Pasta with Goat Cheese, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts

I love using goat cheese in pasta sauces. Add a little of the cooking water or some chicken broth and voila! a [very] light cream sauce for your pasta. This pasta works well with little pasta (orzo, ditalini, pennette) or skinny pasta (angel hair, spaghettini).

Pasta with Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts

• 1 pound pasta
• 1 can artichoke hearts (not marinated), drained and rough chopped (use 2 cans if you like artichoke hearts a bunch)
• scant 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil (I use Trader Joe's julienned sun dried tomatoes in olive oil), drained on paper towels, chopped if large
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 1 4-ounce log goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup chicken broth (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
• red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper

Cook the pasta in lots of salted boiling water. When just shy of al dente dip a coffee cup into the pasta water to save about a cup of cooking water. Drain the pasta in a colander and then throw it back in the cooking pot.

Put the pasta pot back over medium-high heat and stir in the artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, capers and goat cheese. Stir in the chicken broth, if using, or about 1/2 cup of the pasta water. As you stir, the cheese will melt into the pasta and combine with the broth or water to make a light sauce. If the pasta seems too dry, stir in some olive oil.

Season to taste with red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.

Note: For a creamier sauce, use twice as much goat cheese. For a cheesier taste, sprinkle on grated parmesan .

Yield: 4-5 generous servings

Week of April 8

Happy Easter.

This is a pretty light make-ahead week and is more about provisioning and prep. What's nice is this gives me time bake some Greek Easter cookies. I am also trying out the yogurt cake (yes, I am obsessed with this cake) with pistachio meal - it looks pretty, but it's not green or anything.

An * shows what I made on Sunday.

Sunday
Easter Dinner
Pan roasted lamb chops with tangerine, mint and dill *
Roasted red potatoes with lemon *
Steamed asparagus *
Cheese course (a lovely assortment of fromage from Grand Trunk Imports in Newburyport)
French yogurt cake with pistachios and strawberries *

Monday
Lunch
Chickpea deli salad *

Dinner
Pasta with artichoke hearts, capers, sun dried tomatoes, and goat cheese (inspired by this post at Cookthink)

Tuesday
Lunch
Sunday leftovers

Dinner
Southeast Asian-style pork meatballs
Carrot salad
Lettuce and herbs for wraps
Cucumber salad
Jasmine rice

Wednesday
Lunch
Monday night leftovers

Dinner
Chickpea deli salad * on a bed of chopped romaine

Thursday
Lunch
On your own

Dinner
Baked potato with cheese
Green salad

Friday
Lunch
On your own

Dinner
Nachos
Guacamole

Dessert: French Yogurt Cake

This is just a lovely cake. It's from Dorie Greenspan's great book Baking and it is swiftly becoming my go-to cake when I need something easy with showy potential.

The recipe below is Greenspan's. I have made it both with the ground almonds and without. I am going to try it with different ground nuts meals - I looking forward to trying it with ground pistachios for Easter.

I have baked it in a 9" springform and an 8x4 loaf pan. The springform makes for a more elegant presentation, especially when you split it and put lemon curd in between the layers. The orignal recipe calls for a marmalade or jam glaze.

French Yogurt Cake

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds (or if you have no almonds, use another 1/2 flour)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup sugar
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 t vanilla
• 1/2 cup light-flavored oil
  

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease your baking pan (I have used a small loaf pan or a 9" springform pan).

Mix together the flour, ground almonds (if using), baking powder and nuts.

In a medium bowl, rub the sugar together with the zest (this will perfume the sugar with lemonyness). Whisk the yogurt, eggs and vanilla into the sugar. Whisk the flour mixture in until just blended. Fold in the oil with a rubber spatula.

Scrape the batter into your pan. Depending on your pan, it will take from 35-45 minutes (springform pan) to 50-55 minutes (loaf pan). The cake will pull from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake will come out with only one or two crumbs clinging to it.

Let the cake cool on a rack for 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan to continuing cooling.

Pasta Radicchionara?

Vicky and Ty, this is for you.

This was an I-need-comfort-food-night. I read a nice story about pasta carbonara recently, and I had been planning to make a pasta dish with radicchio, so ... Pasta Radicchionara was born.

Pasta Radicchionara

• 8 oz. whole wheat spaghetti (I used Bionature brand)
• 3 slices bacon, chopped
• 2-3 shallots sliced
• 1/4 cup white wine or dry vermouth
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 head radicchio (bigger than a baseball, smaller than a softball), sliced thin
  
• handful chopped parsley
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Boil your pasta in heavily salted water - whole wheat pasta will take a little longer than "regular" pasta. While it's boiling, make the sauce.

Saute the bacon in a skillet until crisp and browned. Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Pour off most of the bacon fat from the skillet and saute the shallots. When they are softened and a little browned, pour on the vermouth. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the skillet. When half the vermouth has boiled away, pour on the chicken broth and the cream. Keep boiling the sauce until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add the radicchio and parsley to the sauce and stir to mix everything together.

When the pasta is done, drain the pasta and put it back into the pot. Toss the sauce on top of the pasta. Over heat, toss the pasta together with the sauce, the cheese and some salt and pepper. Toss the bacon back over the pasta.

Serves 2-3

Week of April 1

Goodness, this weekend was even busier than the last (2 sets of houseguests in two nights!). I pulled my menus together on Saturday and dashed out to get everything right away.

This week's meals are a good blend of made-ahead, make-ahead and make-quick. There’s an (f) after any item that got defrosted for the week. An * shows what I made on Sunday.

Sunday
Dinner with Doug and Alex - Yay!
Grilled hanger steak with chimichurri sauce *
Oven fries *
Cauliflower "popcorn" *
Sauteed beet greens with crispy shallots *

Monday
Lunch
Hummus * with pita, raw vegetables, feta and olives
Steamed asparagus
Hard boiled egg *

Dinner
Pasta with shallots, radicchio, parsley and lemon

Tuesday
Lunch
Edamame salad with shrimp *

Dinner
Turkey burgers (f)
Sweet potato fries

Wednesday
Lunch
Monday night leftovers

Dinner
Hummus * with pita, chopped vegetables, feta and olives
Hard boiled egg *

Thursday
Lunch
Chicken chili (f)

Dinner
Edamame salad * with grilled shrimp

Friday
Lunch
On your own

Dinner
Macaroni and cheese (f)