Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict

Yes, my Fiance` and I ate these today for brunch. This is his favorite breakfast dish so every once in a blue moon I like to make these as a surprise for him.
I've posted about eggs benedict before but I used prosciutto last time. Our other favorite type eggs benedict is with Smoked Salmon. I'll admit this again - it isn't the easiest thing to make - I did ruin a few egg poachings when I first tried. But practice makes perfect! This dish is probably better suited for an experienced cook, but don't be intimidated - once you get the hang of it, you will feel so proud and want to make these as much as you can.

Hollandaise Sauce:

Separate the yolk from the whites of 2 eggs in a bowl. Whisk the yolks until mixture lightens in color and add in 1 tbs of fresh lemon juice. In a small pan on low heat, lowest possible setting, melt the butter. Add in the yolk/lemon juice mixture and continue whisking quickly so the eggs don't cook. If you can, the better method is to do this with a double boiler - less risky in cooking the eggs. Add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and continue whisking until the sauce is frothy and thick. Turn off heat and serve right away or set aside on warm stove with a lid.

Eggs:
Poach your eggs.

Prepare:

Slice the English muffins and toast. Layer on 1 slice of salmon on each half. Carefully place a poached egg on top of the salmon. Top off with the hollandaise sauce.

Ingredients: For 2

• 4 poached eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 Hefty tablespoon of melted butter
• 2 whole wheat English muffins
• 4 organic smoked salmon
• Cayenne pepper
• Cracked black pepper on top

Homemade Ravioli with Taleggio Cheese

This is my mamma's Ravioli recipe. She made these with taleggio cheese instead of the classic, typical (boring) ricotta. They were so delicious that I had to share them on my blog.

To be technical, ravioli are traditionally Italian stuffed pasta, sealed with two layers of egg based dough.

You can be creative and use whatever stuffing you like (some other cheese suggestions are below).

They are somewhat a lot of work, but totally worth it. It is so rewarding eating and serving homemade pasta. Once you make it, you will know what I mean.

A simple sauce is always best with Ravioli because they already have so much flavor themselves from the stuffing - you don't want to overdo it. In these pictures, we used fresh tomato sauce. You can find my recipe of this here: Salsa di Pomodoro Fresco

Ingredients:
Dough

• 4 Eggs, beaten   (one egg per person)                                                     
• 1/2 Glass of Water
• 4-5 Cups Flour
• Pinch of Salt

Filling

• Taleggio Cheese, cut into small pieces (or you can use ricotta, fontina, asiago)
• Some Italian Parsley, chopped
• Fresh Cracked Pepper
• Mix all together and set aside      

Directions:

On your counter top, form the flour into a volcano shape and add the beaten eggs, one at a time.  Slowly add the water and salt and mix into the flour, leaving some flour on the sides for later/if not needed... Kneed into a  soft dough.  Cover the dough with a dish towel and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Next, cut the dough into about 3 inch pieces to process through your pasta machine. If you don't have one you can use a rolling pin. Make sure the dough isn't sticky - always dust flour before you roll the dough so it doesn't stick to the roller.  Make thin sheets of dough and lay them on the table or a cookie sheet, dusted with flour.

Now to make the ravioli's -  Place small amounts of filling on a sheet of dough (about 1/2 tbs), 1 inch apart. Dab water around around the cheese to help to seal the top layer. Cover with  another sheet of dough and press down around the filling. Make sure there are no air pockets.  Using a rolling cutter or a  ravioli cutter, cut the ravioli - into squares if you are using a rolling cutter like we did. Place on dry surface, dusted with flour and also add flour on top if you are not cooking right away. Semolina flour is good to use because it helps to not let the ravioli's stick together (displayed in below image).


They should look like this!

Cook in boiling, salted water until they float, let them float for about 3 minutes before removing. 

Gently remove and serve with a simple sauce... we ate these with fresh tomato sauce. -  again, you can find the recipe here.

Pappardelle with Veal Ragu

You may remember my very special posting of Osso Bucco. Well, I had a lot of left over juice/sauce/whatever you want to call it that day so I ended up freezing it, thinking I would be able to use it some how in the future. It was sooo yummy I couldn't toss it. This past Saturday we were on the verge of ordering take-out since food was scarce in the kitchen (grocery shopping was Sunday!). So, before picking up the phone and ordering pizza, I checked the freezer and spotted the sauce remains of the Osso Bucco...came up with the idea to make it into a ragu and serve it on top of the Pappardelle I had in the pantry. What a perfect pair!! I'm telling you - if you try my Osso Bucco recipe, definitely save the sauce for later use!! It was fantastic! If you want to make this sauce but not the Osso Bucco, try the same ingredients but use ground veal instead.

PS - Sangiovese is a must! We had one of our favorite vineyard specialties, Imagery Winery's Sangiovese - from Sonoma County.

After defrosting the sauce, I transferred it into a sauce pan. I warmed it up until it started to bubble and then put on low heat. The liquid was pretty thin for a pasta sauce so I thickened it up by sifting and whisking in a little bit of flour. I had a lot of sauce left over (about 5 cups worth) so I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour to thicken it.

Boil up the pappardelle in salted water....

Serve with sauce and shaved parmigiano reggiano.

Don't forget to soak up the bottom of the bowl with some bread! ENJOY!

Pork Loin with Mushroom Gravy & Crispy Potatoes

I would never in hell order pork off a menu at a restaurant nor would I crave pork like I crave a steak or something. Sounds gross. Actually, I don't think I've ever in my life said, "I want pork tonight!!" Just doesn't happen. When I think about pork, yummy salty things like bacon/prosciutto/salami/sausage come to mind...not pork loin or a real meal of food. However, tonight I established a broader horizon of protein cooking. You're probably wondering why I even chose to cook this, right? Well, these pork loins looked fresh and beautiful and I wanted to be open to cooking different types of proteins, so I figured if I pretended it was a thick piece of chicken I couldn't mess it up too bad. I have to say... not to shabby. It's definitely not something I would cook very often, because like I said, I am just not a big PORK eater. But if you are ever in an odd mood to cook pork, by all means...

Ingredients: Serves 4

• 4 Pork Loins
• 1 3/4 cups Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup White Wine
• 1/2 tbs Butter
• 4 White Mushroom Caps, sliced
• 2 tbs Flour (more or less depending on thickness)
• 2-3 Bay Leaves
• Lemon Juice
• Cracked Pepper
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Rosemary
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Season the potatoes and let cook for 30-35 minutes... while they are cooking, you can make the rest of the meal...
Let's get the gravy going first...
Bring the chicken broth to a boil. Then add in the white wine and bring to another boil, lower the flame and cook off the wine. Add 1/2 tbs butter and stir until it dissolves. Add a squirt of lemon juice. Toss in the bay leaves, rosemary, cracked black pepper and a few red pepper flakes. Toss in the mushrooms and let it simmer with the lid half on.

 

Time for the pork...

Sprinkle salt and pepper on each side. Drizzle olive oil in a saute` pan and add about 1/2 a ladle of the liquid from the gravy mixture and turn up the heat. Once the oil is hot, place in the pork loins and a bay leaf on each loin in the saute` pan. Cook on each side for about 4-5 minutes. They don't have to be fully cooked because they will finish cooking in the gravy. Remove the pork loins/bay leaves and set side on a plate, but keep any liquid in the pan.


Back to the gravy...
By now, the mushrooms should be softened. Strain the mushrooms and bay leaves from the liquid (throw away the bay leaves).
Add this liquid to the liquid remains in your saute` pan and turn on low heat. Swift flour while whisking so that no chunks of flour develop. Keep doing this until you get the thickness of gravy you desire. Add in the mushrooms and mix all together. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Once your gravy is ready, add the pork loins into the gravy and finish cooking with lid on (about 3 minutes or until meat is fully cooked).

Serve along side your potatoes and add some gravy on top!

Crispy Potatoes

I think I've mentioned this before, but Potatoes are one of my favorite foods. Although I have good self control, I can probably eat potatoes almost every day if I was a glutenous pig. The recipe I am about to write about makes a great side dish along side most proteins. It's very simple, you don't even have to be a good cook to make them. ha.

Ingredients:

• Idaho Potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt
• Cracked Black Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice the potatoes into thin-ish pieces. Example below.

Coat the bottom of your pan with olive oil so that entire pan is coated. Add the potatoes into the pan and drizzle more olive oil on them. Mix well so that each piece is well coated. Sprinkle on cracked pepper, sea salt, garlic powder, and onion powder, tossing around the potatoes after adding each ingredient.

Stick in the oven for 30-35 minutes - cook until golden brown and crispy. Make sure to mix/flip/rotate the potatoes at least twice... they will try to stick to the bottom. Be careful though - they get soft and can crumble.

Potato Gnocchi

Some people consider eating pasta cheating on their diets....I consider eating gnocchi cheating on having pasta. I love splurging with gnocchi - it is one of the best things in this world. I am bragging about gnocchi today because I made it from scratch. It was a coincidence though, very much not planned.... Bags of potatoes were on sale for $2.00 so I bought them just because. They sat in my kitchen for about a week until I felt guilty for not using them. Either I cooked a bunch of potato side dishes all week OR GNOCCHI!!! So that's how I came about making them today.

You can eat them with the sauce of your choice, but today I made my simple, basic tomato sauce and grated pecorino romano on top.  Nothing is better than simplicity with Italian food. You can find the basic sauce recipe here, which is included in my meatball blog: http://little-italian-lady.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-perfect-little-meatballs.html

Making the dumplings from scratch takes a lot of time, so make sure you do this when you have nothing else to do for a couple hours - like me today. So here is how it goes...














Scrub the potatoes and boil in their skins. Remove the skin while the potatoes are still hot - prick the potatoes with a fork to make it easier.  Mash the potatoes - I actually grated them through the thick holes of a cheese grater (the better tool is a potato ricer).

Grate so there are no chunks

Mash together the potatoes directly on your clean counter top. Add the flour, but not all - you may not need to use all of it. You can always add some later. Add a little salt. Add the beaten egg, again not all since you may not need it. Work into a smooth dough and add flour/egg as needed.

If you are making a lot of dough like me, you may want to divide it into two parts so it is easier to kneed.

 

It should look like this once ready!

Roll dough into a fat rope and divide into equal parts. Roll these sections out into smaller "sausages". Cut these sausages into small cushions using a plastic cutting tool (so you don't scratch your counter top). Roll over a gnocchi board or fork if desired - the fancy people do this, but I have no patience.

Save the gnocchi under a dish towel until used - sprinkle flour on the bottom before laying them down, or cook immediately in boiling, salted water. When they float to the surface, they are ready.

Remove from water and serve with your sauce.

Ingredients:  For 2 lbs of potato, use the below.

• 2 cups of bread flour
• 1 egg 
• A little salt