Quintessential Pasta Dish...Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

This is one of those dishes that I think everyone should have in their repertoire. Spaghetti with garlic and oil. This is my comfort food. It's a popular late night snack after a night out. In the time that it takes the water to boil for the spaghetti, you sauté garlic and chili flakes in olive oil. Toss all together and top with chopped parsley. So easy. So good.

I have fond memories growing up, of my parents coming home with their friends after a night of dinner and dancing and my dad making this dish for everyone and the evening would start all over again. I mean, we always had pasta, garlic and olive oil in the pantry. We didn't have a lot of money growing, but we never lacked good family and friends!!

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio

250g spaghetti
1/4 cup olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 red, hot chili or chili flakes to taste
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Boil pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente. In the meantime, heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat and add garlic and chili pepper. Sauté until fragrant. When the pasta is ready, toss with the oil and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

m xo

Farmers Market Bucatini

The month of August is the best time of year to prepare meals because Mother Nature has done all the work for us. I totally get inspired by what is at the market, especially the farmers market.

We recently went to the Hamptons for a few days and as we were leaving East Hampton to go back to the city, the street was lined with farmers markets and I stopped to pick up a few things.

What's nice thing about this quick sauce is that the time that it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta, it's ready!

Farmers Market Bucatini

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cob of corn, kernels removed
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 quart cherry tomatoes
A big handful basil
1 small hot pepper, optional
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2lb. bucatini pasta
Grated pecorino
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 eggs, optional

Fill a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Salt the water and cook the bucatini pasta as directed on package or until al dente (which most of the time is less time than directed).
In the meantime, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Add the corn kernels, zucchini, tomatoes and hot pepper, if using. Salt and pepper the vegetables. Cook over medium/high heat for about 10 minutes or until the bucatini is cooked. Tear the basil and throw in the vegetables. Drain the pasta and mix with the corn mixture. At this point if you are serving the pasta with an egg, heat olive oil in a non stick pan until hot. Break the eggs, one at a time until the edges are crispy but the yolk is still a little runny. Serve on top of the pasta. Sprinkle with the pecorino. Yummy!

Quintessential Pasta Dish...Orecchiette with Sausage and Rapini

Who doesn't love pasta? I know I certainly do! For me, when I think of Sundays, I think about sitting around at the kitchen table with my family, a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine. That has always been our tradition, pasta every Sunday lunch. And now with my mom being away this winter, my sisters and I still try to uphold that tradition, the only difference being that we try out not-so traditional pasta dishes. Not that my mom wouldn't like them, but she LOVES her fettucine she makes from scratch every Sunday.

And so when I came across an article a few weeks ago about Italian pasta dishes that they thought were the most quintessential and iconic we all need to master, I thought I'd start a series and share with you some of my recipes of these classic pasta dishes I grew up making and eating.

Some of the dishes they mentioned were, Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Pasta e Fagioli, Penne alla Vodka, Fettucine Alfredo, Marcella's tomato sauce with onions and butter (recipe here), Ricotta Gnocchi (recipe here) and many more (22 in all) I'm hoping to share with you the next few months (or longer).

The first one is, Orecchiette with Sausage and Rapini.

This is one of my favourite pasta dishes because you have everything in one dish. Pasta, vegetables and meat. So comforting! And it's very versatile because you can use broccoli instead of rapini, turkey or chicken sausage instead of pork or you can make it totally vegetarian, and eliminate the sausage completely and I promise you, it is still amazing!

When I usually make this dish, I cook the pasta and the rapini together. I first throw in the pasta and 2-3 minutes before the pasta is al dente, I throw in the rapini. Not sure if that makes anyone nervous, not knowing when the pasta is almost ready, because the last thing you want is pasta that is over cooked. That is the worst. If you're not sure, I say take it out sooner than later. And that goes for any dried pasta. So this way, you cook your rapini first then your pasta. Can't go wrong.

 Orecchiette Pasta with Sausage and Rapini

1 bunch of rapini

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. sweet or spicy pork sausage
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Red chili peppers, to taste
500 grams orecchiette pasta
Salt
Parmesan cheese, grated
Olive oil

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
In the meantime, cut off and throw away the bottom of the rapini that is a little woody. Cut into 1 inch pieces and wash thoroughly. Cook in boiling water until tender. Scoop out with a strainer spoon or spider, drain and set aside. Do not turn off the heat. Bring the water to a boil again and throw in the orecchiettte pasta and cook until al dente. Drain well. Save some of the cooking water.
Meanwhile, remove the sausage from the casing and crumble it. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook until is lightly browned. Add the chopped garlic and the chili peppers and continue cooking until the garlic is soft and fragrant. Add the cooked rapini and pasta and cooking water and toss until it's all combined. Take off the heat. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

m xo

Heart-Beet Gnocchi

I don't remember exactly where I saw these gnocchi. It could have been on a cooking show. In a magazine article. On Pinterest. Or one of the many food blogs I look at every night. I don't even remember the exact recipe except that they were made with ricotta. What I do know is that I couldn't wait to make them!
And guess what? I made them just for me for lunch. Crazy! Right? But I'm worth it! Hahaha. I mean I did have lots of leftovers. I didn't boil all the gnocchi, just enough for one. This recipe easily feeds 4 people. I'm going to save the rest for my nieces and my nephew, Nicholas who LOVES gnocchi!
Please don't be intimidated with homemade pasta. These are super easy. From start to finish, it took one hour. And I mean I was eating them within an hour.
I'm calling these Heart-Beet Gnocchi for the obvious reasons: they are red and I think they would make a wonderful Valentines day meal.
I made these with brown butter and grated parmesan cheese. Normally I would have added fresh sage to the butter but my sage is buried in my garden under 5 feet of snow.
You can make these with a tomato sauce, a meat sauce or a cream sauce. Whatever floats your boat!
I really hope you try making these!

Heart-Beet Gnocchi

1 lb full fat ricotta
1 1/2- 2 cups flour
1 large egg
2 small beets (a little bigger than an egg), roasted, peeled and cooled
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Place the beets in a food processor and puree. In a bowl mix together the pureed beets, ricotta, egg, salt and nutmeg. Start by adding 1 1/2 cups of the flour first. You might need more if your beets are a little bigger, which is no big deal, just add more flour.

Try not to over mix or the gnocchi will be tough.
Once the dough has come together, place on a floured surface and gently work until you have a soft ball adding additional flour so the dough is not too sticky.
Flatten the ball into a disc, about an inch thick, making sure your surface is always lightly floured.

Cut into 1 inch strips and roll using fingers of both hands to form a rope.

Once you have the rope, with a sharp knife, cut into 1 inch pieces.

Now take that gnocchi and place your thumb on it and gently push down and away from you. It essentially creates a little groove for the sauce to adhere to.

As you continue rolling, cutting and forming the gnocchi, make sure you place them on a lightly floured tray.

At this point you can refrigerate them until you are ready to cook.
Bring a big pot of water to a boil and salt liberally or as Mario Batali likes to say, it should taste like the sea. Drop in the gnocchi and stir carefully. They will be at the bottom of the pot but as soon as they all come up, they are ready.

Drain and add brown butter and parmesan cheese. Serve hot.

Brown Butter 

Brown butter or beurre noisette is literally translated, hazelnut butter. It's butter that is cooked until it is brown. What you are doing is toasting the milk solids and developing a deep nutty flavour.
To make brown butter, simply melt unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Preferably stainless steel so you can see the butter change colour. Continue until it boils and begins to brown. There will be specks at the bottom of the pan, those are the milk solids. That's what you want. It's ready when it is a dark, honey colour. Take off the heat and throw in the gnocchi.
You can use this butter on so many things like fish and steamed vegetables. Even sweet dishes like cakes and cookies. Yummy!

m xo