Five cheeses. Need I say more? I didn’t think so.

• Al Forno’s Penne with Tomato, Cream and Five Cheeses •
from Food52.com

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup chopped canned tomatoes in heavy puree
1/2 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano cheese, (1 1/2 ounces)
1/2 cup coarsely shredded (1 1/2 ounces) Fontina cheese
1/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, (1 1/2 ounces)
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
1/4 pound thinly sliced mozzarella cheese
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for pasta water
6 fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
1 pound penne rigate or conchiglie rigate
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, sliced thinly

Notes:
1. I couldn’t find diced tomatoes in heavy puree, so I used San Marzano diced tomatoes, and added 2 tablespoons tomato paste to thicken the sauce.
2. For the mozzarella, I used the a quarter pound of fresh mozzarella, grated. 
3. It might seem like 4 minutes is not enough time to parboil the pasta, that’s how I felt. I cooked my pasta for 5 minutes, 4 would have been fine but 5 works too.
4. This dish may take more than 10 minutes to cook, mine took about 15. Some ovens don’t quite go up to 500 degrees, or you might not be patient enough to let it pre-heat properly. When it’s bubbly all over, it’s ready. 

Heat oven to 500 degrees.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the pasta and butter. Stir well to combine.
Drop the pasta into the boiling water and parboil for 4 minutes. Drain in a colander and add to the ingredients in the mixing bowl, tossing to combine.
Divide the pasta mixture among six to eight shallow ceramic gratin dishes (1 1/2 to 2 cups in capacity) or place in a shallow (1-inch*) layer in larger baking dishes. Dot with the butter, and bake until bubbly and brown on top, 7 to 10 minutes. 
Serve with a simple salad.

*This is imperative if using a larger dish.

Chicken (or tofu) Satay is a great make-ahead for a quick dinner dish, because it only needs to broil for 6-10 minutes, and because a broiler doesn’t generally take very long to heat.

Another plus is that the chicken or tofu needs to marinate, which it might as well do while you’re out of the house. I let ours marinate at room temperature so we wouldn’t have and fridge-chilledness adding to our cooking time.

I used this recipe from the food network. I was really happy with the results of the chicken. Rose and Shane loved it, even without the peanut sauce.

The recipe ratings warn that the peanut sauce is nothing to write home about. I pimped it out a bit, with some extra ingredients, and it was good, but not mind-blowing.

Peanut sauce should always be mind-blowing, don’t you think? If you’ve got a good recipe to share, please do. This meal could easily become a make-ahead favorite with the right sauce.

To prep this meal, start by soaking the wooden skewers in water. Make the marinade, slice up the chicken and/or tofu and put them in to soak. I recommend soaking the chicken and tofu separately. Make the peanut sauce and clean and chop your veggies. Skewer the chicken and tofu, lay out on a tray that will fit in your broiler, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature, until ready to cook.

If you don’t have time during the day, you could easily do everything the night before and leave the skewers out on the counter in the morning.

To get this meal on the table in 10-15 minutes, turn on the broiler the moment you get home. Remove sides and sauce from fridge and put out on dinner table. Uncover the skewers and broil for 3-5 minutes per side until cooked through. Check every three minutes to be safe. Serve as soon as they’re done.

Remember kale, before it was a trendy superfood? You know, back in the late 90’s and early 00’s when you could sometimes, but not always, find it at Whole Foods. Back when Whole Foods was sometimes called Bread & Circus, and carbs were unfashionable.

Back then, I’d be in the mood for a hearty, dark green and I’d stop by Whole Foods (or Bread & Circus), hoping to find the lumpy kind of kale, rather than the curly kind. The lumpy kind was sometimes called Dinosaur kale, that was before it got all famous, and decided it preferred the superstar moniker, Lacinato.

I don’t mean to rail against kale, I actually do like the stuff, and I know how good it is for me. But I’m a little tired of it, we overindulged this summer. I’m over raw kale salad. I’ve had enough green smoothies (that’s approximately one, btw).

So what to do with the two big bunches of Dinosaur (Lacinato, Tuscan etc.) kale from my CSA box? What we did at the turn of the century, of course, cook it! That’s right, I said cook, over heat, until it’s chewably soft… and delicious!

With our kale—which Rose and I devoured and Shane graciously declined—we had some nice dairy-filled gluten, with a quick sauce, made from fresh CSA plum tomatoes.

• Basic Sautéed Kale •

1 bunch kale
a few glugs of olive oil
a couple of cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
a pinch of red pepper flakes
salt

Wash the kale well, cut out the tough stems and cut the leaves into 1″ strips. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add smashed garlic cloves and cook until fragrant but not too brown, a minute or two, add red pepper flakes and kale. Cook, stirring frequently, until kale leaves are wilted and soft enough to chew without overexerting yourself, and bright green. Season with salt, to taste and serve.

For the latest in our make-ahead series, I give you Sausagey (or not Sausagey) Baked Rigatoni. I used this recipe as a starting point, and then changed it a lot.

My adapted recipe (below) makes it easy to put aside a non-sausage portion of the dish, uses homemade sauce instead of jarred, and, of course, increases the amount of cheese.

This recipe calls for Marcella Hazan’s famous (and easy!) tomato sauce. Marcella died this week, at the age of 89. She was a really interesting and amazing person, and a household name in my family. If you don’t know about Marcella, go to this link where you can read and/or listen to learn more about her. Or, you know, use Google.

• Sausagey (or not) Baked Rigatoni •
adapted from this recipe from epicurious

20-30 minutes prep, 15-20 minutes to bake*

1/2 lb rigatoni or mezze rigatoni
1/2 lb fresh mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese
2 sweet Italian sausages
1 1/2 – 2 cups Marcella’s Famous Sauce*
olive oil

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook your rigatoni until al dente, drain, rinse under cold water to stop cooking, and set aside. 

While the pasta is cooking, cut the sausages into pieces and cook over medium-low heat, poking and stirring with a wooden spoon, until crumbled and cooked through. Take half of the fresh mozzarella (1/4 lb) and cut it into cubes, about 1/2″ size. Grate the remaining mozzarella and set aside.

Return the cooked pasta to the pot. Stir in 1 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, if it looks not saucy enough for you, add another 1/2 cup. Stir in Pecorino or Parmesan and the mozzarella cubes. Season with pepper and a little salt (the sausage will add salt as well, so you can skip the salt if you want).**

Oil one or two shallow baking dishes with olive oil. You’ll want to use a shallow dish to keep the cooking time short. A 9 or 10″ pie dish works fine. If you are also making a vegetarian portion, oil a second dish. I just made a single vegetarian portion, so a small oven-proof dish plus a 9″ pie plate worked perfectly. If you are doing half-veg and half meat, use two, smaller, equally-sized dishes.

If making a vegetarian portion, scoop some of the pasta, sauce and cheese mixture into a prepared baking dish and set aside. Add the crumbled sausage to the remaining pasta mixture and put that in another prepared dish. Sprinkle grated mozzarella evenly over the top of the pasta.

If you plan to bake this another day, cover with greased foil and freeze or refrigerate until ready to cook. Bring to room temperature before baking. Otherwise, heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake, uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes until it’s bubbling and the cheese on top is melted. Let cool for a couple of minutes and serve.

*I like to make a batch of Marcella’s sauce, divide it into smaller portions and keep it in the freezer. If you are making the sauce fresh, add 45 minutes for sauce prep time. You can also use a favorite jarred sauce, though I can’t vouch for the results.

**You might find that the vegetarian version needs a little salt added at the table.

A couple of lovely readers reminded me, via facebook, about Chicken & Rice. Quick, easy, kid-friendly, it’s a no-brainer.

I’d planned to make chicken and Japanese salad turnips tonight, but didn’t have any particular recipe in mind. Their reminder inspired me to replicate this meal exactly (except for the tofu). Thanks for the inspiration ladies!