World Pasta Day

25 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Mangiamo!, Recipes

Tags

Corzetti, Gnocchi di zucca, Pasta, Pasta all'Amatriciana, Pasta fatta a mano, Ravioli, Ricotta tortelloni, World Pasta Day

October 25th is World Pasta Day. Am I the only one who thought that was every day? I am not sure who comes up with these dates, but since it seems sort of official, I am posting links to 5 pasta recipe posts from the archives.

Gnocchi di zucca-I like to recycle my Hallowe’en pumpkin by turning it into Gnocchi di zucca. If Hallowe’en is not happening this year, I will buy one anyways. Squash will work too. Zucca actually means both pumpkin and squash, although sometimes squash is called zucca gialla.

These gnocchi are topped with a simple sauce of olive oil, sage and Parmigiano Reggiano.

Spaghetti all’Amatriciana–I posted this recipe for Spaghetti all’Amatriciana following the terremoto, the earthquake in Amatrice a few years ago.

Swap the eggs in Pasta Carbonara for tomato sauce, and you have Pasta Amatriciana! The other 4 ingredients stay the same.

Ravioli di ricotta e spinaci-Stuffed pasta is so fun to make, and turns any meal into a special occasion. I made these lovely ravioli with my nipotina Francesca this summer. Making them is not as hard as it looks! They freeze well, and can go into the pot of boiling water straight from the freezer.

Corzetti-Corzetti are a traditional pasta of Liguria. The shape is based on medieval coins. I bought a corzetti stamp in Vernazza during my trip to the Cinque Terre last year and have used it several times. If you do not have a corzetti stamp, use a glass to cut the circles, and find something around the house to imprint a design. Be creative. This post includes a few different sauces to try, including Pesto Genovese.

Tortelloni di ricotta– The first time I made these was as a recipe test for a cookbook. It was during a snowstorm and I had to go out in the snow with a flashlight, dressed like an eskimo, to forage for sage in the garden! The link to the recipe is in the post.

The post Grano Arso does not include recipes, but is interesting to read if you are interested in pasta and gastronomic history.

Let me know which one is your favourite. I hope you all enjoy a delicious plate of pasta today. Buon appetito, Cristina

Tortelloni di Ricotta in a Snowstorm

18 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by Un po' di pepe in Mangiamo!

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Italian food, Ostro, Pasta, Pasta fatta a mano, Ricotta tortelloni

It snowed again last night. Shoveling snow and picking ice cubes off of my poor olive tree is not my idea of a relaxing Sunday morning. Yesterday, facebook sent me one of those ‘your memories from one year ago’ messages with this black and white photo. It snowed a LOT last year, and this particular Saturday night, I was bloccato dalla neve -snowed in. I decided this was a good time to do my recipe testing for Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s cookbook Ostro. Ostro is also the name of Julia’s website. The recipe was for Ricotta tortelloni with butter, sage and hazelnuts. Tortelloni are super-size tortellini and I had not made them before. Filling and shaping them was fun and easier than I thought.

I had to use a beer glass to cut the circles, so they came out quite big. Once I was done making the tortelloni, I made the butter sage and hazelnut sauce-except I had to improvise. It was dark outside and still snowing heavily. The sage was growing in the backyard. I had to dress like an Eskimo and go out with my flashlight to forage for sage under a foot of snow! Brrrr. I did not have any hazelnuts, and had even run out of butter making cookies. Grocery shopping was not an option at this point, so I ended up making an olive oil, sage and toasted almond sauce instead. It was so delicious I did not even have a chance to take a decent photo of the finished dish!

I have made these ricotta tortelloni a few more times, even with ricotta fatta in casa. Ostro is now out in print and is Gourmet Traveller Australia’s 2017 book of the year. Auguri Julia! I believe Ostro is available only in Australia for now. In Canada, it is only available on kindle so far, so I have not seen it yet. You can find the recipe here.More about my adventures in (and complaining about) the snow along with snowy photos can be found in Bloccato dalla neve.