With both my parents working this holidays, it’s been decided that I will be making dinner a lot more often in the next two weeks. At guides I’m currently working on getting my Life Skills Trefoil Two in cooking and one of the activities I have to do is to “Plan and Prepare a two course healthy meal”. So I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and make it for dinner one night. I decided to go with cheesy pull apart garlic bread for the appetiser and then a Stuffed Portobello mushroom with Creamy Pumpkin Fettuccine for the main course.
I’m pretty happy with it all turned out. The garlic bread was ultra cheesy, crunchy on the top and soft on the inside and the strands of cheese that stretched on seemingly forever were just perfect. Now I’m not exactly sure what constitutes as “healthy”, but the second definition on google is “not diseased.” which is the definition I will go with and state that this garlic bread was definitely not diseased. The recipe for the garlic bread does make a lot of garlic bread (which is totally not a bad thing) so I only baked about half and stored the rest in the fridge for the next day.
I had originally really wanted to do a cheesy pasta- like a stilton and pear gnocchi (recipe coming soon!!!) but I figured cheese on cheese probably won’t be classified as “healthy” hence I made this creamy pumpkin fettuccine which turned out better than I had hoped.
The Portobello mushrooms were ridiculously easy to the point that I don’t think you really need a recipe- just take a portobello mushroom, some diced onion, olive oil, parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Dice the mushroom stalk and saute with the onion and olive oil, mix in the bread crumbs and stuff the mushroom with them. Sprinkle with some cheese and then bake for 5-10mins, until golden brown and crispy.
Cheesy Pull Apart Garlic Bread and Creamy Pumpkin Fettuccine
Yields: 6 servings of garlic bread, 4 servings of pasta
Fettuccine Total time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
For the bread:
- 1/3 cup warm milk
- 1/12 cup warm water
- 1/3 packet of yeast
- 1 tsps caster sugar
- 1 tbsps olive oil
- 1/3 large egg, beaten
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/3 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsps garlic powder
- ½ tsps salt
- 2 tbsps grated parmesan
- 50g mozzarella cheese, chopped into 5 cubes
- 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or a mix of cheddar and mozzarella)
- 1/3 tbsp melted butter
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
For the Fettuccine:
- 250g fettuccine pasta
- 4 cups low sodium vegetable broth
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 2 tbsps olive oil
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped small
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper to taste
- 120g sour cream
- small bunch of parsley
Directions:
For the Garlic Bread:
- Pour the warm milk and water into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast, caster sugar, and olive oil. Allow the mixture to sit until it appears foamy, about 15mins.
- Add the egg, flour, italian seasoning, garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and salt to the the milk mixture. Mix until a dough is formed. Work the dough with your hands until all ingredients are evenly incorporated.
- Transfer the dough to a well oiled bowl. Over with glad wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2- 2 hours.
- When the dough is almost ready, preheat your oven to 190*C. Grease a 5-inch round baking pan. Set aside.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, knead until the dough has softened and deflated a little. Break the dough into 5-6 even pieces.
- Flatten the dough and place a mozzarella cube into the center of each piece of dough. Pinch the edges together and roll the dough between your hands until the dough has formed a smooth ball. Place the dough balls into the the pan.
- Stuff the shredded cheddar into the gaps between the balls of dough. Brush melted butter over the top of the bread to help it to go golden brown.
- Bake the bread in the preheated oven for about 20-25mins or until the top has turned a golden brown.
- If desired, mix warm melted butter with the parsley and garlic powder, brush over the top of the bread.
- Serve the bread immediately out of the oven.
For the Fettuccine:
- Place all the ingredients except for the sour cream and parsley into a large, heavy pot.
- Place over high heat and bring to a rolling boil. As soon as it comes to a rolling boil, set a timer for 9 minutes. Stir the pasta with a wooden spoon as it cooks, frequently for the first two minutes and then constantly as it thickens.
- After 9 minutes, the pasta should be tender and the sauce will have thickened slightly. If the pasta is not yet fully cooked, cook for for another minute. Remove from heat.
- Stir in the sour cream until melted and combined. Allow the pasta to sit for 5 minutes. The pasta seems soupy at the moment, but it will thicken as it sits.
- Stir and taste. Add additional salt and pepper if desired.
- Divide between bowls and sprinkle parsley over the tops.
xoxo Vanessa
@LocknessDIY