A chance to try something new

Last week, I entered a recipe contest hosted by Amy's Kitchen and Lundberg Family Farms. The recipe had to be Gluten Free and Vegetarian. Now, anyone who knows me will know that I am decidedly NOT vegetarian, but I am up for a challenge. I will admit that I was sure I would struggle with the whole veg thing, but it wasn't that hard and it came out quite good! Overall, I was really pleased with the final result and I liked it so much that I took a container to work that night for lunch.

I'm posting the recipe here, but I thought you might like to see the final result.

Here is a picture of my award winning* Spicy Mushroom Penne.

Spicy Mushroom Penne (serves 8)

Ingredients:

1 jar Amy’s Organic Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce

2 oz. finely chopped peppedews, divided

1 oz. finely chopped sundried tomatoes in olive oil

3 lrg. portabella mushroom caps

2 bxs Lundburg Family Farms Organic Brown Rice Penne Pasta

½ oz freshly shredded Parmesan cheese (for garnish)

Olive oil

1. 
   
   Put 8 quarts of water on stove to boil. Once it is boiling, put pasta in water and start timer for 7 minutes. Water should remain at a rolling boil through out cooking time. Stir pasta frequently while boiling. As soon as timer sounds, drain pasta completely and rinse with cool water to stop cooking. Once water has drained, drizzle pasta with olive oil to stop pasta from sticking.
2. 
   
   Empty pasta sauce into 4 qt. saucepan and set over low heat.
3. 
   
   Coarsely chop 2 portabella mushroom caps and sauté in small amount of olive oil in frying pan over medium heat.
4. 
   
   Set aside small amount of peppedews for garnish. Stir remaining peppedews, sundried tomatoes and sautéed mushrooms into pasta sauce and raise heat to medium. When it starts to bubble, stir it thoroughly and put a lid on it and lower the heat to simmer.
5. 
   
   While the Sauce is simmering, thinly slice remaining portabella cap and lay on baking sheet under broiler flame. Watch it carefully! Once it starts to cook, it will cook quickly. When portabella slices have begun to roast slightly, pull them out of the broiler.
6. 
   
   Divide pasta between 8 bowls, ladle sauce over them. On top of each bowl, lay some of the roasted portabella slices, sprinkle some freshly shredded Parmesan cheese and garnish with a small amount of the chopped peppedews. Serve immediately.

Try it and let me know what you think!

The contest entries had to be in by July 31 and I just barely made it! Once the judges have gone over all of the entries, they will pick their top 5 favorites and post them to be voted on. That should happen sometime around August 15, with the final winner being announced in early September.



*I hope!