Doris and Jilly Cook » Pasta

Pasta with Pesto and Squash

dorisandjilly — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:46:02 +0000

It’s finally time for me to start explaining what on earth I’ve done and/or plan to do with all that food I squirreled away in the basement this summer. The immediate project is to make room in our freezer for some incoming fish and, hopefully (please, Jilly, please?), venison. First order of business? Using up some of the pesto. Pesto freezes beautifully in jelly jars, but jars are freezer hogs. And, um, I need some of those jars for holiday gifts.

So, what to do with it? Put it on pasta, obviously. But it also makes an excellent sandwich spread (particularly with cheese and roasted peppers, also from the freezer), a nice garnish for soup, and a reliable companion for cheese. Pretty much anything you use fresh pesto for, you can use frozen pesto for. Just be sure to check your label to see whether you need to add cheese and nuts.

One last thing, and then on to one of my favorite ways to eat it: don’t be alarmed if the top of the jar has a thin layer or black, or at least darkened, basil. This is a normal effect of oxidation. Depending on how much oil you used, it might not happen at first, but it will if you only use, say, half the jar. It doesn’t affect the taste too much, but if it bothers you, just scrape it off.

On to business!

Pasta with Pesto and Squash

4 oz. frozen pesto, thawed
1 medium butternut squash
1 T. olive oil
Salt
3/4 lb. penne (I like wheat, but whatever floats your boat)
Pecorino Romano or other hard cheese for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. Trim and peel the squash; cut into 3/4″ cubes. Toss the cubes with the oil and a bit of salt and roast for about 25 minutes. You want them chewable and maybe just a touch carmelized, but not burnt. (Throw in some garlic if you want).

2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to boil. When the squash has about 10 minutes to go, start the pasta. Cook until al dente. Drain, reserving about 1/4 c. of pasta water, and return both to the pot.

3. Toss the pasta, the pasta water, the pesto, and the squash. Add more salt and oil if necessary. Serve and top with grated cheese.

Notes: This assumes that you froze your pasta con cheese and nuts. If not, you need to add them. To see this as an opportunity, rather than an annoyance, try varying the cheese. This is particularly nice with goat cheese.

Chestnut Vs. Wheat Pasta

dorisandjilly — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:20:27 +0000

(I don’t know about you, but I needed a little break from fruit. Fortunately, a local foodie who wishes to remain known only as “the co-conspirator” hatched up a plan for a pasta experiment involving some chestnut flour she picked up on a recent trip to Italy. Even better, she volunteered to blog about it. Welcome, co-conspirator!)

Recently the co-conspirator and Doris set out to answer two questions: What is the best ratio of chestnut flour to wheat flour when making homemade pasta? And, which filling or sauce works best with chestnut flour pasta?

To answer these questions we prepared two kinds of dough—50/50 chestnut flour/white flour (which we’ll call heavy chestnut) and 25/75 chestnut flour/white flour (light chestnut)—and two kinds of pasta: ravioli and fettuccine. In both cases we used a standard homemade pasta ratio of 1 egg per cup of flour, with just a few drops of water, if necessary. We filled both the heavy and the light chestnut ravioli with a mixture of pumpkin and ricotta and served them with a light coating of butter with fresh cut sage and chives. For the heavy and light chestnut fettuccini, we tried a sauce of fresh chopped tomatoes in pesto. Two highly qualified tasters, whom we’ll call spouse 1 and spouse 2, were recruited to assist with the evaluation. Between tastings palettes were cleansed with chilled Prosecco. Before reporting the results we’ll discuss the difference between the doughs.

The 50/50 was extremely fragrant, redolent of chestnuts and reminding Doris of prosciutto (from pigs fed on chestnuts) and the co-conspirator of bellota ham (from pigs fed on acorns). It was darker than the 25/75 pasta. In the machine it did not stretch as easily as the 25/75 pasta, perhaps because the chestnut flour is lacking in gluten. The 25/75 pasta had some aroma, stretched better because of the gluten, but required the addition of more water than the 50/50 pasta.

(An aside from Doris: Can I just say that this was a lot of pasta?)

All four tasters agreed that the 50/50 pasta filled with the pumpkin and ricotta ravioli was superior to the 25/75 pasta. The pumpkin and chestnuts were a wonderful combination because they both have a “meaty” taste now described as umami. And, as this would suggest, the sweet tomato pesto sauce clashed with the 50/50 linguine and the four tasters all declared the 25/75 combination the superior choice but felt that traditional pasta would be a better bet for a sweet sauce. Those who wish to make chestnut flour pasta would be well advised to look for umami sauces and fillings. Mushroom stroganoff would be a good bet.

(P.S., from Doris. You don’t have to go to Italy to get chestnut flour. In Philadelphia, you can get it at the Italian market, but you can probably either find it or order it at most specialty “gourmet” stores.)

Penne with Fresh Ricotta

dorisgoat — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:22:42 +0000

Fresh ricotta is a wonderful, underappreciated ingredient. If you can find rennet, it’s easy enough to make yourself, but in Philadelphia we are blessed with Claudio’s, a glorious cheesemaker that sells fresh ricotta for the bargain basement price of $2.99 a pound. (Oddly enough, they don’t mention the fresh cheese on their Web site, but trust me, it’s there). It’s so delicious that one of the best things you can do with it is simply to eat it, plain, on bruschetta or pizza. If you want to get a little more ambitious, it makes a fantastic creamy pasta sauce.

Penne with Fresh Ricotta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1 pound dry penne, or fresh pasta of your choice
1 pound fresh ricotta, or less, to taste
1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes, preferably cherry tomatoes you’ve dried yourself
1/2 c. parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1) Bring a big pot of water to boil for the pasta. Meanwhile, soak the tomatoes in about a cup of boiling water. When they’re flexible , drain them, reserving the water to thin the sauce later. Cut into thin strips.

2) Combine the cheese, tomatoes, and parsley.

3) Cook the pasta until it’s as tender as you’d like it (al dente is nice, as the sauce is so creamy and mild), then drain. Return the pasta to the cooking pot along with the cheese combination and the sun-dried tomato water. Toss everything, and add some olive oil if it’s too dry. Add salt and pepper to taste.

As you might guess from the ingredients, this is a pretty rich dish, so a little goes a long way. You’ll want to eat more,though. If I ever manage to track down an affordable pastry mat to cover my countertop tiles, I’ll get back in the habit of making my own pasta…