Date Night Dinners - All In One

3/14/2014 tringel 0 Comments

As Brenden and I were negotiating our date night dinner this week, one thing stood out in our minds - we were tired, stressed, and craving hearty, comfort food. Comfort food usual means mess. So, when we found this recipe we were thrilled. It looked easy (to make and clean up), inexpensive, and quick. Should I continue? Okay I will! It also involved pasta and cheese, just what our taste buds were begging for.

We collected out ingredients and began to cook. We followed the original recipe for the most part, except we used dried pasta instead of refrigerated. This made me a little nervous because technically refrigerated pasta is already cooked and dried pasta is very hard. Also, we have never really seen a recipe for cooking pasta in this way before. But we went with the logic that pasta cooks in boiling water, it should cook in boiling sauce. And we were right! It turned out perfectly, you just have to cook it for a bit longer then the pasta box directs. We used macaroni noodles that called for a cooking time of 8-9 minutes and ended up cooking the noodles for about 15-17 minutes. We just taste tasted a lot, until the pasta was at our desired tenderness. You also have to remember you are not draining the pasta, so if you don't want to eat it immediately, or save some for left overs, take it off the heat a few minutes before your desired tenderness. Our pasta was VERY tender when we went back for seconds. But that's okay because I like my pasta a bit past al dente. Don't let Chef Scott Conant from Chopped know, I will have to work on that before my debut on the show. Good thing that will be a long time for now. Hopefully I will be put on a team edition because I need Brenden for all of my extravagant (and not extravagant) cooking.


We were also a bit skeptical about adding a whole cup of water to the sauce. We didn't want watery pasta sauce, so we only added half a cup at first. But it cooks right down and we quickly realized the originators of the dish were spot on and added the second half cup. So don't fear when you read the directions. It does not turn out watery at all! And, when you add the cheese it makes the sauce and all the elements even gooier which makes it taste amazing. Imagine eating an italian style, pasta chili. AMAZING, right?! Maybe my analogies aren't good on this one, but just trust me. Its real good. And it makes a ton!


The last thing we changed was the amount of pasta we used. We only used about 3/4 of a box of pasta and we had enough for seconds and a left overs for a few meals. It tasted just as good too. A perfect blend of cheese, sauce, and pasta in each bite. And the cheese even strung from the fork to your mouth, like pizza cheese. I mean really, chili-like, pizza-like - all the best elements of foods rolled in to one need, I go on?!


Cheesy One Pot Pasta
Recipe adapted from myrecipes.com, One Pot Pasta


Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1.5-25 oz jars tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp Italian seasonings (oregano and basil)
• 3/4 box macaroni noodles
• 1 cup cheese (mozzarella, parmesan, havarti), diced or shredded

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, cook the ground beef and onions.
2. When there is no pink in the beef, remove the beef and onions to drain.
3. Return beef and veggies to the saucepan and add the garlic, pasta sauce, water (mixed with the sauce leftover in the jars), and Italian seasonings.
4. Bring mixture to a boil.
5. Add pasta.
6. Cook for about 5-10 minutes past what the box recommends, stirring and testing occasionally.
7. When the pasta is tender, remove from heat (remember the pasta will continue cooking for a while because it is not being drained from the hot liquid as in usual preparation).
8. Stir in cheese.
9. Serve and enjoy - careful it will be hot.