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Archive for the ‘Pasta’ Category

Lydia P.

This recipe has been in my family forever. It comes from my father’s side of the family and my father and his siblings each inherited an enamel baking pan from my grandmother. These baking pans, 13 ½ inches in diameter, were from my grandfather’s bakery and had very, very long handles for use in my grandfather’s huge brick ovens. They cut the handles off of these pans for use at home.

You will need:
1-2 lbs ricotta cheese
2-4 handfuls of pecorino romano cheese (half a pound works better)
8 Italian sausage, cooked and sliced thin
1/2 lb perciatelli, broken into thirds
1 dozen eggs

Preheat oven to 350F
Fry the sausage. Boil the macaroni.
Beat the eggs, add the ricotta and romano cheeses to the egg mixture. When the pasta is cooked and drained, add that to the egg mixture. Slice the sausage, add to the mixture.

Grease the pan with the sausage fat. (13″ round enamel pan is best)
I took 3 tablespoons of sausage fat and greased the pan with that and did not add any more fat to the mixture. Pour mixture into pan and smooth it out on top so there is no macaroni sticking out of the top (unless you like burnt, crunchy macaroni).

Bake for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean. (mine took 70-75 minutes) It will be brown (NOT burnt!) on top.
This can be served either hot or cold. It freezes well, too!

You can cut this recipe in half and bake it in a glass deep baking dish (13×9) as well.

When we prepared this recipe we used half the amounts stipulated. Not knowing the size of the handful of cheese mentioned we went with one full cup of Pecorino. It is difficult to determine link size when purchasing the sausage so we went with 2 pounds.

As you can see in the photograph of our version we used a football shaped baking dish which was sufficient in size to hold everything. Using the fat from the sausage to grease the baking dish hadn’t been tried before by us but really like the idea, it gives the dish a little added dimension.

Thank you Lydia and congratulations on being the first, of hopefully many, Guest Chef.

I had a taste for seafood but really did not know what I was going to prepare. I visited my local fishmonger to see what was available. The usual fare was there, nothing seemed to tickle my fancy. I was about to consider something else to have and then she brought out some bay scallops and shrimp. They looked so fresh although I knew they were recently thawed and ready to be displayed. At first I thought to do the usual shrimp scampi but just couldn’t resist purchasing both.

My mind started to envision how to put these two items together and what else to add to make an interesting combination. I walked around the produce department and saw some sun dried tomatoes they were snatched up quickly to add to my growing recipe. I considered what I had in my larder at home and knew that I had some heavy cream and garlic along with half a box of fettuccini.  My meal was set. You will find that this is a quick and simple dish to prepare.

You will need :

Bay Scallops – approximately ¼ lb/serving
Shrimps – approximately ¼ lb/serving [16 21's or smaller]
Sun Dried Tomatoes – approximately ½ oz/serving – I used dry packed but olive oil packed should work as well.
Fresh Garlic – to taste
Tomato Paste – approximately 1 tsp/serving
Hot Pepper Flakes – to taste
Heavy Cream – approximately ¼ cup/serving [add more if you like a soupier sauce]
Romano Cheese – grated – approximately 2 TBS/serving

In a stock pot large enough to hold the pasta bring water to a rapid boil. Add pasta and prepare to just al denté. Peel and de-vein the shrimp, combine with scallops lightly salt and pepper. In a sauté pan large enough to hold all the ingredients add a good quality olive oil and heat to a simmer. Finely dice garlic add to sauté pan along with tomato paste and pepper flakes.  Once the garlic is translucent add shrimp and scallops. Cook seafood until shrimp starts to become opaque tossing occasionally to distribute evenly. Add heavy cream and Romano cheese to the shrimp/scallop mixture cook until the cream starts to thicken. Add pasta to the sauté pan and stir into the seafood sauce. Serve immediately.

Here is an easy yet refreshing pasta sauce. If you don’t have a garden you can purchase these fresh items from your farmer’s market.

You will need:
Italian style plum tomatoes (such as San Marzano) – approximately five per serving
Fresh Garlic – approximately two cloves/serving
Fresh Shallot – approximately two cloves/serving
Good quality olive oil
Fresh Basil – approximately two TBSP/serving
Fresh Oregano – approximately one TBSP/serving
Pepperoncini – approximately one tsp/serving (if you don’t like a little spice you can eliminate this item)
Fresh or dried pasta – I used Spaghetti Rigati for this recipe [this pasta is slightly thicker than Ange Hair - approximately four ounces dry pasta/serving

Clean herbs well and chiffonade - set aside [NB: Lay basil leaves flat on cutting surface, stack several leaves then place oregano leaves on top, stack remaining basil leaves on top. Roll basil/oregano bundle into a tube form then finely chiffonade. This method makes it easy to work with the smaller oregano leaves]. Quarter tomatoes and remove all seeds and membrane, cut quarters in half and set aside. In a sauce pot large enough to hold all the tomatoes add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. Heat oil until just shimmering, add pepperoncini, garlic and shallot, with a wooden spoon stir until garlic/shallot mixture is just translucent add tomatoes add salt and pepper to taste and cover pot. Cook tomato mixture over medium heat until they break down. When the sauce is broken down mash larger pieces to get a somewhat chunky consistency, cook pasta. When pasta is ready add basil/oregano chiffonade to sauce, plate spaghetti and top with the fresh garden tomato sauce.

This simple and fast dish is perfect for a light meal or side dish. I had some mushrooms and onions leftover from diner the other night and wanted to use them. I had a taste for a pasta dish and came up with this.

You will need:
Mushrooms – approximately one cup/serving
Sweet Onion – approximately one cup/serving
Olive Oil – approximately two tsp/serving
Tomato Paste – approximately one tsp/serving
Oregano Pesto or Fresh Oregano chopped with olive oil to form a paste – approximately 1 tsp/serving
Garlic – approximately one clove/serving
Salt/Pepper
Shell Pasta

Prepare pasta according to package directions. In the mean time medium dice mushrooms and onion and puree garlic. In a sauté pan large enough to hold mixture heat olive oil until hot, add mushroom, onion and garlic and sauté until onions become translucent. Make a small clear area in the pan and add the tomato paste and pesto/oregano and sauté a few minutes then combine all elements. Salt and pepper to taste. When pasta is cooked drain well and return to pot add mushroom mixture and heat through.

Pasta with Five Cheeses and Pancetta

This is not your kids mac and cheese but they will love it too. You can adjust quantities according to your personal taste.

You will need:
Parmesan Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Mozzarella Cheese – 1/2 cup (use fresh not smoked)
Asiago Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Fontina Cheese – shredded – 1/2 cup
Gorgonzola Cheese – 1/4 cup
Whole Milk – 4 qts – heated
All purpose Flour – 8 TBS
Butter – 8 TBS
Fresh nutmeg
Pancetta – 1/4 inch thick slice – 1 or 2 depending on taste
Good quality Italian/french bread (use food processor to crumb) – approximately 1/2 cup
Salt/pepper – to taste (if you want a cleaner sauce use white pepper)
Olive Oil
Tubular or shaped pasta such as penne rigate, radiatore, farfalle, cavatappi or conchiglie – 1 pound

Prepare pasta by bringing large pot of salted water to a rapid boil, add pasta and cook until just below al dente. In a dutch oven or pot large enough to hold cooked pasta plus one quart liquid heat one tablespoon olive oil. Cut pancetta into 1/4 inch dice, when oil is heated add pancetta. Cook pancetta until crisp, remove from pot with slotted spoon and reserve. Pour off any fat left from pancetta add butter and flour and cook until combined scraping up brown bits from pan. Slowly pour heated milk into pot stirring constantly to avoid lumps. Bring milk to a fast simmer then add Parmesan, Asiago and Fontina cheeses stirring well to allow cheeses to melt. Add salt and pepper to taste and 4 or 5 scrapes of the nutmeg, stir well. Remove from heat, fold in cooked pasta until well coated, crumble gorgonzola cheese into mixture, combine well, cut mozzerella cheese into 1/2 inch chunks then fold into mixture

Butter a 9 x 13 oven proof dish, pour cheese and pasta mixture into pan and level top, combine bread crumbs with parmesan cheese and cover top. Bake in a 350° F oven until top is golden brown. This works well as a side dish or main course.