Puttanesca Sauce $6 dinner for Four in 30 minutes from start to finish

I have made this a couple of times over the last couple months, it is especially for Kui. It's been so crazy in my kitchen that I have a hard time cooking AND taking pictures lately, but today was relatively easy and I used my time to my advantage! Here below is a step by step for this sweet, fresh and herby "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink" pasta sauce. If you are a fan of Anchovies you'll love this!

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 20

Servings: 4

Cost: $6.00

Ingredients: 

3-4 Tbs. olive oil

1 Tbs. garlic

1/8 cup onion

2 oz. pkg, anchovies in olive oil

Sprinkle of each: (dried)

Oregano

Sage

Thyme 

Rosemary

1 15oz. can of whole peeled tomatoes

1 cup of bullion (I used Tomato Base)

Fresh Basil and Oregano about 1/3 cup each

1/2 tsp. Sugar

Salt and Pepper

1 lb. of Pasta (I used Rotini)

Saute chopped onion, garlic and anchovies in olive, don't forget the salt and pepper. (I add the oil from the anchovies as well)

These are the brand of anchovies I used. This 2 oz package was $1.39 at a local market near my home, and normally they go on sale for just $1.00.

I just used some dried spices from my rack, but if you can find these fresh it's a plus! I add these in once the onion, garlic and anchovies have cooked down a bit.

Add the whole can and of tomatoes and crush by hand or with a potato masher. Salt and Pepper again after adding the tomatoes.

Microwave or heat 1 Tbs of bullion powder in a cup of water and add it to the sauce.

Rough chop or rip off some fresh Basil and Oregano and toss it in!

Simmer on low for about 20 minutes. Add your tsp. of sugar and continue to cook while the pasta boils. Don't forget to salt your pasta water as well.

Puttanesca is a very thin sauce and is one that is the best a day later once the flavors have had time to marinate and meld together! I normally make this sauce with Spaghetti, which is traditional, but any cut will work great. Also traditionally this is a sauce with capers so if you love those little pickled bursts of flavor go ahead and include them as well!

ENJOY!

*Subscribe to get this and many other great recipes straight to your inbox on the daily!

Thank you!

Winner, Winner Chicken dinner!

I was about to take the easy way out tonight. I've been exhausted and I see no signs of stopping. Ugh, kinda intimidating when I really think about it, but none the less...ONWARD and UPWARD! Todays agenda was house cleaning overhaul but dinner still had to be made and that's the funny part of being a stay at home Mommy that they never tell you.

Maybe I should enlighten you with the fact that I love to procrastinate. Although in recent times I have found that knowing that and then challenging myself to work to the bone has become such a great joy. Positive energy attracts positive energy and from my diligence this evening I was met with two more opportunities in my personal cook endeavour. I "Tweeted" tonight that I'm seriously in need of a bigger kitchen now, but that has always been the case. Along with my procrastination, I'm a "more the merrier" kinda lady, and somewhere along the line those two together seem to contradict themselves in my own head, but I love it.

Back to the simple dinner that turned into work:) I decided that just doing it is better than skimping out AND the health of my two favorite people in the world is more important than me being lazy. The Hunebee's Mom sent home an organic goodie bag for me this Monday. A bundle of flowing green onions, an over-stuffed bag of minty mint, perfect limes and randomly growing cilantro from her ever bountiful, organic home garden. I had a huge bag of roma tomatoes that I got on sale, 3lb.s for $1, and I decided that I wanted to do a fresh tomato sauce. I was about to add olives and then I remembered having dinner with Momma-Gina last week and that was one of the things she told me to stop eating(tooo much salt). The sauce was for a couple chicken breasts thawing in my sink. I was mulling over what to make with it but rice, potatoes, or pasta just sounded like too much. I was really trying to go NO-carb, so I opted for a Panzanella like salad...ha.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Servings: 4

Cost: $7 for the whole dinner

Ingredients for Chicken:

2 medium(on the large side) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced in two(4 pieces)
2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper

Sauce:

3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 large garlic clove, chopped
2 green onions, dice the bulb up to the dark green(set aside for salad and garnish)
1/8 cup carrot, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
Dash of dried basil, thyme, oregano and parsley
1/2 cup fresh chopped spinach
salt and pepper
1/3 tsp. white sugar

Directions:

In a small sauce pan, saute scallions, carrots and garlic in olive oil then salt and pepper. Add chopped tomatoes, herbs, salt pepper and sugar. Once the sauce has coked down a little add spinach, turn down the heat and let it simmer very low.

I like to rinse and dry my chicken before cooking it. In the oil, fry on both sides after seasoning. Tonight I added the juice from the chicken directly to the sauce, IT"S FLAVOR!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pre-shredded carrot
1 roma tomato, diced
1 persian cucumber, partially peeled
1 cup of croutons (Garlic)
about a 1/3-1/4 cup of scallion leaves chopped

Dressing:

1/3 cup olive oil
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. yellow mustard
Salt
1 small serrano pepper, sliced thin, about 1 Tbs. (watch out!)

Toss the salad and dressing right before you are about to serve so it doesn't get soggy. Also be careful of  the serrano pepper, use less if you aren't familiar with its heat.

ENJOY! 

 

Not my Gramma's Aglio e Olio!

I just noticed I used "Not" in my last posts' title also...oh well, this time it was more of a play on that show title, "My Grandmother's Ravioli," with Mo Rocca. Yesterday for Monday Menu Madness I made two different kinds of pasta for the boys. I'm only sharing one today and it's Kuizzy's. He doesn't have any real food allergies, but we take it easy on the dairy and since the other sauce I made was a cream on cream on cheese I chose a Kui version of something I grew up with. A traditional "Aglio e Olio" is a very basic sauce but jammmm packed with flavors and very easily modified...which I love since my cooking is a-my-take-on-your-food approach. The sauce is basically olive oil, garlic, and parsley. Kuizzy loves, LOVES, LLOOVVEESSS cilantro, so if you see a reoccuring theme of cilantro being where you might not think it should go BLAME him;)

This is for 1/2 pound of pasta, I used linguine. Again this recipe is modified for Kui since I have 4 bushelllllls of cilantro and love to improvise. Don't judge me Terracciano's!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves fresh garlic

1/3 cup cilantro

salt and pepper

Directions:

In a saucepan "quick" fry the fine chopped garlic and parsley add salt and pepper. AND quick cause garlic burns fast. Have your pasta drained and waiting for the sauce. And thats it, quick easy healthy and you can use Gluten Free, quinoa, or rice noodles if you can't have the regular. ENJOY!

Thank you Nena<3