Morel and Blue Cheese Pasta Gratin Recipe (Cheese Pasta Casserole)

Our vacation is coming to an end, and we head back home in the morning. For the ride back, I made a pasta gratin using radiatore pasta with fresh morels and a blue cheese white sauce. You know, just in case anyone gets hungry! I combined the ingredients in a casserole dish sprinkled with shredded Parmesan cheese and served the gratin casserole dish with tomato and greens.

I got many of the ingredients yesterday at the Rogue Valley Farmers' Market in Ashland, where I discovered a myriad of wonderful fresh products. I was particularly drawn to the white raspberries, Oregonian goat sausages and fresh morels. After purchasing the ingredients at the market, in the afternoon we visited the headquarters of Harry and David where I bought some delicious blue cheese that ended up in this dish. Southern Oregon has turned out to be absolutely delicious!

Red Pesto Pasta Salad Recipe

Pasta salad is an easy dish for quick on-the-go meals. For this version, I used radiatore pasta because its unique shape that traps the sauce into the corkscrew-style curls. The sauce is a colorful bright red pesto made of sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red bell pepper, eggplant and pine nuts.

This is a perfect main course or side dish for picnics or summer parties. This time, I let the pesto pasta salad chill in the refrigerator for our family’s road trip to Oregon. We're leaving in the wee hours of the morning today and will arrive in Ashland for Oregon's annual Shakespeare Festival. We're looking forward to the visit! I will try to post about it and share our experience with you.

Roasted Asparagus and Fresh Morel Pasta Recipe

Roasted asparagus pasta with fresh morels (pâtes aux morilles fraîches et asperges vertes) is a creamy, rich pasta dish. How could it not be delicious? First, I sautéed the morels in butter, added a white sauce (béchamel) mixed with crème fraîche, then tossed spaghetti rigati in the sauce. The final touch was roasted baby asparagus for contrast of color and some crunch, and lemon to cut the richness of the sauce. I chose baby asparagus because it most closely matches the thickness of the pasta and you can eat the whole stalks.

It was a perfect meal for a romantic dinner with my husband. I'm trying to be better about my eating habits, so I served smaller portions with a big salad. Eating right doesn’t have to mean giving up the foods you like. In fact, I think we have a better chance of maintaining healthy eating habits if we’re enjoying our meals. So enjoy this pasta; it might even help you lose weight!

Zucchini Radiatore (Vegetarian Pasta Recipe)

I love the vegetables my husband has been harvesting this season. We've had lovely zucchini so far. I've already used the zucchini flowers and stuffed them with risotto, and today I sautéed the zucchini with radiatore pasta. Lulu also pulled plenty of red Creole onions from the ground, so I used them to flavor the vegetarian pasta dish.

If you're able to plant your own vegetables, you should try zucchini. The young ones are sweet and more tender. They're fairly easy to plant, and if you take good care of them, they can be prolific.

You could pair any other pasta with the veggies in this dish, but I think the lace-shaped pasta looks very fancy. To make the dish a little healthier than my usual pasta dishes, I added very little cheese (I used Asiago for its strong flavor) and instead used enoki mushrooms, which resemble strings of cheese. It’s a great way to trick the kids, both little and big, into eating healthy!

Pasta Shells with Grilled Portobello Mushrooms (Pasta Salad Recipe)

Pasta dishes are always a favorite in my house and this green pasta shell dish is no exception. I decided to experiment with the new barbecue we bought over Memorial Day weekend, so I grilled some tandoori chicken for an alternate version of this recipe. Before cooking the meat, I also grilled large Portobello mushrooms for the vegetarians in my family. I love using this kind of mushroom; they are meaty and add so much flavor to a dish. To finish the preparation, I flavored the pasta with a sweet basil oil, green and pink peppercorns, lentils and onions. The sweet basil oil has a pungent flavor, thanks to the addition of garlic.

I consider the dish relatively healthy as it's vegan. No cheese, butter or cream are involved, but that doesn't mean the dish lacks flavor. What I love most though about making this pasta dish is that you could serve it warm, or bring it along with you for a picnic and serve it at room temperature as a pasta salad. The weather is getting so warm in the Bay Area that it's time for us to get all the blankets, picnic bags and ice cooler from the attic and enjoy meals outdoors for many weekends to come!