What's For Supper? {link-up and a recipe}

Linking up with Simcha Fisher. I'm getting back on the horse of meal planning. Italian food is featured heavily this week, mostly because being a busy musician makes me feel more inclined to make family recipes that I could cook in my sleep.



I can't remember what I made on Saturday, so we'll start with

Sunday
As per Mr. Husband's request, I made pizza. I know I make it a lot, but people request it a lot and it's so easy that I'm happy to oblige them. Our toppings du jour were red peppers, mushrooms, and lots of crumbled, cooked sausage.

Monday
Tortellini with tomato sauce. I made the sauce with sauteed onions and garlic, half a can of crushed tomatoes (left over from making pizza sauce), dried basil leaves, and a little bit of heavy cream. We had steamed broccoli on the side. The kids are really fond of broccoli.

Tuesday
I planned on making chicken cutlets and lemon spaghetti, but after an exhausting day that entailed a trip to Market Basket as well as poorly-napped children, we fed the kids cold cuts and steamed mixed veggies, and then ordered pad thai. (We ate it in the trays and then scoured the table to avoid endangering the peanut-allergic child...possibly children.)

Wednesday
Lasagna. I use the Joy of Pasta  for the tomato, ricotta, and balsamella sauces, but I don't make my own lasagna noodles. Instead, I add a little water to the tomato sauce and assemble and bake the lasagna according to the instructions on the box for the oven-ready dry noodles that I use.

Thursday
I used the Make-Ahead Cook recipe for Slow Cooker Black Eyed Pea and Kielbasa soup. I actually didn't get to taste it because I didn't get the ingredients in the crockpot on time after a morning at the car mechanic. Instead, I ate leftover lasagna, packed up my kids and music stuff in the car, drove to the train station, packed the kids in the stroller and pushed them to the platform, and traded them for my husband's train pass so I could take the train that left eight minutes after my husband's train arrived. What's that bumper sticker..."I can't, I have rehearsal?"

Friday
Pasta e fagiole.  It's easy, the kids like it, and the ingredients are cheap. The recipe comes from my Italian grandmother, so the ingredients are eyeballed and I don't make it the same every time. This is what I did tonight:

olive oil
1 each of carrot, celery, and onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
dried basil and parsley
15 oz? cannelini beans
18 oz? crushed tomatoes
water and salt for boiling pasta
~8oz. small-shape pasta (elbows, ditalini, small shells will do, orzo and alphabet are too small)
optional: grated zucchini if you want to make sure you eat a green vegetable
optional: fresh grated parmesan

Sautée the carrot, celery, and onion (the "Holy Trinity" according to Grandma) until softened, then add garlic and cook for about a minute. Add tomatoes and herbs. I chose to add the zucchini and beans at this point too because they were both still somewhat frozen.

Gloop gloop.

I used the bean liquid to help thin the sauce because my beans were home cooked, but too much bean liquid from a can might make the soup too salty. Cook the sauce for 20-30 minutes on medium low heat. I did a half a sink of dishes, then started my pasta water a-boiling. Cook your pasta according to instructions.

Did I mention that I was completely out of appropriate pasta shapes for soup? Ah, well.

Don't throw the pasta water down the drain! Did you just do that? Oops. You need it to thin the soup! I reserved 2 cups before I drained my pasta in a colander (and used about one cup), but my grandma usually uses a mesh strainer to fish the pasta out of the pot and then adds water to the soup as needed. Basically you need enough pasta water to turn your sauce into soup.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with grated parmesan. Oh no, you didn't use that freeze-dried shaker stuff, did you? I'm a cheese snob, am I? You're probably right. It is store brand cheese though.

I like a little pasta with my cheese. Happy weekend.