homemade spinach and ricotta ravioli

I've always been terrified of making homemade pasta. I thought it required hours of labor, masterful hand crafting, and live yeast (which I have never worked with and am slightly grossed out by, to be honest).

So, I was thrilled to learn that pasta is actually a pretty quick process and only requires three ingredients – flours, eggs, and olive oil. You will need a pasta maker too. Our cooking teacher swore by this model, which we purchased at Crate & Barrel. We love it – it’s compact and reasonably priced. She lectured us that “you do NOT wash a pasta maker, just wipe down with a towel.” (Envision her saying that in an Italian accent and you’ll take the statement very seriously.) If you get the maker too wet, it can rust and it won’t roll out your pasta properly. I’m just going to take her word for it.

So for a 2-person entrée portion or a 4-person appetizer portion of ravioli (spinach and ricotta in this case), here’s what you need:

Pasta:
100 grams of flour
1 egg
1/3 an egg of olive oil

Filling:
100 grams of frozen spinach, cooked and drained
300 grams of ricotta
1 egg
A generous handful of nutmeg, freshly grated if available
Salt and pepper to taste

First, prepare the filling. You can let it sit in the fridge while you make the pasta and the flavors will all blend together. Heat the frozen spinach. (I find that about a half a bag equates to 100 grams once you’ve cooked and drained it.) Once the spinach is cooked through, place it in the center of a thin dish cloth and squeeeeeeeze all the excess water out. Mix 100 grams of this drained spinach with the ricotta, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. We were taught to use a generous amount of nutmeg. I usually grate about half of one nutmeg (see picture below). Taste the mixture and add more spices to your liking. Mix in egg. Store in fridge until pasta is ready.

Pour flour onto a clean surface. Form a basin in your flour mound so that you can fill it with your liquid ingredients. Crack an egg into the basin of your flour mound. Using an egg shell half as your measuring device, measure 1/3 an egg of olive oil. This equates to about 2/3 the way up your egg shell half, give or take depending on how neatly you cracked your egg.

Carefully and with small, circular movements, break the yoke of the egg and mix the oil, egg, and flour together. Try to keep all the liquid ingredients inside the basin until enough flour is mixed in so they won’t run all over your surface. If they do (and don’t worry, this has happened to me a bunch of times), just toss some of your flour onto the liquid, so it stops running away, and mix it into your dough.

Once all the ingredients are mixed together. Knead the dough until it is springy to your touch, about 3-5 minutes. In case you have no idea what kneading means: Use the heel of your hand to flatten the dough out and then fold it back into a dough ball. This continues to mix the ingredients and activates the gluten in the pasta.

Set your pasta maker to setting 1. Roll your pasta through this setting a couple times. You may have to manipulate the shape of the pasta at first to get it through the maker. Move the setting up to 2 and roll your pasta through. Continue through this process until your pasta is sheer enough you can see your hand through it (usually by setting 6 or 7).

Lay the pasta on a clean surface. Spoon 1 tablespoon of filling on the center of the pasta. Repeat this down the entire length of the pasta, about 2 fingers apart. Gently fold the pasta over. Using your fingers, push the two sides of the pasta together while pressing all the air away from the filling. (Air in the filling could cause the ravioli to burst in the boiling water.) Cut the ravioli.

If you’re going to eat the ravioli immediately, place them in salted boiling water for 3-4 minutes. If you want to cook the ravioli later, simply parboil them now (boil them for 2 minutes) and the drain them and store them in the fridge. When you’re ready to cook them, boil then for 3 minutes and they’re good to go!

heirloom tomato, corn, and pluot salsa

So I completely ran out of time last night and didn’t get the chance to upload my pasta-making pictures. But I SWEAR I will post the recipe for the ravioli tomorrow.

Instead, I offer you a simple and refreshing recipe for a summer salsa. Heirloom tomato, pluot, and corn to be exact. It’s insanely quick and easy – I made this in 15 minutes while I was getting ready for work this morning – and a healthy side dish.

What you need...
3 tomatoes (I used heirloom since I had some from my CSA box, but any ripe tomato will do)
2 pluots (Again, this was in my CSA box, but any sturdy fruit would do – pineapple, mango, or plums would be nice)
2 ears of corn
½ red onion
2 limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water up to boil. Remove the husk from the corn and break the ears in half (so you have 4 halves) and set aside. Chop the tomatoes and pluots. Finely dice the red onion. Mix tomatoes, pluots, and onion. Juice the limes over the mixture and season with salt and pepper.

Boil the corn halves for 2 minutes. Remove from water and let cool. Cut kernels off corn and mix into salsa mixture. Taste and add seasoning as necessary.

an italian dinner party

As a thank you to our friends Chris and Natalie for their chauffeuring services (they drove us to and from the airport for our Italian vacation), we invited them over for an Italian dinner party this past Saturday. We took a cooking class in Radda in Chianti and wanted to recreate a few of the items.

The Menu:

Cocktails: Campari spritzers or champagne cocktails
Appetizer: Natalie's sweet potato, arugula, and goat cheese pastries
Pasta: spinach and ricotta ravioli with tomato sauce
Entree: herbed pork loin cooked in milk
Side: roasted asparagus with parmesan
Wine: Chianti from Castello d'Arbolo (we brought this back from Italy)
Dessert: tiramisu

(puff pastry triangle pies)

The Plan:

On Thursday, I finalized our menu and made a shopping list for the ingredients we needed to purchase. I stopped by the grocery store on Friday evening to grab all the groceries and on Saturday morning we prepped as much as possible.

Josh mixed, kneaded, and rolled out the pasta dough while I measured up the filling. We assembled and parboiled the ravioli and then stored them in the fridge for later.

I chopped the herbs for the pork rub and wrapped it up for later use. Josh prepped the garnishes (orange slices and lemon peels) for the cocktails. I cut all the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and herbs for the tomato sauce and set them on the stove to slowly reduce all afternoon.

We followed all the steps for tiramisu and wrapped it up so the flavors could meld and the dessert could chill.

We set the table and pulled out all the platters and serving utensils we planned on using.

(homemade spinach and ricotta ravioli)

The Execution:

About 30 minutes before our friends arrived, we pre-heated the oven, lit some candles, and opened the wine so that the bottle could breathe. We brought a pot of salted water up to boil (to cook the pasta), rubbed the pork with the herbs, washed and trimmed the asparagus and set it on a tray with oil, salt, pepper, and a generous amount of shaved parmesan. We rubbed the pork with herbs, covered it with milk, oil, and butter, and placed it on the stove at medium heat. This is actually a common way to cook meat in Italy. And quite delicious.

Once our friends arrived, Josh concoted some cocktails, which we enjoyed with Natalie's seriously good sweet potato, arugula, and goat cheese pastries. About 30 minutes later, we tossed the asparagus in the oven (cooks 8-10 minutes at 400) and removed the pork from the milk. We wrapped the pork in foil and let it rest for 5 minutes. We boiled the pasta and plated it with tomato sauce. The pork was cut and plated with the reduced milk sauce and the asparagus was pulled out of the oven. Dinner was served!

(tiramisu)

The menu was a success, and it allowed us to actually spend time with our friends, versus running around the kitchen. I'll post our recipe for homemade spinach ricotta ravioli tomorrow. It's completely approachable and a great option for a dinner party!

The Taste with Giada

(sarah, giada de laurentiis, me)

We attended The Taste event yesterday in Beverly Hills, hosted by Giada De Laurentiis. To highlight the Labor Day holiday, the theme was "picnic in the hills," which translated to picnic/BBQ food, blankets and pillows set out for picnicking, and a make your own lemonade stand. There were also dozens of wineries, breweries, and distilleries pouring unlimited tastes for all the attendees. We kept returning to the Justin Vineyards stand since they brought a few cases of their delicious Isosceles with them.

(picnic benches and blankets)

We bought tickets through Gilt City and were able to walk in 30 minutes before everyone else. This was huge! We scoured the stands before all the crowds and were able to grab samples from pretty much everywhere we wanted to. We felt the repercussions when food coma set in at around 2pm, partially due to the heat but mostly because we ate about 75% of the plates available.

(FIG's ray garcia)

The event had cooking demos, interviews with chefs, and wine tastings in the demo tents throughout the day. We attended Ray Garcia's (FIG restaurant) homemade mozzarella and panzanella salad cooking demo. We were shocked at how simple it is to make homemade mozzarella at home - 1) buy cheese curds from a local cheese store or online source 2) cover cheese churds with 150 degree water for about a minute or so 3) drain the cheese curds 4) pull cheese curds with very clean hands until it gets to a consistency you're satisfied with 5) form into mozzarella ball and store in water.

Yes, we will be making homemade cheese soon :)

The food highlights:

(honeycomb polenta, mole braised short rib, carrot, cauliflower, and quail egg; Inn of the Seventh Ray)

(chopped salad, bacon, croutons, egg, dijon vinaigrette; Pizzeria Antica)

(corn bread muffins, blueberry compote, whipped cream; Huckleberry)

(belgian waffle; Waffles de Liege)

(iced hot chocolate; Richard Ruskell of the Montage)

(burrata crostini, grilled grapes; BLD/Grace)

(lasagna with meat ragu and fried spinach; Angelini Osteria)

Weekend Happenings

image via crazy website

Josh and I are starting our weekend early today with a trip down to San Diego to pick up his beer winnings. He recently entered a Stone contest for its newest collaboration beer, Quingentri Millitre, a barrel-aged macadamia nut, coconut, kona coffee porter. AND he won! We thought we'd make a day of it and stop by Alpine, Ballast Point, and Lost Abbey. We're brainstorming lunch options, but I've heard that Escondido has some great Mexican restaurants.

Saturday we'll be watching the start of the USC football season - Fight On! - and planning for our Italian dinner party. Menus and details to come next week...

I cannot wait for Monday! I've always wanted to go to one of the Food and Wine festivals and we finally are. And, Giada De Laurentiis will be there, which makes the ticket price totally worth it! The festival is filled with great chefs and wineries and some cooking demos from Food Network stars. I'm particularly looking forward to some Justin wine.

Hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

How to Execute a Dinner Party

(image via The Kitchn)

Yesterday I posted about the first step in entertaining: how to plan a dinner party. Today I wanted to offer up some tips for step 2: how to execute a dinner party.

The first things you guests will see when they arrive is your home, not the food. So do your best to tidy up. Your house doesn't need to be immaculate, but your probably don't want dirty laundry and empty mugs of coffee laying around. It sends the message that this dinner party wasn't important enough for you to take the time to clean your home.

After you've cleaned up, light a few candles, set out some fresh flowers (Trader Joe's has some incredibly cheap options), and play some soft music in the background. Your home is already feeling cozy and welcoming.

If you're using the oven - especially in an apartment - your house is probably warm and smells of dinner. Open a few windows to get fresh air circulating through and turn on the air conditioning or a fan.

I also like to have cocktails pre-made and appetizers set out before the guests arrive. That way you don't have to run around mixing and cooking when you should be greeting your guests. Also, having the cocktails ready to go always relaxes everyone and sets the tone for a fun evening.

The success of a dinner party has nothing to do how amazing your food is. The most important thing about the food is that you shouldn't be cooking it all night. Your guests want you out of the kitchen! Make sure your food is prepped in advance and only requires simple cooking the night of.

Remember to have fun. The host sets the tone. If your comfortable and having a good time, so will your guests.

How to Plan a Dinner Party

(image via She Knows Food and Wine)

We're having friends over for dinner this Saturday night, so I'm ramping up for dinner party planning mode.

First Step: Plan a Menu

While I love to go to Trader Joe’s and Farmers’ Markets without a shopping list and walk around for dinner inspiration, I find that it’s much easier (and cheaper) to plan out a dinner party menu ahead of time. I come up with menus by reading through cookbooks, looking on food blogs, and getting inspiration from prior meals. If you want to develop a dinner party menu quickly, simply go to the Food Network website, look up a favorite chef, and then click on a recent TV episode. Most likely that chef will have cooked a main dish and 1-2 sides – perfect for your menu.

When planning a menu, keep in mind three things: 1) price, 2) seasonality, and 3) time.

Price:

Please, please, please don’t make an astronomically expensive meal. Some people think that a dinner party requires truffles and foie gras and $200 bottles of wine. Ugh. All this does is make you poorer and your guests seriously uncomfortable. Cook affordably and, this way, you can entertain more often. I like to budget $15-$20 a head for all courses (appetizer, main, sides, and dessert). I have been able to cook delicious and impressive meals within this budget, I promise!

Seasonality:

Cook within the season. Don’t make a rich beef stew in the summer when it’s 90 degrees out. And please don’t serve your guests peach cobbler in the winter when the peaches are tasteless. Plus, if you buy seasonal food it tends to be cheaper, and it’s already fresh, ripe, and delicious, so your dinner is bound to be successful.

Time:

Design a menu that can either be prepped ahead of time, simply has to be thrown in the oven when your guests arrive, or is a “make your own” bar. This way you can actually spend time with your guests, which is the real purpose of the dinner party – spending time with your friends!

Cookie Cups with Nutella Ganache and Guinness Ice Cream

We had friends over for late night drinks on Friday evening, and I wanted to whip up a dessert to go along with our cocktails. I follow the This is Glamorous blog and was drooling over theircupcake post. Since I'm a nutella freak, the cupcake's nutella ganache was a standout in my mind. I brainstormed what I could pair with this ganache and thought of a container of homemade Guinness ice cream in my freezer from a few weeks back.

Ice cream with chocolate sauce sounded a bit too basic, and I was in the mood to bake, so I came up with the idea of cookie cups filled with ganache and Guinness ice cream.

This cookie recipe is wonderful. I highly recommend making it simply as cookies. I also challenge you to eat less than a few fingerfuls of cookie dough. Why is it that cookie dough is so addictive?!

With the dough I managed to save for actual baking, I followed the recipe below. Once the cups were cool, I filled the centers with 1 tablespoon of nutella ganache, 1 scoop of Guinness ice cream, and another drizzle of ganache. Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups
adapted from My Recipes
makes 8 cookie cups

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla at medium speed in electric mixer until smooth. In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spray cupcake pan with cooking spray. Using a cookie scoop, place 2 scoops of cookie dough in cupcake holders. Mold dough into cups with indented centers. Place cupcake pan in freezer for 15 minutes.

Bake cookies for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and using a knife or small metal spatula, press down indentations in the center of cookies. Bake for an additional 3-5 minutes. Let cookies cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool for remaining time.

The Weekend Plan

(weekend cappuccinos via cappuccino xpert)

I'm looking forward to some downtime this weekend. We're dog-sitting our friends' Boston Terrier, so I'll be spending plenty of time at the loft.

We recently "borrowed" Josh's parents' milk frother. I can't wait to make cappuccinos on Saturday morning with lots and lots of foam. Rather, I can't wait to enjoy the cappuccinos that Josh puts together - he's the coffee expert in our house.

My mom is taking the train up to LA on Sunday. We're heading over to the Brentwood Farmers' Market to pick up some produce and then we'll be cooking a leisurely lunch together. I usually head to the Farmers' Market without a menu or ingredient list. I prefer to buy whatever looks fresh and fun to cook and then develop a menu based on my purchased ingredients. This weekend, I'm particularly interested in cooking Barefoot Contessa's Roasted Salmon with Green Herbs. I might have to make an exception to my market approach and actually draft up a grocery list.

Cheers to a tasty weekend!

Dinner at Fundamental LA

(complimentary chips to munch on)

Just returned from a fun and delicious dinner at the new eatery Fundamental LA in Westwood. The restaurant is minimalist in decor and maintains a concise menu of sandwiches, salads, sides, and sweets with an international wine and beer list.

The owners are two guys who used to work corporate jobs but left their desks to fulfill their passion for food. With their business background, both have great people skills. They're wonderful to talk to, truly appreciate of your business, and great at recommending a good wine.

The food highlights...

(bruleed white figs with tallegio, balsamic, fennel arugula salad)

The combination of the sweet, luscious figs with the funky tallegio cheese was perfectly balanced. The salad adds a crunch and bitterness. This is a side dish, but maybe with just one more fig and I could have seriously eaten this as my dinner.

(hush puppies with parmesan, scallions, lemon juice, roasted garlic aioli)

Tasty fried goodness. The aioli is wonderfully rich and was multipurposed as a dipping sauce for other sandwiches.

(porchetta sandwich, brioche bread, whole grain mustard, sauerkraut)

The sandwich came with a thick piece of buttery porchetta. The meat was spiced just right and slightly crispy around the edges. Combined with the pungent with mustard and soft bread, this was the winner of the evening.

(roast chicken sandwich, potato bread, pickled asparagus and onion, heirloom tomato, tallegio, roasted garlic aioli)

I usually avoid ordering chicken out, just because it seems so ordinary. This was anything but. The strong cheese, pickled vegetables, and garlicky aioli all melded together for a rich and satisfying flavor, which, when combined with the moist chicken and potato bread, made for a pretty awesome sandwich.

(churros with butterscotch)

Even though we were already stuffed, the owner was kind enough to bring us out these churros to try. Oh my goodness. The cinnamon sugar coating is just right and the butterscotch is to die for. In my mind, the doughy consistency was closer to a beignet. But, call it whatever you want, the dessert was fantastic.

Throughout dinner we sipped on Domaine de Ruilly (clean, springy white) and Michel Tete (fruit forward red), which complimented all of dishes.

Fundamental LA

M-Sa, Lunch and Dinner

1303 Westwood Blvd.

Dishes range $2 - $13, Beer and wine range $4 - $15

Cooking Seasonally

(csa delivery)

My first CSA box arrived, and I could not be more excited! It's economical and convenient - I pay $30 for a week's worth of fruit and vegetables for Josh and me. And, it's delivered to my door. I opted for an every-other-week delivery, just since Josh and I are frequently at evening events and dinner.

I couldn't wait to make dinner with some of the fresh ingredients -- I literally raced home from a wine date to pick through my delivery. I put together a quick and delicious dinner and bolded all the CSA ingredients, below, so you can see how easy it was to incorporate them.

(lettuce and tomato salad with sauteed veggies, polenta, and cheese)

I plated a simple salad with hand-ripped green lettuce and sliced heirloom tomatoes. I dressed the salad with olive oil, aged balsamic, flaked salt, and pepper.

I sauteed up 1 zucchini squash, 1 rib of celery, and 1/2 cup of chopped green onion. I heated 3 thin slices polenta (from my premade Trader Joe's package) and placed it on top of the cooked veggies. I sprinkled some grated asiago cheese (about 1/4 cup) and we were good to go.

(strawberries with nutella and graham crackers)

Oh and let's not forget about dessert. I melted a 1/2 tablespoon of nutella in the microwave (30 seconds-ish), topped with 6 sliced strawberries, and sprinkled with a crushed graham cracker. Seriously delicious.

I'll be sure to keep posting about cooking seasonally through my CSA deliveries.

Trader Joe's simple dinner (eggplant polenta bake)

(flowers from TJs)

Trader Joe's is sort of a safe haven for me. I love wandering around the aisles with my miniature cup of coffee (decaf) and the sample of the day. I often go after work, when I'm tired and slightly cranky, and have no desire to cook dinner. But after a few rounds of the store, I'm usually inspired with a list of recipe ideas - most of which are quick, healthy, and super cheap.

I'm especially proud of the "semi-homemade" dinners I put together from TJs. These require no actual cooking effort, just some brief prep work and then you pop the dish in the oven to heat up. Dinner is read in 20 minutes or less and there's no giant mess to clean up.

This past weekend I bought a container of premade polenta, a jar of eggplant caponata, and a wedge of rosemary olive oil asiago cheese. (I already had green onions at home, but you'll need those too for this recipe). I cut about a 2-3 inch piece of polenta and "smushed" it in the bottom of a personal sized baking dish, poured 1/2 cup of eggplant caponata on top, and sprinkled it with 1/4 cup of shredded cheese and 2 tablespoons of chopped green onion. I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and it was delicious and heartwarming and everything nice.

(polenta - smushed)

(polenta adorned with eggplant caponata)

Now, because this dish was so good and easy, I decided to make it once more this weekend. This time I poached an egg and placed it on top of the cheesy-goodness right when it came out of the oven. This was true comfort food. I do realize that the poaching of an egg equates to real cooking and not just semi-homemade preparation. But, it's so easy to poach an egg - I swear it! (Watch a great demonstration here). And, this way you can get that protein that mom's always yelling at you about...

(the finished product with a poached egg)

a beer-themed weekend

Yesterday was Josh's 26th birthday. He's not big on birthday celebrations, so every year I'm forced with the challenge of finding something celebratory to do without it seeming too "birthday theme-ish." Lately, his focus has been on beer (trading, tasting, researching, purchasing) - so, in honor of this hobby, we celebrated his day of birth with a weekend full of beer.

We attended The Bruery Clusterfork on Saturday. The Bruery is a fantastic family-run brewery down in Orange County that produces microbrews. We've been members ever since they opened a couple years back and can't get enough of their barrel-aged beers and sours. They host a Clusterfork every few months in which they pour special beers and invite their members to bring special bottles from home to share with everyone. I got to try two Cantillons - arguably the best sour beers in the world.

(the Bruery draft beers)

(communal table of shared beers)

(beer trading)

Last night, we headed over to a homebrew class in Eagle Rock. For $10 we got to sample about 5 different beers and learn about the homebrew process from start to finish. The initial investment is pretty high (brewing kits range from $80-$180 and exclude the actual brewing ingredients) so we left empty handed. But our group appreciated seeing all the work that goes into our favorite brews. To know before you go: the class is extremely informal - we boiled the beer in their empty parking lot out back - and is more of a lecture-style with hardly any hands on activity.

(adding extract to the homebrew)

(the beer right before it started boiling over)

As a birthday gift from me, Josh is now a member of the Beer of the Month Club - specifically the Rare Beer Club. We're looking forward to tasting new beers and reporting about them here.

I hope you enjoyed a good beer this weekend!

Sick Day

Yesterday I woke up with a pretty horrific sore throat and stayed home for a sick day. A cup (or 5) of Cold Remedy tea with honey and almond milk and a slice of Trader Joe's Cinnamon Swirl toast with peanut butter put me in a much better mood.

(cold remedy tea + honey + almond milk)

(cinnamon swirl toast with peanut butter)

Blog Inspiration: Heart of Light

(a cake i baked for josh a few birthdays back)

I am an avid reader of Cupcakes and Cashmere and yesterday she linked over to one of her friend’s blogs – Heart of Light. I am obsessed. Her stories and pictures are wonderful, but what resonated with me was our similar taste in food. She loves egg-y breakfasts, has a passion for baking, and enjoys wandering around Farmers’ Markets. And – she gave up caffeine too! (Did I mention I did that? About 2 months ago. It’s helped immensely with my sleep/insomnia problems).

Anyways, her blog posts on cake baking have got me thinking about baking a cake for a certain mister’s 26th birthday this week. He loves peanut butter and chocolate. Maybe a marble cake with peanut butter filling and chocolate cake frosting? Or perhaps a peanut butter cake with a chocolate Guinness frosting? That sounds better. It will go with all the beer-themed gifts and festivities. Oooh! And I can use our beautiful new cake stand.