pasta

So…this happened: Epic Crab Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Garlic Breadcrumbs

February 24, 2014 by Eva Louise Leave a Comment

Stingray is coming home from Ethiopia soon and I can tell he’s seriously hankering for some of my homemade cooking. I thought it would be fun to drive his belly bonkers by posting this epic crab pasta with vodka sauce that I made for the family a while back. It’s a Serious Eats’ recipe for Pasta with Crab, Tomato, and Chilies and it’s a knockout. It’s a simple set of ingredients with a medium level of difficulty (you need to blend the hot tomato sauce which I find to be challenging to do without incident), and one of the few recipes I actually followed entirely. The recipe is made extra delicious with the addition of homemade garlic breadcrumbs; with these I can assure you, there will be no leftovers. I’m sorry to report (not!) that my version was made with fresh dungeness crab that Dad caught earlier in the day. Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Enjoy this beauty.

Pasta with Crab, Tomato, and Chilies

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes, drained and roughly broken up by hand
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup vodka
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small red hot chili, finely sliced (optional)
2 slices rustic bread, roughly torn
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1 pound fresh spaghetti, fettucini, or tagliatelle (dry pasta can also be used)
1 pound lump or jumbo lump fresh crab meat (get the good stuff)

Instructions

Heat butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and foaming subsides. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and heavy cream. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Add vodka and simmer for 4 minutes longer. Don’t blow up the kitchen!
Transfer mixture to a blender and blend on high speed until completely smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper and transfer 2 cups to a large saucepan. Reserve remaining sauce for another use. Don’t burn yourself!
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Combine bread, a garlic clove and remaining olive oil in a food processor. Process until fine crumbs are formed. Transfer to a medium skillet and cook over medium-high heat, stirring and tossing constantly until golden brown. Transfer to a small bowl. Season bread crumbs to taste with salt and pepper and add a pinch of parsley and chives. Toss to combine. Set aside.
Add crab and optional sliced chilies to saucepan with sauce and stir to combine. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water just until it is barely cooked through, about 2 minutes (if using dry pasta, cook according to package directions). Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Transfer pasta to saucepan with sauce stir in remaining herbs. Heat over high heat until sauce is simmering and pasta is completely coated, adding reserved pasta water as necessary to thin sauce to desired consistency. Serve immediately, topping with bread crumbs.

End of the Heat Wave!: Asparagus Ravioli with Seared Scallops

July 24, 2013 by myfriendsinfood 2 Comments

We’ve just survived a brutal, swassy heat wave here in New York and I swear, you couldn’t pay me to cook in my kitchen these days. Luckily, protein bars and happy hours have been sustaining me, but man, I’m really fiending some of my own food.

I started flicking through some of the dozens of unposted food photos I have on file and picked this homemade asparagus ravioli with lemon zest and mascarpone with seared scallops to share today. I made this earlier in spring time, at the beginning of asparagus season and cheated by using wonton papers which I’ve used for other recipes as well. (Link to that post here) I’d love to try this with ramps or garlic scapes (maybe too late in the season??), or some other funky farmers market vegetable. I’ll definitely be trying this dish again.

Asparagus Ravioli with Lemon Zest and Mascarpone

zest of 1lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1 bunch asparagus
1 small dish of mascarpone cheese (about
block of Pecorino or Parmesan
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic (optional), smashed or rough chopped
S/P to taste
wonton papers

Rinse and pat dry the bunch of asparagus and cut each stalk just below the crown. Set the crowns aside for garnish later*. Cut and discard the dried or discolored bottoms of the stalks. These are normally dry and tough and not tasty. Rough chop the remaining stalks and toss into a food processor.

To the food processor, also add: 2 cloves of rough chopped garlic, a handful of chopped chives (they are so mild I love using a lot), 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, 4 – 6 Ts of the mascarpone, 1/4 cup of pecorino, cracked pepper (hold on the salt until you taste the blended mixture). Pulse the mixture in the processor until mostly smooth and incorporated. Taste and adjust flavors accordingly. Salt, more garlic or more cheese might be necessary. The consistency should be a bit stiff and asparagus-y; you don’t want the creaminess of the cheese to drown out that flavor, or for the filling to be too soggy.

Once the filling is a good consistency, prepare your station and start assembling your raviolis. For this, you need:

a big plastic cutting board
a drying rack (wipe with oil or spray it with Pam to keep the raviolis from sticking)
small ramekin of water

Lay out the wonton papers onto the cutting board and place a small dollop of filling in the middle. Dip your finger in the ramekin of water and wet the edges of the paper. At this point you can either fold the wonton into a triangle, or place another wonton paper on top (recommended) to keep its square shape. Make sure the edges are sealed fully and place on the drying rack.

Once all the raviolis are assembled and drying, boil water a shallow pot. Add salt and one layer of raviolis. Cook 2-4 minutes until the wonton paper is tight around the filling. Continue to cook the rest of the raviolis (or freeze the remainder). Use a slotted spoon to place on a pretty platter or on individual plates.

*In a saute pan, heat a generous splash of olive oil and saute the reserved asparagus crowns with a few pinches of the chives for 2-3 minutes until al dente. Distribute evenly among the plated raviolis.

Garnish the asparagus ravioli with lemon juice, lemon zest, chives, and pecorino. The pasta water, olive oil and lemon juice will naturally create the sauce for the dish. I served mine with seared scallops, but chicken or salmon would be awesome as well!

Homemade Butternut Squash Ravioli

December 23, 2012 by Eva Louise 3 Comments

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage-Infused Olive Oil

Christmas is coming and one of the nice things about this time of year is, of course, gathering with family. There are several of my recipes that I reserve especially for these times, so I can take advantage of the extra man-power. Homemade butternut squash raviolis definitely fall into this category. A simple but labor-intensive dish, these raviolis are a great way to incorporate the whole family so everyone feels like they are part of the meal.

I adapted my recipe from Emril Lagasse’s and used wonton papers instead of fresh pasta dough. For my sauce, I used olive oil simmered with rosemary and sage, instead of the butter that Emril’s recipe calls for. One trick I use to finish this dish is to purposely allow the starchy pasta water to drip into the serving dish when I transfer the raviolis. This makes the sauce sauce-ier and more delicious.

Butternut squash and Parmigiano-Reggiano are the stars of this dish, but they could be easily substituted with different combos like crispy prosciutto and ricotta, goat cheese and mushrooms, salmon and chives (with a cream sauce instead). You could even do sweet raviolis with cinnamon-apples and mascarpone with a caramel sauce…mmm.

Cubes of squash are simmered with chicken broth and herbs while onions are softened. Their powers combine in the Cuisinart to make the filling.

A little Ecuadorian princess delicately folds the wonton papers filled with sweet and savory squash into perfect raviolis

Team Supremo and Tagliatelle Tartufo

December 8, 2012 by Eva Louise Leave a Comment

Team Supremo* has gone international with a weekend trip to Italy to celebrate Marina’s birthday! We were ambitious and woke up early today for a 3-hour bus tour of the gorgeous city of Milano with a final stop to view Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Famished and freezing our little brioches off, this was a great segway into lunch. We stopped in a precious little, well…Italian restaurant. After a champagne toast, we shared a caprese salad, tagliatelle con tartufo nero, and a nice bottle of chianti (OK, fine…we also had an insanely rich ricotta and artichoke crepe). One cannolo and two macchiatos later it was time for shopping and a nap. Can we fast forward to dinner? I can’t wait.

*the unfortunate nickname Marina and I gave ourselves 5 years ago in college.

Dinner with Basil: Homemade Pesto + Caprese Salad

August 11, 2012 by Eva Louise Leave a Comment

Green Gold

Red, White and Green

Earlier this week, Ray and I had a special guest for dinner, basil! This beautiful broad-leafed herb is definitely in season with the bundles so big, I could barely tell it apart from heads of lettuce in the produce section. When I get a bouquet of basil this large, there’s really only two things I want to make, homemade pesto and a caprese salad. And that’s what I did: Seared Scallops with Pesto Rigatoni with a Caprese Salad drizzled with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I think I’d like to have basil over dinner more often!

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For the Pesto: I never follow recipes, so in my Cuisinart I just blended pine nuts (they have pre-packaged 1/4 cup bags in the baking aisle at the store), whatever Parmesan I had in my fridge and garlic. I then added the basil leaves and the juice of one lemon. Word on the street is to keep the Cuisinart running while you add the olive oil through the top feeder until the mixture is smooth. At the last minute I added zest of 1/2 lemon and I’m pretty sure that took the pesto to a whole other level of amazing both in flavor and color. For perfect single-servings down the road, scoop any extra pesto into an ice cube tray and cover with plastic wrap making sure it’s flush with the pesto and place in freezer. For the rule followers, Ina Garten has a great recipe for pesto.

Buenos Aires Cannellonis: Jamon y Queso + Verdura

August 9, 2012 by Eva Louise Leave a Comment

Baked Cannelloni

My Buenos Aires Cannellonis are inspired by my time living in the “Paris of Latin America.” Each morning I would pass Mas Pastas, fogging up the glass window as three old men buzzed around the checker-floored pasta shop. One man would delicately drop dollops of ricotta onto rugs of ravioli pasta, another kneaded pizza dough and the other formed pillows of potato dough for fresh gnocchi. When I finally mustered up enough courage and enough Spanish, I became a regular at Mas Pastas, frequently stopping in for a dozen cannellonis (cheese-filled tubes of fresh pasta) to cook for friends and my host family.

While no cannellonis can really do Mas Pastas justice, here is my take on the most popular variations: cannellonis con jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and cannellonis con verduras (vegetables) topped with tomato sauce. On my next try, I might go for crab filled cannelloni with a bechamel sauce (yow!).

For this recipe, I use my secret weapon-wonton papers! You can find them in the produce section next to the vegan chorizo (why, why does that exist?) and the tofu shaped like chicken nuggets. Wonton papers are extremely versatile and really fun to work with. In addition to using them for cannellonis, I use them to make homemade raviolis; I even used them to make a quick lasagna once.

Filling: I make a very simple base filling of ricotta, cream cheese, mozzarella, 1 medium sauteed onion, seasoned with fresh garlic, salt and pepper. I then split the filling between two bowls and add vegetables to one and meat to the other:

For Jamon y Queso: I sautee cubes of pancetta (sturdy and salty, ideal for this dish) in a pan to make them nice and crispy before adding them to the filling. Cooked bacon, prosciutto, chicken or shrimp would be great alternatives.

For Verduras y Queso: I sautee frozen spinach (drain before adding to pan) with a zucchini cut into thin half-moons and seasoned with chili flakes. Mushrooms are a slammin’ addition.

Once the variations are added to each bowl of filling, I prepare a clean, flat surface and small dish of water (to seal the seam of the wonton paper) and then make the cannellonis:

Step 1: Scoop 2 heaping tablespoons of filling along one side of the wonton paper, careful not to let any get too close to the edge.

Step 2: Pull the wonton over the filling. Pressing your fingers flat on the cutting board, tug the wonton paper back (think how the guys at Chipotle wrap burritos). This will ensure that filling is tightly packed into the wonton paper.