Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio
Victor mentioned a couple of days ago that he wanted to make some fresh pasta. Any time he wants to make pasta, I'm eating. End of discussion.
We were watching Lidia last night and she made a dish with mushrooms and chestnuts that really looked good - except neither of us are really all that crazy about chestnuts. It's more of a texture thing than anything else. I'll eat them in something small, but for dinner?!? There are other things we both like better. We talked about what we could do to the dish, and we both said "fennel" simultaneously. It's moments like that where we know we belong together!
And then Victor said he was cooking dinner, tonight!
He has the pasta-making down to a science. It's just perfection. And the tagliatelle he made tonight really was perfection! It was light and delicate, yet perfectly firm.
The pasta recipe is very simple.
Fresh Pasta
- 1 cup tipo '00' flour
- 1/3 cup semolina flour
- 2 eggs
- pinch salt
- 1 tbsp water - maybe
Mix flour, salt, and eggs in food processor until fully combined. Knead on a floured board until smooth, adding a drop or two of additional water, if needed.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then roll out using pasta machine. You can roll this with a rolling pin, but a pasta roller is so much easier!
Lightly dust and then fold the pasta strips.
And then cut to desired width.
Unfold and place on a floured sheet pan.
Cook in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Then add to sauce and cook an additional 2 minutes.
The mushroom and fennel sauce was also something easy to put together.
Ragu di Funghi e Finocchio
adapted from Lidia Bastianich
ingredients
- olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 1/2 medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 lb mixed mushrooms
- 1 tsp thyme
- pinch crushed red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup white wine
instructions
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil and throw in the the garlic, then the shallots and fennel. Cook and stir until almost tender, about 5 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, thyme, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper. Cover, and cook until the mushrooms release their liquid, about 5 minutes.
Uncover, and increase the heat to reduce away the liquid in the pan, cooking about 2 minutes.
Make a space in the pan, and add the tomato paste. Cook and stir the paste in that spot until it toasts and darkens a shade or two, about 2 minutes, then stir into the mushrooms.
Add the wine and then about 2 cups pasta water. Simmer about 15 minutes and then uncover and increase heat to reduce the sauce, if necessary.
Add the pasta and stir and cook until the pasta is fully coated and cooked.
Serve with freshly grated pecorino.
This was one of those gastronomic heaven moments. Every single thing about this dish was right. The pasta was perfectly cooked, the mushrooms had a rich, meaty flavor, the fennel added a perfect sweetness in the background.
Victor cooked all of the pasta, thinking that half of it couldn't possibly be enough. We now have dinner for tomorrow night - and we'll put an egg on top!
Tortolloni and Lobster
While I was busy configuring my new computer, Victor was in the kitchen configuring pasta. Homemade pasta. Stuffed and intricately formed pasta. By hand.
One by one by one...
I just love homemade pasta and there's just no way I will ever make it. Victor has it down to a gastronomical science. There are times when you just leave things to the pros. We all know folks who have a signature dish - that one dish that stands out among all others - and we don't try to replicate them. Victor has a score of them - all centered around flour and eggs. I read or heard somewhere that there were over 400 pasta shapes in Italy. I'd have one a week for the next 400 weeks...
When La Cucina Italiana was still being published, we'd get The Pasta Issue every year and Victor would cook his way through that. So, I don't think I'm even remotely unreasonable about 400 pastas in the next 400 weeks. Heck, I'll be retired in about 21 weeks. I can help with the cleanup!
Tonight's pasta was Cheese Tortolloni in a Lobster Sauce. Tortolloni is just a larger tortellini - and lobster is just delicious with it!
The filling was ricotta cheese, quattro formaggio, parmesan, egg, oregano, and a bit of S&P.
The pasta dough was 1 3/4 cups Tipo "00" flour, 1/4 cup semolina, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup olive oil, 3 tablespoons water, and a pinch of salt.
Rolled thin and cut into circles...
Filled and hand-formed... one by one...
The sauce was a throw-together of lobster chunks sauteed in butter and olive oil with white wine, garlic, green onion, oregano, and a pinch of peperoncino. Simplicity. And decadent.
Just one more instance where it just doesn't suck to be me.
21 weeks to retirement. I can get used to this.
Strike that - I am used to this.
And I'm ready for more.
Homemade Pasta and 2017 in Review
If the only thing that happened in 2017 was political, I'd simply kill myself and get it over with. Having that man become President has been painful. Watching the travesties coming out of Congress have been worse - and that's saying a lot. Just when you knew they couldn't possibly get any lower - they did. And they blatantly continue to lower the bar of decency to levels unseen since Caligula.
Yeah... politically, it's been a rough year.
But if you pull politics out of the equation - and I really do have to now and again to keep my sanity - some really fun things happened this year!
Victor retired! How sweet that has been for him. I'm there in six months - can't wait! We spent close to two glorious weeks with siblings and spouses in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and saw another sister and her two daughters in New York City for her birthday. We saw Bette Midler in Hello Dolly. And I wrote 131 Blog posts.
Food was a highlight in 2017 - and every other year since Year One. I foresee it being in the center of 2018, as well - especially since I'll be able to shop anywhere I want whenever I want, and make things when I want and not try to just squeeze something in half-assed because I have to be somewhere in an hour. Retirement is going to really see me in the kitchen! I see a lot more canning and creative label-making. The pepper sauce was an eye-opener for me, as was the Pistachio Liqueur. I need to make more of this stuff!
Retirement was good for Victor in the culinary end of things, too. He's been able to spend more time creating and it's been great having dinner waiting for me when I get home.
Today, he created homemade pasta in a crab sauce while I baked bread and a Lemon Polenta Cake. I first made this cake in December 2010 and then waited 3 1/2 years to make it again - stating I wasn't going to wait 3 1/2 years to make it, again. I waited 3 1/2 years to make it, again. That, of course, merely proves that there are so many good things to make, there's no sense constantly repeating yourself!
We start with the Tagliatelle... Homemade pasta is where Victor really shines. It's just unbelievably good.
Tagliatele
- 2 cups flour (we use Tipo "00")
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp cold water
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and oil to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.
Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.
Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.
With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons.
Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.
To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.
It was flippin' awesome! The sauce was sauteed pancetta, garlic, a bit of tomato paste, white wine, crab, crushed red pepper, parmesan cheese, and oregano - with fresh basil and more cheese on top. It was a wing-it recipe of the highest caliber. Just flippin' awesome!
Then we have the bread. It's a take on my most favorite Pugliese from Carol Field.
I made three smaller loaves - one round and two baguettes. It's a crusty bread with a slightly sour crumb. As I said, it's a favorite. I always make half this recipe - and it still makes a lot of bread!
Pane Pugliese
- 1 packet dry yeast (or 1/2 package fresh yeast)
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 3 cups water; room temp
- 1 cup biga
- 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp salt
Proof the yeast in the warm water. Add 1 1/2 c water and the biga, mix till blended. Add flour and salt, mix till dough comes together and pulls off the sides of the bowl. Knead 3-5 minutes in a mixer, longer by hand. Dough will be very soft and elastic. Let rise about 3 hours, shape into 2 small round loaves or 1 big flattish one. If you have baking stones, place loaves on baking peel or on baking sheets sprinkled corn meal. Let rise about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 450°, and 10 minutes before baking flour the loaf tops and dimple them with your fingers. Bake 50-60 minutes for big loaves, 30-35 minutes for small. Tap the loaves to test for doneness (hollow=done) and cool on a rack.
Biga
- 1/2 tsp active dry yeast (or 1/10 package fresh yeast)
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/4 cup water (room temperature)
- 3 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Stir the yeast into the warm water and let stand until creamy – about 10 minutes. Stir in the remaining water and then the flour, one cup at a time.
Mix with the paddle attachment on the mixer at the lowest speed about 2 minutes.
Remove to a slightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise at cool room temperature for 6 to 24 hours. The starter will triple in volume and still be wet and sticky when ready. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
This bread makes great sandwiches, excellent toast, and sops up sauce just like a good bread should.
Finishing the meal - and the year - is Lemon Polenta Cake. Making something three times in 7 years isn't bad, for me.
Lemon Polenta Cake
adapted from Nigella Lawson
Cake:
- 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup superfine sugar
- 2 cups almond meal
- 3/4 cup fine polenta or cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 eggs
- Zest 2 lemons (save the juice for the syrup)
Syrup:
- Juice 2 lemons
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the pan with parchment paper and grease lightly with butter.
Beat the butter and sugar till light.
Mix together the nut meal, polenta and baking powder, and add a bit to the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while.
Beat in the lemon zest and spread the mixture into the pan and bake for about 35 minutes. A cake tester should come out clean and the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its pan.
For the syrup:
Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar in a small saucepan. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester and pour the warm syrup over the cake. Leave to cool in the pan before placing it on a cake plate.
Moist, lemony, great texture... The question is... will I wait another 3 1/2 years before making it, again?!?
Probably.
2017 is drawing to a close and 2018 is a mere few hours away. And since the weather outside is not conducive to frolicking, we'll be indoors.
While I worked more New Years Eve's than I had off in my younger years, I did get to First Night in Boston a couple of times. A flask of Brandy helped to keep the chill to a minimum back in those days. Spending New Years Day 1973 in the Gulf of Tonkin drinking homemade apple wine during an unrep and getting caught. The Hyatt Lake Tahoe NYE 1978 and glasses being thrown through the casino in the general direction of the huge lobby fireplace... Getting guilted into flying to Philadelphia from San Francisco on Y2K - in an empty plane - because Victor's mother "won't be here for the next millennium."
And on and on and on...
I'm liking the quiet ones now, but I'm not ruling anything out... we shall see what tomorrow brings.
Here's to a great year for all of us and especially at the ballot box on Tuesday, November 6th. Vote these bastards out of office before there are no tomorrows left for any of us.
Malloreddus and Sauce from the Garden
When the going gets tough, the tough get cooking.
Yeah... it's been tough the past few days. The bile coming out of the mouth of our Commander-in-Chief is enough to gag a maggot, as my father was wont to say. Pop was a WWII vet and would not be taking this well. Hell - I'm a Viet Nam vet and I'm not taking it well.
It's hard to stomach such blatant racism and disregard for human life in the year 2017. But I do take heart in the number of people who are seriously standing up and shouting "ENOUGH!"
Good will prevail. I really do believe that. But it's going to be a fight - and fight is something I am more than willing to do. Because trust me - I ain't going quietly.
Cooking and being in the kitchen has always had a calming effect on me. Funny, because I know a lot of people who start stressing at the mere thought of having to figure out a meal. I just find it easy. What can I say?!?
Monday afternoon, I pureed three gallons of tomatoes from the garden - they're starting to come in fast and furious - and today, Victor made his sauce. I came home and canned it. I got 10 quarts. A nice start.
This is the basic recipe. Obviously, three gallons of fresh tomato sauce is going to alter it a bit and in Summer the herbs are fresh from the garden, but the basics are here...
Victor's Sauce
- 2 – 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes
- 1 – Sm can tomato paste
- 1-2 cloves of garlic (or to taste if you like more) chopped fine
- Olive oil
- Dried Italian seasonings
- Hot red pepper flakes (a tsp or more or less to taste)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Red wine (always cook with a decent wine, never “cooking” wine) about a cup or cup and a half
- Meat – such as Italian sausage or some nice beef or pork ribs or pork chops
Ok…I ALWAYS make my sauce with meat, so start with a deep, heavy pot and add about 3-4 TBS of olive oil. On high heat, once the oil is hot, start frying the sausage or pork, Let the meat get good and caramelized although you don’t have to cook it all the way through because you’ll add it back to the sauce to finish. Once the meat is browned take it out of the pot, put it on a plate and set aside.
Lower the heat to medium and sauté the tomato paste for a couple of minutes until it begins to “melt”. Add the chopped garlic and sauté with the tomato paste for just a minute (no longer or it will burn). Then add about a cup of the red wine and deglaze the pan with it, scrapping up all the good bits that stuck to the bottom when cooking the meat.
When the wine reduces by about ½ start adding the canned tomatoes. Add one can of hot water for every can of tomatoes you use.
Now start adding the dried Italian seasonings. I eyeball it but I would guess a good 2 TBS is fine. Add about another ½ cup of red wine, with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir everything into the sauce. It will be very thin at this point.
Add back the cooked meat. Now this is important….at the bottom of the plate you let the meat rest on will be some of the oil and juices that seeped out. Pour that back into the pot. It has a lot of flavor in it.
Bring the sauce back to a boil then turn the heat down low and let it simmer for at least 1 and a half hours, stirring every 15 to 20 minutes to keep it from burning. It should reduce by about a third or a little less and get thicker. The meat will absorb the sauce and get very tender.
When I make meatballs, I don’t fry them, I bake them on a sheet pan. When I do, I add them to the simmering sauce when they’re done so they also absorb the flavor.
I usually make the sauce early in the day and after it’s done, just let it sit on the stove until dinner then I re-heat it. This should make enough sauce for a couple of dinners or good sized lasagna.
And the sauce went onto homemade malloreddus - a Sardinian pasta.
It's great being married to a man who can cook...
Malloreddus
- Sea Salt
- 1 ¼ cups semolina flour
- ¾ cup tipa “00” flour or all-purpose flour
- Extra virgin olive oil
Gnocchi board or a table fork
Dissolve 1 tsp salt in ¾ cup warm water. In a large bowl whisk together semolina and all purpose flour; mound and form a well in the center.
Add water mixture and 2 tsp olive oil to the well. Using your hand or a fork, slowly incorporate flour from inside the rim of the well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead in bowl until dough forms a complete mass (dough will be slightly sticky).
Transfer dough to a well floured work surface and knead, dusting with a bit more flour as needed just to keep dough from sticking to your hands, for 5 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Break off about 1/8 of the dough; tightly rewrap remaining dough. Roll dough into ½ inch cylinder, and cut into ¼ inch thick pieces. Pressing with your thumb, roll each piece on a gnocchi board (or down the back of a fork) to give it the characteristic ridges, and put on a floured baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
To cook fresh Malloreddus, bring a large pot of salted water to a bill. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 6 minutes after water returns to a boil. Drain, transfer to a large serving bowl and immediately toss with sauce and serve.
A fresh loaf of bread - store bought, alas, rounded out the meal.
And just as an aside...
I have always felt that food is the great equalizer - that sitting down and enjoying different foods from different countries and cultures can open our minds and our hearts to others different from us.
Go to Chef Google and type in the name of a country and type "recipes" after it. Cook something different. Learn what other people have for breakfast or dinner.
Learn.
Gnocchi and Beets
For as long as I have known Victor, he has stated that he hates beets. Hates. Loathes. Despises. Doesn't like. Won't eat. You get the picture.
Naturally, I love them, but convincing Victor that they were good was not going to be an easy task. Then, again, I like a challenge once in a while.
I started off with golden beets and roasted them in the oven. He reluctantly tried them - and even more reluctantly said he didn't hate them.
I was on to something...
I tried them, again. He begrudgingly ate them - and liked them, again. This has happened more than a few times, now. Tonight, Victor cooked dinner and he cooked more golden beets - roasted in the oven with olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Absolutely fabulously delicious.
He has come to the realization that he really likes beets - what he hates are pickled beets - those mushy things in a can that get put onto a salad. It's a good thing, because I have several different varieties of beet seeds that are getting planted in the garden this year!
Along with those beets, tonight, we had homemade gnocchi left over from last month when we were getting ready for the Blizzard of '17. He mixed it with pesto he had made late last summer from the basil in the garden. It's nice to be able to reach into the freezer and get real food.
Now I have to start working on cabbage...
Preparing for a Blizzard
The weather forecasting for tonight and tomorrow has run the gamut - from a huge storm to no big deal to a big storm to ::drum roll, please:: a blizzard. Yes, a blizzard. Middle of March, anywhere from 12" to 2 feet of snow, falling 3" to 4" per hour for several hours... sleet... gale-force winds... white-out conditions... the whole shebang. While I haven't officially called out from work for tomorrow, odds are I will be homebound. A blizzard.
Naturally, one needs to properly prepare for these things. Today, Victor made Gnocchi. I baked Bread and made Peach Rice Pudding. I mean... in the worst of times one must maintain a sense of decorum, right?!? What would the neighbors think if we were forced to eat boxed macaroni and cheese?!? [note to neighbors: we don't have any boxed macaroni and cheese in the house...]
But I digress... Read down for the recipes.
I did my Monday grocery shopping early to avoid the panic-buying throngs, but the shelves at the local Acme were already looking a bit bare at 9am. There were a few folks in the store with huge overflowing carts of food. I figure the worst case scenario of 2 feet of snow would mean - maybe - 36 hours in the house from the start of the storm until the end and roads were cleared enough to venture out. Five meals. Some of these folks were buying for the apocalypse.
Five meals. At any given moment we have food in the house for a week. The only reason I went shopping at all was to get strudel bites and mini corn muffins for Nonna. They are her morning ritual. I really could have just made them, but I also wanted to get gas for the car in case we lost power and needed a charging station for electronics. I need to be able to read my Kindle... And if we did lose power and the temperature in the house dropped, I guess we could park Nonna in a warm car for a while... On the other hand, I did buy a big box of Duraflame logs as insurance against the power going out...
But back to food.
Victor started things off with gnocchi. He pretty much just created the recipe as he went - potato, flour, ricotta, and egg.
Potato and Ricotta Gnocchi
- 2 cups riced potato
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups "00" flour, plus more for dusting
Combine the potato, ricotta, eggs and 1 teaspoon salt in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the flour, mixing well.
Bring the dough together in a ball and cut off one-quarter of it. Dust the work surface with all-purpose flour to prevent sticking, and roll the cut-off piece of dough into a long rope about 5/8 inch in diameter. Cut the rope into 5/8-inch pieces. Roll the pieces off the times of a fork or off a gnocchi board. Dust some parchment paper with flour and place the gnocchi on it to prevent sticking. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Cook the gnocchi in boiling water for about 2 minutes.
Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.
We had them with homemade meatballs and Victor's homemade sauce. Totally awesome, Delish.
That was half of the batch on the tray. I froze another tray for another day.
The bread was a loaf of James Beard's French-Style Bread. It's one of the most simple, basic breads around. been making it for years. Always good.
James Beard’s French-Style Bread
Ingredients
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water (100° to 115°, approximately)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups flour
- 1 egg, mixed with water
- sesame seeds
- 3 tbsp cornmeal
Directions
Combine the yeast with sugar and warm water in a large bowl and allow to proof. Mix the salt with the flour and add to the yeast mixture, a cup at a time, until you have a stiff dough. Remove to a lightly floured board and knead until no longer sticky, about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary. Place in a buttered bowl and turn to coat the surface with butter. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, 1½ to 2 hours.
Punch down the dough. Turn out on a floured board and shape into a long, French bread-style loaf. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal but not buttered. Brush loaf with egg wash and then liberally sprinkle with sesame seeds. Slash the tops of the loaf diagonally in three or four places. Place in a cold oven, set the temperature at 400° and bake 35 minutes or until well browned and hollow sounding when the top is rapped.
And then we have dessert... Peach Rice Pudding.
I picked up a bag of frozen peaches at the store, thinking I might make a peach upside down cake. I got home and thought Peach Pudding. I mentioned it to Victor and then said, or maybe rice peach pudding - and that was that.
Peach Rice Pudding
- 1 cup rice
- 4 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- pinch salt
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp peach extract
- 1 lb peaches, chopped
Cook rice and set aside.
Mix sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add eggs and mix. Slowly add milk and mix well, making sure there are no lumps. Cook over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir in cooked rice. Continue stirring and cook about 5 minutes or until thickened.
Stir in peaches, and then add vanilla, peach extract, and butter.
Place in bowl with plastic wrap on top to keep skin form forming.
Refrigerate completely.
We have enough rice pudding to last a week, plenty of bread for sandwiches or toast - or breadcrumbs - and pasta and a dozen jars of sauce downstairs.
We're set, Mother Nature! Bring it on!
Scallops and Homemade Cavatelli
I've been staring at a bag of cavatelli in the freezer since Victor made it a few weeks ago when we were having our little snow storm. That first night we had it with a red sauce but I wanted to try something different the second time around.
As I was rearranging the freezer on Monday - a task I need to do every few months because of my strange food-buying habits - I came upon a bag of scallops and knew that they would be the perfect foil for the cavatelli. A recipe started formulating...
My first thought was making a cream sauce because if there's a way to add fat and calories to an otherwise healthy dish - I'm your man. It's not really my fault. My mind just works in variations of butter and heavy cream. It's a gift and a curse.
I had an idea of what I wanted to do but always like seeing what else is out there so I perused the internet a bit. I found lots of recipes for a cream sauce with scallops, but none of them were very promising. I wanted creamy - I just didn't want their creamy. So I went with wine and cheese, instead.
Good ol' Rachael Ray had a recipe for linguini with scallops that held some promise, but it still wasn't what I was looking for, so I took her concept and started playing. The end result was pretty good.
Scallops with Cavatelli
- 1 lb cavatelli
- 1 lb scallops, cleaned
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large shallots, minced
- 1 cup white wine
- 1 cup clam broth
- 1 cup grated pecorino romano
- 1/2 cup minced basil
- 1/2 cup minced parsley
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- olive oil and butter
- salt and pepper
Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. You will want to time it so the pasta is done the same time as the sauce - neither take long.
Melt a bit of butter with olive oil in a large skillet. Cook scallops about 3-4 minutes per side. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add shallots and garlic and quickly saute until shallots are wilted. Add wine and bring to a boil. Add clam broth, lemon zest, and lemon juice and simmer.
Stir in basil and parsley. Stir in cheese, being careful not to bring it to a boil.
Stir in the cooked pasta and coat it well with the sauce. Let it simmer in the sauce a few minutes to pick up the flavors.
Stir in the scallops along with any juices that have accumulated in the bowl.
Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper, as desired.
It was a 20 minute start-to-finish dinner. The longest part of the entire production was waiting for the water to boil.
And it was unexpectedly good. As in really good. The homemade pasta really made a difference, but I'm sure it would be excellent with any good pasta.
I need to convince Victor to make several pounds of this one day and let me freeze it in 1 pound packages for those other fun and unexpected meals I'm waiting to make...
Stay tuned...
Cavatelli
Ya know how you're surfing the interwebs and ya click on something and then you follow something else and then you're someplace completely different from where you started out?!? Me, neither, but I understand it happens to folks from time-to-time...
One thing that did happen to me last week, though, was I was looking at an old copy of La Cucina Italiana and saw a recipe for cavatelli - and decided to buy a cavatelli maker. That, of course, led me to Google which led me to A Best Kitchen - an online restaurant supply house.
I have to tell ya... I'd rather spend all day in a restaurant supply house than a Williams-Sonoma or other retail outlet. Form follows function. I want something that is going to work and last a while - not something that is cute and will break the 2nd time it's used. My dream kitchen is actually stainless steel with a quarry tile floor - with a drain. Sadly, that's not going to happen any time soon.
But I digress...
The cavatelli maker arrived in a couple of days and once we knew the storm was coming, decided that today would be the perfect day to try it out. And, it was. Sunshine, blue skies, a chill in the air, and feet of snow awaiting the plow. We had spoken with our neighbor who has a snow service and she said she'd send him down when he did her place. He hasn't shown. I went down there a couple of hours ago and dug out her front door - she and her sister were actually trapped in the house because both doors were completely blocked in with snow. It's what neighbors are for. But we still didn't get our driveway done! It looks like I'll be hand-digging it out tomorrow. Oh well. I wanted feet of snow and I got feet of snow!
But back to the cavatelli...
We had several recipes to choose from, so Victor went with a ricotta and parmesan version.
The dough is quite easy to make - actually, all fresh pasta dough is pretty easy to make. It's the rolling and/or forming that takes the talent. I leave it to Victor.
Ricotta and Parmesan Cavatelli
- 4 cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1 lb ricotta
- 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup milk
Sift flour onto a counter or board. Make a well and add the remaining ingredients. Slowly incorporate the liquids with the flour. when everything is mixed in, knead for about 2 minutes. When done, cover and let dough rest for about 10 minutes.
When ready to make the cavaletti, roll the dough to about 3/8" thickness and cut into 3/4" strips. Feed into your cavatelli maker, or cut into small pieces and roll on your gnocchi board.
Yes, we have one of those, also. Victor makes an awesome gnocchi.
Cook in boiling, salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain, and serve with your favorite sauce.
Our favorite sauce is the sauce Victor just made - with Italian sausages and meatballs.
We had it with thick slices of the Walnut Raisin Bread from yesterday.
So we didn't get the driveway plowed, but we sure as hell ate well - and there's Pecan Pie for dessert.
I'll deal with the driveway tomorrow.
Cannelloni
Back in the '60s when I worked at Pirro's in San Francisco, we made an outrageous chicken cannelloni. Actually, all the food we made there was outrageously good. We made our own meatballs, shredded our own cheese, made fresh dough, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, lasagne... everything was made from scratch. Hell, we even sliced our own mushrooms, salami, and other meats, and ground pork butts to make our own sausage.
I really learned a lot in those years. It was also my first management job, and I made every rookie mistake a new all-powerful manager could conceivably make - from firing a waitress at the beginning of her shift to having a really good cook quit because I was the boss and therefore, right. [I wasn't, surprise, surprise...]
My boss bought a building a few blocks away, and we tore down walls, laid tiles, built an open kitchen, landscaped an outdoor patio, and opened the new store with an expanded menu. My first opening and my first real dealings with the intricacies of the Health Department. He then bought a pizza place in Richmond, CA, started doing everything but paying attention to his businesses, got divorced, got remarried, got divorced, again... In the midst of it all I got into a fight with him one night, went across the street to a restaurant where I eventually ended up working, got stinking drunk, went home, packed up my car, and moved to Portland.
I've never been the impulsive type. Much.
Which leads me back to cannelloni... I don't really remember the recipe we did, other than it had ground chicken and lots of cheese, so I grabbed a copy of Lidia's cook book, checked out her recipe, and then decided to wing it.
First thing I did was braise a bone-in chicken breast - the lonely one that has been taking up space in the freezer for months - with a couple of end-cut pork chops that have also been taking up valuable freezer space. Into the melange went fresh rosemary, chopped carrot, parsnip, onion, garlic, and celery - and a cup of white wine.
When the meats were done, I took them out and added last night's beans, along with pecorino romano, ricotta, and gorgonzola cheeses.
I used fresh lasagne sheets cut in half, because I didn't feel like making crespelle.
Into the pan with a cheesy bechamel sauce, and into the oven.
I made six, we barely finished off two, each, and I had enough filling for at least a dozen more. The filling and leftover pasta squares went into the freezer. I'll do something with the sauce later in the week.
So back to Pirro's... My ex-boss pretty much lost the businesses. My nephew and my niece both worked there during high school, but the place had really gone even farther down hill under the new ownership.
Rumor has it that there's a new owner, again, and they're trying to recreate those glory years! I see that cannelloni is on the menu, too! I'll wager it's not the homemade stuff we created way back when, but I hope they make a go of it!
It really was the best pizza in the city.
Tagliatelle alla Victor
What a way to end a wild and crazy week - homemade Pasta alla Victor!
It's been a great week to be a Liberal, but life continues on and dinners have to be made. Part of our Gay Agenda is getting his Mom fed and her medications in her on schedule.
Victor bought me a pasta roller years ago and then proceeded to master the art of perfect pasta-making. I don't go near it - I don't think I could do it justice after the light as a cloud pasta Victor continually makes. Besides... I ain't no fool. The man is cooking me dinner - I'm ready fork in hand.
Making pasta isn't difficult, but it does take time and a feel for the dough that only comes through practice. As in bread-making, where I can just tell when it's right, Victor just knows when the pasta dough has reached the perfect consistency. It is an art, for sure.
A silken, edible art.
Victor’s Pasta
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- up to 1 teaspoon water, if necessary
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add egg and egg yolk to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Add drops of water, if necessary. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.
Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.
Cut sheet in half width-wise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.
With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.
To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.
The sauce was his sauce we made and jarred a few months ago, along with a few hot Italian sausages.
Sauce made in small batches with real ingredients and no fillers, chemicals, or extraneous ingredients placed solely to trick the mind into thinking it's eating real food.
It is good.
The final plate was rich sauce with silken pasta and a just-spicy-enough sausage. I ate more than I should have and loved every bite.
Real good.
Seafood Pappardelle
I'm not sure where to start, tonight. Should I start with the light-as-air homemade pappardelle pasta? Or should I sing praises to the sauce of fresh tomatoes, crab, and Alaskan cod? Or... since they were mixed together, just speak of one of the best meals I've had in ages?!?
I think I'll go with all of the above.
Let's face it. Victor makes some of the best pasta this side of Italy. Years ago, he bought me a pasta roller - and I've never used it. He somehow managed to side-step me right out of the way when it comes to making fresh pasta. A side-step I am eternally grateful for, I might add. He just makes damned good pasta.
Pasta making, like any sort of bread or dough-making, requires the right touch and feel. Regardless of what a recipe states, experience teaches you what a proper dough should feel like - how silken, how soft or firm... you just know when it's right. Victor has it down.
The perfect example is the pappardelle he made today. It was based on a recipe by Michael Chiarello - formerly of Tra Vigne in Napa - a favorite restaurant of mine back in the day. Michael's recipe was just too wet with 6 eggs and 4 teaspoons of olive oil for less than 3 cups of flour. Victor worked the dough, adding more flour until it was the perfect silken mass. A novice would have followed the recipe exactly as written and ended up with a mess.
That's pretty much why I have a hard time writing recipes. They really should be general guidelines and not something that needs a degree in Chemistry to follow. There are just too many variables - the type of flour, the moisture content, the weather...
But the master was at hand and the pasta came out perfect.
Just pay attention when you make it and have some extra flour on hand in case you need it.
Pappardelle Pasta
adapted from Michael Chiarello
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 cup semolina flour, plus more for dusting
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
Make the dough.
Sift both flours together on a large work surface and make a well in the center. Place the eggs, olive oil and a pinch of salt in a bowl, then pour into the well. With a fork, break up the eggs, then gradually mix the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until combined.
Knead by hand.
Gather the dough into 2 equal-size balls; flour the surface. Push each piece of dough away from you with the heel of your hand, fold the dough over itself and turn it counterclockwise. Continue pushing, folding and turning until the dough is smooth and elastic, 4 to 5 minutes.
Rest the dough.
Pat each piece into a ball. Flatten slightly, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Roll out the dough.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and dust with flour. Starting in the middle, push away from you with a rolling pin, easing up on the pressure as you approach the edge. Continue rolling the dough into a sheet, turning occasionally, until you can see your fingers through the bottom. You want it thinthinthin. Let dry about 10 minutes.
Cut the pappardelle.
Dust the top of the sheet of dough with flour and loosely roll it into a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut into 3/4-inch-wide slices. Unwrap the noodles; dust with semolina and gently toss to separate. Place on a sheet pan and cover with a tea towel until ready to cook (or freeze in freezer bags for up to 2 months).
It seems like work but it's actually pretty easy - and even easier if you have a pasta roller. (Mine is named Victor!)
And then we have the sauce...
Crab and Cod Sauce
- Fresh Tomatoes
- White Wine
- Tomato Paste
- Crab Meat
- Alaskan Cod
- Olive Oil
Victor went out and picked tomatoes out of the yard - maybe two pounds of yellow and plum tomatoes. He chopped them up fairly well, added a sprinkling of salt and pepper, chopped basil and two finely minced garlic cloves and a drizzle of olive oil and let them sit a spell.
In a large, deep saucepan with about 4 tablespoons of olive oil, saute the tomatoes until they begin to soften and release more juices. Add a half cup of white wine. Once it's back to a simmer add three or four tablespoons of tomato paste and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer for about five minutes.
Take some good Alaskan Cod (we had about 3/4 of a pound) and cut it up into about one inch cubes along with about a pound of lump crab meat and place it in the simmering tomato sauce until the cod is just cooked - about 5 more minutes. Pull it off the heat while the pasta is cooking then reheat. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain and add to the tomato/fish sauce for one minute to absorb the flavors.
The final result was fabulous. Nonna had two helpings - something she never does! I went back for seconds, m'self, figuring I'm really not going to start my new eating regime until Tuesday when I start back to work.
It really was superb!
Homemade Ravioli and Meatballs
I have just had one of the most awesome dinners of my life! I feel like dancing a Tarantella! I am [almost] speechless - and we know how rare that is. My stomach is not only smiling, it is beaming.
And what, you say, could make me feel this way?!? Ravioli. Yes. A simple ravioli. But not just any simple ravioli - a simple ravioli made by hand - by Victor.
Little cheese-filled clouds floating on a sea of impossibly-rich tomato sauce. Meatballs that defy description. Firm, yet fork-tender, with body and substance bursting with flavor.
I have died and gone to gastronomic heaven.
Really.
Did I mention speechless?!?
Victor has pasta dough down to a science. There are certain things that come naturally to some - and pasta-making is as natural to him as breathing. He has the knack and the feel for the dough and just knows when it's right. He has used a variation on a Lidia recipe for years and it's always perfect. But tonight it was more perfect than ever before.
He made a 3-cheese filling that would make an Italian Nonna cry. It was bursting with flavor while simultaneously screaming simplicity. And the sauce... It was the last of our freezer-stash and was gently improved upon. Our live-in Nonna filled her plate and then went back for seconds. Nonna never goes back for seconds.
Fresh Ravioli
Ravioli Dough
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbs water
- 1 tsp olive oil
- Pinch of salt
Break eggs into a small bowl and mix with water, olive oil and salt. In a bowl add flour and wet ingredients. Mix together with a fork until all the flour we wet and it begins to come together. Knead on a lightly floured surface about 3 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. (if too dry add a bit more water by the DROP – until the dough forms) – cover in plastic wrap and let rest for an hour.
Filling:
- 1 - 15oz container of whole milk ricotta (we don’t use no stinking “part skim”)
- 1 – cup shredded whole milk mozzarella (see first ingredient regarding part skim)
- 1 – cup grated parmesan cheese – and please for God’s sake use a good one – no Kraft or anything that comes out of a green can!!!
- 2 - Eggs lightly beaten
- Finely chopped garlic – to taste. I used two good size cloves – You can use garlic powder but you may lose your “Italian Card”.
- Chopped Parsley – to taste – I like a lot and I use parsley grown in my garden. However you will not be penalized for buying it fresh at the store. But you will be shot on site if you use McCormack’s dried parsley.
Mix all ingredients together. Taste for seasoning and add S&P, as desired.
To assemble:
Make an egg wash of 1 egg and 2 tbsp water. Mix well.
Using a pasta roller, roll pasta to setting 6. If using a rolling pin, roll pasta about 1/16th of an inch. Thin.
Cut into squares. Brush all 4 edges of square with egg wash. Place a dollop of filling in the middle of each and top with another square of pasta. Crimp edges to seal and place on a floured sheet pan covered with a kitchen towel.
Repeat.
To cook:
Place ravioli in gently-boiling water and cook about 5 minutes - more or less according to the thickness of your dough.
Serve with your best sauce. They're worth a good sauce.
Awesome doesn't begin to describe.
And since we were having a more-than-awesome fresh ravioli, I made bread to go along with it.
An Italian Bread based on a James Beard recipe.
Italian Bread
- 2 pkgs active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup warm water [100° to 115° F, approximately]
- 1/3 cup butter
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 2 tsp salt
- 5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
- cornmeal
- Sesame seeds
Stir the yeast, sugar and warm water together in the bowl of a stand mixer; let sit until yeast dissolves and starts to proof.
In the meantime, add the butter to the hot water and let cool to lukewarm.
Add 5 cups of flour and the salt to the yeats mixture and mix with a dough hook on low until the dough almost comes away from the sides of the bowl, adding up to 1 more cup of flour, if needed to make a soft dough.
When the dough is soft and smooth, let rest for 5 or 6 minutes and then divide into two. Roll each half into a rectangle about 12″ x 8″. Starting from the wide end, roll the rectangle up quite tightly, pinching the seams as you roll. Grease a large sheet pan or use parchment paper and sprinkle liberally with corn meal. Place loaves on pan and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes.
Preheat to 425° F while the bread proofs.
When proofed, brush loaves with an egg wash and sprinkle liberally with sesame seeds.
Place in oven and bake about 40 minutes or until well-browned and hollow-sounding when tapped.
The whole dinner was seriously awesome.
And I think we're all going to be fighting over the leftovers for lunch, tomorrow...