Pasta is my oasis. Don't know what to cook - make a pasta. Extreme hunger - make a pasta. Have leftover vegetables and half-used tomato sauces in fridge - make a pasta. Don't know how to cook - make a pasta!
Maybe pasta won me over by growing up in a large family. The easiest (and in some cases, most nutritious) meal my mom could prepare for five hungry mouths was pasta. And, she was good at it. My mouth still waters when I think of her homemade spaghetti, fettuccine and mostacholli. I now realize that some of our pasta consumption probably stemmed from the fact that it is also a very affordable meal to make. If you omit the meat - which I find to be a real shame - it's even more affordable.
Over the years, my tastes have evolved. I have stepped away from a majority menu listing of pasta. This was for a few reasons: (1) I started get sick of it, (2) My waistline told me to stop and (3) I wanted to be more adventurous and healthy with my food choices. All that said, at the end of the day if I don't know what to make (or if I am craving something) it is usually pasta. Must be the Italian in me. :)
One of the best recent discoveries I've stumbled upon has revamped my pasta repertoire. A few months back my brother rocked our world with what he's loving coined "White Trash Risotto." And, what is this? Well, it's a risotto made with pasta. It's the blue collar man's risotto. Fear not, there will be photos, recipes and conversation to be had on this topic. If you can't wait that long (and trust me, I don't know that I could), you basically prepare a risotto dish using orzo pasta instead of the risotto.)
Anyway, before I digress too much on pasta types, I want to go back to the growing up in a large family bit. Being part of a big family could often present problems at the dinner table. Lucky for us (mostly for my parents) none of us were very picky eaters. While there were certainly times when it would be hard for all of us kids to agree on a dish, there was one pasta dish my mom was constantly asked to prepare: pizza hot dish. This meal made it's way to our dinner table at least once every couple of weeks. (Sometimes, it was every week). It was always requested by a different kid and since we all loved it, there weren't any complaints from the chef.
A pizza hot dish? First off, if you're not from the Midwest you may be wondering what the hell a hot dish is. Well, it is exactly that -- it's a hot dish. A dish that you prepare and then put in the oven to bake. The dish comes out hot. Get it - hot dish? Other popular hot dishes include ones using tater tots (of which we rarely had, le sigh) or vegetables. In my opinion, pizza hot dish is the best of them. It's essentially baked spaghetti, only it has a lot more cheese. And, growing up in the Dairy State, cheese was always on the table.
Oh, pasta.... Can you guess what I'll be eating for dinner?
The recipe for the famous "pizza hot dish":
- Brown ground beef
- Onion, diced
- Garlic (2-3 cloves)brown these all. Some people add bacon to his for a bit of flavor.
- 1 jar of tomato sauce (homemade is best)
- Noodles
Brown the first three ingredients. Add bacon for additional flavor, if desired. Boil noodles. Mix all ingredients. Add parmesan cheese. Heat the oven and cover dish with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.
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