Cacio e Pepe with Homemade Arugula Pasta

A colorful twist on a classic cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper pasta) with homemade arugula spaghetti and toasted pine nuts on top.

The pasta gets its stunning color from fresh baby arugula, blanched and pureed and mixed right into the dough. I mean, there’s an entire bag of arugula in one 4-serving batch, so it’s basically a salad, right?

Cacio e pepe is a classic Italian recipe, simply prepared with little more than cheese and pepper. It’s the pasta recipe we turn to when we don’t have anything else to cook (or simply don’t feel like cooking it).

The trick is in the starchy water, which you reserve from the pasta pot and add to the saucepan with the butter, pepper, pasta and cheese. The starch in the water emulsifies with the cheese into a perfectly creamy sauce.

Now, let me just say it doesn’t always work. Sometimes the cheese likes to clump rather than melt (but the result is still plenty tasty). We’ve found that adding the pasta to the saucepan first, then sprinkling the cheese over top, helps it to melt more evenly. Add a splash or two more of pasta water and keep stirring over low heat until the cheese is melted and the sauce appears cloudy throughout.

Another tip? Grate your cheese very finely. Use the fine side of your cheese grater or even a microplane if you have one. This helps the cheese melt quickly and evenly.

The gorgeous homemade spaghetti noodles are naturally colored with fresh arugula. One 4-serving batch contains an entire bag of fresh baby arugula (how’s that for getting your daily dose of leafy greens?)

The final pasta, however, doesn’t carry the sharp bitter taste of arugula, just the gorgeous verdant color. You can also use fresh baby spinach here too, it’d work just as well.

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Sweet Potato Kale Homemade Baby Food Pouch Recipe

Drunken Monkey Bread

You’ll go ape wild for this boozy twist on a traditional monkey bread recipe, with bite sized bobbles of homemade brioche dipped in cinnamon sugar and smothered in bourbon banana caramel, then baked until bubbling and crispy around the edges.

Sticky sweet and drunk with flavor, this boozy monkey bread features a banana caramel sauce spiked with a generous dose of bourbon (hence the name) and a scratch-made brioche that’s pillowy soft and oh-so-good. Make the dough the night before and assemble it in the morning of for a perfect brunch for a bunch (one pan easily serves 10 to 12).

Monkey bread gets its name by the method in which it is eaten: picking off chunks of buttery, gooey dough with your fingers not unlike a monkey grooming his buddy (which is actually a weird thing to name a food after, if you really think about it.)

I figured, it’s called monkey bread, it should have some banana in it. And if monkey bread is good, drunken monkey bread would be even better, so let’s add some bourbon to the mix too (the alcohol pretty much all bakes out in the oven, however it can be replaced by a smaller amount of vanilla if you need something family friendly).

The pièce de résistance is the caramel sauce: sweet and sticky and boozy, like bananas foster in sauce form (and in fact, if drunken monkey bread wasn’t such a fabulous name, I would’ve called it Bananas Foster Monkey Bread).

This caramel sauce is what brings the whole thing together. It’s poured over the raw balls of brioche so they bake up extra sticky and gooey, and also lusciously drizzled on top of the whole thing; there’s even enough leftover for dipping and dunking.

Really, you can’t have too much of this caramel.

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Cheesy Chicken Parmesan Pasta Bake

Your favorite chicken parmesan is now an easy-to-make pasta bake! Full of melty mozzarella cheese and a simple, flavorful tomato sauce, this satisfying weeknight dinner recipe might just be a new family favorite!

There’s a reason why chicken parmesan is an Italian-American classic. I mean, you really can’t go wrong with chicken, tomato sauce, and melty cheese. This recipe takes those same bold flavors and adds pasta. It’s like a mix between lasagna, chicken parmesan, and a nice and melty mac ‘n cheese (complete with the bubbly mozzarella and toasted breadcrumbs on top for added crunch).

This recipe was created in partnership with Delallo®, our go-to brand for authentic Italian flavor, including pastas, sauces, and specialty imports.

In terms of weeknight dinner recipes, this one checks all the boxes: an easy recipe that yields plenty of leftovers (kill two meals with one recipe? I’m in!) and is ready to eat in under an hour (though only half of that time requires your active attention, so I’d still consider it a quick recipe.)

The whole dish is assembled on the stovetop, the pasta boiled in one pan and the shortcut homemade tomato sauce cooked in the same pan as the chicken, and then layered in a baking dish with plenty of shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. We’ve topped it with a sprinkle of Panko breadcrumbs and a dash of Italian seasoning for good measure.

Taylor loves recipes like this that finish in the oven: it means he’s able to get all the dishes completely done (all of two pots and one spoon needed to make this) before we even sit down to enjoy a hot meal.

Because the ingredients list is so minimal, it’s important that each ingredient be the best and most flavorful you can find. Take tomato puree, for instance. They are not all created equal. DeLallo’s new Passata Rustica Rich Tomato Purée is thick, velvety and robust, about as close as you can get to a ripe summer tomato in a can (excuse me, jar – and what a gorgeous jar it is!) It’s easily the best canned tomato purée I’ve ever tried.

A tomato purée this good really doesn’t need much to become a luscious tomato sauce: a bit of garlic and onion, fresh basil, and some salt and pepper and that’s about it. Talk about an easy homemade tomato sauce in no time.

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Loaded Mexican Pizza

Black Sesame Swirl Banana Bread

Classic banana bread gets a bold new ‘do, with striking swirls of black sesame-tinted batter and a crispy, sugar crusted top.

It might look like marble rye, but the flavor is banana through and through. The black sesame adds a hint of nuttiness and depth; it’s an unexpected pairing with the banana, although if you think about it, peanut butter and banana work so well together, and sesame is just a step away.

I was inspired by some extra ripe bananas and Bon Appetit’s Black Sesame Swirl Tea Cake, the main difference here being my cake, er, bread, has bananas in it and thus is perfectly suitable for breakfast (score!)

Ultimately the black sesame swirls are more for dramatic effect, as the sesame flavor is quite subtle in the final product. Although the hint of savory nuttiness adds a little extra something to this recipe, making it more than just an ordinary banana bread.

My perfect banana bread is moist but not undercooked, dense and yet still somehow fluffy, with a crunchy top and tender middle and lots of ripe banana flavor.

This one ticks all the boxes and then some.

(Ok, my perfect banana bread usually has chocolate chips in it too, but in this case the sesame swirls are a suitable replacement.)

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Pretty Simple Cooking Reviews & Virtual Dinner Party!

Order the book!

It’s been nearly 4 months since our Pretty Simple Cooking cookbook was born! In that time, our world has been rocked. We’ve cooked live on the TODAY Show! The cookbook was named as one of Epicurious’s top vegetarian cookbooks. We were featured everywhere from Bon Appetit to Oprah.com (Oprah!). Alex, Larson and I traveled to SEVEN cities on book tour and met some of you along the way. You joined us for an epic worldwide virtual dinner party. There are almost 100 Amazon reviews for the book (if you’ve left a review, THANK YOU!).

Also BIG NEWS: we’ve had so much positive feedback, we’re having another virtual dinner party! We’d like to personally invite you to our virtual Pretty Simple Dinner Party, Summer Edition on August 18–scroll down for details!

Pretty Simple Cooking–your reviews!

The absolute best part of Pretty Simple Cooking is not the press mentions–it’s hearing from YOU! We wrote this book for you, and hearing that you are making and loving the recipes makes us jump for joy (literally). Here are some comments we’ve been receiving from you: real people who are making real recipes:

“This book is a love letter to food if I’ve ever read one.” –Reba

“I got my book yesterday and made the Smoky Lentil Stew. AMAZING. The book is fantastic and one of the best vegetarian cookbooks I have to date.” –Mollie

“I love Pretty Simple Cooking! I’ve made 11 recipes so far from it and all have been huge hits…especially the vegetarian nut loaf which I’m not going to lie, I was a little skeptical it was going to be as good as you claimed but we are 100% obsessed with it!!” –Connie

“I saw you and Alex on the Today Show—I ordered the book right away, and have been cooking my way through it. We bought a second copy for our daughter. I’m thrilled to say that she and her roomies are finally cooking instead of ordering pizza because your book is so user-friendly. Thank you for writing this book. It’s perfect.” –Meg

“I’ve fallen in love with your blog and recently your cookbook. My husband and I are newly married and value eating healthy, but it’s easy to feel like we have to fall into extremes (paleo, gluten free, etc.) in order to be truly healthy. Your recipes and writing are such a refreshing perspective on wholesome living. You value the process of food and cooking – which makes it all so fun!” –Abby

“My husband, ever the hummus and chickpea skeptic, said ‘Holy shit this is good!’ on the first bite of the Chickpea Shawarma Pita!” –Jane

“I made the portobello fajitas twice in the last few weeks and am obsessed. I’m 33 weeks pregnant and now this is what I crave for dinner!” –Katie

“After the first bite of The Best Veggie Lasagna, my daughter Ruby crawled on my husband’s lap and kept shoveling it in her mouth. It’s THAT good. Seriously, the best lasagna I’ve had! We made it for some friends we had over and they raved about it. I’m Italian and I’ve made a ton of different lasagnas, but this is hands down, by far, our favorite ever!” –Jess

“Made the green beans tonight. WOW!! Unedited quotes: “Mmmm.” “Can I have more?” “Was this in your Alex and Sonja book?” “Think I’ll save these for last.” (My son likes to save his fave food to eat last.) Of course there were none left because we all loved them so much. I’ll never make green beans the old way again! These recipes are seriously changing the way we eat!” –Adrienne

Will you join our virtual worldwide dinner party?

Do you remember our first virtual worldwide dinner party, the Pretty Simple Dinner Party? It was a dinner party with 350 hosts all over the world who ate dinner “together” virtually on the same night in February. Each of us made at least one recipe from Pretty Simple Cooking and shared it with at least one other person. We used a hashtag (#PrettySimpleDinnerParty) so we could see what parties all around the world were making. The energy was palpable! In the words of one dinner party host: “I’m obsessed with your cookbook. The recipes and pics are fab but even take a backseat to the beautiful message behind the words you’ve put to page. Can we please do the Pretty Simple Dinner Party again?” 

So…we’re doing it again! Mark your calendars: the Pretty Simple Dinner Party, Summer Edition is August 18! It gives us an excuse to eat the summer recipes from Pretty Simple Cooking and enjoy the beautiful produce in August. Do you want to host? Just email me at sonja@acouplecooks.com — details on what you need to do are below!

What is the Pretty Simple Dinner Party? The Pretty Simple Dinner Party is a national dinner party to celebrate good food and good people. In a time where we need unity and community, let’s celebrate coming together around the table!

What does a host do? To be a host, just cook dinner for at least one other person on Saturday, August 18 and make at least one recipe from Pretty Simple Cooking! You can eat dinner with your immediate family in your sweats, or dress up and invite a few friends! For summer, we’re seeing twinkle lights on the patio and frosé — am I right? Our goal is to make it fit into your lifestyle: it’s nothing more than eating delicious food with people you enjoy. Sharing on social media is optional, but last time we all shared our meals using the hashtag #PrettySimpleDinnerParty so we could see the parties all over the world! Alex and I will make live appearances that evening on social media so we can say hi to all of you joining us around the table! At our last party, some people got out their china and made a several course meal; others had a cozy brinner with their toddlers! Here’s what our Pretty Simple Dinner Party in February looked like.

How many parties are signed up? We currently have 56 dinner party hosts in 20 states in America and 7 different countries! See the map below! Our goal is at least one party in each of the 50 states, and 20 countries! 

How can I sign up to be a host? Email sonja@acouplecooks.com and say you’re interested in being a dinner party host.

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

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