Pasta with Slow-Simmer Sauce

For February's pasta, I'm sharing our winter go-to: homemade pasta with a ragu sauce that simmers for hours and hours until it's the best ragu sauce you've ever had.

I originally found the recipe on Pinterest, here, and I made it for Valentine's Day two years ago. It was so good that I made it again the next year (again for Valentine's Day) - except last year I added homemade pasta to the mix as well. Then we realized that we don't just have to eat it on Valentine's Day! Now we eat it all winter.

The recipe makes a big batch and it freezes really well (unless you're serving 6-8 people, in which case you might eat it all). In the past, I've substituted dried herbs for the fresh ones that it calls for and that works fine too. It's the perfect thing to eat as we enjoy the last few weeks of winter.

Carbonara with Zucchini

This is by far my favorite winter meal. Especially when you spend the morning skiing, like we did:

Now that it's finally started snowing in Cortina, it's perfect weather for skiing and for carbonara. A few years ago, when we first moved to Cortina, my dad challenged me to find the best carbonara in town and take him to eat it when he came to visit. That's a tough challenge when you live in Italy and all carbonara is delicious. In the end though, we decided we liked the carbonara with zucchini at Cinque Torri the best. These days I'm making it at home since we don't always want to leave the house in the snow.

Carbonara with Zucchini
For two or three

Ingredients:
Enough spaghetti for two or three people
1 tablespoon of olive oil
About a cup of cubed pancetta
One zucchini, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup of cream
1/3 cup finely grated Parmesan
LOTS of black pepper!!

Directions:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the spaghetti. Cook according to package instructions. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until just browned. Turn the heat to low, add the zucchini and a bunch of black pepper and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Remove the pancetta and zucchini from the heat and set aside. Beat the eggs in a bowl with the cream and Parmesan (and a little more black pepper). When the pasta has finished cooking, drain (reserving a bit of the cooking water), and return it to the pot. Working quickly, stir the egg mixture in to the hot pasta. Add the pancetta and zucchini. If the pasta seems dry, you can add a bit of the cooking water. Serve immediately with extra Parmesan and black pepper.

Radicchio Ravioli

Italians don't make Christmas cookies. They make Panettone, which I would never make for multiple reasons, the biggest one being that it takes something like 20 hours to make because the dough has to rise three times. And also, I don't like it, but you're not allowed to say that in Italy.

This December though, instead of Christmas cookies or Panettone, we decided to make ravioli.

Radicchio is everywhere in Italy, and it comes in all different shapes, sizes and colors.

Italians eat it raw or grilled; they stuff it into things, mix it into salads and use it as a garnish. So if you don't feel like making Christmas cookies this year....here's another idea:

Radicchio Ravioli
(Serves 2)

For the pasta:
Here's a previous post on how to make pasta, but for two people, we used one cup of flour, one egg and a little water for the dough

For the filling:
1 cup cooked and finely chopped purple radicchio
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

First make the filling by cooking the radicchio in 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat, then chop it finely and add to a bowl followed by the Parmesan and ricotta. Mix together and add salt and pepper to taste. Roll out the pasta dough into strips and place about a tablespoon of the filling on the dough. Depending on how long the strip of dough is, repeat, leaving about an inch or two in between each dollop of filling.

Using your finger, trace a line of water around each spot of filling (this will help the top layer of dough adhere). And a side note - when we made this, Ryan accidentally dipped his finger into my wine glass and that worked fine too...

Place another strip of dough on top of the first and seal the top strip to the bottom by pressing your finger around the filling - make sure that you get all the air out for cooking. Cut out each ravioli square using a ravioli stamp or a knife.

Bring a pot of salted water to a gentle boil and cook in batches for about 3 minutes each. We like to eat our ravioli topped with olive oil, black pepper and extra Parmesan.

PS - Spinach and ricotta ravioli

Lunchtime Pasta

I know I say this a lot, but one of the things that I love about Italy is that you can eat pasta for lunch - really, you're supposed to. I read (in a Rick Steve's guidebook, of course) that the average Italian eats two servings of pasta a day - at lunch and dinner - and also a half a pound of bread, while they're at it.

When we're at home in Colorado, we never eat pasta unless someone serves it to us and we never eat it at lunch unless it's a really special occasion. In Italy though, Ryan eats it for lunch at least twice a week as a pre-game meal, but my favorite time to eat it is at lunch on a cold day - or a rainy one - and since it's been cold and rainy for a week straight now, this Monday called for pasta at lunch.

I love this lemony linguine because it's so easy and fast to make and it's pretty light, so you don't need to take a nap after lunch - although some of us did anyway...

Lemon Linguine
Serves 2


Enough linguine (or whatever pasta shape you'd like to use) for two
1/3 cup of cream
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package instructions. Meanwhile (in a sauce pan large enough to add the pasta when it's finished cooking) heat the cream over medium heat and add the rosemary, salt and pepper. When the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving a bit of the pasta water in case you need to use it to thin out the sauce. Add the pasta to the cream and add in the lemon juice and Parmesan. Stir together, serve immediately and you will instantly be warm.

October!

It's October and I am BACK! In the past two weeks, I spent a full 10 days visiting my parents which included a long weekend in Illinois for a friend's wedding, lots of cheddar cheese (of course) ...and kale, and overuse of the internet to compensate for our lack of in Cortina (which has now been fixed!). I flew back to Italy last Saturday night, Ryan picked me up in Venice on Sunday afternoon and we spent the rest of the day and night looking for George Clooney and eating delicious risotto at one of our favorite restaurants (Osteria il Milion).

Speaking of risotto, last year we did the risotto of the month and made seven different risottos....well, this year, we're switching it up to pasta. We LOVE pasta (who doesn't?) and we're in Italy - it's a match made in heaven.

Our first pasta dish this season includes pesto, shrimp, roasted cherry tomatoes and homemade linguine. I made the linguine and the pesto myself because I was feeling adventurous and because it was made on a night when Ryan had practice until 9 pm - but obviously store-bought everything works fine too!

Linguine with Pesto, Shrimp and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Serves 2


For the pasta - we made pasta in great detail here but for two people I roughly use 1 cup of flour and one egg with a little water mixed in, if needed. Or you can use enough dried pasta for two people.

For the pesto - 2 cups fresh basil, one garlic clove, 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of pine nuts, a little salt and pepper, mixed in a food processor until smooth. Add more olive oil if needed to make smooth. Spoon into a dish and mix in 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Can be stored in the fridge for later or used right away - we make our pesto on the chunkier side.

For the shrimp and tomatoes - About 8-10 shrimp per person, washed and dried, cooked in a little olive oil. Meanwhile, coat the cherry tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, or until they begin to burst open.

Split pasta between two bowls and top with pesto, shrimp and roasted tomatoes. Add extra Parmesan, salt and pepper as needed.

Summer Pasta

I don't usually post during the summer while we're in Colorado (or anywhere and everywhere), but since we're dying to get things up and running again, I thought this summer-y pasta recipe would be a good start.

This is a pasta dish that is very unlike the spaghetti and meatballs, carbonara and cacio e pepe that I love to make in the freezing cold winters. It's perfect for hot summer nights because the only thing that cooks is the pasta. I used store-bought Barilla this time, but if you have a pasta maker and time (neither of which I had), obviously fresh pasta is the best.

 

 

Spaghetti with Uncooked Tomato Sauce
(Serves four as a light meal or first course)

Sauce
4 Roma tomatoes, chopped - I use one tomato per person, so if you are feeding more or less than four, take that into consideration
1/2 cup of basil, coarsely chopped
Roughly 25 fresh bite-sized mozzarella balls (called "Ciliegine"), halved
1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper to taste


Pasta
1/2 box of thin spaghetti - this time I used Barilla Whole Grain - cooked according to package instructions

Make the sauce - Combine the chopped tomatoes, basil, halved mozzarella balls, and olive oil in a bowl. Stir together and add salt and pepper to taste. It's best to make the sauce at least four hours before you want to serve dinner so that the flavors can meld together. I usually make it in the morning and put it in the refrigerator for the day - just make sure to remove it at least an hour before serving so that it can come to room temperature. 

Twenty minutes or so before you're ready to eat dinner, cook the pasta, drain well and transfer to a large serving bowl. Mix in the sauce and sprinkle with more salt and pepper and fresh Parmesan, if desired.

Homemade Ravioli

Ryan and I got married seven months ago and all last summer, a new wedding present would appear on our doorstep from Crate and Barrel. We knew we were coming back to Cortina in September, so we didn't want to open anything too much since it was packaged so carefully and we didn't want anything to break in our storage unit. When we started packing for Cortina, we were a little sad to part with our first matching sets of silverware and wine glasses, but we couldn't take our presents with us because honestly, if we shipped them, they still might not be here. But! There was one little present that we took with us. Our brand new ravioli stamp (thank you, Leigh)! And last night we tackled homemade ravioli.

I used this recipe to make the pasta dough. At first it looked like this:

 

But then we got everything figured out and it turned into this:

We made a spinach and ricotta filling and then rolled and rolled and rolled, stuffed and cut the squares. There was flour everywhere.

We were very busy! We started at 5:30 and ate at 8:00....

But, in the end they were delicious and we can't wait to try it again with different fillings.

How to Make Pasta

It's still snowing here. Well, last night the clouds broke apart and the sun streamed out for a little bit, just long enough for a gorgeous sunset, finally.

But this morning it was white again!

Today I'm sharing our recipe for fresh pasta and later on in the week, I'm going to share Ryan's famous recipe for red sauce, which he invented this year. We ate this combo every other day during the first snowstorm of the winter, back in December when our lights went out. It's so yummy and so warming and so perfect for all this snow.

Making fresh noodles is one of those things that's ridiculously easy, but is time consuming enough that you have to get up your motivation to do it. A few weeks ago we invited some friends over to help though, since it's true what they say about many hands! We roughly followed Mario Batali's recipe (because, hello, Mario Batali), plus the advice of our Italian friends - who were not supervising this particular adventure! (Remember a few months ago we learned how to make casunziei, but the dough had already been made for us, by an Italian).

We made tons of pasta, using one 1 lb pound bag of flour and 5 eggs which was enough for about 6-8 people. All you need to do is pour the flour into a large bowl, and make a well in the center that you can crack the eggs into, and then whisk them together. Slowly begin to incorporate the flour into the eggs (although it tends to happen all at once, really) and then once you have a dough ball, you need to knead it! Everyone says "You'll just know when it's done", which I didn't believe, but which ended up being true. The dough becomes elastic-y and spring-y, and once that happens, you can break off chunks of it and run it through your pasta cutter!

It's so easy! And so good. (And looking at that first picture of the pasta, I'm going to say we made enough for 20 people, not 6-8).

Cacio e Pepe

My favorite dish of all time is cacio e pepe, so I was thrilled to come across a blog post about it the other day. The post was about what people eat for dinner when they're alone and this man, a food blogger, wrote about how he eats cacio e pepe every night that his wife and kids aren't around. I was both soooo excited by this, but also kind of like, "hey - that's MY thing!" Other people do it too?! (Besides you, Isabel).

I might be slightly obsessed with this dish. I Google it. I ask other people how they make it. I read loads of recipes looking for just the right one. And I tend to make it every night that I'm alone, which is usually about once a week when Ryan is playing an away game. It's a little overboard, maybe. But I love it!

When I first started making it, I would cook the pasta, drain it and throw it in a bowl, and then slather it with olive oil, black pepper and grated Parmesan. Now, this version is delicious, let me tell you, but it's not exactly cacio e pepe. As Ryan pointed out once, it's just a bowl of plain pasta with cheese.

Well....that's kind of what cacio e pepe is. But any recipe you read will tell you that there is a science to making it, and I wanted to try that version too - why not, right? I have once a week to try it!

So I set out to make up my own perfect recipe for my own perfect cacio e pepe. Although, in the course of my research, I did read on another food blog, that the Romans would most likely laugh at us if they knew we were trying to use a recipe to make such a simple dish, which is probably correct.

And speaking of the Romans, Ryan and I ate this last year when we went on vacation to Rome. I really don't want to say what I'm going to say next, because I think it's illegal or something, but I like my version better. I have to say....I don't like Pecorino Romano, which is what cacio e pepe is usually made with. It's sooo salty. I love good old Parmesan OR its less expensive family member, Grana.

So one night when Ryan was in Asiago (speaking of cheese, haha), I went into the kitchen with my pen and paper to master my own recipe for my favorite dish. Turns out the Romans were right! It's impossible to write a recipe for this...in Italy anyway. No one measures anything here! Three problems right off the bat:

1.  I was planning on using 1/4 pound of spaghetti and starting the recipe like that. But I don't know what 1/4 pound of pasta looks like; we have a spaghetti measure that has holes in it marking the correct portion for 1, 2, 3 and 4 people.

2. Our butter comes in a big block and doesn't have those incredibly helpful little markers that say "1 tbsp, 2 tbsp" etc.

3. I would rather NOT measure out a tablespoon of olive oil because it would mean that I would then have to hand-wash the tablespoon measure since we don't have a dishwasher and I hate washing things that have oil in them.

And so - the following is a very rough recipe to possibly follow the next time you are home alone and want to make cacio e pepe:

1/4 lb spaghetti
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
Lots of black pepper
1/4 grated Parmesan cheese (I DID measure this because I figured I didn't have to wash it out after and I just put it back on the shelf!)
Salt to taste

Boil a pot of salted water and cook the spaghetti according to directions, but trust me, it's better al dente, as the Italians do it.

Meanwhile, melt the butter and olive oil together in a saucepan and add in lots of black pepper - as much as you like pepper, really.

When the pasta is done cooking, reserve half a cup of the pasta water - this step is crucial, ANY correct recipe will tell you that - and drain the pasta.

Pour in a bit of the pasta water to the oil, butter and pepper mixture. I started with about 2 tablespoons - and give it a good whisk. Add the pasta to the saucepan and toss to coat. Add the cheese to the pasta mixture and toss together - and now you can add a little more pasta water, only if you think it needs it. Sprinkle on a little salt - I don't like much - and taste. Adjust cheese/pepper ratio as needed and there you have it! Heaven.

Spaghetti + Meatballs

Ever since we got back from our Lake Como trip on Sunday night, we've been in the midst of a Dolomiti snowstorm! Perfect time for spaghetti and meatballs, so I whipped some up on Tuesday night and thought I'd share my recipe.

To make the meatballs, I combine two or three types of ground meat - I use veal and beef because those are my only options in the store! About 3/4 of a pound of each, depending on how many meatballs you want. I usually cook for three because Ryan tends to eat for two.

Anyway. Then you take about a cup of breadcrumbs, two tablespoons of parsley, half a cup of parmesan, and an egg and mix that all together with the meat (and add some salt and pepper and about half a cup of warm water to keep it moist).

Then take your rings off and dig in! I usually make 2 inch meatballs and this time, I ended up with 25, but froze half of them for meatball subs later in the week - not even Ryan can eat 25 meatballs at once. Then I throw them outside on the deck because our fridge isn't big enough for 25 meatballs, and go have a glass of vino rosso down the street.

When I get back, I cook the meatballs and make the sauce. So - a tablespoon or two of olive oil in a non-stick pan, throw the meatballs in there (maybe in batches if you have tons) and cook away. About 10 minutes does it.

Then I make the sauce. Sometimes I go all out and make sauce from scratch and sometimes I only half do. This time I used a jar of tomato sauce that I noticed had been sitting around and taking up space in the fridge for quite some time. I added some ricotta to make it creamier (and more homemade) and some onion, garlic (sorry, Dad), red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and more parsley because I have to buy a whole bag at the store which usually goes bad within three days unless I put parsley in everything that I cook.

Heat that up and add the meatballs to simmer in it while the spaghetti cooks....

.....maybe add a little more parsley........

....and there you have it! We're calling it "Snowstorm Spaghetti + Meatballs".