PASTA AL LIMONE

 

If you have any lemons left after making  Limoncello, you may as well make some delicious PASTA AL LIMONE
When my friend joined me for an afternoon of cheese making Mrs BYF had collected all the leftover ricotta (1/2 cup) and about 1 cup of mascarpone (which had turned out a bit sour) I had made a few days ago and made a great pasta sauce. She melted the cheeses and a tablespoon of butter over a very slow heat while the pasta was cooking, added some lemon rind and a few squeezes of lemon juice, bit of salt and pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes. After adding a few spoonfuls of pasta water she added the drained pasta to the pan and served it with a generous dusting of parmigiano cheese. It was delicious and my friend wanted the recipe. As with a lot of her best dishes her passion for using the ingredients at hand it can never be repeated!

The secret is home made cheese. The ricotta we can buy here is not edible, whereas one can buy reasonable mascarpone made by Tatua. Having lovely organic lemons from a neighbour’s mum’s tree in Wellington is also an inspiration to make this simple but elegant dish.

Quail Eggs with Truffle

It will be hard to find a better light dinner than quail eggs topped with truffles and home cured salmon on the side. All washed down with good hand crafted Home Made Wine (organic and preservative free)

 

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Only drink Council water if you want to get rid of worms

This makes me think of the old story about the priest whose flock had a higher than average alcohol consumption habit – a problem he could not resolve. He however thought to give it another go during his next sermon and as a demonstration at the beginning had two glasses, one filled with water, the other with wine and he dropped a couple of worms in each. At the end of the sermon he pointed out to the congregation that the worms in the water was still wriggling whereas those in the wine were dead.  Hopefully, he asked the attendees what conclusion could they come to from this and soon an old gentleman in the front row rose to a stand and said ” Yesh, to get rid of worms in ones intestines one should avoid water and drink a lot of wine”

Yesterday was cheese making day and  I discovered that I had no home made distilled water to re generate the frozen starter cultures. Instead I used tap water, with disastrous results. The milk would not even begin to form curds. After a lot of soul searching, I concluded that DCC must have put such a lot of chlorine and whatever other chemicals in the water (after the water contamination scare of last week) that their water obviously killed any bacteria, enzyme and other living matter in my cultures and in the milk. I took half a day and made some distilled water and tried to make cheese again, but now using CLEAN water – eureka!  Perfect cheeses made for the cheese safe!

Needless to say, as always, I am not surprised at the poor state of health of the general population. Agricultural pollution, faulty pipes, and bad government all contribute to polluted drinking water.  I can only imagine what the chemically laden dirty water does to our gut fauna and flora and subsequent health.

ONLY drink council water if you want to get rid of worms – I have already ordered my rainwater tank.

 

2017-08-31 - Polluted River

Cappelletti Romagnoli di Magro

I invited a few friends over and had to decide on a Primi Piatti as I had all the other courses sorted. After a walk in the garden and an inspection of the fridge, I decided on Capelletti Romagnoli di Magro. Cappelletti means little hats.

This is little hat shaped filled pasta. On holy days conservative Catholic households would normally not eat meat and this meatless pasta is a favorite in many households on such occasions. This is generally what is meant by magro (direct translation means thin or lean) and in this instance it refers to be without meat.

Standard pasta dough is made using only flour and eggs – nothing else. The dough is rolled out and cut into 60 mm squares and filled with the filling, then boiled in brodo (stock) and served with sage butter poured over it and dressed with lots of grated parmigiano.

The filling

Blanch 500 g fresh spinach and cut very fine. Mix the spinach with 150 g ricotta cheese and 100 g of mozzarella cheese. Also ad a pinch of nutmeg and salt. Set aside until needed.

The pasta

Plain white flour mixed with enough beaten egg to make a pliable soft dough. Roll out very thin and cut into 60 mm squares.

Place one teaspoon of the filling on the centre of each square and fold over to form a triangle sealing the edges with some egg. Wrap each trianlgle around your index finger and join two of the corners together with some more egg. Fold the third corner over to form the hat.

Bring some strong brodo (stock) to the boil and dump the cappelletti into the broth. When they float, leave for another 1 minute and remove with a slotted spoon. Serve immediately while still hot (in pre heated bowls) and pour over some melted sage butter (not burned) and black pepper and dress with parmigiano. Keep the brodo and tomorrow re heat it and ad a handful of risoni to make a wonderful lunch.

ENJOY and do not forget the home made red wine!!