Category: Pasta

December 27, 2016 Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna

 

In this unique lasagna, perfect for the fall and winter months, a ricotta enriched butternut squash purée takes the place of a marinara sauce. A cheesy spinach filling complements the creamy squash for this satisfying and healthy vegetarian main dish.

You will need a medium size butternut squash, weighing two and a half to three pounds. Cut the stem end off the butternut squash then cut the squash in half where the bulb end meets the neck. Cut both pieces in half lengthwise. scoop the seeds and fiber out of the bulb end, save seeds for later use. I  rinse the seeds off and dry them between layers of paper towels. Toss with a little bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in a 375°F oven until they pop and become toasty brown. They are great for topping salads and for snacking.

Cover a large baking tray with parchment paper. Brush the squash pieces lightly with olive oil and place the four sections of squash cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake in a 375° oven for about 50 to 55 minutes, until the squash pierces easily with the tip of the knife. Let cool for 10 minutes, the skin should come off easily. Place the squash pieces in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. If necessary, add a little additional liquid, purée until smooth, you will have about 2½ cups. Add 1 cup of ricotta cheese and purée again, season to taste with salt and pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg.

Place the spinach in a large bowl. Lightly rinse the spinach and toss in the bowl. The moisture will help wilt the spinach quickly. I used a 1 pound container of organic triple washed spinach.  Finely chop two garlic cloves.  Heat a large sauté pan over high heat and add the olive oil and swirl it around. Saute the garlic for a few minutes then add the spinach by the handfuls, adding more each time as it wilts down.  After squeezing out any additional liquid, the end result will be one generous cup of spinach.

You can make this version with regular lasagna noodles or if you are following a gluten-free diet, I would recommend  brown rice pasta noodles from Tinkyada, easily found in large grocery stores. They are actually good and have a nutty brown rice flavor. Follow package instructions with regular noodles, I would suggest cooking brown rice noodles for about 10 minutes, no longer. Drain them in a colander, rinse with cold water and dry on parchment lined baking sheets. I haven’t tried this recipe with no bake noodles, my suggestion would be just be certain that the ingredients in your lasagna are moist enough to cook the noodles properly. There are 14 noodles in the package of brown rice noodles, I cook them all in case of breakage. You can always make a lasagna roll up with any leftover purée and cheese.

In a medium bowl mix the well-drained garlic spinach with one and a quarter cups of ricotta cheese and a cup of mozzarella cheese or a cheese blend that you prefer. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

To assemble the lasagna, spray the bottom of your baking tray with nonstick spray.I used a disposable pan with dimensions of 11 x 8 x 2 . Spread one-third of the butternut squash mixture over the bottom of the tray. Top with three lasagna noodles. Dollop one half of the spinach cheese mixture over the noodles. Continue to layer and finish with the remaining butternut squash, sprinkle with a generous amount of cheese, and a sprinkle of dried basil and oregano. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for a half hour. After the half hour take off the foil reattach any cheese that has attached to the foil and bake uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Since lasagna is a time-consuming dish you could do this in stages, make the butternut squash puree one day, the spinach filling the next and assemble and cook on the third day. You could substitute frozen spinach rather than cooking down your own. Possible additions to the dish include sautéed onions, sage leaves, even toasted walnuts. Serve with a crisp salad of arugula, fennel and apples. As it is with all lasagna, it’s even better the next day.

One of our very own butternut squash.
After baking, the skin pops off easily.
Skin off, ready to puree.
A large container of spinach cooks down to about a cup.
First layer of butternut squash ricotta puree .
Just a sprinkling of mozzarella cheese on top.
Lasagna noodles next, these are the brown rice noodles.
Next is the spinach and ricotta filling.
Repeat layers and finish with squash puree, a generous sprinkling of cheese, dried basil and oregano.
Out of the oven..

 

Delicious!!

Butternut Squash and Spinach Lasagna

Serves 6-8

Ingredients for butternut squash filling

  • 1-3 lb butternut squash
  • Olive oil
  • 1¼ c regular or low-fat ricotta cheese
  • ½ t salt
  • ¼ t freshly ground nutmeg

Ingredients for spinach layer

  • 1 lb fresh spinach
  • 1 t olive oil
  • 2 t minced garlic
  • 1 c regular or low-fat ricotta cheese
  • 1¼ c mozzarella cheese
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

To assemble the lasagna

  • 1 lb lasagna noodles (regular or gluten-free)
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Shredded Parmesan cheese
  • Dried basil and oregano

Directions for making the squash puree

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
  2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with nonstick spray.
  3. With a sharp knife cut the squash in half where the neck meets the bulbous end. Cut both of these pieces in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and reserve for toasting if desired.
  4. Brush the cut sides lightly with olive oil and place the four squash pieces on a baking sheet cut side down. Bake in preheated oven 25 minutes, rotate and bake another 25 minutes. The squash should be easily pierced with the tip of a knife.
  5. Cool the squash for about ten minutes, until it can be handled. Scoop out the flesh and place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Puree squash until smooth.  Add the ricotta cheese, nutmeg and salt and puree again. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add a little more ricotta if necessary, the puree should have the consistency of a thick marinara sauce. Set puree aside for the assembly. Leave oven on at 375° if you will be finishing the lasagna.

Directions for the spinach filling

  1. Place the fresh spinach in a large colander that is set inside a large bowl. Sprinkle the spinach lightly with water and toss spinach lightly.
  2. Heat olive oil in a 12″ saute pan. Add garlic and saute until light golden brown. Add the spinach by the handful, adding more as it wilts down. After draining the spinach of excess liquid, you will have a generous cup.
  3. In a medium bowl combine spinach and garlic along with ricotta, mozzarella, salt and freshly ground pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Directions for assembling the lasagna

  1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Add  lasagna noodles and cook according to package directions. Stir noodles occasionally to prevent them from sticking. Drain well and rinse with cool water.
  2. To assemble the lasagna, spray the bottom of the baking dish with nonstick spray. I used a disposable tray with dimensions of 8″ x 11″ x 2″.
  3. Spread one-third of the butternut squash puree over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese. Top with three lasagna noodles. Dollop one half of the spinach cheese mixture over the noodles, sprinkle lightly with mozzarella cheese. Top this layer with the second layer of noodles.
  4. Spread your second layer of butternut squash over the noodles. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, then top with the third layer of lasagna noodles.
  5. Top this with the remaining spinach cheese mixture and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
  6. Top with the remaining butternut squash puree and spread evenly over the noodles. Sprinkle this layer generously with shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle lightly with dried basil and oregano.
  7. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the foil, reattach any cheese clinging to the foil and continue to bake uncover for another 10 to 15 minutes. You can turn the broiler on for a few minutes if you want to brown the cheese.

May 8, 2014 Turkey Spinach Meatballs

DSC_6855aNine times out of ten I would be more than likely to skip over a recipe that’s labeled “kid friendly”, especially if that recipe isn’t even in the magazine! But I was in search of a quick, mostly make ahead recipe that would include ground turkey and spinach.

The spinach in question was the last of the pick from seed Joe planted last October. It wintered over quite nicely in the greenhouse, considering the extremely cold and snowy winter we had. These were not the smaller leaves that we would use in salads but larger ones that would be fine incorporated into a stir fry or cooked down for a dish. I wasn’t in the mood for soup or a stir fry. Larb, the Thai dish that uses ground meat wrapped in lettuce leaves (I could substitute spinach..) was a possibility, but I still wasn’t satisfied yet.
Finally I found it, sort of, in the March edition of Bon Appetit, a column called “The Providers” written by bloggers and husband and wife, Jenny Rosenstrach and Andy Ward. It was an article about strategies for feeding a busy family with preplanned homemade meals. No recipe here but a small postscript to find a recipe for turkey and spinach meatballs on Bon Appetit.com.

Okay, I’m “biting” now, meatballs would be a change of pace for us and we haven’t had a meal with pasta in quite a while. Not that you would have to have them with pasta. Rice would work,so would polenta, on a roll or just by themselves. I pulled a few bags of my oven roasted tomatoes out of the freezer for the marinara sauce and I was ready to go.
The spinach in this recipe was the frozen variety, I have no problems with that, I always have some on hand. It’s just that I had fresh that wasn’t going to be fresh for long and wanted to use it up. The next question for me was, how many cups of fresh spinach does it take to make the equivalent of a ten ounce package? Since my frozen chopped spinach of choice these days is Birdseye, I checked the package, nutrition information yes, but nothing regarding the fresh equivalent. I checked the web, the best I could find was that 1.5 lbs of fresh spinach would cook down to the 10 ounces needed. I just trimmed the large stems and cooked all the spinach I had, a crisper bin full. It looked fairly close to 10 ounces, final weight after squeezing out excess liquid, 9.2 ounces, not too bad I would say.
The marinara sauce is very basic, quite similar to what I already make. I substituted 2 quart bags of our roasted tomatoes, drained of excess liquid. That excess liquid is certainly not the prettiest, but a very flavorful tomato juice, a special treat for the chef. Since I cooked whole leaf spinach, I roughly chopped it after it was cooked down and drained it well before adding it to the meat mixture.
After a somewhat messy beginning, I coated my hands with non stick spray before forming the meatballs so the mixture wouldn’t stick to my fingers. Another selling point of this recipe is that the meatballs are broiled in the oven, eliminating the splatter that comes along with stovetop cooking. This is a recipe that can be doubled, work once, eat twice. The writers of the article recommend freezing in single serving batches so they can be thawed as needed. It’s protein and vegetable all in one juicy meatball served with a simple but flavorful tomato sauce, a great weeknight meal.

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Turkey Spinach Meatballs

from the Bon Appetit website

Makes 20 meatballs, serves 4

Ingredients for Marinara Sauce

  • 1/4 c olive oil
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1t dried oregano
  • 1/4t crushed red pepper flakes
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 2T tomato paste
  • 1-28oz can whole peeled tomatoes (I used my own roasted tomatoes)

Directions for Marinara Sauce

  1. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring often, until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes; season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomato paste and 1 tablespoon water and cook, until tomato paste coats onion and begins to darken, about 3 minutes.
  2. Add tomatoes to saucepan, crushing with a fork or wooden spoon when you add them. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and gently simmer until slightly thickened, 20-25 minutes; season with salt and pepper. Be sure to stir frequently so the tomatoes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Ingredients for the Meatballs

  • Non stick vegetable oil spray
  • 1 large egg, beaten to blend
  • 1/4 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 lb. ground turkey
  • 1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed to remove excess moisture (I used fresh spinach that I cooked down and chopped)
  • 1/2c finely shredded Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2c plain dried breadcrumbs
  • 2T chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
  • 1t fennel seeds
  • 1t finely grated lemon peel
  • 1t kosher salt
  • 2T olive oil,

Directions for the Meatballs

  1. Preheat broiler. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray
  2. Using your hands or a fork, gently mix egg, onion, garlic, turkey, spinach, Parmesan, breadcrumbs, parsley, fennel seeds, lemon zest and salt in a large bowl until just combined.
  3. Scoop out turkey mixture by the 1/4 cupful and form into balls, you should have about 20. Place on the prepared baking sheet, spacing 2″ apart; brush with oil.
  4. Broil meatball, turning often, until browned all over and cooked through, 15-18 minutes. Add to marinara sauce.
  5. To do ahead: Meatballs with marinara sauce can be made 2 weeks ahead. Let cool completely and freeze individual portions in resealable plastic bags. To cook, reheat gently until meatballs are warmed through and sauce is bubbling, 15-20 minutes.
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Fresh spinach, cooked down and ready to be chopped.

 

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After the broiler, ready to be sauced.

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December 27, 2013 Crab Ravioli with Browned Butter and Sage Sauce

DSC_4335aA pasta course featuring ravioli is a part of both our Christmas eve and Christmas day dinners. The white wine pasta recipe from Bon Appetit is one that we have been using for almost 25 years now. Sometimes the filling is spinach and pine nuts, occasionally double mushroom and for this meal, a delicate crab meat.

Buy a good quality crab to let it’s natural sweetness shine through.Lump crab meat is not as expensive as jumbo lump and is fine to use since you will be combining it with creamy ricotta cheese. Be certain to pick over the crab, even the best brands that claim to be picked through will have small bits of shell in it. Better you find that piece of shell before your guest bites into it. I like to spread it out on a baking sheet and put it under a broiler for just a few seconds  Any pieces of shell will turn red and will be easy to pick out.

The pasta comes together quickly in the food processor and only needs a twenty minute rest. We used a ravioli mold to ensure even cuts and cut the pasta with a crimp pastry wheel.  As I mentioned in a previous post, pasta making takes a definite time committment, some patience and a nice long counter top to roll out the pasta. The pasta could be rolled out by hand and a biscuit cutter can take the place of the ravioli mold. Easier still, substitute spring roll wrappers which are thinner than won ton wrappers for the pasta.

The browned butter sage sauce was the perfect accompaniment to the pasta. Cooking the leaves in the butter gives them a little crunch.  We still have sage in the garden so I didn’t have to pay a fortune in a supermarket (like they would have fresh sage) for a few sad leaves.

Leftover ravioli can be frozen on baking sheets and transferred to freezer bags. Cook the ravioli right from the freezer for a delicious impromptu meal.

Crab Ravioli with Browned Butter and Sage Sauce

  • 1 cup ricotta cheese (8 ounces)
  • 1 cup lump crabmeat, (8 ounces)
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Directions

  1.  Mix together ricotta, crabmeat,  1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and the red-pepper flakes.

White Wine Pasta

Ingredients

  • 2 chilled large eggs
  • 1/4 c or more dry white wine
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2c or more unbleached all purpose flour

Directions

White Wine Pasta

  1. Combine eggs, 1/4c wine and salt in processor. With machine running add 2 cups flour through feed tube. Process until slightly sticky dough ball forms. If dough is very sticky, add more flour through feed tube 1 tablespoon at a time, incorporating each addition before adding the next. If dough is dry, add more wine through the feed tube 1 teaspoon at a time, incorporating each addition before adding next. Process dough for 20 seconds more.
  2. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth elastic and no longer sticky, about 5 minutes. Wrap in plastic. Let rest at room temperature 20 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Rolling Dough and Forming Ravioli

  • All purpose flour
  • 1 egg,  beaten to blend

Directions

  1. Cover baking sheets with waxed paper. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Flatten 1 piece (keep remainder wrapped) and dust with flour. Turn pasta machine to widest setting and run dough through twice. Sprinkle with flour, fold in half and run dough through machine twice.
  2. Adjust machine to next narrower setting. Run dough through machine 5 times, folding in half and flouring before each run. Repeat narrowing rollers and running dough through machine 5 times at each setting until the dough is thin enough to see color of the skin on your hand through it; use less flour each time as dough loses stickiness (narrowest setting on machine with 6 settings, second to narrowest setting on machine with 8 settings).
  3. Arrange dough on floured work surface. Cut in half crosswise. Cover 1 piece with plastic. Brush remaining piece with egg. Top with 2 rows of 1/2 tablespoon mounds of filling, spacing 1 inch from the edges and 1 inch apart. Top with second dough sheet. Press with side of hand between mounds of filling down center, then crosswise, forcing out any trapped air. Cut between mounds to form large squares, using pasta cutting wheel or knife. Transfer ravioli to prepared baking sheets. Press edges of ravioli together to seal. Repeat rolling, filling and cutting with remaining dough pieces and filling. (Can be prepared ahead. cover with plastic wrap and refrigerated 1 day or freeze until solid. Transfer to freezer containers and freeze up to 1 month. Cook ravioli directly from refrigerator or freezer.)
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Running the dough through the pasta machine.

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Cooking Ravioli

  • Preheat oven to lowest setting. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Boil ravioli until just tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to platter using a slotted spoon. Toss with a little olive oil. Cover with foil and keep warm in oven while preparing sauce.

Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Ingredients

  • 20 fresh sage leaves
  • 1/2c (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 2T extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb. pasta
  • 1/4c freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

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Directions

  1. Set aside 8 sage leaves for garnish and julienne the remaining leaves.
  2. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat until it foams. Add the olive oil and the julienned sage leaves. cook, stirring, over medium heat until the butter is golden brown-do not burn it! Set aside and keep warm.
  3. Pour the butter mixture over the pasta, add the Parmigiano-Reggiano, and toss gently. Garnish with whole sage leaves and serve at once.

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October 31, 2013 Lobster Mac and Cheese

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Fall is a season of transition. We still grill outside but our chilly evenings have moved our dining permanently indoors. It’s time to return to the comfort foods of fall. Since lobsters were on sale this week at a local supermarket I wanted to incorporate them into our Sunday dinner. After browsing through some recipes on the Fine Cooking website, I thought the recipe for Lobster Mac and Cheese seemed like a great choice. Who doesn’t love creamy macaroni and cheese and the addition of  lobster would take it over the top.

Lobster is a splurge even when it’s on sale. It’s hard to believe that lobsters were considered peasant food and the fare of slaves and prisoners in the nineteenth century. If you are squeamish about cooking your own lobster, I have found that most markets will steam the lobsters for you at no additional charge. Joe steamed the lobsters for me. He cooked them for a minute less than if we were eating the lobsters on their own, just steamed. The lobster will cook a little more when the mac and cheese bakes and overcooked lobster would defeat the purpose of adding it to the dish in the first place.

I removed the lobster meat from the tails and the claws with assistance from my lobster cracker, trusty Cutco scissors and seafood pick. I kept the pieces on the large side, about 2 inches so that everyone would get good chunks of lobster. The shells went into freezer bags for a future lobster stock.

The sauce for the mac and cheese begins with a roux. A roux is made with equal parts flour and fat, in this case, unsalted butter. Melt the butter over medium heat, when the butter is melted and starts to bubble, add the flour and start whisking. The roux will eventually liquefy in about 3-4 minutes, continue to cook the roux over low heat to eliminate any floury taste. Still whisking, now slowly add the milk to the roux until it comes to a simmer. Now is the time to add the cheeses, nutty Gruyere, Emmenthaler and a sharp Cheddar, spices and salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. I chose smoky Spanish paprika, dry mustard and just a pinch of saffron to compliment the lobster.

My pasta of choice was the traditional elbow macaroni but any small shape that has a lot of nooks and crannies would work well. I made my dish in one large casserole but individual gratin dishes would also be an excellent choice. A crunchy breadcrumb topping gives a nice contrast to the creamy filling underneath. If you have leftovers, the good news is, as with any good mac and cheese dish, it’s even better the next day.

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Lobster Mac and Cheese

Adapted from Fine Cooking

Ingredients

  • 7T unsalted butter, a little more for the baking dish
  • 1c breadcrumbs, or 2 slices stale white bread
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
  • 1/3c all purpose flour
  • 4c whole milk
  • 1 1/2c each Gruyere, Emmenthaler and Cheddar cheese
  • 1t dry mustard
  • 1/4 to 1/2t saffron threads
  • 1t Spanish smoked paprika
  • 1lb pasta-I used elbow, choose something small to medium with lots of nooks and crannies
  • 4-1 1/4lb lobsters, steamed, shelled, meat cut into 2-inch pieces
  • 2t finely chopped flat leaf parsley, for garnish

Directions

  1. Heat the oven to 425°F. Lightly butter a 3-quart ovenproof dish and set aside.
  2. If using bread, tear it into 1-inch pieces and pulse them in a food processor until smooth. Melt 2T of the butter in a skillet over medium heat, add the breadcrumbs and swirl to coat with butter. Cook the breadcrumbs until browned, about 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Set the crumbs aside.
  3. In a large saucepan, melt the remaining 5T butter over medium heat. When the butter begins to bubble, whisk in the flour and cook, until the mixture begins to liquefy, 3 to 4 minutes. Continue to cook the roux over low heat until it has a toasty smell. Whisk in the milk in a slow steady stream, whisking constantly for 3 minutes. When the sauce comes to a simmer, stir in the cheeses, saffron, dry mustard and smoked paprika; season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and cover.
  4. Boil a large pot of water, season with salt, and cook pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta well and pour it into a very large bowl.
  5. Add the cheese sauce and lobster chunks to the pasta; mix well. Transfer to the prepared dish. Sprinkle the breadcrumb topping evenly over the macaroni mix. Bake uncovered for 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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June 6, 2013 A Salad and a Slaw

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The first  “burgers and dogs” cookout of the season called for sides, one, very traditional, the other, an update on an old classic.

The variations are endless when it comes to pasta salad.  As a caterer I had more than a dozen in my repertoire. Pasta salads can reflect whatever taste or ethnicity you are in the mood for. They are a perfect addition to summer picnics and barbecues. This pasta salad features traditional Mediterranean flavors and is as simple as can be. It can be made in not much more time than it takes to cook the pasta and uses mostly pantry ingredients. Rotelle pasta works well here, feel free to substitute whatever twisted shape suits your fancy.  If you are using canned diced tomatoes, hold back on the saucy component of the tomatoes, you can always add more sauce later.

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Cabbage is a main ingredient in many slaw recipes so why not substitute the “cabbage turnip” or kohlrabi as it is translated from the German. Though it looks like a root vegetable it is a swollen stem that grows above ground. Farmers markets and spring gardens are abundant with kohlrabi this time of year. The mild flavor is somewhere between broccoli stems and a turnip and young kohlrabi are sweet and quite tender. I added some jicama to my slaw for additional crispness, Granny Smith apples for their sweet-tart flavor and a carrot to enhance the color. The kohlrabi I used was young, there was no need to peel the purple skin and it gave the salad some more color. l chose to julienne the vegetables in my slaw, a box grater or the shredding disc of a food processor would work as well but would give the slaw a different texture.

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 Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Garbanzos and Feta

Serves 6-8

  • 1/2lb pasta (rotelle or rotini works best here)
  • 1/4 c finely chopped fresh basil
  • 2 T fresh lemon juice
  • 2 T white wine vinegar
  • 1 T chopped garlic
  • 2 t  grated lemon peel
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cups chopped plum tomatoes (fresh or canned)
  • 1/4c finely minced sun-dried tomatoes
  • 1/4c sliced black olives
  • 1 15- to 16-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
  • 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
  • Additional chopped fresh basil

Directions

  1. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Drain again.
  2. Combine basil, lemon juice, vinegar, garlic and lemon peel in large bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Add pasta, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and feta cheese. Toss to blend well. Season salad to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared ahead. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours; or cover and refrigerate overnight, them let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)
  3. Mound salad on large shallow platter. Garnish with additional basil.

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Kohlrabi Slaw

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • 1 medium kohlrabi
  • 1/2 medium jicama
  • 2 Granny Smith apples
  • 1 medium carrot
  • 1/4c golden raisins
  • 1/4c dried cranberries
  • 1/4c balsamic vinegar (I used cranberry-pear)
  • 1/2c extra virgin olive oil
  • 1t lemon peel
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Cut top, bottom and “tentacles” off the kohlrabi. Peel the skin off the kohlrabi only if it is tough. Peel the jicama, apples and carrots.
  2. Cut all vegetables into matchstick julienne or shred in a food processor or on a box grater. Combine in a bowl along with the raisins and dried cranberries.
  3. Combine vinegar, oil and lemon peel in a small bowl, whisk to combine.
  4. Add enough vinaigrette to coat, let sit at room temperature for about ten minutes and add a little more vinaigrette if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

April 6, 2013 Spinach Ravioli with Herb Butter Sauce

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I love using Epicurious as a recipe resource. So many years of the best of Bon Appetit and Gourmet are right at your fingertips. There are times however when I want to go beyond Epicurious to the annals of the food magazines I have collected over the past thirty years. Almost every year around Easter I return to a recipe for a white wine ravioli with an herb butter sauce. The recipe was in Bon Appetit’s monthly feature, “Cooking Class”. This well-worn issue from April 1989 featured Lynne Rossetto Kasper as that month’s teacher. She is the author of the James Beard award-winning cookbook,The Splendid Table and host of the weekly radio program of the same name.

Looking at that issue of Bon Appetit is like a time capsule into the world of food and cooking almost 25 years ago. The Marlboro man still graced the pages beckoning us to “come to where the flavor is.” Uh, no thanks. No www. yet, snail mail address and telephone numbers were the way to find additional information on featured products. A frilled toothpick stuck in the page attests to the many times I turned to recipes from the “Trade Winds Cocktail Party”. I catered quite a few “island style” wedding receptions and parties of our own for many years. Late cookbook author Abby Mandel was teaching us “Shortcuts with Style”, making good use of the food processor and microwave. In an article titled “Great Chefs’ Chocolate Desserts” late chef and cookbook writer, Richard Sax, extols one up and comer, Thomas Keller. As Sax said, “For my money, Keller is one of the best, most tirelessly inventive chefs now cooking in New York.” I would say Sax knew what he was talking about and the rest of the cooking world would soon agree.

Back to the article, ravioli is described as an “easy dish to make at home” and includes step by step photographs of the pasta making process. She offers two fillings for the ravioli, spinach, pine nut and currant filling and double mushroom, using both fresh and dried varieties. We have made both, but this year chose just to do the spinach filling. It reminds me of the filling I made to fill countless phyllo triangles as a caterer. An “easy dish”? I can’t say that I agree with that, but it can be fun, especially if you have someone to share the duties with.  Pasta making takes a definite time commitment, some patience and a nice long countertop to roll out the pasta. Along with parachute pants and mullets, food processor recipes were especially popular in the eighties. The pasta dough could also be made in a stand mixer or by hand. We used a ravioli press to speed along the process but it is not a necessity. Don’t own a pasta machine? Roll out the dough by hand (helps develop strong arm muscles) and use a biscuit cutter.  Don’t have the time or desire to make fresh pasta? Won ton, or better yet spring roll wrappers are a reasonable substitute and will give you more time to experiment making different types of filling. 

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Ingredients for the spinach and pine nut filling.

 Ravioli with Herb Butter Sauce

from Bon Appetit April 1989

Makes 6-8 first course servings

Spinach, Pine Nut and Currant Filling

Ingredients

  • 1 10 oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 2T olive oil
  • 1 large onion, minced
  • 3T toasted pine nuts
  • 2T dried currants
  • 1 1/2T chopped fresh basil
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1/3t dried oregano
  • 1c reduced fat ricotta cheese
  • 1/3c freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1 egg

Directions

  1. Squeeze spinach dry; chop finely. Heat oil in heavy medium skillet over medium high heat.  Add onion and cook until golden brown, stirring frequently, about 6 minutes.  Add spinach, pine nuts, currants, basil, garlic and oregano. Stir until thoroughly combined. Cool mixture before proceeding.
  2. Combine ricotta and Parmesan in a medium bowl. Add spinach mixture. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Mix in egg. Spinach filling can be prepared two days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.

White Wine Pasta

Ingredients

  • 2 chilled large eggs
  • 1/4c (or more) dry white wine
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 c or more unbleached all purpose flour            

Directions

  1. Combine eggs, 1/4c wine and salt in processor. With machine running, add 2 cups flour through feed tube.
  2. Process until slightly sticky dough ball forms. If dough is very sticky, add more flour through the feed tube 1 tablespoon at a time, incorporating each addition before adding next. If dough is dry, add more wine through the feed tube 1 teaspoon at a time, incorporating each addition before adding the next. Process dough for 20 seconds more.
  3. Knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth, elastic and no longer sticky, about 8 minutes. Wrap in plastic and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.

Rolling dough and forming ravioli

  • All purpose flour
  • 1 egg, beaten to blend
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Our machine is hand cranked but there are electric versions as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions

  1. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Flatten 1 piece (keep the remainder wrapped) and dust with flour. Turn pasta machine to widest setting  and run dough through twice. Sprinkle with flour, fold in half and run dough through machine twice.
  2. Adjust machine to the next narrowest setting. Run dough through machine 5 times, folding in half and flouring before each run. Repeat, narrowing rollers and running dough through machine 5 times at each setting until the dough is thin, narrowest setting on machine with 6 settings, second to narrowest on the machine with 8 settings.
  3. Arrange dough sheet on floured work surface. Cut in half crosswise. Cover one piece with plastic. Brush remaining piece with egg. Top with 2 rows of 1/2 tablespoon mounds of filling, spacing 1 inch from the edges and 1 inch apart.
  4. Top with second dough sheet. Press with side of hand between mounds of filling down center, then crosswise, forcing out any trapped air.
  5. Cut between mounds to form large squares, using a knife or a pasta cutting wheel.
  6. Transfer ravioli to prepared baking sheets. Press edges of ravioli together to seal.
  7. Repeat the rolling, filling and cutting with remaining dough pieces and filling. Can be prepared ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 day or freeze until solid. Transfer to freezer containers and freeze up to one month. Cook ravioli directly from the refrigerator or freezer.
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You should almost be able to see your hand through the finished pasta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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     Cooking ravioli

  1. Preheat oven to lowest setting. Bring two large pots of salted water to a boil. Divide ravioii between pots and boil until just tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to platter using a slotted spoon. Toss with a little olive oil. Cover lightly with foil and keep warm in oven while preparing sauce.

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Herb Butter Sauce

Ingredients

  • 6T butter (3/4 of a stick)
  • 3T chicken stock or low salt canned broth
  • 1/4c thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • Whole fresh basil leaves

Directions

  1. Melt butter in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Add stock and sliced basil and simmer one minute. Season with pepper. Drizzle over ravioli.
  2. Serve immediately, sprinkling each serving with Parmesan and garnishing with whole basil leaves.

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