Spring ravioli

While weeding the garden today, I pulled some more of those wild onions/yard scallions/ onion grass. I also had some fresh broccoli that I needed to use.

So I whipped up some store bought cheese ravioli and developed a sauce from the following:

- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 chopped cloves of wild onion
- about 3/4 teaspoon basil
- about 3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk
- about 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon whole wheat flour

Method:
Combine butter and oil and sauté scallion pieces for about the minutes. Reduce heat, add milk and cream. Once combined add flour. Incorporate thoroughly, add basil.

Now once I had the sauce, I cooked about 2.5 cups chopped fresh broccoli briefly in the microwave. About three minutes. Then I drained it, put the sauce to the side, and sautéed the broccoli about five minutes in a teaspoon of olive oil and the sauce sticking in the pan.

I put the sauce in the ravioli pot once I cooked and drained the ravioli and added the ravioli. Stirred until thoroughly mixed (it's a thin coating) and add the broccoli.

I sprinkled about 1/4 cup grated ricotta salata on each dish after scooping out the ravioli

Terri Rigatoni

It's a positively frigid June day, and it's raining, and I have company coming tonight after dinner... On top of all that, my contractor called at 1:30 and said he had the windows I ordered in April and he wanted to know if he could come install them.

Today.

I said sure. I guess I need more chaos in my life. He wanted to make a rainy day productive.

They arrived around 3 and had the windows installed before 5. My guests might arrive around 7:30, but I told one she could come early. Between trying to keep the cats from jumping out the windowless windows and my almost-five-year-old from getting under foot, dinner was not a concern.

I went so far as to request cheesesteaks. But, I opted to cook, because my friends are bringing goodies and I don't want to be too full to eat them.

So, as my husband chopped fresh broccoli into his trademark teeny-tiny pieces and cooked the remaining portion of Aldi spinach rigatoni, I got my skillet and about four tablespoons of olive oil. I sprinkled about two tablespoons of garlic powder in. My husband chopped and grated the last hunk of ricotta salata. I tossed the chunks into the skillet, then the broccoli. I sprinkled some of the rigatoni seasoning on it.

Then, I warmed the leftover elbow macaroni in the microwave. I put the cooked rigatoni in the skillet and added more mystery seasoning. I combibed the elbows and the skillet mixture and sprinkled in the last of the grated asiago. When I dished it onto plates, I added grated ricotta salata on top.

Funky French-inspired Cheesy Bread

After reading with great lust the Joie de Vivre catalog, I got inspired to make some different bread. I retrieved Patricia Well's The Paris Cookbook and opened to her Parmesan Bread. Except, as happens when I mount these expeditions, I didn't confirm I had all the ingredients before I started baking. So I embarked upon my own funky French cheesy bread...

Pain au parmesan (according to Patricia: an ode to Gruyère bread)
Ingedients:
Patricia's
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 and 1/3 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons extra fine sea salt
3 and 3/4 cups bread flour
3/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese, freshly grated
*egg wash

Mine
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (the way my family eats, it makes sense to double from the start)
1 teaspoon organic sugar
1 teaspoon lavender honey
2 and 2/3 lukewarm water
1 teaspoon idiozed sea salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
7.5 cups white flour
about 1/2 cup grated parmesan
about 3/4 cup finely grated extra sharp cheddar
about 3/4 cup grated ricotta salata

*egg wash

1. Combine yeast, sugar (and/or honey if using) and water. Stir to blend. (Patricia recommends using a heavy duty electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. I do everything by hand.) Let stand until foamy, about five minutes.
2. Stir in oil and sea salt.
3. Add flour and cheese all at once. Mix until all the flour has been absorbed and dough forms a ball. Knead four to five minutes until dough is satiny but still firm. The dough should spring back when indented with your finger.
4. Place dough in clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise about an hour until doubled in bulk.
5. Punch dough down and shape into a rectangle. Place in non-stick one quart bread pan. Cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled in bulk, about one hour.
6. Preheat oven to 425.
7. Brush top of dough with an egg wash. With kitchen scissors, snip the dough with tips all over to allow it to expand evenly while baking. You should snip about fifteen times. Place bread on bottom shelf of the oven. (I wonder if the water bowl would help? When cooking baquettes, one places a bowl of water in the oven with the bread. I don't think that would work with egg wash.) Bake until firm and golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. The bread should be firm and golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

NOTE: It says to use a non-stick loaf pan. This is important.

Also, I got four loaves from my doubled recipe. One of which I added garlic pepper and crushed red pepper flakes. I intended that one for myself. I ate a couple slices and my husband finished it.

I served it for lunch with the leftover port salut and cheddar, plus my husband had brought home a chunk of medium brie and a chunck of soft blue from his work wine and cheese party.

Terri Pasta

Do you ever have it happen that your family christens a meal with a name different that what you gave it?

So it is with "Terri pasta."
Terri was coworker about a decade ago and she gave us this fabulous, simple recipe. Perfect for hot summer days.

Garlic pasta with broccoli and ricotta salata
ricotta salata, into tiny chunks and grated
broccoli
fresh garlic, sliced
olive oil and butter

1. Get a nice hunk of ricotta salata (in the Lehigh Valley, we have Calandras, where they make their own fabulous Italian cheeses. Ricotta salata is their homemade ricotto, aged and salted. It does not melt in the skillet and keeps for a long time.
2. Sauté the chunks of cheese and garlic in enough olive oil and garlic to lightly but completely lubricate the pasta.
3. Add the broccoli once the cheese and garlic starts to brown.
4. Cook until the broccoli is the way you like it. I like mine crisp. And bite sized pieces.
5. Add to your favorite pasta. Tri-color rotini is best because it captures the cheese and sauce in the grooves.
6. Sprinkle with grated ricotta salata.