Classic Italian Penne all'Arrabbiata Recipe

 A spicy and garlicky tomato sauce with a sprinkle of Italian parsley and Parmesan cheese

So easy, yet so delicious!

This a traditional Italian pasta that could not miss from my list of recipes.
The penne all'arrabbiata, which means the "angry pasta," is a very traditional Italian primo piatto. I'm not sure where this pasta get its bad temper, but to make my penne really raving mad I use spicy dried peperoncini.
Peperoncino is an Italian variety of hot chilly peppers. The key word here is HOT! And the seeds inside the peperoncino are what gives its burning effect. So I normally break the peppers in half when I put them in the pan, and I get a mouth-numbing, tongue-tingling super hot sauce.
These are the same hot peppers I use in my pasta alla vodka, spaghetti all'amatriciana and few other sauces. If you don't have peperoncini, you can always substitute with hot pepper flakes or the hottest red chili pepper you can find.
You will be surprised by how easy and quick is to make this pasta. Hot and spicy, that's what there is to love about it. A simple and bold tomato sauce with garlic, peperoncino, some parsley and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.


Ingredients: serving 4

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 hot dried peperoncini , crushed
• 2 cups, about 14 oz of fresh or canned tomatoes, diced
• 2 tablespoons of fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 12 oz of penne pasta
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of Parmesan or pecorino cheese, freshly  grated

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. In a large saucepan, saute' the garlic and the hot peperoncini in the olive oil, for a couple of minutes.

2. Add the diced tomatoes, salt and pepper if you like. Let simmer for 15 minutes or so. Crush the tomato pieces with a fork. Remove the garlic and hot peppers, if you prefer.

3. While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta al dente. Drain and add to the sauce. Toss the pasta, adding in the chopped parsley.

Serve immediately, sprinkling with Parmesan or pecorino cheese

Buon appetito!

Homemade Halloween Brownie Cupcakes Recipe

Perfectly spooky, fudgy, chewy and insanely chocolaty 

homemade spiderweb brownie cupcakes

Your kids - and YOU too - are going to love this Halloween treat!
It's a brownie. It's a cupcake. And it's covered with a creamy chocolate frosting spiderweb. What else can one ask for?!?
These brownies are super easy to make from scratch. And they are so much better than those made from a box. It really doesn't take much longer. All you need is to quickly combine few ingredients. Yes, it's so simple!
The creamy frosting is made with good quality chocolate chips melted with heavy cream. To decorate I used store bought white icing. I know, I could have melted white chocolate, but I tried to make my job a little easier and faster.
The design is quite simple. Spoon some of the chocolate frosting on top of the cupcake, add the white icing in a spiral when it's still soft, and draw the spider web using a toothpick. It's probably better to start with one cupcake at a time. You can only draw the spiderweb when the icing and the frosting are still very soft. Once you get the hang of it, and are getting a little faster, you can probably do 3 or 4 decorations at the same time.
The design doesn't have to be perfect. Just make it fun! You can add a plastic spider ring as the finishing touch. The kids will absolutely love it!
Perfectly spooky, rich, fudgy, chewy and insanely chocolaty.

Ingredients: to make 20 cupcakes
For the brownies:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter 
• 1 cup of chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli semi-sweet)
• 4 eggs 
• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
• pinch of salt

To decorate: 

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of heavy cream
• white icing for the spider web
• 20 plastic spider rings

Preparation time: 40 minutes for the brownies, plus maybe around 20 minutes to decorate

Directions:
1. Place 1 cup of chocolate chips and the butter into a microwave-safe bowl. Melt at medium-low power, checking and stirring every 10 seconds until well blended.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, the sugar and the vanilla extract.

3. Mix in the flour, salt, cocoa, eggs and melted butter/chocolate. Don't over-mix, just stir enough that all the ingredients are combined.

4. Spoon the batter into around 20 paper-lined muffin cups, about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check with a toothpick for readiness!

5. Melt in a double boiler 1 cup of chocolate chips with the heavy whipping cream. With a spoon, top the cupcake one at the time with the chocolate frosting. Right away, make a thin spiral with the white icing, and  draw the spiderweb using a toothpick. Simply draw lines from the center of the cupcake outward. Don't wait for the icing to dry or you won't be able to do this!

 Finish it up with a cute spider. Happy Halloween!!

MUSHROOM QUINOA

The first time I bought quinoa, I cooked it without any seasonings. I tasted it, shrugged my shoulders and then put it back in the pantry. This COULDN'T be the same quinoa that people were raving about could it?

What I found out (much later) was that you have to add veggies, spices, etc. to the quinoa (while cooking) and then something magical happens. Quinoa takes on the attitude of whatever you cook it with......want beefy? cook it in beef broth, want it spicy? cook it with Rotel tomatoes. Some people even eat it for breakfast, but I haven't tried that yet.

So, lately, I've been experimenting with adding different things to quinoa and this beefy quinoa was a hit. I hope you like it too.

 

 

MUSHROOM QUINOA
3/4 cup chopped onion
6 large mushrooms
1 large carrot
1 cup peas
1 cup quinoa (rinsed and drained)
2 cups beef broth (I used Campbell's beef consume)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of cayenne (optional)

Prep work: Remove stems from mushrooms and put them in the food processor along with the carrot. Pulse them until both vegetables are about the size of a pea. Next hand slice the mushrooms fairly thickly and set aside. Note: add as many of your favorite veggies as you want.

Saute onions then scoot them over to edge of pan. Add the mushrooms and sauté them (in the onion pan) until you get some toasty brown color on the edges.

Put EVERYTHING into a large sauce pot and bring to a boil; reduce heat and put a tight fitting lid on it. Reduce boil to a gentle simmer (like for rice) and cook for 15-20 minutes. You will know that the quinoa is cooked completely when you see that it has swollen to a semi transparent little circle and it has a small white seed shoot on it like this:

 

After the quinoa is cooked, I like to turn the heat off and let it sit (with lid on) for 10 minutes before eating. 

Depending on how many veggies you pack into this recipe (there is no limit), you should get 5 or 6 cups in the final dish. I freeze it in one cup measures. No need to defrost, just microwave uncovered for 2 minutes. It makes a great (and filling) lunch, with no guilt !!

 

ENJOY !!

 

Quinoa is known as a super food for many reasons. The description of most of those reasons are words that I don't use every day, like flavonoids, phylonutrients, antioxidants, etc.

 

For me, my reasons for enjoying quinoa are: it's quick and easy to prepare, it will take on any seasonings you like and most of all, I can eat a big bowl of this and it doesn't effect my blood sugars very much at all, plus it's gluten free!! I hope you try it.

Halloween Ghost Chocolate Cake Pops

Super cute Halloween ghosts

Chocolate cake pops, covered with white chocolate icing. 

A few days ago I found a cake pop baking pan on sale and I have been waiting for the right occasion to try it out. Also, I've been inspired by Raise.com, a popular marketplace where one can save by buying or selling gift cards, to present to my readers a delicious Halloween themed recipe. With Halloween around the corner, and my new pan waiting for me, I jumped at the opportunity! So here are these adorable little chocolaty cake ghosts, perfect for my (and your!) next Halloween party.
This was my first attempt at pops, and I have to say, the results were quite good: cute and soft chocolate cake covered in deliciously sweet, white chocolate icing. These pops are not too difficult to make, even though the decorating part was a bit labor intensive for me. But this is a great and fun project for a lazy weekend - the perfect activity to enjoy with your kids. They will love it!
One suggestion. If you plan to make pops for more than one occasion, I recommend investing in the right pop pan. It's not too expensive, non-stick, easy to use and clean, and  makes perfectly round pops. You can buy it from Amazon, if you'd like. Here is the link for the pan I have. And remember to check out Raise.com for savings for your Halloween shopping spree. I looked, they even  offer Amazon gift cards!

Ingredients: To make 12 pops

• 4 tablespoons (half stick) of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1.5 cups of white chocolate chips
• black icing for decoration
• 12 pop sticks (mine were included with the pop pan)

Preparation time: 30 minutes to prepare the pops, and about 30 minutes to decorate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the butter in pieces and melt in the microwave, at medium-low power, checking every 20 seconds or so.
2. In a large bowl, mix the egg with the sugar and the cocoa until well  blended.

3. Add the melted butter and stir some more.

4. Blend in the salt, flour and baking powder.

5. Grease the baking pan with butter and flour. Spoon the batter into the bottom half of the pan, evenly into the 12 spots.

6. Cover the top of the pan and secure it with the two pins provided. Bake for about 18 minutes. There is a little hole on top of the pan, so you can test with a toothpick for readiness!
Let the pan cool for at least 5 minutes before opening and removing the pops.

7.  Melt the white chocolate chips in a double boiler. If you don't have the double boiler pan, you can place the chocolate chips in a heat-safe glass container. In a larger pan, bring to a boil an inch of water. Lower the flame, so that the water is just simmering. Place the glass container with the chocolaate into the pan, and melt the chocolate mixing continuously. If you'd like, add little sips of water to the chocolate to make it less dense, until you find the desired consistency.

8. Insert a stick into each pop, and dip it in the chocolate. Helping yourself with a spoon make sure the chocolate covers the whole pop. Let some chocolate drip on the stick at the base of the pop, so that the stick will stay in place when the chocolate cools down. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the pan.

9. Let the chocolate cool down before decorating the pops with black icing. I simply drew two eyes and the mouth, but you can be as creative as you'd like. Have fun!

Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Zucchini

A healthier, vegetarian version of the traditional spaghetti alla carbonara,

complemented with zucchini for a sweeter and more delicate taste 

Happy Monday! 

My Monday has been great so far. This morning I received an email from Honest Cooking Magazine saying that one of my recipe has been published on their magazine. You might remember this appetizer from a few weeks ago, the artichokes, pancetta and cheese cups. Check it out! 
Today's recipe is a traditional Italian pasta, the spaghetti alla carbonara, with a wholesome and vegetarian twist! If you love carbonara, but are skeptical about the deliciously sinful pancetta, and prefer a healthier alternative, this is the recipe for you. I replaced the pancetta with zucchini, for a sweeter and more delicate taste. A must-try!

Ingredients: serving 4

• 3 zucchini
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• 12 oz of thick spaghetti (I use Barilla!)
• salt 

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Directions:
Step 1: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When the water boils, cook the spaghetti as directed in the box.
Step 2: In a large skillet, cook over medium-high heat the zucchini cut in long sticks with the olive oil. Salt to taste. After the first minute, cover the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes until done.

Step 3: In a bowl, beat the eggs with a bit of salt.

Step 4: When the pasta is ready, drain and toss in the skillet with the zucchini. Add the eggs and the Parmesan cheese, and quickly mix the spaghetti with two forks until the eggs thicken and cook slightly, but are still soft.

Buon Appetito!