A Rigatoni Cake for Mother's Day!

Rigatoni Cake

Ingredients

bolognese sauce (found on my previous blog post or any meat sauce you prefer)

bechamel sauce (found on my previous blog post) OR 4 oz. ricotta cheese

LARGE rigatoni pasta (the largest you can find)

oil for coating pasta

1 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

springform pan

I saw a rigatoni pie recipe on the Martha Stewart website nearly a year ago and have wanted to make it ever since.  Life got in the way and I was never able to fit this in.  I planned on making it several times for holidays (Christmas, Easter, etc.), but it never seemed to make it on the menu.  So, when the girls asked what I wanted to do for Mother's Day, I said that I just wanted to make the rigatoni pie together.

A couple of months ago, Meghann and I went to Eataly in downtown Chicago.  Eataly is a gourmet Italian grocery store/cafe that recently opened. Anyone who needs to buy ingredients for Italian food MUST go there.  There were probably 6 or 7 aisles of dried pasta alone!  I found a bag of rigatoni that I knew would be perfect for this recipe.

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, Meghann and I went to the grocery store to make sure we had everything we needed for the pie.  On  Mother's Day after lunch, I started making the sauce.  I decided to use my Bolognese Sauce from a previous blog post instead of the recipe Martha Stewart used.  I knew my sauce was delicious and I thought the combination of meats would work great for this.  I let the sauce simmer for 3 hours while I took a nice walk with my husband through the forest preserve.

Most of the recipes I have seen of rigatoni pies like this call for ricotta cheese.  I'm not a fan of ricotta cheese (GASP!), so I thought I would use a bechamel sauce in it's place.  The recipe I used can be found in a previous blog post of mine also.  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Now that the sauces were made, I just needed to assemble the rigatoni pie.  Boil the noodles until they are al dente (about 10 minutes).  Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water.  Drizzle a little oil over the noodles to prevent sticking.  Add 1 cup of parmesan cheese to the noodles and toss to coat.

Now comes the fun part.  You need to stand up the rigatoni noodles on their end in a springform pan.  Make sure you pack these in tightly, but you also want to make sure to keep all the holes in the noodles open and not pressed closed.  The parmesan cheese helps hold the noodles together.

Pour the bechamel sauce over the noodles.  If you are using ricotta cheese, you would spread it over the top of the noodles.

Add the bolognese sauce one ladle at a time. After each ladle, push the meat sauce down into the holes of the rigatoni.  My sauce was still too warm to touch, so I used a chopstick to push the sauce into the holes.  But if your sauce is cooler, you could push it in with your clean fingers.  Take your time with this so you don't leave any voids.

Sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top, place on a cookie sheet with rims in case of leaks and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle with one cup of mozzarella cheese. Return the pan to the oven for 15 more minutes.  I did not cover the pan either time.  Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes.  I ran a knife around the edge of the springform pan before unmolding to make sure it wouldn't stick.  But it didn't seem necessary as there was no sticking.  Release and remove the side of the springform pan to unveil your masterpiece!!  

I wasn't sure if it would stick together without the ricotta cheese, but it did!  It really looked beautiful.  However, since we used a springform pan AND since the noodles stood pretty high, I thought this looked more like a CAKE than a PIE, so I named this the Rigatoni Cake!!

The family couldn't wait to cut into it.  And it disappeared immediately!  I served it with some garlic breadsticks and a salad.

Maple Bacon Walnut Sticky Buns

With my husband away on a business trip, I woke up Saturday morning with the whole day to myself!  I thought, what can I do today??  I had some errands to run, but other than that my day was wide open!  So I decided to try a few new recipes.  Hopping on the bacon craze, I started the day making some Maple Bacon Walnut Sticky Buns for breakfast.  I got the idea from this blog post.

Ingredients

6 pieces of bacon
1/4 cup pancake syrup (or maple syrup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tube refrigerated Grands biscuits (8 count)
cinnamon

Directions

I started out by cooking the bacon in the microwave.  On a dinner sized plate, I placed 2 paper towels.  Then I laid out the bacon on the paper towels and then covered it with another paper towel.  I microwaved the bacon in 2 minute increments until it was crispy - about 6 minutes.  I then chopped the bacon into little, bite-sized pieces.

Then I moved on to the topping.  Mix the pancake syrup, brown sugar and chopped walnuts.  Add in the bacon bits.  Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.  Divide the topping mixture into the 12 muffin spots. 

  

Open up the refrigerated Grands biscuit tube.  There are 8 biscuits in the tube.  I cut each biscuit into 3 pieces, for a total of 24 pieces.  Place 2 of the dough balls into each muffin spot and press down a little.  The biscuits will puff up a little, so make sure you leave some room.  Sprinkle the top with a little cinnamon.

Place in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. When they turn slightly golden, remove from oven and invert the muffin tin onto a platter.  Replace any of the topping that might fall off immediately, while it is warm before it hardens.

The resulting sticky buns are more delicious than can be imagined.  I had to restrict myself to just 2 for my breakfast!  The slight bacon taste with the maple topping really works!  I wasn't sure how I would like it, but it was delicious!

If you are vegetarian, you could leave off the bacon.  It would then be a regular, maple walnut sticky bun - but would still taste great.

Homemade Green Bean Casserole

One of the most popular side dishes for Thanksgiving is the traditional green bean casserole.  This is usually made with a cream of mushroom soup and dehydrated onions.  I have never found this very appetizing - until I saw the Alton Brown episode where he made a homemade version of this.  I thought it looked really great and much healthier than the traditional recipe.  And it didn't really seem any more difficult.  So I decided to give his recipe a try.  The recipe can be found here.

Homemade Green Bean Casserole

Serves 6.

Ingredients

For the topping:

2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bread crumbs (panko recommended, but I used regular)
1 teaspoon salt
Nonstick spray

For beans:

1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed
1 gallon water
2 tablespoons salt

For sauce:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half

Directions

1.  Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

2.  Combine the onions, flour, breadcrumbs and salt in a bowl.  Toss until the onions are coated.  Spray a cookie sheet with the nonstick spray.  Then place the coated onions onto the cookie sheet and arrange in a single layer.  Bake for 30  minutes or until golden brown.  Make sure you turn the onions over approximately every 10 minutes.  You really need to watch that these don't burn.  When the onions are golden brown, remove them from the oven and set aside to cool.

 

 

3.  Turn oven down to 400 degrees F.

4.  Bring a pot of water large enough to cover beans to a boil with the salt.  Cook these for 10 minutes.  Drain in a colander and plunge into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.  Then drain the beans.

5.  Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a large nonstick pan.  Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute - make sure you stir so that the garlic doesn't burn.  Now sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir.  Cook for approximately 1 minute.  Add the broth and stir for 1 minute, making sure to remove any lumps.  Now add the half and half and cook until mixture thickens, about 6 to 8 minutes.

 

6.  Remove the sauce from the stovetop and stir in the green beans and 1/4 of the onions.  Add this to a casserole dish that was sprayed with the nonstick spray.  Top the green bean mixture with the remaining onions.  Bake in the oven until bubbly, about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and serve warm.

 

My husband gave this two thumbs up and declared it better than the traditional recipe for Green Bean Casserole.  He said it tasted fresher.  I think this would be perfect to try for Thanksgiving to impress you mother-in-law!

Pumpkin Spice Two Layer Cheesecake

This blog is the third in my pumpkin series on ThisChemistCanCook!  I really love cheesecake and thought it would be fun (and delicious) to make a pumpkin cheesecake.  I decided to layer it to make it a little more interesting.  This recipe is for a really quick and easy cheesecake using a regular pie plate.  If you wanted to get more fancy, you could double the recipe and then put it in a springform pan for a thicker cheesecake. I based my recipe on the Kraft recipe for the 3 step cheesecake.

Ingredients

2 packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup pumpkin (canned or homemade puree - see previous blog post)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
dash nutmeg
(dash of cloves, if desired)
8 graham cracker blocks, crushed to crumbs (each block is 4 rectangles of crackers)
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
(or instead of the graham crackers and butter, you can use a ready made graham cracker crust)
whipped topping, if desired

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Take your graham crackers and put them in a big ziplock bag.  Use a meat tenderizer mallet or rolling pin to crush the graham crackers until in crumbs.

  

3.  Mix in the melted butter and stir until moistened.

  

4.  Push the graham cracker mixture onto the bottom of your pie plate.  The amounts that I listed in the ingredient list make a very thin crust.  If you want a thicker graham cracker crust, you could double both the number of cracker blocks and butter.

5.  Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.  Make sure the cream cheese is softened before you do this!  Add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing in between additions.

6.  Reserve one cup of this cream cheese mixture and set aside.

7.  Pour the remaining cream cheese mixture over the graham cracker crust in the pie plate.

8.  Using the reserved cream cheese mixture, add the pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg (and cloves, if using).

 

9.  Pour the pumpkin batter over the plain cheesecake batter in the pie plate.

10.  Bake 40 minutes until center is set.  Cool, then refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.  When serving, top with whipped topping, if desired.

 

This recipe was a big hit with my family.  And it was so easy to do!  Sometimes cheesecakes can be so tricky to make with the springform pans and water baths.  But this one is so easy you could make it on a weeknight.  The family has already asked that I make this again soon.

Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread

Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread

This is Part II of my series on How to Cook Fresh Pumpkin.  I wanted to start with a simple way to use the fresh pumpkin puree I made in my last blog entry.  In one of the plethora of emails I received regarding fall recipes from various companies, this one caught my eye.  It was from Pillsbury and the recipe looked super yummy and very easy!  I thought the kids would enjoy it, so I decided to make it the first use of my new pumpkin puree.  Here is the original recipe.  I made some slight alterations to fit with my family's tastes.

Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread

1 can Pillsbury Grands flaky biscuits (8 biscuits)
3/4 cup fresh pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin pie mix, if no fresh puree)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
(nutmeg)  You can throw in some nutmeg, but my family doesn't care for it, so I left it out.
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray loaf pan with cooking spray.

2.  Open the can of biscuits and separate into the 8 biscuits.  Now take each biscuit and cut it in half horizontally (i.e. across the "equator").  You should now have 16 biscuits.  The Grands biscuits are very flaky and easily come apart in half because of all the flaky layers.

3.  Place these 16 biscuits on a flat cookie sheet or a clean counter.  Spread the pumpkin puree over each biscuit.  Top each with some of the melted butter.  In a small bowl, mix the granulated sugar, cinnamon and ginger (plus nutmeg, if you are using it).  Sprinkle this sugar mixture over all the biscuits.

 

4.  Now stack these biscuits into 4 stacks of 4  biscuits each.  Place each stack into the loaf pan on their sides.  However, make sure that you orient them so that on each end, you put the biscuit withOUT the filling.

5.  Bake 40 - 45 minutes until golden brown and done in the center.

6.  Let the loaf cool a little.  Remove the loaf from the pan.

7.  Mix together the powdered sugar and milk and vanilla until there are no lumps.  Drizzle over the loaf.

The night I made this it came out of the oven around 9 pm.  I believe it was nearly gone by 10 pm!  I know certain people, whom shall remain nameless, that had at least 4 pieces!!  I think the Grands biscuits really make this recipe.  The biscuits have a slight sweetness to them that makes this bread extra good.  This recipe was very delicious and oh so easy!  I recommend this one highly!

How to Cook Fresh Pumpkin

Part I:  Making Pumpkin Puree

This blog is for my great-nephew, Ethan.  A few weekends ago, the extended family was sitting around the table eating a pumpkin cake that Aunt Sally made.  Someone asked what kind of cake it was and Aunt Sally told them it was pumpkin.  Ethan looked stunned and said, "You can make food out of pumpkins????"  So I thought I would show him how to make some food from a pumpkin!!


First you need to get some pie pumpkins.  These are small pumpkins made for eating, not for carving.  Theoretically you CAN make pumpkin puree out of jack-o-lantern type pumpkins, but you are risking taste and texture.  Here are the pumpkins I used:

Make sure you clean them off, then cut the tops off (just below the stem).  After that cut the pumpkins in half from top to bottom.  It should look like this:

Here comes the fun part, scraping out all the goop inside the pumpkin.  I found it best to use a sturdy spoon and just scrape around the inside of the pumpkin.  The little stringy stuff is difficult to separate from the wall of the pumpkin, but it will eventually break away.  Toss all of the guts into a separate bowl and save for roasting the pumpkin seeds (see Part II of this series, coming soon).  Once cleaned out, it should look like this:

Now cut each half into several pieces and put them on a cookie tray, like this:

Bake these in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.  The pieces should be fork tender when done.

Let the pieces cool until you can handle them with your hands.  At this point, the skin of the pumpkin should peel right off the flesh.  If it needs a little help, use a knife to scrape the flesh from the skin.  

All that is left to do is put this through a food processor or a food mill.  I actually used my immersion blender because I didn't feel like dragging out the food processor.   

The trick is to get a good consistency.  You don't want it too watery or it won't bake up right in recipes.  If your puree is too watery, just strain it through cheesecloth or a fine strainer.

I will be using this pumpkin puree to make some pumpkin goodies in my next blog!!  Keep an eye out for it.

French Onion Soup

French Onion Soup

Continuing on my quest to make some recipes from the latest issue of Bon Appetit magazine, I decided to try my hand at the French onion soup next.  It was a cool, fall weekend day, so soup seemed the perfect fit!  Also, my husband Ryan likes French onion soup and I have never made it for him before.  So I was planning the surprise.  

This recipe appeared in the latest issue of the magazine, but can also be found here.  I made a few changes to meet our needs.  Plus the original recipe gave a few options to choose from (like using dry vermouth or white wine, and a choice of comte cheese or gruyere).

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter

6 large onions, about 5 pounds, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
8 cups chicken broth (you can use vegetable broth if you want to make this vegetarian)
8 slices French bread, thickly sliced
8 ounces Gruyere cheese, sliced

   

Directions:

1.   Heat the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat.

2.  Add the onions and garlic.  Season with salt and pepper.  Cook until softened and brown, about 60-70 minutes.  Make sure you stir occasionally so that the onions do not burn.

Color of onions at beginning

Color of onions after 75 minutes on very low simmer

3.  Add the white wine and vinegar and bring to a boil.  Once it hits the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.

4.  Add the chicken broth, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf to the pot.  Bring to a boil.  Once it reaches the boil, reduce heat and simmer until reduced to about 8 cups.  This will take about 35-40 minutes.  Make sure you stir frequently to prevent burning.

5.  Remove the bay leaf from the pot.

6.  Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  

7.  Place ovenproof bowls on a cookie sheet with a rim.  Divide soup among the bowls.  Top with the toasted bread.  Then top with a slice of the cheese.

8.  Bake until cheese is bubbling and golden brown.  This will take about 6 - 8 minutes.

This recipe was surprisingly easy and doesn't take many ingredients.  The main issue with the recipe is the time it takes to cook!  So when you have a nice, cool weekend day - think about making this.  It was really very delicious.  Or, this soup can be made up to 2 days ahead.  So make it on a Sunday and enjoy it on Tuesday after work.