Novel Noodles: Cheesball Bake and the Rainbow Ricotta Bowties

We love pasta of nearly all varieties year round, but its an especially satisfying meal in the colder months while stuck inside. Last time on "Novel Noodles" we explained how to make a sauceless pasta with sausage, beans, and roasted vegetables, and today we'll look at an interesting pasta bake that came about as a way to use up a variety of different ingredients in the fridge that were nearing their expiration dates.

Cheese and pasta are fast friends, but there are plenty of kinds of cheese you might not think to use in a noodle-based dish. One night while trying to figure out what to put together for dinner (the day before our big grocery shopping trip when supplies were low) we went on a limb and threw together a meal based around the remnants of a very non-traditional component: a cheeseball!

To start our bake we chopped up a few handfuls of mushrooms:

And next grated a zucchini to get some fun color and a different texture going:

Along with our mushrooms and zucchini we had about half a red bell pepper in the back of the fridge, which got diced up as well.

The vegetables are all softened up first by briefly cooking in a skillet.

To make this dish creamy without any heavy cream, sour cream, or cream cheese we threw in the only thing on hand: an almond and chive cheeseball. The almonds may sound strange, but there's actually quite a few pasta recipes that use different nuts (beyond just pesto, which is also technically nut-based), and we'll be covering some of those in future blogs.

Here's the filling after its been all stirred together and heated on the skillet.

While the veggies and cheese were melting together we cooked up some pasta - in this case macaroni, as there was half a bag leftover after making a casserole a week before.

After the macaroni is mixed into the filling, we spread everything into a baking dish. It may look a little like macaroni salad, but it's going to taste much different by the time we're done.

In most cases pasta needs a great sauce, and we almost exclusively make our own sauces. Now that we know the glory of homemade, jarred sauce from the store just doesn't compare anymore. Homemade sauce doesn't need to cost more than cheap jarred brands, however, as it's simple to whip together a fantastic sauce using just a can of diced tomatoes.

The tomatoes go in a blender with a healthy dose of Italian seasonings - basil, oregano, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and anything else that sounds good to you. In addition, a handful of sugar and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar take this sauce to the next level. Stir it up in the blender, and then reduce it down in a covered pan on the stove for a thicker consistency. You can also add in a little hot sauce if desired.

When our sauce is ready it gets spooned over the macaroni mixture in the baking dish.

To go along with our pasta bake we have some bread slices covered in garlic salt and a bit of butter, which are briefly baked in the oven until crisp.

Topping off this impromptu casserole goes a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese.

And here's our cheeseball bake out of the oven with a delicious layer of melted cheese on top.

Cheeseballs are all well and good when nothing else is handy, but if you have a container of ricotta you can make an out-of-this-world pasta with just a few ingredients. For this novel twist on a noodle dinner, we take a jar of ricotta, sliced the solid cheese in half, and cover it in seasonings in a baking dish.

While the cheese is baking we put together another fantastic tomato sauce, this time with the a can of whole tomatoes (instead of diced). They are kept whole throughout the cooking process until just the end, when they are then crushed with a wooden spoon. The sauce also includes diced onion, diced fresh garlic, oregano, and balsamic vinegar.

Here's the ricotta fresh out of the oven after baking. Ricotta bakes very well on its own, keeping its form instead of oozing or melting apart.

Our pasta here is rainbow bowties, covered in a few spoonfuls of the tomato sauce and a helping of the firmer ricotta.

Culinary World Tour: Iceland (Lamb Pie With Rye Crust)

After a few months focusing on grilling and trying out new pastas, it's time to get back into our culinary world tour as we continue to expand our recipe horizons and try out foods from other cultures. If you missed our previous entries you can check out our stops at:

Mexico: Posole
Canada: Poutine
Greenland: Suaasat

The next stop was Iceland, and to get some inspiration I contacted the members of Solstafir, a personal favorite band of mine hailing from that country. I should have known a metal band was going to point me in the direction of a meal called "Satan's Face on a Plate," which along with quite a few other traditional Icelandic meals we ended up deciding against both because the ingredients would be difficult to obtain and because we didn't particularly want to eat a cold sheep's face.

We noticed quite a few of the recipes found online used lamb and rye bread, so we decided to make a meal inspired by Icelandic cuisine but not perhaps a direct recipe taken from their traditional foods: a lamb pie made with a rye dough crust.

Before seeing the step-by-step breakdown of our lamb pie, get into a cold Icelandic feel with a music video from Solstafir:




Here we are starting to put together our rye dough ahead of time, which is made from a mixture of rye and white flour, along with butter and water.

The dough is divided into two separate parts, since the pie will have a top and bottom layer, and then refrigerated until it gets to this consistency:

While the dough is being prepared we also start putting together the pie filling, which is based around onions, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic.

The vegetables are cooked in a skillet along with ground lamb, which we found at Smith's on clearance for $3.49. As bargain shoppers, it was a little pricier than we'd normally spend for only a pound of meat, but it was worth trying out something new.

We didn't want the filling to be dry, but at the same time the end product needed to slice like a pie and not be goopy, so we used a small amount of Greek yogurt to keep the filling moist.

The filling is then seasoned with the standards like salt and pepper, along with some dill.

To start constructing the pie, Megan is rolling out one of the rye dough balls.

The dough is pushed into the bottom of a spring form pan to form the bottom layer.

Next we pour the filling of veggies, lamb, and yogurt onto the bottom crust layer.

Everything is spread out evenly so each bite will be full of delicious filling.

The second piece of dough is then also rolled out and placed over top the filling, creating a filled pie.

The top layer is brushed with an egg wash and then has a star shape cut in the center to allow the pie to vent during cooking.

The pie here has just come out of the oven and is baked to golden perfection.

When the spring form pan comes off you can see the pie has retained its shape, and the smell was fantastic!

Here you can see the filling from the side, which hit the perfect balance and wasn't dry or overly moist.

We're serving our pie with a big dinner salad for a complete meal. The lamb is a bit lighter and more delicate than beef, but tastes amazing and goes very well with the other ingredients. We're excited to try this recipe again by changing around some elements, such as adding in potatoes and bell peppers or using the different Philadelphia Cooking Creme flavors in place of the yogurt.

This trek into the flavors of Iceland was a rousing success, and one of our favorites so far. For the next stop of our culinary in-kitchen world tour we'll be skipping over the Faroe Islands, as they are technically part of Denmark and we'll be covering that country later on, and instead head straight to Ireland.

Check back soon for more from Six-Seven-Eight, and in the mean time, check out another killer Solstafir video!

Victory Stromboli

We have a bit of a tradition of making certain dishes during elections after voting as we await the results, and stromboli is our preferred Presidential election dinner. This year we thankfully got to make "Victory Stromboli," and it was one of our best ones yet.  For this version, we used ground pork rather than beef simply because it's what we had on hand, and it turned out great. To start the dish we cook the pork on a skillet along with some diced white onion.

In addition we added in an extra veggie for a pizza flair: sliced fresh mushrooms.

For our stromboli dough we used the "Quick and Easy Pizza Crust" recipe, which can be found at allrecipes.com here. It's rolled out quite thin so we don't end up with an overly thick roll of dough you have to eat through to get to the good stuff.

Our base sauce is dijon mustard instead of tomato sauce like you'd use with a pizza. You can play around here and use anything you'd like though, from different mustards to buffalo sauce and beyond.

The mustard is spread in an even layer across the middle portion of the dough, which also acts as the boundary for where the filling will go.

The layer of mustard is covered first in American cheese slices - which is probably the only time you'll find us using these. They melt really well and actually work in tandem with the other flavors for a nice change of pace.

Next the cheese is covered in a layer of pepperoni.

Then we add the filling of pork, onion, and mushroom over the pepperoni and cheese.

Next we shred mozzarella cheese on top and then finish with a final layer of extra pepperoni slices.

All four sides of the dough are lifted up and folded in to create the stromboli.

Here Megan is patting in the dough to ensure there aren't any air pockets and everything is fitting in properly.

Before baking, we brush the dough with an egg and sprinkle with seasonings.

Here's the stomboli right of the oven after reaching a beautiful golden brown.

By keeping the dough thin we get a crust that's slightly crispy and flaky for an awesome texture when you bite in.

Here's a segment of the freshly cut stromboli, showing all the layers of filling.

A buttery, flaky crust, oozing delicious cheese, and all kinds of pizza fillings - what could be better?

After this rousing success we'll be doing a few new kinds of stromboli in the coming weeks, including a spinach and artichoke variety. Check back soon for more!