Butternut Squash

I was so good about getting my reading done this weekend that by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I had finished nearly all of it and was mentally wiped out. I had been planning to make a butternut squash soup for dinner that night but then decided I needed a culinary challenge instead since it had been so long since I'd actually cooked anything besides pasta for dinner. I was thinking of things to do with butternut squash and my mind wandered in the pasta direction. I love getting butternut squash ravioli out in restaurants and the weather has turned decidedly fall-late, so I I decided to try making it at home. After searching around for some recipes on the internet, I decided to go with a Giada de Laurentiis recipe from the food network website, with a few minor modifications.

Though tempting, I decided not to try to do the dough by hand, mostly because we don't have a pasta roller and I didn't particularly want to cover the entire counter in gummy pasta reside. Instead, I opted for the wonton skins recommended by Giada. The recipe itself was quite simple- roast the squash, combine with ricotta cheese, onion and garlic and fill the ravioli. The hardest part was peeling and cubing the squash. My method is to cut the round part of the squash off first, leaving me two pieces with flat sides. Then I put each piece flat side down, and cut it in half again from top to bottom, than in half once again until I have eight pieces. I usually use a knife to cut off the skins, but this time decided to try using a vegetable peeler. It took a little while to do since I had to go over it a few times but I think I wasted less than with the knife method.

Once the squash was cubed I roasted in a a bit of olive oil and then combined it with the other ingredients. Then I called in the reinforcements to shape the ravioli. The recipe said it would make about 36 but we filled all 48 wonton skins with a lot of leftover filling. I cooked about 18 for us immediately and froze the rest for later. Giada suggested a brown butter sauce for the ravioli and I complied- using about half the recommended butter. We were out of cranberries so I substituted raisins and omitted the walnuts since Zach really doesn't like them.

Overall the ravioli were good but missing something. I'm not quite sure what, maybe our squash wasn't as sweet as others, or the texture of the wonton wrappers wasn't quite the same as pasta dough. Making ravioli once has made me want to try it again and hopefully the filling will turn out better next time. I'm not giving the recipe here- as I didn't really love this one but you can find Giada's recipe here.

The Best Tomato Sauce

This isn't just hyperbole- this really is the best tomato sauce ever. It has only 3 ingredients (which is a lot of reason I think I'm drawn to Italian cooking, it's simplicity): tomatoes, onion and butter and could not be easier to make. The sauce is not very thick but has such a bright flavor, not too acidic or too sweet, that you won't miss the thick texture of store bought sauces. It's perfect for spaghetti, pizza or pretty much another other use or you could be like me, and just eat it with a spoon.

I found the original recipe in the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan and have modified it over time to use only canned tomatoes and to decrease the amount of butter. Try this recipe and I think once you realize that homemade tomato sauce doesn't have to take all day, you'll be converted. One note though- I do find that the sauce has a much better acid balance and flavor if you use Italian plum tomatoes. If you feel like splurging go for a can of the San Marzano's from Italy, but I have had really good success with Cento brand whole Italian style peeled tomatoes (they have a little picture of a plum tomato on the can). If you end up using regular tomatoes, you might need to add a spoonful of sugar towards the end of the cooking process to help balance out the acid.

The Best Tomato Sauce
Adapted from The Essentials of Italian Cooking
Yields approx. 2.5 cups

1 28oz. can whole peeled italian (plum) tomatoes, with or without basil
1 white onion, skin removed and split in half
3 T. butter

- Pour the contents of the tomato into a saucepan and use your hands to squish the tomatoes into piece. Add the onions and the butter, bring to a simmer.

- Continue to simmer for 1 hour, using a wooden spoon to mash the tomato pieces against the side of the pan every 15 minutes or so. (If you used regular tomatoes, give it a taste now. If the sauce is too acidic, add some sugar, a small spoonful at a time until you like the taste)

- Remove and discard onion.  Serve the sauce with your favorite pasta, use in a recipe or freeze for later.

Chicken Dinner

All right, it's not the most flattering photo ever but I think this chicken has every right to be proud. See how golden and puffed the breast is? This is another no fail recipe from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, which is my go to book for Italian cooking.

I decided, rather at the last minute, to have some friends over for dinner last weekend since it was the beginning of spring break and I could blow off my school work. I wanted to make something light, since it was the beginning of meteorological spring* as well, but that would also involve minimal work in the kitchen once the guests arrived. I thought a roast chicken would do the trick and turned to Marcella for advice.

The first recipe in the poultry section immediately caught my eye. 'Roast Chicken with Lemons' sounded like just the thing, since I love lemons and it had only two ingredients. Really simple, really good. Really- give this a try next time you are going to roast a chicken. It was delicious, with a subtle lemon flavor and according to my friends who eat it, rather tasty skin as well.

This is the basic recipe from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, interpreted by me. It looks long but it's actually really easy.

Roast Chicken with Lemons

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of the chicken and your appetite

3-4 lb. chicken, naturally raised if possible

2 small lemons (really, the smallest you can find)

salt and pepper

- Heat oven to 350F.

- Remove and discard giblets if your chicken has them. Trim the excess fat from the chicken, leaving enough skin at the cavity opening to close the bird up later.

- Sprinkle the chicken both inside and out with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Rub in with your hands.

- Wash and dry the lemons. Roll them on the counter a few times to soften and pierce each lemon at least 20 times with a sharp fork or other sturdy yet sharp kitchen implement. Place the lemons inside the chicken cavity and close up the opening with toothpicks or a trussing needle (I didn't have either so punched holes in the skin with a knife and threaded it with cooking twine- probably more than you wanted to know but--). Marcella warns not to close the cavity too tightly as it could lead to explosion (she actually does warn about this). Tie the legs together loosely at the knuckle ends.

- Place the bird breast side down in the roasting pan or pyrex dish. No oil needed- just put the bird in. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and carefully turn the bird over, trying not to break the skin. I did this by grabbing it on either side with a wad of paper towels and then jiggling it slightly to release the skin from the pan before rolling it over. When you've got the bird breast side up, put it back in the oven.

- Bake for a further 25-35 minutes and then increase the heat to 400F for a final 20 minutes of baking (it needs 20-25 minutes per pound of total cooking time).

- Show off your chicken to your guests, then bring it back to the kitchen for carving. Spoon some of the pan juices over the carved pieces of chicken to keep them moist and serve. (A note-- the lemons are still very juicy and hot- squeezing them could cause a blast of superheated lemon juice to shoot at either yourself of your guests)

*Meteorological winter, as defined in the DC Metro area is December, January and February, the three coldest months of the year. Factoid of the day courtesy of The Washington Post.

Lost in Cyberspace

Well now that I am almost done with the semester I have come back to my sadly neglected blog and found this post from September that I never managed to finish. As meatballs really are one of my top ten all time favorites I couldn't let this entry get lost in cyberspace, so here it is.

Meatballs are one of my favorite things. Not just favorite foods but favorite things in general. They are round. They are delicious. And you eat them with spaghetti. What more could you ask for?

Meatballs were one of the few things my mum made growing up that I really liked (I hope my mum doesn't read this). She would make mix the meat with breadcrumbs, spices and A1 and then simmer them for hours in the Dutch oven and the whole house would smell slightly tart with tomato and that mouthwatering meatball smell.

As much as I love my mum's meatballs, I never have time to simmer anything for hours on a weekday. Last night we needed something quick for dinner and had no ground beef but there was a package of soy protein in the fridge... so I meatballs it was (well they aren't meatballs but soyballs just does not sound appetizing at all). With the right spices, soy protein can be good- perhaps not as good as beef meatballs- but on the other hand soy protein won't leave your arteries looking like a gutter at the end of autumn either. If soy meatballs seem a little out there for you, you could substitute ground beef or turkey for the soy or you could even make half soy/half beef meatballs.

Almost Meatballs
1 lb. soy protein meat substitute, not in crumble form (I use GimmeLean)
1/3 c. Italian style breadcrumbs
1/4 c. finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 t. dried oregano
1 T. dried basil
1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 c. grated onion
Several shakes of A1 steak sauce
A bit of canola or olive of for cooking

-Mix all of the ingredients well. The mix will seem quite sticky but this is normal.

- Cover the mix and refrigerate for 30+ minutes.

- When you are ready to cook, take out a non-stick skillet and add a little bit of oil, about a teaspoon and heat over medium-high.

- Form the meatballs and add them to the pan. I prefer my almost meatballs to be quite small, sort of cocktail meatball size, but they can be however large you'd like.

- After all the meatballs are added, give the pan a shake to coat all the balls in a little bit of the oil. Continue to shake every minute or so until they are browned on all sides.

- Serve with your favorite pasta and tomato sauce, or on a crusty Italian roll with sauce.