Rigatoni Isabella

PaulaG's Note:

There is this wonderful Italian restaurant in town, Cappetto's, and this is one of their signature dishes. I enjoyed this and told the waiter how wonderful it was. To my surprise the chef came to our table and gave me the simple recipe. This recipe is for 2; however, can be easily adapted for more. Any tube pasta will work great for this dish; penne, rigatoni, etc. Garnish with a couple of fresh jalapeno slices.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 2

• 4 ounces rigatoni pasta
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 medium roma tomatoes , diced
• 4 scallions , white and green tops, sliced on the diagonal
• 2 medium jalapenos , sliced in half, seeded and sliced
• 2 ounces swiss cheese , grated
• 2 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese , cubed
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil , chopped
• salt and pepper , to taste
• parmigiano-reggiano cheese , grated

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta as directed on the package, drain well.
2. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a large saute pan, add the sliced scallions and tomatoes; cook for a few minutes until onions are wilted and tomatoes warm.
3. Stir in the sliced jalapenos, drained pasta and cheese, stirring to mix.
4. When cheese has melted, add the chopped basil and generous amounts of fresh black pepper, adding salt to taste.
5. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and a jalapeno slice or 2 for garnish.

Reviews

[BillieJoeUtah]

This is one of those meals that you can't wait to have again! Even my kids loved it and they are really picky eaters. I look forward to making this for my mom and dad when then come to visit. I am sure they will love it as much as we do! I used shredded Mozzarella to speed up the melting of the cheese and it worked great!

[Dienia B.]

this is an awesome dish really liked it the swiss cheese really puts it over the top

[RedVinoGirl]

This was a tasty dish, however, I came close to giving it a 3. I would actually consider this a 3.5 star recipe but gave it the benefit of the doubt. Here's the problem I had with it....you have to cook the heck out of this sauce to ever get true fresh mozzarella to melt. No matter how long I cooked this, I still had some clumps of mozzarella lingering in it and it just didn't get smooth. I added bay scallops to this dish since my husband is not a fan of pasta dishes without meat, chicken or seafood in it. The scallops complemented the dish well. I used 2 large jalapenos and doubled the recipe and also added minced garlic (just can't have food without garlic!) and i feel the garlic also was an excellent addition. The flavor was good and the jalapenos were not overpowering...just couldn't get past that consistency part. I may try this again with another type of cheese that melts down better than mozzarella. Thanks for posting!