Eggplant Parma-Lasagna: The Recipe

Oops, I forgot to post this recipe yesterday as promised. But, after finishing up the leftover for lunch today I was reminded how good it really was and wanted to make sure I share it.

1 eggplant
1 egg
1 cup breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups cooked pasta such as campanelle, fusilli, or rotini
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated cheese mozzarella*
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cut eggplant into cubes. Place cubes in a colander in a bowl and toss with salt. Set eggplant aside for at least half and hour. Rinse eggplant and dry it a clean dishtowel.

In a medium sized bowl, lightly beat an egg. Add eggplant to bowl and toss to coat each cube. Remove eggplant, leaving the excess egg. Place eggplant in a bowl with breadcrumbs and toss to coat.

Preheat a frying pan. Add olive oil and then place breaded eggplant cubes into the pan. Discard excess breadcrumbs. Sauté eggplant until it is light golden brown on all sides. Remove from pan and allow to drain on a paper-towel lined plate.

In a large bowl add eggplant, pasta, tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and half of the mozzarella. Toss to thoroughly combine all ingredients, and then place in a nine-inch square-baking dish. Top with the additional mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until the top is brown.

* Gouda is what I used this week, but if I were making this dish from specifically, I'd go for the traditional lasagna fixing.

How to Form Tortellini

Here are two ways to shape homemade tortellini.

Tortellini with all ends sealed

• Roll out pasta dough to approximately 1 inch wide
• Find the half way mark on the sheet of pasta
• Place 1 teaspoon of filling, on the first half of the pasta sheet, leaving half an inch between each
• Fold the second half of the pasta sheet over the side with the filling
• Press down the pasta between each clump of filling, and then seal the edges in the top on the bottom
• Cut the pasta into one-inch squares
• Pick up one square and place it diagonally on your finger, pinching together to opposite ends
• Pull the top end over the top of your finger and press together with the other sealed ends
• Take the bottom corner and pull it over your finger with the other sealed ends
  

Tortellini with a little tail

• Cut the dough into one-inch squares,
  
• Placing the dough in the center
• Folding the dough diagonally to form a triangle
• Pinching two ends of the pasta together around your finger
  

Homemade Mushroom Ravioli

Since making this dish on Thursday night, I haven't stopped thinking about it. It was that good. And, it's not just me who liked them. After eating the raviolis my dinner guests went out and bought their own pasta maker!

Makes 16 1 and 1/2 inch round raviolis
Special equipment needed: pasta maker

Pasta
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup water

Whisk together flour and salt. Place on a board and make a well in the middle. Add egg yolks, olive oil, and water. Using a fork, gently mix the liquids into the flour. When the dough comes together, form it into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. The dough should rest at room temperature for at least one hour. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight.

Filling
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 pound mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons Sherry
1 cup ricotta
Salt and pepper

Finely mince onion and garlic. Finely chop mushrooms. Add olive oil to a medium-sized frying pan. Sweat onions and garlic in oil until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and sauté for five minutes, until mushrooms have cooked down to about half of their original volume. Deglaze the pan by adding the Sherry and using a wooden spoon or the tip of a pair of tongs to scrape all of the brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Allow Sherry to evaporate. Remove from the heat. When cool, mix in ricotta and season with salt and pepper. Set aside until the ravioli is ready to stuff.

Forming the Ravioli
Cut the dough into four pieces. Following the instructions on your pasta maker, roll out one piece of dough at a time. (Note: To get the right thickness on my pasta maker, that mean rolling the dough to the second to last thickness.) On half of a sheet of pasta, add one tablespoon of filling every inch and a half. Fold the second half of the pasta over the filling. Cut with a biscuit cutter. Dip your fingers in water and press around the ravioli to seal the edges. Be sure that all of the air is removed from between the layers of pasta and no filling is poking through the edges, which can cause a "blow out."

Place ravioli on a baking sheet lined with a clean dishcloth. Sprinkle semolina flour or polenta to keep the raviolis from sticking. Cover with another clean dishcloth and set aside until ready to use. The raviolis can also be frozen at this point.

To cook, bring 2 quarts of well-salted water to a boil. Place raviolis in the water and cook for four minuets. Drain.

Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
Pepper

Return ravioli to the pot. Add butter, olive oil, and parsley. Gently toss until all of the ravioli is coated. Place in serving dish and sprinkle with Parmesan. Season with pepper.

Macaroni and Cheese

Though food historians credit the Italians for inventing macaroni and cheese, and the English for developing a casserole of baked pasta and Cheddar, in my mind mac 'n' cheese is an American dish through and through.

This is my favorite macaroni and cheese recipe, which is based on one from Epicurious.com. The breadcrumbs make a wonderful garlicky, crispy top.

1/2 loaf white bread
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound cavatappi or cellentani pasta*
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups cream
3 cups whole milk
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
1 cup grated Gouda
1 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a baking dish. (My dish is 8x6 and 4 inches deep. This recipe also works well in a standard 9x9 Pyrex dish.)

To make the garlic breadcrumbs, remove the crust from the white bread. Grate the bread using the fine side of a box grater. Finely mince garlic. Sauté garlic in a large frying pan. Add breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper. Toss until the garlic is incorporated and the breadcrumbs are lightly toasted, about three to five minutes.

Cook pasta in well-salted boiling water until al dante. Drain and return to the pot.

Make white sauce by melting butter in a medium pot. Whisk in flour. Add milk, cream, and nutmeg and whisk until the butter/flour mixture is completely incorporated. Bring to a boil, and then remove from the heat.

Pour the white sauce over the pasta, add cheeses, and mix together. Taste, then season with salt and pepper. Pour pasta into the baking dish. Add the breadcrumbs to the top. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until breadcrumbs are golden brown.

* Hollow, corkscew pastas. If unavailable, elbow macaroni can also be used.

Tortellini With Spring Peas and Herbs

I love peas with tortellini — they just seem to nestle in the nooks perfectly. Also, since quark is my new obsession I want to use it in everything.

1 cup peas
½ pound cheese tortellini
1 medium sized red onion, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup herbed quark or yogurt cheese

Salt and pepper

In a pot of salted, boiling water, blanch peas in a colander of steamer until they turn bright green. Remove peas and run under cold water to stop them from cooking.

In the same pot of water, cook tortellini according to package instructions. When finished, drain and return to the pot. Add peas, olive oil, and quark and gently toss to the pastas. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

(Serves 4 as a side dish.)