Day ????: Tagliatelle and Steak Pizzaiola

So I have not updates in what seems like years! Needless to say, Thursday nights are the only night I can make dinner for Jimmy except for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. With him working early in the morning and going to school late at night, all in Nashville, we hardly ever spend time together, and whats the point in cooking for one p

erson?! So tonight, I am going all out! :) I am making recipes from Teresa Giudice's cookbook, Skinny Italian (for those who watch New Jersey Housewives on BRAVO! Tv). All her recipes sound delish! Apparently making spaghetti the "main dish" is an American thing. Italians usually have a meat as the "main dish" and spaghetti as a side dish. In fact, they eat like its Thanksgiving on every meal. You have an appitizer which could be meatballs in sauce, or as the Italians call: Gravy. You go and watch tv with a glass of wine, and the women continue cooking. You would come back to the table, have a salad, maybe watch tv some more, and t

his process seemed to repeat. That works for me! Though, I don't know if I could get used to calling sauce, gravy. "Give me a angel hair pasta with gra

vy please". Nope, when I hear gravy, I think of biscuits and gravy. I will stick to pasta SAUCE. :)

Steak Pizzaiola

Two 12-ounce shell (strip) steaks, each about 3/4 inch thick

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons EXTRA virgin olive oil (evoo)

2 medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

4 ripe plum tomatoes, corred, seeded, and diced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1. Pat the steaks dry with a paper towel and season them with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Let stand at room temperature while making the tomato sauce.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, oregano, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the hot pepper, if using. Stir in 1/4 cup water and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes, until the sauce thickens. During the last 5 minutes, stir in the parsley. Transfer the sauce to a bowl, and clean the skillet!

3. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the steaks to the skillet and cook about 3 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Transfer to a carving board and let stand for 5 minutes.

4. Pour out the fat in the skillet. Return the tomato sauce to the skillet and bring to a simmer, scraping up the browned bits in the skillet. Remove from the heat.

5. Hold the knife at a slight diagonal and cut the steak across the grain into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange the steak slices on a platter. Pour the tomato sauce over the steak and serve hot.

Tagliatelle

1 pound tagliatelle or linguine pasta, preferably 8 ounces each plain and spinach

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (go ahead and make the investment, its healthy for you!)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced (I will be using Grandpa's HOMEGROWN garlic!)

2 tablespoons butter

5 ounces thick-sliced smoked ham, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 cup cooked fresh or thawed frozen peas ( i will go with frozen)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the package directions until al dente. Time the pasta so it is done at about the same time as the sauce.

2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the butter and melt. Add the ham and peas and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 3 minutes more. Reduce the heat to very low to keep warm.

3. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot. Add the sauce and the salt and pepper. Toss the pasta, adding enough of the pasta water to make a light sauce. Serve hot.

What we thought:

After not cooking an elaborate meal in a week, making these two together, at the same time, seemed a bit busy. After all said and done, I thought it was delicious! Both were very light and yummy! I could really taste the oregano in the pizzaiola. Jimmy rated the tagliatelle a 9/10 and the pizzaiola a 9.5/10. I had decent amounts of both and so far, im not overly full at all. I was very surprised!