Stuffed Bundles Of Joy

Day two of pasta. Day two of happiness.

Pasta ripiena (stuffed pasta) is one of those things I rarely ever order in restaurants. I completely love all things ravioli, but I'm also quite greedy when it comes to food. Whenever you order something like that in a restaurant, you always get maybe four or five pieces and that just annoys me. It takes a lot more than that to fill me up. Well, now I know exactly why you only get those four or five pieces. It takes so much time to make them! 

There isn't too much of a history base for pasta ripiena, but it's normally always done with an egg dough and there are an infinite amount of shapes used. As I'm quickly learning with so many other things in Italy, the exact same dish that varies from region to region can be called all different names. Yep, way to keep on confusing us Americans, Italy. Example? Ravioli is often called tortelli. Pasta ripiena is rolled thinner than regular noodles due to there being double the amount of dough when cooking with the base and top. Fillings most often involve cheese and/or egg as a binder, but the opportunity for variety is endless, truly. 

We focused on three recipes - ravioli with swiss chard and ricotta, tortellini in brodo (ravioli with meat stuffing) and lasagna di carne (lasagna with meat sauce). In America, you usually find lasagna layered with sauce - sometimes meat, sometimes not - and ricotta. Traditionally, lasagna should be layered with béchamel (besciamella in Italian) sauce instead of cheese which honestly makes such a difference. It's far more rich and weighty but really fantastic. For those who don't know, béchamel is a milk based sauce, thickened with flour and butter, and seasoned with nutmeg and salt. It's used a bunch in Italian cooking which surprised me since I always related it to French cooking. We used our lovely spinach pasta dough from the day before for our lasagna noodles:

I really like this recipe. It wasn't my very favorite, simply because it was a bit too full bodied, but nice all the same. The besciamella really made a big difference and, oddly enough, you get the nutmeg coming through which is a great surprise and combination with the meat. It's that thing that makes people kinda go hmmm as they eat it:

Making the ravioli was tougher than I thought! I messed the first couple of doughs up, because they were too thin and tore, but my third attempt was pretty good:

As mentioned, the filling contained swiss chard that we blanched and chopped fine. It's such a pleasant change from spinach which is normally the go-to vegetable for a ricotta ravioli. 

For the tortellini in brodo, we made these little hat shapes of pasta after stuffing it with a sturdy meat filling made of pork, turkey, veal, prosciutto and mortadella. Major drool. It was so good. My hat shapes, however, were not. I don't think it's a coincidence that I somehow managed to miss snapping a photo of that dish...

I can't say I enjoyed this day as much as others. It just wasn't my thing, I suppose. However, as with so many other things so far, I've learned to really appreciate things as "simple" as stuffed pasta. It is truly an art and I can now see why a good pasta chef is so highly regarded. To create perfection in making shapes out of dough is really a talent and one I don't think I possess. Yet, anyway. We'll see as I keep moving along...

Cheese, Glorious Cheese!

Cheese making and tasting day. Need I say more?

I'd been looking forward to this since the minute I opened and thumbed through my kitchen book. I didn't realize we'd be getting to do a thorough tasting so, when Chef Guido mentioned it before we left class Tuesday, I got more excited than I've been in a while. We've been doing this ServSafe lecture in the mornings which is all about proper food handling, cleanliness, what food borne illnesses can happen...just all the things you need to know and be schooled on when it comes to serving food to people. It's been boring but necessary so I was happy as a clam when the rest of the afternoon was spent in the land of cheese.

After we came back from lunch (which I didn't eat because I was focused on cheese), Chef Guido had put out this glorious spread:

13 different Italian cheeses that we studied, had lecture on and tasted. Every tiny thing we learn, such as the true proper way to taste cheese, makes a drastic difference in how you proceed forward with that ingredient. It was fascinating to learn about the different souring agents that are used in cheese making and what animals produce whatever milk, etc. I never even knew this but cheese itself, not just blue cheese, is a mold. Period. It was happenstance that cheese was ever made in the first place! It was a total accident and man, that's the best accident that's ever happened in my opinion. 

After we finished the tasting, it was time to make some ourselves. We did ricotta and mozzarella and I had a blast doing it! I've made ricotta several times now on my own but it was great to learn a different technique which is actually easier. Yay for that! Making the mozzarella was so much fun. Pulling and stretching the curd made you feel like you were a little kid playing with silly putty. It was fun tearing off pieces and molding them into balls, just like you see in the market. I speak for each of us in saying we really enjoyed that part.

We were left to decide on our own how we'd plate and present both cheeses so I kept it simple with the ricotta and topped it with olive oil, salt and pepper. Chef Guido had some amazing suggestions though that I want to try next time such as drizzling it with honey and a dash of cinnamon to make it sort of a dessert. I think that sounds wonderful! With the mozzarella, I stayed simple but dug into the fresh herbs. I finely chopped basil, rosemary and parsley then added olive oil, salt and pepper. Voila:

I overworked the curd a little bit so it was a touch rubbery but tasty, nonetheless. This was certainly my favorite day in the kitchen thus far, that's for sure!

   

Sunday Funday In The Kitchen

What a beautiful weekend it was in the Big Apple. I couldn't believe how nice it was when we're supposed to be suffering through winter. This time last year, it seemed like it would snow every other day and it was bitter cold. I am not complaining one bit that the sun was bright and warm over the weekend, that's for sure. I filled it up with good friends and, always most importantly, good food! I'd been itching to get back in the kitchen for a full day so I dedicated Sunday afternoon to making a couple of new recipes. After a lovely brunch with Allison and Colleen, I was excited to put on good music and cook the day away.

During my trip to Sicily, I was introduced to what ricotta cheese - real ricotta cheese - should taste like and I vowed that I'd try my hand at making it when I returned. One of my favorite memories of the entire trip was spending the morning at beautiful Emanuela's summer home by the sea where she invited us over for an authentic Sicilian breakfast. One of the signature dishes was bread and homemade ricotta served in a bowl with a ladle of whey right over top:

It was one of the most delicious things I've ever had, truly. My trip was in September which means far too much time has gone by without me making good on my promise to try it homemade. That said, I decided Sunday was the day. If I'm being honest, I've gotten myself back in the kitchen more recently for a couple of reasons. I'm keeping up with my resolution to do so, but I'm also testing a few recipes for when Bryan is in town (less then 3 weeks, hooray!). Having a boyfriend in Denver obviously greatly limits time in the kitchen together, something he and I enjoy so much, so I want to have several homemade things waiting on him when he arrives. I'm pretty sure the two of us could exist on bread and cheese alone - okaaaay maybe wine, too - so what better treat than to eat said cheese that's homemade?!

I wrote previously about my new obsession with Smitten Kitchen and this is exactly where I got the ricotta recipe from. It's also where I got the fabulous oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe from as well that I made while waiting on the cheese to finish, mmm. I followed the ricotta recipe to the letter and it couldn't have been easier, really. It simply requires some extra care but it was overall a cinch. Milk, cream, salt and lemon juice - that's it. I had fun testing this out:

After you've added the lemon juice, you strain the mixture through cheese cloth for 1 - 2 hours which separates the curds and whey:

The result? An absolutely delicious, rich ricotta cheese. It has full flavor, a beautifully creamy texture and it didn't need one single thing extra:

Colleen, are you proud of me for my all natural light photo?! I was, considering how awful I usually am, haha. I was so excited it turned out well. I have several crostini ideas in mind to test out using different acids that I think will cut the richness perfectly so I'm psyched to give them a whirl.

Though I'm not a sweets person, I'm working my way through some recipes that sound terrific yet easy and I'm having fun doing so. While the cheese was straining, I baked the previously mentioned cookies and those were delectable, too:

These cookies were reminiscent of the holidays for me. They have accents of clove, nutmeg and cinnamon with the bright addition of fresh orange zest. I left the pecans out of mine and the only thing I'd do differently is add more oats. Other than that, they are perfectly chewy and delightful. Deb, you're three for three so far in my recipe book. First, the vibrant grapefruit cake I made last week and now these two. I might just be in love with you.

It was a good day to be a guest in my kitchen. Just ask Allison. :)

Orecchiette with Broccoli Ricotta Puree

Aside from my salsa mishap, I had a wonderful weekend! I saw two different sets of friends on Friday that I hadn't seen in forever and Job came back in town for a fun visit. We all had a blast and enjoyed having our old crew together:

I was also completely excited because my sweet friend, Abbey, gave me my late birthday present! She got me 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child and I'm just psyched to get into the meat of that book. The techniques are tough but I have no French cookbooks and there isn't a better one to begin with, in my opinion. I want to make cheese souffle immediately. 

It was sort of a deja vu weekend since Allison and I had another race (finished in 36 minutes this time!) on Sunday morning so I decided to have her over for dinner again on Saturday night. I was originally thinking of doing grilled pork tenderloin with homemade hoisin sauce but I failed to get the grill pan last week that I'd planned to buy. So, I decided to create my own recipe and break out the food processor since I don't use it as often as I'd like. I tossed some ideas around and decided on orecchiette with broccoli ricotta puree.

I blanched the broccoli in the pasta water while I sauteed plenty of onion and garlic in olive oil. I made my trusty garlic oil with lots of crushed red pepper but used half of it to cook my chicken in and the other half to coat the pasta, as usual. I tossed the broccoli and onions together in my food processor, added the ricotta cheese, and a generous amount of salt and cracked black pepper. I processed that all together with a light stream of olive oil:

I combined the mixture with the chicken and hot orecchiette, a little more black pepper, and it was such a springy and fresh looking dish:

Overall, it was super tasty but there was something a little off. It just wasn't a star like you need a "sauce" to be if it's going to be the main thing served over pasta. Allison had a terrific suggestion (that I think is completely right on) that it would be great as a crostini topping. I agree totally with some finely diced balsamic tomatoes on top perhaps. I'll certainly make this again and see if it works better that way. I love coming up with recipes though and I was happy with this one!

We both ended up having a terrific run on Sunday finishing faster than last week and we got to spend the day with our lovely friends, Kristine and Camille. I finished off the weekend with delicious Indian at Brick Lane with Job and Mailande and it was off to bed early for me. Now, I'm just counting down for Brant to get here this weekend, weeee!