I love stuffed foods, but they’re often a pain to make. It’s no easy feat getting cheese, herbs, and other delectables inside often delicate food. Don’t even talk to me about stuffed chicken breasts. Or stuffed chiles! (Which happens to be one of my favorite dishes.) Stuffed pasta seems like a no-brainer comparatively, but it can still be tiresome and irritating. Your shells rip, you get your hands all goopy (because let’s face it, a spoon doesn’t always do the trick), you don’t get enough stuff stuffed in, or maybe you get too much and it all oozes out in a strange goopy mess. Really, the worst thing about stuffed foods is they take time to prepare. And who doesn’t want a short cut? Well, I’ve got one for you. Instead of stuffing jumbo shells or manicotti, why not just place a couple spoonfuls of filling on half of a lasagna noodle and roll ‘er up? It’s quick and easy and looks just as yummy. Give it a go.

Ingredients:

one package whole wheat lasagna noodles (not no bake)
marinara sauce (your own favorite recipe, or, if you’re in a hurry, marinara from a jar)
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 package sundried tomatoes (not packed in oil)
3 cups washed and dried fresh spinach, stems removed
1 head of roasted garlic (recipe below)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese + ¼ cup for topping
fresh basil, optional
salt and pepper, to taste

How to Make Roasted Garlic:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the outermost, flaky skin, leaving the peel around the cloves intact.

In a bread pan, or other small baking pan, place a small amount of water. Place your head of garlic in the pan, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a fork inserted into the cloves slides easily through. Let cool, then squeeze the roasted garlic from the skin.

Lasagna Roll Directions:

Boil the lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain and separate the noodles so they don’t stick together.

Make, or heat, your sauce.

In a large bowl, combine ricotta cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, and salt and pepper. Stir to combine.

In a large sauté pan, heat the spinach with a small amount of water until just wilted.

Slice the sundried tomatoes in half. Note: If the sundried tomatoes are tough, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes.

Add steamed spinach, sundried tomatoes, and roasted garlic to the cheese mixture. Stir to combine.

On a large work surface, cut the lasagna noodles in half. Toward the end each half, place a couple spoonfuls of the filling. Roll up and set aside.

Once all the filling has been used, spread a layer of sauce on the bottom of a 13×9 inch pan. Place the lasagna rolls in the pan so they fit snug. Spread the remaining sauce over the top. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until filling is hot and sauce is bubbling. During the last 8 minutes of baking, sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup Parmesan cheese over the top of the rolls.

Remove from oven, let cool slightly. Optional: Sprinkle with fresh basil.

Note: Just like any pasta, lasagna rolls can be stuffed with anything—Italian sausage and sweet peppers, mushrooms and onions, herbs and cheese. Whatever your heart desires. Get creative!

Dan, the wine editor, has a new post up in his column Uncorked and Decanted. It’s titled “I Like Screwtops.” I bet you didn’t know wine came in screwtop bottles. I didn’t either, until he introduced me to this very selection–Big House’s Prodigal Son–during a recent visit. Learn more by clicking the permalink, or hit Uncorked and Decanted in the header bar and browse more of Dan’s awesome wine tips.

Anything that involves pastry intimidates me, but this recipe looked so tasty, I (temporarily) forgot my fears, and added it to my list for May’s Project Food Blog Cook-Off. Last Friday, I bought all of the ingredients and returned home excited to make my first ever galette. (What is a galette, you ask. Food Blogga explains. Visit her site. Link below.) I started with the pastry dough. I’ve made enough of it now that I don’t panic, but the process is still a source of anxiety. Will the butter cut in? Will I have enough ice water? Will I make a gluey mess? Luckily, the dough turned out fine, and I didn’t have any problems. I divided it in two, put each in plastic wrap, flattened them into disks. So far, so good. My problem came when I went to make the galette. The recipe says to roll the dough into a 12 inch round. But I had two disks! There was no top and bottom. Just one round. So why two? Honestly, I still don’t know. I joined the two, rolled them out, and made one galette. But see. This is why pastry freaks me out. I should know why the dough is divided. I should, but I don’t. Sigh.

The goodies that go inside the galette I can handle. Sausage, fennel, smoked cheese. Mmmm. And then there are the sundried tomatoes. I absolutely love this touch. I think I’ll add a few more the next time around. The fennel was surprisingly benign. I’ve had fennel in dishes where all you can taste is the fennel. I swore off fennel for a while after that. But here, it works just fine. The presentation is beautiful, too. I made this for supper, but I could easily imagine it for an elegant brunch.

Visit Food Blogga and get her recipe for Savory Sausage and Fennel Galette. Link here.

Eggplant is a vegetable, er, fruit, that is often overlooked. I can understand why. Order an eggplant dish in a restaurant and you’ll likely get a fried, oily, mushy mess. But cooked properly, eggplant is creamy and earthy, even a tad sweet. The key to cooking eggplant is to first pick a young eggplant. If it looks healthy and feels heavy for its size, you’re probably good to go. Young eggplants have less seeds, which is what gives the eggplant its bitter taste. Even in a young eggplant though, you’ll still have some seeds. Salting the eggplant slices, or dices, and letting them drain, will remove the bitterness as well as moisture. Then, toss the eggplant with a bit of olive oil and roast in a hot oven until the flesh breaks down. The result? Utter yumminess.

I like Amy’s Eggplant Parmesan recipe because she knows what’s up. She bakes her eggplant slices (vs. the standard fried), and she makes her own sauce. Hooray! I dislike fried food, but I especially dislike fried eggplant. I find the texture creepy, and the end result is, as I said above, an oily, mushy mess. Bleh. I’ve never once made eggplant parmesan with fried eggplant. I’ve always baked mine. I have to admit I’m a bit partial to my recipe, but Amy gets huge points for freshness and flavor. Love that carrot and celery in the sauce!

Head over to Amy’s blog, Cooking With Amy, and get her recipe. Click.

On a final note, the picture I took of the dish was out of focus. Thankfully, there is Wikipedia Commons, where I found this lovely image. Here’s the link.

Oh my god in heaven! Talk about YUM! I’m going to go back to the nineties and say this recipe is THE BOMB. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I’d think about it. It looked good. It sounded good in theory. My one experience with plantains, however, didn’t turn out great. They were okay, but they didn’t make me want to prepare them again. Plus, I don’t cook seafood very often, as my husband doesn’t care for it. Luckily shrimp are very easy, and one of the few water creatures he’ll eat.

So I set out to make this one night, not really in the mood to cook, and not at all sure if I’d like the results. When I took that first bite, however, I was blown away. I looked across at my husband and he was nodding his head. The dish wasn’t only good, it was phenomenally good. And the prep and cooking time is so minimal, I almost didn’t believe something so easy could taste like it did. I did end up baking the plantains longer than the recipe says, though. The batch I had was pretty black, but probably not black enough. In any event, the end result was a semi-sweet plantain with a semi-soft texture. It worked perfect for us.

I’m making this dish again on Friday for guests. I have a feeling they will love it as much as I do.

Head over to Bitchin Camero to find the recipe for Basil Lime Shrimp with Plantains. Click this link and it will take you there.

Head over to Salad Night, the home of all my main dish salads, and check out this Refreshing Spring Salad. I think it’s my new favorite salad. That’s a tough call, but if it doesn’t make tops, it’s right up there. Avocado, jicama, radish, grapefruit, spelt berries, all over spinach tossed with a honey poppy seed dressing. Delicious and refreshing! Follow this link. Yep, this one, right here.

There are few food items that really gross me out, but canned cheese is one of them. Whenever my husband goes to the store with me, he wants to buy that processed cheese gunk that you *spray* on crackers. What the f**k is that? I give him the look, and luckily he gives up. I don’t really like the stuff they sell in jars, either. You know—that spicy cheese dip you find in the chip aisle? It’s only a small step up from the spray cans, or Velveeta Cheese slices. Ick, ick, super ick. I *do* like the idea of spicy cheese dip, or chile con queso, but I’ve never had one that satisfies me. Luckily there is Homesick Texan’s version of *natural* chile con queso. Yay!! I’m definitely digging this recipe. Unfortunately, my jalapenos had little to no kick. Don’t you hate when that happens?! So, next time, I’m hoping I’ll get a spicier batch. To go along with the chile con queso, I made homemade corn tortilla chips, which I like because they actually taste like corn. Imagine that! My husband has also been enjoying this dip. I’ve packed containers of it for his lunch all week.

Visit Homesick Texan and get the full recipe. Click, click.