Weekend recipe: cheesy tomato pasta

Last week, one of Josie's daycare teachers told us that she has started "chewing" her food more — quite a feat for someone who STILL has no teeth. "I think she's wanting something a little more...chunky," she said.

And I've noticed Josie setting a pick more and more when I'm feeding her purees and stage 2 foods. She wants to grab the spoon. She wants to grab handfuls of puree. She wants to finger paint and style her hair with it. But she does not want to eat it.

So, I promised to start making more toothsome...no, gumsome...foods for Josie. I know that there are stage 3 foods out there, but after looking at the labels I've decided to avoid them if I can. It seems this is the stage where the unpronounceable ingredients appear. Not to say I'm against ever using them, but I haven't found a reason to yet.

This afternoon, I turned to a few mommy how-to books for guidance. I tried out two recipes and both seem to have turned out fairly well. I'm posting the one Josie gobbled up for lunch.

Cheesy Tomato Pasta

(Adapted from What to Expect the First Year)

Time

20 minutes or less

Ingredients and Equipment

- 2 or 3 ounces of pasta, preferably whole wheat and small in shape

(I used one called ditalini, but you could use small penne and slice it up after it has cooked)

- 1/2 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

- 1 ripe tomato, peeled, seeded and diced

- 1 tablespoon of cottage cheese

- 1/4 cup of shredded cheese such as cheddar

- small saute pan

- food processor

Directions

- Cook pasta in boiling water until very soft (not al dente)

- Peel tomato by placing it in simmering water for a couple of minutes and then directly into cold water. The skin should slip right off.

- Squeeze out the seeds and cut into small pieces. Saute in olive oil, on medium heat for a couple of minutes.

- Remove the tomato from heat and stir in cottage cheese and shredded cheese, stirring to make a sauce.

- Mix pasta and sauce

- Blend to desired texture in the food processor

IF YOUR BABY CAN HANDLE LARGE, SOFT PIECES AND IS GOOD AT SELF-FEEDING: Mix the pasta and sauce, let it cool and serve. Since Josie is just moving up to chunky food, I put the pasta and sauce in a food processor — but just long enough to blend everything into pea-sized pieces.

Also, I found my tomato gave off a lot of water. But that was fine because I was blending everything. If you're serving this to an older baby who doesn't need blended food, you may want to drain some of the juice off the sauteed tomato before adding the cheeses.

YUM!