Weekend Recipes

I have two great recipes from this weekend to share with y'all! The first, was a Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Pasta (aka "Fish Pasta" as Tyler calls it). I know, it sounds like a really crazy combo, but trust me, it was fabulous!

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces farfalle (bow-tie pasta)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 small red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 ounces bar cream cheese, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup fresh dill, coarsely chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed (I don't like capers, so I didn't include them)
• 4 ounces smoked salmon, cut into bite-size pieces

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water. Add onion to pot; immediately drain pasta mixture, and return to pot.
2. Add cream cheese, dill, capers, and salmon to pasta. Toss, adding reserved pasta water a little at a time to create a thin sauce that coats farfalle (you may not need all the water). Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Sunday night, I decided to make Tomato Soup from scratch and use my new favorite kitchen gadget: my immersion blender. I have never made soup from scratch and was pleasantly surprised at how good this came out. You could easily add red pepper flakes if you prefer a spicy soup.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 8 roma tomatoes
• 1 large red pepper
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 6 sprigs thyme
• 1/4 cup parsley
• 5 stems of basil leaves
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut roma tomatoes in half, slice yellow onion into 1/4 inch slices, and slice the red pepper into 1/4 inch strips and place them on a baking sheet lined with foil.
3. Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Cook vegetables for approximately 40 minutes or until vegetables are roasted.
5. In a large pot, heat chicken broth and place all of the vegetables from baking pan in the pot.
6. Place the remaining ingredients except for the salt and pepper in the pot. With an immersion blender, mix all of the ingredients until thoroughly blended and smooth. If you don't have an immersion blender, you could pour all ingredients in a regular blender and mix until smooth. You would then put the ingredients back in the pot.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.