No pressures, feel free to do it or ignore it.

The point is to use what you have for your italian dinner, so if you have a thin sauce and sundried tomatos, use that, if you have chunky spaghetti sauce and lots of spinach, use that. I imagine you could even do a pesto version, or an alfredo one! The batter holds its own with additions or subtractions, so don’t worry about them delfating or being super dense. They are practically impossible to mess up!

Cupcake:
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
4 lightly beaten eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
10 oz Spaghetti Sauce (I prefer really chunky spaghetti sauce and used one with lots of roasted red peppers)
1/2 cup finely chopped watery veggie (I used more red peppers to go with the sauce, but you could use celery, onions, spinach, or the like)
1/4 cup finely chopped mushroom (you could also use more of the veggie listed above, but I think the mushroom added lots of moisture, but kept it’s firmness
1/2 cup shredded Mozzerella cheese (not lowfat or nonfat, it doesn’t melt correctly).
1 Handful gorgonzola or feta crumbles (optional)
3/4 crushed garlic clove

“Frosting:”
1 sm plastic tub of ricotta cheese
1 Handful of gorgonzola or feta crumbles
1/2 cup Mozzerella Shredded cheese, or Italian Blend cheese
1 tblsp Italian seasonings to taste, I have this great parmesean, basil, rosemary and thyme mix
1/4 crushed garlic clove

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line with cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients at once, no order necessary. This should all be mixed by hand, not with any sort of electric mixer, all lumps, bubbles and chunks should be left as is. Do not overblend.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, filling to 3/4 in pan or 2/3 to 3/4 in the liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes. I do the touch test for cupcakes to see if they are done, if you push it and it pushes back, they are done. If they dent, then cook longer. Do not over cook. Remove pan from the oven and remove the muffins to a cooling rack immediately, so they don’t continue cooking in pan. I use the end of a spoon upside down along the edge and sort of toss them into an oven mitted other hand.

While those are baking I mix up the frosting, again this is all by taste, if you want it really garlicky add more, if you love basil, go for it. Mix all ingredients together by hand, no mixer, it will appear really airy and with tiny lumps. You could also add some sun dried tomatos if you have them on hand, or some finely chopped spinach, or very fine veggies for color.

I usually chop off the muffin top and toss on a big dollop of frosting, then place the muffin top back on, sometimes squirting a little bit on top, too. The picture above was garnished with a chive.

Serve cupcake warm, with the frosting chilled or room temperature. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months without frosting on them.

Works best as a side dish to lasagna or baked ziti, because you already have all the ingredients!

Makes 2 dozen.

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Love your blog by the way!