Shrimp Florentine

I saw a commercial the other day for some kind of pasta Florentine.  I've never made Florentine before, but it seemed like as good a time as any to try.  I like shrimp, so I thought I would make my Florentine with that.  I know that Florentine is supposed to have spinach in it, but I had swiss chard so I decided to use that instead.  The cheese tortellini combines well with the cream sauce to calm the swiss chard and shrimp flavors down.  It's nicely balanced.


Serves 4

1 package cheese tortellini
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
30 leaves swiss chard, chopped
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup mozzarella cheese
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
2. In large skillet,  heat olive oil over medium heat.  Saute garlic until soft.  Add swiss chard and continue sauteing until swiss chard wilts.  Add shrimp and cook until no longer opaque.  Toss tortellini with shrimp mixture.  Leave on very low heat while you make sauce.
3. In saucepan--it can be the same one that you used for the pasta--whisk flour, milk, basil, and garlic salt together.  Place on medium head and stir constantly until it simmers and thickens.  Turn off heat and add cheeses.  Pour sauce over pasta and stir well.  Season with salt and pepper to serve.

Week 16 Box

Apparently next week we will be box-less, so they really overloaded this week's box. Many of the things listed were in bulk.

• Potatoes
• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Garlic
• Onions
• Edamame
• Green beans
• Rosemary

Baked Penne

I still had marinara sauce from the last time I made some, so I thought I would make something different with it.  I have made something like this before, but I wanted to try it with a few new things added in.  It still tastes delicious, even more so with the changes.  Notice that the tags include ingredients from the marinara.

Serves 4-6

3 cups uncooked penne
3 cups meatless marinara, homemade or jarred
5 oz Italian sausage
1 cup chopped swiss chard
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup shredded Italian cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, undercooking slightly.  Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, brown sausage in a small skillet.  Add swiss chard and cook until chard is wilted.  Set aside.
3. Also while pasta is cooking, mix ricotta and egg together in small bowl.  Add Parmesan cheese and garlic salt and stir well.  Set aside.
4. Grease a 9x13 inch glass baking dish and set aside.
5. In pasta saucepan, mix cooked pasta with sausage mixture and marinara.  Pour half of the pasta mixture into the greased baking dish and smooth.  Dollop ricotta mixture over pasta and smooth into an even layer over pasta.  Top with remaining pasta and smooth this pasta layer to hide the cheese.  Sprinkle shredded cheese over pasta.
6. Bake penne in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until bubbly.  Serve hot.

Week 15 Box

I neglected to pick up the box from the person I share with last week, so you might have noticed that there was no post for what was in the box.  I still had produce from the week before, though, so it was nice to use that up before getting new.  This week, though, I have the box all to myself so I'm going to have to work hard to use up all the stuff.  Fingers crossed.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Potatoes
• Onions
• Garlic
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Thyme

Week 13 Box

I didn't do a great job with using last week's box, so this week the goal is to get it gone before another box shows up. We'll see how that goes.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Onion
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Okra
• Green peppers
• Sage
• Thyme
• Tarragon
  

Week 11 Box

The city I live in flooded pretty badly this last week, so there has been a lot of distractions around here.  I was actually surprised that our box came on time and full this week.  At the moment, we have all the roads open here and have no restrictions on using water--earlier this week we were limiting to a bare minimum--but we are still boiling everything used for washing dishes and in or on food.  Hopefully it's all over soon.

• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Green beans (from the CSA and my mom)
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Okra
• Jalapeno pepper
• Leeks
• Savory

Lemon Garlic Rotini with Swiss Chard

 I wanted to try something different with swiss chard.  It seemed like the earthy flavor of the chard would pair well with lemon, though I figured the slight sweetness of garlic and butter would be needed to keep it from getting too acidic.  It was a nice light summer dinner.

Serves 2-3

2 cups whole wheat rotini
2 tablespoons butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chopped swiss chard
Zest of one lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Dash ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  If you have not already done so, now is a good time to chop the swiss chard and mince the garlic.
2. In same saucepan as you cooked the pasta, melt the butter over medium heat.  Saute garlic until soft, then add swiss chard to pan.  Stir and cook swiss chard until wilted but still bright green.  Remove pan from heat.  Stir lemon zest and juice into swiss chard.  Return pasta to the pan and stir until swiss chard is evenly distributed.  Add Parmesan cheese and stir well.  Serve immediately.

Week 9 Box

The greens were back in our box this week, so the farm must be recovering from the storm of a couple of weeks ago.  It is still really wet, though, which I have heard from others in the area is taking a real toll on root vegetables and bulb plants.  Our onions have been tasty but very small, which is also how the potatoes have been.  I was awfully excited for the okra this week.

• Potatoes
• Garlic
• Onion
• Okra
• Eggplant
• Cucumber
• Swiss chard
• Kale
• Tomatoes (these were actually from a coworker)
• Rosemary

Ziti with Roasted Tomatoes

I wanted to try some use for tomatoes other than the traditional sauce, especially since the traditional sauce takes more time than I typically have on a weeknight.  I had read a blurb about roasting tomatoes in a cooking magazine a while ago and decided to give it a try.  Adding other vegetables produced a pretty tasty sauce in about 20 minutes, which is much more my weeknight speed.

Serves 4

1 lb grape or cherry tomatoes, cleaned with stems removed
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme (1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme)
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups ziti, uncooked
15-20 leaves swiss chard, stems removed and chopped (about 3 cups chopped)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Combine tomatoes, garlic, and onion in gallon-sized baggie.  Add salt, pepper, thyme, and olive oil.  Seal baggie and shake to coat vegetables in oil.  Place vegetables on a lipped baking sheet.  Bake vegetables at 450 degrees for 15 minutes or until tomatoes are popped and browned.
2. While tomatoes are baking, cook pasta according to package directions.  When there is 5 minutes remaining on the cooking time, stir swiss chard into boiling pasta water.  Drain completely when pasta and swiss chard are done.  Set aside.
3. After tomatoes are removed from oven and still very hot, use a wooden spoon to burst tomatoes.  Push on garlic cloves until they pop out of peels; discard peels.  Using wooden spoon, mash garlic cloves and onions into tomatoes.  This mashing should create a thick sauce on the baking sheet.
4. Return pasta and swiss chard to pot.  Stir tomato sauce into pasta, coating pasta and evenly distributing sauce.  Stir Parmesan cheese into pasta and sauce.  Serve hot.

Week 7 Box

The root vegetables are starting to show up in my box now.  Weird thing is that a lot of the root vegetables, like beets, that were in this box showed up in June last week.  The box here might seem sort of herb-heavy, but that's because those actually came from my mom's garden.  The herbs will likely be featured in a number of recipes this week.  Pesto has already been made.

• Cabbage (purple)
• Kale
• Swiss chard
• Beets
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Zucchini
• Green beans
• Oregano
• Basil
• Italian flat-leaf parsley
• Rosemary

Week 6 Box

More summer vegetables are appearing now in the box, which I appreciate.  I was especially excited to see the herb of the week, since it's an easy one to use up quickly.

• Garlic
• Onions
• Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Potatoes
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Beets
• Basil