Food: Italian Love Nests (Cheesy Pasta Cups)

I'm not sure how I stumbled across this recipe, but it appealed to the Italian side of me.  I had also been craving some type of baked/crunchy angel hair pasta for awhile, so this fit the bill.  I ended up Googling "Italian Love Nests" and came across this recipe here at Center Cut Cook.

I did make some changes to this recipe - most notably, I used ricotta cheese instead of just parmesan, mostly because we had ricotta leftover from when I made ravioli, and I wanted to use it up.  I also toasted some Italian-flavored panko bread crumbs (from Whole Foods) and pine nuts, and added those on top for some extra texture.

I would definitely make this recipe again, with the same adjustments I made above, as well as cutting down the amount of sauce.  I did find that the sauce was very runny (and that may be because I used ricotta instead of parmesan) - or at least, more runny than I expected, so next time I would definitely use less sauce.  I think having the ricotta cheese keeps the pasta from drying out, so it should be ok.

As for the usual criteria for evaluating recipes: it was very tasty, it reheated well (if you have more than one muffin tin, make an extra batch!), but the clean up was kind of a pain.

Here's the clean up, and a lot of it was hand washed, so I didn't love that, but it wasn't enough to make me avoid the recipe in the future.

-Large pot for pasta

-Saute pan (doubled up on this one by wiping it out in between uses)

-Muffin tin

-Colander

-Large bowl to mix everything together

-Cutting board

-Tongs

-Measuring cups (3)

-Knife

-Spoons/spatulas (3)

So here's the recipe based on the one from Center Cut Cook (you can refer to the link above for the original recipe).  I've tried to note the differences between what we made and what the recipe calls for.

INGREDIENTS

8 ounces angel hair pasta, cooked according to directions > I would even recommend undercooking it slightly since it will continue to cook in the oven

8 ounces of any meat of your choice > I used sweet Italian sausage

2/3 cup ricotta cheese > (original recipe called for 1 cup parmesan cheese)

1/3 cup Parmesan cheese + additional for garnish

2 eggs

2 cups sauce of your choice > I would cut this down to 1-1.5 cups

Italian flavored panko bread crumbs > We got ours at Whole Foods pre-made, but if you can't find this, just mix panko bread crumbs with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and salt to taste)

Butter (used to saute panko)

Pine nuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease 12 muffin cups with butter.

2.  Toast pine nuts in skillet over medium heat.  Remove and place to the side.

3. In a large skillet on medium high heat, cook and crumble meat then drain excess fat.

4. Add in 2 cups of sauce and heat for a few minutes, then remove meat/sauce mixture from the heat.

5. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, ricotta and parmesan cheese, and pasta. Stir to combine.

6. Pour egg and pasta mixture over meat and sauce mixture. Use tongs to incorporate.

7. Using tongs, place enough noodles in a muffin cup to fill it. Twirl/twist the pasta as you are placing it in the cup to form nests. Just eyeball it.

8. Place the muffin tin in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the sides and tops are starting to brown.

9.  While the nests are baking, saute the bread crumbs in butter until they are golden brown.

10. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes, then use a knife to run around the edges of each muffin cup.

11. Garnish with parmesan cheese, browned bread crumbs, and pine nuts and serve immediately.

Serves 12.