Diavolo Sauce with fresh goat cheese

As mentioned in an early blog-life post, up until the spring 2010 I had never read a blog or had any idea how much great information is out there.  Not only can you find blogs on any subject matter you desire, you can also develop a whole new group of blog friends.  Bloggers are truly some of the nicest people I have ever emailed!  I hope to meet some of my favorites one day.  Maybe at a blogger convention in 2011 in DC?  Sounds like fun to me.

There are several blogs I read almost every-single-day.  One blog titled The Smart Kitchen has been a favorite since day-one of my new blog-reader life.  Sarah has never disappointed with her wit and wisdom, which is not often seen in a woman that young.  She is a school teacher and I know her students must enjoy class everyday!

Sarah recently posted her Christmas dinner menu and one of the items was a marinara, goat cheese appetizer served with bread for dipping.  I haven’t tried this yet but had developed a super easy dinner with the same ingredients.  I read somewhere about Diavolo Sauce, a spicy marinara sauce.  I also read a recipe on The Pioneer Woman blog where she used tomato sauce and heavy cream to make an orange sauce.  I try to shy away from cream and butter (except during the holidays) but the orange sauce idea intrigued me.  So I decided to use goat cheese to blend with the Diavolo Sauce and see if we could get orange.

I am very pleased with the final product.  The Diavolo Sauce is still spicy, but now it’s also creamy!  Something about the goat cheese that makes the sauce stick to the pasta like no other.  I don’t know about you, but I need ‘easy and tasty’ a couple of days a week!  I found this sauce at our local Wegman’s grocery store.  I haven’t seen it anywhere else but I will look around.  You know, “if you’re not looking for it, you probably won’t find it.”  Wait … is it, “if you’re” … oh never mind.  You know what I mean!  I hope 😉

I like the saying “easy peasy!”  And I like a recipe that fits in that category.

This Diavolo Sauce seems to have natural ingredients, low fat, and not the worst sodium content I’ve ever seen in a pasta sauce.

Put it in a pan and warm on medium heat.

Once it is heated through, blend in the desired amount of goat cheese and stir until melted.

Pour over cooked pasta and garnish with fresh basil if desired.

I can even remember this recipe without writing it down.

Serve with a small tossed salad and enjoy!

Skipping along to another topic – my traveling husband says I should ‘toot my own horn’ sometimes.  So I guess I will.  Ree (The Pioneer Woman) is the queen of bloggers.  She has a cookbook (bought on sale in Chicago!) and a romance novel about her marriage to her rancher husband, and she somehow manages to home school her children while running an incredible blog with huge readership.

Occasionally Ree sponsors photography contests.  On a whim I submitted a photo and was shocked when it was chosen as one of her picks to display.  I didn’t make the final cut but was thrilled (and actually squealed) when I saw my photo on her blog.  I didn’t even own a camera until August this year.  (This is a testament to my photographer husband and his photo assistance.)  I still don’t understand most of it but like shooting pictures of my food creations.  Anyway – just sharing a happy moment – check out my photo on her Group 3 post.  Mine is the Peanut Butter Blossom cookie photo.  I had already uploaded the photo my SRFD blog header before I submitted to Ree.  It makes my mouth water.  Yumm – and I really did eat the cookie with the curl on top, when it was warm, and melty, and yum!

Do you have big plans for New Year’s Eve?  My objective is to stay awake long enough for the ball to drop!  I’m such a wimp!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tricia