Butternut Squash Ravioli with sage butter

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Toasted Pine Nuts and Sage Butter

Steamed Asparagus in sage butter

For the asparagus, I basically drizzled leftover butter sauce over them.  I would make the sauce just to add to the asparagus it was soooooo good. (brown butter, add toasted pine nuts, lemon juice, and sage. Voila!)

Carmelized Baby Bananas with Almond Brittle and Vanilla Ice Cream

Again a winner for dinner!  

A definite "Do Again" dinner from the cooking critics in my house.

The sounds in my house went like this... 

"Mom! the smells are overpoweringly delicious, WHEN is dinner?"  

and like this... 

"Please, Mom, take the pictures quickly because it smells and looks so good!"

It really is satisfying not only to have fun in the kitchen 

but to be able to please your brood too.

Again, these recipes come from the cooking show

 "Take Home Chef" hosted by Curtis Stone.

It isn't on T.V. anymore but I download episodes instantly on Netflix.

If you would like to try these 2 main courses, here are the recipes:

Ravioli stuffed with Butternut Squash and Roasted Pine Nut, Brown Butter Sauce

(I went to Whole Foods Market and purchased the lasagne noodles and made them into the ravioli)

FOR THE RAVIOLI FILLING:

1 1/4 cups/300 g Pumpkin Puree (I substituted Butternut Squash instead)  I steamed it on the stovetop and mashed it.

2 teaspoons/10 ml olive oil

1 cup/120 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon/less than 2 g finely chopped fresh tarragon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE SAUCE:

1 stick (1/2 cup/113 g) salted butter

25 sage leaves

1/4 cup/60 ml fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup/100 g pinenuts, toasted

1 1/2 ounces/45 g shaved Parmesan cheese

PREPARATION:

TO MAKE THE RAVIOLI FILLING:

1. In a heavy-based small saucepan, cook the pumpkin puree over a medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes, or until some of the moisture has evaporated and the mixture thickens slightly, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn't stick to the pan. Let cool completely.
2. Heat the oil in a large nonstick sauté pan over medium to high heat. Add the diced pumpkin and sauté for about 10 minutes or until it is tender and golden brown. Allow to cool completely.
3. Stir the pumpkin puree, diced pumpkin, grated Parmesan cheese and tarragon in a bowl to combine. Season the pumpkin mixture to taste with salt and pepper.

TO PREPARE THE RAVIOLI:

1. Place 1 pasta square or round on the work surface. Place 1 tablespoon/20 g of the pumpkin mixture in the center of the pasta square or round. Brush water over the pasta dough that surrounds the filling. Top with another pasta square or round.
2. Press the edges together to seal. Repeat with the remaining pasta squares or rounds and pumpkin filling, forming 20 ravioli total. Trim the ravioli squares, if necessary. Transfer the ravioli to a floured baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook.
3. Alternatively, purchased fresh pasta sheets can be used in place of the fresh pasta sheets made here. If using purchased pasta sheets, select both the plain pasta sheets and spinach pasta sheets for a pretty presentation.

TO MAKE THE SAUCE AND SERVE THE RAVIOLI:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the ravioli and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the pasta is tender and the filling is heated through.
2. Meanwhile, place a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the butter and cook for about 4 minutes or until the butter melts and becomes a light brown color.
3. Once this begins to happen, add the sage leaves and lemon juice and simmer for 2 minutes or until the sage is crisp. Remove from the heat. Stir in the nuts. Drain the raviolis from the water and place five ravioli on each plate.
4. Spoon the brown butter mixture over and around the raviolis. Garnish with the shaved Parmesan cheese and serve.

Carmelized Baby Bananas with Almond Brittle (and vanilla ice cream added)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups/400 g granulated sugar

2 cups/225g whole almonds (roasted)

6 baby bananas, cut in half lengthwise

1/2 cup/50 g golden brown sugar

PREPARATION:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the granulated sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Cook until the sugar dissolves and turns light golden brown.  Add the almonds and stir to coat in the melted sugar.
2. Pour the almond mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it in an even layer.  Allow the brittle to cool, then break it up into pieces.  Place the brown sugar on a plate.  
3. Using a small sharp knife, score the flesh side of the bananas.  Press the bananas flesh side down in the brown sugar to coat thickly.  Heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat.  Place the bananas, sugared side down, in the pan and cook for 2 minutes, or until the sugar has caramelized.  Transfer the caramelized bananas to plates and serve with the almond brittle.

"A pasta chi sardi". Pasta with sardines

The origin of this dish is Arab, the legend tells that was invented by the cook of a general Arab who landed in Sicily was in precarious situations.

To feed the troops, the cook thought to take advantage of what nature offered him, and invented a dish that was enriched over the centuries up to the traditional recipe.

Already the Romans and the Greeks enriched their dishes with wild fennel. And is interesting to the use of pine nuts which has antiseptic qualities, for what was a poor kitchen, where it was difficult to find fresh fish and meat, was intended to avoid some probable poisoning.

photo Judy Witts

"The pasta chi sardi" is one of the most original dishes of Palermo, which combines very different elements, but whose combination is delicious and is a perfect harmony between and sweet and sour typical of Sicilian cuisine of Arabic origin.

photo Judy Witts

There is the blue fish in our seas, there is the dried fruit (sultanas and pine nuts), there is the flavor of wild fennel and the aroma and yellow color of a spice that is so precious, the saffron, all combined with the particular type of pasta, the bucatini, whose characteristic is “to jump on the flat”, and that above all must do the "scruscio" (noise) when the Palermitano eats this pasta with passion!

photo Judy Witts

RECIPE

Ingredients: For five persons

500 g of fresh sardines, 500 grams of bucatini, 500 g of fennel Mountain, 2 medium onions, 3 salted anchovies, 50 g of raisins and pine nuts for many, a sachet of saffron, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Boil for about twenty minutes fennel in salt water, the same that you will use after for boil the pasta (4 liters for 500 g of pasta), drain and chop. Hold by the water. In a pan, cook the sardines just cleaned in 1 dl of olive oil (one minute per side),after, put the cooked sardines in a dish. Use the same pan to sauté with oil the finely sliced onions , then combine aniseed, sardines, raisins, the pine nuts, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring to mix the sauce. After about twenty minutes, add the anchovies, which were desalted, washed, dried and finally dissolved in a pan with a tablespoon of hot oil. Bake again for 15 minutes, stirring and then add a bag of saffron, dissolved in a tablespoon of water.Putting Meanwhile cook the pasta in the cooking water of fennel. Drain "al dente" (Not too cook) and add it to the sauce.

For this occasion I publish a poem in sicilian dialect (with the English translation) of my mother Emilia Merenda on this dish so original.

A PASTA CHI SARDI

Finuccheddu di muntagna crisciutu ‘n’natura
e poi ci coci la pasta ni’ l’acqua di cuttura
e pi’ li balatara cchiù fini
hannu a essiri sulu maccarruncini.
Passulina e pignoli e ‘na cipudda ‘ngranciata
anticchia ‘i zafaranu e ‘na sarda salata,
l’ogghiu sempri ginirusu
arriminari spissu senza essiri lagnusu.
Poi ‘na manata di sardi frischi e argintati
e dintra la conza vannu ‘mmiscati,
senza spini e allinguati
vasinnò si pò moriri affucati.
La pasta avi ‘a ristari ‘ngridda,
ca’ mentri la manci sata comu n’ancidda
ca’ sulu a talialla è un veru priu
e poi a mancialla iu m’arricriu.
Tu, nun po’ capiri si nun l’ha’ tastatu mai,
ma si la manci, ti fa scurdari i guai.

PASTA WITH SARDINES
Fennel mountain grown naturally
and then cook pasta in the cooking water
and for the most sensitive
should only be maccheroncini.
Raisins and pine nuts and onion browned,
a anchovy saffron and salt,
oil always generous
stir often without being inactive.
Then a handful of fresh "silver" sardines
without thorns.
otherwise you can die suffocated.
The pasta should remain "al dente" (not too cook),
that you can eat, while the pasta jumps in the dish, and is a real pleasure
and then eat it is a satisfaction.
You, you can not tell whether you have ever tasted,
but if you eat, it makes you forget all your troubles.