Mediterranean Couscous Cabbage Rolls

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Did you know Couscous is basically pasta? However it's twice as good for you as pasta is because it's pure grain and water instead of egg, grain, and water like pasta.

"Like macaroni and spaghetti, couscous is made from semolina flour, but rather than mixing the semolina with a prescribed amount of water and/or egg into a dough, couscous is made by rubbing the semolina between moistened hands until the flour combines with just enough water to form hundreds of tiny grains" Link

Copy-Cat Recipe: Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica

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When The Other Williams and I worked the 9-5 we used to occasionally slip away for a lunch date and one of our favorite places close by was Macaroni Grill.

Our dish of choice was the sinfully delicious Penne Rustica. We would actually just share one order because it's that rich and filling. It's a cream sauce with shrimp, chicken, and prosciutto. Yea, it's really good.

Homemade Gnocchi & Sausage in Red Sauce

I always wished I was Italian. I love the food, the language, the culture but my English/German hertiage is a far cry from Italy. I like to think I have a little italian great great great grandmother somewhere in my genes. What? A girl can dream...

Neither of my parents or grandparents really cooked and my mother hated cooking. My grandmother made some mean cornbread dressing and spaghetti but no one in my family really enjoyed cooking the way The Other Williams and I do.

We can spend a Friday night, delicious Italian wine in hand, creating Old World Italian recipes from scratch and be perfectly happy. At least The Other Williams has a little Italian genes running through her blood.

Cannellini Bean “Meatballs” with Tomato Sauce

We are constantly on the look out for delicious vegetarian cuisine. While both The Other Williams and I love meat, we do try to have 1-3 vegetarian dinners a week. We like our vegetarian meals to make us feel like we're eating meat.

Texture plays a big part in making a good vegetarian dish great. We added mushrooms to the original recipe to give us a little firmer texture. The meatballs are outstanding and the red pepper really makes these balls pop.

Whenever we make meatballs of any kind we make a full batch and freeze the rest. These bean balls were no different. They froze beautifully. You could certainly freeze them with or without the tomato sauce.

Easy Homemade Focaccia Bread

Focaccia bread is a flat, oven-baked Italian bread that’s topped with herbs, cheese and other ingredients. It’s kind of like pizza crust on steroids and about 100 times better. I’ve posted many-a-bread recipes here on Williams Kitchen but none compare to this one.

Many don’t make their own bread because its time consuming. This bread is a quickie though (in bread-making terms) and most of it is waiting around for the dough to rise. It is also little to no kneading. The Other Williams just loved this bread and could not stay out of it.

This is amazing served hot from the oven with pasta but it can also be frozen, which is what we did. If frozen, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw overnight in the fridge, then bake at a low temp to re-heat it.

You can add just about anything to this bread. We topped ours with tomatoes and olives but you’re only limited by your imagination!

Freezer Friendly: Lasagna Roll-Ups

Do you ever have those days where you just do NOT feel like cooking? Believe it or not, we do too. With a busy life of school and starting a business sometimes cooking for ourselves is just the last thing we want to do. However, eating out a lot recently has started to show its side effects on the scale. So in an effort to stay home to eat more, even when we really don’t feel like cooking, it’s time to stock the freezer. It’s the single best way we know to keep us from just going out and one we’ve been doing for years. {Check out our other Freezer Friendly Recipes}

Having food already prepared is part of our business model for Terra Cuisine. We’ve even turned our business name into a verb at our house. For example, “we’re Terra Cuisining ourselves so we can heat and eat!” We get the same benefits that our clients do!

I recently discovered this wonderful recipe! Its portion control, it’s homemade, and it is really delicious! Why go out when in 30-40 min we could be eating these Lasagna Roll-ups? I made a HUGE batch of these and put them in 3 Pyrex dishes for freezing. When we know we’re not going to feel like cooking we just take these out and either let them thaw overnight in the fridge or on the counter for an hour. Then just pop it in the oven for a bit, add a salad, and dinner is DONE!

The recipe is so simple to make and doesn’t take too much time. I did cut the cheese back on ours a little and they still tasted so delicious! I also substituted Italian sausage (one link of hot and 1 link of mild) in place of the hamburger that the original recipe called for to add more flavor. I forgot to take a picture of the roll ups with sauce and cheese on the top but I did add that before they went into the freezer. Kids would love these and they would even be great for entertaining with. They are like personal little lasagnas! Enjoy!

Kale Chickpea Pesto on Soba with Asparagus and Peas

We've been trying to incorporate a lot more vegetarian dishes into our diet and this one caught my eye while perusing the TasteSpotting website. At first I was like, "eww, kale..." Then as I looked at the recipe I realized the kale is in a pesto. So then I was all like, "Hmmm, maybe.."

Soba noodles are a staple in our house now. They are buckwheat noodles which means they are also Gluten-Free! Without even trying we scarfed down a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dinner!

 
And you know what?

It was awesome!! The textures and flavor were so awesome! We bulked up the veg a little and used a little of the pasta water to get the right consistency in the pesto.

The pesto is so creamy you might think there is cheese in it, but nope, it's the chickpeas and oil! We cut the recipe in half and still had leftover pesto. We're planning to use it in a sandwich for a picnic but it could be used in a variety of ways.

If you're looking for a superfood recipe that tastes amazing, this is it!

Tortellini Skewers with Pesto Dipping Sauce

Here is a really delicious and fast appetizer that you can make way before your guests arrive! I found this idea online and put my own spin on it but you can throw whatever you have on hand on these skewers.

If you're using them for an appetizer before a main course I would stick to 2 skewers per person. You can also use these on a buffet table, in which case I would allow more than 2 per person. These would be great for a kid's birthday, holiday party, or pot luck.

The skewers were so good and the combination of the tortellini, tomato, and pesto made it like a fun pasta salad on a stick. The only thing I would add is a spoon to the dip. That way people can spoon the pesto over the skewers instead of double dipping.

Creamy Garlic Pasta Salad

After spending the afternoon baking the Hummingbird cake with my good friend, RC. I then had to make dinner because The Other Williams was out of town for the weekend. I'm not normally the cook but this recipe was really so easy that even I could pull it off.

This pasta salad would be great for a picnic or camping trip also. It's good warm, room temp, or cold. I added what I had on hand so the veggies are totally interchangeable with whatever you prefer. We use the Creamy Garlic Dressing that I posted about previously and it gives the pasta great flavor and a light creamy sauce.

Creamy Garlic Dressing

This dressing is so delicious! If you're a garlic fan, I highly recommend it. I'll also be posting a pasta dish in a couple of days that this dressing was just made for. Whether you use it on a green salad, in pasta as a sauce, or over veggies it fits beautifully.

This dressing is pretty thick right out of the fridge. It could also be easily used as a mayo-substitute. If you don't like how thick it is you can add a little more vinegar to loosen it up a bit but be careful not to break it.

I used a blender for maximum emulsifying action and I drizzled the oil very slowly. We almost always have all of these ingredient on hand so it's a quick go-to dressing or sauce. It takes less than 10 minutes to make from start to finish. The recipe below makes about 1 & 1/2 cups but can be easily halved.

Greek Tortellini Picnic Salad

Picnic season is finally in full swing so you'll be seeing a lot of our picnic menu's and recipes.This one is a twist on an old classic. Ever since our cleanse we've been adding more veg to everything. So we took our classic Tortellini Salad and put it over a bed of lovely crunchy spring lettuce mix.

We love a good picnic. Again, it combines our two favorite things: food and the great outdoors. Most of the time we prefer to picnic on the ground with our trusty picnic blanket. Eating on the ground, for me, helps make a picnic feel more special, however we're no strangers to camp chairs when the situation calls for it, such as a wet ground. A blanket invites you to lean back and relax while you eat. It also invites you to take a nap or read a book afterward!

Here in Greenville, SC we're very fortunate to have so many excuses to picnic. We have the beautiful Fall's Park right in downtown but we also have several events that encourage you to bring a blanket or chair and picnic. There is Moonlight Movies, Outdoor Concerts, and Shakespeare in the park!

We enjoy and participate in these event's regularly but we're also a little more creative than that. We picnic on the sides of roads, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, trail-side while hiking, lakeside while kayaking, even in the back of our hatchback. There is no where that a picnic can not be pulled off, well...except for private property (although certain times of the year they will invite you out!)

This is our go-to picnic salad and we love the addition of the greens. Always bring a long a little extra dressing because the pasta will absorb a lot of it. We hope you'll be inspired by our picnic recipes and experiences this year to get out into the great outdoors and still eat good!

Chicken Chow Mein

There's nothing better than a quick stir-fry on a weekday night. This one is right up there with some of the best we've done. We used Ramen Noodles, yes they kind you used to eat in college, as the base in this dish. You don't need the seasoning packet so just toss it.

Stir-fry's are quick and easy to prepare. They might sound a little complicated but they really couldn't be any easier. Most can be prepared in 20 min or less and the stuff you throw in it is limitless!

This one is topped off with some chicken, crunchy and fresh veggies, and some sweet yet savory sauce. It's a beautiful creation. The lime wedges are important here. We like to serve some citrus with heavy stir-fry's or sauces. It really lightens up the dish and gives it a little something special! Give this quick recipe a try next time take-out is looking like a good idea!

Picnic in a Jar - Spring Veggie Orzo Salad

Recently The Other Williams and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. We got all dressed up for a lovely dinner at our favorite restaurant but we spend the actual day of our anniversary picnicking.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know how much we love combining our two favorite things (outdoors and food). Not to ruin the surprise for newbies but it's a lot! We tried out this new recipe and absolutely love it! We tinkered with the original recipe to make it more our own. We added lots more veggies and lowered the amount of orzo.

Orzo is such a fun little food. It looks like rice but it's really pasta. It's great in hot or cold salads. The Other Williams is a huge orzo fan so when I found this recipe for our picnic there was no doubt it was going to be made.

The lemon-y dressing on this salad is just outstanding. We might even keep this around just to throw on regular salads or other pasta salads. This salad is packed with veggies! You can also play around with what veggies you have on hand or change it up depending on what's in season at your market.

Quick & Cheap Seafood Pasta

Sometimes you just don't have time to be in the kitchen for an hour or you've got hungry mouths not interested in how long the marinade takes. We recently had one of those nights. Sometimes we'll get the frozen bag pasta dinners in the freezer section but this recipe turned out to be just as fast and it's cheaper!

We got the frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's. I'm not sure if you could find this other places. If not, you can certainly make your own mix or just use shrimp.

Here's a really great tip: when cooking red sauce and pasta. Cook your pasta for about 5 minutes in salted boiling water. Then strain it and dump the pasta into the sauce pan for another few minutes to finish the cooking process. This really, really gives the pasta so much flavor!

Pasta With No-Cook Tomato Sauce

With tomato season starting to peak, now is the perfect time for this beautiful, simple, and delicious recipe! I can not even begin to describe how lovely this dish is. It speaks to something so nourishing and so simple that it's hard to explain.

Whether you have a garden, have joined a CSA, or shop at the farmers market there is nothing that tastes better than a homegrown tomato! So why not highlight that delicious tomato-goodness with this recipe. The sauce is not cooked so all the flavors of the tomato shine!

You can use just about any type of pasta you like, we used whole wheat penne. And the added touch of the ricotta really set this up for yummy-ness! I mixed mine all in and it created this delicious, creamy, tomato-juice sauce for the pasta.

One word of warning though, this is a fresh made dish and it didn't hold well for leftovers. So eat it the day you prepare it and don't refrigerate it at all.

Lasagne Bolognese with Spinach

You know how you can spend all day working on a lasagna and when you put it on the plate it looks like a complete mess? That won't happen with this recipe.

Instead of a sloppy tomato sauce this drier version uses a delicious and super flavorful Bolognese. Bolognese sauce is a meat sauce that is sometimes mistaken as a tomato sauce, but it's really only supposed to have a touch of tomato paste and that's it. The Bolognese is ALL about the meat.

Speaking of meat, you want to buy the best for this sauce. For us, that's grassfed, local beef chuck. The Bolognese is where you're going to get 90% of the flavor for the lasagna and the better the beef the better the whole thing will be.

This is one of those recipes you could spend the whole day making but it also freezes well! It would be perfect for a family gathering or a dinner party as you can do everything the day before and just pop it in the oven before the guests arrive.

We had a lot of fun spending a Sunday afternoon and evening cooking and preparing this together. Our whole house smelt delicious for hours.

Italian Feast Part 2 - Souffléed Gnocchi

Welcome back for part two of our Italian-style feast. Last week we covered the first course, Escarole & Edamame Salad! This week we'll take a look at a souffléed gnocchi. We've always traditionally thought all gnocchi was made of potato. But this Roman-style recipe doesn't call for any potatoes. Instead we'll use semolina flour!

At first it was hard to see how this was going to work. We ended up chilling ours a little longer than the recipe called for and cut ours into squares instead of rounds. This was because transferring these was a little tricky. The trick is to make sure they are thick enough to set up.

I don't think either of us expected to taste what we got. It was truly unique and delicious. It tastes more like a souffle than it does gnocchi. The only thing I can begin to compare it to was the stuff in crock-pot mac & cheese without the macaroni. It's soft, delicate, smooth, and cheesy. It was truly a treat and totally worth the time.

Speaking of time, plan ahead for this one. The recipe called for 2 hours to prepare this dish start to finish but you can do a lot a head of time. Pretty much everything up until baking it in the oven can be done the day before. Enjoy!

Check out!
Part 1 - Escarole & Edamame Salad 
Part 3 - Anchovy & Rosemary Roasted Lamb with Salsa Verde

Linguine & Clams with Red Sauce

We had this delicious dinner after being inspired to cook more with clams after the paella. The sauce is an original recipe that we made up together and it turns out simple, yet flavorful, and doesn't over power the delicate clams. This will be a regular on our menu! Enjoy!

1 thick sliced chunk of pancetta, diced
1 small shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 cup white wine
2 jars/can of Diced Tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp anchovy paste
1 bay leave
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp lemon juice
12 little neck clams (or other small clam)
4-6 oz Linguine
Salt and pepper, to taste

In a skillet render fat from diced pancetta at low to med heat for about 7 minutes. Remove pancetta bits from pan and reserve for later. Add garlic, shallot, and onion and saute 7 minutes. Deglaze pan by adding wine for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, tomato paste, anchovy, and bay leave. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce for 20 minutes uncovered.

Add clams to sauce and cover for 10 minutes or until shells open. Remove shells as they open. Add linguine to boiling water for 6 minutes. Drain and finish cooking in the sauce. Add lemon juice and capers. Remove bay leave before serving. Enjoy!

Homemade Pasta

We purchased a simple hand-cranked pasta rolling machine a few weeks ago and have thoroughly been enjoying it. The machine comes with fettuccine and spaghetti attachments but we really prefer to hand cut our own pasta.

This is a simple recipe but it does require some time. You can make and cook the noodles right away but we prefer to dry them out first so we can get it a little more aldente. To dry them just leave them out on the counter for a few hours. You can also freeze them after drying them.

Ingredients:
1 cup All purpose Flour
1 cup of Semolina Flour
4 Eggs

Directions:
Place all the ingredients into a food processor with a dough blade and mix until it comes together. Remove from processor and knead for a couple of minutes. Then let it rest 15 minutes. Next cut into four pieces and roll out thinly with a rolling pin or pasta roller, flouring as needed. Fold over several times and roll again. This makes the pasta silkier.

Serving:
1 pound of pasta

Homemade Pasta Bolognese

A few weeks ago we went to one of our favorite Italian places downtown, Trattoria Giorgio. The Other Williams got an amazing pasta bolognese and just had to give her old recipe a make over. This was the yummy result. The blend of veal, beef, and pork really put this recipe over the edge. We called ahead to our meat department and asked them to ground and mix the meat mixture for us.

The pasta is also homemade and a the recipe for that will be posted soon. If your craving some good Italian this is your recipe!