Rigatoni With Meatballs Recipe

Did you know today is World Pasta Day? I had no idea myself. I love pasta in any way shape or form. I am thrilled to be able to share with you this yummy recipe from the book THE SILVER SPOON: PASTA. I will be reviewing this book soon, so you'll want to come back and see what I think. Until then, cook up some of your own pasta goodness with this delicious recipe!

RIGATONI WITH MEATBALLS

Rigatoni con Polpettine

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves 4

11 ounces ground meat

1 sprig chopped flat leaf parsley

½ garlic clove, chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

all-purpose flour, for dusting

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 sprig chopped small fresh rosemary

1 ¾ cups bottle strained tomatoes

12 ounces rigatoni

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Combine the ground meat, parsley, and garlic in a bowl, then stir in the egg and season with salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into small meatballs, dust with flour, and set aside. Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion, celery, carrot, and rosemary and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Then add the meatballs, and increase the heat to medium. Cook until the meatballs are lightly browned all over, add the bottle strained tomatoes and season with salt. Lower the heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes. Cook the rigatoni in a large pan of salted boiling water until al dente, then drain, and tip into the pan with the meatballs. Mix well and heat through for 2 minutes. Transfer to a warm serving dish and sprinkle with the parmesan.

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Waffles Recipe

I have never been able to make a decent waffles. My grandmother was an amazing waffle maker, but I just never got the hang of it. Most of the time I go over to the neighbor's and beg Grandma Marge to make them for me when I crave them. But, she bought me my own waffle around a few months back, so I decided ti was time to break it in. I tried quite a few experimental mixtures until I came up with the following recipe. The waffles were wonderful! I am thrilled to be able to make my own delicious waffles without at home, rather than begging the neighbor, lol. My only problem was trying to figure out how long to leave them cooking, but that's just a matter of figuring out how to use the waffle iron. Some were really brown, others perfectly golden, but all were quite tasty and devoured in no time!

What You Need:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1 3/4 cups milk

What You Do:
Sift together all dry ingredients in large mixing bowl.

The next step is to separate the eggs. Put the yolks in the bowl with the dry ingredients and the whites in a small bowl.

Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.

Melt butter over low heat, then add to the dry ingredients.

Add milk to dry ingredients and mix well.

Fold in the egg whites to the main mixture.

Bake on a well greased waffle iron.

Serve with butter, syrup, and whatever toppings you desire. Enjoy!

Crumby Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins Recipe

Hot choc & banana / choc chip muffin (Photo credit: Rain Rabbit)

You can make these with the chocolate chips or without, both ways are great!

What You Need:

Muffins-
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
3 bananas
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 applesauce
1/4 cup chocolate chips, optional

Topping-
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoon butter

What You Do:

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

In a small bowl, thoroughly mash bananas with a fork or potato masher. Add sugar, egg, and applesauce. Mix well with electric blender.

Pour banana mixture into dry ingredients and mix with spoon until all is moist and blended.

Stir in chocolate chips at this time.

Grease or line a muffin tin and add muffin mixture. I use an ice cream scoop to measure the perfect amount into each muffin cup.

For the topping- Mix all dry ingredients well in small bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly.

Sprinkle some of the crumb topping on each muffin.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Makes about 18 muffins.

These freeze wonderfully.