Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Pasta Extravaganza

I have been gone enjoying myself without the hubby. I had to make it up to him and meatballs are his favorite. But I decided to recreate on of my favorite dishes for my kids.

When I first moved to FL three years ago the first restaurant I adventured was Giovanni's. Wow. It is a family owned Italian restaurant with amazing pasta dishes and pizza. Anyway, I ordered a Tortellini Giovanni. Which is a pasta dish with Tortellini with a Alfredo and marinara dish mix. It is now an all time favorite dish. I tried to recreate for my kiddos. I believe it was pretty successful. My kiddos devoured it and the husband loved it too.

Enjoy.

MEATBALLS

The meatballs are a variation of what my mom made on vacation. She added sausage to the mix and it was so good.
Here we go:



1.5 lbs of ground beef
1 lb of sausage, mild
1 egg
1/2 cp. milk
1 1/4 cp. planko bread crumbs
3 garlic cloves, grated
1/2 cp. parm cheese
2 TB. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Mix until combined. Do not over mix. Form into balls and bake on 350 for about 20 minutes.


My Easy Marinara Sauce:

2 TB olive oil
1 Vidalia Onion, diced
1 Green Pepper, diced
5 cans of Fire Roasted Dice Tomatoes
3 TB Italian Seasoning, No salt
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
1/2 tsp. Crushed red pepper
1 tsp. sugar

1. Add the oil to a pan and add the onions and peppers. Cook a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and seasonings. I cooked this sauce without a lid all day. It was thick and flavorful.



The Sub:
1 sm. loaf of garlic bread
3-6 slices of mozzarella cheese
3 meatballs with a little of the sauce

1. I added the garlic bread and opened it. I added the cheese and broiled until the cheese was browned. I added the meatballs and closed the sandwich. Yum.

MY TORTELLINI GIOVANNI RECREATION




lb of Tortellini
1 stick of butter
8 oz. of Cream Cheese
1 cp. grated parm
1 cp. milk
1 cp. marinara sauce
1 cp. mozzarella

1. Boil the pasta.
2. Melt the butter and whisk in the cream cheese. Add the milk slowly and toss in the parm cheese and mozzarella (let melt). Add the one cup of marinara sauce. Let cook.
3. Add the tortellini to the sauce and cook.

EAT!!!!!

Honestly, one of the best pasta dishes ever. It may not be the best for ya, but well worth it!!!

27 comments:

  1. Yum, I love meatballs. Nice job on the recreations. Ironically, I was about to make meatballs today, too. But I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I settled on some chicken noodle soup instead.

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  2. I just watched Alton Brown make his version of oven baked in muffin tins, and his swedish meatballs, and now this...Yikes I have to make them one day this week, and I have not had a sandwich made with them, this looks y- u - m - m -y!!!

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  3. Oh my...

    Both of these I know would be winners in my house! Will be making them and letting you know how they turn out very soon!

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  4. That meatball sandwich looks amazing!

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  5. Hi Miranda, there is an award waiting for you on my blog :)

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  6. Love the idea of adding sausage to the meatballs! Delicious!

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  7. The pasta dish sounds soooooooo good!!!!

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  8. yumm! nice addition of sausage in the meatballs, sounds delish!

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  9. Oh my gosh...I don't know which one to choose! The meatball sub is amazing...and then that sauce- ahhhhh! So creamy and delicious. YUMMY :D

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  10. Mmmmm, sounds delish!!! Any dish that includes meatballs gets my vote!

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  11. That sounds wonderful. Love the idea of sausage in the sauce.

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  12. ooh, so yummy looking!

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  13. I love meatball sub:) It's good to add ground pork (in this case sausage) to the beef. Pork fat will make meatball juicer.

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  14. thanks for the recipe...looks good!!!

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  15. Lord have mercy, am I glad you're home!!!!!!

    My husband LOOOOOOVES meatball subs, and glory, glory it would be incredible to serve him up something that looked as good as yours!!

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  16. That looks amazing! ..And the sub makes me want to drool. It reminds me of back home in Connecticut where I go to the sub shops in Little Italy. Our favorite was meatballs, breaded eggplant, roasted peppers with provolone melted over top. YUM! Thanks for making me hungry..as always :)

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  17. oh yum that meatball sandwich looks like heaven!

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  18. My parents always made meatballs with sausage in the sauce! There is no other way, in my opinion! It looks great!

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  19. I love the occasional meatball in a good marinara and this reminded me that I haven't made them in forever! They look great especially in sandwich form! Glad you had a good vacation, loved the pictures.

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  20. Your tortellini looks very rich, creamy and great as a comfort food.

    Angie's Recipes

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  21. how fun...and delicious.

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  22. Wow, everything looks so scrumptious! The meatballs, the sauce, the tortellini... everything!

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  23. The food is authentic,comforting and just plain soul satisfying. Thank you for sharing!

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  24. Is that restaurant in Sanford? Off of 17-92 by the ABC store? Oh, no never mind that's Sergios. Have you eaten there? Anyway thanks for sharing it looks really good and easy.
    ~ingrid

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  25. Made the tortellini meal. My family loved it! It was delicious.

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  26. GIRL. I just made your TORTELLINI GIOVANNI!!

    I have NEVER seen my son scoff pasta so fast. I used macaroni for him because he doesn't like tortellini. But the sauce!! Oh the sauce!! And so easy! Once Hubby gets home we'll be dining on this too.

    Love it! :) Thanks!

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Thank you so much for letting me know how you feel about my dishes.