Recipe: For The Love of Leftovers (Spaghetti Pie & Roasted Garlic Bread)

I never intended for this blog to become a forum dedicated to reviewing Pampered Chef products, but I have realized that a good portion of my heavy rotation kitchen tools come from Pampered Chef. Also, the fact that I just got a shipment of new Pampered Chef stuff from the party we had a few weeks ago adds to my enthusiasm! Actually, the shipment came the day before we left for our trip to Vermont. Talk about torture! New kitchen tools and no time to use them, hehehe.

Here was the haul from the latest party (keep in mind I got some of the items at half price and 20% because of hosting a kitchen show). It includes: Deep Dish Baker (stoneware with cranberry enamel), Classic Batter Bowl with Lid (will be AWESOME for jelly-making, it's the perfect thing to make and store the infusion in), Deluxe Mini Muffin Pan with Mini-Tart Shaper, and the Medium and Large Scoops (for size versatility in cookies & meatballs):

I am looking forward to making some yummy deep-dish pizzas with the new baking dish, but with stoneware you have to season it a bit with more oily foods before doing bread products in it (the process also darkens the finish of the stoneware). I have a large Pizza Stone that was my very first Pampered Chef purchase about 5 years ago, and it is very well seasoned as you can see:

I was rooting around in my freezer and found a package of frozen leftover chicken spaghetti. I typically freeze leftover pasta with the sauce for use in making pasta casseroles or spaghetti pie. SO I decided to do the maiden run of the Deep Dish baker with spaghetti pie - sans the crust.

I thawed the leftover spaghetti (only keep frozen cooked pasta for 2-3 months in the freezer, otherwise it will become freezer burned), added some pizza sauce, and topped with Monterrey jack cheese. I baked it in a 350 degree F oven for about 25 mins.

It's a great use for leftovers, and the new baking dish makes the presentation so pleasant that it doesn't feel like you are eating leftovers.

However, this batch did make too much for our family of 3. So, you guessed it, we ate left over spaghetti pie leftovers the next day, hahaha. To make this meal feel less like leftovers, I decided to try a new garlic bread recipe that I found on http://www.allrecipes.com/ (of course). But the french bread recipe that I have been using hasn't really wowed me, so I also decided to try a new recipe for that as well.

Here is the french bread recipe (bread machine technique - where I make the dough in the machine and then form the loaf by hand):

Sweet Honey French Bread

3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons olive oil
2/3 teaspoon salt
2/3 teaspoon white sugar
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Here is what my loaf looked like:


In the past I have made garlic bread by buttering the loaf and sprinkling on garlic powder and garlic salt. It's OK, but I wanted to try something a little different, so I tried a recipe for Roasted Garlic Bread . Roasted garlic has been a topic that has intrigued me for quite some time.

3 bulbs garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (1 pound) loaf Italian bread
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

The recipe calls for 3 whole garlic bulbs, I only had two, so I had to make do. The tendency is to think that is an outrageous amount of garlic. I had seen cooking shows where they roast the whole bulbs and they always say that roasted garlic loses most of it's pungency and turns sweet, but I have been too intimidated to try it. Well now was the time!

Cut the tops off the garlic bulbs to expose the tops of the cloves, then place them in a baking dish and drizzle with a TBSP. or two of olive oil:

Then roast in a 350 degree F oven for about 30 mins. I had to do a little more than that, probably and extra 10 mins. When the garlic comes out it is very soft. Let it cool enough so you can touch it and pull off a clove at a time and squeeze the bulbs (which are now more like a paste) into a small bowl.

Smash the garlic up with a fork until you have a nice paste. Add the remaining ingredients, except the cheese, to create a sort of garlic butter. I used about 1 tsp dried parsley instead of fresh and I used about 3 TBSP of fresh grated Asiago cheese (my staple hard cheese). Split the french loaf in half, place on a metal baking sheet, and butter each half with the garlic butter/paste. lightly sprinkle the top with the grated cheese. Turn on the broiler.

Broil the loafs, butter side up for about 2 minutes. The finished result is GORGEOUS garlic loaf, and the flavor is incredible! You definitely have to be a garlic lover (which we are), but like I said before the flavor is garlicky but not pungent, it is very sweet and buttery. The only thing I would have changed, is the fact that my brain wasn't working, and I should have used 1/3 less butter as I used 1/3 less garlic...so our loaves were very buttery (or margeriney), but still very delicious.

This roasted garlic bread definitely spiced up our leftover leftovers! In addition, the french loaf recipe was way better than the one I had been using and will now be part of my regular recipe rotation AND in making the leftover spaghetti pie, I got to try out one of my new cooking toys, the Pampered Chef Deep Dish Baker. Thanks for reading!

-Diana, The Ivy Kitchen