Archive for the 'pasta' Category
I’m just finishing up an article on the subject of picnic food for the summer issue of a Toronto kids’ magazine, and in it one of my menu suggestions is a heartier version of pasta salad - one made with stuffed tortellini instead of the usual rotini or penne or whatever. The recipe says cheese tortellini, but when I ran over to Safeway to buy some so I could take a photo, they had smoked chicken tortellini (just the Safeway brand - I’d pull out the package to refer to, but when I went to boil them I turned on a burner, changed my mind and used another burner, turned the first one off and then mindlessly set the plastic package down on top of it) so I bought that instead (it looks identical to the cheese version, so you won’t be able to tell in the photo anyway), and a package of feta. Boiled the tortellini, ran it under cold water and drained it, then tossed it in a bowl with a drained can of red kidney beans, a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes, a handful of crumbled feta and a couple spoonfuls of pesto (on account of it being W’s magic elixer; also flavorful and works instead of vinaigrette, and won’t spoil as easily as mayo-dressed pasta salads in the hot sun). I left half in the fridge to marinate, and packed the other half to bring on our impromptu road trip to Banff. It was perfect to pick at in the car, and when we got to the hotel we found it has a little fridge! So W picked at it in the bath, lining the tortellini up along the edge of the tub, I picked at it at the little hotel-room desk, and I just noticed it’s past dinnertime (the boys are at the pool) and we don’t really have a plan. Chances are, the tortellini (it’s still not finished) and assorted car snacks will suffice.
I did take photos. But it seems I can’t upload them on my laptop… you’ll have to wait!
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March 25 2008 | beans and one dish and pasta and salads | 1 Comment »
I know, I know. What sane person makes cannelloni from scratch for dinner on a regular Wednesday night?
Someone who became frustrated with the bulky stack of fresh pasta sheets congesting her deep freeze and hastily pulled them out yesterday, thinking she’d come up with some brilliant use for them.
I’ve never actually made cannelloni. When I assisted at a pasta class with Lina several months ago, she left a whack of pasta sheets behind, which they didn’t want to store in the fridge at the Cookbook Company, so I took home. Since then, they have been taking up valuable space in the frozen food section. About a month ago I taught another class with her, at which she demonstrated how to make cannelloni. Seemed easy enough - in the class we stirred together ricotta and thawed frozen spinach, spooned it down the long edge of a pasta sheet, rolled it up, cut it and baked it with pasta sauce poured overtop. I dug around the fridge and voila! A half container of ricotta; luckily it has a lengthy shelf life. I consulted a few websites and noticed that most didn’t bother adding an egg to stabilize their cheese fillings, so I didn’t. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything green - spinach or chard - in the fridge or freezer, but I did dig out a baggie of frozen roasted red pepper (roasted red pepper freezes beautifully, and is perfect to stash in baggies for emergency pizza toppings, salads, and dips), which I chopped and added to the ricotta along with salt and pepper, amusedly imagining how totally gourmet my slap-together dinner was going to sound when I posted it. It’s funny how everything sounds fancier when you spell it out.
I also pulled out two small Italian sausages that weren’t substantial enough for much else than pasta sauce. After thawing them I mildly regretted having bothered, but they were already thawed so I quickly cooked them up and poured the tomato sauce over top.
So the rolled cannelloni, which I filled, rolled up, didn’t use anything to seal, then trimmed and cut widthwise into thirds (I trimmed because it seemed to be I didn’t want the pasta to be three-ply…) and set in a baking dish in a puddle of tomato sauce to keep them from sticking, then poured the rest of the sauce overtop. Although most cannelloni appears to be baked at that point, I saw it as an opportunity for a cheesy mozzarella top; the kind that gets the crusty corners and dark bits. So I scattered the top with cheese and baked it at 375 for about half an hour, until it was bubbly and the pasta was soft. Yum.
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March 19 2008 | pasta | No Comments »
Today I was asked to come cook at an organic wine festival at Willow Park, so the boys were left to their own devices. Luckily, last night I found myself with a chopped zucchini (more action for yesterday’s TV camera) that needed to be used before it withered. I let W practice his chopping with it - zucchini are perfect for this, being nice and soft, but not rolly like a mushroom. Yes, I realize I posted a photo of my 2 year old using a knife, and not even a plastic one. He knows the difference, and won’t be duped by plastic. He wants to use the big chef’s knife, so this isn’t a bad compromise. I’m right there beside him, watching his little fingers (isn’t it cute the way he holds the zucchini slice in place with his index finger?) so that they don’t make it into the sauce. Plus, he’s actually eating raw zucchini, taking an interest in preparing dinner, and learning knife skills. So I think the benefits outweigh any potential danger, don’t you?
All we did was saute up the zucchini, a red pepper that was also starting to go wrinkly, and a handful of mushrooms in a drizzle of canola oil with a few smashed cloves of garlic. (This was all being done in the 10 minutes that the salmon took to cook.) I poured over a can of tomato sauce, it simmered while we ate and when it cooled, I put it in a yogurt container in the fridge in case of emergency. The great thing about chunky pasta sauces is that they balance chunky pastas well, which are much less messy for W to eat. Also, I think chunky pastas (like rotini, penne, etc.) are better in tweed (whole wheat) than spaghetti. (Brown rice pasta is a good alternative if you want to maintain that smooth mouthfeel.)
P.S. Steve, I’m so sorry! I just saw your comment that the cocoa was mysteriously missing from the ingredient list in my low fat brownie recipe. Sorry about that. Back at day 39 I hadn’t yet figured out how to cut and paste recipes into my blog post without having to go through and hand edit out all the tags… it must have accidentally been deleted.
Mea culpa.
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March 14 2008 | one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I suppose at least my current crazy schedule is making this project more interesting. Or more dull?
Today I taught a homemade pasta class at the Cookbook Company with Lina deGaeta, master pasta-maker and the wife of the owner of the Italian Supermarket on the corner of Edmonton Trail and 20th Ave NE. (Who makes, by the way, the best pizza in Calgary - Saturday afternoons only they fire up the wood-burning oven and you can order pizza any way you like it, with real Italian ingredients and chewy, bulbous crusts.)
Tonight though, my call time to the set of It’s Just Food is 10:30pm, and we’re going to shoot all night. So I had a bit of a nap, and then, technically, it was dinnertime. Because I was assembling a sort of “lasagna” made out of fresh ravioli as a beauty shot for the show, I assembled another small one for Mike and W. (I got the idea from a cookbook put out by Real Simple magazine.)
I ate a wedge of frozen chocolate zucchini cake. That counts as dinner, right? After all, it does contain a vegetable, and was made with canola oil - a healthy fat.
Ravioli Lasagna
This is as fast and easy as it gets. The ravioli is already filled, so you don’t need to layer your noodles with filling. Also great when cooking for one – you can make individual sized lasagnas, which isn’t possible when using pasta sheets or lasagna noodles.
If you like, use any kind of cooked veg as well as or in place of the spinach – a container of roasted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant from the Italian market works especially well.
1 large jar good-quality tomato sauce
2 16-18 oz. bags fresh or frozen large ravioli - any kind
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella (or as much as you like)
½ cup grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9”x13” baking dish with nonstick spray, and spread about a third of the tomato sauce over the bottom. Lay half the ravioli in a single layer overtop. Sprinkle with the spinach and half the cheese, another third of the sauce and then the remaining ravioli, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
Serves 6.
(Low Fat) Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup strong coffee
1 zucchini, unpeeled & grated
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla and beat for 1-2 minutes, until well blended and smooth. Stir in coffee and zucchini. The batter will be fairly thin.
Pour into a bundt pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch.
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March 02 2008 | cake and dessert and freezable and one dish and pasta | 8 Comments »
Just got home. Taped the Lunchbox Meals and Salads episodes today. Mike and W ate noodles for dinner. Am feeling like a negligent Mum.
Above are two of the very best camera guys that exist - I truly can’t imagine working with better or funnier people. We have a blast, especially after the 12th hour, when we all start to get a little punchy. They were still hard at work when I left tonight. Here they are getting first crack at the Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Onions & Bacon, which went over quite well as you can imagine.
Picked through the whole day; not sure what exactly was being consumed at dinnertime. The set is totally devoid of outside light and sound - it’s like a deprivation chamber, where you can’t tell what time of day it is unless you look at the numbers on the microwave, or run across the parking lot to Starbucks. Here are a couple of the recipes I picked at most (the Mac & Cheese is Ned’s recipe - I haven’t gone through and made it more clear yet, so just wing it. It will all work out.):
Mac ‘N’ Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Bacon
This is a very hearty flavourful Mac ‘N’ Cheese Recipe, and so much better than the stuff out of the box. It is simple to do on the day you want to eat it but also great to make the night before and bake the next night or even portion it into small containers to re heat at work for lunch. It would also work cold for a picnic.
1 box dry Macaroni or penne pasta, whole wheat or regular, or really any pasta you have around your house
1 onion, white or red, thinly sliced
4-5 cloves garlic
6 strips of bacon, sliced
Mustard (Dijon works well)
Half & half cream
Cream cheese, half and half cream, pre grated mixed cheeses, like the Kraft Italian mix
To begin, in a medium sized pot cook your sliced onions in a small amount of canola oil. You need to cook them for probably 12 -15 minutes so the good deep brown in color (also called caramelized) Do not blacken the onions. After they are brown, take the onions out of the pot and add you strips of bacon, cook until they are crisp, pour off the fat, add your garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then, add back your browned onions, your half and half cream and your cream cheese. Allow the mixture to melt all together. Check for salt and pepper. At this point you can add some mustard, Dijon works very well for its sharpness. It cut through some of the richness of all the cheese and bacon etc. Then add about half or you’re mixed cheeses, your warm cooked pasta and stir thoroughly. At this point you can toss the whole mixture into a baking dish and bake in a 400 oven until golden brown and serve with a simple green salad and you have a great dinner or late lunch dish.
Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Veggies
Peanut noodles are best eaten cold, which makes leftovers perfect to keep in the fridge and take to work for lunch. You can add all sorts of fresh veggies to this dish – peppers, zucchini, bok choy, bean sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, and pea pods are all good choices.
1/2 lb. (250 g) steamed Chinese noodles or spaghetti
1/4 cup (60 mL) chicken or vegetable broth
3 Tbsp. (45 mL) peanut butter
3 Tbsp. (45 mL) soy sauce
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) brown sugar or honey
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp. (5-10 mL) grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. (2.5 mL) curry paste (optional)
2 cups (500 mL) chopped cooked chicken, pork or shrimp, or diced tofu
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 red bell pepper, cut into slices
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped peanuts (optional)
Fresh cilantro for sprinkling (optional)
Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Rinse with cold water in a colander and drain well. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and curry paste (if using) until smooth. Or instead of whisking it, shake it all up in a jar.
In a large bowl, toss the noodles, chicken, carrot, pepper, green onions, and peanut sauce. Serve in bowls sprinkled with chopped peanuts and/or cilantro. Serves 4-6.
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February 26 2008 | cheese and chicken & turkey and one dish and pasta and salads | 1 Comment »
I realized today I was starving for more vegetables. In the bleak of Calgary midwinter, that means root veg, which is fine with me. (Actually, just because the farmers’ market isn’t overflowing with produce doesn’t mean that greens, tomatoes, asparagus and the like aren’t always available year-round. But for some reason, in February I appreciate winter vegetables more.)
Hands-down my favorite way to cook vegetables of any kind is to roast them. Roasting condenses them, imparts a smoky flavor, caramelizes natural sugars, and creates crispy bits. The small amount of oil you use is the kind we should all be eating more of, and you don’t need to butter them afterwards. I don’t know why anyone bothers with steaming, unless it’s frozen peas.
This is something I came up with years ago as a way to consolidate the contents of my fridge and pantry; I have never used a recipe. This is how you make it:
Chop any number of vegetables into coarse chunks; who cares if they are of varying size, and you get some softer pieces and some blackened bits. My favorite combos include yams and/or squash, beets, red peppers, zucchini, and an entire head of garlic, separated into cloves. Drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with canola or olive oil and toss the vegetables on it. If you are using zucchini or asparagus, give the denser vegetables a head start, and add them to the pan halfway through. Same for the garlic, if you don’t like yours too dark. Don’t crowd the pan too much, or they’ll steam rather than browning properly. If you have a blackened pan, use it; darker sheets hold on to heat better and do a better job of browning things (which is why they aren’t so good for baking cookies). Roast at 450, tossing when you think of it, until they are done to your liking.
Making couscous (which is really teeny pasta bits) is as easy as making instant oatmeal: pour 1 1/4 cups boiling water over 1 cup of couscous (regular or whole wheat) in a bowl; cover with a plate and let sit for 5-10 minutes. What could possibly be easier? And that’s not even the instant stuff. Adjust the ratio according to how much you need to make.
Fluff the steamed couscous with a fork and scrape the roasted veg into it. Crumble in as much feta as you like, and toss while everything is still warm. This would probably be fantastic with a handful of shrimp, quickly sauteed in a little oil or butter and garlic.
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February 13 2008 | one dish and pasta and veg and vegetarian | No Comments »
Oy.
Let me preface this post by publicly announcing how much I admire teachers. Seriously, bravo to you guys. My sister teaches grade 6, and I am constantly amazed by her workload; not only during the days but on evenings, weekends and holidays. I never thought I was cut out for it. That belief was confirmed today when I taught 26 teenagers (grades 6-9) a hands-on cooking class at The Cooking Room in Red Deer. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t a total blast, or that teenagers are somehow intolerable, it’s just - well, picture 26 young adults kneading yeast dough for their calzone, shaping spanikopita in phyllo pastry, frying baci di ricotta (teeny ethereal Tim Bits by way of Nigella), wrapping shrimp in prosciutto, grilling chocolate panini and rolling energy orbs and chocolate truffles, all in one room with one oven.
The funny part is - I thought we’d have time to do all this and make ravioli with wonton wrappers. Ha.
So I came home with about 300 extra wonton wrappers and a roasted butternut squash (split it in half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, drizzle with oil and bake on a cookie sheet or in your cast iron skillet at 400F for an hour) as well as half a container of leftover ricotta. (I wish I had thought of throwing a head of garlic in to roast with the squash!) The thing about wonton wrappers (the square ones - if they are round they are labeled gyoza) is that they are pretty much the same thing as fresh pasta sheets, so they make fresh ravioli dead easy. Fill them with anything you can think of; dab your finger in water and run it along two edges, then fold it over to seal, squishing out any air pockets so that they don’t turn into floatation devices when you boil them.
For the filling, I scooped out the roasted squash (you can do this in advance if you like while you’re cooking something else, and stash the squash in the fridge for a few days) and mashed it with what was left of the ricotta (not quite a cup), a drizzle of maple syrup, another of flax oil (for omega 3s) and some salt and pepper. Once the ravioli are assembled they can be frozen in a single layer and then transferred to freezer bags, or dropped into boiling water (don’t crowd the pot) for 3-5 minutes, until they float to the surface and the pasta is tender. Frozen ravioli can be boiled the exact same way, making them an even quicker supper than dried spaghetti.
For the sauce, anything goes. I pondered pesto, since W is such a fan, but really all I ever want with squash is butter. Browned butter is even better, nuttier and richer, and browning it helps make a little go a long way.
Swirl a knob of butter in a hot skillet; when the foam subsides, it will start turning golden as the natural sugars in the butter caramelize. (That’s right, butter and caramel.) Scoop the ravioli from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and drop into the hot pan, like you might with perogies. The hot pan and hot butter should keep them from sticking; shake them around a bit until they start to brown as much as you’d like them to. If you had some fresh sage, adding a few torn leaves now would be a great idea. Pour it all out into a shallow bowl.
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February 07 2008 | cheese and pasta and vegetarian | 4 Comments »
Apparently, recipes have always been my thing. When I was little, I enjoyed reading cooking magazines more than Owl or Chickadee. In grade 3, I told my class I wanted to be the food editor of Canadian Living magazine when everyone else wanted to be nurses and firemen and princesses. When I was old enough to babysit, I’d spend those evenings flipping through people’s cookbook collections - it was a jackpot night when I stumbled upon an old recipe box to bring to the couch while I watched Fantasy Island. I’ve always been curious about what people eat.
So I still have 4 recipe boxes full of recipe cards I hand wrote or typed out on my electric typewriter when I was a kid-slash-teenager. Willem has recently discovered them, and thinks they are the funnest toys ever. (It used to be the stacks of business cards in my file cabinet that were the funnest, but these cards are bigger.) He likes to take them out one by one and then bring them to me. Wahoo! Who needs that big wooden train set or Mr. Potato Head?
I think the events that transpired yesterday could be classified as serendipitous. I noticed while rooting through the fridge that the two containers of ricotta I bought for some reason a month ago and never used were on the verge of expiring, and ricotta ain’t cheap. But what was I going to do with 4 cups of ricotta? I didn’t have enough other stuff to make lasagna, and while Nigella’s ricotta donuts would have been fabulous (I can’t find the link on my blog… it’s there somewhere, otherwise look in Feast), making them at home for just the three of us wouldn’t have been a good idea at all.
So yesterday afternoon W brought me a recipe card, and on it was a formula for ricotta gnocchi. This is one of few recipe cards that has stuck in my mind. I remember not knowing what gnocchi was when I typed it, but it sounded like something I needed to learn. This was gnocchi you roasted in the oven, drizzling with melted butter and Parmesan cheese as you rolled them around on the cookie sheet until they turned golden and crispy all over. To this day, every time the subject of gnocchi comes up, or I see it on a restaurant menu, I think of that recipe, which I never did actually make. Until today.
It was supposed to be last night’s dinner. I quickly stirred an egg, some flour and Parmesan into the ricotta, and then noticed the mixture needed to sit for 2 hours. So it sat in the fridge for 24, and this morning I floured my hands and rolled them into little balls while Willem ate his oatmeal. The mixture was very soft despite my addition of extra flour, but that’s OK; although it was impossible to roll the dough into a rope, cut it into pieces and then roll each piece on the tines of a fork to create the traditional gnocchi shape, they made perfect little round ricotta dumplings. I imagine they would be fantastic dropped onto the surface of a simmering chicken stew - perhaps tomato-based - to cook in the broth and flavorful steam trapped under the lid.
And since I had enough chicken drumsticks and thighs to feed an army (or a radio newsroom the Friday morning before Super Bowl Sunday) I threw a few extra into my cast iron skillet, drizzled with oil, salt and pepper, and stuck it on the oven shelf above the gnocchi. Putting away the groceries I discovered a few depressed brussels sprouts, so halved them and scattered them around the chicken as it roasted, which I was happy to discover produced a plethora of crispy bits.
Ricotta Gnocchi
1 lb. (2 cups) ricotta cheese (regular or light)
1-2 eggs (the original recipe called for 2, but I only had 1 left)
1/2 cup grated mozarella or 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
3/4 cup flour
pinch salt
Butter, oil and Parmesan cheese for roasting
Stir together all the ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight.
Lightly shake some flour over the countertop and onto your hands, and roll the mixture into 1″ balls; place them on a floured cookie sheet, cover and pop in the fridge for an hour or 8, if you don’t want to cook them right away. (I imagine they would also freeze very well.)
Preheat the oven to 400F and boil a large pot of water. Drop the gnocchi in about 8 at a time (depending on the size of your pot - you just don’t want to crowd it) and boil for 3-4 minutes, or until they float to the surface. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, and put them on a rimmed cookie sheet.
Drizzle with melted butter and/or canola oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Roast in the oven, turning occasionally and sprinkling with more cheese (or drizzling with more butter or oil) if you like, until crunchy and golden.
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January 31 2008 | cheese and pasta and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I admit I spent most of the past 24 hours fantasizing about what I would have for dinner tonight. Inglewood pizza? Mu Shu pork from KamHan? Ooooh - butter chicken and fresh garlic-butter naan from the Taj Mahal!
Unfortunately, it being -300 degrees outside, our car froze solid and so all of those options flew out the window. But really, it occurred to me that after 24 hours without food, anything I eat will taste bloody fantastic, so I might as well make it something healthy. And because I was still a little dopey, Mike took over dinner duties and made spaghetti and meatballs.
The meatballs came from a stash we threw into the fridge over the holidays - once in awhile we’ll mix up a big batch, roll cookie sheet loads of meatballs, freeze them and then transfer them to freezer bags for dinner emergencies such as this. As the pasta is cooking, brown the frozen meatballs in a hot skillet, then pour the sauce overtop and simmer to warm the sauce and cook the meatballs though, while infusing the sauce with a beefy/bisony/sausagey flavor (depending on your choice of meat). These were actually bison balls - not in the prairie oyster sense, but made from ground bison, which has less than half the fat of beef. In fact, bison contains less fat than skinless chicken, turkey, or even halibut. Because it’s so lean, make sure you cook it for about a third less time than you would beef - otherwise it tends to be dry, which is the biggest issue people tend to have with it. If you’re a carnivore and think you don’t like bison, try it again.
Bison Meatballs
1 lb. ground bison
1 egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread or cracker crumbs
a bit of grated onion (optional)
a squirt of tomato paste, ketchup or barbecue sauce (about a tablespoon)
salt & pepper to taste
Mix everything together in a bowl, making sure you don’t work it too hard. Shape into 1” balls. Place on a cookie sheet and freeze, then transfer to freezer bags to store for up to 4 months, or bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes, until cooked through. To make spaghetti sauce, brown the fresh or frozen meatballs in a drizzle of oil in a hot skillet, rolling them around to brown on all sides, then pour tomato sauce over top and simmer until they are cooked through.
Makes about 3 dozen.
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January 28 2008 | bison and pasta | 3 Comments »
The biggest health risk associated with having children: leftovers. The cheesy crusts and crispy bits you clean off their plates when they don’t. When there isn’t enough to go back into the fridge, it goes into my mouth.
There were 5 of them (children, that is) around the table today, all there due to various unforeseen circumstances - Ben (who will be 5 tomorrow) had a fever last night and so was kept out of school, Emily (9) had a P.D. day, and Cole (3) and Hugo (2) were out with their mum at the giant lulu lemon sale I kept hearing about on the news, and stopped by after to say hello and play with toys.
As anyone who has ever cooked for a child can confirm, feeding children can be complicated. There are many prejudices connected with food. Plenty of fanaticism, and just as much apathy. Senses that detect color, smell, texture and general weirdness are heightened at the dinner table. I would love to see Gordon Ramsay do a reality show forcing him to feed a room full of elementary and preschool children every day - it might bring new meaning to the phrase hell’s kitchen.
Because this dinner party wasn’t planned, I didn’t have much of a variety of typically child-friendly food. Ben must have only orange cheese and eat on blue or green plates, Emily is lactose intolerant, Cole and Hugo are accustomed to familiar ingredients lovingly arranged by their mum into smiley faces and such. They all expected juice, but all I had was pomegranate, which actually went over well (we mix it with soda water to make “pink pop”.)
Fortunately (except for Emily, who can’t eat cheese), I had a package of fresh spinach and cheese ravioli - perfect for small mouths. No tomato sauce of any description (hey, we planned a shopping trip before two of these urchins arrived on our doorstep at 7am), but there were two thawed Spolumbo’s sausages (upon unwrapping them from their paper I was relieved to find they were benign turkey & cranberry - phew) which I cooked up as the pasta boiled. Once drained, I added the ravioli to the sausage pan, which had been drizzled with canola oil that took up the flavor of the meat and made it glisten more than its leanness would otherwise allow it to, and tossed it about to share the flavor and brown its edges. The last of a jar of pesto - Willem’s favorite, but apparently not Cole’s - got dribbled over the mix. (Had there only been grownups eating, I would have added a handful of baby spinach leaves and let them wilt.)
Oh right - the cupcakes. Because it’s Ben’s birthday tomorrow, something he mentioned only several thousand times over the course of the day, we came up with an activity to celebrate the occasion of Birthday Eve. What else to do but make cupcakes? Chocolate, of course, with chocolate icing and tiny colored sprinkles. The great thing about chocolate cake is that it is fantastic made with canola oil - one of the very best oils for baking and eating, providing a healthy balance of mono- and polyunsaturated fats as well as omega 3s. Cocoa delivers maximum chocolate flavor without fat, and you can usually get away with using whole wheat flour, or at least half and half, since the dark chocolate masks its color.
Chocolate Cupcakes
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (or any combination of all-purpose and whole-wheat)
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup milk or soy milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee or boiling water (I use instant decaf - it intensifies and deepens the chocolate flavor without adding fat or calories
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners (or, more realistically, 12 at a time).
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Break up any lumps of brown sugar and cocoa.
Add the milk, oil, eggs and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the coffee and beat on low speed just until blended. The batter will be thin.
Divide the batter among the tins, filling them about 2/3 full, and bake for 25 minutes, until the tops are springy to the touch. Tip them a bit in their pans to let the steam escape and help them cool. Wait until they are completely cool before frosting them. These are delicious absolutely plain. Makes 2 dozen.
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January 24 2008 | dessert and one dish and pasta and snacks and sweet stuff | 2 Comments »
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