Thursdays Are For Cooking….
Snow is in the forecast here
Cold weather is coming down the pike. We’re to have snow this weekend, so I’m prepping for it. This dish is a quick one to fix, just add a good green salad and some nice, crusty bread with butter, and good company, and you’ll be home.
Normally, this dish is made with eggs instead of a cream sauce, but this version is quite good when you’re truly hungry and it’s cold outside. And of course, the most important ingredient, aside from the company of friends and family, is BACON!!
Mostaccioli Pasta Carbonara:
Ingredients:
2½ cups of uncooked mostaccioli
8 bacon strips, diced
One 4.5 ounce jar of whole mushrooms, drained
¾ cup of half-and-half cream
1/3 cup of butter, cubed
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
6 to 8 drops of hot pepper sauce (optional)
½ teaspoon of salt (optional)
1/3 cup of grated Parmesano cheese
¼ cup of sliced green onions
Directions:
– Cook the mostaccioli according to package directions
– In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain. Brown the mushrooms in the pan drippings, then remove to paper towels to drain.
– Drain the drippings from the pan
– Add the cream, butter, parsley, garlic, pepper sauce and salt (both optional)to the skillet.
– Cook and stir over medium heat until the butter is melted.
– Drain the mostaccioli and add to the cream mixture.
– Stir in the bacon, mushrooms and cheese. Heat through on low heat.
– Remove from heat.
– Plate it and sprinkle with sliced green onions before serving.
Buon appetito!
And for those who like to cook under pressure…. Instant Pot Mostaccioli Ingredients ▢ 1 Teaspoon olive oil ▢ 1/2 Cup diced onions ▢ 1 Pound lean ground beef ▢ For a less meaty and more cheese and noodle option- only use 1/2 pound of ground beef ▢ You can substitute the ground beef with ground turkey (ground chicken or Italian sausage) ▢ 1 Tablespoon garlic- minced ▢ 1 Teaspoon sugar ▢ 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning ▢ 1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes ▢ If you prefer (you can omit the red pepper flakes. It gives a nice little kick to the dish though!) ▢ 2 Cans beef broth- 29 ounces total ▢ 1 Cup water ▢ 1 24 ounce jar of your favorite pasta sauce ▢ 1 Pound dried mostaccioli noodles ▢ 2 Cups Mozzarella Cheese Instructions Turn Instant Pot on Saute- Hi Add Olive Oil Add onions, ground beef and garlic. Continue to sauté until beef is evenly browned. If you use lean ground beef, you do NOT need to drain the grease from the pot. If you use a high fat content ground beef you will need to drain the grease. You can do so by either using a ladle to scoop the grease out or you can CAREFULLY remove the inner pot and pour the grease out. I HIGHLY recommend using a low fat ground beef to avoid this step all together. Turn off the Instant Pot. You no longer need to sauté anything in the pot. Add sugar, Italian seasoning an red pepper flakes Pour in pasta sauce Pour 1 cup of water into pasta sauce jar- shake- pour water mixture into Ninja Foodi pot. This will help you get all of the sauce goodness out of the jar! No waste! Pour 2 cans of beef broth into Instant Pot. Stir beef and liquid until well combined Pour in mostaccioli pasta DO NOT STIR! If you stir, you are likely to get a burn or error message. Make sure that all pasta is covered by liquid (or as much as possible). I just pushed down on… Read more »
No bacon?????
In all seriousness, I have found that crumbled bacon by itself gets lost in some dishes.
I do usually add crumbled bacon to the dish however. For the recipe, I would cook the bacon, remove the bacon (leave the fat) and saute the meat in the fat, then when putting the dish together, put the bacon back in.
(And for this dish, I would use the Italian sausage instead of meat for the additional spices.)
For me, it is the best of about 15 worlds. 🙂
I’m posting a recipe for ice cream next. Pressurize that, GC!
*grin*
If you want to make ice cream in the winter, no problem.
However, you should know that cooking the base for the ice cream under pressure yields smaller crystals and therefore smoother ice cream.
Cream, butter and bacon. My cardiologist weeps.
*grin*
I see hollow french fries.
Hollow french fries…swimming in a cheese sauce…with a side of bacon…and ‘shrooms. Yep…you had me at bacon…and cheese…an ‘shrooms.
The more I learned about people, the more I loved bacon.
“…and on the 8th day, God created bacon..”
If you go ahead and cook the whole pound of bacon instead of just 8 slices, you’ll have enough to kick the bacon portion up some, AND sprinkle bacon bits into the fresh green rabbit food side dish. Bacon bits make salad palatable.
Tanks Mi’Lady!
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sounds good. Very, very good. Even have almost all the ingredients on hand. Hmmm. One more trip to the grocers in the near future;
It is good. It is very, very good. It is so good that you may consume more than you thought but not feel guilty about it. Comfort food personified.
I’ll add another.
Sea Dragon’s Italian Ground Beef Casserole
Ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes, Italian seasoned
1 can (10 oz) Rotel tomatoes
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cups uncooked pasta/noodles of choice
5 green onions, sliced
8 oz sour cream
3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups shredded cheese, Italian blend
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet over medium heat, brown and crumble ground beef. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, sugar, Italian seasoning and pepper. Stir together.
Cook pasta and drain well. In a medium bowl, stir together pasta, green onions, cream cheese and sour cream.
Spoon pasta mixture into a greased 13×9 inch baking dish. Top with beef mixture. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Spray a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover dish sprayed side down.
Bake for 35 minutes, uncover and bake 5 more minutes.
Superb! Pairs well with a modest Tuscan red wine, I presume?
Absolutely! Maybe a Barolo.