Spinach Borsetti in White Wine Butter Sauce

What!? Two food blog posts in 1 week! Obviously the school year has ended and Rachel has nothing to do!

When I have a whole day to myself at home, with little else to do, I often make pasta. I nearly always go into the pasta making adventure thinking I will make ravioli and then either end up making fettuccine or some other form of filled pasta, like tortellini or borsetti (little purses).
When I decided, today, that I wanted to make ravioli I joked that since we have so much kale and spinach in our CSA I should make that into the filling, then I realized spinach is actually a very common ravioli filling... woops. So, of course, I used spinach and kale in the filling!

Homemade Sheet Pasta:

4 Eggs
3 1/2 C. Flour
1 Tsp-tbsp. water (depending on the size of your eggs)
salt
chili pepper

Place all of the ingredients in a kitchenaid with the flat attachment. Mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds (until flour isn't poofing out). Then attach the dough hook and mix at speed 2 for 2 minutes. Hand knead to really incorporate all of the flour. If the dough is sticky add a little more flour. If it is brittle and falling apart, add just a tiny big of water (sometimes I wet my hands and then knead the dough- that is how little water it takes). Cover the dough with a dry cloth and let sit for 15 minutes.

Form the dough into a log. Cut off sections about 1/2 inch thick and run through the pasta sheet kitchenaid attachment on setting 1. Fold the dough and run through, repeatedly, on setting 1 until you get a long fairly rectangular sheet of pasta roughly the width of the kitchenaid attachment. Then run the pasta through on setting 2. Continue until you get to setting 6. Run the pasta through at least twice on setting 6. Lightly flour the long sheet of pasta and set aside. When all of the pasta is rolled cut each long strip into 4 inch by 4 inch squares. Allow the squares to dry slightly on towels or a drying rack (leave our for no more than 1 hour! Refrigerate or freeze within an hour if you are not ready to cook them!)

Pasta filling:

1 C. Ricotta Cheese
1 lb. of Spinach and Kale (mixed, chopped)
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Dried Red Chili Flakes
4 Garlic Cloves (minced)
2 Shallots (minced)
2 Tbsp. Herbes de Provence (or any dried herb medley) 
1 Cooked Chicken Breast (cubed)
4 Tbs. Mixed Fresh Herbs (chopped)
1/4 C. Parmesan Cheese
Salt, Pepper

Place the ricotta in a coffee filter over a mug or bowl and allow any liquid to drain.
Place the spinach and kale on a paper towel, lightly salt, and wrap to allow extra moisture to drain (This will help your filled borsetti to not open when you boil them!)

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add garlic, shallots, and chili flakes. Cook until fragrant. Squeeze any excess moisture out the spinach and kale and add them to the saute pan, add the dried herbs. Once the spinach has just wilted remove from the heat and add the chicken, fresh herbs, and both cheeses. Stir all together. Season and stir again.

Allow the filling to cool slightly (so you don't have a blender explosion). Working in batches, if necessary, blend the filling so that it is slightly chunky (just slightly more chunky than canned tuna fish). Scoop the blended filling into a zip-lock bag. Cut one bottom corner of the zip-lock bag at a diagonal so that the opening is slightly less than 1/4 in. Congratulations! You just made your own pastry bag (and it is even better because you don't have to wash it- they are the worst things ever to wash!)



White Wine Butter Sauce:

1 Tsp. Olive Oil
2 Garlic Cloves, grated or minced
2 Shallots, minced
1 Tsp. Dried Red Pepper Flakes
1 Tsp. Dried Herb Medley (same one you used in the pasta)
1 C. White Wine
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Flour
2 Tbsp. Ricotta
1 Tbsp. Parmasean
Salt, Pepper

In a saute pan heat the oil. Add the garlic, shallots, pepper flakes, and dried herbs. When fragrant add the wine and let reduce for 5 minutes. Whisk in the butter. When the sauce shows it's first sign of darkening whisk in the flour. Remove from heat, whisking, until the temperature cools slightly and the sauce thickens. In a separate bowl whisk the ricotta, Parmesan and seasoning (I actually whisked in some creme fraiche to make it a little smoother).

Spinach Borsetti  (Little Purses) in a White Wine Butter Sauce

Putting it all together:

Arrange your workstation so that you have the pasta squares, a small bowl of water and a small brush, the "pastry bag" of filling, and a clean space. Lay 1 pasta square in the clean space and very slightly wet two edges of the pasta. Pipe a small amount of filling into the middle of the pasta square. Fold the two dry edges onto the wet edges of the pasta, carefully squeezing out any air. Thoroughly pinch the edges together. Now you have ravioli. To make borsetti (little purses) fold the two corners along the folded edge together and also fold the top corner down to meet them. Pinch all three corners together. Place finished pasta on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap. Continue making pasta and placing it on the plastic wrap.

Bring two large pots of salted (more salt than you think you should use!) to a boil and then turn the heat down so they are barely simmering. Place the White Wine Butter Sauce in a large saute pan over low heat on a back burner. Place 5-10 borsetti in each pot and cook for about 5 minutes (less for the first few rounds, since they will continue cooking in the sauce). With a slotted spoon or skimmer remove the borsetti and place into the saute pan, whatever extra pasta water caught in the pasta will help thicken the sauce.

Once all of the pasta is cooked and into the sauce pan add the ricotta mixture, carefully stir, add some extra chopped fresh herbs, and serve!

I've made some revisions to the recipe, based on how it turned out last night. As you can see last night I didn't stir in the ricotta mixture, and instead plated them next to each other on the plate- not a great idea. Definitely stir it in. Another difference is that I was planning to serve this with a homemade tomato sauce and then realized I had a summer squash I wanted to use, too. but that would have been too chunky of a sauce for a filled pasta! I want you to be able to taste all of the wonderful filling ingredients! So I started the tomato sauce by heating olive oil and adding lots of cherry tomatoes. Once the tomato skin charred a little, and got all wrinkly, I added white wine to the pan, so the tomatoes were half covered. Then I added lots of last years "Herbes de Vermont" (a homemade play on herbes de provence made from herbs from my garden). At the last minute I added sliced garlic, shallots, fresh herbs and spinach, to mimick the filling. I served this as a side with the dinner, but poured the wine and oil from the pan into the White Wine Butter Sauce so that it had that wonderful tomato, squash, herb flavor. I think the way I have transcribed the recipe above will suffice, though it will not have the tomato flavor.

They were wonderfully delicious! I often make filled pasta with goat cheese instead of ricotta, because I love goat cheese, but this time went with ricotta. I am getting so hungry writing this-- good think I have the leftovers of this dish and will be eating them for lunch in about 20 minutes! Yum!

(very) Mixed Green Salad with Herbed Chickpea Cakes with a Creamy Herb Dressing

I found this recipe, by accident, while looking for kale recipes because we are getting bombarded with kale from our CSA. Luckilly, no kale this week. I found a recipe from the same website, a kale and chickpea stirfry, and then clicked onto this recipe, not realizing it did not contain kale... woops. I added kale anyway!

The recipe, which I was reluctant to show to Matt, was for "ultimate veggie burgers". I chose to tell Matt it was a chickpea cake (like a crab cake!) You can see the actual recipe here. I am only going to include my, very revised, recipe is below:

(very) Mixed Green Salad with Herbed Chickpea Cakes

Creamy Herb Dressing

1. C. Mayonaisse
3/4 to 1 C. nonfat, plain yogurt
1-2 tbs. lemon juice
lemon zest
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp. worcester sauce
chopped herbs (basil, dill, parsley)

Mix

Herbed Chickpea Cakes:

 1 can garbanzo beans (also known as chickpeas), dried and rinsed
3 large eggs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. chili pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used basil and parley and some kale!)
3/4 onion, chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, grated
Grated zest of one large lemon
1 cup toasted  bread crumbs
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Combine the garbanzos, eggs, salt and pepper in a food processor. Puree until the mixture is the consistency of a very thick, slightly chunky hummus. Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the herbs, onion, garlic, and zest. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a couple of minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. At this point, you should have a moist mixture that you can easily form into twelve 1 1/2-inch-thick patties. Add more bread crumbs a bit at a time to firm up the dough if need be. Conversely, a bit of water or more egg can be used to moisten the batter.
Heat a grill to medium, add the cakes and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the bottoms begin to brown. Turn up the heat if there is no browning after 10 minutes. Flip the patties and cook the second side for 7 minutes, or until golden.

Meanwhile, Rinse and spin a large bowl of greens (we used many kinds of greens: mesculin, spinach, kale, young collards and arugula). Dress the salad with the creamy herb dressing. Top with a warm chickpea cake. Enjoy immediately.

This meal was a success because it was different than anything we normally eat. I am excited to make the chickpea cake again, but try to jazz the flavor up a little more, it was a touch bland (the dressing definitely helped with that!)

Chicken and Anduille Gumbo

Gumbo has been a long awaited meal in my family for some time now. I don't remember how long ago, but many months ago my parents asked me if I had ever seen okra anywhere, to buy. I assumed it wouldn't be that difficult of a thing to find. I checked big chain supermarkets in the fresh, canned and freezer aisles. I checked local, organic stores. I checked the "healthy, natural" grocers. Nowhere. Nada. Nothing. So I was very surprised when I was out at the big chain store Tuesday doing my regular weekly shopping and noticed a can of okra tucked among the garbanzo beans. I snatched the can up and immediately added the other key ingredients in gumbo to my shopping list.

What I didn't expect was that another of the key ingredients would be nearly as illusive to find! And so begins the tale of the Great Anduille Sausage Hunt of Oh '11!

While at the store, where I found the okra I started the hunt for anduille sausage. I knew that there were acceptable substitutions for anduille, and I even knew that I don't like anduille nearly as much as other sausages, but I felt like since this meal was so long awaited and since I (finally!) found he okra, I had to use real anduille. At the big chain store I found many kinds of sausage. Breakfast sausage, spicy sausage, chicken sausage (in a variety of flavors), chorizo, smoked sausage, pepperoni. But, alas, no anduille. I called it for the day, knowing I wasn't going to prepare the meal until the following night (when I had invited my parents over for dinner) and would have another whole day to continue the G.A.S.H. '11

The next morning I resumed my hunt for the illusive anduille and I was quite confident that it would be no problem to find the sausage. I had thought it through and had a very good idea of the store, if there was one in Vermont, that would have it. Cheese Traders --one of my favorite stores! This store buys their cheese and wine in bulk and then divvies it up and sells it as much reduced rates. Since going to Murray's Cheese Shop in NYC last summer I always feel a little nostalgia when I enter Cheese Traders.
I hopped in the car and made the 15 minute drive, knowing I would find my treasure. At Cheese Traders I found, and bought, many things. Anduille was not one of them. Though I did find true authentic chorizo from Spain and Manchego cheese (which started me thinking about another possible recipe blog entry)...
But, readers, do not fret! I had a back-up plan!
I jumped back in the car and drove to the close by Healthy living Natural Foods Market! This store, although having a wonderful selection and fun atmosphere, stresses me out like no other grocer. They are constantly moving things around and, to me, the food items seem to be in no discernable order. I braced myself and entered the store. There was no way for me to head straight for the meat section, since there are coolers and refrigerated cases everywhere, so I tried to wend my way down the main path. I must have looked like a fool. I left no stone unturned. I looked in every chest freezer (because every local farm has their own), every refrigerated case and every wall freezer. I don't know what made me do it, but I circled the store one more time and saw a lone freezer standing in the middle of the store, well off the beaten track (I try to stick to the paths in this store for fear of never finding my way out). I saw some sausage looking packages so I ventured over. I found the most amazing selection of sausages and sausage like meats in this freezer! I found blood sausage, bratwursts, and things I didn't even know how to pronounce. But no anduille. I closed the freezer door, abashed, and looked up at the freezer, where I had been sure I would finally find my target. Through the clear freezer door I saw a package of something, on the top shelf, way in the back. I couldn't see what it was but decided, hey, why not. I opened the door again, stood up on tip toes, and pulled the package out of the freezer. IT WAS ANDUILLE!!!!! I galloped over to the wine selection and bough a bottle of anduille-finding celebration wine (that I thought would complement the meal). I headed home, to actually start the gumbo!

And what you all have been waiting for: THE RECIPE

Chicken and ANDUILLE gumbo

This recipe comes from The Spicy Food Lovers Bible

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (cut into 3/4 in. cubes)
1 tbs. Cajun seasoning
1 lb. anduille sausage (cut into 1/4 in. slices)
2 tbs. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. diced bell pepper
1 c. chopped celery
3 jalapeno chilies (stems and seeds removed, chopped)
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic (I used substantially more...)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried basil
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. white pepper
6 c. chicken broth.
1 c. dark roux (see below)
10 oz. frozen okra (I used canned)
2-3 C. cooked white rice (or potato salad, I hear)
1 C. sliced green onions

ROUX:
 Another long story, I'll give the short version.

Rule number 1. Don't use butter (for a dark roux). It will burn and you will have to start over. I did.

Heat a saucepan over high heat. Add 1 C. vegetable shortening. Let it melt and start to bubble. Add 1 1/2 C. flour (preferably bread flour though I'm not sure why) a bit at a time, whisking continually, and adjust heat to low/medium. Hopefully you have been doing your arm workouts- you need to continually stir for about a half hour, as the roux turns from white, to a peanut butter color, and beyond to a chocolaty color (see pictures below). Be careful stirring, the roux burns when it flecks out and hits your skin. Ow. Once the roux is between a peanut butter and a chocolate remove the pan from the heat and pour into a heat-safe bowl (so it stops cooking).

 GUMBO:
Combine chicken and Cajun seasoning and let sit 30 minutes, to marinate.

In a heavy stockpot heat oil over high heat. When hot, reduce the heat to medium and add the anduille and brown. Add the chicken and onions, cook for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bell pepper, celery, chilies, and garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Now add the oregano, basil, bay and peppers and sauté for an additional 2 minutes.

Stir in the broth and bring to a boil. Whisk in the roux, a little at a time, stirring continuously for 5 minutes. Simmer the gumbo for 25 minutes, stirring often.

Add the okra and simmer for another 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more Cajun if necessary. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.

Serve over rice. Traditionally you also serve it with a bottle of hot sauce.

 I have to say, I didn't think the gumbo was going to be that good. I was intrigued enough to want to make it, but was never super excited about eating it. But it was good! Really good! I think I got the spice just right- since it had to be a little spicy (Come on! It's gumbo!). In contract to the above recipe I only used one jalapeño but added dried red pepper flakes and chili powder. I actually liked the flavor of the anduille, thank god- it would have been terrible if the G. A.S.H '11 was in vein, but I wouldn't hesitate to try a different sausage next time.