The BFD Food Column: Pasta Blaster into Nostalgia…

I hope success was had by those who tried my pasta longo recipe and chapeau to those who had a go at the sauces on shop-bought pasta. 

All cooking is a sum of the right tools, comfy and organised workspace, experience and last but not least enthusiasm for new things and that old attention to detail. This week we shall carry on with pasta and use the longo sheet pasta to try some al forno (in the oven) favourites, lasagna and cannelloni: foods, strangely enough, I have not had that much to do with since opting out of the restaurant trade.

Both the above items were very much in demand in the day, favourites of the punters frequenting my restaurants. Not so much for me at home (when I spend all week cooking); perhaps they are a bit too much work for an unencumbered couple (Moi and Merav) to put together for an evening of simple casual culinary fun. That said, both of the following recipes are very tasty and unique, and I highly recommend that you give them a go.

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This week’s photos of the food and its production are mostly from the late nineteen nineties, Kodak or Agfa celluloids and effects, non-digital snaps of the production of lasagne verde and cannelloni with sweet potato and ginger filling. Time and place, memories of real blood sweat and tears, days gone by at Al Dente Jerusalem and Pasta Centro near Caesarea, I will never forget them, but wouldn’t want to relive them. 

The lasagna and cannelloni I will make out of spinach pasta. The quantities are below, the method is the same as for the white egg pasta in last weeks post.

Spinach Pasta:

Ingredients:

Durum flour x 210 gram

White flour 00 x 90 gram

Eggs x 135 gram + 1 egg

Spinach blanched and squeezed dry x 50 gram before blanching

Olive oil x 8 gram

Salt x 5 gram

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Lasagna Verde Alla Neapolitana (good for 4 servings)

This is a super classic (or super Classico) lasagna from Naples assembled with products that are red, white and green as per the colours of the Italian flag. Contrary, nice touch never the less, with salsa Rosa, ricotta mix with dry cheeses separated by the green pasta.

Salsa Rosa:

As per the recipe and method in last week’s post. Remember if you make too much salsa rosa don’t fret, freeze it.

Ricotta Mix:

Fresh ricotta x 500 gram

Fresh 38% heavy cream x a small shluk

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste (bit at a time)

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Method:

With a fork mix all the above ingredients together, taste for nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Dry cheese mix:

Parmigiano 150 gram

Yellow cheese 150 gram

Mozzarella 150 gram

Salt and pepper

Grated nutmeg to taste

Method:

Grate into a bowl all the cheeses, season to taste with salt and pepper and nutmeg.

Prepare salsa rosa as per the recipe from last week.

Prepare 500 gram ricotta sheet spinach pasta rolled through at #2 and cut into strips of 4 cm wide and 15 cm long. Use a pot of boiling water with salt and a bowl with ice and water and a little olive oil to stop the sheets sticking. The pasta has to be rolled through the pasta machine twice at number two before it goes into the boiling water for about 20 seconds and then into ice water and then pat dry. I’m making individual servings in an ovenware bowl about 20 centimetre across. 

A small amount of red sauce in the bottom of the bowl, three strips of parboiled pasta in the bottom, then red sauce, covered by ricotta mix and sprinkled with dry cheese mix. Repeat this doing 3-4 layers. Finish on top with red sauce, ricotta and dry cheese. Into a preheated 200 Celsius oven for about 25 minutes. “Al F….’ng” great. Careful not to burn the roof of your mouth with the molten mix in the lasagna.

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Cannelloni Sweet Potato and Ginger with Cream and Parmesan Sauce  (Good for 4 Servings)

This was a favourite in my first Restaurant Al Dente. Of course, cannelloni can be stuffed with almost anything and I assure you it was in the day, it also remained a regular feature on the Specials Board. This one however was always appreciated by the punters for being a little rischioso (risky in Italian) in its tastes and presentation.

Ingredients for filling:

Two good sized kumara (sweet potato)

Thumb of ginger peeled and grated

150 gram mascarpone or cream cheese

Zest of one lemon

Handful of grated parmesan

A handful of dry toasted pine nuts (toast on a very low flame, tossing often, pay attention as these guys burn “chick chack”).

Grated nutmeg to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Method for filling cannelloni:

Scrape out the flesh of the baked sweet potato into a bowl, using a fork; mix all of the above ingredients together including the toasted pine nuts. Taste for salt, pepper and nutmeg. The pasta should be blanched as was done with the lasagna. Take the blanched pasta that has been chilled and dried, lay out on the table and put a dollop of filling at the centre of the pasta square, roll as tightly as you can and place with seam down

Ingredients for Cream and Parmesan Sauce

38 % cream 500 ml

Grated parmesan good handful

Salt & pepper to taste

Grated nutmeg small pinch

Method for Cream and Parmesan sauce:

Cream in medium-sized pan, medium to low heat. Once the cream starts boiling reduce to minimum and slowly add the parmesan, using a whisk to ensure the parmesan melts and combines. Add salt and pepper to taste along with a very small amount of freshly grated nutmeg. Once combined remove from the heat.

This cannelloni can be either cooked in the oven 12-15 minutes at 200 C, or very quickly in the more modern “Al Forno la Microonda” which is Italian for microwave, something most of us use more and more these days at home. Two to three cannelloni per serving is more than enough. 

Either way, smear cream sauce over the cannelloni to keep the pasta from drying out. Two to three minutes in the microwave and another minute for heating extra sauce to pour over the cannelloni for serving. Decorate with something green, extra pine nuts and sultanas.

As the chill of winter lingers into lambing season and beyond, the next post will be a couple more very tasty soups to keep us warm and try and coax soups back onto the pedestal of fashionable. The soup, once a fixed course within the scheme of dining etiquette, has slipped down the rungs heading to the quaint or perhaps even worse, oblivion.