Peanut Sesame Noodles

Over the last year or so I've come across a number of recipes for sesame noodles. These recipes have long enticed me with their fresh vegetables, ease of preparation and their slightly spicy, slightly sweet but always peanut-y (thanks to a good dose of peanut butter) dressing. Have I mentioned how much I like peanut butter before? No? Well, I do. As Mr. Gump would say, I like it a lot.

(No, seriously. I really like peanut butter. So much that I rarely keep a jar of the stuff in the house because I will inevitably eat it (by the spoonful) in a matter of a couple of days. So much that Spring is my favorite time of year-- primarily because it means that Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs are back on sale at the grocery store. Do I need to say more? I thought not.)

So finally this week I decided to just give one of the many recipes out there a try. I decided to go with Smitten Kitchen's recipe because....well, honestly, there wasn't much of a rationale. I happened to be pursuing her site this weekend and came upon it for the umpteenth time and decided to go for it.

The recipe and subsequent dish met all my expectations-- lots of fresh veggies, easy to make, and definitely peanut-y. I liked it, but I didn't love it. In some ways, it was almost TOO peanut-y. I liked the first few bites a lot....but then it just got old. It was too one note. Perhaps it would make a better side dish than an entree. Or maybe adding some protein (some chicken, for example) might help balance the flavors a little bit.Or maybe dialing down the peanut butter would help it out a bit.

Did I just say that?

Peanut Sesame Noodles
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (or less....)
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
1 TBL fresh ground ginger (you could also substitute fresh chopped ginger here)
2 TBL rice vinegar
1 1/2 TBL sesame oil
1 TBL honey
1 teaspoon garlic chili paste
3/4 lb dried soba noodles (linguine or spaghetti will work if you can't find soba)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
3 TBL sesame seeds, toasted

1. Make the dressing by whisking first eight ingredients (through chili paste) in a bowl. You can also throw it all in a blender if you want. Set aside.
2. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain in a colander and rinse well under cold water (it prevents the pasta from sticking together).
3. Add pasta, scallions, bell peppers, cucumber to dressing. Toss to combine. Top with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Sunday Dinner: Spaghetti and Meatballs Edition

We did a lot of eating out last week. We used a Groupon for Hook that was about to expire one night, met a friend for dinner another, and then celebrated NYE with a fancy dinner out. I tried to counterbalance all the expenditures by cooking a lot at home this weekend. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast, chili and cornbread for dinner last night, and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight.

I don't know about you, but I did not grow up eating too many meatballs with my spaghetti. We tended to go with a meat sauce instead, but whenever I see someone make meatballs on TV I am intrigued. So when I saw that my BFF Ina had a recipe for spaghetti and turkey meatballs in her new cookbook How Easy Is That (a SIGNED copy of which I got for Christmas-- thanks Mom!), I decided to give it a try. Ina's recipe further sold me on the idea for a couple of reasons-- 1) the meat in the meatballs include not only turkey but sweet Italian sausage and proscuitto as well which sounded like a great combination and 2) you bake the meatballs instead of pan-frying them which seemed less time consuming and less messy. Done and done.

Overall we liked the recipe quite a bit. It was easy and really flavorful. My one gripe is that it makes A TON. Even with halving the recipe, we ended up with 18 good size meatballs! Fortunately Jason is already plotting how he can turn some of the leftovers into meatball subs later in the week.

Spaghetti and Turkey Meatballs
Adapted slightly (primarily to halve the recipe) from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups bread cubes (about 2 slices of bread, crusts removed)
1/3 cup milk
1 lb ground turkey (92% lean)
2 sweet Italian pork sausages, casings removed
2 thin slices of prosciutto, finely chopped
1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper
3 TBL olive oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
1-2 large jars of your favorite marinara sauce (depending on how much sauce you like-- we used two and it was a lot)
1 1b spaghetti (I acutally only made half this amount but will need to make more for the leftover meatballs)

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (do not skip this-- you'll thank me at clean up time!)
2. Place the bread in a food processor and pulse until you have medium crumbs. Transfer to a small bowl and add milk. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine turkey, sausage, proscuitto, bread mixture, Asiago, parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes, 1 TBL salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper. Combine with your hands. Mix 1 1/2 TBL olive oil and egg together and add to the mixture. Stir with a fork.
4. Use your hands to lightly roll mixture into 2inch (golf ball size) balls. Place onto sheet pan and brush the top of each with olive oil. Bake for 35-40 minutes until tops are browned and inside is cooked through.
5. Pour marinar into a large low pan. Add meatballs and bring to a simmer.
6. Meanwhile bring a pot of water to boil and cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and plate. Top each plate of spaghetti with 3 meatballs and as much or as little sauce as you like. Serve with grated cheese if desired.

Mmmmmm Macaroni!

I love me some macaroni and cheese. It really is the best comfort food there is, in my opinion anyway. But it’s not something I make very often. And that is because I’ve never found a recipe that I’ve liked as well as my grandmother’s (which, because it doesn’t have a recipe, is impossible to replicate).

But that excuse wasn’t cutting it for Jason any longer-- a month or so ago he started hinting that he’d really like macaroni and cheese for dinner sometime soon.  Then came October’s Everyday Food with its Three-Cheese and Bacon Macaroni cover recipe and the hinting became pleading.  How could I say no?

Thank goodness I gave in, because this recipe (from Emeril Lagasse’s monthly Everyday Food column) may rival my grandmother’s in terms of delciousness. It was SO good. And pretty easy too. Unlike other recipes I’ve tried in the past, this one does not require making a roux (flour+ butter) and adding milk that cooks until it thickens before melting in the cheese. Instead, this called for mixing evaporated milk, eggs, and three kinds of cheese adding in the cooked macaroni and bacon (BACON!) and letting it thicken in the oven.  But what I think I liked most was the addition of the garlic—it really added a depth of flavor that was absolutely yummy.

I highly recommend this dish for all the macaroni lovers out there!

Three-Cheese and Bacon Macaroni
Adapted, just barely, from Everyday Food

Ingredients:
½ pound elbow macaroni
3 slices of bacon, cut crosswise into ½ inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 large eggs
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
Two dashes of nutmeg
6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, grated
¼ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

1.Preheat oven to 475. In a large pot of boiling water, cook macaroni for 6 minutes (it will be undercooked).
2.Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium heat and add bacon. Cook until crisp, about 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon and garlic (while leaving the rendered fat) and place in medium-bowl.
3.When macaroni is ready, drain and add to the bacon. Toss to combine.
4.In a large bowl, mix together milk and eggs. Add nutmeg and cheeses. Season with salt and pepper. Mix in macaroni and bacon mixture.  Coat a 8- or 9-inch square baking dish with cooking spray and spoon macaroni mixture into dish. Bake until sauce is bubbling around the edges. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Sunday Dinner: Pasta Abruzzese Edition

I cheated a little bit tonight. Instead of selecting a new or time consuming recipe to try out on Sunday (when I have the time), I ended up going with a recipe that a) I’ve made before and b) is not very difficult. For whatever reason, I’ve been pretty tired lately and since we have a lot of things coming up in the next few weeks (including two out of town weddings) I decided that this was going to be a down weekend. No huge plans, not a lot of effort…the epitome of low key. Which is how I would characterize this recipe for Pasta Abruzzese from Rachel Ray (love her or hate her, a lot of her early 30 Minute Meal recipes—especially the Italian influenced ones-- are actually pretty good).

In almost the time it takes to boil a pot of water and cook some rigatoni, you can make a flavorful sauce of fennel, onion, garlic, sausage, and crushed tomatoes. It’s fast, it’s easy and it’s good….any day of the week.


Pasta Abruzzese
Adapted from Rachel Ray

Ingredients:
2 hot Italian sausages (I use chicken sausages to cut down on the fat but you can use whatever you prefer)
1 fennel bulb, finely diced
1 small Spanish onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
½ cup chopped basil
12 ounces of tublar pasta—rigatoni, penne, etc.
Salt and Pepper

1.Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat. Squeeze sausages out of their casings and brown, using a spoon to break it up. Remove from pan and let drain on a plate lined with paper towels.
2.Depending on the amount fat in the sausages, you may or may not need to add some olive oil to the pan (just want to make sure you have a thin layer of sausage grease or olive oil to cook the vegetables in). Add fennel, onion, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
3.Add tomatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Add sausage and half of the basil. Lower to a simmer.
4.Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions. Let sauce simmer until pasta is ready. Drain pasta and add to the sauce. Add remaining basil and toss to coat. Serve with grated parmesan.

Money Saving Shells

For the last year Jason and I have been trying to save up to buy a house. To aid in that effort we made a budget and have done a pretty good job of sticking to it. This summer, however, we fell off the wagon a little bit. Between lost rings, vacations, and new work wardrobes, we did not save as much per month as we should have. So this fall we are cracking down a little bit. Under normal circumstances this would primarily mean limiting our extraneous expenses but unfortunately this fall we have some (e.g., two out of town weddings and a car that needs new tires) that are somewhat our of our control.  So we are having to get serious about other aspects of our budget—like eating out.

As I’ve mentioned before, I generally cook Sunday-Thursday (I say generally because there are weeks like this past one where I get home late/tired and we end up picking up Panera or ordering pizza once or twice). That means Friday and Saturday are reserved for eating out. Really, two nights a week is not that much but Jason and I decided that it would be an easy place to save a little extra money so we’re now limiting restaurant meals to once a week.  That doesn’t mean that I am cooking an extra night a week, however; we agreed that this would only work if Jason took on responsibility for planning/making one meal a week  (because as much as I love doing those things, 5-6 nights a week gets to be a lot!).

We put our plan into motion two weeks ago when I made Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells for dinner on a Saturday. The nice thing about this recipe is that it makes a lot—I usually freeze half of it and that still gives us two dinners and a lunch. The recipe is good—hearty yet still healthy (thanks to the ground turkey and part-skim ricotta). The perfect way to fill our bellies and our bank account.

Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:
1 box jumbo pasta shells
3 TBL olive oil
½ large yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ground turkey (I use white meat)
1 can of quartered artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 (15 ounce) container of part-skim ricotta cheese
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
¾ cup chopped basil
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 (36 ounce) jar of tomato sauce
1 ½ cups grated mozzarella cheese

1.Heat olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
2.Add ground turkey, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until turkey is cooked through. Add artichokes and stir to combine. Remove from heat and let cool.
3.Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for about 4 minutes. Drain and set aside.
4.In a large bowl, combine cooled turkey mixture, ricotta, parmesan, basil, and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.
5.Cover the bottom of a baking dish with some of the tomato sauce (just a thin layer will do). Take a shell in the palm of your hand and stuff with a large spoonful of the turkey mixture—don’t be shy with the stuffing! Place in the baking dish and repeat. This makes a lot so I always do in two pans and freeze one for future use (see below).
6.Top shells with tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes until cheese is melted and shells are bubbly.
To freeze: Cover unbaked shells in two layers of plastic wrap. Wrap the entire pan in at least 1 (if not 2) layers of aluminum foil to ensure it is well sealed. Place in freezer. To bake, unwrap the pan and bake (still frozen) for about 60 minutes or until shells are hot and cheese is melted.

Sunday Dinner: Red Pepper Pasta and Garlic Bread Edition

Jason and I spent this weekend visiting my parents in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We had a really nice time buying apples and pumpkins at a local orchard, eating my mom's awesome bacon-wrapped scallops (with a lemon-dill sauce) for dinner, and playing spades. Since we didn’t get home until 4 or so , I decided to go with a tried and true favorite for dinner tonight--- pasta with creamy roasted red pepper sauce. But since I always try to do something a little bit special/out of the ordinary for Sunday Dinner I decided to shake things up with some homemade garlic bread.

WARNING: THIS RECIPE SHOULD NOT BE CONSUMED UNLESS YOU REALLY REALLY LIKE GARLIC.

(Consider yourself warned.)

Garlic bread, at least the way Ina taught me to make it, is so easy that it is hard to imagine why anyone would buy the frozen stuff. All you have to do is chop up some parsley and a lot of garlic, heat it in some olive oil and spread it between some ciabatta bread. Stick it in the oven for 10 minutes and you are done. Easy, garlicky goodness. (note: since it was just the two of us, I halved the recipe below—only using ½ loaf of bread, ¼ olive oil, etc. and it works just as well.)

Step 1: Cook olive oil, parsley and garlic over low heat.

Step 2: Spread mixture over bread

Step 3: Put halves back together and bake

 Step 4: Enjoy!

Homemade Garlic Bread
Adpated from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
6 cloves of garlic
¼ cup parsely
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 loaf of ciabatta bread

1.Finely chop the garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper.
2.Heat olive oil in a small pan over low heat. Add garlic mixture and cook for about 3 minutes or until garlic is tender but not browned. Set aside
3.Slice ciabatta in half horizontally. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4.Spoon garlic mixture evenly over both halves of the bread. Place the top half on the bottom half. Wrap in foil. Bake on a cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove foil and cook for another 5 minutes or until crust is brown and crusty. Slice and serve (with breath mints if you have them).

Signs of Fall

Now that it is September (!), the first signs of fall are everywhere. Pumpkin beer is popping up on restaurant menus and grocery store shelves; my teacher friends are heading back to work; wool blazers are making their way into my closet; and Hallmark is starting to put out its Christmas ornaments. But while some are starting to think of pot roast, I am still holding on to the last vestiges of summer making meals that focus on corn and tomatoes rather than meat and potatoes.

Last night, for example, I whipped up a pasta dish whose star was corn cut fresh from the cob. Cooked in bacon fat and pureed with pine nuts and parmesan, it is pesto by way of creamed corn. Once the corn is added to the long strands of tagliatelle pasta and topped with bacon and basil, the dish is almost carbonara-like in its creaminess. If I have a chance to make it again before fall is totally upon us, I think I would leave more of the corn whole. It seemed almost blasphemous to not eat it in its purest state. Other than that, and not making this recipe sooner, I have no regrets.

Pasta with Bacon and Corn Pesto
Adapted slightly from Serious Eats

Ingredients:
4 slices of thick-cut bacon, cut into lardons
3 cups of fresh corn (from about 5 ears)
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup pine nuts
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
3 TBL olive oil
12 ounces of tagliatelle or other flat, wide pasta
¾ cup basil, julienned

1. Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-low heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on paper towels.
2. Add corn and garlic to bacon fat and toss to coat. Add salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes until corn is tender. Reserve ¾ cup (or more) of corn. Scrape remaining corn into a food processor (or blender). Add pine nuts and parmesan and process until smooth. With the machine running, add olive oil.
3. Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions. When done, drain pasta reserving a cup of the cooking water.
4. Add corn pesto back to the skillet and heat over low. Add ¾ of the bacon and basil. Add in pasta and toss until well coated (use cooking liquid to thin out the sauce if it is too thick). Top with remaining bacon and basil and serve.

A Case of the Mondays

Oh Mondays. How I loathe thee….

Between not getting much sleep last night (thanks to my ill advised decision to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before bed last night), waking up early for my longer than usual commute, and the commute itself, I am tired. And Friday seems so far away. Part of me wanted to ask Jason to pick something up for dinner on his way home from work so I could totally veg out tonight but I decided that was too much of a cop out, especially considering I planned and purchased a week’s worth of meals/food yesterday and don’t want any of it to go to waste.  Instead, I put on my big girl pants and made a lovely Lemon Fussilli with Arugula from my girl Ina Garten’s book Barefoot Contessa At Home (which is, by the way, my favorite of her cookbooks to date).

It is exceptionally good and very easy to whip up…even when you are *this close* to being a walking zombie. I found myself wondering why I don’t make this more often…..until I remembered that the recipe calls for 2 cups of heavy cream. TWO CUPS!

Warning: this is not a healthy recipe. Don’t let the tomatoes and arugula fool you.

I halved the sauce in order to try and dial back the fat a little bit and I think it was just as good as the original. A lemony, garlicky cream sauce over pasta with tomatoes and arugula that are just warmed through at the end.  It is comfort food at its best--the perfect cure for a case of the Mondays.

(Note: if you have leftovers, I would recommend re-warming them slowly in a saucepan on the stove or in short bursts in the microwave. The sauce has a tendency to separate and while it still tastes good, it doesn’t look as appetizing.)

Lemon Fusilli with Arugula
Adapted, a little bit, from Ina Garten

Ingredients:
1 TBL olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lemon
1 cup of heavy cream
8 ounces fussilli
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
A couple of handfuls of baby arugula
¼ cup (or less) parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

1.Heat olive oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for about 60 seconds. Add cream and both the zest and juice from the lemon. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Simmer sauce until it just starts to thicken, about 15 minutes.
2.Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add fussilli and cook according to package directions. Drain and return to the pot. Pour thickened sauce over the pasta and cook for 2-3 minutes until the pasta has had a chance to absorb most of the sauce.
3.Take off the heat. Add parmesan cheese, arugula, and tomatoes and stir until combined and arugula has started to wilt slightly. Serve.

Weeknight Shortcuts

As much as I like to try my hand at making things from scratch (see goat cheese and breadmaking as examples), sometimes a shortcut (or two) is in order. Tonight, for instance, I decided to give a new recipe for Pasta with Baby Beets, Mint, and Feta a try. The original recipe called for sautéing the garlic with olive oil and red pepper flakes before adding it to the cooked pasta. I decided to skip this step (and save Jason from having to clean a second pan) and just add it to the rest of the vinaigrette ingredients. In addition, instead of dealing with the hassle of peeling and cooking a bunch of beets, I decided to take advantage of the refrigerated pre-packaged (and already cooked and peeled) beets my grocery offers in the produce section. Now I know taking advantage of such “convenience items” can get expensive which is why I usually limit their usage. But every once in awhile I think it’s perfectly acceptable to cut yourself a little slack both in and out of the kitchen.  Life is short, avoid the stress where you can!

Whether you take advantage of the shortcuts or not, this recipe is worth a try. I will be honest, though, I was not a huge fan of the mint. I like mint well enough but after a few bites the interesting mint-beet-feta flavor combo got old and I wished the mint wasn't so quite so front and center. Next time I think I would cut back on the mint (or get rid of it entirely) and add in some other sort of herb—parsley, maybe. Or even basil.  But the rest of the ingredients—feta, beets, lemony vinaigrette—were great and well worth trying out.

Pasta with Baby Beets, Mint, and Feta
Adapted from The Jewels of NY

Ingredients:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch of dried red pepper flakes
2 TBL fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 TBL shallot, minced
Zest of one lemon
1 bunch baby beets, peeled or you can also use prepackaged refrigerated beets like I did
8 ounces of pasta, I used mini fussili
1/3 cup of fresh mint, roughly chopped
½ cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper

1.If you are going to cook the beets yourself, cook beets in a pot of boiling salted water for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain and let cool and then dice up. If you are taking a shortcut, like I did, you can skip the cooking and just diced up the precooked beets.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook until al dente. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
3.Meanwhile combine olive oil, lemon juice, zest, mustard, garlic, shallots, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4.Add diced beets, mint, hazelnuts, and feta to pasta. (Note: if you decide to take my shortcut method and used pre-cooked beets, pour the hot pasta on top of the beets in the bowl in order to warm them up a little before adding all the other ingredients). Drizzle with vinaigrette. Toss and serve.

One of Those Days

Ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go quite according to plan? Where it seems like you take a step forward only to take three steps back a moment later? We’ve all been there, right?! Well yesterday was one of those days for me.  As Jason so sweetly noted after I dropped the blender on the floor right before I was going to use it to finish making dinner—I was really “off my game” yesterday. It all started with the tell tale sign that the lovely spring pollen was starting to get to me—a scratchy throat.  As soon as I woke up I could feel it and, as a result, I felt off all day. Work was busier than I expected. I wasn’t able to go to the gym or run an errand during my lunch hour as I had planned. (And an unexpectedly long conference call prevented me from going as soon as work was over too.) Then there was the issue of having two tons of laundry to do, packing for a business trip, and needing to write overdue thank you notes to family members for their thoughtful birthday gifts. Not to mention those Cadbury Mini Eggs that somehow found their way into our apartment and are trying their darndest to throw me of my quest to get more fit.

But it really all hit the fan when it came time to make dinner. In my effort to go lighter, I had decided to make Ellie Krieger’s Pasta with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce.  It’s a tasty recipe that is low in fat and full of flavor. I’ve made it several times so it should have been a cinch to pull together. Unfortunately, I somehow found myself without several key ingredients…..despite having consulted the recipe when making the grocery list on Sunday! First, I realized I did not have an onion. No big deal, I thought, I have half of a red onion in the fridge leftover from a couple of days ago. Crisis averted. Or so I thought until I got the box of penne I was planning to use out of the cupboard and realized there was hardly enough pasta left in there for one person, let alone two... I could have sworn it was half full a few days ago. Apparently not.

I called Jason to see if he could stop by the grocery store to pick some penne up on his way home. The bad news was he was already pulling in the garage when I called. The good news was that the (over-priced) convenience store downstairs had penne in stock—multi-grain no less!  Just when I thought the worst was over, I dropped the aforementioned blender.  Actually, the base was not screwed on as tight to the vessel (or whatever the proper name for the glass part of a blender is) and it fell off as I was moving it over to the counter. Fortunately, it wasn’t broken. All I had to do was pop a piece back into place and it worked like a charm.

Despite all the setbacks, the penne with creamy red pepper sauce turned out well. But to be honest, I did not enjoy it half as well as the glass of wine I had with it!

Penne with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce
Adapted from Ellie Krieger

Ingredients:
2 TBL olive oil
½  red onion, chopped
2 to 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 (12-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed, and chopped
½  cup low-sodium chicken stock or vegetable stock
4 oz crumbled feta cheese
Half a pound of penne (multigrain, regular or a combo thereof)
Salt and pepper
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

1.Bring pot of water to boil. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2.Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and sauté until soft about 5 minutes. Add roasted pepper and heat through.
3.Place mixture in blender or food process with feta and broth and process until smooth.
4.Drain pasta and mix with red pepper sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in parsley and serve.