I'll have the pasta

I am feeling super motivated today and like my food creativity is unlimited tonight. I’m sure I’m going to pay for this burst of energy and late night cooking tomorrow but right now I just can’t seem to care. And Percy is on my side tonight, getting to pick up and sample any bits and pieces that fall to the floor. (No worries; Percy is a pup.) So what to do with a food imagination that can’t be tamed? I tend to start with my favorite fall back ‘great trick’ and my ultimate favorite food, soup. However my dinner of choice, a creamy pea soup, inspired me in another direction….PASTA!

I reduced my soup to a silky-smooth cream sauce, and used it to top some basic cheese raviolis I had in the freezer. I added some crispy bacon, chives and topped it all with some fresh shaved parmesan cheese. This dish was appealing in every way, brilliant bright green in color, crispy, silky, salty…mouthwatering.

Pea’s and Pasta (what you need)

small onion, diced

A couple pats of butter

Peas, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)

Chicken stock

Heavy cream

Bacon

Parmesan Cheese

Chives

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Dice your onion and sauté in the butter, once translucent add your peas and just enough chicken stock to cover (if you want soup instead add more stock). Cook until fragrant, puree. Add cream, salt and pepper to taste/ consistency. Cook bacon (oven, microwave, however you prefer, just make it crispy) Prepare pasta according to package directions, toss with creamy pea mixture. Plate and garnish with fresh chives, bacon, parmesan cheese and olive oil. ENJOY!

This yummy dish was just the start to my pasta fiasco. After enjoying my dinner I decided that packaged ravioli just wasn’t good enough for me, I needed to make my own. For a while now I’ve been wanting to play around with flavoring pasta, not just the filling but the pasta itself. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone: make a flavorful dough and a basic ravioli. Looking around my kitchen I found a bag of lemons and decided to focus on them. I used a basic pasta recipe (flour+semolina+ eggs+ oil=done) and added the zest of a couple lemons and some fresh cracked black pepper. The result was better than I hoped for…not just a hint of lemon but a burst of freshness in every bite. I took my fresh lemon dough and filled it with a basic three cheese mixture (cream cheese, ricotta and parmesan) and made some beautiful round raviolis.

Lemon Ricotta Ravioli with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes

Lemon ricotta raviolis

Fresh basil

Asparagus

Cherry tomatoes

Butter

Chiffonade (cut into thin strips) the basil and set aside. Trim and blanch your asparagus, set aside. Cook raviolis in boiling water, reserve some cooking liquid. In a sauté pan heat butter, add asparagus and tomatoes and the juice of one lemon, sauté. Add a few tablespoons of the reserved pasta water and the ravioli. Coat ravioli and veggies with butter/lemon juice mixture. Add basil right before removing from heat. Season with salt and pepper, serve immediately.

At last, I couldn’t finish with the lemon ravioli because whenever I make pasta I feel I HAVE to make a batch with my favorite veggie, spinach. This method works with almost any veggie (roasted red peppers are another favorite of mine). You simply cook the veggie, in this case sauté the spinach, then puree it and squeeze out the juices. But don’t get rid of the juice! It’s the most important part. When making your basic pasta (semolina+ flour+ egg +oil=done) reduce some of the oil and add the spinach juice instead. This will change the color of your pasta and give you the taste of spinach. For this particular dish I make a basic fettuccini noodle because it’s easy to keep (dry and save in an air tight container) and very versatile for any recipe.

Jamie’s favorite spinach pasta

Spinach pasta

Italian sausage, I like mine spicy but sweet sausage works too

Marinara (your favorite from the jar, or homemade)

Fresh herbs (whatever you’ve got)

Goat cheese

Bake the sausage links and cut into coins. Cook pasta, and then toss in a sauté pan with enough sauce to coat the pasta and the sausage coins. Add your herbs right before removing from heat. Plate and top with goat cheese crumbles. Simple and delicious!

P.s. this is also amazing if you grind up the sausage, mix with the cheese and use as a ravioli filling. When I do this I prefer to make the raviolis a little on the large side, three step bread them and bake them. Serve with marinara as a dipping sauce.

Pay attention for June, my special ingredient will be HONEY! I will be learning how It’s made, what its used for (in the bee world), cooking with it and if I’m really lucky I will find a bee farm (?) and see the process up close and personal.