Guest Post on Dori’s Shiny Blog

Click over to Dori’s blog to read my guest post about my Italian Wedding Casserole! Lots of pictures and the Sage Parmesan Meatball recipe! This is a really fun meal that Matt and I made together and has lasted through several rounds of leftovers…yum yum yum!  Here are the instructions for putting the casserole together (you’ll have to head over to DSB to get the meatball recipe!):

• What You Need:
  • Pasta (We used Rotelle, but any curly or spiral pasta will work)
  • About 1/3 of the sage parmesan meatball mix
  • Chicken stock
  • 1 Tb Flour
  • 1 Tb olive oil
  • 1 Tb Minced garlic
  • 1 Diced onion
  • 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed, drained, and chopped. (Or frozen spinach, defrosted, drained, squeezed as dry as possible)
  • Ritz crackers
  • Butter
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Basil, parsley, sage, cayenne pepper

 

• What You Do:
  • Cook pasta, as directed on package, drain, and set aside.
  • While pasta cooks, mix your meatballs and pan fry.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels — if there is a ton of grease in the pan, pour off or soak up (with a paper towel) most of it, leaving about 1/2 a teaspoon
  • Sprinkle flour around pan, stirring to coat with grease in the pan and let it cook for a couple minutes on medium heat (this will take away some of the floury taste)
  • Add salt, black and cayenne pepper, basil, parsley and sage and slowly add stock, stirring constantly and mixing completely with the flour after each bit is added.
  • When all the stock has been added to the pan, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn or stick. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes. This will get it just a little bit thick.
  • While sauce is cooking, heat olive oil in pan over medium-high heat.
  • Sauté onion and garlic in pan until very soft and translucent (caramelized a bit if you want that extra sweetness).
  Add spinach to pan and stir. As the spinach cooks it will wilt down quite a bit. It might seem like you have a TON of fresh spinach, but it will result in a lot less cooked than you think.
  • Cook until spinach is wilted and tender, stirring constantly. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, mix pasta, meatballs, spinach, stock mixture and a handful of parmesan cheese until well blended.
  • Pour into large, greased casserole dish.
  • In small saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter. Crush 1 tube of Ritz crackers (you can really use any kind of crackers you want, but Ritz are super buttery and have the best taste as far as I’ve found so far)and add to the melted butter (along with a small handful of parmesan cheese), stirring to coat.*
  • Top the casserole with the deliciously buttery cracker mix.
  • Bake this in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and hot in the middle. The time will vary based on what size/shape casserole dish you use. You’ll want to watch the crackers, because they could burn if the oven is too hot or they’re in there too long…if you see them starting to get too dark, just cover with aluminum foil. Since everything is already cooked, you’re really just aiming for it to be heated and bubbly all the way through and for the cracker topping to get nice and brown! 

*It should be noted that the topping on this casserole comes originally from a broccoli cheese casserole side dish I learned from my greasy friend from KY, Bob…while we were Undergrads, we spent a LOT of time topping things with butter and crackers.  It’s delicious.

Thanks to Dori for letting me guest post! 4th bar review later today after my afternoon snack! (The last of the leftover italian wedding casserole for lunch today, so that will probably hold me over for a while!)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 11:17 am and is filed under Fun, interwebs, Life, Matthew, Southern Love, super-friends, Yum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.