One last Lemon recipe trial: Fettuccine with Lemon

The Lemon- off is tomorrow and even though I decided what I am making earlier this week, I still wanted to try out a recipe I found in a Martha Stewart magazine called Fettuccine with Lemon, Mint, and Parmesan.  I ended up making a few changes to the recipe because I am cheap and only need half the amount of pasta, so below is my version of Fettuccine with Lemon.  It turned out well, although I would say that it was not as good as the Lemon Spaghetti with Asparagus, my roommate said he liked this recipe more.  I guess you can do your own taste trial and decide for yourself. 

 

Fettuccine with Lemon

• 1/2 pound dried fettuccine
• Coarse salt
• 1/2 to 3/4cup asiago cheese
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup torn fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Crushed red-pepper flakes (my friend who was joining me cannot handle red-pepper flakes and I forgot to sprinkle some on my own dish, but I bet it's an awesome addition)

1. Cook pasta in salted water according to package directions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.
   
2. Transfer pasta to a large bowl, and mix in reserved cooking liquid, cheese, lemon zest and juice, mint, oil, and red-pepper flakes if desired. Divide among dishes, garnish with cheese, and serve immediately.
   
   Enjoy! 
    
   Picture Via
   

Zucchini Pizza

Back in March I was catching up on one of my new favorite blogs, Eat, Live, Run, and some how came across an old post, "Cheesy Zucchini Pizza That Will Rock Your Face".  With a name like that, how can you resist trying it?  Plus I am a huge fan of zucchini and baking things so I new I needed to try this sometime soon.
I tried her homemade Pizza Dough which was super easy and tasty.  Plus, a wheat crust with zucchini just seems right.  The recipe is enough for two crusts which is very good cause I did manage to screw up at the last minute.  Not thinking, I put the dough between two sheets of wax paper to roll it out, and there it stuck.  Luckily the other half of the dough I had thrown into the freezer had not froze yet and I pulled it out to save the day.  Since you can just buy dough or a crust already done up, you can easily avoid my mess up.
The pizza I made was probably a large, definitely enough for four people.  That said, I had way too much zucchini/cheese mixture to put on the pizza, so it is hiding out in my fridge to become something tonight. (Maybe some sort of quesadilla?) I don't know if my zucchini's were too large or if it is just too much.  I would say you might only need one zucchini and one to one and a half cups of mozzarella cheese. I also added peppers to her recipe and was going to add some of my brother's dried chili mixture, but since my spice sensitive friend was joining me for dinner I decided I had better not. All in all it was really tasty and you think your eating healthy with all the veggies and whole wheat and cheese. Plus, it reheats excellently for next day lunch!


Ingreidents

• Pizza dough! (see link above or buy some)
• 2 large zucchinis, seeds removed 
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• sea salt
• pepper
• red pepper flakes

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees when you begin preparing the zucchini & peppers.  Spray a cookies sheet or pizza baking stone with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. Grate the zucchinis and press with paper towels to soak up the liquid. Mix the zucchini and the peppers with the mozzarella cheese and a dash of salt and pepper. Stir well to combine.
3. In a small bowl, combine the ricotta cheese and garlic. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste.
4. Work the pizza dough into whatever shape your heart desires. Spread the ricotta cheese on top and then top with the zucchini mixture. Add some pepper flakes. 
5. Reduce oven temperature to 450 and bake pizza for about 12 minutes, or until the crust begins to turn golden and the cheese has started to bubble.

Enjoy! 

Amazing Fresh Apple Salsa

I have had this recipe hanging on my fridge for months now probably waiting for me to make it. It is absolutely delicious.  That's really all I can say about it.  Amazing.  
I found this recipe in Cooking Light and I followed it somewhat closely.  I didn't really measure anything precisely, so my measurements are less specific than theirs were and I added green pepper. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.  I was eating it with chips and I made a quesadila with it and some leftover grilled chicken and cheese. Again SO GOOD! 


Fresh Apple Salsa

• 2 apples, peeled and diced 
•  1/4 of a red bell pepper, diced
• 1/4 of a green bell pepper, diced 
• fresh squeezed juice from 3 limes 
• 1/4 of a red onion, diced
• about 1/4  cup  minced fresh cilantro
• about 1  tablespoon  honey
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1  jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced

Combine all ingredients, stirring well.

Enjoy!