Creamy Zucchini & Basil Pasta

This was my favorite recipe invention of this past summer (past already!), but I never got a great picture of it so I kept holding off posting. Part of the problem - squished up roasted zucchini is delicious, but not very photogenic. The "creamy" in the title comes from the texture of the zucchini, not from the optional cream. I served it as a dip at a dinner I made for my family and when the bowl was almost empty someone took a piece of bread and carefully cleaned out the last remnants - that's the sign of a good dip. It has the bright, summery flavor of fresh basil and the more autumnal, savory flavor of toasty, roasty zucchini. That makes it a great dinner for this in-between-seasons time.

Creamy Zucchini & Basil Pasta
serves 2, generously

4 cups zucchini, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
1/4 cup heavy cream (optional)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
salt, pepper, and olive oil
3/4 pound short pasta
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs*
2 T butter

• Toss the zucchini in olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread onto 2 cookie sheets. Roast in a 450 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Put the pans a few shelves apart in the oven and switch half-way through so that both pans get nicely browned.
• Meanwhile, saute the garlic in a small pan until just starting to brown. Set that aside in a bowl big enough to hold the pasta.
• In the same pan, toast the bread crumbs in the butter until brown.
• When the zucchini are dark brown, scrape them into the bowl with the garlic. Add the basil, cream, and Parmesan and mix really well, squishing the zucchini against the side of the bowl. 
• Mix in the hot pasta. Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of each serving to keep them crunchy.
• To make this as a dip, omit the bread crumbs and pasta and just serve it with slices of bread or crackers.

*I used 2 pieces of good, white, sourdough bread that I toasted a little, cut into small pieces, and ground up in my Cuisinart.

Rigatoni with Roasted Zucchini and Crispy Prosciutto

Pardon me if this gets boring, but I'm madly in love with my vegetable garden. I stroll by it several times a day, shaking my tomatoes in hopes of getting them to set, noting the progress of the mess of Delicata Squash vines taking over the path, pinching off the bolted stems of the arugula so I can get one more spicy pizza out of it, standing at the potato barrel resisting the urge to dig down and see what's happening. It's about as organic as a city garden can be. We even splurged and put in a drip irrigation system so we haven't been wasting water. Here's the problem: I'm not much of a vegetable eater, but I planted all this to to challenge myself to figure out how to add more veggies to my diet. And it's working because I would make this again even if I didn't have a plant shooting out a zucchini a day.

Rigatoni with Roasted Zucchini and Crispy Prosciutto
serves 4

1 onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
8 slices of Prosciutto, cut into thin strips (sub thinly sliced ham, if needed)
olive oil
4 smallish Zucchinis, or enough to really cover a cookie sheet, cut into coins
lots of grated Parmesan cheese
1 T chopped fresh oregano
1 pound Rigatoni

• Start by crisping the Prosciutto in a pan that has been heated to medium-high and drizzled with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Drop the strips into the oil and give them a stir so they don't stick. Cook until they're crisp - about 10 minutes - then remove to a plate.
• Toss the zucchini coins in olive oil, salt, and pepper and lay them out on a cookie sheet. Roast in the oven at 450 for about 15 minutes or until they are nice and browned. If it's too hot outside to turn on your oven, just do them on the grill.
• Cook the onion and garlic in the same pan as the Prosciuitto (adding more oil if needed). If you have a little extra time, it's nice to cook the garlic first separately, letting it get perfectly brown, and then set it aside with the Prosciutto. Then do the onion until nicely browned. If you're a little more rushed, cook the onion until it starts to brown on the edges, then add the garlic and do the same.
• When the pasta is done, toss it with the onion, garlic, Prosciutto, oil from the pan, oregano, and a generous amount of grated Parmesan. Top with the zucchini coins. It's great warm or cold.

Whole Wheat Penne with Spinach Pesto and Chickpeas

This past weekend when I took a pair of garden shears to my spinach patch I thought, why did I plant this - I don't really like spinach. I prefer chard and beet greens and kale, all of which are exploding in the garden and I can't think of how to eat them all before they bolt. Then a friend suggested spinach pesto, which she makes exactly like basil pesto. Spinach pesto, even if it turned out as boring as I think spinach often is, would be garlicky and lemony and freshy. A pasta dinner started coming together in my mind. We were thinking we'd grill some chicken to add a little protein, but our budget for meat was busted (we're trying to only eat animal products from local, organic, ethical farms, but since we're on a serious budget around here that means we can't afford to eat as many as we used to). Inspired by my favorite ceci bruschetta topping, I added the chickpeas instead. It's a winner - fast, cheap, healthy, and super-flavorful.

Whole Wheat Penne with Spinach Pesto and Chickpeas
serves 3 to 4
printable

For the Pesto:
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 cups (loosely packed) spinach, washed and dried well
1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup parmesan, grated

For the pasta:
1 pound whole wheat penne, or other short pasta
1 clove garlic, minced
1 15oz can of chickpeas (a.k.a garbanzo beans)
1 sprig rosemary (optional)
extra parmesan for garnish

• While the water for the pasta is heating, make the pesto (or substitute store-bought basil pesto) by first grinding the garlic with a little salt and pepper in a food processor. Then add the spinach and lemon and grind again. Add the cheese and drizzle in the oil a little at a time until it is the consistency you like.
• In a small frying pan on medium heat, saute one garlic clove in a little olive oil until it just starts to brown.
• Add the (drained) chickpeas and the rosemary sprig. Cook, stirring only a few times, until the chickpeas have browned a bit - about 10 minutes.
• Toss the pasta with the pesto, chickpeas, and salt and pepper. Garnish with more parm. It's great warm or cold.

Orecchiette with Hearty Greens and Spicy Sausage

I didn't mean to have two posts in a row with the sausage/pasta/greens combination, but three things are at work here: 1) I love this combination 2) I have a small garden of mostly hearty greens and they are bursting out of their boxes, begging me to pick and eat them 3) I wasn't going to post this at all, but it turned into one of the best, fast dinners that we've made in a while. This is really just a variation on the Sausage Pasta that I've already posted, but see #3 above.

Orecchiette with Hearty Greens & Sausage
serves 4
printable version

1 regular onion, sliced
4 gloves of garlic, sliced
4 hot Italian sausages, casings removed (or a little less than a pound of bulk sausage)
4 cups (2 big handfuls) hearty greens like Kale or Chard, rinsed and cut into small pieces (sometimes you can find "braising mix" in the grocery store and that would be perfect)
1 pound Orecchiette, or other short pasta like Penne
plenty of grated Parmesan cheese

• Put a pot of water on for the pasta.
• In a large pan, saute the onions in a few tablespoons of olive oil (over medium heat, so they brown but don't burn), stirring often. When most of the edges are beginning to brown, add the garlic and saute that until it starts to brown.
• Add the sausage to the onions and garlic, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. If the sausage is cooked through before the pasta is in the water, turn off the heat and set it aside.
• When the pasta has about 5 minutes left to cook, add the greens to the pan (if you took it off the heat, turn it back on when the pasta goes in the water). Cook the greens while the pasta finishes.
• Drain the pasta and toss it with the sausage mixture.
• Serve sprinkled generously with salt, pepper, and grated Parm.

Simple (but so good) Chard and Sausage Lasagna

When I cooked at The Still Life in Fremont I had a love/hate relationship with lasagna as the lunch special. Love because it's easy (serve with salad, done) and endlessly adaptable to what's on hand or in season. Hate because half the time it turned out a little too wet and slippery and made for terrible presentation. Then I learned a trick: don't cook the noodles ahead of time, and I mean regular lasagna noodles, not the no-cook kind. When the noodles cook right in the dish with everything else, they soak up a lot of the liquid so a lasagna with vegetables doesn't turn into a sloppy mess. The recipe below includes sausage and chard, but you can use just about anything (pre-cooked) for the "flavor layer" - butternut squash, zucchini, chicken, ground beef, mushrooms, and on and on. We make a 9x13 pan for dinner and freeze the leftovers for emergencies, a.k.a. nights when we're too tired to cook.

Lasagna with Chard and Sausage
makes roughly 8 servings

6 cups cups tomato sauce (about 1 1/2 jars)
11/2 pounds mozzarella, grated
1 cup grated parmesan
1 15 oz container of ricotta
15 dried, regular lasagna noodles
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large bunch of chard (or other hearty greens)
1 pound hot italian sausage, out of the casing

• Preheat the oven to 375.
• Saute the onion in a little olive oil until the edges start to brown. Add the garlic and saute until its edges are just starting to brown. 
• Add the sausage and cook until done, breaking it up into small pieces as you go.
• Cut the chard into thin strips and give it a rinse. Add this to the sausage and onions in the pan. Cook until wilted. This is your flavor layer.
• Combine the parm and mozzarella and divide into three piles (the third one a little bigger than the other 2).
• Heat up and doctor the sauce however you'd like. It's annoying that 1 jar of store-bought sauce is too little and 2 is too much. I use 1 jar, a can of tomatoes, about 1/2 a cup of red wine that's been reduced, and a bunch of herbs to make about 6 cups. 
• Set aside 2 cups of sauce for the final layer. If you are running short in the middle layer your can skimp on sauce, but you can't skimp on the top layer or the trick of the uncooked noodles won't work.
• Follow this order to layer the lasagna into a 9x13 pan: sauce, noodles set down the short way (break off the ends to make them fit), sauce, flavor layer, ricotta (don't bother spreading it, just drop it down in little lumps), cheese, noodles, sauce, flavor layer, ricotta, cheese, noodles.

 

• For the top, use a generous amount of sauce and make sure that all of the top noodles are covered. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. 
• Bake covered for 45 minutes (do your best to tent the foil a little so it's not resting on the cheese), then remove the foil and bake until the top is browned - usually 15 minutes more. I put a sheet pan on the rack below to catch any drips of bubbling sauce.
• Let it cool for 15 minutes before serving or it will goo all over and burn the roof of your mouth. I set the timer and make myself wait. Portion it out for leftovers the next day when it's cold.

Carbonara

I love Carbonara. First of all, what's not to like? It's a simple pasta made of eggs, cured pork (guanciale, pancetta, or bacon), Parmesan or Romano cheese, and black pepper. Second, I have a double dose of nostalgia for this dish. When I was growing up one of my most favorite dinners was one Mom called Bacon Spaghetti. She laughed to hear that is was my favorite because it was something she made when she was feeling broke and the cupboards were a little lean. It wasn't until I went to Rome in college that I realized that Bacon Spaghetti was really Spaghetti alla Carbonara. As I continued to travel in Europe I had Carbonara almost every time I saw it on a menu. In Italy, it is often came as a swirl of creamy, salty, perfect spaghetti with a raw egg yolk floating in the center. The second it arrives at the table you stir in the yolk.

The night we made this we splurged and bought guanciale (cured pork jowl) from Sea Breeze Farms and, though not necessary, it made it extra good.

Pasta alla Carbonara

serves 4

1 poound spaghetti or bucatini

8 oz. cured pork (guanciale, pancetta, or bacon)

1 egg and 3 yolks
1 cup finely grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, plus extra for garnish

black pepper and/or red chili flakes

• Put your pasta water on to boil. This dinner comes together very quickly.
• Cut the bacon into cubes and cook in a pan until just starting to brown. Sprinkle generously with fresh cracked pepper and a pinch of red chili flakes. Continue to cook until the pork is light brown (about 2 or 3 minutes more).  If you're using pancetta or guanciale, add a little olive oil and be careful not to over-brown - they have less fat and are a little more sensitive to temperature than bacon
• Remove the pan from the heat and let cool while you wait for the pasta.
• When the pasta has about 5 minutes left, put the eggs, 1 cup of the cheese, and everything from the bacon pan, including the fat and the pepper, in a largish bowl. Using a fork, beat the heck of this mixture. It should be really well combined and maybe a little like a paste.
• When the pasta is done, scoop out about a half cup of the pasta water, drain the pasta, and quickly add it to the bowl. Use your fork to mix everything together. Add a little pasta water bit by bit until the sauce is silky. Using very hot pasta and hot pasta water, is important so that the eggs are tempered.

Roasted Tomato Pasta (sort of Amatriciana Sauce)

This is a perfect pasta for late Summer or for when some hothouse in B.C. is cranking out so many tomatoes that they're on super sale at the grocery store. Once they're roasted the tomatoes freeze well and are great to use on pizza, in dip, on a sandwich - so many things. This is basically an Amatriciana sauce - tomatoes, red chili flakes, and bacon or pancetta - though it would usually be served on spaghetti or bucatini (my new favorite). If you have the tomatoes on hand it only takes about 15 minutes to make. It's a great go to dinner - rich, spicy, simple, satisfying, and fresh.

Oops, too good to wait for the photo.

Roast Tomato Pasta
serves 4

5 pounds (about 15) ripe tomatoes
olive oil
salt & pepper
8 garlic cloves (papery skin still on)
4 slices of good bacon or equivalent of pancetta
2 generous pinches of red chili flakes
1/2 an onion, sliced
1 lb pasta
Parmesan cheese

• Cut the tomatoes into eighths and spread them onto two sheet pans with the garlic cloves. I use a non-stick liner to make clean-up easier, but tin foil or parchment paper will work also. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper, and then toss to coat.
• Roast in the oven at 325 degrees for about 2 hours - until they are dark, but not burned. I know that's a long time, but you can make these on the weekend, store them in the fridge for a couple of weeks or freezer for a couple of months, and you'll have the toms ready for whenever you want them.
• Scrape the tomatoes and any good pan juices into a bowl. Peel the garlic, mush it with the back of a spoon, and mix it in with the tomatoes.
• Put on your pasta water. I set a half cup measuring cup next to the pot to remind me to take out some of the pasta water before draining. This is the only way I ever remember to do it.
• In a frying pan, cook the bacon until brown but not hard.
• Add the onion and cook until it starts to brown, then add the chili flakes and cook for about 2 minutes more. Set aside.
• Cook the pasta and before draining take out about half a cup of the salty, gluteny water. 
• Add the pasta to the bacon and stir in the tomatoes. Stir in the pasta water a bit at a time. If you forget this step, don't worry about it, it just smooths the sauce a little and helps it coat the pasta better.

Twice-a-Year Macaroni & Cheese

I feel like I've been working on a Mac & Cheese recipes for ages. It's a hard one to test because it's so rich you really can't eat it more than once a month (at least I can't and that's saying something). I do have a plan to make a lighter, less health-devastating Mac (what one of my my aunts would call French-style), but that's not what I was in the mood for when I was working on this one. I call this Twice-a-Year Mac because it's seriously rich, but seriously delicious. So many Macs that I've had (and made) are too dry. The cheese and sauce are sucked into the noodles and you get good flavor, but not good sauce. I finally let go of the basic recipe I started from (Martha's) and tried some real experiments and - Voila! - it came together. I have Brussel Sprout and Kale Salad on the side so I don't feel quite so guilty.

Macaroni & Cheese

serves about 6

4 T butter

4 T flour

3 cups whole milk

2 cups grated jack cheese

2 cups grated Swiss cheese
4 oz cream cheese, cubed

1/2 t garlic granules

1/2 t paprika

1/2 t mustard powder

salt & pepper to taste

1 pound of noodles (anything short)

2 cups bread crumbs* combined with 2 T melted butter

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• The sauce takes about the same amount of time as it takes for water to boil and pasta to cook, so have that going while you work on the rest. It's best if the pasta is al dente since it's going in the oven at the end.
• Over medium heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large pan (you can cook the whole dish in this pan if you have one big enough). When the butter is bubbling, sprinkle the flour over the top and whisk it well to combine. Keep whisking until the flour is light brown. Pour in the milk and stock and whisk like crazy. Ok, you made the roux, that's the only hard part.
• Sprinkle the spices over the milk/roux sauce and blop in the cream cheese. Stir until the cream cheese is mostly melted. 
• Sprinkle in the jack and Swiss (or Gruyere if you feel like splurging) while stirring until melted. Keep the heat on the low side or the cheese might separate.
• Stir in the al dente noodles and top with the breadcrumbs and Parmesan.
• Put this in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes. If the top isn't golden and the Parm melted, broil it for a few more minutes.
• Let it stand for about five minutes before serving or you will burn the you-know-what out of your mouth.

* The best bread crumbs for this are homemade and cut like a small crouton. I take the crusts off of a few pieces of sourdough bread and cut them into cubes. Then I toast them in the oven while I'm grating my cheese. If you use really fine bread crumbs you'll probably only need about a cup.

Slow-cooked Leek and Proscuitto Pasta

That Jamie Oliver, he sure has a way with leeks. My Leek and Chick Pea Soup (that is pretty much everyone's favorite on this blog) was adapted from his recipe and now I had another adaption of one of his - Slow-cooked Leek and Proscuitto Pasta. This is so crazy good I lick my plate when we have it. I suggest making a huge batch of the slow-cooked leeks and keeping them on hand (they'll keep in the fridge for a week or two and would probably freeze fine, but I never have them around long enough to test that) for pasta or for an even faster version of the soup. This is a very monochromatic dish so I've been holding off posting it in hopes of having a good picture. Oh well, it's too good to keep secret any longer.

Slow-cooked Leeks & Prosciutto Pasta
serves 4
printable version

4 leeks
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 c chicken stock
1 c dry white wine
4-6 slices of prosciutto
1 pound rigatoni, penne, or similar pasta
grated Parmesan

• Prep the leeks by cutting off the root end and the green top (I use the green up until it gets stiff, but leek purists don't use any green). Slice them lengthwise and then into thin half-moons. Leeks can have dirt in between their tight layers so I rinse mine well and then dry them in a salad spinner.
• In a wide, deep frying pan, melt the butter and heat the oil (the bit of oil keeps the butter from browning). Add the leeks and garlic and saute for about 10 minutes or until you are just starting to see browning.
• Add the wine and stock and then lay the slices of prosciutto over the top (see the photo above). You can substitute salami or ham, you'll just need enough to cover the leeks.
  
• Reduce to a simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Do a couple checks to make sure the leeks aren't sticking, but don't stir in the prosciutto. If it seems like the pan is drying out you can put a lid half on and/or add a little water.
• Prepare your pasta while the leeks are simmering.
  
• Remove the prosciutto and slice it into thin pieces. Stir this into the leeks.
• Toss the leeks with the cooked pasta, top with Parm. and you're done.
  

Pasta with Artichoke Hearts, Roasted Tomatoes, and Red Onions

There was a lot of pressure on last night's dinner. The night before we had a disaster dinner. We'd gone to see Julie & Julia and, since we didn't have time to make Boeuf Bourguignon, we decided to splurge on the ingredients for a really good Carbonara. If I hadn't burned the pancetta into gross little bits of fat/stryofoam I would be putting that recipe on right now (it's so rich and easy). So then, last night as I was throwing together a pantry pasta to go with the best, simplest grilled chicken (I'll turn that into a link soon) I was worried that it would flop again (we had bad burritos earlier in the week and once in a while we go on a stretch of disaster dinners).
Nope, this is one of our new favorites.

Pasta with Artichoke Hearts, Roasted Tomatoes, and Red Onions
serves 2 as a main or more as a side

1 can artichoke heart quarters
1 can of fire-roasted tomatoes, or (even better) equivalent of home-roasted tomatoes (that will also be a link soon)
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
1/2 of a red onion, thinly sliced
a sprig or 2 of fresh rosemary
3/4 pound short pasta (Penne or similar)
Parmesan cheese for on top
lots of olive oil, salt, & pepper

• Start this super-fast sauce when you put the pasta in the water. Most short pastas cook in about 10 minutes and that's about how long this sauce takes.
  
• In a large pan, saute the onion in a good bit of olive oil (a little more than is really necessary because this will be part of the sauce) until it is just starting to brown. Add the garlic and saute until it's also starting to brown.
• Add the rosemary, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. If you're using canned tomatoes, cook out some of the liquid before adding the artichoke hearts.
• When the pasta is done you can either snag about a 1/4 of the cooking liquid and add it to the sauce or just do a bad job of draining it and enough liquid will still be with the pasta. Either way, add the pasta and some of the cooking liquid into the sauce.
• Check the salt and pepper levels and adjust as needed.
  
• Once you plate it, sprinkle generously with grated Parm.
• This is perfect side for best, simplest grilled chicken (link soon), or as a vegetarian dinner (Hi Kelly).

(Fake) Saltimboca

Oops, blog burnout. Ok, really it was recipe testing burn out. I had one too many nights getting off work at 8pm, rushing home, scribbling notes as I furiously cooked dinner, and then trying to take photos (while starving) and sitting down to eat at 9:30. That's no good. The recipe didn't even work that last night two weeks ago because the above is really a recipe for a disaster dinner (and arguments about camera settings).
To get back into the swing of things I thought I'd post a super simple variation on the pasta dish I always make. This one is inspired by Saltimboca, which I love, but is too time consuming for a weeknight. It usually involves pounding chicken into thin pieces (or paillards), then attaching prosciutto and sage leaves to it before flouring and frying in a pan. Seriously, it's so good. This dinner takes my favorites flavors from Saltimboca, but with a throw-it-all-together method.

(Fake) Saltimboca
(serves about 4)
2 chicken breasts
1 small, yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
4 prosciutto slices, cut into thin strips
4 - 6 fresh sage leaves, minced
juice of 1 lemon
4 cups short pasta (usually penne, measured before cooking)
a generous handful of fresh spinach cut into thin strips
sprinkles of Parmesan (optional)
salt and pepper to taste, of course

• Start the pasta water. On my stove is usually takes 30 minutes (from cold water to straining) to cook penne, so the timing is just about right.
• Cut the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. If you feel like taking the extra time to cut these thin it will cook faster and be a little more Saltimboca-y.
• In a largish, high-sided frying pan, saute the onion in a bit of olive oil until it just starts to brown. Add the garlic and saute until it is just starting to brown.
• Add the chicken pieces and prosciutto* and saute for about five minutes - they just need to get some color, they'll continue to cook through the rest of the preparation.
• Hopefully your pasta water is ready. Throw in a generous pinch of salt and the pasta.
• Add the spinach and lemon to the pan and stir this around as the pasta finishes cooking. It's ready when the spinach is cooked and most of the liquid is gone.
• Toss with the pasta and sprinkle with a little parmesan. Yum!

*If you have time, the prosciutto is even better if you crisp it before starting anything else. Just saute it in the pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. When the strips are crisp (almost like bacon, which would be a fine substitution) set them aside on a plate and start at the beginning of the recipe. Add the prosciutto when you mix in the pasta.

Pasta with Chorizo, Red Peppers & Queso Fresco

One of the main staples of our dinner repertoire is a very simple dish we call "Sausage Pasta." It started as a combination of two pasta recipes - one with sausage and onions (which required a side dish and I'm usually too lazy to make a side), and one with broccoli and parmesan (good as a side, but...). I'll post that recipe soon, but here's a variation I've had bouncing around as an idea for ages and the result is delicious. The basic idea is almost too easy to be good - sauteed onions and garlic, some sort of sausage, any short pasta, a complimentary vegetable, and a cheese to top it off. There is a dinner out there for pretty much every sausage flavor (maybe not brats...).

Pasta with Chorizo, Red Peppers & Queso Fresco
1 regular onion, sliced (or 2 of the small ones that come in the bulk bags - such a deal)
4 gloves of garlic, sliced
4 chorizo sausages, casings removed (or a little less than a pound of bulk sausage)
1 red bell pepper, sliced into about 1 inch pieces
1 t cumin
1 T oregano (fresh when possible)
hot sauce (we like Cholula) to jazz it up a bit
about 4 cups of uncooked rigatoni or penne
Queso Fresco*
cilantro

• Put a pot of water on for the pasta.
• In a large pan, saute the onions in a few tablespoons of olive oil (over medium heat, so they brown but don't burn), stirring often. When most of the edges are beginning to brown, add the garlic and saute that until it starts to brown.
• Add the chorizo to the onions and garlic, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks. You may have to add a bit more oil, but the chorizo will release its fat any second now so add sparingly.
• Add the cumin and oregano.
• Have the pepper ready so that when the pasta goes into the water you can add it to the sausage mixture. If you have good brown bits stuck to the pan, splash just a little of the pasta water into the pan and scrape them up.
• When the pasta is cooked, toss it with the sausage mixture, and some hot sauce to taste.
• Serve sprinkled with the cheese and cilantro.

*I'm going to test cheddar or maybe asiago- Queso Fresco is $8 a package around here and that's a little rich for my blood.