Pasta all'Gricia / Spaghetti with Bacon and Cheese

This month I'm going to do a series on the great Roman pasta recipes. I'll be making 4 dishes; Pasta all'Gricia, Carbonara, Cacio e Pepe and all'Amatriciana.

Tonight I'm making Pasta all'Gricia. Pasta all'Gricia is 1 of the 4 "Seriously Roman" pasta dishes you must try. The recipe comes from Grisciano, a small beautiful town in the mountains of the Lazio region, see map below. While least famous of the group, many will say that it's their favorite!

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Barila spaghetti

2 tablespoons salt

1/3 pound gaunciale, a cured meat made from pork jowls or cheeks. Gaunciale is not generally available in the US, so pacetta is the closest substitute. However, even pacetta can be hard to find so I'm using:
1/2 pound bacon.
2 crushed garlic cloves

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup fine grated Parmesan or Romano Cheese
Italian parsley

Preparation:

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium high. Cut the bacon into 1/3 inch pieces and add to the saute pan. Cook the bacon until crisp, but not burnt. When cooked add the garlic and red pepper flakes, toss and remove from the heat. Remove 1/3 of the amount of bacon from the pan and save for garnish. Remove all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat from the pan.

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the spaghetti according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain the spaghetti reserving 1 cup pasta water.

When the pasta is done, heat the 12" saute pan to medium high and add the spaghetti to the bacon, garlic and red pepper flakes and toss for a minute. Add the cup of reserved pasta water, toss for 30 seconds. Sprinkle the cheese on the pasta and toss. Add and some salt and pepper and to taste and toss for 30 seconds until piping hot and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate and garnish with crumbled bacon, Parmesan or Romano cheese and chopped Italian parsley. 

Coconut Rice with Red Beans

I saw this recipe for coconut rice which also incorporated red beans and I had all the ingredients on hand so I gave it a shot. What I really liked was that the recipe started with sauteed garlic and green onions added to the rice cooker before cooking. This gives the cooked rice a nice savory flavor and the flavor of the coconut milk is just so awesome. All I can say is that I made the exact same thing the next night, it was so good! All I needed was some coconut half's to serve the rice.

Ingredients:

1 cup white rice
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
3 diced green onions
1 cup red beans or red kidney beans
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water
Salt to taste, about 1/4 teaspoon

Preparation:

Heat a small saute pan to medium and add the olive oil, garlic and green onions. Cook for a couple of minutes until the garlic and green onion are softened and translucent.

Take a medium saute pan and add the all the ingredients; sauteed garlic and green onions, rice, beans, coconut milk, water and salt. Heat to boil and then simmer on very low heat for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from the heat just before all the moisture is absorbed, this will keep the rice from burning on the bottom of the sauce pan. Let the rice rest 10 minutes with the lid on and then fluff with a fork and you're ready to serve.  

Chicken Breast stuffed with Kale, Cranberries, Apple and Cheddar Cheese

I saw this dinner entree at Costco in the frozen section a couple weeks ago and thought I'd give it a try. The chicken breasts come frozen raw, so you'll need to defrost and then they easily bake at 350 degrees in about 25 minutes. I thought that the stuffed chicken breasts were exceptional. The meat was properly seasoned, moist and the stuffing of kale, cranberries apple and cheddar cheese really worked well. I went back to Costco to get another package and found out they're a seasonal item and sold out for the season :(  Look for these stuffed chicken breasts next year, you'll be happy you did!

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the defrosted stuffed chicken breasts on a non stick baking pan. Bakes for approx 25 minutes. Make sure the chicken breasts are done to 165 degrees. Remove from the oven and cover with aluminum foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve the chicken breasts as is, or with your choice of starch and or vegetable. Kick it up a notch by making a simple chicken gravy. 

Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 packets Trader Joe's savory chicken broth 

2 tablespoon Wondra flour

Preparation:

To make the chicken gravy, combine the water, savory chicken broth mix and Wondra flour in a small bowl and mix well. Heat a small 8" saute pan to medium high and add the gravy mixture. Stir continuously and as the gravy heats up to a boil, it will also thicken because of the flour.

Farfalle Pasta with Chicken, Red Onion, Garlic and Arugula

Here's a wonderful pasta dish that is super easy with just a few ingredients. Typically, I'll make a pasta dish like this when I have some left over chicken. I don't know about you, but I've always got left over chicken.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound Farfalle pasta 

1 - 2 tablespoon olive oil

1 cooked diced chicken breast

1 medium rough chopped red onion

1 bunch green onions

4 crushed garlic cloves

Large handful of arugula

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Take a large stock pot and fill with water. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring to a boil. Cook the Farfalle pasta according to directions, which is usually 9 - 10 minutes to al dente, firm to the bite. When done, drain reserving 1 cup pasta water.

Take a 12" saute pan and heat to medium. Add the olive oil and red onion. Saute the onion until soft. Add the chicken, garlic and green onion and cook a couple minutes until the chicken is warmed. Add the pasta and arugula and toss to heat. Check the seasoning, add salt and pepper. After a minute or two, add the reserved pasta water and toss. Cook one minute and you're done.

To serve, place a portion of pasta on a serving plate and garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and diced green onions.

Grilled Salmon Tostada Salad

I love the Costco coho salmon, but you always need a plan B because you get so much. This is a nice light grilled salmon tostada salad with a little smashed avocado and sour cream.

Ingredients:

Trader Joe's Flour tortillas

1/2 head shredded ice burg lettuce

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

6 diced green onions

1/2 bunch chopped cilantro

1 large or 2 medium avocado's 

Lite sour cream

Preparation:

First prepare the tostada bowls. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. I've used a lot of different tortilla brands and I highly recommend Trader Joe's. They're healthy, meaning no trans fat and taste great.

Place the tortilla's into the metal mold and bake at 400 degrees for 6 - 7 minutes. At this point, the tostada bowls are almost finished. Take the tostada bowls out of the oven and turn off the oven. Remove the tostada bowls from the metal mold and place them back into the oven directly on the wire rack and cook for another 10 minutes. At this point you will have a wonderful crispy crunchy tostada bowl.

Preheat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of salmon, season with salt and pepper and cook 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, rotate the salmon 90 degrees. This will give the salmon the nice cross hatched grill marks. Cook the salmon for another 4 minutes and turn the salmon pieces and repeat and you're done.

  

Shred the lettuce and place into the tostada bowl. Add some shredded cheese, green onions, cilantro and a few pieces of grilled salmon. Add some smashed avocado and sour cream and garnish with some chopped cilantro. 

Pesto Chicken Sandwich

Whenever I make fresh pesto there's always going to be some left over. Here I'm making a grilled chicken pesto sandwich on crusty Italian bread. The key to this sandwich is keeping it simple with sliced Roma tomato's and arugula.  

Ingredients:

Boneless skinless chicken breast

Sliced provolone cheese

Pesto

Mayo

Roma tomato's

Arugula

Crusty sliced Italian bread

Preparation:

Take the chicken breast and cut in half so the chicken breast is half a thick. Place the chicken breast on your cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound the chicken breast so it's about a 1/2" thick. Repeat the process with the rest of the chicken breast pieces.

Heat a stove top grill pan to medium high. Brush some olive oil on each piece of chicken then some salt and pepper and grill for about 5 minutes per side. When the chicken is almost done, spoon on some pesto and add the cheese and let melt.

To assemble the sandwich, toast the sliced Italian bread. Take the bottom piece of toast add some mayo and then the chicken breast. Next, add some sliced tomato's and arugula. Take the top piece of toast and spread on some mayo and place on the sandwich. Cut in half and serve with fries or simple salad.