Chicken Alfredo with Tomatoes (college style)

An interpretation of a dish served at a small Italian restaurant that my boyfriend took me to eat way back in Valentine's Day of this year. It's a deceiving small place with a traditional feel.

The photos do no justice to how gorgeous it actually looked. :'(

Ingredients
2-3 handfuls of pasta
Salt
1/4 cup of cooking oil

1 cup of Alfredo sauce (if not available, there are plenty of easy online recipes!)
2 small boneless chicken breasts (or one normal)
1 tsp butter
All purpose seasoning ('Adobo')
about 1/4 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
2-3 grape or cherry tomatoes.
Parsley and Oregano
Instructions:
Start by boiling the water in a pot and add the salt. Heat up a skillet at medium heat.
 

Defrost the chicken breasts if needed. Once done, cut out as much of the fat as you can and slice into thin, short strips.
 

Once the salted water's boiling, add the pasta and the oil. Let it cook for 8-10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the chicken with the all-purpose seasoning and parsley.

Melt the butter on the hot skillet and carefully place the chicken strips. Cover and let it simmer until well cooked. Uncover it and let the butter evaporate almost completely. Add enough Alfredo sauce to cover the whole skillet thinly on medium heat. Add a bit more parsley for taste and a handful of Parmesan cheese. Cook for 5 minutes.
 

Once the pasta is cooked, drain completely and bring it back to the pot on low heat. Add about 1/4 cup of Alfredo sauce and a bit of oregano to the pasta and turn it over a few times.
 

When the chicken-Alfredo is creamy but fragrant, mix into the pasta throughly. Add more cheese and let it melt into the pasta.
 

Serve hot with the fresh cherry tomatoes cut in half and cover with Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Macaroni with creamy ham and peas

A recipe based on Maria Ricci's book “200 Pasta Dishes” with difference of using elbow macaroni instead of tortellini. A friend of ours got inspired to start cooking after watching me cook my everyday meals. So we hit the local Marshalls, Walmart and supermarkets to get her started. Note to you reader, do NOT let me go to the Gourmet Cooking or Spice sections unattended, money will be frivolously spent on cute gadgets and obscure ingredients (see: Eggsworth, and the 3 different oils I have). After bargain shopping for the essentials, she picked out this recipe from her book and I showed her how to make good pasta every time.

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup shelled peas

3 oz of ham (4 slices) cubed

1 cup of sour cream

large pinch of nutmeg

1 lb elbow macaroni

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese plus extra for serving

1/3 cup of milk

Start by boiling salted water to a rolling bubble. Cook the macaroni to al dente firmness (8-10 minutes) with about 1 tablespoon of oil.

While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in medium heat on a large skillet until you make it sizzle. Once so, add the ham and peas and sauté until brown.

Add the sour cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg to the ham and peas.

Drain the pasta and mix in with the cream mixture. Add the milk over medium heat to thicken the cream on low-medium temperature.

Serve in large bowls with Parmesan cheese.

Chow Mein with Sautéed Chicken

I made this dish as a farewell gift from yours truly to a departing friend of my boyfriend, to whom I'd cooked for a couple of times. He was always complaining of the lack of a Panda Express in our college town, and I figured my last meal with him should be any sort of Chinese meal.

The original noodle recipe is from the 1996 FamilyFun Cookbook (one of my very first cookbooks).

Chow Mein with Sautéed Chicken

Ingredients

-1 pound of Chinese Noodles (I used Angel Hair pasta instead)

-1/ 4 cup of creamy peanut butter

-1/ 2 cup of hot water

-1/ 3 cup of soy sauce

- 2 tbsp of honey

-1 crushed garlic

-1 tbsp chopped/grated ginger

-4 scallions, cut into 1/ 2 -inch pieces

Sautéed Chicken

-1 tbsp of butter

-2 chicken breasts

-All-purpose seasoning

-Salt and Pepper

In a large bowl, mix the peanut butter with the hot water until creamy. Whisk in the soy sauce, honey, garlic and ginger.

Cut the chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Season to taste. Melt the butter in a wok until it sizzles and cook the chicken to a golden brown color. Add the noodles, scallions and the mixture to finish.

Serve with toasted bread, and if your guests are particularly daring, wasabi paste.

Serves 6 to 8.

College style Pasta Carbonara

One of my personal favorites to cook when hunger strikes. My mother makes an amazing plate of the stuff with garlic bread that keeps you wanting more. After two years of failing miserably on my own, she finally told me the secret: white cooking wine and an egg.

Serves 2

Ingredients

-A generous handful of long pasta, like spaghetti

-4 to 6 slices of bacon

-1 tsp of crushed garlic

-1/3 cup of Parmesan or Italian cheese, plus more for serving

-1/3 cup of cooking wine

-1 tbsp of Italian seasoning or oregano if unavailable.

-1/4 cup of vegetable oil I actually replaced this with 1 tbsp of unsalted butter

-1 tsp of salt

-1 tsp of ground black pepper

-1 egg

Boil enough water in a sauce pot to reach three-fourths of its height, adding 1 tsp or 2 of salt. On a skillet, start boiling 1 /4 cup of water to cook the bacon.

While the water boils, cut the slices of bacon into small pieces and slightly season them with the Italian seasoning. To start cooking the ham, add it to the skillet with the white wine , black pepper and the rest of the seasoning. Cover immediately to prevent the alcohol from evaporating.

When the water is boiling (or when the big bubble stream is constant), add the pasta and the oil. Cooking time is at your discretion, but here's a quick guide to get certain firmness:

-8 minutes: Al dente

-10 minutes: firm

-12 minutes: tender

Meanwhile, crack the egg and beat it slightly (as if making a fritatta). After pasta is cooked, drain the water from the pot and place back into the sauce pot.

Working quickly, add the bacon, cheese and egg together and mix until egg's solidified and cheese has melted.

Serve hot with some extra cheese and enjoy.

Homemade Ravioli

One of the many recipes I have backlogged in my primary blog that I would love to go into deeper is the homemade ravioli I made back in April (I'll cover the custard on another post). The dough is a universal recipe, but credit due to Tyler Florence for this one.

Homemade ravioli stuffed with cooked ground meat

Serves 5-6

For the pasta:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 yolk, for egg wash

For the filling:

1/2 pound of ground meat (93%)

1/2 white onion

1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 tablespoon of butter

1 can of tomato paste

1 tsp of garlic paste

2 tbsp of "sofrito" (traditional recipe)

a pinch of salt

Sift through the flour and add the salt. Make a small well inside the flour and add the 4 eggs and oil. Slowly cave in the flour and knead the subsequent mixture until stretchy (remember to flour your hand to avoid sticky messes).

Cut the ball of dough in half, cover and reserve the dough you are not immediately using to prevent it from drying out. Dust the counter, rolling pin and dough with flour. Flatten the dough to 1/8" thickness.

Beat 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. Lay out the long sheet of pasta, and brush the top surface with the egg wash, which acts as a glue.

Start by melting the butter and "sofrito" and tomato paste in a medium to large skillet.

Chop the onion, peppers and sautee them in the skillet until the onions are golden brown. Once done, cook the meat in the mixture until fully cooked.

Drop tablespoons of the filling on 1/2 of the pasta sheet, about 2-inches apart. Fold the other 1/2 over the filling like a blanket. fingers, gently press out air pockets around each mound of filling. Use a sharp knife to cut each pillow into squares and crimp the 4 edges with the tins of a fork to make a tight seal.

Cook the ravioli in plenty of boiling salted water for 4 minutes; they'll float to the top when ready.

It was a huge hit with my guest for the night, so I hope you all enjoy!