Asian Inspired Israeli Couscous

A random dish that came out really well.

Ingredients:

1 small red bell pepper, julienned

2 carrots, julienned

1/2 pounds snow Peas, julienned

2 teaspoons ginger, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound Israeli couscous, cooked

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

Vegetable Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

Heat large pan or wok on high. Add a couple of tablespoons of the oil and flash fry the garlic and ginger - 10-20 seconds. Add in the julienned vegetables and sautee for a minute at most. Add the couscous and toss to heat. Add the sesame oil and toss. Serve with fish, chicken or beef.

Oma's Sauce

This is one of my favorite pasta dishes - with some fresh parmagiano on top...mmm. The best is with plain spaghetti.

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion chopped fine

1 small Italian (cubanelle) pepper chopped in thin strips

1 tablespoon hungarian paprika

1 8 ounce can tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Sautee onion and 1/2 of the pepper in the oil over medium heat until onion is opaque. Add beef an cook until heated through. Add rest of pepper and the paprika and cook for 3-4 minutes being careful not to burn the paprika.

Add tomato sauce, water, salt and pepper and cook for 45-60 minutes to meld flavors. Server over spaghetti.

Beautiful Zucchini Carbonara

This is from the Food Network/Jamie Oliver - a very good and tasty recipe.

Beautiful Zucchini Carbonara

Directions

Carbonara is a classic pasta sauce made with cream, bacon and Parmesan and is absolutely delicious. Try to buy the best ingredients you can, as that's what really helps to make this dish amazing. I'm using a flowering variegated variety of thyme but normal thyme is fine to use. When it comes to the type of pasta, you can serve carbonara with spaghetti or linguine, but I've been told by Italian mammas (who I don't argue with!) that penne is the original, so that's what I'm using in this recipe.

Ingredients

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 medium green and yellow zucchini

1 pound penne

4 large free-range or organic egg yolks

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 good handfuls freshly grated Parmesan

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

12 thick slices pancetta or lean bacon, cut into chunky pieces

A small bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped, flowers reserved (if you can get hold of flowering thyme)

Optional: a few zucchini flowers

Before you start cooking, it's important to get yourself a very large pan, or use a high-sided roasting pan so you can give the pasta a good toss.

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Halve and then quarter any larger zucchini lengthwise. Cut out and discard any fluffy middle bits, and slice the zucchini at an angle into pieces roughly the same size and shape as the penne. Smaller zucchini can simply be sliced finely. Your water will now be boiling, so add the penne to the pan and cook according to the package instructions.

To make your creamy carbonara sauce, put the egg yolks into a bowl, add the cream and half the Parmesan, and mix together with a fork. Season lightly with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a very large frying pan (a 14-inch is a good start - every house should have one!), add a good splash of olive oil and fry the pancetta or bacon until dark brown and crisp. Add the zucchini slices and 2 big pinches of black pepper, not just to season but to give it a bit of a kick. Sprinkle in the thyme leaves, give everything a stir, so the zucchini is coated with all the lovely bacon-flavored oil, and fry until they start to turn lightly golden and have softened slightly.

It's very important to get this next bit right or your carbonara could end up ruined. You need to work quickly. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little of the cooking water. Immediately, toss the pasta in the pan with the zucchini, bacon and lovely flavors, then remove from the heat and add a ladleful of the reserved cooking water and your creamy sauce. Stir together quickly. (No more cooking now, otherwise you'll scramble the eggs.)

Get everyone around the table, ready to eat straightaway. While you're tossing the pasta and sauce, sprinkle in the rest of the Parmesan and a little more of the cooking water if needed, to give you a silky and shiny sauce. Taste quickly for seasoning. If you've managed to get any zucchini flowers, tear them over the top, then serve and eat immediately, as the sauce can become thick and stodgy if left too long.

Pasta with Ramps

Ramps are a very northeast thing. They are a summer bulb that has a garlic and onion flavor and are really intense. I love them......Libbie, not as much. But this is a great, simple recipe that I pulled from somewhere that referenced they used to make this at Babbo, one of Mario Batali's restaurants (if someone knows the exact reference, please let me know).

Ingredients:
1 large bunch ramps
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (fresh if possible)
8 oz dry linguine
Olive oil

Directions:
Remove stems and leaves from the bulbs of the ramps. Slice bulbs in half (unless they are small, in which case leave them whole). Cut the stems and ends off the leaves and julienne into strips.

Bring a big pot of water with salt to a boil to cook pasta.

Heat pan to medium high and add a few tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, pull off the heat and add the ramp bulbs and sautee letting them blister and get slightly brown, putting back on the heat as necessary. Add garlic and allow to brown slightly.

Add in the cooked linguine and just a few tablespoons of the pasta liquid. Add the ramp leaves and breadcrumbs and toss. Plate and grate fresh Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano cheese on top.

Pasta Bolognese

I made this based on a few recipes I saw. I modified the ingredients from what I actually used given my view of the results, which were great (but a few small mods can't hurt, right?). I want to try this with some stew beef and shred it, which sounds like a very good idea (I'll post that when I do it!).

Ingredients:
4 medium carrots, quartered and chopped
3 stalks celery, sliced in half lengthwise and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 hot cherry peppers (or equivalent) chopped
1 pound of chopped beef (or veal, lamb, pork or a combination)
10 sprigs fresh thyme, tied together
1 sprigs fresh rosemary, tied together (with thyme is OK)
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 28-oz can San Marzano (or plum) tomatoes, crushed with juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup red wine

Directions:
Heat large pan over medium-high heat and sautee carrots, celery, onion and hot peppers in olive oil with some salt and pepper for 3-4 minutes to soften. Move veggies to the edges of the pan and add meat into the middle and break into big chunks. Let sit for a few minutes to brown the meat, then stir the meat to brown other parts in a similar manner. When it is fully browned, break into smaller chunks and mix with vegetables. Add wine and reduce 1-2 minutes then add tomatoes, rosemary, thyme and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, stir well, cover and cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook your favorite pasta (spaghetti is a classic, though I like the wider pasta such as fettucini or pappardelle) 2-3 minutes less than package instructions for al dente. Just before taking the pasta out, remove 1 cup of the pasta water and add it to the sauce. Transfer pasta to the dish with the sauce and combine, cooking an additional 2-3 minutes.

Serve with grated cheese.

Cauliflower Ravioli

We had just returned from vacation, and the garden was doing very well. The cauliflower was ready, and I figured we had to start harvesting some before it went to flower. I had recalled in reading a book that vegetables were a main ingredient of ravioli in Italy (the book had referred to chard or kale being used), so I thought that the cauliflower might work.

Below is the recipe for the filling and a basic pasta recipe. We enjoyed these ravioli with a simple brown butter-sage-pine nut sauce. Remember, in ravioli, especially home made ravioli, the filling, not the sauce, should be the star.

Filling:
1 head cauliflower, flowerets and stems separated and roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, rough chop
1 large leek, rough chop
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, rough chop
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Heat olive oil in a large pat and add all the veggies and the thyme. Pan roast over medium heat, turning only a few times to allow some of the cauliflower to caramelize. Near the end of the cooking, when the cauliflower is tender, add the parsley and cook for a few more minutes.

Add the cauliflower mixture to a food processor and let cool. Once cool, add Parmigiano-Reggiano and blend until almost smooth, but leaving fine pieces of cauliflower in the mix.


Pasta (this makes enough pasta for one person):
3/4 cup flour (I like to use 1/4 cup semolina and 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour)
1 large egg
Water

Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the egg and mix with a fork until the flour starts to incorporate. Knead together for a few minutes and add water if necessary to make the dough wet but not sticky. Let rest for 5 minutes then knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth, and then wrap in plastic and let rest for 1 hour.

Roll out in a pasta machine. For fettucini, use setting 4 or 5, for ravioli, 6 or 7 (I prefer 6).

For the ravioli, I tripled the recipe above for the pasta, and had leftover (which I made into fettucini that I froze). Roll the pasta into sheets and cut into rounds about 4" across. Fill one round with about a teaspoon of filling, and fold over for "Mezzaluna" or put filling in the middle and put another round on top. Be sure to get the air out from around the filling, and to dab some water around the edges to seal. This made about 30 ravioli, with 7 or 8 being a healthy serving.