Greek Pasta Salad

Is it seriously the 4th of July in one week?

I'm not sure where summer is going, but I'll tell you one thing - I'm pretty bummed that July 4th is on a Wednesday.

This is not my freshman year of college, people.  I do not want to party in the middle of the week.  

Best-case scenario is when you get a three-day weekend with the holiday.  Second best would be at least a Tuesday or a Thursday, so you can take an extra day off and have a four-day weekend if you choose.

But a Wednesday?

Ugh.  What am I supposed to do with that?

Picnic & eat pasta salad?

Maybe... watch some fireworks?  And then it's basically BED TIME.  

Jeez.  It's difficult to properly celebrate America's independence when I have to get up the next day at 6AM.

But if the highlight of my holiday ends up being pasta salad, this is a good one to choose.

The homemade dressing is awesome, and with this recipe's method it doesn't all end up getting sucked into the pasta.  I also happen to love roasted red peppers, feta, and kalamata olives, so for me this is a no-brainer.  I bet diced cucumber would be great in this too.

Greek Pasta Salad

Dressing

• 6 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 T. red wine vinegar
• 3 T. fresh lemon juice
• 1 large shallot clove, minced
• 1 T. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 t. dried oregano
• 1 t. salt
• 1/4 t. garlic powder
• 1/4 t. ground black pepper

Salad  

• Salt
• 1 pound farfalle (bowtie) pasta
• 1 C. jarred roasted red peppers, chopped
• 8 ounces crumbled feta cheese (about 2 cups)
• 1 C. pitted kalamata olives (about 6 ounces), chopped coarse
• 1/2 C. minced fresh parsley leaves

For the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl; set aside.

For the salad, bring 4 quarts of water to boil in a large pot. Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and the pasta, and cook until completely tender. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta in a colander. Transfer the hot pasta to a large bowl.

Stir the reserved pasta water into the dressing. Pour half of the dressing over the pasta and toss to coat. Stir in the roasted red pepper, feta, olives, and parsley.

To store, cover the pasta salad tightly with plastic wrap and poke several vent holes. Transfer the remaining dressing to an airtight container. Refrigerate the pasta salad and reserved dressing separately for up to 2 days.

To serve, shake the reserved dressing to recombine, then pour half of the dressing over the salad and toss to combine. Add the remaining dressing as needed to keep the salad moist.  Add more salt to taste, if necessary.

Recipe Adapted from Cooks' Illustrated

Pasta Caprese

As you all now know, I am a reality TV junkie.

I've seen about 70% of the Bachelor/Bachelorette seasons.  Name a "Real Housewives of..." and I've probably seen it.  Actually, I've watched probably half of the shows on Bravo.

Yikes.

I'm not proud of it, but those are the facts.

One of my favorites is Real Housewives of New Jersey - for the obvious reason, that NJ is my home state.  And as crazy as some of the ladies on there are, I feel like I can relate to them more than any of the other Housewives.

But it worries me sometimes that people get the wrong idea about Italian-Americans... especially ones from Jersey. 

Growing up, I never thought much about it.  But these days, between the housewives, Jersey Shore, and even The Sopranos, I wonder - does the rest of America think we're all crazy, fist-pumping 'guidos' & 'guidettes' with weird accents and an uncle in the Mafia?

I've noticed it becomes much more obvious whenever I leave (what we call around here) the "tri-state area".

I attended college in Florida, and was in for an eye-opener when I got questions like "Oh you're Italian? From Jersey??  Is your family in the mob?"

And my response was usually an extremely confused, "Huh??"  In 18 years, no one had ever asked me that question before.

Then during my senior year, I was standing outside the office of one of my Sociology professors, and she had up a map of the breakdown of most common ancestries in the US, by county.   And I saw that the only counties where Italian ancestry was dominant was a small scattering in the Northeast - mainly New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

So that kind of put things in perspective for me... but it didn't make it any less disconcerting!

My dad's not in the mob.  We don't give people cement shoes to sleep with the fishes.

We don't flip tables at dinner, or start fist-fights at christenings (ahem, Teresa Giudice?)

We don't gel our hair into sharp points, or 'GTL,' or fist-pump to awful dance beats.

At lunch a couple months ago, I was talking to my co-worker & friend Lou (@LouRinaldi) who has pondered this very same issue.  How is being Italian-American perceived by others who don't share this background?  Especially considering the way the culture is portrayed in movies and television?

And how does that affect our own sense of identity in relation to our families & traditions?

He even made what I found to be an extremely interesting mini-documentary about it (shown here courtesy of Current TV).

So naturally Lou was the first person I told when I got an email from Yummly that they were featuring my baked ziti on their blog... in a post that was entitled "The Ultimate 'Jersey Shore' Dinner (After You GTL)," in anticipation of the season premiere of Jersey Shore on MTV.

Ok.  Not that The Best Baked Ziti isn't the perfect recipe to gear up for a night of Snookie & Pauly D.  And I was both flattered & extremely excited that something on V&B was noticed by the writers of Yummly's blog.

But I guess it just caught me a liiiittle by surprise to see V&B and "The Situation" in the same post, especially in light of this recent conversation with Lou.

Then this past weekend, I went to my cousin George's wedding in Connecticut.

Lindsay & George

And let me tell you something.

My family is awesome.

my cousin's fiance, my aunt, my cousin, myself, and my grandmother

The day was filled with laughter, dancing, tons of food, and so much love.

my cousin Sandi's son Dylan

my dad & George

And you know what?  That's what it means to me to be Italian-American.

my cousins & I, May 2008

That... and fresh mozzarella.

What??  I'm just sayin'.

Pasta Caprese

• 1/4 C. extra virgin olive oil
• 2 t. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 t. minced fresh garlic
• 1 1/2 lbs. grape tomatoes, halved
• 12 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut in 1/2" cubes
• 1 lb. penne or other tubular pasta (I like to use whole wheat)
• 1/4 C. chopped fresh basil
• 1/2 t. to 1 t. sugar (depending on how sweet your tomatoes are)
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

Whisk oil, lemon juice, garlic, 1/2 t. salt, and 1/4 t. pepper in large bowl.  Add tomatoes and gently toss to combine; set aside.  (Do not marinate tomatoes longer than 45 minutes).

While tomatoes are marinating, bring 4 quarts of water to a rolling boil in a stockpot.  Add 1 T. salt and pasta, stir to separate, and cook until al dente.  Drain well.

While pasta is cooking, place mozzarella cubes on a large plate or platter, and freeze until slightly firm (about 10 minutes).

Add sugar, partially-frozen mozzarella, and pasta to bowl with tomato mixture and gently toss to combine.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in basil and sugar, and adjust seasonings with salt, pepper and sugar.  Serve immediately.  Serves 4-6.

Recipe Slightly Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

The Best Baked Ziti

Being from an Italian-American family, I've both made and eaten a lot of baked ziti in my day.

Now, don't tell my grandma - but I have honestly never had it taste this good before!

I always enjoyed baked ziti, but let's be honest - it's usually nothing special.

Half the time it comes out kind of mushy and grainy, and the pasta sucks up all the sauce.  Or I've also had the opposite happen, where it comes out way too soupy and the mixture never sets.

Grr.

Now the method below requires a little more work than your typical baked ziti, but it avoids all of the above problems... so it's totally worth it.

What's worse than putting in all this effort, then taking that first spoonful out of the pan only to realize it didn't come out the way you were hoping?

Yeeaah.

Been there, hated that.

So... trust me on this one?

I know.  It's hard.  The cottage cheese weirded me out too.  But seriously, just give it a try.

Mr. Vittles could not tell that there was cottage cheese in this, and you won't be able to either.  I promise.

Just do me one favor, ok?

Don't use crappy tomato sauce.  You'll be sorry.

And then you'll complain to me that this doesn't taste any good, and you'll think it's the cottage cheese that you SWORE was a weird idea, when the truth is that nothing can ruin a dish like this quicker than God-awful tomato sauce.

So just don't do it.

Spend the extra couple bucks on a good brand with simple ingredients, or better yet - make your own!

The Best Baked Ziti

• 16 oz. whole wheat ziti (or any other tubular pasta, such as penne)
• 2 C. small-curd, lowfat cottage cheese
• 2 eggs (or 1/2 C. egg replacement)
• 1/2 C. freshly shredded parmesan or romano cheese, divided
• 3 1/2 C. tomato sauce, divided (I used this recipe, but cut the crushed red pepper in half)
• 3/4 t. cornstarch
• 1/2 t. garlic powder
• 1/4 C. heavy cream
• 3/4 C. lowfat or whole milk
• 1 1/2 C. freshly grated mozzarella cheese, divided
• 2 T. chopped, fresh basil
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

Combine cottage cheese, eggs, and 1/4 C. parmesan cheese in a small bowl.  Set aside.  Grease a 13x9 baking pan and set that aside as well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add pasta and cook only 5 or 6 minutes. (You want it to half-cook now, and do the rest of the cooking in the oven.  This prevents it from getting mushy.)

Drain pasta in colander, and return now-empty pot to stove over medium-low to medium heat.  Add cornstarch, garlic powder, cream, and milk.  Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Remove cream sauce from heat, and add cottage cheese mixture along with 1 C. tomato sauce and 1 C. mozzarella cheese.  Stir to combine, then add pasta.  Stir to coat thoroughly with the sauce.

Transfer pasta to prepared baking dish, and spread evenly in dish.  Pour remaining 2 1/2 C. tomato sauce over top, and spread in even layer.  Sprinkle chopped basil, freshly ground pepper, and remaining 1/4 C. parmesan over the top.  Then sprinkle with remaining 1/2 C. mozzarella (feel free to use more if you like it super cheesy!)

Cover dish tightly with foil and bake 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and take foil off top of dish.  Bake an additional 15 minutes uncovered, then remove from oven and serve.

Recipe Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Spinach & Feta Rigatoni

I don't know if I was having a craving for vitamins or what, but one random day at the grocery store I was drawn to a bag of spinach leaves.

Sadly, this was probably the first bag of spinach I had purchased in my entire life.

I told you, we're not big on too many veggies in the Vittles household, particularly those of the cooked variety. 

But Mr. V actually has a worse vegetable aversion than me.  And wouldn't you know, when I pulled that spinach out, the look on his face said it all. 

Perhaps in an attempt to downplay this look of panic, he pointed out that while he is "ok" with spinach in things, strictly spinach is a no-go.

Popeye he is not.

Nonetheless, I forged on with my intended meal - which is loosely based on one of Giada's recipes I saw on Food Network for Penne with Spinach Sauce.

Now I even left out the parmesan cheese (also a no-go for the V Man) in favor of adding BACON (always a go) in hopes it might make up for the spinach.

But on first bite, he only gave it a "tolerable" rating. 

I, on the other hand, enjoyed it... while it lasted, anyway, because I figured I would not be making it again.  It would go off into the black hole of my recipe box, somewhere between my grandma's famous Potato Salad and Cavatelli & Broccoli (one of my faves, which Mr. V finds un-tolerable without picking around the broccoli.) 

Then - when we were almost done - he said to me, "This is growing on me.  You can make this again, it's actually pretty good."

Well whaddya know.  Maybe he's got a little Popeye in him after all.

Spinach & Feta Rigatoni

• 8 oz. rigatoni
• 1 C. packed fresh spinach leaves
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 t. minced garlic
• 1/4 t. pepper
• 1 oz. cream cheese (I used Neufchâtel cheese, which is like cream cheese but a little lower in fat)
• 2 T. crumbled Feta cheese
• 2-3 strips bacon, chopped
• 2-3 T. reserved cooking liquid from rigatoni

Cook rigatoni al dente per package directions.  Reserve 1/4 C. of cooking liquid, and drain pasta.

Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add garlic & cook about 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add spinach and saute briefly until wilted.

Add contents of pan to food processor, along with pepper, cream cheese, and Feta cheese.  Pulse until smooth.  Place mixture into a bowl and add cooking liquid, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture is sauce-like.  Stir to combine.

Add bacon and drained rigatoni, and toss to coat.  Season with salt & more pepper as needed, or parmesan cheese.

*Note: For you vegetarians out there, leaving out the bacon is perfectly fine.  If you are NOT Mr. Vittles and actually enjoy parmesan like most people, you can even add a tablespoon or two of cheese in its place.

Recipe Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network