Earlier this year, we happened to stop for lunch in a popular noodle shop near the University of Washington in Seattle. We had the simple udon noodle soup, which made for a nice, filling meal that gave us the energy to walk back to our B&B over in the Capital Hill area (for those who don’t know Seattle, that’s about 3 miles, not super far). And, over the months, we thought off and on about buying some fresh udon noodles at the local Asian supermarket, but we never could decide which ones. There are literally dozens of brands/styles/types; we felt overwhelmed, and wished there were something like a sign indicating which noodle would be for people who don’t know anything about Asian-style noodles. So, we just went without. At least, until now.
Continue reading “Handmade Udon Noodles”Pear, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Agnolotti
Before we go further, please note that we won’t cover how to make agnolotti (the easiest filled pasta shape ever) in this post. Yes, we know that it’s in the title, but, this post is really about making the filling for the agnolotti, not making the agnolotti itself. If you think this is unfair, rest easy; we have a tutorial on shaping agnolotti (and instructions for a whole bunch of other shapes of pasta), so you can make them, too.
Continue reading “Pear, Gorgonzola, and Walnut Agnolotti”Ricotta Gnocchi
Do you like gnocchi, but don’t want to go to all the trouble of baking potatoes, ricing them, and then making gnocchi? Do you wish you could just mix a few ingredients together and have done with it? Would you like to have delicious gnocchi available for quick and easy dinners? Well, this is the recipe for you. Plus it makes enough that you can turn a few minutes of work into multiple meals.
Continue reading “Ricotta Gnocchi”Broccoli and Asiago Agnolotti with Mushrooms
We have no idea if this is anything close to a traditional Italian pasta; we’ve never seen pasta filled with broccoli and Asiago cheese. Even so, we think this dish fits the spirit of an Italian staple. It’s pasta, for one, but, more importantly, it happens to use a few other ingredients that we had in excess. From what we see in traditional Italian recipes, they make do with what they have and try not to waste food. To us, it sounds as if Italians might be the original scratchers.
Continue reading “Broccoli and Asiago Agnolotti with Mushrooms”
Gemelli with Glazed Delicata Squash and Hazelnuts
We were excited to see a Delicata squash as one of the items in our most recent CSA share pickup. For those who haven’t had one, these are a full-flavored winter squash, but the skin is very delicate and edible, making it an easy squash to prepare. Last time we had a Delicata squash, we roasted it with spices and sesame seeds. You can read about that recipe in the Squash Half-Moons with Butter, Sesame, and Salt post. This time we needed to bulk up the amount of food as this would be our main course for dinner, so we put together a little dish that included pasta.
Continue reading “Gemelli with Glazed Delicata Squash and Hazelnuts”
Hand-Rolled Couscous
The other day, someone asked why we don’t make more dishes that involve couscous. To which we could only reply, “We don’t know. We just don’t. We don’t even think much about couscous.” Now, all you couscous lovers out there are probably thinking that we’re missing out on something great, and, perhaps, we are, so we decided to find out.
Gemelli and Peas with Hazelnut Gremolata
We got a big bunch of parsley in our CSA share, and we generally don’t use a huge amount each week, so we were afraid that it might just go bad and we’d have to toss it. We didn’t want that, so we searched our memory banks and remembered that some sort of sauce or paste is made mainly from parsley. What is it? Oh yeah, gremolata. Naturally, we looked it up just to be sure, and, yes, it’s basically parsley, lemon zest, and garlic. Well, we can do that.