Vegetarian Mushroom Gorgonzola Pasta

This is a super easy, super comforting meal that Douglas and I came up with one night because we wanted something delicious, and we wanted it fast. The ingredients to this dish are also very cheap, so you can feed the whole family for very little money.

What You Will Need:
16 oz. (1 box) of rotini noodles
0.4 pounds of Gorgonzola cheese
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 large portobella cap (or 15-20 cremini mushrooms)
Enough mozzarella cheese to top off the casserole dish

To start, preheat your oven to 375.
You'll want to cut the mushrooms into 1 inch chunks. Size is not that important, and neither are the dimensions of the mushroom chunks - you just want to leave them big enough so that when they cook down, they'll still be able to stand on their own in the casserole.

Sautee the mushrooms in a pan with 1 tbsp. of butter or margarine and 1 tbsp. of minced garlic. We use fresh garlic at home because the flavor is mush stronger (and we are very enthusiastic about garlic), but if you only have garlic powder, you can use that too. Season the mushrooms with a little bit of salt and pepper, and cook them over medium heat until the butter is absorbed and the mushrooms are smaller and slightly browned.

Next, start the noodles. Once your pasta water is boiling, add a little salt. You'll want to make the whole box of pasta and cook the noodles to "al dente". The noodles with soften up and cook more once they're incorporated into the casserole, so they don't need to be too soft.

While the noodles are cooking, pour the can of cream of mushroom soup in with your cooked portobella mushroom chunks and add in 1 can of milk. Stir everything together until everything is combined. Once this is warm, add in your gorgonzola cheese, a few chunks at a time, and melt it all together on low heat (make sure it doesn't boil!). Add salt and pepper to taste.

When the noodles are done, strain them and stir them into the mushroom gorgonzola mixture. At this point, if you're feeling some extra cheesy goodness, you can add in 1/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese and stir it all together until the cheese is melted and incorporated. It's not a necessary step, but it is a delicious one!

Finally, pour it all into a casserole dish, sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese, and bake it at 375 until the cheese on top is melted (about 15 minutes).

Serve with asparagus or another side dish of your choice!

Eat To Love

I am starting this blog mostly because people keep telling me to. I get a lot of requests for my recipes, so I figure I might as well share them with the world!

A lot of the food I make does start off with a base recipe that I find on the internet or in a book, but I pretty much always end up changing the recipe and some of the ingredients to fit what I'm looking for in the finished product. The end result is usually a whole new recipe that I use over and over again.

Because I'm Italian, I have always enjoyed feeding people. I think one of the greatest things about food is that it is so diverse and flexible, and it is a wonderful vessel for love. I love introducing people to new foods and new combinations of foods and showing them that vegetarian food doesn't have to be a side dish.

My ultimate goal in sharing vegetarian food and recipes is not to push a vegetarian agenda, but just to show people that food without meat is delicious and can stand on its own. I will also offer occasional vegan and gluten-free recipes, because these ways of eating are important to a lot of people. My hope is that when you try these recipes for yourself, you'll love them so much that you won't even realize it's meat-free.

Vegetarian food is good for your body, good for the animals, good for the environment...and just plain good.

Enjoy!