Lemon Spaghetti

We are very fortunate to have some wonderfully talented people in our lives, and one such person happens to be Doug Braun, owner of Presidio Winery. Doug is passionate about producing biodynamic, sustainable wines in the Santa Barbara, CA area, and showcases his wines in his tasting room in  nearby Solvang, CA.

After talking all things wine and food recently, Doug and I decided to combine our talents with some wine and food pairings using his wine choices from the Presidio Wine Club. One of the wines for March was the 2012 Pinot Gris, a medium bodied white wine, with apple and pear fruit notes and a nice mineral finish. We tasted this wine with a couple of recipes, but this lemon spaghetti really made both the wine and the recipe shine.

The lemon flavor in the pasta really picked up the fruit in the wine, but was also not overpowered by the slight bitterness at the end. As for the pasta itself, it was a really easy recipe to make. The sauce can be mixed and the shrimp can be cooked in the time it takes the pasta to boil, and then everything is tossed together to make a delicious, easy dish perfect for busy weeknights and the upcoming warmer spring evenings.

Lemon Spaghetti with Shrimp

Adapted from Giada De Laurentis, via Food and Wine

Vegetable oil, for frying
1/4 cup capers, rinsed, drained and patted dry
1 pound spaghetti
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from 3 lemons)
1 pound large shrimp, shelled and deveined
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley ( or basil), plus more for garnish

In a skillet, heat 1/4 inch of vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the capers and fry over moderately high heat, stirring, until browned and crisp, 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the capers to paper towels to drain.

In a saucepan of salted boiling water, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking water. 
While the pasta cooks, in a medium bowl whisk 2/3 cup of the olive oil with the grated cheese, lemon zest, ¼ tsp.salt (or to taste), and 1/3 cup of lemon juice. Reserve remaining lemon juice to add as needed for taste.

In a very large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil until shimmering. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper, add to the skillet and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until just opaque, about 5 minutes total. Reduce the heat to moderate and add the pasta, lemon sauce, half of the reserved pasta water and the 1/2 cup of parsley. Cook, tossing, until the pasta and shrimp are coated, 2 minutes, adding more of the pasta water if the spaghetti is dry; transfer to shallow bowls, garnish with parsley and the fried capers and serve.

printable recipe
 

Notes:

Lemons vary in acidity and flavor. Start with 1/3 cup of juice add more to bring up the flavor if necessary. 
 If you don't do shrimp this would be just as good as a side dish with grilled chicken or scallops.

The original recipe called for basil, but I used flat leaf parsley for its fresh citrusy flavor.

For more information on Presidio Wines visit their web page

Recipe Round Up

I really love belonging to cooking groups, but I don't like posting about foods that have no recipes to go with them, since this is a cooking blog. To that end I started doing a monthly roundup of recipes I made for Tuesday's with Dorie and French Fridays with Dorie. Well, this month I decide to combine both of the monthly round ups into one big round up. The recipes for Tuesday's with Dorie can be found on the weekly host's blog, to which I will include a link, but for French Friday's there is no host, so if it is a recipe that intrigues you send me an e-mail and I will give you more information.

Our Tuesday's with Dorie recipes were the Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins and the Chocolate Pots de Creme.

Lauryn of Bella Baker chose Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins. These muffins had a big citrus taste, with a coarse almost chewy texture. We made these three different ways; some plain, some with raisin, and a few with craisins. Everyone liked the craisin version the best. The dried cranberries added a nice sweet/tart taste to an otherwise pretty plain muffin. The raisins were good, adding sweetness, but lacking the balance of the semi-tart craisins.

 Christine of Black Cat Cooking  chose Chocolate Pots de Creme.

  This was an intensely chocolate pudding. Dorie had you cook and cool it in a water bath covered with plastic wrap, but I really don't think this improve the texture of this pudding, and next time I would skip this step. We would make this again for the deep, rich chocolate flavor. As a family we don't usually love chocolate flavored desserts because they tend to be too sweet or completely lacking chocolate taste, but this silky smooth pudding and Dorie's chocolate ice cream have both been winners, so she is definitely on to something with her chocolate treats!

The French Friday recipes we made this month were the salted butter break-ups. The pictures in the book were so fabulous and we were most excited about this recipe, but unfortunately, this was the most disappointing. It was really nothing more than a giant sugar cookie, brushed with egg wash for color. It was fun but nothing special. We were hoping the salt would come through, and even used the higher suggested amount, but it was pretty boring. We even tried dipping pieces in melted chocolate, and when that doesn't save a recipe, you know that it is something you probably won't make again.

Scallops with caramel orange sauce was a quick and tasty way to prepare scallops. Although caramel sounds like s dessert item, this sauce had a nice almost burnt taste that paired nicely with the sweet oranges, and was perfect over mildly sweet scallops. This is definitely a recipe that we will make again. It will be a nice change from a quick pasta or chicken dish on our busy school nights.

Brown butter, dried figs, raisins, pistachios, chives, almonds, Parmesan cheese and orange zest

And finally, the real star of this month's recipes was the Beggar's Linguine. Mimi Jr. and I made this for lunch one day because we were pretty sure that the other Mimi's weren't going to go for this fruity pasta. We even had our doubts as we were putting it together and taking our first few bites. We were really close to just skipping it, but figured that the whole point of the group was to try new things so we went for it. The most surprising thing was that with each bite we liked this strange pasta dish more and more. Somehow, the flavors all come together to create a wonderfully savory pasta that is not the sweet dish we had expected it to be based on the ingredients.What we didn't like were the small bits of fruit and nuts with the long strands of pasta. Mimi Jr. suggested that the fruit and nuts would be good with orzo or couscous as everything would be more similar in size and one forkful could get a little of everything. Since I had all the ingredients we made it the following day with couscous. I used about half the amount of butter, and it was perfect. We loved it at room temperature and think it would also be good served chilled as a salad or a side dish with some well seasoned grilled meats.

This month was full of surprises, with some new favorites, and some disappointments. We are excited to see what April's recipes will bring to the table.

Pasta with Corn Pesto

 This delicious Linguine with Fresh Corn Pesto comes right from the pages of the August Bon Appetit magazine. I am trying to make more recipes out of all those cooking magazines I have. I am always so excited when they come in the mail and I pick so many things I want to make, then during the week I get so caught up with everything that I usually resort to an easy favorite for dinner, forgetting that I have so many new recipes to try.

 This recipe was not so easily forgotten. Corn is at the peak of the season here in Southern California, and it is sweet, abundant and really inexpensive, so this was the perfect recipe to throw into the mix. Pasta is usually a once a week meal anyway so there was no excuse not to try something this easy using fresh, sweet corn. We chose to have this as a side with some grilled chicken and a green salad, but you could easily mix in some chicken pieces and make it a one bowl meal.

Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto

(adapted ever so slightly from Bon Appetit August 2010)

4 bacon slices, chopped

4 cups fresh corn kernels ( I used 4 ears of corn)

1 large clove minced garlic

1 1/4 tsp.Salt

3/4 tsp freshly ground Pepper

 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup  toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

8 oz tagliatelle or any pasta you choose

3/4 cups torn basil leaves.

Cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp and brown. Remove from pan, leaving bacon drippings, and let bacon drain on a paper towels. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of drippings from skillet. Add corn, garlic, salt and pepper to the skillet. Saute over medium high heat until the corn is tender, but not brown, about 4 minutes. Reserve 1 1/2 cup of the corn mixture and scrape the remaining corn into a food processor. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and pine nuts to the processor and with the machine running, slowly drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube. Blend until pesto is almost smooth.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until done. Drain pasta, reserving 1 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Place pasta in pasta bowl, add pesto, reserved corn kernels and about 1/2 cup of the basil. Toss pasta adding reserved cooking water to thin to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with remaining basil and reserved bacon. Serve with additional grated Parmesan cheese.

Note: the amount of pesto from this recipe could easily sauce 1lb of pasta. The recipe called for 8 oz of pasta, I used 12 oz of linguine and had plenty of pesto sauce.
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Stuffed Shells

Stuffed shells are a family favorite, so when Mimi Jr. said she wanted to learn to make them we spent a fun afternoon in the kitchen making all the different components. They are a little time consuming, but you do it in several steps which can all be done ahead of time so all you have to do is bake the assembled dish. Along with the ricotta filling that you most often see, we also did a veal and Italian sausage filling. The filled shells are covered by both a bechamel and a marinara sauce and it is all topped with fresh mozzarella and Parmesan. With a nice salad and glass of wine we had the perfect little Italian restaurant right at home!

There are lots of shortcuts to make this a quick and easy dinner. When the children were small, and I cooked by myself, I would just make the cheeses filling covered with balsamella and cheese.  The recipes can easily be halved or doubled to make the amount that suits your family. I like to double the marinara sauce and freeze half for another time, but you could also use your favorite jarred sauce.

Ingredients:
24 Jumbo shells- we got 12 of each filling
Marinara sauce
Balsamella (bechamel) sauce
cheese filling
sausage/veal filling
1 lb fresh mozzarella grated
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Marinara Sauce
2 tablespoons Olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
1 tablespoon chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 bay leaf
2 lb plus 6 oz crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
fresh ground pepper
salt
Pinch of sugar


1. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy skillet. Add onions and cook over low heat about 10 minutes, until soft and opaque. Stir in carrots and cook 4 minutes. Add basil, parsley and bay leaf, stir to incorporate.
2.Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper and sugar. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes
3. Puree the sauce in a food mill or food processor. Leave some texture to the sauce.

Balsamella Sauce
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 /2 cup cream

1/8 teaspoon white pepper

pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Melt the butter over moderate heat; add the flour and stir together thoroughly.

2. Add the milk and cream and mix together. Stirring constantly, bring the sauce to a boil. When thick and smooth, stir in salt, pepper and nutmeg. Mix well and remove from heat. Stir as it cool to prevent skin from forming. If it does form a skin, just add a little more milk and warm it up again.

Cheese Filling

1 lb ricotta cheese

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon each of salt and freshly ground pepper

3 egg yolks or 2 whole eggs

2 tablespoons chopped scallions or chives

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1/4 lb. diced mozzarella

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to thoroughly incorporate the ingredients. Cover and chill until ready to fill the shells.

Sausage and Veal Filling

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup finely chopped shallots or onions

1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage

1/2 lb ground lean veal

6 tablespoons fine bread crumbs

1/2 cup cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

1/2 teaspoon each chopped fresh rosemary, lemon zest and salt

freshly ground pepper.

1.Heat the oil over moderate heat, add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring often. When they just begin to color add the sausage meat and cook until it loses its pink color. Add the veal, saute for 3-4 minutes until it too has lost its pink color. Drain off the fat.

2.In a large bowl soak the  bread crumbs in the cream for 3-4 minutes.  Add the cook meat and beat together with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly smooth, than beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Stir in the parsley, rosemary,lemon zest, salt, and pepper.

To assemble the shells:

Cook the pasta until al dente. We did this in 2 batches of 12 shells each. Lay them on a clean kitchen towel to cool before you fill them. Butter a large casserole dish or several smaller ones. Stuff the shells with about 2 tablespoons of the filling and place them in the dish(es) so they are close, but not too squished together.

Pour the marinara and balsamella sauces over the top and spread to cover evenly. Sprinkle the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses over the top and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

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This my entry for Foodie Friday