Homemade Pasta

Ingredients:

2 cups cake flower

1 cup all-purpose flower

4 egg yolks

1/4 cup of olive oil

good pinch of salt

water

Directions:

In a food processor combine the flower, egg yolks, olive oil and salt. Mix, breaking down the egg yolks. The reason I use cake flower instead of only using all-purpose flower is because it keeps the pasta lighter. Using only all-purpose flower is fine, but your pasta will be heavier and denser. The olive oil is going to keep the pasta moist and add depth to the flavor. Once combined you will begin to pour in the water while the processor mixes. Now, it's difficult to say how much water you will actually need because it depends on the consistency of the flower. You want enough water so that when you grab some dough out, if you press down on it you can form a ball that stays together, but you do not want it so wet that it gets goopy and sticky.

Remove the dough from the processor. Lightly flower a work service and using the palm of your hand kneed the dough until the dough is relatively smooth, finish by rolling into one big ball. When finished, wrap the dough and place it in the fridge for at least a half hour to allow the dough to rest.

After a half hour bring the dough out. I cut my dough into 4-6 parts so that it is easier to work with. Make sure to flower both your hands and the surface of your work space throughout. If you have a pasta machine you may go ahead and thin the pasta out and used the machine to form whatever type of pasta you wish. If you do not have a pasta machine you can also do it by hand.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough. I roll it out to be thin enough that I can just barely see through the dough to my work surface below. Fettuccine is one of the easiest pasta to make when making pasta by hand. Once you've rolled out the dough, roll it up (long-ways, as you would a towel or blanket) and slice across the roll of dough. Once you finish cutting, unroll the pieces you've cut up and lay flat on a baking sheet or counter. You can allow the pasta to dry for later use or use after you finish cutting the fettuccine. If you want to make ravioli, roll out a much larger piece of dough and use a cup or cookie cutter to cut out circles or whatever shape you wish. Place filling in the center of the circle. Now you can either do half circles, wetting one edge of the ravioli with water and then folding the other side to meet it and finishing by scoring it with a fork or you can use your finger to wet the edge of the entire circle, place another circle of dough over it and score with a fork. If you do raviolis, make sure to allow the dough to rest after filling them and sealing them in order to allow the seams to really stiffen up so that they do not open during the boiling process. Finish with your favorite sauce. Hope you have fun with this recipe and the process!

Roasted Eggplant Caponata and Fresh Peach Cake

Anybody watch the food network? One of my favorite shows is Barefoot Contessa with Ina. Here are two great recipes from her repertoire. Roasted Eggplant Caponata is a wonderful appetizer and vegetarian dish. Fresh Peach Cake is simply delicious and a wonderful way to complete a homestyle meal.

Ina Garten's Roasted Eggplant Caponata -

Ingredients:

-1 large eggplant (1 1/2 pounds)

-Olive oil

-4 ounces jarred roasted red peppers, chopped

-1/2 cup large green olives, pitted and chopped

-1 cup chopped yellow onion

-1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

-1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)

-3 tablespoons minced parsley

-2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted

-2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

-2 tablespoons drained capers

-2 tablespoons tomato paste

-1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

-2 teaspoons kosher salt

-1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

-Toasted pita triangles, for serving

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Place the whole eggplant on the pan, prick with a fork in several places, and rub with olive oil. Roast for 45 to 50 minutes, until the eggplant is very soft when pierced with a knife. Set aside to cool. Halve the eggplant, peel, and discard the skin. Place the eggplant, peppers, and olives in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse until coarsely chopped. Pour into a mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saute pan. Add the onion and red pepper flakes and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until the onion is lightly browned. Add the garlic, cook for 1 minutes, and add to the eggplant mixture. Add the parsley, pine nuts, lemon jice, capers, tomato paste, vinegar, salt and pepper and mix. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for for a few hours to allow the flavors to develop. Taste for seasonings and serve at room temperature with toasted pita triangles.

If you want to make your pita triangles - buy pita. Cut into triangles. Brush each with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for about 10 minutes or until chips start to become golden. Serve with the caponata. Enjoy!

Ina Garten's Fresh Peach Cake -

Ingredients:

-1/4 poind (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

-1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

-2 estra-large eggs, at room temperature

-1 cup sour cream, at room temperature

-1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

-3 large, ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced

-1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla, and mix until the batter is smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon.

Spread half of the batter evenly in the pan. Top with half of the peaches, then sprinkle with two-thirds of the sugar mixture. Spread the remaining batter on top, arrange the remaining peaches on top and sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture and the pecans. The batter layers will seem very thin, however, the cake will rise a lot due to the combination of baking soda and baking powder.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Society/Economy/Politics: A great issue you can talk about while serving these dishes? Supporting local produce. Both recipes can be made with fresh, locally grown produce. It's a great way to help support your local economy and the quality of your produce will be much better than that of imported produce.

Parsley and Lime Shrimp Marinade

Here's an easy, flavorful marinade I've used for shrimp (of course you can always try it on something else, like chicken).

Ingredients:

Olive oil

2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley

Zest of a lime

1/2 lime (juiced)

Cracked black pepper

Sea salt

Garlic powder

Red pepper flake

Paprika

Oregano

Like most things I throw together, I don't really have measurements for you. As my father would say, "you need just the right amount". If you fold the parsley into a ball, essentially, and then chop it closely you will have very little difficulty getting the parsley to the right size. Make sure to cut off the stems off of the parsley - the leaf is what you want. Combine olive oil, garlic powder, salt, pepper, parsley, lime zest, lime juice, red pepper flake, paprika and oregano together in a bowl and then stir in shrimp. Let sit for 30 minutes to a couple of hours and then grill. Easy, healthy, and delicious!

Goes well with rice. Our group tried it with the Crunch Walnut Risotto and it was great.

Alco Sauce

While studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem this last summer I was able to explore the huge market in downtown Jerusalem. Narrow streets that open up to square-like areas are lined with every food imaginable. The produce is always fresh and the smells of the market are incredible. One weekend, we were unable to get everything we intended before Jerusalem shut down for Shabbat. Due to this fact I sat in the kitchen with one of my roommates trying to figure out what to make for dinner with the ingredients we had. So we decided to cook as we usually do, throw ingredients in a pot and make it up as we go. On this occasion we improvised a red sauce that I now use as often as I can when making pasta. Its layered flavors and heat give a traditional red sauce a nice twist and it can easily be tweaked to fit different pasta dishes whether they be seafood based, vegetarian, or meat based. Best of all, it's a pretty simple sauce to make.

Ingredients:

4-6 cloves of garlic (more or less depending on your taste)

Olive oil

Diced yellow onion

4-5 tomatoes

Dried sweet basil

Oregano

Madras curry or cayenne pepper

Cracked black pepper

Salt

Mushrooms (baby portobello or button are best)

Balsamic vinegar

Fresh chopped basil (for garnish)

Feta

Directions:
In a large saucepan or wok add plenty of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, diced onions, sweet basil, oregano, finely chopped garlic and mushrooms, toss to mix everything and thoroughly coat the onions and mushrooms. You can add the madras curry or cayenne at this point or part way through, but you want to make sure it is fully incorporated into the dish. Place on a med-low heat while you chopped the tomatoes. I like to chop my tomatoes in several different sizes so that some fully cook down while others only partially cook down so that there are some tomato chunks in the final dish. Add the tomatoes, stir and cover. Allow the sauce to cook down, stirring occasionally. Don't forget to test your dish throughout in order to discern whether you need to add more of one ingredient or another.

While the sauce is cooking down boil salted water. If you like your dish to be really spicy add some madras curry or cayenne to the water so that the pasta is cooked with the spice. Boil the pasta so that it is al dente. (This dish tends to be better with a heartier noodle, spaghetti, angelhair and fettuccine and so forth do not seem to complement the dish as well as other pastas such as penne or mostaccioli.

Once the sauce has cooked down, the mushrooms have cook through, and the onions have softened the sauce is ready. Feel free to add shrimp, other seafood and so forth to the dish in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking in order to warm them up and coat them in the sauce.

Lay the sauce over pasta and garnish with chopped fresh basil and feta. Enjoy!

As you can see I don't really measure things, if you would like measurements let me know and I will do my best to give you a more detailed idea of how much of each ingredient goes into this dish. Hope you enjoy it.

Pasta with Green Beans, Potatoes and Pesto

This Williams-Sonoma recipe comes from one of my favorite pasta cookbooks and was always a crowd pleaser with high school friends. I love pesto and if you have a food processor, it's easy to make your own.

Pasta with Green Beans, Potatoes and Pesto:

Ingredients:

For the pesto:

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts (for this I prefer pine nuts)

2 cups tightly packed fresh basil leaves

2 or 3 garlic cloves

1/4 cup grated pecorino sardo or parmesan cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, or as needed

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

For Pasta:

8 new potatoes, 9 to 10 oz. total

4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

1/2 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 to 1 1/12 inch lengths

1 lb. fresh tagilarini or fettuccine (though we used penne, but the type of pasta you use will affect several elements of your dish)

1/4 cup grated pecorino sardo or parmesan cheese

Directions:

To make the pesto, preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast until they take on color and are fragrant, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool. Leave the oven set at 350 degrees F. IN a food processor, combine the nuts, basil and garlic. Pulse until the basil is chopped. Add the cheese and pulse to combine. With the motor running, pour in the 1/2 cup oil, a few drops at a time, until the mixture has the consistency of mayonnaise, adding more oil as needed. season with salt and pepper; set aside.

Rub the potatoes with 2 Tbs. of olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Place in a baking dish and roast, shaking the dish from time to time, until tender when pierced, about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot three-fourths full of salted water to a boil. Add the beans and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Scoop out with a skimmer, cool under running water and drain. reserve the cooking water.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and cut into bite-size pieces. In a large sauté pan over high heat, warm the remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil. Add the potatoes and sauté until golden, about 4 minutes. Add the beans and stir until heated through, about 1 minute. Keep warm.

Meanwhile, return the large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the pasta, stir well and cook until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), about 2 minutes. Drain reserving a few Tbs. of cooking water. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl.

Stir the pesto and the reserved water into the vegetables in the pan (off the heat). Add the pasta and toss well. Pass the cheese at the table.

Great with a Sauvignon Blanc or a dry sparkling Prosecco depending on your tastes.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Lifestyles Series, Food & Wine Pairing, by Joyce Goldstein (Time-Life Books, 1999).