don't belive the hype: pasta with 2 sauces

There's a lot of hoopla regarding pasta with vodka cream sauce. Some say it's the cure for what ails your pathetic love life, others say it's gonna get you hitched and the rest think it's just about the best pasta sauce ever. Meh, I'm not convinced. I mean, I love vodka, I love cream and pasta holds a special place in my heart, but I don't think this sauce is the be-all-end-all of anything. It's good, it's simple and it's rich, but I'm certainly not going to drop my drawers after a bowl of this.

I made this pasta with vodka cream sauce a little while ago after consulting various recipes and creating one of my own. Not surprisingly, my husband loved it. Maybe there is something about it working it's way into a gentleman's heart, but for me, I like something a little more complex in flavour. So the next time we ate pasta, I used the rest of the farfalle box and created something that I thought was ten times more delicious. It didn't leave me hot and bothered either, but it was simple, tasty and oh so fine. I wish I could have snapped a photo but it was gobbled up way too quickly. 2 recipes, 1 box of pasta. Take your pick.

pasta with vodka cream sauce
2 T unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes
1/2 c vodka
1 small tin of diced tomatoes
1 c heavy cream
3/4 c parmesan cheese
salt & pepper
250 grams farfalle or other short pasta

1. In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat and saute onions, garlic and chili until soft, about 20 minutes. Add in vodka and tomatoes and let everything come to a nice slow boil so that it bubbles but doesn't splatter and go nuts. Pour in cream and turn down to a simmer.

2. Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package directions.

3. When pasta is done, drain but reserve a little of the pasta water. You may need to add more water to the sauce if it's too dry. Use your judgement. Gently add pasta to skillet and stir in cheese, adding salt and pepper if necessary. Stir pasta well to coat, reducing some of the sauce if necessary or adding in some pasta water if it's too dry. Serve in large bowls with parsley and extra parmesan cheese, if desired.

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lemon sauced pasta with ham and peas
2 T butter
2 T grapeseed oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t red pepper flakes
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c parmesan cheese
1/4 c diced ham
1/2 c frozen peas
salt & pepper
250 grams farfalle or other short pasta
1/2 c chopped fresh parsley

Prepare pasta according to package directions.

When pasta is almost ready, prepare the sauce. In a large skillet, melt butter and oil over medium heat, adding in garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant but not brown. Add in lemon zest and juice and about 1/3 cup of pasta water. Reduce slightly and stir in cream, ham, peas and pasta. Add parmesan cheese and parsley and stir. Add more pasta water if necessary. Salt and pepper as needed.

dream pie

Life sure has been busy for the past few weeks. Along with lots of holiday fun, there was lots of work to be done as well. Presentations, proposals, lots of designing and a bit of coding here and there...and one of the highlights of this busy season was working with a fellow food blogger with a redesign of her blog! Alanna over at A Veggie Venture needed a new look and new functionality and I was so flattered that she felt that Cornelius and I were up to the task. She knew what she wanted from the get-go (hooray for clients with vision!) which made our working relationship as sweet as pie. Working with Alanna was great, so head on over to her blog and take a peek at all her yummy veggie recipes (well needed at this time of year)!

And speaking of sweet relationship pie, the day after New Year's Day was Cornelius' birthday! Before the big day, I sat Cornelius down and made him select his dream cake recipe from a skyscraper pile of post-it note marked cookbooks. And instead of a dream cake, he picked a dream pie! Coconut-banana cream pie with a dark chocolate lined crust, to be exact. Oh my! Lucky for me one of my resolutions for this year is to eat more healthy...so I was more than pleased to make a cream pie that I didn't want to eat (you know, back to the banana thing again). But don't worry about me, I loved making this pie! There were quite a few steps involved but I loved that intensity. Not that it was that difficult, but I did have to do things that kind of scare me...like making custard and pie crust* from scratch. But the pie was a success and well worth the effort (according to Cornelius and his parents who all sampled the pie). The recipe I used was adapted (I subbed light coconut milk for whole milk for that crazy coconut twist!) from the banana cream pie recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.

* The only problem with the crust was that it shrunk during baking quite a bit. Any thoughts as to why it happened? I didn't use pie weights so might that be the problem? Regardless of the shrinking, it apparently was tasty!