Slow Cooker Beef Ragu with Pappardelle
This slow cooker beef ragu with pappardelle is the ultimate Sunday comfort food. Braised beef, red wine, tomatoes and fresh pappardelle — set it and forget it for 8 hours. Absolutely incredible.
Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs
These mozzarella stuffed meatballs are a fun twist on the classic — perfectly seasoned beef meatballs filled with gooey melty mozzarella cheese. A weekly staple in the Holmes house!
Homemade Marinara
The basis for a majority of Italian recipes is a good marinara sauce. I have experimented and created the ultimate homemade marinara sauce. This sauce is delicious and quick to make. In less than 40 minutes you can be eating. It is tangy, but not tart. It is well balanced for everyone from kids to…
Penne Alla Vodka with Pancetta
Dana’s Penne Alla Vodka with Pancetta is quite possibly the best pasta dish you will ever make. Rich, creamy vodka sauce with crispy pancetta — a total family favorite. Trust me, you have to try it!
Three Cheese Manicotti
My wife Dana is from NYC, and we love fresh pasta from there. When our stash ran dry, I surprised her with homemade three cheese manicotti. It was fantastic — even Dana said it was the best she’d ever eaten!
Dana’s Chicken Marsala
After spending a week in NY, I have been craving a good marsala dish, which is another popular choice in my good old stomping grounds of Queens. That’s the one thing I miss the most about NY….the FOOD! So, I am forced to recreate my favorites when I am craving a certain flavor! Rex has…
Bill’s Shrimp Marinara
The Marinara Sauce from the other day is not Bill’s only specialty. My Father-in-Law also makes a mean Shrimp Marinara. This is a simple dish that utilizes his Sunday gravy. Sauteed shrimp and garlic mixed with awesome marinara sauce makes for a great meal. Bill’s Shrimp Marinara Peel and de-vein the shrimp. Make sure…
Dana’s Rigatoni a La Vodka
My wife took over the blog for the day. Here is Dana! I am from Queens, NY and one of the main Italian cuisine staples is vodka sauce! I wanted to make a delicious vodka sauce to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We both loved this meal. I hope you enjoy it!
Bill’s Sunday Gravy (Marinara)
My Father-In-Law Bill came down to visit a while back and he made some awesome Marinara. It was so delicious, I had to get the recipe to share. The Sauce had great color, texture and best of all – taste. It is a simple recipe that uses the best ingredients. The best types of recipes…
Quick Ragu Pasta
I know that when the average foodie hears the like of Rachel Ray they cringe, but I just tried a take on one of her recipes and it was pretty darn good. As a man that likes to eat I will try just about anything once. Granted I have tried a couple of her recipes…
Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs
I had a block of mozzarella cheese sitting around, so I decided to stuff some meatballs. A lot of people ask how I come up with recipes. To be honest, most come out of necessity or based on what is left in the fridge. Mix and match and usually something good will come out. Mozzarella…
Grilled Meatballs
I know it is hard to believe but sometimes I get cook’s block. It is like writer’s block except I can not think of a single thing to make for dinner. So earlier this week Dana requested something from chicken and something from ground beef. I went to the store and picked up the basic…
Birthday Lasagna
This week Dana got a year older. For her sake, we will not divulge the exact age. However, her only request was to have lasagna made with beef and not Italian sausage. So I whipped up some homemade noodles and put together her Birthday Lasagna. It was a great little lasagna. I may not be Italian, but I…
Chicken, Spinach and Tomato Pasta
I like to keep fresh produce lying around, but it spoils so quickly. So I have determined a few ways to keep fresh produce on hand but have it last as long as possible. First tip, cherry tomatoes. They keep for a long time and you can use them for everything from sandwiches to pasta….
Baked Ziti
Dana’s favorite meal is baked ziti. This creamy, cheesy pasta casserole with marinara, ricotta, and mozzarella is pure comfort food. So easy, so good.
Pepperoni Stromboli
When I was a kid we used to get Strombolis’ from a little pizza place near our house. They were not rolled like typical a Stromboli but were folded in a half-moon shape like a Calzone. However, the biggest difference was that the stromboli had sauce inside of it and the Calzone had sauce on the side….
Penne alla Vodka
Every once in a while Dana and I go out for dinner. When we do, I always see Dana ordering Penne alla Vodka. So I figured I should tackle this recipe. I wanted to make the sauce from scratch and have that great vodka flavor. Although the alcohol burns off, not all of the flavor…
Easy Meatballs
The other night I asked Dana what she would like for dinner and she immediately said, “Spaghetti and Meatballs”. Easy, however, Dana is Italian and I did not want to offend her. So I asked if she had a recipe. She said, “meat, egg, bread crumbs and spices”. That left just a little bit to…
Homemade Noodles a la KitchenAid
I received my Christmas present a tad bit early from my soon to be in-laws. They got me the KitchenAid pasta roller and cutter attachments. Basically the perfect gift for a food blogger. I have been wanting to make pasta from the minute that I unwrapped the present. Luckily within a few minutes I was…
Garlic Bread Roll
Last week I made an impromptu dinner for Dana. I wanted to make pasta, but I did not have a bread side. So I looked through my fridge and found an extra pizza dough. I know, yes, I have pizza dough in the fridge. I decided to make it into a garlic bread-like swiss roll….
