Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

There is a constant argument in my house about serving red sauce with any pasta meal. While I like red sauce, I like variety more- so I end up experimenting with different kinds of sauces or sometimes no sauce at all. My husband is not too happy when the pasta is served without a sauce.

This dish is a compromise since it has the red and white sauce. I had the leftover meatballs from the previous day and I felt quite adventurous. I sliced the meatballs and sauteed them in a little oil and kept them aside. I wanted to make a lasagna with the left over marinara sauce in the fridge. I didn’t have any ricotta cheese- I decided to substitute a bechamel sauce instead. To give the sauce a little body and texture, I sauteed some onions before adding the all purpose flour and creamy fontina cheese. Fontina cheese is a must ingredient in my fridge. It is mild and nutty and melts really well on anything.

I layered the no-cook lasagna noodles (another ingredient found in my pantry) with the two sauces and the meatballs. I topped it all with some shredded cheese and stuck it in the oven. I was very excited to taste this experiment. I was hoping my daughter and husband will feel the same excitement when they taste it- and they did. They both loved it! I was extremely happy and very proud of myself.

It is easy to come up with ideas for left overs if your pantry and fridge are well-stocked. With lasagnas, sky is the limit- you can add as much or as little- as long as the ingredients are good and fresh.

I served it with a salad and a Merlot.
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I think this recipe came about while I was reading some magazine and drooling over a chef in the mid-west cooking eastern-european food. He was making meatballs and serving them in pita bread like bread topped with a tzatziki sauce like concoction. I love tzatziki sauce- creamy, garlicky and cool tasting.

While I was in college, I would go help out at my family’s deli. We would serve delicious gyros with the tzatziki sauce. My Mom would make it with sour cream and grated cucumbers. I remember eating the sauce with fries- aah, the good old days when I could eat anything I wanted and not worry about gaining weight. All of these memories prompted me to make the sauce with the meatballs I had already concocted in my mind. I made my sauce with zero fat greek yogurt. It has all the creaminess and texture without the fat. Adding some fresh mint made it delicious.

While I was putting the ingredients together for the meatballs, I thought of falafels which are the middle-eastern meatless balls made out of a chickpea mixture. I decided to add some chickpeas in mine. It reminded me of shami kebabs – which are Indian kebabs made out of lamb and chickpeas. This ended up being a multi-cultural meal. 

I served the meatballs in pita breads topped with the creamy tzatziki sauce. I also had store-bought hummus which I thinned out by adding some lemon juice. I needed some color for garnish- so took some tomatoes from my backyard and let them sit in some salt and minced garlic. It was all very delicious- especially with the oven fries on the side. I opened a Malbec Rose with the meal and all was good!
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I feel I am on a roll with these cornstarch gelato recipes. I have figured out that the recipes with nuts have the best consistency. 
The other day I started thinking of another gelato recipe. I was envisioning one with hazelnuts and saffron. I was very excited all day and when I finally got home, I took the milk out and the hazelnuts which are stored in the freezer (nuts should be kept in the freezer to achieve a long shelf life). I placed them in a small cookie sheet and proceeded to roast them in the oven. Once they were cooled off, something in my head urged me to taste one- I had this strange feeling the hazelnuts had been sitting in the freezer for a while. Well, what do you know- they tasted awful! What was I going to do now??? The milk was already thickened with the cornstarch and the saffron was steeping in there. 

I opened my freezer again to pick another nut- walnuts screamed out at me. Well, I am very glad this little mishap occurred- the walnuts went fabulously well with the saffron. The taste reminded me of kulfi, which is essentially an Indian ice cream.

The flavor was nutty and sweet; the texture was smooth and creamy. What makes me really happy is that it’s made out of whole milk- so eat as much as you like. Try this one- it’s truly a winner.

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As a Cook and a Mom, I am always thinking of what to cook next. I am so busy concocting the next meal that it is hard to imagine there are people out there, especially kids who go hungry every day. I am at a grocery store almost everyday thinking about healthy ways to feed my family. Shop Rite is one store that is helping people who are desperate to eat anything at all- there are over 36 million Americans who go to bed hungry every night and 12 million of them are children.
I am writing about this problem on behalf of The ShopRite Partners in Caring program. It is a program that fights against hunger by supporting 23 regional food banks and more than 1,400 charitable agencies with food or meal components.

You can help by purchasing products with the ShopRite Partners in Caring shelf tag. This will help support the brands that help the fight against hunger and ultimately help fill empty bowls for thousands of hungry families in your community.

Please go to ShopRite and do your part.
As a thank you, General Mills and ShopRite will donate one box of cereal to a food bank in ShopRite’s trading area for the first 30 people who comment on this post.

Thank You!

When it is hot outside, I think of Southwestern or Mexican flavors. Fresh chilies, cilantro, corn and avocados come to mind. I feel like making fresh guacamole and eat tons of chips with it- or make enchiladas. I do try to come up with different recipes to post on this blog- sometimes it gets quite challenging…

Some chain restaurants have a southwestern style pasta on their menus. That is what I started to think of when I visited the farmer’s market the other day- I bought some fresh ancho chilies. I pictured roasting them and then making a sauce out of them- maybe a cheese sauce for a pasta. I planned on stopping at the grocery store to pick up chicken thighs to grill and add to the dish- but as usual something came up and I didn’t get time to go. I then remembered I have chicken sausage in the freezer- perfect!

I roasted the ancho chilies and diced and sauteed them with sliced shallots and garlic. I then sprinkled all-purpose flour to make a roux. Chicken broth and a little half and half completed the sauce. I had a bag of shredded mexican cheese (including queso fresco, monterey, etc.)- which I thought would be perfect for this dish- though any cheese will do.

I roasted the chicken sausages in the oven and added them to the cheese sauce. I added a my favorite ingredient- smoked paprika. It gave the cheese sauce a delicious smoky flavor that complemented the smokiness in the ancho chilies really well.

Overall the flavor was very delicious and different. I added fresh cilantro on top instead of the usual basil or parsley. I felt cilantro was a better fit with all the southwestern flavors- and it was – really yummy. I wasn’t sure if my family would like it- but they did- they all relished it with a bottle of red wine and milk (for my daughter).

Click here for the recipe… »