Quick and Easy Artichoke and Black Olive Pasta Sauce

Quick and Easy Artichoke and Black Olive Pasta Sauce, image by The Tromp Queen, CC license.

Quick and Easy Artichoke and Black Olive Pasta Sauce

• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 large can (28 ounces) petite diced tomatoes (drained or un-drained — it is up to you)
• 1 small can (8 ounce) tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley (can use dried, but fresh gives a much nicer flavor and color)
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 can (2-1/4 ounces) sliced ripe olives, drained
• 1 jars (6-1/2 to 14 ounces) marinated artichoke hearts (drain and chop)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 packages (9 ounces each) refrigerated cheese tortellini
• shredded Parmesan cheese

Heat the olive oil in 3 to 4 quart pan. Saute the onion until it softens and turns translucent. Toss in the garlic and saute for another minute or so, watching carefully so the garlic doesn’t burn. Add the salt, the petite diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and the rest of the herbs and spices. Heat to boiling, then lower the heat to simmer. Add in the artichoke hearts and olives. Cook the cheese tortellini (or any kind of pasta) according to package directions. Simmer the sauce until the pasta or cheese tortellini is ready. Serve topped with parmesan cheese.  VERY GOOD!

Artichoke Hearts, marinated and quartered

I revised this recipe from “Herbed Artichoke Cheese Tortellini” that I found on Taste of Home’s recipe web site. I like the fact that it is made with mostly canned ingredients which is great when you live in Wisconsin and winter lasts about 9 months a year. Using the fresh parsley along with the canned artichokes and olives adds enough brightness to the flavor to make the effort of minimal effort of making the sauce well worth it.

Cheese Tortellini; Image by Laurent, via Flickr CC License. Tortellini aux chèvre et capres.

The sauce tastes great on cheese tortellini, but it also tastes great on any kind of pasta.

If you are really in a great hurry, I suppose you could use onion powder and garlic powder (or some sort of pre-chopped garlic in a jar) to speed the process even more. But seriously, this sauce is very quick to make even with chopping an onion and a couple cloves of garlic.

I hope you try this and please let me know how much you like it!

image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley —
A bunch of fresh hand picked parsley. This parsley is bursting with flavor and ready for use.

Recipe Review: Carbonara

image by jlaceda via Flickr CC IMG_1300 carbonara

This Rachael Ray recipe for basic Carbonara is quick and easy.

I’ve made just a couple of tweaks, but it is still pretty much her original recipe (which you can see HERE.)

• About 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 pound pancetta or bacon, small dice
• 5 to 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (could use stock if you don’t have wine handy)
• 3 large egg yolks, separated.  Get rid of the egg whites in another recipe — you don’t need them for this.
• Salt and pepper
• 1 pound pasta such as linguine, spaghetti or egg tagliatelle.  I like the wider pasta for this recipe.
• Grated Pecorino Romano and/or Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

PREPARATION

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for pasta.

Heat olive oil, 3 turns of the pan, in a large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta or bacon, brown 3-4 minutes, then add garlic and some black pepper, and stir 2 minutes more. Add wine and reduce heat to low. Whisk up egg yolks and season with salt and pepper.

Add pasta to salted boiling water and cook to al dente.

Add 1 full cup of starchy cooking water to egg yolks in a slow stream to temper them. Reserve an extra half-cup starchy water in case the pasta gets too tight when you toss it.  Drain pasta and add to pancetta and garlic, remove from heat and toss with egg yolks and handfuls of grated cheeses, parsley, adjust salt and pepper to taste.

That’s it.  If you are the kind of person who always has bacon and parsley on hand, you could make this and be eating it in less than 1/2 hour.

Review:

Be careful when browning the bacon or pancetta.  It can easily burn since you are frying such small pieces.  Likewise, watch the garlic carefully when you add it.  With the already hot bacon grease, the garlic needs much less time than usual to get overly browned.

I didn’t read the recipe carefully enough at first and nearly whisked up the egg whites, too.  That would not work out very well, so don’t do that!  Also, DO take out the pasta water and keep out at least as much as she recommends.  Mine got pretty thick so I added a splash of milk, which may or may not be the Italian way.  I have no idea. It worked in a pinch. Have everything ready for the end — the cheese and the parsley.  It comes together in a flash.  Also — DO use the fresh flat-leave parsley if you can.  It really adds a nice fresh flavor.

Follow the steps for tempering the egg yolks carefully.  You don’t want the eggs to cook too soon.  They melt into the sauce and thicken it with the cheese.

The down side of this recipe is all the grease.  You don’t drain the bacon grease and that PLUS the olive oil adds up to quite a bit.

I suppose you could experiment with draining most of the bacon grease (maybe leave 1 T or so) and then add more water or cheese or something at the end.

I think a little lemon flavor and maybe some green onions would be nice in this.

It might also benefit from a dash of crushed red pepper flakes.

I might try some more variations in the future.  I will let you know when I do!

Overall:

FOUR out of FIVE FORKS!

Really quick and easy, but a little overboard on the oil/grease in my opinion.

Even my very picky nearly 16-year-old daughter ate it (after picking around all the “green stuff”).

Enjoy!  And, as always, please let me know if you try this recipe, how it turns out for you, and how you like it!

image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley —
A bunch of fresh hand picked parsley. This parsley is bursting with flavor and ready for use.

Recipe Review: Falafel Burgers

image by tonx via Flickr CC

The best Falafel sandwich I have ever had was near the British Museum in London.  There was a little sandwich shop just around the corner from the main entrance.  The falafel was declicious, but the “fixins” were wonderfully fresh, crisp and flavourful.  (Spelled it the British way for good measure, there!)

I looked at Google maps in that area around the British Museum and the best possibilities are Salt and Pepper (5 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE, England) or Bimbimbab Cafe (37 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LP, England).  The menu and reviews at Salt and Pepper remind me more of the cafe, but the photo of Bimbimbab’s interior also looks familiar.  It was not a Korean restaurant at the time if that is indeed the place we had falafel.  It was 2008, so it is not likely I can solve this mystery now (unless someone in London can shed light on my memory!)

I’ve looked for a good recipe to try to recreate this memorable sandwich.  The closest so far is a recipe from Rachael Ray.

My daughter and I made Rachael Ray’s Falafel Burgers recipe for dinner tonight.

We tweaked the recipe a bit so I thought I’d share our results and thoughts here.

Here is the link to her original recipe.

image by Rain Rabbit, via Flickr CC; falafel dindins

Here is our “tweaked” recipe:

• 2 cans chickpeas (15 ounces each), drained and rinsed.  (They are also called garbanzo beans).
• 1/2 small red onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• A large handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 3-4 tablespoons flour, plus more for coating the falafel patties
• 4 teaspoons Penzeys Sweet Curry Powder
• 2 teaspoons Penzeys Medium Hot Chili Powder
• 1 T. extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. We used about 1 t. salt and 1/2 t. black pepper.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil for frying.

Combine these ingredients (above) in a large food processor.  You might need to do 1 can of chickpeas and 1/2 the other ingredients at a time, then blend it all together in a bowl.  We found the full amount to be too much for my Cuisinart.  If the mixture seems too dry to hold together, add a little more olive oil.  If it seems too wet — don’t even add the olive oil and/or add more flour.

Divide the chickpea mixture into 8 parts.  Form into patties.  Dredge lightly in flour.
Heat plenty of extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet.  You need 1/4 c. or so of oil or sometimes more depending on how large your skillet is.

Fry the falafel patties about 3-4 min. on each side or until lightly browned and heated through.  You can use more oil and completely deep fry them, but I think pan frying tastes good and uses so much less oil

To make the sauce combine the following in a small bowl:

• 1/4 cup tahini paste
• 2 tablespoons water (or more if needed)
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Prepare the “fixins” for serving:

• 4 sandwich-size whole wheat pita pockets (cut in half, warm in oven or toast lightly)
• 1-1 1/2 cups romaine lettuce, shredded
• 1/2 English (seedless) cucumber; peel, de-seed, quarter, slice and dice
• chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; a large handful
• 2 vine-ripe tomatoes, sliced or garden fresh cherry tomatoes (cut into halves or fourths)
• (In the street falafel photo below, I see he is offering radishes, jalapeno slices and lemon wedges, and possibly baby spinach, too.  It is difficult to see — but I think the idea is toppings galore and whatever you crave!)

To serve:

Fill 1/2 a warmed pita with fixins, sauce and falafel.  Have plenty of napkins ready.  Sometimes I end up eating it with a fork.

image by Daniel Roy, via Flickr CC; falafel stand in Aleppo, Syria.

REVIEW:

I’ve made this recipe several times.  The biggest issue is getting the consistency right so the falafel doesn’t fall apart in the skillet.
The fixings are important.  Use fresh and local if possible; organic always tastes better to me, too.  Maybe that is just in my head, though.

The original recipe calls for twice as many spices and several quite expensive ones.  I have used 1/2 the amounts in the RR recipe and it was good.  This is the first time we used the Sweet Curry instead of all the cumin, coriander and turmeric.  Feel free, of course, to adjust the spice levels to your taste.

OVERALL:  FIVE OUT OF FIVE FORKS!!

Highly recommended.

Please let me know if you try this recipe, how it turned out, and if you enjoyed it.