Tag Archives: tomatoes

Pasta and Bean Soup

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After a few bites of this delicious soup, I couldn’t help but remark, “I love a soup that feels like a meal.” As much as I love soups, I know Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is not enough to satiate me. It requires a side or a complementary entree. A Pasta and Bean Soup dinner felt complete and my subsequent lunch the next day did too. This recipe reminds me of a soup you’d order at an Italian restaurant and think that it tastes too complex to ever attempt.

There are a couple keys to this recipe. The first is the pureeing of half the beans. It adds body to the broth without making the soup too thick. Second, cooking the pasta separately alleviates the dreaded “noodle bloat” where your liquid disappears and you’re left with soggy, mutant ditalini. And of course, the flavor is phenomenal– spicy, sweet, and rich.

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Penne alla Vodka

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Turning twenty-one is a milestone birthday I’ve since passed. In all honestly, I looked forward to the cooking aspect much more than the shots in a bar part.

I’ll never forget one summer afternoon back in high school, I was watching Everyday Italian. Giada was making a dessert that had me glued to the screen. I had to make it. However, there was one caveat: the main ingredient was limoncello, an Italian lemon liqueur. That dessert wasn’t the only recipe I was restricted from making. My birthday card should have shown tiramisu, beef bourguignon, beer cheese soup, crepes suzette, and my all-time favorite Italian dish: penne alla vodka.

Cooking with alcohol seems intimidating. Would flames shoot into the air once I added the vodka to the skillet? Thankfully, they don’t. Unless you add the fire.

I’ve made this recipe several times now. I crave it. Timing the sauce and pasta to finish simultaneously is a bit tricky. I begin by boiling water immediately simply because it takes forever on my stove. Then I prep the onion and tomatoes. The sauce cooks quickly. In eight minutes, the boozy flavor of the vodka cooks off leaving a hint of tang. I also love that this recipe isn’t overly rich. It strikes the perfect balance showcasing plenty of tomato sweetness, zest, and tang.

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Mozzarella-Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Cherry Tomatoes

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Chicken dishes have a tendency to run a little boring. I rarely order a chicken dish in a restaurant because when presented with steak or fish, chicken often falls by the wayside. It just doesn’t seem worth it when I can create a perfectly flavorful chicken dish at home, for a lot cheaper.

I love this chicken dish because it has roasted tomatoes (cooked right alongside), a delicious cheesy, basil filling AND a crunchy garlic topping. The chicken and tomatoes also look good, which is always a plus when serving food.

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Easy Minestrone Soup

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Before an endurance race, athletes are supposed to carb load to maximize the storage of glycogen in their muscles. Before a big holiday, I like to vegetable load.

Somehow or another my house is filled with Sara Lee Pumpkin Cheesecake (AMAZING), Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate Brownies (AMAZING), Dove Peppermint Bark (AMAZING), and Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream (AMAZING). Yes, the holidays have arrived, which is why I decided to make minestrone soup.

This simple soup is filled with vegetables. It’s my favorite version of minestrone because it cooks up quickly and doesn’t have herbs. Sometimes, you just don’t need them. Garlic, onion, and tomato are enough to make the Italian soup flavorful.

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Skillet Tamale Pie

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The first tamale I ate was in high school Spanish class. Our teacher passed them around the room for a holiday I can’t remember. What I do remember is the stupid thought that ran through my head. Do we eat the husk?

I went through a lot of frozen tamales from Trader Joe’s in college. But to be honest, I much prefer this tamale pie. I love that it has beef, black beans, and tomatoes with a much better filling to cornbread ratio than the tamales of my past. It’s one of my top five favorite recipes. I crave this pie all the time.

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Mozzarella-Stuffed Bruschetta Turkey Burgers

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I don’t eat hamburgers. This isn’t for health or moral reasons, I just don’t like the taste of them. At barbecues, I hope there are chicken breasts or veggie burgers. Sometimes at burger joints, I’ll make a meal out of sweet potatoes fries. The only time I’ve felt left out is when I’ve gone to specialty restaurants like Bartley’s in Harvard Square and didn’t get to order a burger with a fun name. I’m sorry, “Southwest Salad” is not as fun as “the Lady Gaga.”

I’ve made this turkey burger recipe several times now and I love it. I’d never eaten a turkey burger before but my love of bruschetta is so strong I thought I could muster through. No mustering needed, I loved them! The mozzarella inside, bruschetta topping, and drizzle of balsamic create an easy and extremely delicious meal. The burger goes well with a side of spaghetti squash.

The recipe comes from one of my favorite food blogs, Iowa Girl Eats. I’ve only tweaked the cooking of the burger. She also creates a balsamic glaze, but my first attempt at that turned into balsamic taffy. Oops. Now I just use some high-quality balsamic vinegar for a final drizzle.

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