Friday Foodday

Happy Friday! I hope you have a great weekend. Here are some of my favorite recipes this week.

Creamy Spinach Artichoke Pasta
c/o Cassie Craves

Ingredients
12 ounces penne pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 13.5-ounce can artichoke hearts in water, drained and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup sour cream
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 10-ounce package chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided


Directions
1. Preheat the broiler.

2. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water before draining the pasta. Drain, return to pot, and keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and artichokes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the onions are tender and translucent. Add the garlic; cook and stir 1 additional minute. Add sour cream, cream cheese, and parmesan and heat through until completely melted. Stir in spinach.

4. Add the pasta and 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese to the sauce mixture. If the mixture seems to dry, add reserved pasta water a bit at a time.

5. Pour pasta into a greased baking dish and top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese. Broil 3 to 5 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and cheese is melted.


Celery Cilantro Cocktail
c/o Skinny Taste

Ingredients

• 1 oz Absolut Citron
• 3 tbsp fresh squeezed lime juice
• 2 tbsp simple syrup (or  1 tbsp agave, 1 tbsp water)
• 5 inch piece celery
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp seltzer
• ice

Directions

In a mixing glass or pitcher, combine celery and cilantro and muddle together with vodka, lime juice and simple syrup. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a glass filled with ice and top with selzter. Garnish with celery greens and cilantro, maybe even a lime wedge!

Nutella and Salted Caramel Pie
c/o Table for Two Blog

Ingredients

For the crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks), cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

3 tbsp. ice cold water

2 tbsp. chilled heavy cream

For the filling:

14 oz. package of caramel candies, unwrapped

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups Nutella

Directions

1. In a food processor, add in the flour and salt and pulse to mix. Then through the feed tube, add the cubes of butter one by one, pulsating as you go. Then add the water and heavy cream. Mix until dough forms into a ball.
2. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. When ready, take the dough out and let sit for 5 minutes to warm up and roll it out on a flat, lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, flatten it to a circle, make sure it’s larger than your pie pan. Then transfer to your pie pan and work it in to make sure it covers all the crevices and trim the extra dough on the edges and use them to patch up any tears/holes. Use a fork to puncture holes throughout the bottom of the dough.
5. Bake crust for 20 minutes, or until crust is getting golden brown. Take out and set aside.
6. While crust is baking, in a small saucepan, melt the caramel with the heavy cream and salt. Next, in another small saucepan, melt the Nutella (just so it’s runny and easy to pour).
7. Take the caramel mixture and pour it into the bottom of the pie crust. Pop it in the fridge for about 10 minutes then pour the Nutella on top.
8. Let sit and cool to room temperature before serving and slicing. You can pop it in the fridge to speed up the process if you can’t wait ;)