I'd use whatever wine I drink regardless of the recipe, with the caveat that white wines add a fresh sort of zing to tomato dishes and red wine adds a deeper more complex taste. If you like it "saucy", why not double it? Trust yourself stir!

This no-sauce pasta dish is kind of a trend right now, admittedly much lighter. I make a similar dish and what I have done is to roast twice the amount of vegetables called for, put half in the food procesor and pulse with some of the pasta cooking water to make a sauce. This keeps the flavor profile intact, and adds that bit of sauciness that most of us seem to prefer. I would also add several cloves of garlic to the vegetables to be roasted. Also, my family would prefer much more sausage than she uses, and a lot more parmesan cheese.

Steve

I would prefer it exactly the way Steve described with more garlic, sausage and parmesan. I guess she had to stop when she got to $10 lol

(This is off topic, but has anyone noticed that her show is shot in soft focus? I can't imagine why.)

I've only seen her show once, if she's going to convince me that she's just a "stay at home Mom, cooking for the kids", she's gonna have to lay off all the stories about the little French bistros that she and her husband love.

Plus, groceries are cheap here and no way could I make her recipes for $10, I don't know where the heck she shops!

Annie

Funny you should say that. She lived near me, one town over until winning the Next Food Network Star Competition and she actually was a stay at home mom. She has 4 young daughters and her husband is French. I've only caught one of her shows, but I believe she said she had lived in France for awhile. Perhaps that's where she met him. My husband met her and her husband when they were selling one of their cars before moving up to Washington State last year. They seemed to be a very nice couple.

The recipe sounds lovely to me....just as is.
I don't think red wine would do what she intended....why not buy a bottle of dry vermouth ( not sweet!) and use that and refrigerate the rest. You can buy vermouth in fairly small bottles and the leftovers will keep well for a couple of months in the refrig.
Linda C

I think chardonnay would be OK. I make this kind of pasta all the time, sans wine. My only other suggestion is if it seems too dry, add a smidge lowfat cream cheese (or marscapone if you want to be obsessively Italian) or a splash of milk to the sauce. I also add some dabs of marinara sauce if my pasta seems too dry, I keep bits and bobs of it in the freezer.

Ok -- I made this tonight despite the power going out THREE times while I was cooking. I have no idea why -- my neighbors said it was happening to them to -- on, off, on, off, on, off....

Anyhow, the roasted veggies were yummy, whole grain pasta yummy, and Italian sausage yummy. Together? Something was missing. There was absolutely no sauce to bind it together. I used the chardonnay but you really couldn't taste it in the final product.

I sprinkled shredded parm on top and it was really needed. Not sure if I'd make it again -- probably look for a better recipe.

sowngrow, she didn't move to Texas until 2006 and she moved to the Seattle area when her husband got transferred while they were still taping the Next Food Network Star, so she was in Keller for two or three years.

She met her husband in Paris while she was working there, she's travelled extensively, she's got an MBA and she had a cooking show on television before in the Los Angeles area which was, apparently, cancelled pretty quickly.

So, if she wants to convince me she's just a little ole' stay at home Mom from Texas, cooking for her 4 kids on a budget, she's got to lose the stories about her wonderful meals while she lived in Paris and she's got to be real about how much those meals she's cooking really costs.

I can't cook most of her meals for $10, even here in Michigan where groceries are relatively inexpensive. She did a lemon scampi that I remember with a pound of shrimp and 2 lemons. Lemons are nearly $1 each and shrimp is $7 or $8 a pound. The budget is already blown and there are no side dishes yet, let alone the pasta and other ingredients for the scampi.

Now, I don't have a problem about any of the things she's done or places she's gone, but I'd prefer that she just be upfront about it and not do the "aw shucks, I'm a housewife on a budget" bit.

I guess I'm really unclear as to why the Food Network needs to create a "persona" for people, instead of just letting them cook and be whoever they are.

Annie

stir_fryi, I agree from looking at the recipe that it doesn't have nearly enough sauce for me. I like my pasta, etc with plenty of sauce.

I don't think this dish is intended to have a sauce, as such. Certainly none is mentioned. Personally, I would use more olive oil in that type of dish, 1 or 2 Tbsp. per serving, not 2 1/2 Tbsp. for the entire dish. I would use some for cooking and drizzle a bit more on the finished dish. There is enough moisture from the tomatoes and wine I think if you add a bit of the reserved pasta water at the end (a trick Lidia often uses).

I like this sort of dish, but apparently not everyone does. Just different mind sets probably.

Annie, maybe it's $10.00 per person. ;-)

Jim

LOL, Jim, I didn't think of that!!!

Annie

Annie -- good points. I bought my ingredients for this dish at Meijer today.

Turkey Italian sausage was on sale for 2 for $6 so I'll say the sausage was $3.

One red pepper cost me $2.00

I don't remember how much the 8 oz package of mushrooms were -- at Meijer probably $1.50

The pasta I had bought at Costco but normally at the store the whole grain Barilla would be about $1.50 a box.

I skipped the zucchini because it does nothing for me.

Onion I already had.

So, we are up to $8 and that does not count the wine. How do you price the wine in the recipe when it only calls for 1/4 cup? Obviously, you have to buy a whole bottle -- now Food Network personalities are always preaching to only use wine you'd drink not cooking wine -- so that right there would exceed $10. For the record I used "two buck Chuck" from Trader Joes that was almost $3.

Anyhow, the premise of her show (less than $10) isn't really what appeals to me anyway. I just like her personality though the recipes have been so-so.

I am mortified to post this 5 year old photo of turkey sausage, mushrooms, broc and penne, but it cracks me up that what we "poof" is on her site. I make this a lot, but it benefits greatly from toasted pine nuts. This pic was taken before I started experimenting with photos. Also, the pine nuts would definitely take it out of her budget.

Stir_fryi, just freeze the rest of the Chardonnay to use in other dishes. Ice cube trays or quarter cups in baggies.

Melissa D'Arabian... well.. I liked her pretty much in the competition but I really don't care for the way the Food Network has marketed her. All the references to Paris annoy me too, in that context especially.

I've never seen the show; been meaning to try it but always miss it. I guess I don't try hard enough, but can't say the reviews here or this recipe have will have my trying any harder.

Anyway, the discussion of cost got me curious. Here's how it works out in Long Island prices - nothing on sale:

onion 1.00
tomato 1.00
pasta 1.39
sausage 1.40
pepper 1.29
shroom 2.29
zucch 0.79

Total 9.16

I'm considering the minimal amounts of wine, olive oil, salt and parmesan as standard staple items which wouldn't be factored into the cost.

[Ever since someone recommended Black Box wines here a while ago I've always got a box in the fridge as it stays good for a long time, is decent for drinking and fine as a cooking wine. That quarter cup comes to .93, so now I'm nine cents over. Pretty close, and with a cheaper wine I'd make it under the line even if I factored in the remaining ingredients.]

Go vegetarian with the dish by using white beans instead of sausage, and live it up with some white sauce! Coleslaw as a side.
:)

I always dab marinara, milk (in my case, the traditional is cream but I never have it) or sour cream or cream cheese into these dry pasta blends.

Melissa was one of my favorites in the competition show but I don't like the under $10 rule. I don't like the 5 ingredient show either. Why would I want to restrict myself to 5 ingredients? I feel like Melissa probably has to change her recipes to get them under $10. It's too bad she can't just have a normal cooking show. I would probably like her show without the gimic.