Ricotta Walnut Pesto!

How amazing does that sound? Pretty darn amazing right? RIGHT! It was a Saturday morning and I was watching all my favorite PBS shows... America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country, Ciao Italia, Avec Eric, Julia and Jacque and of course, Lidia's Italy. It was on Lidia's Italy that Lidia Bastianich was making this wonderful sounding dish. Of course I changed it up a little. Start out with 2 cups of walnuts and 5 cloves of garlic. Pulse them in the food processor (or chop by hand) until they are small pieces but not powdered.


The put them on a cookie sheet and roast at 350 for about 15 minutes. Check them because there is nothing worse than a burnt nut. Once you start to smell them roasting, they should be done or close to it. You can shake the pan around a little to make sure the nuts and garlic are roasting evenly. I don't think Lidia did this step but my thinking was that since this mainly a sauce that is not cooked, the garlic and nuts being roasted can only add another level to it. And I'm not real crazy about raw garlic.

While the nuts are roasting, get a large pot of water boiling for your pasta. I used Gemelli this time. In a large bowl, take a big handful of fresh parsley, chopped. It ends up being about 1/3 cup of parsley. 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan or Romano cheese. 3 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and do not forget to salt and pepper this! This can easily end up kind of bland. You really need to make sure you season the sauce and the pasta water.



Then add one 15 oz. container of ricotta. If you can get fresh, by all means do so. Around here, it's not always easy to come by. And being on a lighter eating regime, I opted for part skim ricotta. Mix all the ingredients together.




By this time the walnuts are probably done so remove them from the oven and allow to cool a little.



Once the pasta is done, reserve some of the cooking liquid just in case your sauce ends up being too thick. And then mix the pasta with the sauce. Add some water if necessary.


And then mix in the walnuts.



It's really wonderful. I had leftovers for several days and the nuts never got soggy.

Impromtu Manicotti

Manicotti normally wouldn't really be an impromptu meal, but I had some sauce in the freezer so suddenly it becomes a lot easier and faster to make. And as I've said before, I've been known to get a bee in my bonnet about things and lately the urge to make manicotti started buzzing in my head.

I decided to make spinach/ricotta manicotti. I already had the frozen spinach so all I really needed to buy was ricotta and the manicotti shells themselves. While I waited for the big pot of water to boil, I went ahead and defrosted the spinach in the microwave. Once that is done, make sure you drain it well. I either squeeze it out with my hands or put it in a few layers of paper towels in a ball, then squeeze the ball of spinach between the paper towels. Either way, you want it to not be watery at all. When that is done, put the spinach in a medium sized bowl and add your seasonings.... salt, pepper, red pepper flakes if you want. On this particular day I happen to have a huge bundle of fresh oregano from a friends garden, so I added that to mine.


Then add your one pound of ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese and one beaten egg. Stir well.



When the manicotti shells are very al dente, as in about only half cooked, take them out of the water and run under cold water so they stop cooking and they are easier to handle.

Take a 9 x 13 baking dish and put a good layer of sauce down on the bottom.

Coming off my cake decorating class high, I decided to use a pastry bag to fill the manicotti shells. I put quite a bit in the disposable bag and then cut a good sized hole in the tip. The hole needs to be a little bigger than you would normally make for icing a cake since you don't want spinach to get stuck in the bag. And if you don't have pastry bags, disposable or otherwise, you can always use a good sized plastic food storage bag. Just put the filling in, squeeze it to one side of the back then cut a hole in. Easy peasy :)



This made quick work of filling the shells so as each was filled, I lined them up in the pan in one layer. There was room for all of them in the pan.




Cover with more sauce... use more than you think you need. This is why we cooked the shells only half way. The sauce will cook them the rest of the way. Then top with Parmesan cheese.




Bake for 45 minutes at 350. When you remove them from the oven the sauce is soaked in and they are bubble and gooey and oh so yummy!



You can certainly add mozzarella to the top. That will just add even more cheese goodness!

Eat your hearts out!

Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta and Proscuitto

I've been holding onto this recipe for awhile, trying to decide if I wanted to make it. It sounds good and all, but I'm honestly not that crazy about cooked spinach. I love it raw in salads, but cooked, eh, not so much. But I decided to give it ago. It's a Martha recipe and if you've been reading my blog for awhile you know I run hot and cold with her recipes. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they suck. This one I'd put in between. That could be my own doing though because I do try to reduce the amount of fat that goes into my food (sometimes... don't look at pepperoni pizza meatloaf for an example of cutting calories! lol)

Start by cooking a pound of gemelli pasta. I'm sure you can use a different shape but this is what the recipe calls for, I already love the shape and I found it to be perfect for this recipe. Cook just a little less than al dente. The pasta will continue to cook in the oven. While the pasta is cooking, mix together 2 cups of ricotta cheese, 2 cups of milk, 1 (or 2, or 5) cloves of garlic chopped, about 5 - 6 slices of very thin proscuitto sliced into pieces, 2 boxes of chopped frozen spinach (thawed and then as much moisture squeezed out as possible) and salt and pepper.




Once the pasta is done, toss with the ricotta mixture and put in the 9 x 13 baking dish. Top with a little more proscuitto and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.


It really is a very simple dish and I guess if you use whole milk ricotta and whole milk, plus the best (read EXPENSIVE) proscuitto, it might be a bit tastier. As it was, I found it a little bland. I wonder if the addition of kalamata olives would help. I've been thinking that would add another nice level of flavor to it.


All in all, this was not something I would make again unless I change a lot of it. Live and learn!