Grilled Chicken & Mozzarella Ravioli with Alfredo

I was in Costco about a month ago and was looking in their refrigerated food section when I came across a container of Grilled Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli. I’ve purchased ravioli before but have only been able to find beef or cheese filled and once in a while spinach and cheese but never anything that looked this good. So I purchased it, took it home and put it in the freezer to use later.

I kept thinking about this ravioli and wondering how I would serve it…as much as I love red sauce, it just didn’t sound like it would go that well with this ravioli. A few weeks later, I decided on Alfredo….this would be wonderful served with an Alfredo sauce. I’ve never made Alfredo sauce before so now had to search for a recipe. I pulled out my trusty Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which is my favorite cookbook, and searched for the sauce, then went online to look too. Eventually I decided on the one in the cookbook.

Alfredo
from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, by Marion Cunningham

Print Recipe

1/4 pound unsalted butter, melted
1 cup heavy cream, warmed
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Have a large bowl warmeed and ready before you cook the noodles. Drain the cooked noodles and put them into the bowl. Quickly add remaining ingredients, tossing briskly to coat all the noodles, and serve at once. Serve over 1/2 pound noodles, 1/4 inch wide.
Makes enough for 4

This was actually two separate containers of ravioli so I was able to have it for two different meals.

This is my favorite cookbook...it's full of scraps of paper, clippings and a few actual bookmarks, making it easy for me to find my favorite recipes and "how to" instructions.

First thing I did was put a pan of water on to boil for the ravioli, then prepared the ingredients for the alfredo...melted butter, grated cheese and warmed milk.

Then while the ravioli cooked, I filled a bowl with hot water.

Just before the ravioli was ready to drain, I poured the water out of the bowl and dried it.

Drain the ravioli and place it in the warmed bowl.

Add the cheese, butter and warm cream, pepper and salt, to taste and gently combine....try not to break up the ravioli.

This was easier to make than I expected and good but not as good as I had anticipated. The ravioli itself was delicious but the alfredo, although it had a nice flavor, wasn’t as creamy as I would have liked.* This is the first time that my favorite cookbook has ever failed me! I may try this again and adjust the amount of butter and cream that I use or may just try to find a different Alfredo sauce recipe…..anyone have a good one you would like to share? So the Grilled Chicken and Mozzarella ravioli is a winner, I'll definitely buy that again, but this Alfredo recipe isn’t.

Michael had his own opinion regarding the Alfredo…when I had my back turned, he added this after my negative comment……* But for the rest of us, it was just fine.

Baked Ziti

This recipe is one of my favorites! I’ve had this for a long time…so long that I can’t even remember where I got it. I discovered this recipe back when I first started cooking….up until this time if I wanted an Italian type meal, I usually made spaghetti, which I do love but sometimes you want just a little bit more. I was happy that this was so easy….everything could be purchased already prepared. A jar of sauce, a bag of shredded mozzarella and that green can of Parmesan…..I knew how to cook pasta, and the Ricotta just needed to be removed from the carton. Easy, easy, easy…I loved it! Not only was it easy, it was good and it was good enough to impress dinner guests too.

Many years have passed and my cooking skills have improved but I still go back to this recipe. Now, I usually make my own sauce, add either Italian sausage or ground beef, shred my own mozzarella and use freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano. But when pressed for time or when I just don’t feel like putting too much energy into dinner, I will use a jar of sauce and doctor it up a bit and buy pre-shredded mozzarella, although I still insist on using freshly grated Parm. In other words this recipe can be used no matter where you stand with your cooking skills….from novice to someone who has cooked for years.

Baked Ziti
Print Recipe

1/2 pound ziti pasta (or other small pasta)
1 container ricotta cheese (15 oz.)
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (12 oz.) divided
3 cups spaghetti sauce, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound Italian Sausage, browned (not in original recipe..see Notes)

Preheat the oven to 350 . In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the ziti until just barely tender; drain and place in a large bowl. Mix the ricotta cheese and half of the mozzarella cheese with the ziti. Grease a 9x13 baking pan; cover the bottom of pan with half the spaghetti sauce. Spoon the ziti mixture into the pan; cover with the remaining spaghetti sauce. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until cheese melts and is slightly golden.

Notes: This recipe calls for store bought sauce but I'll sometimes use my own homemade. When I use sauce from a jar I'll sometimes use it straight from the jar but usually will doctor it up...for my blog post, I browned 1 pound of Italian Sausage while I prepared the rest of the recipe. The way I make it is determined by how much time I how much time I want to spend cooking.
 

  In case you don't know what ziti looks like. This is a one pound box so I used half.

Cook ziti....undercook it a little because it will cook a little more while in the oven. Drain and place in a large bowl.

Since I was adding Italian sausage, I browned it before putting together the other ingredients.

This is one of my favorite prepared sauces. Choose whatever you like...use it straight from the jar or add other ingredients and/or spices or you can even use your own homemade sauce. Just use whatever you like or what is easiest for you.

I added the sauce to the Italian sausage and let it simmer while preparing the other ingredients. If you are using sauce straight from the jar, it doesn't need to be heated.

Mix together ziti, grated mozzarella and Ricotta.

Place half of the sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 dish.

Add ziti, cheese mixture on top of the sauce.

Add remaining sauce.

Next, I added the mozzarella cheese on top of the sauce then looked around and noticed that my Parmesan cheese was still sitting on the counter. It should have been added before the mozzarella.....Ooops! Sometimes cooking and taking pictures at the same time is a little much for me and I'll miss a step from time to time.

The missing Parmesan.

So, I added the Parmesan last. That's what I like about cooking....some things don't have to be done in the exact order and the dish will still be good.

Thirty minutes later.......

I let it rest for about 10 minutes and then we dug in.  Add some bread and a salad and there you have it, an easy and good meal.

Lasagna, Lasagne….you say tomayto, I say tomaato

How do you spell it? I’ve seen it written both ways but my Word spell check suggests lasagna and since I can't stand those little red lines showing up under the words in my sentences, I'll spell it ending with an "a".

What can I say about this wonderful food? Nothing except that it is one of my favorite things to eat and that I could probably eat it every day and whenever I go to an Italian restaurant, this is always my first choice. I’ll vary from time to time but always go back to lasagna. 

I can't even remember the first time I had lasagna. I grew up in a meat and potatoes home in the Midwest...not much experience with any other types of food. We did occasionally order pizza, or my older brother would make the boxed Chef Boyardee pizza mix.....or, when he started working at a local pizza place, would bring home dough, sauce and other ingredients and he would make pizza for us. He had even learned to toss the dough...I was impressed...of course, I was quite young at the time and impressed easily. We also had spaghetti, either canned Franco American or the boxed Kraft Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, in the red box. As you can see, my ethnic food experience was basically, non existent. I was probably in my 20's when I first had lasagna and I imagine I probably had it at Pizza Hut. Actually, while I was in my 20's, I also started eating Mexican and Chinese as well. 

Detour over....back to lasagna....My lasagna recipe started out with one that I found in Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, published sometime in the 80's. The recipe from that cookbook served me well for many years, then I started tinkering with it…combining different ideas and techniques that I picked up from other recipes or articles that I’ve read or what I’ve seen on cooking shows, so it has changed a good bit over time and now barely resembles the original.

Before I started on the lasagna, I typed up what I hoped was the final draft of my recipe and since my computer isn’t hooked up to Michael’s printer, I emailed it to him and asked him to print it off for me. I wanted a hard copy so I could make notes or corrections, if needed. As I was reading over the printed recipe, I came across a sentence that I didn't remember typing….apparently there are gremlins at work here…..“Serve to Michael, but stay out of his way, as he stampedes to consume the whole pan!!!!!!!” Funny guy!

Mix 1/4 cup white wine with sausage. I read somewhere that this will keep the sausage from cooking up into lumps.

Saute onions in olive oil.

Saute red pepper flakes and garlic.

Add sausage and brown. Adding the wine to the sausage did keep it from cooking up into lumps....in the past it almost looked like I had little meatballs in my sauce.

Stir in tomatoes, parsley, sugar, salt, basil, oregano and pepper. Cover and simmer for at leat 20 minutes.

Combine eggs, ricotta, 3 cups mozzarella and Parmesan.

Spread sauce in bottom of pan.

Place four lasagna noodles over the sauce, slightly overlapping.

Spread half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. 

Cover with 1 1/2 cups sauce.  Repeat layers.

Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Bake according to instructions, let rest and enjoy.

Michael  "the takeout king" thought I was going to entirely too much trouble to make lasagna...he thinks Stouffers makes a good one. Once he tasted it, he did change his mind....he exclaimed that, "It was the best lasagna I've ever eaten." I'm not sure if he really believes that or is afraid if he doesn't say it that I'll stop cooking.....

Print Italian Sausage Lasagna Recipe

Garlic-Herb Mac and Cheese

Several years ago when I used to do a lot of baking, I used to get the King Arthur Flour Catalog and also frequented their web site and baking forum (Baking Circle). At the time, I purchased many fine quality products from them as well…they are an excellent company. I now receive their newsletter which always contains at least one recipe, along with a link to their interesting and informative blog, Baker’s Banter.

A few weeks ago this recipe for Garlic-Herb Mac and Cheese was in the newsletter. I thought it looked good, so copied it for later use. Tuesday, I was planning to reheat some leftovers for Michael and me to have for dinner, but wanted something new and decided to try this recipe. I had already purchased most of the ingredients, with the exception of the special items that the King Arthur Flour Company carries, and made substitutions or omitted those….I also doubled the recipe.

This recipe was written to fit a 2 quart casserole dish.

Macaroni
8 ounces uncooked pasta (elbows (about 2 cups) trumpets, rigatoni, ditalini, cavatappi, ziti... anything tubular)
1/4 cup Signature Secrets Culinary Thickener or King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup Vermont cheese powder
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard powder, optional
1/4 teaspoon salt, to taste (1/4 to 1/2)

Topping
4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons garlic oil, optional
2 teaspoons Pizza Seasoning or rosemary and thyme
1 1/2 cups Japanese panko (coarse bread crumbs)

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease four 1 1/2 to 2-cup ramekins, or one 2-quart baking dish.
2.  Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente (slightly firmer than you would normally eat it). Drain and rinse with cool water. Set aside.
3.  In a large saucepan set over medium heat, whisk together the Signature Secrets, or flour, milk, and cheese powder. Bring to a boil.
4.  Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese and seasonings. Stir occasionally, until cheese is completely melted.
5.  Stir the pasta into the cheese sauce. Spoon it into the baking dish(es).
6.  Melt the butter and garlic oil together, then stir in the pizza seasoning and panko bread crumbs. Sprinkle a thick layer over the pasta and cheese.
7.  Bake the casserole for 25 to 35 minutes, until bubbly and browned. Remove from the oven, and serve hot.
8.  5 1/2 cups, about 4 servings.

I made a few changes to the above recipe:
I doubled the recipe for a 9x13 pan
I used all-purpose flour that I had on hand, although, King Arthur Flour can be purchased at many supermarkets.
I couldn't find any Vermont Cheese Powder, or cheese powder of any kind, anywhere and didn't have time to order it from the King Arthur Flour Co. so I simply omitted it.

Cook pasta, drain, rinse and set aside.

Whisk together flour, milk and, if you have it, cheese powder and bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and stir in cheese. I used a sharp cheddar by Cabbot.

Add pepper

Add mustard.

Stir in pasta.

Spoon mixture into prepared dish.

Melt butter and oil together, stir in pizza seasoning. Fortunately, there is a Penzeys Spice store not far from Michael's apartment and I purchased the Pizza Seasoning from them.

Mix in panko bread crumbs.

Sprinkle crumb mixture over pasta and cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven.

This smelled so good while baking that even though I didn’t feel hungry before I put it in the oven, I was by the time I removed it. It was very good….the bread crumb topping was a little crunchy and had a garlic and spicy flavor. The only thing I was disappointed in is that it didn’t taste as “cheesy” as I would have liked…maybe the addition of the cheese powder would have made the difference, or possibly a little more cheese could be used. We liked it enough that I will definitely make it again, but will be ordering the Vermont Cheese Powder before I do.

Printable Link for Garlic-Herb Mac and Cheese

*** Update*** since my original posting, I've made this recipe using the Vermont Cheese Powder and the cheese powder made all the difference.....it was delcious!  At Michael's request, I've made this several times since then.