PASTA TIME

It was my first attempt in making pasta from scratch, I invited friends over to have an interactive cooking experience. 

The pleasure of eating fresh pasta is worth making the dough.

We made spaghetti, beet fettuccine and ravioli filled with pumpkin.

The dough we made by hand and then we used a pasta machine to roll it out.

The pasta in the drying rack, we did several batches of pasta. At a moment every thing looked like a chinese laundry. I loved it. Pasta everywhere!

I try it later on my own to make more pasta for a dinner and I found it to be a  bit hard labour. Definitely It's something I will be doing with friends surrounded by music with a glass of wine.

We started with the basic recipe with 3 eggs and 2 1/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour. Then we continued by mixing  the flour with semolina, my idea was to experiment with other kinds of flours like coconut flour, rice flour, flaxseed meal and spelt.

For the pumpkin ravioli I made a puree by roasting the pumpkin with olive oil and thyme. Mashed it with a fork adding butter, salt, pepper and pinch of grated nutmeg. For the sauce I melted butter with sage and served it with Parmigiano Reggiano. This is alway one of my favorites tortelli di zucca, pumpkin + butter + sage + parmigiano .

I found a recipe which I want to try it is by adding to the pumpkin puree amaretti cookies, nutmeg, Grana Padano and mostarda mantovana (spicy sauce made of candied fruits syrup and mustard essence) 

For the beet fettuccine we made the dough adding beet juice. The color came out beautiful, but for my disappointment after boiling the pasta the intense color tends to fade away.

So I try the second time boiling it into beet juice in stead of water which helped a little better to retain more of the color.

At the end were so hungry that we made the sauces fast and easy, for the spaghetti we just sautéed radicchio with dry chili, garlic and olive oil.

                                                                  Mi piace la pasta!

Roasted Veggies

I made these roasted veggies several times during the holidays, because they were yummy and extremely easy to make. This is an adaptation from a recipe I saw in Olive magazine, on my UK adorable subscription. Because everything is roasted there is not much of a hassle, I could do it on a lazy day as a vegetarian plate or as a side dish with a roasted chicken. I added the chestnuts to give a festive attitude but the whole combination of veggies are fantastic. You could have it without the cream but to me thats the special touch.

Ingredients:

1 small pumpkin or squash, peeled and diced

2 fennel bulbs, cut into slices.

2 big caps of portobello mushroom, diced 

150g of chestnuts, I used a packet of 5.2 oz all ready roasted and peeled. 

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bay leaf

olive oil

butter

salt and pepper

For the tarragon cream:

a little bunch of fresh tarragon, chopped

1 cup of heavy cream

2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard 

In a casserole toss the pumpkin, fennel, chestnuts with the garlic, bay leaf and olive oil. Seasoned with salt and pepper.Roast for about 20 minutes until tender. Meanwhile cook the portobello with the butter until any liquid that it has given off has evaporated. Reserve and toss in the casserole before serving. For the tarragon cream, in a small pan, heat the heavy cream with the mustard and tarragon and drizzle to serve.

Upside down little puddings

New Year came along and I wish you all the best a happy, healthy, prosperous and well savour life to live.

I made these little puddings the last day of the year thinking we may have to have a bite of something sweet with a glass of Champagne for the transition to the new year.....

I spent the night in a Greek tavern, eating fresh mediterranean food, dancing on the table and drinking Retsina, surrounded by very happy people and great music.

Back to the little puddings, the recipe came from the British magazine Delicious.

(I don't know why but they remind me of Downton Abbey)

For the topping:

30g soft butter

30g soft  brown sugar

24 shelled pecan halves

100g cranberries (fresh or frozen)

For the sponge:

100g soft butter

100g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

2 eggs, beaten

50g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking power

50g ground almonds

For the crème anglaise:

150ml whole milk

50ml  double cream

2 large egg yolks

25g caster sugar

1 tsp cornflour

Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange

For the topping mix the butter and sugar together, spread the mixture over the base of the little baking cups. Arrange pecans and cranberries on top.

To make the sponge cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat the in the orange zest. Gradually beat in the egg, adding a small spoonful of flour with the last addition.

Sift over the remaining flour and baking power, and gently fold into the mixture along with the ground almonds.

Divide the sponge mixture between the baking cups, put in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the center of the pudding comes out clean.

For the crème anglaise bring the milk and cream to the boil, briefly whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl, then whisk in the cornflour and orange zest. 

Whisk the hot creamy milk into the yolk and sugar mixture, then return it to the pan and stir over a medium low heat for a few minutes until the mixture thicken. Do not let mixture boil.

Turn out onto serving plates and serve with the hot crème anglaise. They are great without the cream too, their flavour and texture are delicate and soft. Comforting and easy to make.

Serves 8 (mini baking cups) 

I must start the year thanking all my blogging food communities and blogger friends for encouragement, support, sharing your precious moments and treasures. 

I respect  your courage, commitment, determination, and perseverance.

My great admiration to all of you!!!  all the best  

Lola, xoxo