Creamy Zucchini and Basil Penne

Another week another Weekend Herb Blogging! This week we are back to basil. And the super funny thing is I just read Kalyn's Kitchen and she also made a pasta with Zucchini and Basil. It is actually quite interesting to see just how different the two recipes are! This week's event is hosted over at Anthony's Kitchen, don't forget to check out the round up.


This pasta's title is deceptivly healthy sounding. Beware of the calories! That said this one got some really good feeback from it's "audience". In fact I caught my boyfriend slurping the leftover sauce out of the pan with his finger before he did the dishes. It's fairly quick - the time is all in the zucchini frying so use the biggest pan you can without crowding the pieces. I will make this again in a heartbeat. Try and get a really good fresh egg to use - the flavour of it is really important in this recipe. Again.. the original recipe comes from here. Time to branch out ;)

I am going on vacation for a week starting this weekend (finally!!!). I get to spend 5 whole days in Tofino, BC. if you have never heard of it, google it. It is a spectacular and serene place full of wildlife and low on tourists. Believe it or not I intend to go surfing, with the full wet suit and all, so wish me luck! Also, amazing seafood - especially crab. Yum! Bye for now...

Fusilli Creamy Zucchini and Basil Sauce

1 lb. zucchini, washed and cut into 3"x1/8" sticks
1 lb. fusilli
3 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon flour
⅓ cup milk
salt
⅔ cup basil, roughly chopped
1 egg yolk, beaten lightly with a fork
½ cup Parmesan, freshly grated
¼ cup Romano Pecorino, freshly grated
vegetable oil, for frying

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. There should be enough oil that it comes at least 1/4' up the skillet (1/2" is suggested).
2. Fry the zucchini sticks a few at a time so as not to crowd. Fry until golden brown on both side then transfer to paper towels to drain.
3. Drop fusilli into boiling water.
4. In another skillet melt half the butter and all the olive oil. Dissolve flour into the milk. When the butter begins to foam turn to medium low and stir in the milk & flour mixture a little bit at a time. Cook, stirring constantly for 30 seconds. Add the fried zucchini sticks, turning then 2 or 3 times, then add 1/4t of salt and the basil. Cook long enough to turn everything once or twice.
5. Take off the heat and swirl in remaining butter then rapidly add yolk and cheese and combine until an even sauce forms. Toss with pasta.

How to make Orecchiette - my way.

I have never actually had orecchiette but every picture I have ever seen of it made it look really appealing. Attempting to make a dish where the flavours and the textures are unknown to you is like trying to play a song from a musical genre you have never heard - it might be sound good , but what if it is supposed to be great?


So, I can't tell you if this is authentic or if it will taste like that little trattoria in your neighbourhood but it certainly is a fun advneture in cooking. It will take you an hour or two to make this full batch and is enough for 4 generous servings or 6 small servings. The original recipe comes from the usual Marcella Hazan bible that has recently become my comfort book, poor Pride and Prejudice is getting left behind. For a good sauce check out this recipe.

Tools:
Work Surface: Untreated wood or marble is ideal. Finished wood will cause the dough to stick when kneading.
Knife: When cutting the disks off the end of the coil you will need a very sharp thin knife otherwise the disks will turn into squished ovals.

Orecchiette

1 cup Semolina
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup water, luke warm (up to 1C)

1. Combine flours and salt on a work surface, making a mound with a well in the center. Add water, a few tablespoons at a time, working it into the flour until absorbed. Stop before it becomes to stiff and dry.
*At this point it should be softer then egg pasta*

2. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic - this is a long process you probably want to knead it for about 20 minutes so get comfortable.
3. Break off a piece about the size of a lemon and cover the rest of the dough. Back on your work surface roll the dough into a sausage shape which is about 3/4" thick. Slice it into disks 1/16" thick.

4. With each disk, place it in the center of your left palm, using the thumb of your right hand apply circular pressure in the middle of the disk. This should give you something that looks like an empty half sphere with a skin pattern on the bottom. The edges should be thicker then the middle.
5. Place finished orecchiette on a cookie sheet lightly floured with semolina. Allow to dry for awhile before cooking.

Drying: This pasta can be dried and stored for a long time as it does not contain egg. In order to store it will need to be completely air dried.

Cooking: Cook in *very* will salted water until tender ~4-6 minutes.

Food for the Soul

To continue my pasta phase I made homemade orecchiette this week. The pasta and the sauce both come from Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cookbook. I must say everytime I make something from this cookbok I am more and more impressed. Everything works, everytime. Moreover it's good, really good. How often can you actually say that? I know for me that of the 15 or so cookbooks I have I can't say that about more then a handful. ...Though of course it is directly proportional to just how many recipes you have made.

At any rate. Highly recommeded. Super quick and healthy. Oh, and if you think you don't like anchovies. I'm sure you have heard this before - but you'll like them when it is all cooked in. However, because of the anchovies make sure you taste before you salt as it may not need it. Also try making the orecchiette by hand, my post on how to do that is coming...

Broccoli and Anchovy Orecchiette
-2 cups Broccoli florets
-1/4t salt
-6 tablespoons olive oil
-6 large anchovy fillets, chopped
-pepper, freshly ground
-1 tablespoon butter
-6 tablespoon Parmesan, freshly grated
-6 tablespoon Romano Pecorino, freshly grated

1. Wash broccoli, bring a pot of water to a boil and 1/4t salt and add florets to the water. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes, until just tender.
2. Put 1/4C oil in a skillet with the anchovies. Cook over medium heat mashing with a wooden spoon until it becomes a paste. (Meanwhile start the pasta.) Add the broccoli and saute for 4-5 minutes. Turn lightly while sauteing.
3. Add the sauce to the cooked pasta, plus 1t of butter and the the grated cheeses. Mix thoroughly until it becomes a sauce.

Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Taglietelle with Fresh Thyme

Another week, and another herb from my front porch for weekend herb blogging. This week? Thyme. Thyme and mushrooms specifically. This is one of my favorite recipes to use fresh pasta. This recipe taught me how thyme can really bring out the flavour of mushrooms and vice versa, I would highly recommend it. It comes directly from Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef Takes Off - and is a staple whenever I get my hands on some really spicy italian sausage. (Thank you Granville Island.) Plus, last week when I made Ravioli I had enough pasta leftover to make two large portions worth of papardelle/taglietelle (wide flat noodle).



For anyone out there who is unaware of weekend herb blogging it is a weekly event hosted by Kalyn over at Kalyn's Kitchen to encourage bloggers to blog about herbs. I have been trying to participate in it weekly - and by doing that be inspired to take advantage of the herbs I grow on my porch and sill. (Kalyn - I think that means WHB is working :) ). For the record these are thyme, rosemary, dill, sage, chives, basil and mint.

This recipe makes enough for 4 - which in my house means 2 meal sized, salad free portions. :) I guess tomorrow I should have something healthy to make up for it.

Spicy Sausage and Mushroom Pappardelle with Fresh Thyme

-1 red onion (or a half large onion), finely diced
-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
-1 package of hot italian sausage, really hot if you can find them.
-2T olive oil
-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
-mixed mushrooms (I used 15 small mushrooms, a mix of white and brown and 1 portobello, oyster are also really nice)
-fresh pasta
-3T butter
-1 handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
-grated Parmesan for garnish.

1. Heat olive oil and remove casings from sausage.
2. Saute the sausage with the garlic and onion until the sausage starts to brown. Break up the sausage while you are cooking it.
3. When sausage is browned add the thyme, chili and mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and continue cooking the mushrooms until all the moisture is gone.
4. Cook the pasta and reserve some of the cooking water.
5. Remove the mushrooms from the heat and add the butter and a bit of cooking water and stir. Add pasta and half of the parsley and toss. Plate the pasta garnishing with parsley and grated Parmesan.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

I woke up Sunday morning and was thrilled to find it raining and cool. It was a perfect day to have a TV marathon and putt around in the kitchen. In honour of that I decided to finally put my sage plant to use and make something for Weekend Herb Blogging. This week's event is being hosted by Christa at Calendula & Concrete. She has a fun herb-oriented blog. Plus check out her pesto recipe. I love good ideas for one pot meals!

I have had a sage plant on my front porch for about 18 months and have yet to find a use for it. Sage is a perennial plant and is quite hard to kill. This is a great thing for those of us lacking a green thumb - ahem, ahem. In fact I have actually proved sage's heartiness; Last year I took very poor care of the plant and yet it came back quite healthy this season.

When I think sage, I only come up with stuffing so it has been challenging to find uses for my plant. Because of this, for the last few months I have been keeping my eye out for sage recipes that don't involve a roast and I found one! In fact I found a slew of them for the same item. I caught both Giada, Mario and Emeril all making different variations on an Italian sage brown butter sauce. Apparently it is a classic - etc etc - which are usually worth trying :)

I chose to use Emeril's ravioli recipe because I really liked the idea of the butternut squash filling. Plus, I really did want a good day of fussing. So with the Scrubs marathon on and the rain coming down against the windows I started in on the stuffed pasta. I practiced a variety of different shapes as this was only my second attempt at stuffed pasta. After a few tries and a couple of googles I finally understood how to make tortellini. I foresee a full post on this in the future. For the bulk of the pasta I made raviolis as I didn't have a good circle cutter.

A couple of things to mention - you really can't let the pasta dry out at all when making stuffed pasta. Dabbing water on the part you are about to seal is key. Also, make sure your filling isn't too wet. My previous attempt was with a ricotta based filling and it was simply to wet for my low level skills.

All and all, it turned out really well. I was very impressed with the filling and the combination with the sage butter. I would recommend to *drizzle* the sauce over the pasta as it is very very rich. It also gave me a good opportunity to practice my stuffed pasta skills of which I have more or less none. The verdict? It certainly didn't look all that pretty but it tasted amazing!


Roasted Butternut Squash Ravioli with a Sage Brown Butter Sauce

9T butter
2 shallots, minced
1 butternut squash
3T whipping cream
6T Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 recipe pasta dough, rolled on thinnest setting
12 fresh sage leaves
1T parsley, chopped fine
salt and pepper for seasoning.

1. Cut squash in half lengthwise and remove seeds and stringy bits. Place cut-side down on a cookie sheet and bake in a 400F oven for an hour. Once cool enough to handle scoop flesh into a food processor and blend. Set aside.

2. In a large fry pan melt 1t butter and saute the shallots for a minute. Add the squash and cook, stirring, until the mixture is slightly dry - about 2-3 mins. Season. Add the cream and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stuff in 3t cheese. Set aside to cool to room temperature before using.


3. I recommend working with strips about 12"s long so you can do 4 at a time. Cut two sheets, one about 3"x12" and one slightly longer about 3"x14'. Place a 1T of the filling one inch in from the end of the smaller piece of pastry and another two inches away ..etc. See picture on right. With your finger or a brush lightly wet the pasta dough around the filling to allow it to stick. Place the longer piece of dough on top and working from one end to another cup the sough around the filling and gently press around trying to remove all the air as you go. Once all raviolis have been sealed divide with a knife. Place the pasta on waxed cookie sheet and store\freeze until you are ready to use.

4. When ready to cook pasta put water on and bring to a boil. When boiling start brown butter sauce. Melt remaining butter in a saucepan. Add sage and cook until the butter starts to brown. Turn the heat down and cook the pasta.

5. To serve plate the pasta, spoon the sauce overtop and garnish with parsley and parmesan.