Katie, You're Glowing (It's The Pasta)

This pasta is so delicious, I think it almost made me cry. What the? Jamie Oliver's "Fresh Tagliatelle with Sprouting Broccoli and Oozy Cheese Sauce" rocked our world Sunday night. This dish is pasta divinity. Silky, tender ribbons of homemade pasta in a glistening sauce of cheese and cream (plus a couple of egg yolks) really epitomizes the idea of enjoying the fruits of your labor. OMG. Although I closely followed Jamie's methods, I did take the liberty of using broccoli rabe (rapini) instead of purple sprouting broccoli (since I don't have any of that on the "back 40"). I also used whipping cream in place of creme fraiche ( it's tough to find at the local stores and I didn't plan far enough in advance to make a homemade batch). I adapted the recipe and provided it below with my personal tweaks, although I stuck to his directions pretty closely ...



Fresh Tagliatelle with Broccoli Rabe & Cheese Sauce

Serves 4

For the pasta ~

4 large free-range or organic eggs

2 cups unbleached flour, plus extra for dusting

kosher salt

For the cheese sauce ~

1 cup whipping cream

5 ounces of sliced Fontina cheese

5 ounces of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 bunch of broccoli rabe (rapini)

2 large free-range or organic egg yolks

a small bunch of fresh herbs, leaves picked

(I used thyme and flat leaf parsley, but a number of other fresh herbs would be great too ~ like fresh oregano, marjoram or summer savory)

The beauty of this dish is partly its mere simplicity. The sauce ingredients warm slowly right in your serving bowl which is set directly on top of your pot of boiling water. How clever is that? I used a nice large pot for the water and chose a shallow, but large bowl which would rest well on top of the pot, without touching the water. This would really be a fast and delicious dish if you didn't have the time to make the homeade pasta. Just buy some of the nice fresh pasta in the refrigerated section of the store (or I'm sure it would be great with frozen tortellini or gnocchi ).

Directions:

Crack the eggs into the food processor and add the flour and a generous pinch of salt. Whiz it up until it starts to rumble. The dough comes together really fast. Touch it. If it's sticky, add a bit more flour and pulse it again.

Take the dough out of the processor and shape it into a ball. Knead it a few times on a floured surface with floured hands. Divide it into four equal parts. Run each of the four pieces of dough through a pasta machine, moving the rollers closer together each time (about 4 or 5 times) until you have 4 silky smooth, thin sheets. Dust each sheet well with flour and fold each one over and cut into 1/2 inch wide ribbons. Gather the ribbons together with a little flour and toss them between your fingers to make your pile of tagliatelle.

In your pasta bowl, place the Fontina and Parmesan cheeses, the cream, salt and pepper. Place the bowl on top of your pot of water. Bring the water to a boil. The cream and cheese will begin to melt nicely. In the meantime, cut the dry ends off of the rapini. I also cut the stalks diagonally or split some of the thicker stalks with a knife so that they cook evenly. Leave the florets whole. When the water comes to a boil, set the pasta bowl aside and add a generous amount of salt to the water (heaping tablespoon or so) and the rapini. While the rapini starts to cook, lightly beat the two egg yolks with the fresh herbs and add the mixture to the warm cheese sauce. Mix well. Add the pasta to the pot when the water returns to a boil. Cook the pasta and the greens in the water until aldente. It only takes a few minutes for the pasta to cook.

Drain the pasta and the greens in colander. Reserve some pasta water in case you need to loosen the sauce. Add the drained pasta and rapini to the cheese sauce and mix well. The egg will cook from the heat of the pasta. Toss again to to be sure that every strand is coated with this glorious cheesy and delicious sauce. I found that the sauce was at first a little loose and then thickened up a bit and absorbed into the homemade pasta perfectly. I did not need to add any pasta water. Jamie Oliver suggests finishing the dish with some additional freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil. I found it to be perfect with no futher enhancements. Buon Appetito!

Caramel Learning Curve

Caramel is fun, but I really need more experimentation. The temperature thing is really important, I think. These apples have chewy and delicious caramel for those with healthy choppers and/or excellent quality dental work. I will try and try again until I get the caramel to be the absolute perfect consistency... not too soft and not too hard and chewy. I will nail it one of these days. E-mail me your favorite recipe if you know of a tried-and-true way of achieving caramel perfection, ok?

This caramel was made from scratch with brown sugar, butter, sweetened condensed milk and light corn syrup. Vanilla was added once the caramel began to cool down. These guys got rolled around in a lot of love... for example, toasted sliced almonds, coconut, mini chococolate chips, toasted pecans, hazelnuts and walnuts. I know you can feel that love. Then, a bunch of them were drizzled with melted cocoa-y chocolate and squirted with even more white chocolate. You can click on the pix for enormous close-ups if you're really hungry.

Love to all . . . from Katie's Passion Kitchen

Daylight Savings Time = Kitchen Energy aka Tagliatelle, Ricotta, Tomatoes, Apples

Wow! I must have really benefited from that extra hour . . . I had major food ambition today. I started the day reading a few pages of Jamie Oliver's "Jamie At Home" cookbook which is a beautiful tribute to "garden to table" cooking. He is such an inspired and passionate cook with an incredible flair for bringing out the best of simple fare. Rustic, yet elegant, his cooking is really creative, healthful and delicious. http://www.jamieoliver.com/

OK. So, I'm all over the board this morning, right? During our morning walk, I talked Joann's ear off about free range hens and organic eggs, my beautiful, but disappointing caramel apples (the taffy was too hard and chewy), the pure beauty of homemade ricotta cheese and the origins of junket and rennet, why it's important to slow-roast "winter" tomatoes and "don't you think Fontina cheese is absolutely luscious?" Poor Joann. I was a fountain of food love.

So, here's what that led up to........First stop after an invigorating walk on a perfect November morning: the grocery store....just for a few things. (This turned out to be about 90 minutes of inspiration gathering which included inspecting, reading, roaming, sniffing, squeezing, comparing, pondering, and searching for items like creme fraiche' and sumac). Then came checkout explanations to the befuddled young check out associate who had never heard of fennel or rapini and couldn't find them on his produce list.

Now, I'm talking to my mom on my way home, giving her the lowdown on my plans for the rest of the day. Ready?

1) Homemade Ricotta Cheese
2) Oven Roasted Tomatoes
3) Caramel Apples (to redeem myself from Friday's batch)
4) Fresh Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta with Rapini and Fontina Sauce

I cannot tell you how gratifying it was to make fresh pasta. Wow! It was defintitely a highlight in my repertoire. I am already looking forward to doing it again. Anyone interested in making any of the things you see here, please POST your requests or send me an e-mail, ok? I would LOVE to hear from you.

Thank you so much for your interest in me, my cooking, my ideas and my blog. You're always welcome and at home in Katie's Passion Kitchen.

Love, Katie

Bella Pasta

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Super Fresh Homemade Organic RicottaPlum tomatoes are drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt, fresh thyme leaves, and dried oregano... slow roasted in a 300F degree oven until intensely flavored and slightly chewy (about 2 to 2 1/2 hours). They're served here on a bed of arugula, topped with fresh, homemade ricotta cheese, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.

Caramel Apples

Here are some of my caramel apples (the Halloween batch) ... they look great, except the taffy was too hard, even though I followed the directions by heating the caramel to 248 degrees. So, I tried again today and removed the caramel from the heat at 240 degrees. Still really chewy, but definitely better. LOL. Anyone out there have a caramel apple recipe with caramel that stays creamy and doesn't get too-too chewy? Please send it to me. Thank you! In the morning, I shall post some shots of the new and improved batch. Practice makes perfect, right? Candy's tricky.

P.S. Click on any (or most) photos shown in each post for a gigantic close-up, then use the back button on your browser to get back to the page...

XOXO, Katie

P.S. Tonight, I will post the recipe for the pasta with my comments and recommendations. Buon Appetito!