Simple White Sauce (real name: Alio e Olio) with shrimp, scallop and broccoli

I guess I should explain. This is not the heavy, creamy starchy white sauce that people think of when they eat Italian. This is a light, refreshing, yummy, easy (and healthier) one,called Alio e Olio. (We pronounce it more like A-YA E O-YO. Again, kind of a muddled Italian, passed down from generation to generation.) My Mom never made that other kind. This is the one my whole extended family eats.

This is best in the summer with all the fresh vegetables available. I remember eating this on my parent's deck with broccoli from the farm stand down the road. Laughing in the sunshine, and my mother was in the kitchen for as long as it took for the pasta to cook. And it is delicious..don't forget to put red pepper flakes and grated cheese on the table.

It's funny, a bunch of the food I make automatically , no recipe on hand, always feels like cheating to blog about. I just go on and make it. This is one of those meals. You can do it with just veggies, or add butter, and just fool around with it and make it your own. This is a very flexible base to start from. My 'recipe' is the best I can do out of my head, so here it goes.
Oh yeah, one important thing I wrote before, use the water the pasta has cooked in, it adds a depth to the sauce that mere water cannot do.

Simple White Sauce
(this is for about a 1/2 pound pasta)

2/3 cup olive oil (not virgin, regular. Virgin olive oil is for recipes that aren't cooked.)
2 cloves garlic, minced (or through a press)
1/2 cup cooking water
salt, pepper, basil
(in this recipe I added about a 1/4 cup white wine)

Cook pasta. Fry garlic in oil, don't let it brown, start over if you do. Add wine if using. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add salt, pepper, and basil. Add cooking water when finished.

For the above recipe in the photo, I did this sauce, but before frying the garlic I added the scallop and shrimp to cook, then followed the recipe from there. I steamed some broccoli on the side. I used rosemary instead of basil, since I still had some fresh in my garden under the snow. To please my daughter, at the end I added a bit of butter over the pasta.

Have fun with it!

Cheers!!

Pasta Fagioli (Pasta and Beans)

My mother calls this the perfect food. It has everything you need in it, protein, starch and vegetable. (I guess that could be argued, tomato..vegetable or fruit? I grew up with it as a veggie.) It's fast, easy and delicious. By the way, don't forget to top with grated cheese, my family favorite is Pecorino Romano, and crushed red pepper.

I thought of my beautiful Auntie Anne (her given name ... Amedia) when I made this the other day. It was my first time making it gluten free, and I hadn't eaten pasta fagioli (we, being stock from Italian peasants pronounce it, "pasta fa-zule"). I wasn't sure that it was going to be the same. I get nervous making 'soul' food gluten free. I still want that taste connection to my past, and my heritage.

Auntie Anne passed away last spring. She was 88 years old. She was up and about and cooking 2 weeks prior to her death. Cooking was her passion. She would read cookbooks like novels, and could 'see' if a recipe would work. With her being older, I was surprised she wasn't skeptical about me eating gluten free, rather, she was fascinated by it, and completely curious. If it dealt with food, she was there. She was the one that taught me to make my own Italian sausage, fast and easy, and gluten free, since I was so nervous about going to the Italian butchers and figuring out what was gluten free. (Back when I was new to being gluten free, now I could easily have that conversation.) And I still will make the sausage the way she told me.

I wish she could taste my pasta and beans, one of her favorite meals to make, and eat. I wish she could taste and explore all the really cool things I have discovered, among them..teff and sweet sorghum flours, the oat pie crust I made, and get her ideas about Italian recipes that are gluten free. And to just sit there, after a family meal and chat about everything.

So, here is a taste of my family and heritage, spelled the way we say it.


Pasta Fazule

2 cans cannolini beans
1 can 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups elbows or small pasta, cooked al dente (I used Tinkyada)
1 chopped onion
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped or put through garlic press
1 can chicken broth, water, or reserved pasta liquid
salt
pepper
basil
olive oil

Cook onion and garlic in olive oil over medium to low heat. Cook until soft, not browned. Add tomatoes, beans with liquid, and chicken broth or water to thin to desired consistency. Simmer 20 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and basil to taste. Add pasta.

Don't for get to top with grated cheese and crushed red pepper.
This gets better the day after, but don't forget, the pasta will absorb a bunch of the liquid, don't be surprised.
And, big tip here in Italian cooking, a lot of the time we use the cooking liquid in the pasta to thin the sauce to the right consistency. It adds a whole heck of a lot more than just water.

Cheers!

Other Blogger Recipes I want to try...

I am in an organizational mode, not much time to blog. We have been working on a small renovation since July, and it's (FINALLY) just about done. A little more tweaking to go, but I am able to move my kitchen around. The renovation was to turn my laundry room into a little butler's pantry, so my family could make gluten stuff in there (sandwiches, toast, etc), while the main kitchen remained gluten free.

I think it is going to great once I get everything organized.

We had been using the same kitchen, reserving a small counter for gluten foods, and it worked, I didn't get contaminated from it. But it was crowded (I do not have a huge kitchen), and the risk was always there. Not fair when Navy Boy gets home from his shift work, working through the night, exhausted in the morning, and having to think about which butter he can use.

So, finalizing this project has taken up a fair bit of my time lately, so I decided to pull a few of my links to other wonderful bloggers and post them here. I haven't tried these yet, but they are on my list. I have more, but this is all the time I had this morning to post, so I will throw more out there another time!!

Lighter than Air Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Crinkles (cookies)
Rosemary's Christmas cookies

Almond Orange Marmalade Muffins
Sweet Potato Ginger Muffins
Pumpkin Corn Muffins

Artisanal Sorghum Bread
Pizza Crust (Actually, I tried the pizza crust this week, it is very good, and easy.)
Homemade Ravioli

HoneyComb Candy
Pumpkin Custard Pie
Rice pudding (looks VERY easy!)



And, if you are wondering about the photo on top, it is off a baked polenta I made. It was pretty good, not a favorite, but good. I took leftover polenta, mixed a few things in there like eggs, cheese, spices, and baked until firm and crisp.

Cheers!!

Coming Soon - Veal Saltimboca

I got glutened, and it knocked me down for three days. Did you know you could get glutened from that compound they use to seal up the cracks in your drywall? I didn't. Not until I cleaned it all up, then got laid up for 3 days. That awful fatigue and soreness came screaming back.

It stunk.

Thank goodness it's done now. But it put me way behind. When this work on our home is done, my family will have a small separate kitchen for their gluten foods. I can go in there, make their lunches, wash my hands and it's behind me. My children can get their granola bars and run out the door to play without ever bringing it into my kitchen.

And my kitchen will be completely gluten free.

We have been doing both in here, mostly for lunches, all the food I cook is gluten free. It has been a challenge having a kitchen do both, and not having any cross contamination. We worked it out. It can be done.

It will be so much better this new way.

_______________________________________________________

I have been crazy busy lately. And now family is coming for the week, I am going to try and come back and post this recipe tomorrow..but here is the pic..recipe to follow when I get a breath!

Kiss me & Tell me you Love me Risotto

This rocks. Absolutely. And I will be making a version of this every week. True chefs will tell me I am crazy and this isn't the "right" way to make risotto. But, baby it is so right for me.

Risotto in the crock pot.

I was inspired to try this since it has been a busy week. I felt great at the beginning of the week. It was finally beautiful outside, and Navy Boy (my husband) and I started planting trees, flowers, and cleaning up the herb garden. That's how we celebrated our 8th anniversary, and we had fun. It was great to feel so healthy and be outside all day.

Then, a day later, I felt horrible. That old exhaustion and malaise that I experienced for the 4 years prior to my diagnosis. I have been gluten free for 7 months, and I heard from others that this can happen as your healing. So, I decided to try and make an easier risotto, so I could kick back and relax. I also have my bread machine going with Pamela's mix. Time to pull out all the cheaters. :grin:

(If you want to read more about bread machines and Pamela's bread, go to this excellent entry of Gluten Free Goddess. I agree completely,it was so good!)

I made a vegetarian version of my Shrimp and Lemon Risotto. Here are the directions. I think the first time you make it, you should be around and watch it. I imagine all crockpots might be a little different, and therefor the time might be a little different for yours. I am sure that other types of risotto can be made this way. Enjoy.

6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
3 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large shallots, chopped
1 package shitake mushrooms chopped
2 cups arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Put broth in crockpot, turn on high to start warming it up. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until tender, about 6 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook 3 minutes more. Add rice; stir 1 minute. Add wine and stir until evaporated, about 30 seconds. Add to crockpot, cover. Check every half hour to see if the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Mine took 2 hours. When it has, stir in cheese and remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in parsley if using, lemon juice and peel, and toasted pine nuts.

Then, kick back and tell me you love me.

Lasagna (basic meat)

Oh. When I knew I couldn't eat gluten again, I was worried about pasta. I am Italian American, and I had read about Tinkyada pasta (Buy it. Use it. Everyone is SO right about this.), but I was worried my taste buds would know the difference. So I waited. I haven't had pasta in over 7 months, and thought it was time.

I wanted to call everyone I knew and scream that I was eating lasagna. I couldn't believe it; it was so good. I make my own sauce, but do whatever makes you happy in that regard.

I didn't have many veggies on hand, so I didn't include any, and had them on the side. Of course you can add spinach or whatever; this is just a basic meat lasagna. If you want to go vegetarian ( sometime I will do my own here), check out Gluten Free Goddess's one she made yesterday, here.

Lasagna

1 package Tinkyada lasagna noodles
1 8 oz. package shredded mozzarella cheese
1 1lb. container ricotta cheese
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 cup grated Pecorin Romano or Parmesan cheese
granulated garlic
parsley (if you have, I didn't)
tomato sauce, homemade or whatever; err on the side of having extra, I would guess at least 50 oz.

In skillet, add olive oil and warm. Add chopped onion, saute until a bit translucent. Add ground pork, cook until browned, drain off fat, add some spices to taste..salt, pepper, oregano, fennel, etc..cool.

Put ricotta cheese in bowl. Add cooled pork, parsley if you have it, grated cheese, 1/4 of the shredded mozzarella package, some granulated garlic and pepper (if you like spicy add red pepper) to taste, mix.

Add a little water to your pasta sauce, since I did not cook the noodles beforehand, this way they can get the extra liquid they need to soften. I would guess about 1/4 cup to a jar of sauce.

Put a some sauce on bottom of pan. Layer uncooked noodles. Put half of pork/cheese mixture on top, spread. Then sprinkle 1/4 of shredded mozzarella package on top. Noodles again, a some sauce, the rest of the mixture, sauce, then noodles, a lot of sauce, last 1/2 package of cheese.

Cover and bake at 350 for 65 minutes. Remove foil, cook 10 minutes more.