Dinner, Improvised

I bought some ravioli at F&E after work today, intending to use a jar of marinara already at home to make an easy dinner (still recovering from last week). However, when I came home, I discovered that the jar of marinara was imaginary! (We didn't actually have any.) We had no tomatoes, so I couldn't make my own marinara. We did, however, have red bell peppers. So I decided to make a creamy roasted red pepper sauce. Since the sauce was going to take a while, I decided to also make an appetizer: stuffed mushrooms. Everything was really good, and way better than the meal I originally planned.

Stuffed Mushrooms: I made fried breadcrumbs (one bread-butt turned to crumbs in the food processor, and then sauteed in olive oil over the stove until they're nice and golden and crispy), and then since we had no sausage, I chopped up a few small slices of turkey kielbasa in the food processor until it looked like well-crumbled sausage. I threw that into the pan I'd used for the breadcrumbs and cooked until it was browned a bit. Then I chopped up some spinach (in the food processor!), and then mixed the crumbs, kielbasa bits, and spinach together with some parmesan, some garlic salt, and Italian herbs. I stuffed some mushroom caps with that mixture, drizzled them with olive oil, and put them in the oven for about 15 or 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I wouldn't change a thing about these. They were really really good, pretty cheap to make, and quick, too.

Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce: I followed this recipe, but substituted maybe half a teaspoon of dried basil for the fresh basil (some foul critter has been stealing mine every time a new leaf grows); used low fat milk and a tablespoon of butter instead of half-and-half because that was what we had, and omitted the rest of the butter from the recipe; added a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it up; and I only had mozzarella and parmesan, no Romano, so I used a combination of those two. Josh and I both thought the sauce was worth making again, but we also both thought it could also probably be adjusted slightly to make it really stellar (I thought maybe roast one tomato with the peppers; Josh suggested adding a little cinnamon for more depth), but it was really good even as it was. We served it over F&E's chicken and mozzarella ravioli and their spinach and ricotta ravioli.

Good dinner. Goodnight.


A