Orzo with Spinach and Feta from the New York Times

 

My friend Julie made this one-pan wonder. It's delicious, filling, and looks like spring on a plate. I suspect that you could up the 'spring' factor further by adding a handful or two of chopped asparagus as you stir in the stock.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 8 cups of baby spinach leaves, chopped coarsely
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cup orzo
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup thawed frozen peas
• 1 cup chopped fresh dill, or parsley or cilantro

Methods:

Heat a 10-inch skillet and melt the butter. Stir in about 3/4 of the scallions, saving the remainder for garnish. Add the garlic and cook until softened, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the spinach and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted .

Stir in the stock and bring to a simmer. Then stir in the orzo, lemon zest and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cover and simmer over medium low heat until most of the liquid is absorbed.  This will take 10 to 14 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Finally, stir in the cheese, peas and dill, cover the pan and cook for another minute. Sprinkle with more cheese and the reserved scallions to serve.

1. 
   

Pasta with Fried Lemons and Chiles - from the New York Times

This is a NewYork Times recipe. I thought it looked good. I love lemon. Of my diners, some liked it, some didn’t. Myself, I found the instructions unduly complicated for a so-called “ pantry pasta”.

I served it beside a heap of garlic scape pasta to give people options and because I liked the summer colour combo of green and yellow.

Ingredients:

• 4 lemons
• 1 pound linguine
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Pinch of sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 teaspoon chile flakes
• 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
• Black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup chopped celery leaves ( optional)
• 1/3 cup chopped parsley ( optional)
• Sea salt for garnish

Methods:

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Finely zest 2 lemons . Trim the tops and bottoms of the other two lemons, quarter them then very thinly slice the quarters into triangles. Blanch the lemon slices in the boiling water for 2 minutes, then remove them to dry.

Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente. Drain and keep a 1/2 cup of the Pasta water.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a skillet and add the lemon pieces with a pinch of salt and sugar. Cook until the lemons are caramelized at the edges. Remove to a plate.

In the same large skillet, melt the butter with the remaining oil over medium heat. Add the Chile flakes and lemon zest. Cook until fragrant and then add the reserved pasta water.

Toss in the pasta, juice of one lemon, cheese, and pepper. Cook until the pasta is well- coated then add the caramelized lemons, parsley and celery leaves. Add more lemon juice, olive oil and salt to taste.

Cacio e Pepe from the NYT's Cooking Column

This simple pasta recipe comes to you from Mark Bittman of the New York Times. Google tells me that the name translates to 'cheese and pepper' in English. I'm afraid my childish mind had gone elsewhere with a translation. I'm not sure whether the quality of the cheese I used was inadequate, but I wasn't wowed by this recipe. I can say that it was an absolute breeze to make. 


Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 cups of finely grated pecorino Romano
• 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 pound long pasta (I used capellini, which is so thin you could thread a needle with it)
• good olive oil

Methods: 
Put a pot of salted water on to boil. Add the pasta when the water boils.

In a large bowl, combine the cheeses and black pepper, then mash them together with enough water to form a paste. Spread the paste evenly in the bowl. When the pasta is done, transfer it to the bowl with the cheeses. Reserve a cup of the pasta water. Stir the pasta  to coat it, adding a teaspoon or two of olive oil and pasta cooking water to thin the sauce as necessary. Serve with additional pecorino and pepper.

Blond Puttanesca from NYT Cooking

This is another very tasty New York Times Cooking recipe, which I have successfully added to my repertoire. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the end product, but it basically looks like linguine with some green bits added in. Mostly blond, as its name implies.  

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces linguine
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 10 anchovies, roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons capers
• 5 ounces baby arugula
• 6-7 ounces of canned tuna, drained and flaked
• 1/4 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley
• pasta water

Methods:
Cook the linguine in a large pot of salted water as per the package instructions. While the pasta cooks, add the garlic and pepper flakes to the olive oil in a large skillet and cook for about a minute over medium-low heat. Add the anchovies and capers and cook for another minute or two. Turn the heat to medium. Stir a ladle of pasta water into the mixture and simmer for a minute or two. Add in the arugula with another ladle of pasta water and when the arugula is wilted, add the pasta. Then stir in the tuna to warm it through. After about a minute, add another ladle of pasta water to loosen the sauce. Sprinkle parsley over the pasta and season it with salt and pepper. Serve it with flaky salt and a lemon wedge on the side.

Cheese Ravioli with Butter and Sage Sauce

In Italian, this dish is known as Ravioli di Pasta alla Ricotta, Burro d’Alpeggio alla Salvia. Sounds complicated, but it's remarkably easy to make homemade ravioli. A much more difficult task is writing a simple explanation of how to do it. Here goes nothing.....

 Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 fresh eggs
• about a tablespoon of olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons fresh sheep’s milk ricotta cheese
• 6 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
• 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 5 ounces (150 grams) unsalted butter (This seems like a lot of butter to me. Change the volume at your discretion)
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• several fresh sage leaves

Methods:  

 Prepare the pasta dough by piling the flour on a countertop and making a ‘well’ in the flour into which the eggs, salt and olive oil are placed. Use a fork to gradually mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle easily. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting prepare the filling by mixing the ricotta, mascarpone, and parmesan cheese, nutmeg and lemon zest together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roll the dough for the ravioli very thinly with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.

Place the filling into a pastry bag or plastic freezer bag. (If you use a plastic bag, cut the tip off one of the corners to allow the filling to be squeezed out).  Repeatedly squeeze teaspoon-sized lumps of the filling on to the pasta about 2 cm apart until you have covered the lower half of the rolled out pasta rectangle with lumps of the cheese filling. Brush the top half of the pasta rectangle with water then fold it over the blobs of filling on the lower half. Use your fingers to press air pockets from between the ravioli then cut the dough between the little packets of filling using a pastry wheel or sharp knife.

Prepare a large pot of boiling salted water and cook the ravioli for about 3 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter with the sage in a large skillet. Drain the ravioli and gently toss them in the sage butter mixture.