black pepper fettuccine in chardonnay cashew nut sauce with asparagus, red bell pepper and spinach

I spotted this recipe in the latest edition of Vegetarian Times magazine. The recipe is part of a funny article inviting loving couples to come spend their time and money at the Stanford Inn by the Sea for Valentine’s Day. The Inn’s renowned vegetarian restaurant, Raven’s, is run by Chefs Sally Owens and Merlyn Alvarado. I’ve checked both the hotel and restaurant (on-line) and they look sublime! These two local “celebrity” chefs have paired together to create vegetarian recipes with aphrodisiac properties just for the holiday. Everything uses locally and organically grown vegetables from Mendocino.

Among the several recipes, I was particularly excited by the creamy fettuccine with raw cashew nut sauce. It is completely vegan: no dairy at all! However, the name of the recipe in Vegetarian Times (“Black pepper fettuccine with chardonnay sauce and grilled asparagus”) omits the cashews, which is a major component here. I wonder why? We all know that black pepper for the most part comes from India and it’s been part of our culinary experience for so long that we don’t even think of it as a foreign ingredient. So why mention it and leave out the somewhat more exotic cashew? In Indian cooking cashew nuts have been used to thicken soups forever, or at least since the cashew plant made its journey from South America to India a few hundred years ago… And why praise the grilled asparagus over the more commonplace red bell pepper and humble baby spinach? Hmmm. Certainly it isn’t because the name becomes crazy long, as they’ve plenty of room for that in VT. So to prevent hard feelings among the lovely ingredients, I have renamed this dish accordingly. lol

VT has adapted the recipe from the original and I have done the same, readapting it to my tastes. The proportion of each ingredient didn’t seem right to me so I modified them a bit. I have made dishes from VT in the past and have found that sometimes things are a bit off. I wonder if they have a test-kitchen? VT here’s a suggestion from me: test before you publish, like we do.

fettuccine in black pepper chardonnay cashew nut sauce with asparagus, red bell pepper and spinach

2 cups raw cashew nuts
2 cups chardonnay
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Juice of a large lemon (~ 3 tbsp)
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb fettuccine cooked per package instructions
2 cups baby spinach
1 bunch asparagus bottom tips peeled
½ red bell pepper cut into fine strips
Kosher salt

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Pre-heat oven to 400F.

Add enough water to cashews to barely cover them in a small bowl. Microwave for about 2 minutes. Remove and let rest a bit. Transfer cashew nuts and water to food processor and whiz until nuts have turned into a smooth paste. Do not skip the microwaving part otherwise the paste will not become smooth and glossy.

Place the wine in a saucepan and bring to near boil, turn temperature to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add cashew nut paste, lemon juice, black pepper, kosher salt and whisk to combine, taste and adjust flavors. It should be creamy, tangy and a bit peppery. Add more warm water if too thick.

Place asparagus and red bell pepper on two different baking trays, sprinkle with a tiny amount of salt and black pepper and tiny drizzle of olive oil. Roast in the oven for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and keep warm.

Meanwhile cook pasta following cooking instructions from package, put spinach leaves in toward the last 30 seconds. Drain.

Transfer pasta with spinach to a bowl. Toss with half of the sauce, scatter asparagus spears and red pepper slices over and serve.

sesame and onion seed crusted sword fish with buckwheat soba and chard sauté

I know eating swordfish is supposed to be naughty. But per our fish monger, this one was line caught off the coast of California. So that’s good. It looked super fresh with that beautiful seafood aroma and so after listening to his explanation he convinced me. I lost my guilt and purchased 3 steaks for our dinner party. The whole dinner had a Japanese, South East Asian flair to it. It is pretty easy to make and delicious.

sesame and onion seed crusted sword fish with buckwheat soba and chard sauté

for the fish:

3 swordfish steaks or other similar fish steaks of your preference
1 tbsp sesame seeds (or more)
¾ tbsp black onion seeds (or more)
Lime juice
Nori strips (edible seaweed strips)
Olive oil

the noodles:

buckwheat soba noodles for 4 people cooked per package instructions, rinsed and kept warm

for the veggies:

1 bunch Swiss chard, leaves roughly torn
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil

for the sauce:

1 clove garlic grated into paste
1 tsp fresh ginger grated into paste
1 tsp chile garlic paste
3 tbsp soy sauce (or more)
¾ tbsp rice vinegar
¼ tsp sugar
¾ tbsp toasted sesame oil
3 whole scallions, sliced

Prepare the sauce mixing all the ingredients together, except for the scallions. Taste it and adjust flavors. It should be bold a bit salty, tangy, smoky, sweet and spicy. Drop in scallions then set aside.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Put chard in and cook for about three minutes. Drain and squeeze as much water as possible from it. Add olive oil to a skillet, then garlic and cook until garlic is aromatic. Add chard and cook for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle with some salt and black pepper. Transfer to a bowl, keeping it warm.

Rinse and pat dry fish steaks with a paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Mix seeds together and sprinkle on both sides of steaks. Using the same skillet, add a tad of olive oil, bring temperature to medium high, add sword fish steaks and cook for 3 minutes on each side (if your pan is too small do it in batches). Remove from pan and let rest for a couple of minutes, keeping it warm. Cut into bit size strips. Squeeze a few drops of lime juice over the fish.

Place soba noodles on a serving platter. Toss with sauce. Top with sautéed chard, then the fish, nori and serve.

I didn’t make this recipe in the summertime, which was a mistake. It comes from David Rocco’s Made in Italy cookbook. I was completely attracted to the dish because of its delightful combination of many colorful veggies and the fact that it isn’t cooked. You just mix everything together and let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours. So this is “raw cooking” so far as I can tell. That’s unusual for weirdcombinations.

chilled summer couscous

That said, the amount of couscous was a bit daunting for two people. I’d cut it in half or even in quarters next time. Plus, since it was chilled, it wasn’t quite right for our cooler weather. But this would be perfect to throw together the night before a summertime wine country excursion, so I’m going to file it away for then.

chilled summer couscous

2 cups couscous
½ cup olive oil
24oz can chopped tomatoes with juice
Juice of one lemon
1 red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
About a dozen cherry tomatoes, in halves
12 kalamata olives in halves
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

Mix everything together except half of the basil. Wrap and refrigerate for several hours. Stir at least once. When it is time to serve, add remaining basil. You can have this family style or mold and plate it for a more elegant presentation.

I haven’t made this dish in ages! It is so satisfying and good, yet, for some reason orzo seems to have fallen out of fashion in our household. Now I am determined to make that right again. I only wish we could find more varieties here in SF. I remember in the Big Apple orzo came in many different colors, brands, sizes and shapes. Clearly I need to shop, maybe in North Beach.

orzo with spinach

You can serve this as a side or main dish. We had ours with poached salmon in lemon sauce.

orzo with spinach

1 lb orzo
2 lb organic spinach leaves: try the curly type (Bloomsdale) they are more flavorful
6 cloves of garlic, cut into thin slivers
5 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Kosher salt to taste
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 tbsp pine nuts

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add orzo and cook per instruction in the package. Drain.

Dry roast pine nuts in a skillet for about a minute, remove from heat and set aside.

Return skillet back to burner. Add 3 tbsp of olive oil. Toss in garlic and sauté until aromatic. Add spinach in three batches and cook until wilted (it is okay if some leaves don’t wilt fully, they will in the dish). Toss in orzo, season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Add cheese, remaining olive oil and pine nuts. Adjust flavors with more salt, pepper!

Makes about six servings.

Kabocha is one of my favorite types of pumpkin. It has a nutty, sweet flavor with an intense, beautiful yellow color. It is perfect served as a side dish. The classic Brazilian way to prepare it is one of the simplest: sautéed with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and a bit of water, until tender. We enjoy kabocha that way at home very often. I’ve made it in risotto, too, which is another fabulous savory pumpkin dish.

kabocha pumpkin gnocchi with walnut pesto with a side of mache salad

Americans don’t seem to be very in-the-know about kabocha. I wonder if that’s because the exterior is so gnarled and dark green to brown? It is a bit ugly, really. Kabocha isn’t anything like those cheery but flavorless orange monsters that make wonderful jack-o-lanterns but nothing else. Acorn and butternut squash are the cooking favorites here as far as I can tell, and I’ve no complaints about them, but to me, kabocha remains the unsung queen of the pumpkin patch.

vibrant orange interior of kabocha pumpkin

I saw a gorgeous recipe for pumpkin gnocchi in this book, The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein. Normally, I like gnocchi with loads of cheese, but this recipe challenged all that with its no-animal-products stance. A complete vegan dish, how exciting… It turned out really good, despite being healthy. And since it was a bit messy to make, we had a lot of fun both in the kitchen and at table.

kabocha pumpkin gnocchi with walnut pesto

For the gnocchi:

4 small russet potatoes, ~ 1¼ lbs, peeled and halved
1 lb kabocha pumpkin, seeds and stringy parts removed; cut into wedges
1 tbsp olive oil
Pinch nutmeg
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2+ cups of flour

For the walnut pesto:

¾ cup walnuts
1½ cups Italian parsley
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp sundried tomato packed in oil, drained
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt to taste

steaming kabocha and potatoes

Steam potato and kabocha until fully cooked and tender, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a colander and let them cool down slightly.

Meanwhile place pesto ingredients in the food processor and whiz until turned into a smooth thick paste. Transfer to a small bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil. Set aside.

Pre heat oven to 350F.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boil. Add a teaspoon of olive oil.

Remove kabocha rinds and discard. Place steamed pumpkin and potatoes in a large bowl. Add olive oil, nutmeg, salt then mash with a fork until relatively smooth and combined. Add flour and mix to incorporate. Place dough on a floured surface and knead it for about 4 minutes. Add more flour if too sticky.

Shape the dough into a rectangle. Using a knife, cut it into 6 segments. Cut each segment in half. With floured hands and surfaces, roll each piece into about a ¾ inch-thick tube. Cut each tube in ½ inch wide pillows. Using your thumb and the tines of a fork, gently press each little pillow to flatten them a bit while at the same time making indentations in one side.

shaping the gnocchi

Cook in batches to prevent sticking. To cook, add a batch of fresh gnocchi to the boiling water. Wait for them to rise to the surface. Turn temperature to medium and cook for 4-5 minutes. Don’t be tempted to remove the gnocchi earlier, it will taste bad! Using a slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to a colander. Let drain for a minute or so. Meanwhile, bring water back to a full boil and repeat process with remaining batches. Reserve 2+ cups of cooking water.

Add one tablespoon olive oil to a large glass baking dish. Spread gnocchi in a single layer in the dish (use a second baking dish if needed). Add enough reserved water to walnut pesto to thin it into a somewhat runny sauce. Pour over gnocchi and bake for about 12 minutes to warm through.

We served this with a simple mache salad in vinaigrette. It was a feast! And it is so healthy that you won’t feel a bit of remorse having two slices of cheesecake.

Cheesecake challenge: The glamorous Heavenly from donuts to delirium and we at weirdcombos want to invite any interested food blogging folk to join us in a cheesecake cooking challenge. All you have to do is contact us for the basic recipe, come up with a creative version of your own, and publish it with links to all the other participants for the challenge on Monday August 8, 2011. This was incredibly fun when we did the chocolate truffle challenge in May and the tagliatelle challenge in March. So get your thinking caps on and your sweet… teeth(?) ready for some delicious fun in August!

This recipe comes from another Mary Taylor Simeti book, SICILIAN FOOD: Recipes from Italy’s Abundant Isle. I’m fascinated by Sicily right now and have gotten more into making food that hales from there. Torta Paradiso from her book, Bitter Almonds, was just the beginning.  (For the chocolate truffle challenge, see the end of this post.)

This pasta recipe caught my attention because it uses copious amounts of anchovies in a single dish. I was skeptical about it since they can be so powerful, but I wanted to give it a try anyway, since we love anchovies: even when they’re too fishy.

spaghetti con acciuche e mollica AKA spaghetti with anchovies and breadcrumbs

The recipe also calls for ‘strattu (tomato extract), which in Sicily they make directly under their scalding summer sun with nothing but ultra ripe tomatoes, salt and basil. The tomatoes are chopped small, passed through a food mill to remove skin and seeds then the salt and basil are added. The mixture is spread on a wooden surface under the sun. You’re supposed to keep stirring it with a wood spatula until the water has evaporated and the mass becomes a thick paste. Mary writes that it might take a couple of days to get the desired consistency depending on how much sun you have in your area. That is a lot of work! Wow! I keep thinking how fun it would be to make my own ‘strattu. I wonder if my porch would work… Maybe in late Summer? For now, I’m using canned tomato paste and saving that adventure for another time.

This turned out wonderfully. Despite my initial apprehensions, the anchovies lent a mellow, earthy, briny, delicate layer of flavor to the dish. It was not overwhelming at all. Love it!

spaghetti con acciuche e mollica AKA spaghetti with anchovies and breadcrumbs

1lb spaghetti
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
4 tbsp tomato paste
6 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled, partially crushed
crushed red pepper
black pepper
10 anchovy fillets, drained (1 small can)
2 tbsp Italian fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 cup plain water
1 to ½ cups water from cooked pasta

Bring a large pot of water to boil.

Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a skillet on high. Add breadcrumbs and toast until golden. Transfer to a bowl and set a side.

Wipe pan with a paper towel. Add remaining olive oil and garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic. Add tomato paste, salt and peppers then cook for a couple of minutes, stirring to prevent burning. Add one cup of water. Stir to completely dissolve paste then simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Add anchovies plus 1 tbsp of olive oil to a glass measuring cup (Pyrex) and half submerge the cup in the pot of boiling water (where past will be cooked). Cook anchovies in bain marie stirring until they become a thick sauce. Add anchovies to tomato sauce. Stir to combine. Set aside but keep warm.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente about 1 to 2 minutes before doneness indicated on the package. Drain reserving about 2 cups from cooking liquid.

To assemble the dish, reheat sauce. Add pasta, ½ of the toasted breadcrumbs, cooking water then toss together. Transfer to a serving platter. Garnish with parsley and more breadcrumbs. Use remaining breadcrumbs at table for each diner to add to his or her own dish as they choose.

Chocolate truffle food blogging challenge:  The glamorous Heavenly from donuts to delirium and we at weirdcombos want to invite any interested food blogging folk to join us in a chocolate truffle cooking challenge.  All you have to do is contact us for the basic recipe, come up with a creative version of your own, and publish it with links to all the other participants for the challenge on Monday May 30, 2011.  This was incredibly fun when we did the tagliatelle challenge in March. So get your thinking caps on and your sweet… teeth(?) ready for some delicious fun in May!

We’ve been following Devaki’s eclectic, always satisfying, food blog, Weave a Thousand Flavors, for a while now. Like us, she takes a multinational approach to food. Her recipes come from everywhere, so you will always find something that suits your palate. If you haven’t been already, we highly recommend her site. Click here to check it out.

rigatoni alla Norma alla Devaki

The other week she published a Sicilian recipe, Pasta alla Norma, which calls for a cheese with which I was unfamiliar: ricotta salata. That caught my attention, as I like to try new things. Actually, Devaki makes a wry comment in her story about this cheese in particular, not to be confused with America’s darling Italian cheese, parmesan.

Anyway, when I mentioned it to Steven, he vaguely remembered having it sometime in the distant past. Neither of us really had much recollection. All the better!

Another plus for this recipe seemed to be its ease of preparation. Perfect for mid-week fatigue when you’re tired, hungry, want to eat something delicious without much wait or fuss.

We had pretty much everything at home already, except for the ricotta salata. Easily fixed at our local Whole Paycheck.

First thing, I tried the cheese. Devaki was right in her description. Ricotta salata does taste like a mild version of feta, goat cheese or a ricotta or farmers cheese: fresh nutty and slightly salty flavors with a sort of mealy/crumbly texture. In my oh-so humble opinion it is tastier than regular ricotta or farmer’s cheese.

I had to make some changes from her recipe to accommodate what we had on hand. Steven had roasted some fresh tomatoes the day before, so I used these with canned. I like a lot of tomato. Also I used rigatoni instead of the original maccheroni or the strozzapreti that Devaki had. It came out just as deliciously as she described in her post!

I am going to cook it for our Sicilian friend, Fabiola, sometime. She’s from Catania, Bellini’s birthplace. I want to hear what she knows about the connection between the dish, the opera, Norma, and Bellini. I think it’ll be a fun dinner!

rigatoni alla Norma alla Devaki

1 lb rigatoni
2 medium eggplant
½ lb ricotta salata, crumbled
15 roasted tomatoes, recipe here
5 fresh basil leaves, shredded just before serving
5 garlic cloves minced
1 white onion chopped into small cubes
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
½ tsp crushed red pepper
½ tsp black pepper
olive oil for brushing eggplant
3 tbsp olive oil for sauce
Kosher salt

Cut eggplants into ¾ inch pieces. Place them in a colander, sprinkle with salt and let sweat for ½ hour. Rinse and pat dry with a paper towels.

Pre-heat oven to 450F towards end of the sweat.

Brush eggplant liberally with olive oil on both sides and lay them single layer on a tray lined with parchment pepper. Roast eggplant for about 10-14 minutes, turning half way through cooking. Remove from oven, let cool, then cut into strips. Set aside.

To prepare the sauce, sauté onion in a few tablespoons olive oil and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook a minute more just until aromatic. Add roasted and crushed tomatoes, peppers and salt. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile cook pasta al dente per package instructions. Drain, add to the tomato sauce with half of the eggplant and cheese. Toss to combine. Add remaining eggplant, cheese and bits of basil to the top and voilá you have a simple, delicious and elegant dish that will leave you agog!

spaghetti with foraged sow thistle

The Bay Area has been lucky this year with the rainy season. We’ve been getting plenty of water, so we’re all set for a beautiful spring. It’s fun to travel to the countryside right now to see the mountains completely green. When I first moved to San Francisco I wasn’t too sure about the so-called “golden” hills. They looked brown and withered to me. Back East is different: very green; Brazil, even more. I used to associate dry land with something sterile or lifeless.

It took me few months to see the beauty and harmony of the Northern California ecosystem with its vibrant flora and fauna. Even in the midst of the City, just at the park nearby my house, I keep seeing families of raccoons, skunks, and multiple types of birds. Another thing that grows plentifully nearby in springtime is sow thistle. It likes the rain. For whatever reason these are not available for sale at markets. If you want to eat this seasonal delight, you need to hunt for them yourself.

Foraging has been trendy lately. I like the idea. We went to a restaurant a couple weeks ago where the menu proudly proclaims that part of the food was gathered locally. In January, at the SF Public Library we heard a food blogger talk about his experiences as a Bay Area forager. His thing is much more large-scale. I’m a small-time forager with huge tastebuds.

On our way back from the Pacific Orchid Exposition, I harvested a bunch of sow thistle at the park nearby. This isn’t the first time.

Flavor-wise sow thistle resembles rustic green leafy vegetables such as escarole, chicory or frise. Like those, it matches well with olive oil, garlic and parmesan.

foraged sow thistle

spaghetti with foraged sow thistle

1lb packaged spaghetti
1 full bowl freshly foraged sow thistle, rinsed in passed through a salad spinner
5 garlic cloves, cut into slivers
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper
Top notch grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Crushed red pepper to taste

Boil a large pot with plenty of water. Cook spaghetti al dente following package instructions. Drain, set it aside and keep warm.

Add half of the olive oil to a large pan. Bring temperature to high, add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Don’t burn it. Add thistle, salt and peppers and sauté until fully wilted and volume reduced by half. Toss in the pasta. Drizzle remaining olive oil over everything followed by a good amount of grated cheese. You’ll love it.

emerald green hills in the California spring

This recipe is part of a cooperative “cook-off” with my darling blogger friend, Heavenly, from donuts to delirium, and Christina, from Buenos Aires to Paris. I’ve been wildly excited about cooking with these two and remain thrilled to have been included. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out their cool blogs soon and often.

heartache tagliatelle custard

I call this custard “heartache” for several reasons. First, it is loaded with cream, butter and eggs, so cardiologists, beware. Next, I had trouble making it, which I’ll elaborate on more below. That caused me days on end of heartache and worry. But the dish turned out so flavorful and downright good, that everyone that’s tasted it has had heartache once they cleaned their plates. “You’re kidding! There’s really no more?” Lastly, today I’m bittersweet. This is the very day that my kitchen is to be demolished in preparation for renovation. That’s wonderful news in the long term but I’ll miss the wretched thing horribly while we suffer the remodel. And I won’t be enjoying more heartache tagliatelle custard anytime soon.

The recipe is a classic: fresh egg tagliatelle. It comes from one of Gino D’Acampo’s cookbooks. HH sent me the directions and urged me to “feel free to add any personal touches/sauces,” with which instruction, obviously, I’ve run wild.

The dish is straightforward and only uses a few ingredients. But it is labor intensive. Gino’s a cute guy, and I’ve no doubt that’s part of his appeal. Nevertheless, the pics accompanying the recipe of him in a T-shirt, flashing his biceps, smiling his stunning smile, as he pulls perfect, very long tagliatelle out of his hand-cranked pasta maker, isn’t just for show. I’ve a hand-cranked pasta machine, too, and I’ll tell you, making this is a real workout! I stripped some outer layers off myself. And I started sweating… heavily. (I couldn’t tell if G was, but suspect not. Some guys have all the luck.)

Gino offers two alternatives besides the original: a red tagliatelle made with the addition of tomato purée, and a green, made with fresh spinach. Initially, I wanted to try something American Southwestern, so made the “red” version with ancho chile purée instead of tomato. It tasted fine but looked a mess—sort of like teenage-me, covered in acne, irritated, with horrible bed-head. It didn’t photograph that well either, as you might imagine.

So back to the drawing board.

The texture of my disaster tagliatelle was rather fluffy, kind of like bread or rice pudding. And that, as they say, was that. Eureka! I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and try a pasta dessert.

I’m not especially creative with these things so feel back on a recipe of Heguiberto’s for bread pudding as my guide. I had to make some small adjustments to accommodate the hot tagliatelle. Otherwise, my dish is essentially the same as Gino’s for the “regular” egg noodles and the same as Hegui’s bread pudding recipe. In the first I traded canola oil for olive, thinking that would work better in dessert. In the second, I melted the butter and tossed it with the noodles and dried fruit instead of spreading it.

I made this twice. The first time, I didn’t cook the fresh pasta thinking that the custard would do that for me, thus eliminating a step. Alas, that proved to be a mistake. The custard was too dense.

heartache tagliatelle custard

My manual pasta machine. See how I've gotten a new clamp to hold it in place? What an upgrade!

300g “00” flour plus more to flour work surface
3 eggs
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil

3 cups half and half
4 tbsp butter, melted, plus more to grease baking dish
¾ cup raisins and currants
2 eggs and 1 additional egg white
3 cups half and half
½ cup sugar
1 vanilla bean pod
coarse sugar

To prepare tagliatelle:

Prepare Gino D’Acampo’s homemade egg pasta dough. I’ll summarize the directions. Mix flour, salt, and oil in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat together three eggs. (Actually Gino recommends the traditional make-a-well-in-a-mound-of-flour-on-your-board method. I simply ignored that since I always make such a huge mess that way.) With a wooden spoon, fold the flour in stages into the egg. Once the dough is wet and somewhat together, pour out onto a floured surface.

Kneed the dough for eight (8) minutes. This is critical. And tiring and is the step at which I broke a sweat.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Once it is rested, press dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness that will fit your pasta machine’s widest setting. Crank the dough through. Dust with a bit more flour to prevent sticking. Adjust the machine setting to the next smaller size and process again. Continue until you’ve run it through all the settings to the most narrow (my machine has nine settings). The dough will grow enormously long and gets stickier as it grows. You’ll have to fold it so be sure to add a bit more four as needed to minimize sticking.

at this point, the pasta is about half-way flattened

cutting pasta into tagliatelle

finished tagliatelle before cooking

Change to the cutting rollers on your machine. The tagliatelle width is about a half centimeter. Gino sweetly writes that you can hand-cut the pasta if you’re machine doesn’t have the correct size, but I think that is perfectly insane. Use the machine and make due on the size.

Dust cut pasta with a bit of flour to prevent sticking.

At this point, you can cook and eat this in any of the traditional savory ways that you can imagine. March bravely forward for the custard.

To prepare custard:

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a baking dish with butter.

Cut vanilla pod in half and scrape out seeds with a paring knife. Place pod and seeds with one cup of half and half in a small saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes to infuse vanilla flavor into liquid. Remove from heat and add remaining two cups of half and half to cool. Discard vanilla pod and set aside.

heartache tagliatelle custard with cream and dark chocolate Häagen-Dazs

Cook pasta in boiling water for two minutes. Drain and toss with melted butter and dried fruit. Place into baking dish.

Beat remaining 2 eggs and egg white with sugar for a few minutes. Add vanilla-infused half and half. Beat for a minute more. Pour over pasta in baking dish. Sprinkle top with coarse sugar.

Bake 35 to 50 minutes until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Once firm, broil for a minute or so to brown top. Remove from heat and let cool.

Serve warm, with more half and half or some heavy cream, and/or with dark chocolate ice cream, like we did.

The inspiration for this dish came from necessity: Hegui carved a truly gigantic French pumpkin into medium sized cubes to make pumpkin coconut compote, but there was too much pumpkin. He also made a variation on Brazilian quibebe, but there was still too much pumpkin. He gave some to Jasmine T for her pumpkin pie obsession, but, still, there was too much pumpkin.

What to do?

ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and shitake in sage and trumpet mushroom sauce

There are lots of recipes for ravioli stuffed with pumpkin all over the Internet. Here’s one; and another; and one more. I ended up with a variation on What’s Cooking America’s shitake pumpkin raviolis.

We had just been to Nijiya Market so we were well stocked with interesting mushrooms. Their recipe uses wonton wrappers to make the shell. Instead I went back to the Cookie Crumbles and prepared their dough, which apparently comes from Marcella Hazan. I love her! I won’t re-write the dough making process in detail, but suffice it to say, I followed the instructions to the letter. Check the link to make this yourself. Since most of the fun of ravioli making lies in the production of the pasta, I’ll summarize what we did (this is a two-person job).

I made a mushroom sauce, which is not at all necessary. I just happened to have a lot of mushrooms for Chinese New Year. Really just olive oil, garlic, salt and black pepper would do.

ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and shitake in sage and trumpet mushroom sauce

for dough:

2 cups flour (I used all purpose)
3 eggs

for shitake pumpkin filling:

4 cups fresh French pumpkin or butternut squash (un-cooked)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 to 2 cups white wine
8 medium shitake mushrooms, stems removed and chopped fine
2 shallots, peeled and chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
¼ cup mozzarella, shredded
¼ cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp minced fresh sage
black pepper to taste
kosher salt to taste

for trumpet mushroom sauce:

1 cup trumpet (or other) mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter (optional)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp minced fresh sage
Kosher salt to taste
Black pepper to taste

at this point, pasta strips are about half-way flattened

To make pasta:

Usually you’re supposed to pour the flour on a work-surface then mix in the egg. Counter space is at a premium in my tiny kitchen so I beat the eggs for a couple minutes in a small bowl, then mixed them with the flour in another. Then I dumped everything onto a floured surface and kneaded it for eight (8) minutes. (I set my kitchen timer.) The kneading is the key step and really it is sort of magical as about seven minutes on, suddenly the flour-egg dough starts to do something amazing! It turns into pasta! You can feel it in your hands literally changing. Sure, that is what you’re making so should not come as a surprise to anyone. Nevertheless, whenever I make pasta, I am always stunned that it actually works!

Roll dough into a ball then cut it into six equal pieces. With your pasta machine on the widest setting, roll each piece through once. Then fold the edges of each piece together towards the middle and pass it through the machine again, still at the widest setting. Repeat with each piece so that they’ve all been rolled and folded about three times. When not working with a piece, lay it on a clean kitchen towel and be sure not to let it touch any of the other dough.

Here we've completed rolling the pasta. Look how long they've gotten! They barely fit on the counter any more.

After that, reduce the width of your pasta maker by one notch and pass each piece through. They will slowly start to get longer. Repeat at next lower notch and so on until you get to the penultimate. By now, your dough should be quite thin and very long. This is why it helps to have an extra set of hands. (Also it is good if your pasta machine has the clamp part that holds it to the counter! I lost ours so Hegui had to do double-duty—holding the machine down as I cranked it and holding the ends of the long pasta sheets to prevent them touching one another or falling to the floor.) Once you’ve finished set aside.

placing the filling on the pasta

To make filling:

In a medium saucepan, add 1 tbsp olive oil, some salt and pumpkin. Cook on high for a few minutes then add white wine. Cover, bring to a boil then reduce to simmer. Cook until pumpkin is soft (about 45 minutes). Add more white wine as needed.

Remove from heat then either run through a food processor or strainer. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, add remaining olive oil, some salt, shallot, garlic and shitake. Sweat for about ten minutes. Add black pepper, sage then fold into pumpkin. Let cool. Mix in cheeses.

To assemble ravioli:

Use about a tablespoon of filling for each ravioli. Start on one end of ribbon of pasta leaving about an inch border. Place the filling in a small mound. Continue along the strip of pasta, spacing them about 1½ inches apart. My pasta was not as wide as I had hoped so I ended up covering one strip with another. If yours turns out to be wider, then fold over. Use a little water to close the pasta making sure to push out air bubbles. I cut ours with a knife to make sort of freeform shapes. (I don’t have a pasta cutter.) Make sure that you don’t let individual ravioli touch one-another as they’ll stick.

cutting the stuffed pasta into ravioli

To prepare final dish:

Boil ravioli in salted water about four minutes. Meanwhile, sauté mushrooms in olive oil, garlic, and butter until they are cooked. Add sage, salt and black pepper to taste. Drain ravioli and add to pan with sauce. Carefully toss together. Serve.