Penne with Cannellini and Greens

For less than $10, you can make this healthy and economical pasta dish for your family.

Penne with Cannellini and Greens

We’ve all felt the pinch of inflation. Let’s be real; last year was a tough one. Higher grocery prices are challenging many families, and (sadly) some feel the grip more acutely than others. NBC news reported in September that grocery costs were up over 13 percent in the last year.

Like many of you, I tried to make my money work harder for me by picking up a few tricks and experimenting with some tasty (and economical) recipes. I’ll pass along the tips through the month with you, but here's a recipe I think is a keeper. Penne with Cannellini and Greens, inspired by a recipe from the Canned Food Alliance, will feed four or five adults for—get this—under $10! In addition, it’s healthier than most pasta dinners, comes together in about 30 minutes, and fills your tummy with good things.

Cooking more plant-based meals can shave your grocery bill. I’m trying to eat at least one or two meat-free dinners per week. When I do have beef, pork, fish, or chicken, I trim the portions and find recipes to make it go further.

Because I didn’t grow up eating meatless meals, I had to do a little homework and purchased a few vegetarian cookbooks from my favorite chefs. The experimentation has been fun!

Another trick to stretching your grocery budget is keeping a well-stocked and hard-working pantry. If you need any inspiration, several home cooks shared their must-have pantry ingredients a few years ago. Penne with Cannellini and Greens is a great pantry recipe. The beans are a healthy protein and give this dish a creamy richness. Parsley and a bit of grated Parmesan finish the recipe. Let’s get cooking!

To make Penne with Cannellini and Greens, which yields four or five servings, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 16 ounces penne (1 pound box)

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 5 garlic cloves, sliced

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 5 ounces mixed greens with arugula and spinach

• 1 (16-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

• 2/3 cup white wine

• ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped

• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan

• Salt and pepper to taste

While the pasta is cooking, bring a large skillet (the bigger, the better; this makes a lot of pasta) up to medium-high heat and add oil. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes; it will start to turn translucent. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute (watch the garlic doesn’t brown).

Add the greens; these will wilt quickly. The market’s produce section has tubs of different salad greens; I used an arugula and spinach mixed. If you find escarole, the original recipe included this.

Next come the wine, beans, and tomatoes with juice. Simmer about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I use my spider skimmer to transfer cooked pasta into the skillet. Stir in Parmesan and add a few tablespoons of the pasta water to create a light sauce. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. For extra richness (this is optional), add a tablespoon or two of butter.

If you don’t need four servings, cook ¾ of the pasta (about 12 ounces), but follow the rest of the recipe. Leftovers the next day are perfect for a lunch, but I wouldn’t recommend freezing this dish because of the delicate wilted greens.

This is a great weeknight dinner that’s light on the wallet and tummy. Honestly, after all the holiday sweets, roasts, casseroles, and so on, this was a welcome change for me. I hope you’ll give it a try; let me know in the comments below how your dish turned out. If you have a good vegetarian recipe to share with us, include that in the comments, too! We all need inspiration from time to time.

---

Looking for more hearty meatless dishes? Here are three for you to try!

Easy Zucchini Pie is a tasty part to brunch, lunch, or dinner, making use of this versatile vegetable that's available year-round. Another fast meal for a weeknight menu is Easy Baked Ravioli. Opt for the cheese-filled pasta and a simple marinara to keep it meatless. Tricolor Pasta with Roaster Butternut Squash is another meal that comes together in a flash. Save even more time by purchasing the squash already cleaned and cubed.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.

New Year Noodles (Toshikoshi Soba)

Buckwheat noodles in broth, the traditional Japanese welcome to a new year, are a tasty component to the Masaki family's festive Shōgatsu feast.

Homecook, Leslie Masaki, at her 2022 New Year table. The traditional table decorations include kagami mochi (foreground, left) that has two rice cakes and symbolizes longevity/long life.

For many of us, celebrating New Year’s Eve involves a house party with the typical appetizers and dips or maybe dinner and a movie. The younger crowd might opt for a night of drinks and dancing followed by an Uber ride home.

But at the Masaki home, New Year’s Eve is a varied banquet of Japanese delicacies lovingly prepared days in advance by the whole family. My good friend, Leslie Masaki, directs this culinary symphony. Each beautiful and detailed dish is rich in flavor and tradition. Leslie and husband, Stephen’s, New Year celebration is a feast for all the senses, and the St. Louis couple have shared it every year with friends and family since 2015, although they celebrated the new year in California in years past with his family.

Leslie and Stephen met while studying at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Their backgrounds couldn’t be more different. Stephen is a fourth-generation Japanese American who grew up in Hawaii. Leslie’s Jewish ancestors emigrated to the U.S. from Europe between 1860 and 1890. They have successfully blended their individual stories into a rich heritage for their two children, Hale (a college senior) and Sela (a high school senior), and this is evident around their family table.

She emphasizes, "in our #VeryAsian Jewish household, food is a mash-up of all things all the time.”

“We combine all of our traditions into whatever we’re doing, such as Matsurukkah, a mash-up of ‘festival’ in Japanese and Chanukah, where we eat traditional Japanese foods fried in oil for Chanukah. It’s usually yaki soba and tako yaki (ball-shaped Japanese snack made with okonomiyaki batter and filled with octopus in the center) with latkes,” she says.

New Year (Shōgatsu or Oshogatsu) is the most important holiday in Japan. All duties and responsibilities are completed by the end of the year so the new can begin fresh. Japanese celebrations begin New Year’s Eve and continue for three days. Leslie says prep for their celebration (not including shopping) starts three to five days before Dec. 31. And while New Year’s Eve is celebrated with friends and extended family, the remaining days of Oshogatsu is celebrated with their immediate family.

Happy New Year from the Masaki family, from left: Leslie, Hale, Sela, and Stephen. The entire family helps to prepare the feast of traditional Japanese and Hawaiian New Year foods. (Photo courtesy Leslie Masaki)

A mother's influence

An accomplished home cook, Leslie says her mother, Barbara Weil, introduced her to the kitchen.

“I was about 9 or 10,” Leslie says. “I distinctly remember being in the kitchen with her and learning the basics. Later, it expanded to learning traditional family recipes like brisket, chocolate ice box cake (a recipe from my great grandmother), and other holiday dishes like potato latkes.”

When Leslie and Stephen married, another matriarch—his mom, Betty Masaki—taught her about Japanese and Hawaiian cuisine. Betty was a culinary instructor for 35 years and often taught Japanese women in Japan and Hawaii how to make traditional food for New Year.

“Every time I was with her, I tried to learn three recipes,” Leslie says. “The lessons would begin with going to the Japanese grocery store and learning what to buy (before English was included on labels). I still buy those same brands today. Those lessons included preparing for New Year. I had the opportunity and honor of helping prepare for New Year multiple times. Now that she is gone, I consult with my sister-in-law, Jaynie Mitchell, if I have a question. We always compare our tables, which usually look very similar!”

And the New Year table in a Japanese home is very intentional in its preparation and presentation.

Osechi-ryōri are traditional Japanese New Year foods. Leslie says Osechi are easily recognizable by their special boxes called jūbako, which resemble bentō boxes. Like bentō boxes, jūbako are often kept stacked before and after use.

“Our table resembles Oshechi by using my lacquered boxes and antique Japanese dishes from Steve’s folks, other Japanese dishes, and my vintage Lazy Susan from my grandmother,” she says.

Hawaiian macaroni salad, sushi

Kuromame

Lotus root, crab, salmon

For the Masaki family, osechi-ryōri are:

• Black bean/Kuromame: くろまめ (koo-rō-mā-meh), represents good health and robust potential for the eater

• Lotus root/Renkon: レンコン (re-n-kō-n), boiled and sliced so that the delicate wheel of life shape is enhanced

• Burdock root/Gobo: ゴボウ (gō-bō), the roots strike deep into the soil, just like how family roots can be deeply set

• Rice cake/Mochi: もち (mō-chee), longevity/long life

• Bamboo shoot/Takenoko: たけのこ (tā-keh-nō-kō) believed to attract good luck and prosperity.

• Citrus orange/Dai dai: だいだい (da-yee-da-yee), generation to generation, good wishes for a strong and prosperous life

• Dried persimmon/Hoshigaki: ほしがき (hō-she-gā-kee), health and success in life, transformation

• New Year’s noodles/Toshikoshi soba: としこしそば (tō-she-kō-she-sō-bā), long noodles for long life, buckwheat noodles for strength and resiliency

• Mirror rice cake/Kagami mochi: かがみもち (kā-gā-mee-mō-chee), mochi gives strength, 2 mochi discs represent going and coming years/yin and yang/the human heart/the moon and sun, resembles old-style copper mirror, hence "mirror rice cake"

To that list, Leslie adds a selection of favorite Hawaiian New Year dishes like macaroni salad, teriyaki chicken, and some type of Jell-O. Seafood rounds out the traditional foods (Leslie offers fresh crab and house-smoked salmon).

Leslie’s New Year’s noodles/toshikoshi soba are inspired by recipes from the Japan Centre and Alton Brown—no surprise from the queen of mash-ups. While the noodles are the symbolic star of this dish, it’s the broth I love most. Savory and complex flavors are so comforting for a winter meal. I think it’s the marriage of complex with familiar that makes Asian cuisine so popular. Using St. Louis as an example, two of eight best restaurants that opened in 2022, according to Sauce magazine, are Asian eateries.

With the list of unfamiliar ingredients, Japanese cooking may seem daunting to many home cooks, but Leslie suggests getting a good cookbook like this one from the St. Louis chapter of Japanese American Citizens League. Learning where to source ingredients is another helpful tip.

The New Year’s noodles would be a good recipe to start with. Ingredients can be found locally either at your grocer, at an Asian grocery, or online. For example, Leslie uses a powder to start her dashi soup stock.

In addition to sharing their culinary heritage with friends, Stephen has directed the Seinen Kai food booth at the annual Japanese Festival since 1993. Their entire family pitches in to organize an army of volunteers and to make the yaki soba and okonomiyaki. Stephen and Leslie really are local culinary ambassadors. A St. Louis tradition since 1977, the festival is held over Labor Day weekend at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

This New Year, add their Toshikoshi Soba to your menu and begin 2023 with the intention to expand your table with food from other countries. Food, after all, is the gateway to discovering and respecting cultures different than our own.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.

Mini Eggnog and Fruit Scones

This festive scone recipe rings in seasonal goodness with dried apricots, cranberries, and rich eggnog.

Mini Eggnog and Fruit Scones

Remember when you were a kid at Christmas, and you opened that present you wished so hard for? You couldn’t wait to play with it, right? Funny how some things never change.

When I’m in a culinary store, I act like an 8-year-old in FAO Schwarz. While recently browsing The Kitchen Conservatory in St. Louis, I found a mini scone pan and knew I had to have it.

An obsession with these pastries has developed since taking a scone-making class with friends at The London Tea Room (also in St. Louis). In the class, what looked like large biscuit cutters fashioned the currant scones, but I’m partial to the triangular shaped pastry. Although it’s certainly possible to create these without a pan, it was too cute to pass up.

Mini eggnog scones with dried fruit are portioned in scone pan and brushed with milk ready to bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

New pan in hand, I searched Mom’s recipe box and found the card she’d clipped years ago for Festive Fruit Scones. I think it’s an old Taste of Home recipe; she loved that magazine. I changed a few ingredients, made a few tweaks, and added a glaze. My Mini Eggnog and Fruit Scones turned out beautifully (which is more than I can say for my kitchen afterwards). Let’s get baking!

To make my Mini Eggnog and Fruit Scones, which yields 16 mini scones, you’ll need these ingredients:

• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda

• 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed

• ¼ cup diced dried apricots

• ¼ cup dried cranberries, chopped

• ½ teaspoon grated orange peel

• ¾ cup eggnog

• 1 tablespoon milk

• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar

• Juice and zest of 1 mandarin orange

Directions to make Mini Eggnog and Fruit Scones

One of the reasons I’m into making scones is the ingredients are combined without a mixer. You will need a large bowl. In it, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt. You can cut in the butter using forks or a pastry cutter, but I like to get in there with my hands. And while we're on the subject of butter, I learned in the class that it's good to splurge on high quality butter. I used Kerry Gold in this and previous recipes. If you don't have this brand handy, standard unsalted butter will be fine.

Add the orange zest and dried fruit.

Stir in the eggnog; you want a soft dough to form. If you don’t like eggnog, the original recipe used buttermilk, so try that. I happened to have eggnog in my refrigerator and wanted to use it up.

I noticed this was still a little crumbly after incorporating the liquid, so I added 3 tablespoons of milk to help it come together. It would also be good to add orange juice to help bring your dough together.

Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and knead for about 3 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. If you’re not using a pan, roll the dough out to an 8-inch square, about ¾-inch thick, and then cut that square into quarters. Each quarter segment will be cut twice across on the diagonal, so you have 16 triangles. These will bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

I essentially did the same method but placed the scones in a buttered and floured scone pan. I think the pan helps keep the scones more uniform in size as they bake.

After your scones are shaped and placed in the pan or on the baking sheet, brush the tops with milk and bake for 12 to 15 minutes at 425 degrees F. Cool completely before glazing the tops. To make the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and orange juice in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Allow the glaze to set before serving. You also can skip the glaze, but I thought it helped enhance the orange and other fruit in the scone.

Golden mini scones cool on a rack. After cooling, drizzle with orange glaze.

Do scones freeze well?

You can freeze scones, but don’t glaze them prior to bagging for the freezer. It was my intention to do just that and serve these for our Christmas brunch, but after tasting one, I decided these would be my seasonal treat with morning coffee. Of course, these are so easy to make, I could make another batch before Christmas!

There's nothing better than freshly baked scones, butter, jam or—if you're lucky to find it—clotted cream. Talk about comfort and joy!

---

---

Looking for similar festive baking recipes for the holidays?

Traditional Currant Scones served with lemon curd, jam and clotted cream are a beautiful addition to your breakfast menu. One bite and you're transported to Dickens' London. Cranberries, apricots and eggnog are the stars in my holiday Eggnog and Fruit Bread. It reminds me of a classic German stollen. Both recipes are easily doable even for a novice baker.

About the blog

Three Women in the Kitchen is an award-winning food blog offering today’s home cooks comforting, hearty recipes with a personal touch. The website also pays tribute to Deborah’s mother, Katie Reinhardt, and paternal grandmother, Dorothy Reinhardt (the “three women” in the kitchen). Whether you’re an experienced or a novice cook, you’ll find inspiration here to feed your families and warm your heart. Subscribe today so you won’t miss a single delicious detail.