Quick and Tasty Pasta Puttanesca

This is a perfect dish for a Monday night. It takes only a few minutes to cook, and you can be enjoying a first class Italian meal. The puttanesca taste is based on the combination of anchovies, garlic and olives. Even if you don't like anchovies you should still give this taste a chance. The anchovy taste blends in so well that you won't notice any fishy taste. If you leave out the anchovies, this is still a really tasty dish.

In this variation I added grilled eggplants and fresh tomatoes. This really gives it a Provençal (pronounced pro-ven-sall) flavor. Provençal means from Provence, the southern part of France that contains the French Riviera. The dishes there often contain eggplant and tomato and resemble northern Italian dishes, but with their own unique flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb whole wheat rottini or penne pasta
  
• 1 medium sized eggplant
  
• 1 fresh tomato, diced
  
• 6-10 medium sized Crimini mushrooms
• 5 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 10 Moroccan or French dry cured olives
• 10 green olives, I used martini olives because that's all I had, they worked fine
• 1 can of anchovies, drained and blotted on a paper towel
  
• 1 shake of sea salt for the tomatoes
• Dry Oregano to taste
• 2 oz Romano cheese
• 2 tsp olive oil
  

Directions:

1. Slice the eggplant and lightly salt, set aside to shed water
2. Dice the tomatoes, place in a collander. Add some oregano and a shake of sea salt, stir and set aside to drain. This is to remove the excess water so it won't make the other ingredients mushy.
   
3. blot the eggplant, brush with olive oil add garlic and dry oregano
   
4. Grill the eggplant outdoors or bake for 30 minutes at 400^o F
5. Place pasta in boiling water, cook until slightly al-dente, about 7-10 minutes based on how firm you like it. Drain and set aside, covered so it won't dry out.
6. Cut each slice of eggplant into quarters.
   
7. Heat a frying pan, add olive oil, add 3/4 of the garlic, bring to a sizzle.
8. Divide the garlic into 2 separate piles in the pan.
   
9. Add the mushrooms to one of the garlic piles and add the olives to the other pile of garlic. Keep cooking the two piles separately for a few minutes. This is so that the water in the mushrooms won't affect the way that the olives cook.
10. Mix the olives and mushrooms and top with some of the Romano cheese. Push to one side of the pan.
    
11. Add a splash of olive oil to the other side of the pan and add the rest of the garlic, bring to a sizzle
12. Throw the anchovies in with the garlic and stir. Bring to a quick sizzle and mix with the rest of the goodies in the pan.
13. Add the eggplant and some of the cheese. Stir.
14. Throw in the pasta and mix. Bring to a quick sizzle.
    
15. Turn off the heat. Add the rest of the cheese and the tomatoes.
    
16. Stir, and pour into a serving dish.
    

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Copyright © 2007, 2008 Lizabetti.com, All Rights Reserved

Light and Healthy Enchiladas

What do you do with leftover taco meat and fresh salsa? You can easily turn them into scrumptious enchiladas. This is another ones of the quick meals that you can whip up in no time at all when you still want a nice home cook meal without all the time and effort. For the meat portion of the recipe, you can just use my healthy taco recipe which should give you enough for tacos one night, and enchiladas the next night. I also re-used the Chunky Salsa that I made with the tacos.

While this dish follows the Mexican theme like tacos, the taste and texture are totally different from tacos. So, while it could be considered a leftover, it is not your average leftover. It is a whole different meal. Add a salad and you have a quick and easy weekday dinner.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz Taco meat from the Healthy Taco Recipe
  
• Spicy black bean dip, I like Trader Joe's
  
• 4 oz shredded sharp cheddar
  
• 2 cups Left over (or fresh) Chunky Salsa
  
• 1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes.
  
• 1 Pinch cayenne
  
• 1 Pinch chili powder
  
• 1 Package high fiber tortillas.
  
• 

Directions:

Enchilada Sauce:

1. Place the Salsa and diced tomatoes in a pan
   
2. Simmer on low until tomatoes are soft, about 15 minutes.
   
3. If desired, add cayenne and chili powder.

Enchiladas:

1. Pre-heat over to 375^o F
   
2. Cover the bottom of a baking with a layer of the enchilada sauce.
   
3. Lay a tortilla on the plate, spread with bean dip.
   
4. Layer with meat and cheddar cheese.
   
5. Roll tightly, and place in the baking dish, seam side down.
   
6. Repeat until you have used up all the ingredients.
   
7. Once you have all the enchiladas in the baking dish, pour the rest of the sauce on them.
   
8. Cover with cheese.
   
9. Bake until the cheese is bubbly. About 20-25 minutes.
   
10. Let stand at least 10 minutes.
    
11. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and guacamole

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Copyright © 2007, 2008 Lizabetti.com, All Rights Reserved

Chunky Spicy Salsa

Chunky Spicy Salsa

Salsa is a mandatory ingredient for the total enjoyment of Mexican food. There are lots of good salsas out there, but I like to make it fresh, especially in the summer when the ingredients are all fresh. This salsa is easy to make and much better than anything you can buy. You can use a food processor if you want, but I think that the food processor abuses the ingredients too much. I also enjoy the chunky texture that hand chopping affords.

I use this salsa with my healthy tacos recipe and also for my quick and easy enchilada recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 Large juicy tomato, diced
• 1 Tbsp chopped green olive
• 1 Tbsp dry cured Moroccan or French black olives, chopped
• 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro
• 1 small chopped red onion
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper, increase for more zing
• 1 Juicy lime
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 shake of salt
• 1 turn of fresh ground black pepper

Directions:

1. Mix the ingredients.
2. Squeeze the lime into the mixture.
3. Stir thoroughly.
4. Let stand for about 15 minutes, stir again and server.

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Copyright © 2007, 2008 Lizabetti.com, All Rights Reserved