Week 7- Results

Sorry it has taken me so long to get the results to you for the 2 recipes from this week. They both were really easy, which is great for a weeknight meal. The artichoke gratinata will be on my weekly dinner menu rotation VERY OFTEN! Did you know that artichokes have the most fiber of any vegetable? Granted this calls for bread crumbs, but overall it is healthy. Especially for a fast dinner side dish. 2 things about this recipe that I substituted: I used Panko bread crumbs instead of regular. I did this simply because the Panko has more of a crunch to it & I was afraid the regular bread crumbs would just get lost in the artichokes texture. Panko bread crumbs are Japanese bread crumbs & there isn't any other difference than regular bread crumbs other than their thicker texture. I liked the crunch on top that the Panko gave it, yum! My other substitution was the Marsala wine. I didn't have any & the only thing close to it I did have was cream sherry. It tasted fine to me. I googled substitutes for Marsala & it said you could use various liquors (some of which I didn't have) to mix. It said sherry could be used in a mixture, so I just winged it & used my cream sherry. Like I said, it tasted fine to me, but maybe one day I will try it with the Marsala. Other than that, there weren't any strange ingredients, although the frozen artichokes were a little expensive. No unusual cooking utensils were needed either. It was a great side dish that I really liked.
The Fusilli pasta was pretty good. It too was not hard to make & didn't require anything out of the ordinary. I thought it turned out good, but wasn't one of my favorite Giada pasta dishes. I liked its simplicity & it felt healthier than other pastas to eat because it was lighter than some other pastas I have made recently. I absolutely love Asiago cheese though, so that definitely made it better!
Try out these recipes for yourselves & let me know what you thought about them. Bon Appetit!