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
It’s one thing to cook healthy meals. It’s an entirely different thing to cook healthy with a very small budget. I quit my job months ago to help start a non-profit. I’m still not receiving a salary, and you know what the first thing to go was? My eating. I fall back on cheap homemade grease traps like nachos and my tummy is paying for it. So, suffice to say, I absolutely love this!
There’s a great healthy cooking blog called Back to Her Roots. Beyond her normal greatness, she takes on this challenge: making $40 stretch over the course of 20 days for her and her hubby. 60 meals on $40 is no small challenge, especially when cooking healthy. I hope to learn a lot from her. Thanks Back to her Roots!
- Rebecca Larsen
Last weekend we celebrated my Uncle Lenny’s 60th birthday. I don’t know where the time went or how he snuck up to sixty without me being aware, but with the grace of a good attitude, a kind heart and some kickin’ genes, he doesn’t look a day older than when he taught me to ride…
