Beyond making homemade pasta, I upped the anie and decided to go for a full romantic Italian dinner. Admittedly, I did not do this challenge this week. I didn’t do much cooking this week, but this is a meal I’ve been wanting to share. Without throwing too many unwanted details out there, my boyfriend and I do the long distance deal. So, when we get to see each other we try to make the most of our time together. Often that includes cooking with and/or for each other. 

(Please forgive the poor photo quality. They are from my phone as I did a camera fail and left it at home).

The menu:

Pasta e Fagioli, recipe from Giada De Laurentiis 

Tartra (A Savory Flan), recipe from the The Taste of Italy 

Casoncelli Camuni, recipe from The Taste of Italy 

Ricotta and Rum Cake Trifle, a mixture I threw together that was inspired from The Taste of Italy

The Pasta e Fagioli was a straight forward hearty soup that we both enjoyed. It was balanced but flavored nicely from the fresh herbs and pancetta. I would recommend this recipe, and will definitely be making it again. 

The tartra was a little lackluster, but being that I decided on a whim to make one more thing due to left over ingredients, I wasn’t too disappointed. I won’t post the recipe to this, unless someone requests it. 

Now, we get down to business. This the main event, making pasta from scratch for the first time. My boyfriend didn’t have a rolling pin, so me and a cylindrical vase had to work it out. After working out a system with the vase, I was able to create a nice smooth sheet of dough, spoon the tasty filling out and create somewhat presentable ravioli type pockets. It certainly isn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made, but it was delicious! The success absolutely lies with the recipe, because I’m sure I made several attempts to sabotage it. I will post this recipe shortly. 

I also made a tasty trifle that I enhanced with rum, but I forgot to take pictures of it since we didn’t eat it until hours after this massive meal. 

All in all, making a from scratch Italian meal was fun and we definitely enjoyed the end product. The thing I found the most stressful was the time management and overlapping demanded of making 4 items at once. Hopefully I will continue to improve in that area to avoid stressing out. 

Enjoy! 

- Becca Bites