Pan Seared Chicken with Creamy Polenta and Bacon... I love one pot dishes.    Anything I can do to save washing up dishes after dinner is always welcome.  Aside from making the washing up easier, building the dish in one pan gives you a unique opportunity to develop some pretty robust flavors.  You never lose any fond, the caramelized bits that get stuck to the bottom of the pan, so all that flavor makes its way into the polenta.   This dish starts with some automatic...

Pasta with Zinfandel Tomato Sauce and Ricotta... Don’t you just love meals you can make in the snap, but taste like you cooked all day? I work three part-time jobs at the moment (long story) and I also attend culinary school at night, so I understand and adore quick meals that do not taste quick.  What makes this pasta sauce so tasty is the addition of a little zinfandel.  Now, we are not talking that prissy white zinfandel (and if you like that wine, sorry!),...

Mushroom Risotto... When the weather turns cold and the wind begins to howl, nothing warms me up faster than a bowl of creamy risotto. Shockingly, I have never had Risotto until last year!  To be honest with you, it was always the last thing I considered ordering because I love pasta so much, but one night at a local Italian place I decided to forgo my usual and try their Mushroom Risotto.  It changed my world.  From that moment on I...

Pan Seared Polenta with Chicken and Tomato Sauce... Last year I had the opportunity to attend a mushroom event in Dallas where we were provided a cooking demo by Chef Kent Rathburn of Abacus restaurant. My favorite dish of the event was a polenta cake with mushroom ragu.  A few weeks after the event I received the recipe for the polenta with mushroom ragu and have made it a few times to great acclaim.  While the mushroom ragu is lovely, I love the polenta part of the...

Pancetta Risotto Cakes... Do you remember a few months ago when I posted that a recipe I created won a contest and the prize was a trip to San Francisco? At the time I was not able to share the recipe due to the ’super-secret’ nature of the contest.  Well, the contest is over and I am free to share, and share I shall.  These are my Pancetta Risotto Cakes and they are among my favorite appetizers to prepare, and consume.  They...

Porchetta... When I was at the FoodBuzz festival back in November I had something that was life-changingly good.  It is called porchetta. Porchetta is a pork shoulder with the fat and skin attached.  It is slowly cooked so the skin becomes crunchy while the meat becomes ridiculously tender.  The skin, attached to the fat cap, is easily removed after the porchetta finishes cooking and I like to chop it into small pieces to garnish...

Pasta with Gruyere and Butternut Squash... I’ve said before that butternut squash and I were not always such good friends. Once I discovered that I did not hate butternut squash – I liked it quite a lot in fact – I began to try new recipes so that I could add this tasty squash into my Fall recipe rotation.  This recipe was one that I was positive would fail.  I was so sure, in fact, I had dug through the junk drawer to find a pizza coupon. ...

Creamy Parmesan, Mushroom and Chicken Pasta... Before we get to the food, and we shall, I have some exciting news! Evil Shenanigans has been nominated for the first annual Foodbuzz Awards for Best Recipe Blog!  You can see the other nominees, and vote if you like, here.   Voting is open until October 29th.  I want to thank everyone who nominated me.  You have no idea what a surprise this was and how much I appreciate it!  Ok, back to the food.    This...

Fresh Pasta – Mushroom Ricotta Ravioli... I had often wondered how hard fresh, homemade, pasta would be to prepare.  In my mind I imagined that it would be an all day process.  I was wrong.   That said, I did use a pasta roller to roll the pasta into sheets.  That made the process SO easy.  If you have to roll out by hand then I would prepare for extra work and a longer prep time.   If you can afford a pasta roller, or the pasta roller attachment for the...

Bolognese Sauce... I am not a very patient person.  When I want something, I kind of want it now.  That can be a problem when what I want is bolognese sauce.    The trick to good bolognese is to take your time with each step, letting things get brown or simmer completely before moving on to the next step.  Remember, whenever you add something to your pan you are developing flavor.  Don’t let that flavor pass you by, cook it...

Creamy Orzo and Mushroom Pasta... Ever since I was invited to the Mushroom Council lunch a few months ago I have been looking for new ways to add mushrooms into my everyday meals.   I have also been looking for new ways to use favorite ingredients because I can sometimes get into a cooking rut.  Orzo pasta is one of my pantry staples because it can be added to so many dishes to fill them out, but I almost always seem to use it in my chicken salad...

Grilled Mushroom and Ricotta Pizza on Sourdough Wh... I have been on something of a pizza kick lately, and not those commercially prepared pies with flavorless cheese and mushy veggies. I can directly pin-point when this all started.  It began at the Mushroom Council lunch when Chef Kent Rathburn made us a grilled mushroom pizza.  I knew in that moment that I would be making a pizza with grilled mushrooms.  This is the result. I used mushrooms that were available at...

Turkey Meatballs with Quick Tomato Cream Sauce...  There are some days when I crave meatballs, but I do not crave the fat content contained in most recipes.   Not that I am afraid of fat.  Quite the opposite, I adore fat, but some nights I want something a little lighter.  That, however, does not mean I want to sacrifice flavor.  That is why I LOVE these turkey meatballs.  You get hearty, meaty, and moist meatballs without the added fat.   The grated carrots...

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Lemon Butter Sauce... I was thrilled to be selected as one of the lucky bloggers to test the new Riserva pasta’s from Buitoni.  I got a pack of the Wild Mushroom Agnolotti and I was tasked with coming up with a sauce to compliment the pasta.   This is a wild mushroom pasta, and I love the combination of lemon with mushrooms, and since the filling sounds rich I thought a light sauce would compliment the filling best.      However,...

Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta... While out at dinner a few nights ago I had some really lovely garlic shrimp over rice.  It was really tasty, but I am not a fan of rice unless it is my mother-in-laws fried rice, and I wondered how it would taste with pasta instead.   So, a few nights later the inspiration bug was biting and I went to the market and got some shrimp so I could test my idea.  What I wanted was a dish that was buttery with a mellow garlic...