Winter is prime time for comfort food.  One of my favorite forms of comfort food is macaroni and cheese.  I must admit, I'm a bit of a creature of habit and often make my favorite, highly traditional, macaroni and four-cheese recipe.  It's creamy, cheesy and delicious.  But this week Husband and I experimented by making Seafood macaroni and cheese. 

The recipe, from McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant Cookbook, combines a cheddar cheese sauce with shrimp, scallops, and mushrooms.  The "add-ins" were not in large quantities. In fact, the recipe only called for half a pound of each.  Yet, I had my doubts because it's definitely not your traditional macaroni and cheese recipe.  But the seafood actually wasn't my concern.  My concern was the mushrooms.  How would mushrooms, cheddar and seafood taste and would it taste at all like a macaroni and cheese? 

Knowing the recipe was from McCormick & Schmick's, a national seafood restaurant, it should not be surprising to learn that the combination was delicious.  The mushrooms were actually my favorite add-in component but the shrimp and scallops were also great.  None of these ingredients overwhelmed the underlying macaroni and cheese. Instead they complemented it and created tasty surprises throughout.  While I followed a particular recipe I think shrimp, scallops, and/or mushrooms could be added to any macaroni and cheese recipe with great results.  So the next time you’re making your favorite macaroni and cheese recipe trying something different and mix in a "add-in" to your macaroni and cheese!

We make lasagna fairly frequently and really enjoy it.  But it is a rather heavy meal.  A twist on the flavors of lasagna with a bit less weight is lasagna rolls.  I've seen a couple of recipes for these in the various cooking magazines including one in Cooking Light and one in Gourmet.  Lasagna rolls consist of noodles that are laid down on a flat surface, spread with a ricotta based filling, rolled up, and then cooked in a lasagna pan.  The sauce, which is poured over the lasagna rolls, tends to consist of cut-up tomatoes with minimal seasonings rather than the heavy pasta sauce found in traditional lasagnas.  Also, the lasagna rolls tend to have much less cheese with either just ricotta or a ricotta parmesan mix but not loads of mozzarella.  I really like the result because it's lighter, both in fat as well as overall heaviness in your stomach, yet tastes great.

I’ve been making a Cooking Light version of lasagna rolls for a few years now but a recent issue of Gourmet had a different recipe.  While I liked both versions, each recipe had its strengths.  The Cooking Light recipe uses spinach mixed in with the ricotta filling.  For me, anytime more veggies (and fiber) can be added to a dish it is a plus.  Interestingly, the Gourmet recipe added nutmeg to the filling and it really made a noticeable difference.  The part I liked less about the Cooking Light recipe was the sauce - it’s a pretty basic diced tomato sauce and had a bit too much acidity.  The Gourmet recipe sauce really shined.  It mixed roasted tomatoes, eggplant, and garlic into a delicious and flavorful combination.  While on its own the roasted eggplant seemed dry, when the juice from the tomatoes was added the flavor was really drawn out.  I’ve combined my favorites from each into my own Lasagna Roll recipe that to make a light, refreshing and tasty meal… 

Lasagna Rolls

Noodles

• 9 lasagna noodles, freshly cooked and patted dry

• 10-ounces package spinach, thawed, drained and chopped
• 15-ounces ricotta cheese (we use the low fat variety)
• 3/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 lbs Roma or other plum-type tomato, cut in half.
• 6 cloves pealed garlic
  
• 2 lbs Eggplant cut into 1-inch pieces
  
• 1 t salt
• 1 t pepper
• 6 T olive oil

1. Toss tomatoes and garlic with 3T oil, 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.  Arrange tomatoes in a 9x11 baking pan (the same pan the lasagna rolls will cook in) so that cut edge faces up.   Roast tomatoes at 425 for about 45 minutes or until they begin to brown and have wrinkled skins.  Do not rinse the pan as the flavors in it will add to the flavor of the lasagna rolls. 

2. Toss eggplant with 3T  oil, 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t pepper.  Roast eggplant on a baking tray at the same time as the tomatoes.  Eggplant will probably be done faster - more like 30 minutes than the roughly 45 the tomatoes will take.

3. Once vegetables have cooled a bit, cut tomatoes into small bite sized pieces and mince garlic.  For the tomatoes, quarters worked well for us. Mix with eggplant and 1/2 cup water. Pour half of sauce into lasagna pan. 

4. Mix all filling ingredients together. Spread filling over the tops of lasagna noodles, roll noodles and then cut rolls in half so that you have two rolls from each noodle.   

5. Place rolls over filling in lasagna pan.  Pour remaining sauce over noodles and cook at 425 for 30 minutes or until warm. 

Serves 6

Edamame

Last night Husband and I made a dish with Edamame called "Pork and Edamame Fried Rice" from Cooking Light.  The result?  The dish was really good.  I must admit, however, I still can't tell you exactly what Edamame tastes like. It was one of the many pieces in the very flavorful fried rice.  But it definitely wasn't bad! I know Edamame can be also eaten raw, by itself, and although I didn't do that this time perhaps I will next time. Or perhaps not, the fried rice was very good and at the very least I'll eat more Edamame the next time we make the fried rice.