Oh my heavenly cheese.

What I made for dinner tonight involved four different cheeses. FOUR! I'm lactose intolerant. Basically, this was a death wish. But it was a death I welcomed with open arms. For the cheesy goodness that I inhaled off my plate tonight was....Manicotti.

But not just any old Manicotti. Oh no. This was special Swiss Chard and Sweet Pea Manicotti. I totally stole the idea from Giada de Laurentiis (Love her!). Because this Manicotti had peas and Swiss Chard (TWO green vegetables) I decided it made up for it being covered in cheese...right? Anyway, remember this dish next time you are trying to sneak green food into your children. It's covered in cheese, so they have to love it. Who can resist anything when it's drenched in cheese?

Swiss Chard and Sweet Pea Manicotti

12 manicoti or canneloni pasta shells

FILLING

1 bunch red or white Swiss chard

2 TBS olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese

3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup fresh basil

Salt and pepper to taste

FONTINA FONDUTA SAUCE

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

3 cups grated fontina cheese

2 TBS grated Parmesan cheese

2 TBS fresh chopped basil

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch glass baking dish

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the pasta and cook until tender, but still firm to the bite, about 6-8 minutes. Drain the pasta. Set aside

FOR THE FILLING

3. Remove the Swiss chard stems. Chop the leaves into 1 inch pieces.

4. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add the chard and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes. Cool the mixture slightly.

5. Place the ricotta, peas, mozzarella, parmesan, basil, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Add the cooled chard mixture and blend until smooth.

6. Spoon the mixture into a prepared pastry bag with a large tip and stuff each manicotti shell with the filling. Place the stuffed manicotti in the prepared baking dish.

FOR THE SAUCE

7. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk and cream to a simmer.

8. Reduce the heat and add the fontina, stirring constantly until the cheese is melted and the mixture is smooth.

9. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese and basil.

10. Pour the sauce over the stuffed pasta and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden. Let the baked manicotti stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Now that I have a post about quick pasta sauces, I find myself the possessor of a bucketful of tomatoes from my family's garden. I went home for fall break and my mom said, "Please take some tomatoes back with you. We have way more than I know what to do with. You can make some of that fresh pasta sauce for your roommates." Thanks mom, I will.

Making pasta sauce from scratch is a process, let me tell you. But it is SOOO worth it.

First you get lots of tomatoes.

Then you cut a little X on the bottoms of the tomatoes, plop them in some boiling water for about 30 seconds.....

And shock them in an ice bath!

Peel them, cut them in half and squeeze out the seeds, then throw them in a blender and whiz for a second. Then throw some fine diced mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery) in a saucepan with a few tablespoons of olive oil and cook until tender. Blend the mirepoix, and combine in the pan with the tomatoes and about a cup of your blanching water (the water you used to boil the tomatoes), and simmer the snot out of it. Seriously, you simmer it forever. My sauce sat on the stove for three and a half hours. Salt and pepper it to taste and voila! You have achieved sauciness!

Molto bene!

As a culinary fanatic the question I get the most is "What is your favorite thing to cook?" I hate that question. I seriously cannot answer it. The sheer joy I find in cooking cannot, CANNOT be delegated to one item alone. So I usually tell people, "I can't pick a favorite. Wanna know my specialty though? It's Italian."

I have been so fortunate to have interned and worked in an Italian restaurant in Albuquerque. It's called Vivace (if you ever visit Albuquerque, check it out! It's great. Tell them Jana sent you). Because of my three years of experience there, I have grown to love Italian food and Italian food philosophy so much more. And I feel like I'm quite proficient in the cuisine as well!

Anyway, the point of this post. My lovely stake relief society sisters started up a monthly cooking class and I signed up to teach today's class. I love opportunities to share my passion with others. Especially because I feel like cooking is a dying art. So few families sit down to a home cooked meal anymore, and many people lack the skills in a kitchen that I always assumed were common knowledge. I feel so blessed to have grown up in a home with a mother who is a fabulous cook, and one who taught me a love of good food as a child. Anyway, I wanted to find something simple, delicious, and quick to teach these sisters. As college students, we don't have time to spend all day making dinner (unless you are me, in which case I MAKE time). So I decided to teach them a few simple pasta sauces, and one really simple pasta dish.

Alfredo Sauce

1 pint heavy cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Black pepper

Chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Heat heavy cream over medium-low heat. Add butter and whisk gently to melt. Sprinkle in cheese and stir to incorporate. Season with pepper. Toss gently with hot pasta. Garnish with fresh parsley.

*NOTE* If you would like a lower fat version of this recipe, here are some ideas. Instead of using heavy cream, you can use milk. However, you will have to find a way to thicken your sauce. You can accomplish this by mixing equal parts butter and flour in your saucepan before you add milk. Cook the butter and flour mixture (called a roux) for about 2 minutes so the flour taste cooks out. Add your milk and whisk the snot out of it. Then proceed with the recipe as above.

Quick Marinara Sauce

Most old world Italian sauce recipes that you find require at least a day to produce. The sauces require such long hours of simmering --that's why they have such phenomenal flavor! This recipe (courtesy of Cook's Illustrated) is the best way to get the flavor of hours of cooking in 30 minutes or less!

2 TBS unsalted butter *See note

1/2 an onion, grated *See note again!

1/4 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp salt

2 medium garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1/4 tsp sugar *see note once again! Sorry, I like notes!

2 TBS coarsely chopped basil leaves

1 TBS extra virgin olive oil

Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add onion, oregano, and salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is evaporated and onion is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and sugar; increase heat to high and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium low and simmer until thickened slightly, about 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in basil and oil; season with salt and pepper. Serve over hot pasta.

*NOTES, Notes, Notes!* If you would rather substitute olive oil for butter, feel free. The reason this recipe calls for butter is because butter naturally caramelizes as it cooks which deepens the flavor of the sauce. For this reason, the recipe also calls for grated onion. When onions are grated, the surface area is increased, so they caramelize faster. I prefer to just finely mince my onions (I have terrible luck with box graters. I always end up with grated knuckles). About the sugar. Don't add it if you don't wanna! If you like your sauce with a little more sweetness, the sugar is there. If you like it more savory, leave it out.

Pesto alla Genovese

"Alla" means in the style of. This pesto hails from the region of Italy known as Genoa (hence pesto alla Genovese!) The olden day Italians came up with this sauce as a way to ensure that they could have the fresh flavor of basil year round.

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup spinach

2 cups basil leaves, loosely packed

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Add garlic, parmesan cheese and pine nuts to a food processor or blender and pulse until a paste forms. Add spinach and basil, pulse to combine. Add lemon juice. With the machine running, add a stream of oil until desired consistency is achieved. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss with cooked pasta!

*NOTE* Please, use this recipe as a guideline. If you like more garlic, add more garlic. If you don't like cheese, don't use any. Play around with it. Don't be constrained by my recipe. Also, feel free to make substitutions! Try adding walnuts instead of pine nuts. Maybe make a pesto out of cilantro and parsley instead of basil and spinach. Make it your own creation. Experimenting is the best way to learn what flavors blend well together.

Special thanks to my roommates Melissa and Bekah who were my photographers and plated my pastas! You ladies rock!