Posts tagged Pasta
The great seaweed – Spirulina tagliatelle with vegetables, shiitake, shrimps and sea spaghetti
Jun 30th
Tagliatelles à la spiruline aux légumes, shiitake, spaghetti de mer et crevettes
I have been quite excited today, I managed to prepare this colorful pasta dish and my parents really liked it. I was not expecting such a reaction from two traditional Italians eating a pasta dish that has nothing to do with Italian flavors. I went shopping to La Vie Saine which is a healthy and organic supermarket with lots of unusual products, and I just wanted to see what those green tagliatelle tasted like. Their color comes from the Spirulina which, in the US is mainly a seaweed used as a dietary tablet supplement. Spirulina is very high in protein much more than any type of legume.
In addition to the spirulina tagliatelle, I used a specific seaweed, mainly found in Brittany coast (Roscoff area) called Himanthalia Elongata and has a very high vitamin C content. Unlike most other seaweed, it’s not produced in Japan. It’s basically a brown seaweed that has the form of big button where long stems start their ramification.
I really loved this pasta, it’s colorful and absolutely delicious. Now I am curious to see if it’s available in the US. Upon my return, I will start my spirulina pasta hunting! I am always excited to see the new trends in France, even though you still have a traditional cuisine, new trends are arising and I noticed that la cuisine aux algues (seaweed cooking) is getting quite popular. Of course, not among the traditional eaters, but among adventurous eaters, interested in a new and healthy cuisine.
Ingredients for 4
- 1 tsp ginger, grated
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 350 g spirulina tagliatelle
- 2 carrots, sliced lengthwise in a ribbon
- 1 zucchini, sliced lengthwise in ribbons
- 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, diced
- Sea spaghetti seaweed
- 1/3 cup vegetable broth
- 1 cup shrimps
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add garlic and ginger. Stir and add shiitake, cook for about minutes, then add the rest of vegetables. Let the zucchini soften but do not overcook or they’ll break.
Soak sea spaghetti in cold water for about 15 minutes, then boil them in water for another 15 minutes or until they get soft. Drain and set aside.
Add sea spaghetti to the vegetables and stir. Add shrimps and broth, salt and pepper.
Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain and add to the pan of vegetables. Stir well and serve.
A different kind of pesto from Sicily – Homemade spinach tagliatelle with pesto alla trapanese
Jun 24th
Un altro tipo di pesto Siciliano – Linguine agli spinaci con pesto alla trapanese
You can really tell someone is Italian by the quantity of pasta they eat…my family eats pasta almost every day…unlike me…I eat it once in a while, which can be a good reason to question my Italian nationality, let’s hope they don’t come and take away my Italian passport!! Oh well, I guess I am not much of a habit type of a person and that habits somehow disturb me and can give me anxiety. Some people find comfort in habits, in my case it’s the opposite.
Everyone knows pesto which a famous paste made out with raw ingredients, that traveled beyond many borders. Of course there are many recipes for pesto using different ingredients and herbs. This particular pesto is called alla Trapanese, meaning Trapano style, after Trapano, a city in Sicily. This pesto is made with almonds and raw tomatoes ; you get a very fresh and light sauce which makes it so delicious.
To transform the pasta and make it into a fun and original mixture, I love to flavor the dough with vegetables or herbs. You can add anything you want, saffron, mushrooms, tomato paste, broccoli, etc…and color your plate and pleasure your eyes and palate!
If you want to keep this dish vegan don’t add the yolk in the pasta, it will turn out fine, and don’t add pecorino, and you’ll get an absolutely delicious vegan pasta dish.
Ingredients for 2
For the pasta
- 100 g semolina flour
- 100 g farro flour
- 100 g spinach, cooked (about one bunch spinach raw)
- 1 egg yolk
For the pesto
- 3 well ripe tomatoes, peeled and seedless
- about 20 basil leaves
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 tbs almonds
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 4 tbs pecorino
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pesto
Pat dry peeled and seedless tomatoes to remove excess water. Using a mortar, blend all together together (except for pecorino) into a fine paste. Set aside. You can use a mixer but make sure not to blend the mixture into extra fine paste, you want some texture.
For the pasta
Combine all flours together in a mixing container. Add purée spinach and yolk, and start kneading the dough thoroughly for about 20-30 minutes. At this point, the dough will be elastic and smooth.
On a large wooden board (spianatoia), with a pasta rolling pin, make a thin sheet. You can use a pasta machine if you have one and not used to rolling pasta sheets.
Cook pasta in boiling water for a few minutes, drain and toss with pesto. Add pecorino and serve hot.
Do you know how to play the guitar? – Farro Spaghetti “alla chitarra” with vegetable ragù and ricotta
May 24th
Sai suonare la chitarra? – Spaghetti di farro alla chitarra con salsa all’ortolana e ricotta
I am going back to my roots with this dish. Once in a while, it feels good to go back to old and traditional ways of cooking even if it it can be time consuming. Cooking being therapeutic for me (like for most people who love cooking), when I am stressed, I cook, and the longer, the better. Sundays are perfect for these rituals.
I am in love with my new pasta cutting tool called chitarra. Eventhough it produces a different kind of music, it’s just wonderful lyrics to my ears. Due to its shape and strings it has the same name as the musical instrument guitar (chitarra in Italian means guitar) due it its strings. Spaghetti alla chitarra is my favorite pasta, anytime I am in Italy I buy it and eat them during a whole week. Those are a specialty from Abruzzi and the neighboring regions further South. Basically the strings of the chitarra are the cutting tool. You can either use the rolling pin or your hands to press the pasta sheet on the strings. The two particularities of this pasta is first, you need to have a pasta thickness, similar to the width of the guitar strings, second it’s an egg based pasta.
When using a chitarra, the texture of the pasta is really different, more rugged and thicker since the width of spaghetti is supposed to be the same size as the depth, basically you get square spaghetti.
Chitarra is available in the US at Sur La Table, so for those who are passionate about pasta and want to experiment old ways of making and cutting it, I suggest you try it out.
The dough has 80% farro (or spelt) that’s why you get a darker and golden color and the sauce is vegetarian. The traditional spaghetti alla chitarra from Abruzzi region is made out of a lamb ragù. Of course, you can use your creativity and taste as far as the sauce is concerned. I am still on some vegetarian funk lately, so this worked beautifully for me.
Ingredients for 4
For the pasta dough
- 100 g white flour
- 200 g farro flour
- 3 eggs
- water
For the sauce
- 6 medium size tomatoes on the vine, well ripe, peeled, seedless and chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
- 2 zucchini, diced
- 1 small eggplant, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 small yellow onion
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 2 tbs olive oil
- hot chili pepper (peperoncino)
- basil or oregano
- 4 tbs ricotta
- 1 tbs chopped olives (optional)
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the pasta
In a working surface mix flours together, add eggs, and gradually incorporate flour. Add a little water if necessary (if dough is too hard) and knead for about 15-20 min to obtain a round and smooth ball. Wrap in a plastic film and let it rest for about 30 min.
In a flat surface (preferably wood, such as a spianatoia, the Italian flat wooden board to roll the pasta dough), using a large and not tapered rolling pin, roll dough to obtain a thin sheet. You can use a pasta machine if you have not mastered the art of rolling dough. The sheet should be thin but not overly thin, something like 2 mm thick.
When the sheet is ready, take chitarra to cut strings. Place sheet on top of strings and using the rolling pin, roll it from top to bottom of the pasta sheet. The spaghetti will fall into the chitarra, and you just have to remove them. Proceed until you have finished with the sheets.
For the sauce
In a pan, heat olive oil. Add onions and brown them. Add the rest of the vegetables, salt and pepper. Cover with lid and let cook until tender but still firm.
In another pot, heat olive oil. Add garlic and stir to get flavors out. Add oregano (or basil) and tomatoes, and cook until the tomatoes are starting to form a thick sauce (about 10-15 minutes). Add chili peppers, salt and pepper.
When the vegetables are cooked, add to the tomato sauce and mix well. If you decide to add olives, add at this point. Add extra olive oil.
Bring a pot of salted boiling water to a boil, add spaghetti. Cook for a few minutes, or until spaghetti come at the surface. Remove from stove and drain.
Place spaghetti in a large pasta dish, pour sauce on top. Serve in dishes with ricotta on top and sprinkle with either oregano or basil. Serve hot.
Another way to cook pasta – Pasta "risottata" with fava beans, zucchini and cherry tomatoes
May 12th
Un’altro modo per cucinare la pasta – Pasta risottata con fave, zucchine e pomodorini
After this weekend ordeal, I needed to eat something to soothe my mind…Pasta especially pasta in bianco (with burro e parmigiano, butter and parmesan) is a dish that always remind me of when I was a child and sick, my mom would cook this dish for me who supposedly helped to cure whatever sickness one may have. It did not but, it’s sometimes good to believe it.
You cannot tell an Italian how to cook pasta, it’s ingrained in their DNA…Like the Swiss and skying, it seems like they’re born with skies on.
There are indeed many ways to cook pasta, one less known method is called “risottata“, meaning like a risotto where broth is added gradually. I did not come up with it, it’s a very old Italian method of cooking pasta! so, no pasta is not always boiled in salted water, drained and served topped with sauce. There is an interesting and funny article in English about the different cooking methods and cooking time of pasta on Identità Golose.
My father loves pasta overcooked…well at least well cooked, my mom and I, if it’s not VERY al dente, we don’t eat it, so usually the al dente eaters, take the pasta out of the pot first while the other ones can wait a while longer. He always looks at us horrified, mà come potate mangiare la pasta così cruda???? (how can you eat pasta that raw), well we can.
Pasta risottata being cooked a long time, takes longer than the usual way of boiling it in water. The risottata method allows it to keep its starch, therefore develop a particular creaminess (I wanted to show that creaminess on that second photo even it’s a screaming, right in your face type of a picture!)…can you just imagine the deliciousness of the pasta while having absorbed all that flavorful broth? It’s really my favorite way to cook and eat pasta. You need to try to believe it. For this cooking method, you need short pasta (pasta corta) such as small penne, or anything that size.
The recipe is quite simple, the greatness of the pasta comes first from the risottata method, then the combination of the ingredients make it a real treat.
Ingredients for 2
- 160 g short pasta
- 100 g fresh fava bean, pod removed
- 2 zucchini, diced in small cubes
- 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
- vegetable broth
- 1 shallot
- 1 garlic clove
- Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat olive oil in a pan and add garlic, stir for a few minutes, then add zucchini, cover and let cook until the zucchini start to be cooked but firm, then add tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let cook until the tomatoes start to soften. Set aside.
In the meantime, blanch fava bean grains in boiling water for about 2 minutes depending on the size of the grains. IF the grains are small and tender, one minute is enough. Drain and peel beans. Add to the pan with the other vegetables.
In a pot, heat olive oil, add shallots and brown them. Add pasta and proceed like you would for a risotto, adding gradually broth to cook it. When the pasta has reached the desired consistency (it will need to be slightly creamy), add vegetables and parmesan. Stir well and serve hot.
Pink girlie gnocchi – Red beet gnocchi with artichokes, goat cheese and chives
Apr 11th
I gnocchi rosa da donna – Gnocchi rosa con rape rosse, carciofi, caprino ed erba cipollina
I love to play with pasta colors, and I love colorful food, so today everything is pink. Don’t you like pink? I love to wear pink and eat it too! pink, pink, pink and more pink! such a calming and happy color.
Here is a dish that really makes me see la vie en rose, because no matter how careful I was, everything I touched in the kitchen turned pink, the flour paper bag, the oven buttons, and kitchen cabinets. After my pink tagliatelle with red beets, I wanted to make pink gnocchi just for the gorgeous color. It has been such a long time I haven’t made gnocchi, not that I don’t like them, but I think they tend to be too fulfilling for me.
Beets are often used in salads, and I think they can be used in so many ways, like to color pasta and doughs, since beets are often used as a food coloring.
I have been using quite a lot of goat cheese these days, I figured I would use parmesan instead, but since beets and goat cheese are too great of a match, I had no other choice than use it.
My mom’s gnocchi are very traditional made with a tomato base with rabbit and mushroom sauce, like they make in Romagna, so last time I was home and made her those crazy pink gnocchi, she got so excited and curious, non avrei mai pensato fare gli gnocchi colle barabietole! The great thing about my parents is that they taste everything I make even the most unconventional and nontraditional dishes (which is very rare for Italians in their 60s), and they are willing to try new things. Last time I went home, I brought some meat substitute made with soy, and that was the only thing they didn’t like, they tasted a bite and stopped there…but that is understandable, it looks like dog food!
The tricky part (yes there is one…maybe two) is the mashing of the beets, they need to be reduced in purée, so I mixed the potatoes and beets all together, then used a potato masher to crush them well and not leave any chunks of beets. Then when everthing was almost perfectly fine, I used a hand mixer to reduce everything into a smooth purée.
The other tricky part in these gnocchi making process is the flour quantity, I have added gradually flour to my mixture, so I won’t be able to give an exact amount, you will have to determine for yourself when to stop adding flour. Basically, the dough remains sticky, while rolling the strips, it’s ok add flour, but do not add too much flour to the dough mixture, or the gnocchi will be too hard.
Ingredients for 3-4
For the gnocchi dough
- 350 g potatoes (or 3 medium), cooked
- 200 g red beets, cooked
- 1 egg
- flour (1 cup or more)
For the sauce
- 5 medium sized artichokes
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup of dry white wine
- 4 tbs goat cheese
- 2 tbs chives
- 2 tbs olive oil
- juice of one lemon
- salt and pepper
Preparation
In a mixing container, mash potatoes and red beets with a potato masher like mentioned above. You will get a smooth purée. Add one egg and flour. Mix well to combine all ingredients together and obtain a homogeneous dough. The dough needs to be slightly sticky but not too much, then while rolling the strips, you will add extra flour to prevent them from sticking to your working surface. Roll strips, and cut in small 1 inch nuggets. Then using the fork tines or a rigagnocchi (that tool used to curl the gnocchi), “curl” each of them.
Trim your artichokes, by removing the hard leaves around, and the trimming the top leaves. Cut in quarters and place in a large bowl of water with lemon juice (to prevent them from staining).
In a pan, heat olive oil, add garlic, then add artichokes, mix well, then add wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook at medium heat until artichokes are tender.
In a large pot, bring salted water to a boil, then add gnocchi. When the gnocchi come out on the surface, they’re cooked. Drain them and add to the artichokes pan. Place in a large pasta dish, mix well. Add goat cheese, chives and extra olive oil. Mix carefully not to break the goat cheese. You can substitute parmesan or pecorino to fresh goat cheese.
More pesto stories – Penne with broccoli rabe-almond pesto and shrimps
Feb 22nd
Storie di pesto – Penne con pesto alle cime di rapa e gamberi
Lately, I have been too busy and hundred things to take care of, which in my world means no sleep and no time for anything including cooking and of course, deep under eye circles. Those cernes how we call them in French make me look like a zombie, it’s amazing how lack of sleep can make you look like ten years older. Even make up doesn’t seem to work. Quelle horreur!!
When I have no time to cook, pasta is always my favorite number one solution, and the one that comes into my mind. It’s fast, nutritious and delicious. It certainly will not make my cernes go away, but at least, my other part of the body will feel rested and happy.
Pesto is a very versatile and can be made with many vegetables. Of course, the original pesto is from Liguria region and made with pine nuts, basil parmesan, olive oil and garlic. When I think of pesto, I think of Genoa, therefore of Cristoforo Colombo, our dear explorer who somehow “discovered” America. He might have not “discovered” anything but his statue is erected at Coit Tower in San Francisco. The first time my parents came visit, I had to take my dad see Cristoforo statue and the jail cell of Al Capone in Alcatraz and I could see my dad’s excitement, 12 years later he still talks about this.
This pesto has everything Pesto alla Genovese has except for cheese, then broccoli rabe is the main ingredient. I don’t like to mix cheese and shrimps in general in pasta dishes so I omitted the cheese because parmesan being quite strong and shrimps being quite strong too, the mixture of both can be too overwhelming. The broccoli rabe is not really cooked just boiled for 30 seconds so you get a beautiful greenish color and fragrant fresh flavor.
Ingredients for 4
- 11.28 oz (or 320 g) penne
- 1 bunch broccoli rabe
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2 bunch basil leaves
- 6 tbs olive oil
- 3 tbs sliced almond
- about 10 shrimps, deveined
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Boil 2 cups of water, when the water boil, add broccoli rabe and let cook for about 30 seconds, remove from stove and drain.
In a mixer proceed like you would for regular pesto, combining all ingredients together, and blend until a semi-thin consistency, not like a smooth paste.
Remove shells and devein shrimps. Cut them in 3 small pieces. Saute in olive oil until cooked.
Cook pasta al dente, drain and place in a mixing pasta bowl. Add pesto and shrimps, mix well and serve.
Surprise, surprise!!! – Farfalline "haute couture" with shrimps, scallops and leek sauce
Dec 26th
Che sorpresa! – Farfalline “Hautes Couture” con gamberi, capesante e crema ai porri
I finally received my mom’s package, it only took six days which is really not much. I was expecting it and was wondering if they would open it at the customs but it arrived intact.
I was not sure of what she put in there! lots of my favorite goodies. She even included my dry soup sticks, the Maggie Sveltesse (my sinful soup sticks but with 50 calories per soup, let’s not be too tough on them), Lavazza Espresso to get me even more wired than I actually am, chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates, cosmetics to make sure life in the US does not give me wrinkles…and of course some foie gras, thing that I don’t eat, she doesn’t really care, she just will send foie gras every year, even though I asked her to NOT include it, she included it any way. I can always serve it when my friends come over for dinner, since I believe it’s no longer allowed in California…I am not going to develop further the fois gras production topic and people are free to eat whatever they want. I just have a tough time with cruelty towards animals for whatever purpose it is. So yes, fois gras is a delicacy and part of French gastronomy, I think it’s just so cruel to stuff those poor geese, make them sick and eat their liver. Sorry to be a little crude, but basically, it comes down to that.
I decided to slow down on carbs, but I got those Farfalline Haute Couture, so I had no other choice than cook them. Yes, you can change your mind sometimes. They’re too pretty…I had some shrimps and a bunch of beautiful leeks which were perfect for those little butterflies. In Italian, they’re called “farfalle” and in French “papillon” which mean “butterflies” not “bow tie”, which would be way too long “noeud papillon” (= butterfly nod). Le papillon ne s’est pas envolé, il a juste atterri dans mon assiette!
I adore this pasta dish, the leek cream with seafood is absolutely fantastic. It’s creamy but yet not the kind of “Creamy” you get when you add cream to a dish, but very flavorful and velvety creamy without the heaviness of a cream.
Ingredients for 2
- 5.30 oz (or 150 g) farfalline or other squid ink pasta
- 2 leeks
- 1/3 cup broth
- 6 large scallops cut in 4 or 24 small scallops
- 8 large shrimps, cut in 3
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- cayenne pepper
- 1 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut leeks in small slices crosswise, wash well. In a pan, add 1 tsp olive oil, add 1 garlic clove, stir for one minute or so, then add leeks, cook for a few minutes, then add broth, salt and pepper. Cover and let it cook until the leeks are tender. Leave about 1 tbs of leeks aside to add at the end. Mix the remaining leeks in a blender to obtain a creamy consistency. If the leeks are too think, add extra broth.
In a pan, heat 1 tsp olive oil, then add diced seafood, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes, then add 1 garlic clove. At that point, you’ll have some liquid in the pan. Add the liquid to the leeks. Continue sauteing the seafood until cooked, but not over cook it, or the scallops will turn rubbery.
Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain, place in a mixing bowl, add half of the leek sauce, mix well.
Serve in a plate, spoon extra leek sauce around the pasta, top it with seafood and extra leeks. Sprinkle with a little extra olive oil and serve hot.
Heat up leeks to keep it warm.
Let's squish the cauliflower – Wholewheat fettuccine with cauliflower, saffron and pecorino
Dec 9th
Abbiamo schiacciato il cavolfiore – Fettuccine integrali con cavolfiore, zafferano e pecorino
Something funny happened to me today that has nothing to do with food. I am looking to buy a new car, but not really new more like second hand since I gave my Golf away. So the guy I went to meet who was selling his car, was not the one I thought I was supposed to meet. The car I thought I was going to see was a white Nissan with 9000 miles and the one I ended up meeting had a black Toyota with 28,000 miles. Basically I mixed up sellers. I have been acting strange lately, maybe I need some rest.
Besides the confusion, I have had cravings for pasta, of all kinds and shapes. I have had a strange love story with pasta, somehow during my teenager years, I just refused to eat it, since my mom was making pasta al sugo at least once a week, with leftovers that lasted for a week. There were three of us, since I am an only child, and like a good Italian mamma, my mom made food for about an army, and my dad was complaining of eating leftovers. So after I rebelled against pasta like most teenagers do, they always rebel about something, I just went by phases, either I eat pasta seven days a week or just don’t eat any for months.
Looks like, I am back with my daily consumption of carbs. I remember my mom making a soup with cauliflower and tomatoes that was delicious. This dish is inspired by a Sicilian pasta dish that I twisted around a little, and I loved it. If you have a cauliflower that has been sitting in your refrigerator and not sure what to do with it, you might want to try this pasta. You’ll be surprised to see how delicious the cauliflower sauce tastes, very light, not too strong, a real delight. In my case, I had a green cauliflower, that resulted in a beautiful greenish fettuccine dish.
Ingredients for 3
- 1/2 lb (or 250 g) wholewheat fettucine
- 1 large green cauliflower
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 saffron dose
- 1 bouillon cube dissolved in water
- 4 tbs pecorino, grated
- 4 tbs heavy cream
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Cut cauliflower florets and cook them in salted boiling water. Cook until still a little crunchy. Drain cauliflower and keep the cooking water to cook pasta.
With a potato masher or a fork, crush the floret roughly.
In a cup, mix about 1/3 cup or more hot cauliflower water with saffron threads and let it infuse for about 10 minutes. Dissolve a bouillon cube in it. (You might have to add some additional water if the sauce is too thick).
In a pan, heat olive oil and brown shallots. Add cauliflower and mix well. Add bouillon mixture, and stir well and cook for a few minutes at high heat until some of the saffron and bouillon get absorbed by cauliflower and infused in the sauce. If the sauce is too thick add extra water. Adjust with salt and pepper. Add cream. At this point, you need to have a little creamy sauce (not too liquid) with cauliflower but not too much.
Cook fettuccine in the cauliflower water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower. Mix well, let the fettuccine absorbe the sauce, add pecorino and serve hot.
The poor soup – Passatelli revisited with chards and carrots
Dec 1st
La povera zuppa – Passatelli in brodo vegetale con bietole e carote
I had a conversation with my mom this morning, she told me she made passatelli, suddenly I got the irresistible urge to make them too. When I lived at home, I was never a fan of them, probably because that soup was served way too often. Between my grandma and my mom, we ate passatelli maybe once a week. When you eat something all the time, the excitement goes away. I guess tastes change when you grow up and move out of your country.
This is a regional soup very common in Romagna and Marche regions of Italy, it’s traditionally made for some festive occasions, but then people end up making them when they feel like it. It’s another peasant dish made basically with breadrumbs, parmesan, eggs, nutmeg and if you want lemon peel (I like it better without it, I think the lemon is too strong).
The original recipes is made with a chicken or beef broth (or sometimes a combination of both). I like it also with just a vegetable broth. Here, the broth has been enhanced with chards and carrots “en julienne” (cut in tiny strips), so you get a little texture and color and of course the benefits of eating vegetables.
I always ate broth made with hen instead of chicken, hen is fatter and takes hours to cook, so it’s mainly used in broths. Nowadays people use chicken in their broth, probably because it takes less time to cook. It’s important to “degrease” the broth from the deposits and fat the meat produces (if you’re using meat) while cooking, so you’ll get a clear and healthy broth. When making passatelli usually, you eat the boiled meat along with the soup called “lesso“, I have never been a fan of it, and remember my dad pouring tons of black pepper and olive oil on top of his meat.
You need to have that particular kind of potato masher (schiacciapatate) like this one, to make those little round and long threads (not sure how to describe them). There is another tool used to make passatelli but I don’t think it’s available in the US.
I like to make my own breadcrumbs with old and hard baguette or what is called “Italian bread”, I grate it and get great quality crumbs. The ones you buy already made in stores tend to have an unpleasant taste, and for the passatelli home made crumbs work much better and hold the paste together well, so when you drop them in the broth, they don’t break.
Ingredients for 4
For the broth
- 4 cups or more of water
- 1 leek
- 1 carrot
- 2 celeri stalks
- 1 turnip
- 1 onion with 4 cloves
- 1 bay leave
- 1 thyme sprig
- 1/2 hen or chicken, or beef
- salt and pepper
For the passatelli
- 250 g parmesan, finely grated
- 250 g breadcrumbs
- 3 tbs flour
- 4 eggs
- nutmeg
- lemon peel (optional)
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the broth
Using a large pot, mix ingredients with water and let it simmer for a while at least an hour. If using hen, it might take over 2 hours. Regularly, remove the deposits you get on the surface of your broth (especially, if you are using a meat based broth).
When the broth is cooked, remove all the vegetables and residues and drain it through a sieve to get a clear broth. Add carrots and chopped chards, and let it cook for a few minutes, until the carrots are cooked.
For the passatelli
In a mixing container, mix, breadcrumbs, parmesan, eggs, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix well and let it rest for about an hour. You need to have a hard enough mixture, but not too hard or it will not go through the potato masher.
Fill the potato masher with the dough mixture, bring the potato masher on top of boiling broth and squeeze to produce the passatelli, then cut the base with a knife. The passatelli will drop on top of your pot. Cook for one minute or so. Remove from the stove, sprinkle wit olive oil and serve hot.
The naked ravioli – Malfatti "gratinés" in a spicy tomato sauce
Nov 30th
I ravioli nudi – Malfatti gratinati con salsina di pomodoro
After this Thanksgiving celebration, it’s good to go back to a healthier kind of cuisine. The turkey ended up so dry, due to a guest arriving over an hour late, and my new oven with circular heat that cooks three times faster than traditional oven. I think I am so done with the turkey anyway. Arriving 20 minutes late to a sit down dinner when food is served is fine, but one hour is somehow rude. Don’t you think? everyone has its “acceptable” time and for me 20 minutes is the limit. An unforeseen circumstance might also happen but that’s not something that happens on a regular basis.
Malfatti or Gnudi is a traditional Tuscan dish…I make them often but never think of posting them. It’s basically ravioli without dough called “gnudi” in Tuscan meaning “naked” or also “malfatti” meaning “not well made”, they’re either served with a gorgonzola sauce, a béchamel or tomato sauce and baked in the oven. I like it with a light and spicy tomato sauce, then you can just play around with them and see what you prefer. There is no meat just vegetables and cheese, so it’s quite a light dish.
I like traditional and rustic dishes like this one, because they’re peasant food and you cannot find them in the stores nor in restaurants, so it’s basically recipes you find only at people’s houses. Tuscan and Marchigiana cuisine are quite similar with slight variations since they’re two regions in Central Italy. Growing up on Marchigiana cuisine, Tuscan cuisine is not completely foreign to me. Even after living half of her life in France, my mom still cooks traditional Marchigiana cuisine and barely makes French food. She would make quiches or choucroute once in her while but that’s it. I guess no matter where you move, and for how long, you are still attached to what you are used to eating growing up.
I did not put the flour quantity, you need to add enough so that the spinach/ricotta mixture is no longer soft but still a little sticky. If you put too much flour, the ravioli will get heavy and chewy. You just have to play with the flour. It took me a few times before making them just right.
Ingredients about 20 ravioli
For the ravioli
- 1/2 lb ricotta
- about 1/2 lb fresh spinach
- 6 tbs parmigiano reggiano, grated (+ 2 for sprinkling on top)
- 2 eggs
- flour
- salt and pepper
For tomato sauce
- 4 large ripe tomatoes, peeled, seedless, crushed
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 basil leaves
- chili powder
- 2 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the sauce
Heat olive oil in a pot, add garlic, stir to get the flavor out, add basil, tomatoes, chili pepper, salt and pepper, and cook until the tomato is cooked for about 15 minutes.
For the ravioli
Cook spinach in a large pot of boiling and salted water for about 5-10 minutes, depending if you use baby spinach or regular ones. Drain, let them cool and remove excess water by squeezing with your hands. Chop them.
In a large mixing bowl, mix spinach, ricotta, parmesan, eggs, flour salt and pepper. At this point, you need to play with the flour, try getting a soft mixture not too sticky, but not too thick. It still needs to stick to your fingers a little bit.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Start making the gnudi. Add about 1 cup of flour to a plate, and start forming small balls with spinach/ricotta mixture the size of a big walnut. Coat them well with flour.
When water is boiling carefully, add gnudi to the water, it’s better to cook about 10 at one time, so they have enough water and space too cook. When gnudi come out at the surface, remove them, and drain. Proceed the same way for the second batch.
Place in a oven tray and pour some sauce on top, sprinkle with parmigiano and olive oil, then cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown. Serve hot.
