Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli | You've Got Meal!

This is our first ravioli making experience, so we wanted to cook something on the easy side, but also a well known dish, so we went for safe and picked the spinach and ricotta recipe. 

We used 4 sheets of pasta dough, about 40 cm long and 6 cm wide, enough to make around 20 pieces of ravioli. 

For the filling: 

• 200 grams of fresh spinach leaves- hard stems removed, 
• 130-150 grams of ricotta, 
• 4-5 tbs. of parmesan, 
• nutmeg, 
• salt and pepper. 

We also made a fresh tomato and basil sauce using: 

• 1 can of whole tomatoes, 
• 300 grams of passata, 
• 3 garlic cloves, 
• 2 tsp. of dried basil leaves, 
• salt, pepper, 
• cloves, 
• olive oil. 

1. Start of by making the dough for the pasta -  as usual, we used 200 grams of plain flour and 2 free range eggs, resulting the sheets of pasta described above. 
2. While the dough rests, awaiting to be rolled, cook the spinach in a couple tbs. of olive oil for 2 minutes, enough for the greens to melt. 
3. Remove the spinach from heat, dripping any excess of juices that remained in the pan – those will make the filling way too runny and most likely cause the ravioli to open while cooking. You can choose to leave the spinach leaves whole, finely chop them or just coarsely break them, take your pick. 
4. After the spinach cools for some minutes, mix them well with the ricotta, nutmeg, salt, pepper and about 4-5 tbs. of Parmesan. 
5. You can either cut the ravioli pasta pieces before putting in the filling or you can spread lumps of the spinach&ricotta mix on the sheet of pasta, and then cut it. Use a beaten egg to brush the edges of the pasta so that the pasta sticks -  you can also use a fork to press the edges of the ravioli, but make sure to remove the air from inside before. 
6. The ravioli cook fast enough in the salted boiling water, about 4 minutes. 
7. When removing them from the water lightly drizzle them with olive oil to make sure they don’t stick.

The sauce keeps the same super easy line of cooking – on medium heat, bring to a boil the canned tomatoes (use a wooden spoon to break them in the pot), 300 ml of tomato passata, the finely sliced garlic cloves, the basil, salt, pepper, 2-3 whole cloves, and cook until the liquid is reduced to about two thirds. Next, push the sauce through a fine sieve (don’t forget the garlic slices, they will be soft enough to be pushed through) in order to create a smooth, light tomato and basil sauce. 

That’s it really incredibly easy to make ravioli, accompanied by an light and elegant sauce that will complement the pasta perfectly. Garnish with some fennel leaves or basil or parsley, grate some Parmesan on top and you are done.

Enjoy,

Tuna and Chili Pasta | You've Got Meal!

No Heat Pasta Sauce * Simple Pasta * Tuna Pasta

This is probably one of the simplest recipe on our blog and it is a great way to use an ordinary can of tuna. Pasta dishes are usually great fast solutions for weekday dinners or home made lunches in a hurry. This one is even more convenient because it only takes as much time as the pasta needs to boil and actually the skill to boil water is the only one required. :)

The final taste is quite complex, rich from the tuna, balanced by the lemon, the parsley give it the freshness and the chili just the kick it needed. The only tip I would give, especially since the dish is really affordable, is to use a nice quality tuna flakes can, being the main ingredient it really makes the difference.

Ingredients:

• 250 g store-bought spaghetti
• 1 185 g tuna can 
• 1 small red onion (or half of a big one)
• 1 hot pepper ( 1 used 3 tiny chilies)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp capers, drained
• 1/2 handful of parsley
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Pour the pasta in boiling water with salt and a drizzle of olive oil (for extra shine).
2. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. For our spaghetti we boiled them for 7 minutes.
3. While the spaghetti are boiling, finely chop the onion, the chili and the parsley.
4. Crush the garlic and drain the capers.
5. Add all the ingredients in a big bowl.
6. Add the canned tuna.
7. Mix the lemon juice with the olive oil and pour the resulting sauce over the ingredients.
8. Toss everything until it is well combined.
9. Drain the pasta, add them to the sauce and mix well.

It is barely cooking, but the result is really delicious and comforting it is it worth saving the recipe for hard times, lazy nights, pasta craving or any other culinary emergencies.

I hope you try.

Enjoy,

Fennel and Zucchini Pasta | You've Got Meal!

Lately, I’ve been browsing different foodies on Instagram, trying to see what is exactly trending in other people’s food posts. The thing is, except the consecrated restaurants or the users who have the possibility to access a large variety of (exotic) food, the biggest thing seems to be #vegan or #vegetarian.

 Honestly, just take a picture of a nice apple and strap some of those tags on it and the likes will start popping. I definitely support veggie lovers worldwide, but this is a bit ridiculous. So, instead of just taking pictures of chopped fruits in a bowl and call that dinner, I decided to make something of a vegetarian pasta recipe, using two of my best friends: fennel and zucchini.

Speckled Pasta with Tomato and Anchovies Sauce

All you Youvegotmeal fans out there (insert the sound of nobody here) know that we love making honemade pasta and prefer using it over bought pasta. Even so, sometimes we feel the need to mix things up, bring a little bit of color even to a classic like homemade pasta. So we decided to make what is called speckled pasta, which means that we added finely chopped herbs (in this case we used exclusively parsley) in the dough composition. And, to give the recipe a nice little kick, we also added 5 roasted chilies and 2 fresh ones.

Spicy Chicory (Endive), Bacon and Egg Pasta

And many other things! Seriously, I’m proud of this recipe for a simple reason: it is our 1^st original (I hope, the internet is big and I’m too lazy to search it all) pasta recipe, and we love pasta. So let me get cracking. 

For our home made spaghetti (3 portions), we used 

2 chicories, 

250 grams of smoked bacon, 

2 eggs, 

4-5 medium hot chillies, 

3 garlic cloves, 

3-4 peaches, 

parsley, 

salt & pepper, 

olive oil, 

parmesan.

This needs a couple of things to be done at the same time, but you can always cook those ingredients in advance (like 30 minutes or an hour, not the day before). So, start of by frying the bacon cut into cubes for 5 minutes, then add the chicories (slice them however you want, but remove the middle, I, at least, found it too bitter for my liking) and sliced garlic. Cook for another 4 minutes.

. Remember when I said that you can have things cooked in advance? Well, for the chillies, you need to roast them and you can do that in advance. After you remove their burned skin, remove the seeds if they are too hot and cut the roasted chilies into strips. Also, the peaches need to be grilles, so cut them in halves and then into 3 each half and grill them on an ultra hot grill for 2 minutes on each side. The fruits will get some very nice grill marks and, because of their sweetness and delicate flavor, will balance with the bitter taste of the chicory. Make sure the fruits aren’t all that mushy, keep them firm.

So, mix the bacon, chicory, garlic, chili, peaches, salt, pepper on the fire for another minute. Add the pasta, cooked al dente, about 50 ml of the pasta cooking water. Meanwhile, poach the eggs and have them ready to be placed on top of the plated pasta, after you’ve sprinkled some parmesan, olive oil and parsley on them. The idea behind this is that the soft yolk will also serve as a sauce that binds the spaghetti together.

So, there you have it, my 1^st try at a recipe and, I have to say, it couldn’t have been anything else except pasta. The result was an interesting dish, with flavors that combined pretty nicely. I guess you can add or remove things from this, but, overall, we were happy with the outcome.

Have a great day,

Recap: 3 Pasta Dishes (Budget Friendly and Time Saving)

If you are looking for a dish that is really affordable and that can be done in under 30 minutes, we've rounded up 3 of our favourite pasta recipes that anybody can prepare and it won't leave a huge hole in your pocket.

1.  Farfalle with Bacon, Peas and Ricotta
2.  Spaghetti al Pomodoro e Basilico 
3.  Spaghetti Indiavolati

100TH POST* Spaghetti al Pomodoro e Basilico (Tomato & Basil Pasta) *100TH POST

Tomato time again!!!You didn’t think I was done that easy with those beautiful fruits? Yeah, that’s right, tomatoes are actually fruits, big shocker, I know. Hey, you can even say I cooked a dessert.  This, combined with some Italian style basil-power, leads to very nice, fresh and absolutely delicious pasta recipe.

For the pasta, you already know how we do it and the fact that we prefer homemade over bought (when we have the time to make them). So for about 3 generous portions, we made some spaghetti out of 200 grams of white flour and 2 eggs. Besides this, we used 500 grams of tomatoes, about 1 big handful of basil leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Honestly, this recipe is incredibly easy and is something that anyone that wants to start cooking can make, with great results. 

The secrets for this recipe are: 1. The basil – use very fresh, whole basil leaves and be careful when you wash and pat them dry, don’t bruise them.

2. The tomatoes – use only ripe, bursting of flavor tomatoes, and if you’re using whole ones, make sure they are not bruised, or damaged.

For the tomatoes we activated “cute mode” in our kitchen. I mean, take a look at those tomatoes, what’s not to love about them. 

The incredible intense taste, the adorable colors, it’s summer in your plate. So, 500 grams of that yellow and red combo, the smaller ones I’ve left whole, the bigger ones I halved or quartered. Start up by heating some olive oil, add in you tomatoes and cook them on high heat for 5-7 minutes.

My idea was not to turn this into some kind of stew, make sure they keep their form (some of the already cut tomatoes will crumble, it’s OK), after which add the whole basil leaves, salt, pepper, cook for another minute, then add the pasta that you boiled meanwhile, turn off the heat and stir things in. 

  

Plate your delicious pasta, sprinkle with some freshly grated parmesan and have yourself to a wonderful, aromatic summer dish.

Enjoy,

Mr. G.

Silk Handkerchiefs Pasta with Pesto Genovese

There are moments when I am deciding what to cook when I feel like I have to do something incredibly traditional, something extremely old-school, and when I get it right, for me, it’s an incredible accomplishment. 

This recipe is truly without the shadow of a doubt one of the great classics and, although this type of pasta may not be used on a big scale such as spaghetti or tagliatelle, it has an incredible elegance and beauty to it.

If you want to try this, I beg of you, do it all yourself: the pasta, the pesto, create it from scratch, don’t cut any corners by buying lasagna strips of pasta or canned pesto, trust me, the result will be worth it.

For the pasta, I used 250 grams of type 000 flour (for reasons beyond my understanding the 00 type has gone missing from stores) 1 egg and 2 yolks. The process of working the dough is the same as before, the difference being that the resulting dough will be more compact, robust and with a silkier feel (and also, more yellow). 

Be careful though, the pasta can be rather heavy on the stomach, so be prepared with some good, chilled Soave Clasico. You want to roll your dough until it is thin enough to be blown of the table. Just try and blow under the pasta sheet to see if it lifts; if so, that’s the thickness you need (in case you’re using a pasta machine, roll it up until the 9 mark). Take your pasta sheet and just break it into tiny squares, in a handkerchief like shape (or just cut it like that, breaking it is more fun), and boil it in salted water for 2-3 minutes, that’s all it takes.

For the pesto: 90 grams of basil leaves, 30 grams of pine nuts (toasted), 1 garlic clove, 70 grams of grated Parmiggiano, salt and good quality olive oil (I used the unfiltered kind for my pesto). Put the washed and dried basil leaves (be careful with them when washing, make sure you let them dry and not try and force the leaves, they lose their flavor like that) in a large enough mortar and start crushing them with a circular move with  a pestle, for 1 minute. Add the garlic and pine nuts and keep crushing them with the pestle until the garlic is nice and mashed in the pesto.

After this, add the cheese and crush some more, adding olive oil in the end to bring everything together. The amount of olive oil used should be enough to bind the ingredients and not take over the basil or be in such a quantity that the pesto is submerged in it. 

Regarding the salt, you can go 2 ways: use some coarse salt when adding the garlic, it will help you crush the ingredients better, or, if you’re scared you’re going to go overboard because of the cheese being also salty, wait until the end and added it there. 

So, a superb classic Italian that, for me at least, brought a very nice feeling of accomplishment when completed, hope it does the same for you.

Have a great weekend,
Mr. G.

Farfalle with Bacon, Peas and Ricotta

You may recognize this recipe as it was shown by Gordon Ramsay in one of his shows and, after trying it myself, I have to say it’s a very nice, very easy pasta dish that you can cook up with minimum effort. 

• For 250-300 grams of farfalle (3 portions) I used 
• 300 grams of bacon (go for pancetta if you have it, I used bacon because, in my opinion, this dish is about great results with minimum fuss)
• 175-200 grams of peas
• 150 grams ricotta
• 1 garlic clove 
• 75 grams cream
• salt
• pepper 
• olive oil

Cut your bacon into cubes and drop them in preheated pan for about 5 minutes, until they get a golden brown color. 

Add the finely chopped garlic and cook for another minute. 

Meanwhile, prepare the pasta according to the package instructions and, with 4 minutes before them being done put the peas in the water (I used canned peas that proved quite easy to cook). 

Drain your pasta-peas mix (keep a couple of tbs of cooking water just in case) and drop it on the bacon-garlic combo, then put in the cream and mix until everything starts simmering. 

Cook this whole combo to thicken it up (or add cooking water if you think it’s too thick), serve it on a plate and add small portions of the ricotta on the pasta. 

Drizzle some olive oil on top, mix in the cheese and enjoy. 

I’m not really sure if this was exactly the way Ramsay did the recipe (am I allowed to say his name on the internet? I feel like he knows… Chuck Norris style….), but you can always try and mix it up (try some sage or parsley, maybe some pine nuts). 

In all, one great easy recipe for a relaxing afternoon. Good job Mr. Ramsay! (I feel the sudden urge to shut down my computer and pull the internet cable out……)

See ya next time,
Mr. G

The Return of the Vengeful Gnocchi- Gnocchi with Spicy Seafood Ragu

The previous gnocchi recipe, with butter and sage sauce

 Guess who’s back? I really felt like eating some more of this wonderful potato pasta, so I decided to give it a try with a nice, thick, red ragu sauce. Initially, I opted for rabbit, but I couldn’t find a decent piece of meat, so we’ll leave that for another time.

Regarding the pasta, this has been done before, check it out here (it actually went better then than now).

For the sauce:

200 grams of baby squids, 

200 grams of shrimp tails, 

2 small red onions, 

3 garlic cloves, 

2 tbs of fresh thyme leaves, 

6 mushrooms (I used champignon), 

2 tbs  dark sugar, 

1tsp chilli powder, 

½ glass of medium red wine, 

salt, pepper, olive oil.

So, on medium heat cook the onions (diced), mushrooms (finely sliced) and sugar, for about 5-6 minutes then add the diced garlic, thyme and chilli and cook for another minute. Add the squids then cook those for about 10 minutes, the put in the shrimp and give that 1-2 minutes. If you’re using frozen seafood, keep in mind that the meat will shrink and it will lose a lot of weight on the fire, so you can increase your quantities. 

Ok, next pour in the wine, lower heat, and let it simmer until the sauce thickens (shouldn’t be long). In the end, pour in the pasta, and mix everything for another minute, adding more of the gnocchi water if you feel the sauce is too thick. Plate your dish, then add some more thyme leaves for an extra kick. 

The previous gnocchi recipe, with butter and sage sauce

Enjoy!

Quattro Formaggi Homemade Tagliatelle

This pasta dish is without the shadow of a doubt one of the most popular ones out there. You can find so many variations, combinations or mixes that is really hard to say which one is the best or better than others. For me, this pasta is important because it goes with my culinary beliefs about recipes: they shouldn’t restrain you into using those exact ingredients (a very valid exception: cooking sweets or pastry), but rather give you some guidelines to how to get to the end result. So, in my opinion, Quattro Formaggi means choosing the types of cheese that I feel like eating and melting them in this wonderful dish. 

For the pasta, I used 2 eggs for 200 grams of white flour, resulting into 3 (rather generous) portions. As for the sauce, 200 grams of cream (15% fat), Gruyere, Cheddar, Gorgonzola (the strong taste kind, similar to roquefort) and Brie, 150 grams of each and 2 tbs of olive oil. I just heated the oil on medium heat, added the cream, brought to a simmer the added the cubed/crumbled cheese. Stir constantly until it turns into a paste and there are no more chunks. I undercooked the pasta just enough to mix it with the sauce (heat off) for 1 minute, so the result would be some al dente tagliatelle. The only spice I used was some black pepper and I garnished the plate with some parmesan crisps. Feel free to add some basil, I wish I could have, but I was out.

So, there you, super easy pasta, that you can twist and mix to your own liking, without major problems (make sure you choose a type of pasta that melts, Mozzarella is not ok for Quattro Formaggi). You can add garlic, maybe some nutmeg or you can replace the cream with a milk and flour mix, it’s all up to you, and in my opinion, that’s the beauty of this dish.

Enjoy!