Where you are always allowed to play with your food!
Sounds weird. Putting it together was weird. Once cooking, smelled delicious. Came out beautiful. E high fives me. I kinda saw another recipe like this named taco spaghetti. Italian- Mexican fusion. Thinking you could make this vegetarian with black beans instead of meat. My husband was still weirded out by the combo, but he still cleaned his plate. Plus, more in the freezer for another night in the near future!
Ring, Ring… I answered.
“Hello?”
It was my mom.
“Hey, how are the girls? How was their day?” How is E?”
“Good. Good. Good. Where are you?” I could hear lots of noise in the background.”
“At church. We just had dinner. It was a shrimp boil. There are 4 pounds of shrimp leftover. Can I bring them tomorrow night for dinner? Can you do something with them?”
“YES!!! I’ll think of something! Bring them!”
I asked the girls what sounded good with shrimp, and they all said cheesy Alfredo pasta. Cool. 
My husband wanted to make pasta…always a good thing. I sautéed most of the shrimp in butter. Cook on both sides until pink…just a few minutes. When it turns pink and curls up, it is done. I also boiled the rest with a bay leaf and lemon juice. Those were for cocktail sauce.
No…no homemade Alfredo sauce. Tonight I chose the next best thing…Mario Batali jarred Alfredo sauce.
Summer tomatoes are amazing, but if you have some in a garden, you may need a few ideas on how to tame your over populated supply. How about Panzanella? Using some leftover bread, I combined some chopped fresh tomato with mozzarella and fresh garden basil. First, toast your bread.
Then, add the rest of the ingredients.
My husband had 2 helpings. It is basically the salad form of bruschetta.
Ricotta; a house divided…My husband HATES ricotta. I LOVE IT. Love always beats out hate in the kitchen. I made Ricotta pasta. He ate some leftover lasagna I had in the freezer.
Ricotta pasta is just Rigatoni with ricotta and my leftover meaty marinara sauce from the other night. You could totally make this into a baked ziti. You could add shredded mozzarella to the top and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese gets all melty. 
Leftovers…this can be a dreaded word in many houses. No one likes to keep eating the same thing 2 days in a row, but no one wants to waste food, which is just throwing money away. In our house, we try to have at least one night where we have “whatever you want night.” This is when we try to eat up any leftovers in the fridge before they go bad. Since we are kind of on a weird eating schedule with E still in the hospital, this has been harder to do. I am here with the other 2 girls most nights, so I try to make just enough for the 3 of us, meals that I can transform in to more than 1 meal, or make meals I know will freeze well for later.
Last night I made linguine and meatballs, and I froze some sauce, but I still had a bit of pasta over for us to have one more meal. Then, today, I was watching David Rocco’s Dolce Vida on Cooking Channel. He was making a “pizza pasta.” He took leftover pasta and added some eggs, parmesan cheese, and fried it in oil. So I decided to try it.
The ingredients all depends on how many leftovers you have, but I used 3 eggs, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, whipped it together with the pasta, then added to a pan of oil which covers the bottom of your pan.
Then after 2 minutes or so, put a plate upside down on the top of the pasta. Turn the pan and plate over and then slide the pasta pie mixture back in the pan for another 2 minutes on the other side. Tricky, but doable. Who cares if it doesn’t come out perfect? Once done, I added more parmesan on top.
Then I sliced with a pizza cutter. It was sitting out for a bit, so I popped a piece in the toaster oven to crisp it on top a bit. Perfection! The girls gobbled it up as well!
Any new ways you like to makeover leftover pasta?
I asked R and K what they wanted for dinner. R said spaghetti, then K said meatballs. Ok, then! I took out some beef and scoured the cabinet for some pasta and something to make the sauce. I found 1/2 a container of linguine, 1 large can of tomato sauce, and 2 cans of diced tomatoes. Perfect.
First, I started the sauce. Easy marinara sauce that does not require a glass jar of sugar sauce, if you know what I am referring to. I used 1 28 oz. can of tomato sauce, 2 cans diced tomatoes, and 2 squirts of tomato paste (or 3 tablespoons if you have a can). I added a couple sprinkles of Italian seasoning, chopped oregano, basil, and parsley, and 1/2 chopped onion, 1 container of mushrooms, 2 garlic cloves crushed and diced, salt, pepper, 2 tablespoons or so of Worcestershire, 2 tablespoons butter, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Sometimes I even add red wine, if I have it, but this time I was all out. The wine and Worcestershire just give it an extra layer of flavor, especially since I am making the meatballs with beef. The butter and the sugar help to add a bit of sweetness to the sauce and mellow the acidity of the tomato a bit.
I even had leftover sauce to add to my freezer collection. I just mashed the meatballs up in the sauce to make meat sauce.
Next, I had to figure out what ingredients I had to make meatballs. I used 1 pound of grass-fed beef, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 cup breadcrumbs, about 1/4 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire, 1 teaspoon of onion and garlic powder, chopped parsley, oregano, and basil. Mix it all up and make some meatballs.
Add them to your sauce. You could brown them or fry them first, but these are fine this way. I cooked the sauce first for about 45 minutes, then added the meatballs on low for another 45 minutes or so. 
Cook your pasta and add your sauce…
Fun Foodie Family 