Sausage & Mozzarella Stuffed Tortelloni w/ Tomato Spinach Cream Sauce

In an attempt to restart this blog, I am focusing on taking time on the weekend to cook more involved meals. This morning I had a desire to work on a meal over several hours; nothing too complex, but requiring time to develop.

First, I wanted to start a simple sauce that also brought some depth to the dish as a whole.

Place sauce pan over medium heat. In three tablespoons of butter, saute onions and garlic (with a heavy pinch of salt) until translucent. Add some white wine and reduce. Add tomatos and spinach with olive oil, another pinch of salt, tablespoon of freshly ground pepper, and tablespoon of crushed red pepper. After 15 minutes reduce heat to low and allow to simmer. After some time add cream and continue over medium-low heat.

For the tortelloni, take one and three-fourths cups flour, with one teaspoon salt and sift onto counter. Make a crater in the center and crack two eggs into middle. Bring dough together by incorporating flour slowly into eggs. After mixed, kneed. Let dough sit for 15 minutes in ball. Roll out pasta and let dry on a rack while the filling is made.

The filling is simple, in a food processor incorporate equal parts mozzarella and sausage (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup each) with a pinch of salt and drizzling of olive oil. Lay out pasta and place stuffing intermittently down the length (approximately every inch and a half). Cut between filling with pizza cutter. Wet edges of pasta with water and seal by brining two opposite corners together. Seal into triangle, then pinch two opposite corners together to form completed tortelloni. Boil in salted water until pasta floats to the top. Take cooked pasta and toss with sauce. Let cook for a few minutes further if necessary. Add parmesan to taste and serve.

The bane that is risotto

Long time, no post.

Yesterday was my third attempt at making risotto. The first time I thought I could just by some arborio rice, throw a little wine in there and some chicken stock and stir. It was a failure of intangible proportions. The rice was hard, there was no creaminess to it, and there was way too much salt if I remember. I ate it anyway though, partly out of pride and partly out of spite. 

The second time I made it I followed the general risotto recipe out of 'The Silver Spoon', a book which always promises deliciousness, but I usually wind up underwhelmed. Maybe this is because I don't have all the fancy ingredients that they want me to use or maybe its because I make up stuff where there are gaps in the recipes. I did develop a nice creaminess and the flavor was okay (too much rosemary), but the rice was still somewhat hard in the middle after over an hour of adding stock and stirring. Maybe it was the rice, I dunno. 

The third time was a modest success despite the fact that I screwed up a step of Alton Brown's Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto. The recipe was obtained out of AB's second Good Eats cookbook (thanks should be directed to my girlfriend for the wonderful birthday present). I forwent the asparagus, which really let the mushrooms do their magic. The only part I messed up was the initial braising (is that correct terminology?) of the rice. I was supposed to translucitize the rice on a much lower heat than I did. It certainly worried me that I messed up yet another risotto dish. 

BUT I DIDN'T!

It turned out quite good. Some of the rice was a bit gummy still, but next time I swear I will get it right!

Sourdough

So I am using Alton Brown's recipe for sourdough bread using a dutch oven.

I don't have a scale so I did the flour by volume. Also my yeast is six months past expiration. Interesting results forthcoming...

UPDATE!

I definitely did not have enough flour in the initial mixture. It was like soup after the 19 hour setting session. After pouring it out on the cutting board I probably doubled the amount of flour that I originally had in the mixture. I let it set and threw it in the oven. Right now it's cooling down, but it looks alright.

We will give it a taste either in a little bit or tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers folks!

UPDATE!

Its a little dense, but it turned out surprisingly well for having to wing the flour!

New Cast-Iron!

So, I finally bought a cast-iron dutch oven. I've had a skillet for a while and greatly enjoyed cooking with it, so I've been thinking about getting a dutch oven for the past few months.

My first experience cooking with the dutch oven was in making a pork pot roast with red potatoes.

Here is the recipe:

1 tbsp. of bacon grease
~3lb. Pork roast
Salt
Pepper
2.5 cups of water
1 tbsp. freshly ground cumin
1 tbsp. freshly ground rosemary
1 medium onion thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 to 1.5 lbs. red potatoes, quartered

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Season all sides of pork roast with salt & pepper
3. Over medium-high stove, heat bacon grease in dutch oven for a minute or so
4. Sear all sides of roast, ~1 minute per side
5. Add onion and garlic to pot & allow to simmer
6. Add potatoes to pot
7. Season contents of pot with cumin and rosemary mixture
8. Pour water into pot ensuring potatoes are nearly covered
9. Place in oven for 1 hour

Optional:
After cooking the broth can be made into a delicious gravy by adding a roux. To do so, take roast and potatoes out of pot & place on a plate. Cover with tin foil to retain heat. Mash any onions and garlic that remain solid in the bottom of the pot. Add roux until desired consistency is met.

Enjoy!