Iced Under ~ Lobster Fra Diavolo in Angel Hair Pasta Cups

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I just finished a wonderful cozy mystery set in the midst of a frigid New England winter called Iced Under. It is part of a delightful Maine Clambake series from Barbara Ross. I think this latest installment was my favorite of them all! I love how it combines a family mystery with some real New England history. I would highly recommend it if you are looking for a cozy winter book. 🙂

In the back of each Maine Clambake mystery, there is a recipe for a lobster dish. This one happened to have a lobster fra diavolo recipe, which combines lobster and other shellfish with a spicy tomato sauce and pasta. I decided to transform the dish from a main course into hors d’oeuvres that can be eaten in one bite. It’s a perfect snack to enjoy while you read!Lobster Fra Diavolo in Angel Hair Pasta Cups

Makes about 24 hors d’oeuvres

For the cups:

Approximately 4 ounces whole-wheat angel hair pasta, broken in half

1 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

1 egg, beaten

For the filling:

1 tablespoon high heat cooking oil

1 small shallot, minced

Red pepper flakes, to taste

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 cup dry white wine

3/4 cup crushed canned tomatoes (I used San Marzano)

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Approximately 8 ounces precooked lobster meat, cut into a small dice

About 1 tablespoon Italian flat leaf parsley, minced

About 1 tablespoon fresh basil, cut into thin ribbons

For the cups:

Preheat oven to 375 F. Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Aim for a softer texture rather than a firmer texture, since they will dry out slightly in the oven.

Drain the pasta. Toss with cheese and egg until all of the strands of pasta are well coated. Divide the pasta between 24 mini muffin cups. Arrange the pasta strands in the muffin cups so they cover the bottom of each and form cuplike shapes.

Bake for about 7 minutes, or until the egg is set.

Cool slightly, and then remove the pasta cups carefully from the pan.

These can be made the day ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container. Gently warm the cups for a few seconds in the microwave before filling and serving.

For the filling:

Preheat a medium sauté pan over medium high heat. Add the oil, and allow it get hot and shimmering. Then add the shallot, and cook until translucent. Next, add the red pepper flakes, garlic, and oregano. Cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the wine, and bring to a boil. Scrape any fond from the bottom of the pan. Then add the tomatoes. Cook until the mixture reduces and thickens to your liking. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the lobster meat to the tomato mixture, and cook until it is just heated through.

Turn off the heat, and stir in the parsley and basil.

Spoon a little of the lobster/tomato mixture into each pasta cup. Serve immediately.

Family Dinner ~ Tuscan Sausage and Caramelized Onion Ragù

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Pasta SauceThe flavors of this dish will transport you to the beautiful Tuscan countryside. You can almost see the rolling hills from your spot at the dinner table as you eat al fresco under the grape arbor. 😉

This sauce is perfect for a dinner party since it’s a crowd pleaser, and it doesn’t need a lot of attention on the stove once everything is combined. The house will smell delicious when your guests arrive, and the sauce can simmer on its own while you chat with your company.

The original recipe was from a homemade pasta cooking class at Sur La Table. To make the dish a little leaner than the one from class, I used olive oil rather than butter, and I chose lean ground beef and chicken sausage rather than ground chuck and pork sausage.

Tuscan Sausage and Caramelized Onion Ragù

Based on a recipe from a cooking class at Sur La Table

Yield: 8 servings

For sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large yellow onion, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 large celery ribs, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch dice

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 pound lean ground beef

1 pound sweet Italian chicken sausage, casings removed

2 (28 ounce) cans San Marzano whole tomatoes

1 cup dry red wine

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For onions:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar

Sauce:

In a large pot or large, wide skillet, add oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, and celery, stirring well to coat with oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables turn golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until paste turns a darker red, about 2 minutes. Add sausage and beef, stirring occasionally to break up large clumps, and cook until meat begins to brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add tomatoes, wine, and bay leaves, stirring well to combine. Reduce heat to medium and simmer sauce until thickened and reduced, about 40 to 50 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Keep warm.

Onions:

While sauce simmers, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add onions and stir to coat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are deep golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar, stirring well to combine.

Just before serving, stir onions into the sauce. Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. Use immediately with fresh pasta, or allow to cool and refrigerate up to 3 days. Any unused portions can be packed in an airtight container and frozen up to 1 month.

To make this meal even more authentic, make homemade fettuccine with your guests! It’s a fun and interactive project to do together, which is a nice icebreaker. The recipe for fresh pasta dough can be found here.

Wedding Anniversary ~ Portobello Mushroom Ravioli

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Our 13th wedding anniversary happened to fall on Labor Day this year, so we celebrated the whole weekend long! The grand finale was a homemade gourmet Italian dinner on Monday that we enjoyed under our grape arbor. 🙂 Dining under the vines made it feel a little like being in Tuscan wine country. Rob even added some little lights above the table, and we lit tea lights all around the yard for the occasion. So pretty!

We made one special main dish, and a couple simple dishes surrounding it. We started with a simple Caprese salad that I made a little fancier by showcasing the different colored heirloom tomatoes in a tower with a food ring. We ended with a simple Earl Grey tea affogato, rather than the traditional coffee version. It tied this celebration back to the afternoon tea we had earlier in the weekend, and the bergamot orange that flavors Earl Grey tea is actually from Italy, which was very fitting! 🙂

For the main course, we made homemade portobello mushroom ravioli. I think that fresh pasta is much easier to make with a partner, so it is a perfect project to do together on an anniversary. 🙂 We also celebrated our engagement anniversary with a ravioli dish (on Valentine’s Day), so making ravioli again tied the two special anniversaries together.  Plus we had a portobello mushroom dish for dinner at our wedding reception at Columbia Winery, so that flavor brought us back to the reason for this celebration! (Have you noticed I like to find several layers of meaning in everything I cook for special occasions? 🙂 I think it makes it more fun and special!)

Portobello Mushroom Ravioli

Dough based on a recipe from Sur La Table cooking classes

Filling based on a recipe from ChasingSomeBlueSky.com

For the Fresh Pasta Dough:

Yield: 4 servings

2 1/2 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour or “00″ flour, plus more for dusting

1 tablespoon kosher salt

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Make a “well” in the center of the flour mixture and add eggs and oil, if using. Using your fingers, blend the eggs into the flour mixture, stirring the flour in from the sides of the well and working outwards. When the pasta dough is thoroughly mixed, turn it out on a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough until it is smooth and flexible but not sticky, about 5 to 10 minutes, adding small amounts of flour as needed. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Cover in plastic wrap and allow dough to rest for at least 10 minutes and up to 1 hour at room temperature.

To roll dough, secure a pasta machine to the edge of a long countertop. Using a bench scraper, cut dough into thirds. Keep extra dough covered in plastic while working with one piece. Flatten the piece of dough into a rough square that will fit inside the width of the pasta machine. Place the rollers on the widest setting and roll the dough through the machine, catching it with one hand as you roll with the other. Take the dough and fold into thirds towards the center of the dough. Turn the dough so one open end faces the machine and roll it through on the widest setting again. Fold, turn, and roll once more on the widest setting. Continue rolling the pasta through machine without folding, adjusting the rollers to the next smallest setting each time, until the desired thickness is reached. If the pasta sheet becomes too large to handle, use a bench scraper to cut it into more manageable lengths and continue rolling until pasta is less than 1/16-inch thick.

(This whole process can also be done with a rolling pin. It takes some muscle, but it works really well).

For the Ravioli Filling:

1 tablespoon olive oil

18 oz portobello mushrooms, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup dry red wine

1/2 cup part skim ricotta

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Sauce:

2 tablespoons Earth Balance

Splash of white wine

Flat leaf parsley, for serving

Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving

Preheat a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil, and when it is shimmering, add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Then add the chopped mushrooms, and salt and pepper lightly. Cook until the liquid from the mushrooms is mostly evaporated. Add the wine, and continue to cook until most of the wine has evaporated. Place the mixture into a large bowl. Mix in the ricotta and Parmesan, and season to taste.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. When it is boiling, add a good amount of salt to season the cooking liquid.

To make the ravioli, take two pieces of uncut pasta dough. Place 1 teaspoon dollops of the mushroom mixture along one piece of the dough, with at least an inch and a half between them. With a pastry brush or your finger, brush water on the pasta around the mushrooms. Carefully place the second sheet of pasta dough over the top, taking care to press it around each teaspoon of mushroom filling to try to avoid any air bubbles. Cut around the raviolis with a ravioli cutter, cookie cutter, or a pizza cutter. Take care to keep enough flour on the outside of the ravioli so they don’t stick together before cooking.

Cook the ravioli in the boiling water until they float to the top, about 2-3 minutes.

I used a simple sauce for this dish by tossing the cooked raviolis in about 2 tablespoons of melted Earth Balance mixed with a splash of white wine in a sauté pan, and then serving the ravioli with freshly grated Parmesan and flat leaf parsley on top.

(For a little video of how to fill ravioli, here is one that is a short and sweet. 🙂 Much easier to understand than my explanation, I think. ;-))

We paired our meal with a special bottle of 2000 Peninsula red wine from Columbia Winery. We bought a case of the 2000 awhile back when it was still available, and we’ve been opening only one bottle a year for our wedding anniversary. It is aging really nicely! Hopefully that’s a good sign for our marriage, as well! 😉 We definitely savored this bottle.

Easter Dinner ~ Farfalle “Butterfly” Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Neufchâtel

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Happy Easter!

I wanted to make something special but simple for our Easter dinner, since I didn’t have a lot of time to put it together today. I found a pasta recipe from MarthaStewart.com that fit the bill. I made a couple of minor changes, but stayed pretty close to the original recipe. I replaced the cream cheese with Neufchâtel to reduce the fat. I also diced the onion and sautéed it in a separate pan before adding it to the mix, since I’m not wild about the flavor of raw onion. This is really simple enough for a weeknight, so I’ll keep it in my collection of quick and delicious recipes. 🙂

Farfalle Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Neufchâtel

Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

12 ounces farfalle (butterfly pasta), preferably whole wheat

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1 small red onion, diced

Olive oil

2 ounces Neufchâtel cheese, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup fresh dill, coarsely chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed

2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

4 ounces smoked salmon, flaked into bite-size pieces

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup pasta water.

Meanwhile, sauté onion in olive oil in a separate pan until slightly caramelized.

Drain pasta, and return to pot.

Add onion, cream cheese, dill, capers, and salmon to pasta. Toss, adding reserved pasta water a little at a time to create a thin sauce that coats farfalle (you may not need all the water). Season lightly with salt and pepper. Serve.

Farfalle means “butterflies” in Italian, so I stayed with that theme and decorated the table with little butterflies! They seem so springy and cheerful. I found a website called Ellinee.com that has a lot of cute and free printable clipart. I have decorated our meals with their artwork on several occasions this year. I hope you’ll check it out! Very festive, and did I mention, free? 🙂 I want to give a big thank you to that website for brightening our table! For this meal, I added butterflies to our bouquet of tulips and wine glasses (by taping them to skewers), and I also laid them around the table.

Valentine’s Day Dinner, Part 2 ~ Lobster Ravioli with Warm Lobster Vinaigrette

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The second ravioli course that we made for our romantic Valentine’s Day dinner was lobster ravioli with warm lobster vinaigrette. The recipe is from the chef at Corton restaurant in New York City, so it was our second stop on our virtual trip to NYC. I could almost see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on top of the Empire State Building in the movie Sleepless in Seattle. 😉

The spices in the vinaigrette are a truly unique combination, and I would have never thought to put them together myself. It has a lot of Asian elements along with French and Indian. I found what I needed at Market Spice in Pike Place Market, which is always an adventure! If they don’t have a spice, I likely won’t find it in Seattle.

I followed the recipe closely, and I would highly recommend it for a special occasion. It is time consuming, but we thought it was well worth it. It made us appreciate what high end restaurants go through for one dish :).

Lobster Ravioli with Warm Lobster Vinaigrette

From Corton chef Paul Liebrandt

1 (1 1/2 pound) lobster

1 cup white-wine vinegar

1 cup dry white wine

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 bay leaves

10 black peppercorns

1/2 lemon, sliced

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Pinch of madras curry powder

1/2 large egg white

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 piece lemongrass, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

8 kaffir lime leaves

6 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

3 star anise

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice

Pinch of espelette pepper

Pasta Dough (recipe follows)

All-purpose flour, for work surface (or ’00’)

1 large egg yolk, beaten

Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside. Fill a large pot with 32 cups water. Add vinegar, white wine, carrots, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, and lemon; bring to a gentle simmer over medium-high heat. Add lobster headfirst. Cook for three minutes. Remove lobster from pot and remove claws. Return claws to pot and continue to cook 8 minutes more. Immediately transfer lobster to ice-water bath to cool; drain.

Remove meat from lobster, reserving shells. Cut lobster meat into 1/4-inch pieces and transfer to a large bowl; season with salt and pepper. Add curry powder and egg white; stir to combine. Using a teaspoon, form twelve 1-inch balls of lobster mixture and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet; transfer to refrigerator uncovered, until well chilled, about 1 1/2 hours.

Chop reserved shells into equal size pieces. Place olive oil and chopped shells in a large high-sided skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until liquid has evaporated from shells. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until shells are bright red, but not sizzling, about 10 minutes. Add lemongrass, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, cardamom, ginger, and star anise. Increase heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes. Add enough water to just cover; cook until liquid is reduced by two-thirds, stirring occasionally.

Strain mixture into a bowl through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on solids to release liquids. Discard solids and return liquid to skillet. Cook over low heat until liquid is reduced and slightly syrupy, 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in extra-virgin olive oil, lime juice, and esplette; vinaigrette will look broken. Keep warm.

Set the rollers of a hand-crank or electric pasta machine at their widest opening. Unwrap dough; flatten with the palms of your hands and run it once through the machine. Fold the dough in thirds like a letter and run through the machine again.

Now change the rollers of the pasta machine to the next decreasing setting; roll dough through machine twice. Keep rolling the sheet through the machine two times on each decreasing setting until you have rolled it through the last (thinnest) setting.

Cut sheet in half crosswise and place on a lightly floured surface. Using a 2 3/4-inch round cutter, cut out 24 rounds of pasta, covering cut pasta with plastic wrap as you work.

Working with 2 pasta rounds at a time (and keeping remaining pieces covered while working), brush 1 round with egg yolk and place 1 ball of lobster filling in the center. Lay second round directly on top and press edges together to seal. Repeat process with remaining pasta rounds and filling.

Bring a large pot of water to a gentle simmer over medium-high heat. Add raviolis, taking care not to overcrowd and working in batches if necessary, cook for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, rewarm vinaigrette, if necessary.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer ravioli to warm serving plates or bowls; top each with 2 tablespoons vinaigrette and serve immediately.

 

Pasta Dough

From Corton chef Paul Liebrandt

(Makes enough for 12 (2-inch-round) raviolis)

3 large egg yolks

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cups plus 3 tablespoons ’00’, flour plus more for work surface

In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and eggs; add olive oil and whisk until slightly emulsified. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor and pulse for 5 seconds. Add flour and pulse until a cohesive ball of dough forms, about 30 seconds.

Remove dough from food processor. Add a pinch of flour to work surface and knead until smooth, about 2 minutes. Wrap with plastic wrap and let rest in a cool place 2 hours before using.

Happy wedding anniversary ~ Part 1 ~ Dungeness Crab Ravioli

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We celebrated our wedding anniversary this year with pasta! Last week Rob and I took a cooking class at Sur La Table about making homemade pasta, and afterwards we bought a pasta machine as a gift to each other. The traditional anniversary gift for 12 years of marriage is silk, so we thought making silky pasta would be fitting! 😉

We both love crab, so we made a Dungeness crab filling to go in our homemade ravioli. I found a good recipe on MarthaStewart.com to base our dish. I used lightened ricotta instead of the whole milk variety, and I used Earth Balance instead of butter for the sauce. We also used a little more crab than the recipe called for, since we love crab :). We replaced the wonton wrappers in her recipe with fresh pasta dough that we rolled and cut out. The recipe for the dough is on a previous entry that I wrote last spring, and it can be found here.

Crab Ravioli with Lemony Sauce

Based on a recipe from MarthaStewart.com

For the filling:

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups lump crabmeat, such as Dungeness

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

For the pasta:

Fresh Pasta Dough

Rice flour preferably, or the type of flour you used to make the dough (either all-purpose or 00)

For the sauce:

1 stick Earth Balance

2 teaspoons lemon peel, very finely chopped, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Make the filling: Mix together ricotta, crabmeat, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper, and the red-pepper flakes.

Make the ravioli: Cut your pasta sheets into squares with a pizza cutter, about 2 inches wide. Mound 1 teaspoon crab filling in the center of each hand cut piece of pasta. Brush edges of the pasta square with water, and top each with another square. Press edges to seal. Transfer to a baking sheet covered with rice flour (preferably) or the type of flour used to make the dough, and lightly dust the ravioli with the flour to keep them from sticking.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Working in 2 batches, cook ravioli until they rise to the top, 2 to 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: Melt 4 tablespoons Earth Balance in a large skillet over medium heat. Transfer first batch of cooked ravioli to the skillet using a slotted spoon, along with about 2 tablespoons cooking liquid. Add 1 teaspoon chopped lemon peel and 1 teaspoon juice, and swirl to combine. Transfer to plates.

Repeat with second batch of ravioli.

They sound like a lot of work, but when you have two people working together in the kitchen, they go surprisingly quickly. It’s a fun project! I hope you’ll give them a try :).

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend ~ Fresh Asparagus, Pine Nut and Tarragon Ravioli

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To celebrate Mother’s Day weekend this year, my mom came up for a visit filled with the things we love to do together! Things like shopping at some of our favorite stores, taking a cooking class, and enjoying this fresh ravioli for dinner.

I have recently learned that fresh pasta is actually amazingly easy, and it feels so much more special than dried. It is a little time consuming, but it freezes beautifully, so you can make it on a night when you have time and enjoy it whenever you’d like.

This dish was based on a recipe from one of Sur La Table’s cooking classes. They offer many fresh pasta classes that have really demystified the process for me. The original dish was tossed in a mushroom cream sauce, but I simply tossed the finished ravioli in a little bit of melted Earth Balance buttery spread and sprinkled them with fresh tarragon. I also used less vinegar than called for. Just add the filling ingredients to your taste, and sample as you go before you fill the ravioli.

Fresh Pasta Dough

Yield: 4 servings

2 1/2 cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour or “00” flour, plus more for dusting

1 tablespoon kosher salt

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Make a “well” in the center of the flour mixture and add eggs and oil, if using. Using your fingers, blend the eggs into the flour mixture, stirring the flour in from the sides of the well and working outwards. When the pasta dough is thoroughly mixed, turn it out on a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough until it is smooth and flexible but not sticky, about 5 to 10 minutes, adding small amounts of flour as needed. Gather the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk. Cover in plastic wrap and allow dough to rest for at least 10 minutes and up to 1 hour at room temperature.

To roll dough, secure a pasta machine to the edge of a long countertop. Using a bench scraper, cut dough into thirds. Keep extra dough covered in plastic while working with one piece. Flatten the piece of dough into a rough square that will fit inside the width of the pasta machine. Place the rollers on the widest setting and roll the dough through the machine, catching it with one hand as you roll with the other. Take the dough and fold into thirds towards the center of the dough. Turn the dough so one open end faces the machine and roll it through on the widest setting again. Fold, turn, and roll once more on the widest setting. Continue rolling the pasta through machine without folding, adjusting the rollers to the next smallest setting each time, until the desired thickness is reached. If the pasta sheet becomes too large to handle, use a bench scraper to cut it into more manageable lengths and continue rolling until pasta is less than 1/16-inch thick.

(This whole process can also be done with a rolling pin. It takes some muscle, but it works really well).

Asparagus, Pine Nut and Tarragon Ravioli

Yield: 4 servings

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 large bunch tarragon, washed and dried, stems removed

1/2 pound asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths, blanched and cooled

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, plus more as needed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 recipe Fresh Pasta Dough

To prepare filling, place garlic, pine nuts, tarragon, and asparagus pieces in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse to a rough chop. Add 1/3 cup olive oil in a steady steam and process to a smooth paste. Stop motor and add cheese and vinegar, stirring by hand to combine. Taste and season with salt, pepper and more vinegar as needed. Set aside.

Place pasta sheets on a lightly floured work surface. Place tablespoons of filling in rows down the length of the pasta sheet, leaving at least 2 inches of space around each tablespoon of filling. Using a pastry brush, moisten the surface of the pasta around the filling with water or egg wash. Place a similarly sized pasta sheet on top of the filling, gently pressing to seal the pasta around the filling without creating air pockets inside the ravioli. Cut the ravioli using a cookie cutter, a ravioli stamp, a pizza wheel, or a ravioli maker. Place ravioli on a rimmed baking sheet lightly coated with flour. Dust the tops of the ravioli with flour and cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel. The filled ravioli can be cooked immediately or covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 1 hour before cooking.

To cook ravioli, heat a large pot over high heat until boiling. Add enough kosher salt to season the water like seawater. While salted water boils vigorously, add ravioli and stir immediately to prevent them from sticking. Boil until ravioli are al dente, about 4 to 5 minutes. Reserve about 1/4 cup pasta water and drain ravioli through a colander. Alternately, remove the cooked ravioli with a slotted spoon or spider and reheat water to boiling before cooking another batch.

Toss hot ravioli with your sauce of choice, using the reserved pasta water to thin the mixture as needed. Garnish as desired and serve immediately.

(If you decide to freeze your ravioli, don’t thaw them before placing in boiling water. They will just take about a minute or two longer than room temperature dough to thaw and cook).

I hope you’ll give these a try for a spring dinner! 🙂

All Hallow’s Eve ~ Black and Orange Halloween Pasta

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Happy Halloween!

We had a fun little Halloween dinner tonight based on the colors of the holiday – Black squid ink pasta and Kalamata olives with orange butternut squash and bell peppers. It not only looked festive and elegant, but the flavors also worked very well together. I would highly recommend it for your next Halloween dinner party if you’d like to try something new and fun :).

The trickiest part of the recipe was finding the black pasta. If you live in the Seattle area, Pasta & Co. has it in stock.  The flavor is about the same as typical pasta, but the look really stands out. I think it’s well worth the hunt for this recipe.

Black and Orange Halloween Pasta

From Epicurious.com

2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 3/4-inch chunks

2 orange bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces

4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound black linguine or spaghetti (squid or cuttlefish ink pasta)

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in middle.

Toss squash and bell peppers with garlic, thyme, red pepper flakes, oil, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a 17- by 11-inch 4-sided sheet pan. Roast, stirring once, until vegetables are just tender and browned in spots, 25 to 35 minutes.

While vegetables finish roasting, cook linguine in a pasta pot of well-salted boiling water until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain pasta and return to pot.

Remove sheet pan from oven and pour reserved water over vegetables, stirring to loosen from pan. Stir in olives, then add vegetable mixture to pasta in pot and toss to combine.

We paired dinner with a red wine by Owen Roe Winery called Sinister Hand. Ooooh, spooky! 😉 Also yummy! 🙂

Celebrating an August Anniversary ~ Tomato, Basil and Pasta Salad and Peach and Basil Crumbles

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Every summer on this day, we have a special Dungeness crab dinner. It’s one of the little anniversaries that we celebrate, and the choice of crab for dinner has turned into a tradition. To us, it’s the perfect Northwest meal on a warm summer evening. (For instructions on how to cook the crab, visit my Fourth of July post.)

To go with our crab, I tried my take on the recipe that graces the cover of Martha Stewart Living magazine this month. I did make a few changes to make it a little healthier and to make it a little more economical. I reduced the amount of olive oil and pasta and I increased the amount of tomatoes and basil. I also used fresh red summer tomatoes instead of the heirloom variety as she did. I couldn’t find the fancy pasta she used at my local Italian market, so I used campanelle. They look like cute little flowers. Any short pasta will work for this dish, however.

Marinated Tomato, Basil and Pasta Salad

(Serves about 4)

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/4 lbs ripe summer tomatoes cut into ½ inch wedges

½ cup torn fresh basil

1 ½ tablespoons rinsed capers

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, plus more for the top

Pinch of red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

4 oz dried short pasta (I used campanelle. Martha used croxetti.)

Heat the garlic and olive oil in a saucepan over low heat until the garlic is lightly golden brown. (About 10 minutes). Strain the garlic, and reserve both the garlic chips and the oil. Let cool.

Combine the tomatoes, ¼ cup basil, capers, lemon zest, red pepper flakes and salt to taste in a large bowl. Pour the cooled oil and garlic chips over the top and mix. Marinate for about 30 minutes.

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, and add the warm pasta to the tomato bowl. Toss gently with pepper to taste. Top with the remaining ¼ cup of basil and a sprinkling of lemon zest. Serve immediately or at room temperature.

For dessert, I made one of our summer favorites….Peach and basil crumbles. The original recipe was also from MarthaStewart.com. I used frozen peaches for convenience, which also allows this recipe to be enjoyed year round. To make it a wee bit healthier, I used less sugar and substituted the butter for all natural Earth Balance “buttery” sticks. My new favorite culinary discovery. 🙂

Peach and Basil Crumbles

(Makes 2)

Filling ~

Frozen sliced peaches, thawed (The equivalent of 2 whole peaches)

1/2 tablespoon fresh basil, sliced into thin strips

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Pinch of salt

Topping ~

1 oz chopped unsalted almonds

1/8 cup packed light-brown sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons cold Earth Balance, cut into 6 pieces

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. To make the filling, simply mix all of the filling ingredients in a small bowl.

For the topping, combine all of the topping ingredients, rubbing the Earth Balance with your fingers until the mixture is crumbly.

Divide the filling between two small baking dishes, and sprinkle the topping evenly over them. Transfer to a baking sheet, and bake until they are bubbling and golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

We served this summer meal with a bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle Midsummer’s White. It was perfect for a midsummer’s celebration! Light and refreshing. It’s a blend of Viognier, Gewurztraminer, Muscat Canelli and Riesling.