Oven-baked Meat sauce and cheese pasta--VERY Similar to the one in Pizza Hut!!

First of all, WOW...can't believe it was so long ago since we last posted. Sorry for not updating for a while. It has been a busy end-of-the-year for all of the authors of the blog. But we're still here. Struggling, but still here (I hope. At least I am).

Pizza Hut spaghetti

My version of it :)

So, I went to Pizza hut a month ago and tried their meat sauce spaghetti. They called it spaghetti, but it was actually the rottini pasta. Anyways, I fell in love with it immediately after the first bite. So good, so good. Sorry for the lack of word to describe the tastiness. It was, however, not cheap.

I dreamed about it even in my sleep. I hungered for it for a few weeks and I decided to search for the recipe online. Nope. Couldn't find the exact same one. I mixed a few of the recipes of pasta and spaghetti sauce I found online to make the pasta so close to the one in Pizza Hut it made me cry...well, almost.

So here we go.

Servings: 4 people
Ingredients:
1. Rottini Pasta: 1 bag
2. Hunts Meat sauce: 3/4 of a can.
3. Mozerella chesse: 1 cup
4. Parmesan Chesse: 1/2 cup
5. Ground beef: half pound.
6. Half of an onion, diced.
7. 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, diced.
8. 2 table spoon of Olive oil
9. pepper and salt to taste


Instructions:
--Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Fahrenheit).
--Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta with a teaspoon of salt. When the pasta is cooked, dump the hot water and rinse the pasta in cold water. Drained the pasta.

Sauce:
1. Heat the olive oil in the pan on medium high fire.
2. Stir in the garlic and onion. Fry til the onion gets soft.
3. Pour in and stir fry the ground beef til it's not pink anymore.
4. Pour in the meat sauce and stir the mixture evenly.
5. Keep stirring til the mixture starts boiling.
6. Mix the drained and cooked pasta into the mixture and mix them evenly.
7. Add the parmesan cheese and stir.
8. Add in some pepper and salt to taste.
9. Turn off the fire and pour the pasta and meat sauce into the 9x13 tin-foiled baking pan.
10. Sprinkle and cover the pasta with the mozerella cheese.
11. Put the pan in the preheated oven and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

Voila! Pizza-hut style "spaghetti".

Happy Cooking!

Pesto!

So this weekend I made pesto for Sunday dinner and it was delicious. The wonderful thing about pesto is that it's incredibly easy to make, but it's hard because since it's so easy I can't give an exact recipe! (at least, I've never used an exact recipe, but I'll try). This recipe is for a pest pasta. I don't think it is thick enough to spread on bread like I know a lot of people like to do.

Ingredients:

1 bag of pine nuts (it seems like all the bags you can buy in the baking section of the store are about the same size)

1 large clove of garlic

salt and pepper (to taste)

Olive oil

Parmesan cheese, shredded (1 cup-ish)

1 bunch cilantro (you know the size they sell the bunches in the store)

2 cups packed fresh basil

** this is for about 1 box of pasta, I prefer penne pasta, but I guess you can use whatever you want! Cook the pasta first. I won't give directions since I think everyone knows how.**

Okay, once you have the ingredients, this is so easy. What you need is a food processor. And then you pretty much just blend everything together! Start with the garlic and the pine nuts (if you have time, roast the pine nuts a little first, and start processing. Add the cilantro and basil, while adding a little bit of olive oil at a time. You'll end up adding about 1/2-1 cup olive oil. Once everything has been processed, mix it up with the pasta and add as much parmesan cheese as you'd like. You'll want to add some salt and pepper, but you might just want to let people add it themselves as they eat.

The wonderful thing about pesto is that it's so versatile. I like to make it with basil and cilantro the best, but some people make it with spinach, argula, etc . . . Warning: argula makes it quite bitter. Also, if you want it creamy, instead of olive oil, try some cream.

Sometimes I like to chop up some roma tomatoes to throw in the pasta, or grill some chicken.

Sorry if this "recipe" was confusing. Next time I'll try measuring while I cook so I can have a better idea what to tell you guys!