Cheesy Burrata Pasta Bake

If you have followed me for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Burrata cheese.  Don't know what that is?  You can read my post, "Burrata: 101 - What Is This Cheese All About?" here.  I was SUPER excited to find some at my local Safeway earlier this week - I made this Cheesy Burrata Pasta Bake that night for dinner!

What's even better is that I had this jar of Home Grown Garden Tomatoes Puréed with Garlic and Herbs from Leisure Cooking as a base for my sauce. I then puréed the contents of a 28 oz. can of San Marzano Tomatoes, added the base, and then cooked down a bit prior to using it as my sauce. It was delicious. What's extra cool about this? My brother Scott, of Leisure Cooking, grew the tomatoes for the base in his garden that he maintains in memory of our dad.

  If you are your local Safeway, look in the specialty cheese bin for the Burrata - it will look like this:

Once this dish was ready, I paired it with some sautéed squash and an arugula salad topped with shaved Parmesan and Extra Virgin Olive Oil and White Balsamic Vinegar from the Queen Creek Olive Mill - added a little salt and pepper, perfecto!

Cheesy Burrata Pasta Bake
Serves 4

2 links sweet Italian turkey sausage
1/2 cup chopped bell peppers
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups of dry shell pasta
4 oz. Burrata cheese, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon butter
1 - 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce
1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs
Salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook according to package directions. While the pasta is cooking, remove sausage from casings and cook in a sauté pan over medium heat, crumbling as you go, until browned. Drain on a paper towel.

Add the bell peppers, garlic, and salt/pepper (to taste) to the sauté pan (add extra-virgin olive oil if pan is dry).  Sauté for 5-7 minutes.

Once the pasta is done, drain and rinse with cold water.  In a large bowl, combine the sausage, bell pepper mixture, pasta, sauce, and cheese - mix gently.  I used less sauce because my boys aren't fans of too much sauce - add more if you'd like!  Grease the bottom and sides of a baking dish with butter and add the pasta mixture.  Top with bread crumbs.

Bake 10-15 minutes until heated all of the way through and the cheese has melted.  Serve with Parmesan to top.

Note:  You can prepare this ahead of time, but either put in oven while it pre-heats or allow for longer time in the oven.

Linguini with Shrimp and Lemon Oil - Inspiration from Giada De Laurentiis

I was inspired to make this dish not too long ago while watching Giada De Laurentiis’ show on Cooking Channel, “Everyday Italian”.  As always, she made it look super easy to prepare (which it was) and it looked delicious – so I “pinned” the recipe to make sure I tried it.

When I initially did the grocery shopping, I purchased arugula to use in the dish but then it ended up being almost a week before I actually made it.  At that point, I had already used the arugula in a salad before it spoiled.  It was OK without it – but next time I will definitely make sure I have some.  I made a couple of other modifications here and there based upon what I already had in my kitchen and my version of the recipe is below.  If you'd like to check out the original recipe, you can follow this link.

My entire family loved this!  I hope you will prepare for yours as well!

Linguini with Shrimp and Lemon Oil
Serves 4-6
Adapted from Giada De Laurentiis

For the Lemon Oil:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon, zested

For the Pasta:
1 pound linguini pasta (I use whole wheat)
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup diced onion
16 ounces frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 lemon, zested
½ cup champagne
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley

For the lemon oil, combine the olive oil and the lemon zest in a small bowl and reserve.

For the pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8-10 minutes.  Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet warm the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cook until pink, about 5 minutes.  Add the cooked linguini, lemon juice, lemon zest, champagne {carefully!} salt, and pepper.  Toss to combine. 

Using a mesh sieve, strain the lemon zest out of the reserved lemon oil and add the oil to the pasta.  The zest can be discarded.  Add some of the cooking water to desired consistency.  Add the dried parsley to the pasta and toss to combine.  Serve immediately.