Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta With Basil and Arugula

Wow, that title is a mouthful! But it's a tasty one, I promise. The mister saw this on the Food Network the other night and decided we must try it. It's a lot of garlic, and your breath will NOT be friendly afterward, but totally worth it if you're a garlic lover like we are. Super easy to make and the extra added liquid really soaks up and makes the pasta more tender and the sauce thicker and just adds that extra flavor that is so delicious. We also added shrimp to this since we're addicts.

Roasted Garlic and Grape Tomato Pasta With Basil and Arugula

Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound penne pasta (I used whole-wheat penne)
  
• 2 pints grape tomatoes
• 8 to 10 cloves garlic, cracked but left in skins, plus 1 clove peeled and halved
• 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus some, for drizzling
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup grated Parmigianino-Reggiano, a few generous handfuls
• 1 cup basil leaves, about 20, torn or shredded
• 2 cups coarsely chopped arugula

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil for the pasta. Salt water, add pasta and cook to just-shy of al dente. It needs to have a real bite left to it because it will sit in the sauce for 2 minutes later on and continue to cook. Heads up: you will need 2 ladles of starchy cooking water just before draining, about 1 1/2 cups.

Place the grape tomatoes on a cookie sheet with the garlic. Coat the tomatoes and cracked garlic with 3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and season with lots of salt and pepper. Roast 20 minutes. Take the tomatoes and garlic out of the oven. Turn the oven off.

Remove the roasted garlic from the skins and mash into a paste with the side of your knife. Transfer the garlic paste to the bottom of a pasta bowl. Using a fork, mix the garlic into 2 ladles of starchy pasta cooking water, about 1 1/2 cups. Add the tomatoes to the bowl and mash them with a potato masher until a sauce forms and tomatoes are well combined with garlic broth. Add penne, grated cheese, arugula and basil and toss a minute or 2 to allow the pasta to soak up flavors.

*Recipe from Rachael Ray, courtesy of Food Network.

**We also thawed out some frozen shrimp and tossed it in with the pasta the last couple minutes of cooking, then tossed it at the end. Yum!

Chicken, Biscuits, 'n' Gravy Casserole

Wow, lots of recipes lately! I guess I am going through yet another foodie obsession. I promise I have some non-food related blogs lined up next!! Lots of stuff to post about. But, for now....

We LOVE to make this recipe. It's like a guilty pleasure. So delicious and so easy to make. It probably isn't the healthiest meal, but it's worth it. I've altered it a bit to fit our healthy needs. I usually serve with some sort of vegetable to make it better, too. We made this last night and had a side of steamed green beans with it; perfect!

Chicken, Biscuits, 'n' Gravy Casserole
Adapted from Every Day With Rachael Ray

1 rotisserie chicken
7 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup skim milk
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded cheddar cheese


1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Butter a large casserole dish. Pull the meat off the chicken, shredding it with your fingers or a fork into the baking dish.

2. In a large skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over high heat. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Lower the heat to medium, sprinkle the flour into the skillet and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the chicken broth, bring to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1/3 cup of the milk and simmer for 1 minute more. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the lemon juice, and add salt and pepper to taste. Pour the gravy over the chicken in the baking dish.

3. Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter with the garlic.

4. Stir together the baking mix, the remaining 2/3 cup of milk and the cheese. Drop tablespoonfuls of the biscuit mixture on top of the casserole and brush with half of the garlic butter. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown, about 25 minutes, brushing them once or twice with the remaining garlic butter.