Penne Alla Vodka

It might be the drop in temperature that awakened my carb-cravings. I have been thinking about penne alla vodka for days and finally I got all the ingredients.

There were several versions of this dish in Cooks Illustrated but I went straight to the "Penne Alla Vodka" recipe. Another day I might try other versions. Although it took me several attempts to acquire all the ingredients, it really was a simple recipe that involves mostly kitchen stables such as whole peel tomato, tomato paste, onion, garlic, heavy cream, basil, onion, garlic and chili pepper. Oh wait, and some high quality vodka.

The result was amazing. Given the simplicity of the recipe, I wasn't expecting much, but WOW, it was tasty! My girls even thought it was their beloved baked ziti. Now why would I go through all the trouble and calories to make baked ziti if I can spend 30 minutes for a tasty and hearty penne alla vodka! I highly recommend this recipe!

Now that I have my very first bottle of vodka, what should I do! I am seeing apple pie with a special dough involving vodka!

Spinach Pasta with Alfredo Sauce

I had some baby spinach that didn't look good enough for a salad anymore so I decided to make some spinach pasta.

The pasta recipe came from a cooking class and included:

2 cups of all purpose flour
2 eggs
3 oz of spinach blanched and pureed

Not all the flour got incorporated into the dough; however I had to add lots of flour back during the rolling step to prevent sticking. My pasta maker rolled out sheets beautifully but the fettuccine cutter was broken. I ended up cutting the pasta into 1/2 x 2 inch strips so that my baby girls could eat them easily.

The Alfredo sauce was made based on a Cooks Illustrated recipe. It seemed extremely unhealthy: cream, butter, cheese plus seasoning. The dish was quite a hit with the husband but I found it way too rich for my taste. My baby girls were intrigued by the green noodles initially but felt full pretty soon.

Overall this was a fun experience. I suspect that the consistency and texture of the pasta cannot really be described in a recipe and I might have to take a pasta making class again if I want to make it better. Alfredo sauce really isn't my favorite, so I shall also try a healthier sauce next time!

Healthy Pasta Sauce

One of my cousin brought her "homemade" spaghetti to my huge BBQ event back in June. It was different from the regular spaghetti and meat sauce we have normally and it was nostalgic. It reminded me the flavor of "Italian pasta" back when I was a kid in Taiwan.

I tried to replicate my cousin's recipe with some convenient modifications:

Diced Onion
1 Clove of garlic, minced
4 tomatoes, skin removed, seeded and finely diced
6 oz grounded Berkshire pork
1 medium carrot
Half zucchini
Soy sauce
Sugar
Rice wine
Black pepper and salt
Red pepper flakes
Parmesan cheese
Milk
1 Bay leaf
Cooked pasta

1) Marinade grounded pork with soy sauce, rice wine and sugar for ~ 30 minutes
2) Brown pork in a pot and separate into small chunks. Remove pork from the pot.
3) Using the oil from pork to saute onion over medium high heat until translucent. Sautee carrots and zucchini until lightly browned.
4) Add diced tomato and bay leaf into the saute vegetable mix. Bring to a boil and simmer for ~ 20 minutes.
5) Add browned pork to the tomato sauce, bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes
6) Test the sauce and season with salt, red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese. If the sauce is too acidic, add milk
7) Add sauce to cooked and strained pasta and season again.

Since I don't put in much dry herbs, the fresh vegetable flavor is much more apparent. There is a whole lot of chopping compared to the canned tomato recipes, but it's worth all the work. The result is tasty, healthy and just the way I like it.

Spaetzle

I had the strongest craving for dough today.... sent husband to pick up Chinese dumplings on the way home and I started making spaetzle. My original plan was to follow the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen; however, I did not have 7 eggs. I consulted three sources: the Smitten Kitchen, the Cooks Illustrated and the City Tavern Cookbook. I decided to try my most trusted Cooks Illustrated recipe for spaetzle, followed by the chilling step and saute instruction from the Smitten Kitchen after seeing that the City Tavern Cookbook took similar steps too.

Note: The Cooks Illustrated recipe said to put boiled spaetzle into a warmed and butter bowl whereas the other two sources instructed to put cooked spaetzle in an ice bath and tossed with oil.

Here's what I did:

1) Mixed the ingredients for the batter and let it sit for 10 minutes
2) Prepared an ice bath and a bowl with a small amount of olive oil
3) Scraped a small amount of the batter through a colander using a hard spatula into a boiling pot of water (lightly salted)
4) Took out the floating spaetzle and dunked into an ice bath, followed by a light toss in the oiled bowl
5) Melted a small amount of butter in a pan and saute the spaetzle until lightly golden. Sprinkled with chopped parsley

The process of scraping the batter through a colander was very labor intensive. I was not sure if everything was done right, but the consistency of the batter was very stretchy. It was hard enough moving the batter from one bowl to another, let alone pushing it through little holes to form little long strings of noodles. Fortunately, the spaetzle turned out great. I loved the nutmeg flavor in the spaetzle and the texture was awesome. The husband loved it.

So, I've already order me a spaetzle maker and will definitely make spaetzle again. It would be so cool if I could make spaetzle the good old fashion way, but I think I will spend my time looking for good sauces to go with the spaetzle.