin pretty easily.
• Finally serve and enjoy!!

Don’t forget to check out Becky and her fabulous blog! She’s super talented, loves kittens and is a crochet queen! Take a look at her amazing drawings, hand made scarves and other amazing talents!
Oh and did I mention she’s featuring me on her blog this week?! Be sure to take a peek!
Check her out here: thepinksamurai.blogspot.com