Recipes

I have discovered the wild world of opportunity with pasta and its toppings. The best noodles to cook with a flavored sauce like this are penne, bowties, spirals, shells, and other short pastas that catch sauce. Here are some of my favorite experiments:

• Vinegar & Olive oil
  • exactly as it sounds. butter noodles but fancy.
  • add olive oil, toss pasta, then apple cider vinegar.
  • add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parmesan.
• Cream of mushroom soup
  • strain your pasta and put it back into the pot, then add 1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup for every 4 servings.
  • carefully thin with water or milk as needed. season heavily.
• Cream of broccoli, clam chowder, any cream-based ready soup
  heat up soup, add pasta, cook (it will take longer than normal) while thinning with water as the noodles soak it up.
• Squash Soup
  • this is the best one and one of my favorite stupid easy meals, you can figure out your own recipe but I'm also writing mine below!

The best result of my alternative pasta sauce testing, those cartons of puree soup! It's perfect for a rainy fall day, with warm spices and a satisfying thick sauce. This recipe is for the full, all-out gimme-the-works version of this dish, but you can easily remove the meat and veggies if you like, and make vegetarian or vegan replacements.

I am still fine-tuning my spice additions, and I will update when I get the chance!

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 2 tbs olive or vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic (fresh or jarlic)
• 1/2 lb italian sausage
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cups of chopped vegetable of your choice (I recommend broccoli, green beans, or bell pepper)
• 4 cups butternut squash puree soup (1 carton)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 16 oz pasta (penne, bowties, macaroni, or shells recommended)
• pepper
• seasoned salt
• paprika
• cayenne pepper
• lemon juice

Replacements:

• similar ready-made puree soups, such as carrot, work too
• you can replace the italian sausage with any meat, if the meat is unseasoned you will need to add more seasoning to taste
• it's also just as good without meat!
• sub chicken broth for veggie broth
• sub milk for coconut milk or more broth

For serving:

• sour cream
• chopped parsley or green onions

Instructions

• Heat up oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and add your garlic to toast for 1 minute. Add meat and vegetables, stir until browned.
• Add in puree and other liquids, and scrape the bottom of the pot. Raise temperature to high.
• Once the soup is bubbling, add in your pasta and stir. Heat until simmering and reduce the temp to medium. Add spices and lemon juice.
• Cook for 10 minutes while covered, stirring occasionally.
• The pasta should be al dente. If it's still too tough to eat, simmer uncovered while keeping an eye on the level of liquid. If the sauce starts to thicken to the point that it completely clings to the contents, add water 1/4 c at a time and stir.
• The sauce will look a little thin when you take it off the heat, it will thicken as it cools.
• Serve with toppings.

This is my stepdad's recipe! He LOVES ginger and molasses, and always has extra zucchini from his garden. This is a proper gingerbread, it's the texture of classic zucchini bread or pumpkin bread, and has a ton of spice.

Ingredients

• 2 cup zucchini, grated and packed down
• 2/3 cup veg oil
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2.5 tsp vanilla
• 4 Tbs molasses (1/4 cup)
• 2.25 cup flour
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 3 t ground ginger
• 2.5 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• turbinado sugar (for topping)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• Grate zucchini on the largest grater size. I strain the grated zucchini just a bit, but it's still pretty wet. Adjust based on how moist you like your bread, and how moist your zucchini is.
• In a large bowl, mix together grated zucchini and liquids.
• In another bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• Fold the dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture until thoroughly combined and no dry spots of flour remain, but be careful not to overmix.
• Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and generously sprinkle sugar (a real layer, more than you think you'll need) all over the top of the batter to create a nice crunchy, sugary top.
• Bake for 75 minutes. Allow to cool completely before removing from pan and slicing. It may seem done at 70 minutes, but the bottom may not be cooked, so keep baking.