Pasta Dishes

Pasta Dishes

Chicken Tetrazzini

Ingredients

  • 1 kg (8 oz.) spaghetti broken into 2 inch pieces
  • 1/4 green pepper, cut into thin slivers
  • 1 3/4 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided
  • 1 small onion, dices
  • 1 can (10 1/2 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
  • 4 tablespoons parmesan cheese, divided
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1 whole chicken, cleaned
  • 1 can (2 oz.) diced pimento
  • 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 teaspoon chicken broth
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Brown sides of chicken in pot before adding water. Boil chicken in pot of water with teaspoon of salt. Remove chicken and allow to cool. Remove meat from bones.
  2. Cook spaghetti in chicken broth until al dente. Reserve 1 cup chicken broth. Drain spaghetti.
  3. Saute mushrooms, green peppers, and onions in pan. Combine 1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese, 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese and all remaining ingredients. Toss with the spaghetti. Place in greased casserole and sprinkle with reserved cheeses (parmesan and cheddar).
  4. Cook covered for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees.
  5. Excellent for family dinners.

Tip: You may substitute spaghetti with your favorite pasta.

Tip: You can add one cup of water and simmer mixture in a pot, covered for 20 minutes. May need to add more water as pasta absorbs water.

Chicken Tetrazzini

Goulash

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 lb of your favorite pasta
  • 2 cans of tomato paste
  • 4 diced tomatoes
  • 2 stalks of chopped celery
  • 1 large chopped onion
  • 1/2 chopped green pepper
  • 5 cloves of garlic, finely diced

Seasonings

  • Teaspoon of Italian seasonings
  • Teaspoon of basil
  • Teaspoon of oregano
  • Dash of hot sauce
  • Teaspoon of sugar
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Brown the beef in a pan. If the beef leaks too much oil, then drain the excess oil.
  2. Add a little olive oil and add the celery and onions. Once the onions become translucent, add the green peppers and garlic.
  3. Add the two cans of tomato paste, four cans of water, the seasonings, and diced tomatoes. Cover and simmer on the stove from 30 minutes to an hour.
  4. As the sauce is cooking, add your favorite pasta to a pot of boiling water. Add a dash of salt and tablespoon of oil to the water. Cook until the noodle is slightly firm, or al dente. Strain the water.
  5. Mix the pasta and sauce together. Let the mixture set for five minutes or more, so the pasta will absorb the flavors of the sauce.
  6. Serve hot and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top.

Tip: Some people like myself do not like celery. If you remove the celery, you have a good spaghetti sauce.

Goulash

Lasagna

Ingredients

Red Sauce

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 8 ounces Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) can tomato puree
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce

Cheese Layer

  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3 cups cottage cheese
  • 2 eggs, beaten

Other Ingredients

  • Lasagna noodles
  • 16 ounces sliced mozzarella cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. Cook ground beef and sausage over medium heat until brown; drain. Stir in tomato puree, tomato paste, sugar, salt, garlic, black pepper, and seasonings. Reduce heat and simmer covered for 30 minutes. For thick tomato paste, add four cans of water. For watery tomato paste, add another two cans of water.
  3. Mix the cottage cheese, half the Parmesan cheese and eggs.
  4. While the sauce is still hot. Spoon a little sauce on bottom of pan. Add a layer of noodles. Spoon another layer of sauce and noodles. Gently spread the cheese filling and add another layer of noodles. Then repeat with red sauce and another layer of noodles.
  5. Bake in an oven for 30 minutes covered. Then sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese on top and cook for additional 15 minutes, uncovered.

Tip: You may replace the cottage cheese with cream cheese or ricotta cheese.

Tip: A toaster oven can cook the lasagne in half the time.

Lasagna

Roasted Tomato Spaghetti

Ingredients

  • 12 plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1/2 onion, finely diced
  • 10 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 package spaghetti or favorite pasta
  • 3 tablespoons fresh basil, finely diced
  • 3 tablespoons fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Place the cut tomatoes in a 9" x 13" baking dish. Sprinkle with the sugar, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
  2. Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, or until tender.
  3. Add spaghetti to boiling water. Stir ocassionally until pasta is al dente. Drain water.
  4. Add onion to skillet and brown with a little olive oil. Add butter, basil, thyme, and garlic and saute for five minutes. The idea is to infuse the butter with the garlic and herbs. Add pasta and toss with the roasted tomatoes. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.
  5. Serve.

Tip: Maximize the flavor with fresh basil and thyme. Three tablespoons is about 20 basil leaves and a handful of sprigs of thyme. Once finely diced, the fresh herbs are about three tablespoons.

Roasted Tomato Spaghetti

Spaghetti and Meat Balls

Ingredients

Meatballs

  • 1 lb of good lean ground beef (10% or less fat)
  • 1 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of black pepper

Spaghetti Sauce

  • 2 cans of tomato paste (6 fl. oz) and 4 cans of water (or use 4 cans of tomato sauce (8 fl. oz.) with no water)
  • 1 large yellow onion that is cut into cubes
  • 10 cloves finely diced garlic
  • 2 medium sized cubed tomatoes
  • 6 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
  • 2 teaspoons of Louisiana Hot Sauce
  • 4 teaspoons of white sugar
  • Add salt and black pepper according to taste

Spaghetti noodles

  • 2 pound package of spaghetti
  • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions

Meatballs

  1. First heat oven to 360 degrees.
  2. Thoroughly mix all ingredients for meatballs.
  3. Using your hands, take a little of the mix and roll it into a ball and then place the ball on a cookie sheet. You should be able to form about 20 meatballs.
  4. Place the meatballs in the oven and bake from 20 to 30 minutes.

Spaghetti Sauce 

  1. Add all the ingredients to a pot for the spaghetti sauce.
  2. Cover the pot and gently simmer the sauce on low heat for 1 hour, occasionally stirring the mixture.
  3. You do not have to sauté the onions and garlic, because they will soften after they have simmered for an hour. Also you can add other vegetables, like sliced mushrooms, yellow squash, or zucchini.
  4. About an half hour before the sauce is done, bring a pot of water with a couple of tablespoons of oil to boil and add spaghetti noodles. Completely cook the spaghetti and strain it.
  5. Towards the end of the hour, add the meatballs to the mixture. Add noodles to the plate and top the noodles with a couple of ladles of spaghetti sauce. Then add about 3 meatballs on top of the sauce and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese the mixture.

Tip: You can alter this recipe. Instead of adding meatballs, you could cook the ground beef (or Italian sausage) in a flying pan and making sure you break the meat into little pieces. Then you add the meat to the sauce and let the meat simmer for the whole hour.

Spaghetti and Meat Balls

Spaghetti Pie

Ingredients

Sauce layer

  • Dry spaghetti or other pasta
  • 2 cans tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon basil
  • 6 cloves garlic, finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon hot sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 lb. lean ground beef
  • 8 oz. canned tomatoes, cut up
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Cheese layer

  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups Cottage cheese

Directions

  1. Place enough of the dry pasta into a pie pan to fill half of it. Pasta usually expands twice its size. Take the pasta from the pan and cook and drain it. Spagetti should be firm. Return the extra pasta to its package.
  2. Meanwhile, brown ground beef. Add onions, garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes, seasonings, hot sauce, and sugar. If you use thick tomato paste, add four cans of water. For a watery tomato paste add two cans of water but you may need to add more tomato paste.
  3. Cover and simmer sauce under low heat for an hour.
  4. For the cheese layer, mix cottage cheese, eggs, and half the Parmesan cheese.
  5. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix well. Make sure you have plenty of sauce.
  6. Form the bottom layer of the pie with half the pasta and sauce.
  7. Spread the cheese layer evenly over pie as middle layer.
  8. The top layer is the remaining pasta and sauce.
  9. Bake uncovered at 350° for 15 minutes. Spread mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over top and bake another 10 minutes.

Tip: You can replace cottage cheese with cream cheese. Soften cream cheese by placing cheese in a plastic bag and submerging in hot water. Make sure water does not enter the bag.

Spaghetti Pie