Fazzoletti (Pasta Handkerchiefs) stuffed with ricotta and Swiss chard

 

OK, now don't turn away because you don't want to make your own pasta. You can buy fresh lasagna sheets at many supermarkets (although they won't be spinach pasta, most likely) and present your family and friends with this delicious pasta dish. You can even make it ahead of time and keep it in the fridge ready to bake at the last minute. Think of this as free-formed ravioli that are much easier to make and just as delicious. I stuffed them with ricotta and Swiss chard, but you could just as easily use spinach, or even forgo the greens and make a strictly ricotta filling. But if you go the Swiss chard route, you'll roughly chop the greens, then saute them in a little olive oil until cooked through - just a few minutes should do it.

Make the spinach pasta (or buy fresh lasagna sheets) and cut into  four inch squares. It's ok if they aren't perfectly square, or if they're a bit smaller or a bit larger.

Then briefly cook them in boiling water, and drain on paper towels.

Mix the filling ingredients - the cooked Swiss chard, ricotta, parmesan cheese, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Dab a bit in the center of each pasta square.

Fold over into a "sort of" triangular shape.

Place into a buttered shallow baking pan. It's ok if they touch a bit but try not to overlap them. Use a second pan to accommodate the rest of the fazzoletti.

Place a slice of mozzarella on top, sprinkle with parmesan, chopped walnuts and finish with a sage leaf.

Bake for about 20 minutes, and serve. (I had to remove and replace the sage leaves because they got too dark in the oven.)

Slice into this goodness and enjoy. Drooling allowed.

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Fazzoletti (Pasta Handkerchiefs) stuffed with ricotta and Swiss chard

(Makes about 12 stuffed fazzoletti)

For the Pasta:

(You may get more pasta than you need for this recipe, so just cut the rest into fettuccine and use another day.)

1 10-ounce box frozen spinach

2 cups 00 flour

2 eggs

pinch of salt 

For the Filling:

1 cup ricotta, preferably drained overnight

1 small bunch of Swiss chard, chopped roughly and sautéed in 2 tablespoons olive oil until soft

1 egg

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

a few gratings of nutmeg

salt, pepper

To Finish:

1 8 oz. ball of fresh mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

fresh sage leaves

Instructions:

1. FOR THE PASTA:
2. Drain the spinach thoroughly, squeezing out all the water you can with your hands.
3. Then press it with paper towels to get out any remaining water.
4. Place the spinach and the two eggs into the food processor to break down the spinach.
5. Start adding the flour.
6. You may need as little as a cup and a quarter of flour.
7. It’s easy to add more flour later, but much harder to work the dough if you place too much flour into the food processor.
8. Add just enough flour and process until the dough comes together into a ball.
9. It will be sticky.
10. Place the dough onto a wooden work surface, add more flour until the stickiness disappears and the dough seems more “homogenized” and softer.
11. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a bowl and let it sit for at least 1/2 hour.
12. Roll the pasta into sheets, then cut into approximately 4" squares.
13. Boil the squares until al dente, then place on paper towels to drain before stuffing.

FOR THE FILLING:

Mix the ricotta with the cooked Swiss chard and the rest of the filling ingredients.

ASSEMBLY:

Dab a hefty tablespoonful of the filling into the center of each pasta square. Fold one edge toward the opposite edge, forming a sort of triangle.

Place each triangle into a buttered baking dish, trying not to overlap them. There should be just one layer. Use more baking dishes if needed.

Cover each triangle with a small slice of fresh mozzarella, some walnuts and a sage leaf.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

If necessary, remove the sage leaf and replace it with a fresh one before serving.

Cheese Making

I’ve rolled pasta, baked bread, canned fruits, jarred jams and fermented vegetables. I’ve fried cannoli, stretched strudel and brined turkeys. I’ve cleaned squid, octopus and even fed snails for a day to cleanse them before cooking. I’ve pounded lemon grass and ground spices for curry in Thailand, made macarons in Paris and caught cephalopods off the coast of Sardinia. But one of the things I’ve wanted to try, but hadn’t until last week was cheesemaking.

All that changed at the Farm Cooking School in Titusville, New Jersey, where I learned how to make four different kinds of cheese – mozzarella, ricotta, crème fraîche, and goat’s milk cheese. The class of about eight people gathered to learn from Ian Knauer, founder of the school, which I’ve written about in the past here.

I’m not going to describe the process in detail, although there is a recipe at the end, using one of the cheeses we made. But for those of you who live within the tri-state area of New York-Pennsylvania-New Jersey, I hope you will seek out this cooking school and take the class — or any one of the myriad they offer — from butchering to bouillabaisse. Ian and business partner Shelly Wiseman, both veterans of Gourmet magazine, hold classes mornings and night, and even offer week-long culinary vacations in the beautiful countryside around the Delaware River Valley. The cheesemaking process is similar for most cheeses – bring the milk up to a certain temperature, add rennet, let it stand until curds form, and strain through cheesecloth. For mozzarella, the curds are stretched and pulled in hot water until they meld together into a ball shape.

Crème fraîche is made with heavy cream to which a mesophilic starter culture is added. Alternately,  simply add a tablespoon of purchased crème fraîche to a cup of heavy milk inside a sterilized glass jar, and heat it inside a pot filled with warm water. For goat’s cheese, you start with goat’s, not cow’s milk (naturally) raw or pasteurized — not always so easy to find.

But even if you don’t make your own cheese, you’ll want to try the recipe at the end of this post using good quality purchased cheese. Of course, nothing compares to freshly made, but still, the recipe can be adapted using store bought cheese.

None of the dishes we ate contained meat. (For strict vegetarians, you might think twice about eating cheese, since rennet, used in most cheeses, is an enzyme made using cow’s stomach.)

The lunch lineup included this delicious salad of kale, cooked beets and the goat cheese we made and crumbled on top.

We also roasted shishito peppers and served them with the mozzarella balls we pulled.

The lentils were cooked and mixed with the crème fraîche, then topped with sweet roasted carrots, dill and mint.

Dessert was simple but wonderful – apples poached in white wine, sugar and cinnamon and served with  fresh ricotta.

If getting to The Farm Cooking School is impossible, here’s the next best thing — a cookbook Ian and Shelley have written that is due to be released in a few weeks. You’ll find many of the recipes and techniques here that you’d learn at the school, and you can pre-order it on Amazon.com.

Lentils with Spice-Roasted Carrots and Crème Fraîche

Author: The Farm Cooking School

printable recipe here

Serves: 8 to 16

Ingredients

• 3 pounds carrots, peeled
• 3 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 t. ground coriander
• 1 t. smoked paprika
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 pound lentils, black or green
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 3 T. fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup dill (or cilantro) and mint leaves
• 1 cup crème fraîche

Instructions

1. Toss the carrots with the oil, coriander, paprika, cumin, 1 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper.
2. Spread the carrots on a baking sheet and roast until tender, about 25 minutes.
3. Reserve the carrots.
4. While the carrots roast, cover the lentils in a saucepan by 2 inches of water.
5. Stir in the onion, garlic and a generous pinch of salt and pepper.
6. Boil the lentils until tender, about 20 minutes, then drain the lentils and toss with the oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Place the lentils on a serving platter and top with the carrots, herbs and crème fraîche.
8. Serve.

3.5.3228

 

 

Eggplant Napoleons

It's been the summer of eggplants for us, with the purple vegetable growing in abundance in our garden. 

We've been enjoying grilled eggplants as a side dish for dinner, and have taken them to take to parties in the last month too. They're delicious hot off the grill or at room temperature.

 Start by slicing the eggplants, then salting them and letting them sweat on a paper towel for an hour or so. It removes the bitterness and gets rid of some of the water too. I pat them dry, then toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, minced garlic and an herb - usually mint, but thyme is nice here too. Grill them until they're browned on one side, then flip and brown on the other side.

We usually have more than we need for one dinner, so I gave some of them new life by making eggplant Napoleons. 

Just take a slice of the grilled eggplant, smear a little tomato sauce on top (I had fresh tomato sauce thanks to my dad's and my niece's gardens). Then place a slice of some fresh mozzarella over that and continue with two more eggplant slices until you finish with eggplant and sauce on top. Place it back on the grill for just a minute to melt the cheese, (with the lid closed) - or place it in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.

They make a great meal all by themselves, but they're nice alongside a piece of salmon and some garden fresh green beans too.

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Eggplant Napoleons:

 

printable recipe here

 

grilled eggplant slices

fresh mozzarella

tomato sauce

 

 

To grill the eggplants, slice each eggplant about 1/2 " thick, then place on paper towels and salt both sides with table salt. Let the slices sit about an hour. Pat dry, then toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped mint (or thyme).

Place on the grill and grill until each side has browned. Then in a heatproof pan, or aluminum foil pan, place a slice of eggplant, a slathering of tomato sauce, and a slice of fresh mozzarellla. Top with another slice of eggplant, more sauce and another slice of mozzarella. Finish with a final slice of eggplant and more tomato sauce. Place the Napoleons back on the grill (put them on a tin-foil pan first), close the lid and cook until the cheese melts - another five minutes or less. Alternately, put the Napoleons in a 350 degree oven for about five minutes.