Cucumber Salad

My mom recently introduced me to these little tiny baby cucumbers that you can find in a pack at the grocery store. 

They are young, tender, and deliciously sweet.  I used them to make a very simple, 3-minute salad to go with my dinner the other night.  Check it out!

Ingredients:
-2 baby cucumbers
-1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
-2 tsp capers
-1 tbsp roasted red peppers, chopped

1.  Cut baby cucumbers into slices.  How cute are these?  They're the size of quarters :)

2.  Put cucumbers in a bowl and splash some balsamic vinegar onto it. 

3.  Add capers.  The salty briny flavor adds a fantastic element to the mix.

I love the flavor of capers in just about anything!

4.  Chop up some roasted red peppers (i get the kind in a jar so it's always available).

5.  Mix together and serve!

I love this simple salad that you can whip up in just a few minutes.  And i served it in a ramekin.  Just because I can :)

So simple, but packed with flavor.  Sweet cucumbers against that intense unmistakable flavor of balsamic vinegar, and the fantastic capers and red peppers.  Mmm! 

If you're bored of the same old lettuce-based salad, this is a great substitute!  And normal cucumbers would be just as good too :)  Cheers!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.

Ravioli Filling: 3 recipes

Hi all!  Sorry about the long hiatus from posting--that's what you expect from a grad student.  Okay.  But here's the ravioli recipe I've promised!

During the ravioli party that I posted about last Sunday, we made three different types of ravioli.  Now, the fun thing about ravioli is that you can basically fill them with anything.  Course, there are things that go together better :)  Anyways, what I'll show you is the cheese base, then three different variations from that base.

Ingredients for the base:
-1 16 oz package ricotta
-1/2 cup grated parmesan
-1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
-salt and pepper to taste

So the first thing to do is make the base.  This is the same cheesy base that I make for all the recipes down below.  Mix the three cheeses together.  Here's the ricotta...plop!

Here's the parmesan!

And the mozzarella!

Mix together, salt and pepper them to taste.

Filling 1: Spinach and Toasted Pine Nuts
-1/3 of the filling base recipe
-1/2 package of frozen spinach
-1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

The first recipe is for a delicious spinach and toasted pine nut ravioli.  First, thaw the spinach and wring it out into little clumps (I use my hands).  Then chop the spinach by running your knife through it a bunch of times.

Toast up some pine nuts.  Just leave them on medium-low heat for a while (7-10 minutes) until it gets light brown and smells fragrant and wonderful.

Run your knife through them too. 

Mix into a third of the cheese mixture.

Filling 2: Rosemary and Kalamata Olive
-1/3 of the filling base recipe
-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (or, 2 tsp dried rosemary)
-1/3 cups kalamata olives

Here is a little bit of rosemary from my lovely plant...the one plant I manage to keep alive, that is. 

Give it a nice chop.

Here are the kalamata olives I used. 

Drain them well add them to the cheese mixture.

Filling 3: Garlic Shrimp
-1/3 of the filling base recipe
-1 giant clove of garlic, finely minced
-1 cup cooked shrimp

For this one, which I think was my favorite, you want to get precooked shrimp and thaw it out in cold water.  Then give them a nice, course chop. 

Then, take a big clove of garlic and mince the heck out of it.  If you have a garlic press, that'd work perfectly.

And mix the two together into the cheese base. 

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The great thing about this is that you can make the cheese base, then you can add any combination of ingredients in it!  I wouldn't try to cram too many ingredients in there, but maybe two or three would work well. 

You could try ground beef and jalapeno peppers, or feta and artichoke, or oregano and pepperoni for a pizza ravioli.  So many possibilities! 

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.

Sunday Story: Ravioli Party

There are few friends in the world who, when asked if they wanna hang out on Friday, will respond, "Oh yes!  Let's make ravioli!"  This is why I love having a friend like Dani.  We think alike in so many ways.

We had been planning on having a ravioli night for months.  Dani has one of those pasta attachments for her Kitchen Aid, and I have a easy-to-use ravioli press that my mother-in-law-to-be sent me a while back.  We decided to combine efforts, like any good superheroes would do, and make some fantastic megazordian ravioli.

Cast of characters include The Mighty Kitchen Aid.

The Dashing Dough Hook.

The Ravishing Ravioli Press.

The Pristine Pasta Roller.

And a secret weapon we can't show you quite yet.  Oh but it's good.  Be so excited.

First, we made some pasta dough using the Dashing Dough Hook.  We used a thicker, tougher dough than you would use for other types of pasta, since this was gonna have to hold a big glob of cheese in boiling water.

We did have to knead the dough a bit after the machine worked on it a little.  Here is Dani working on the dough.

Here are the big lumps of dough.

In the meantime, while Dani kneaded the dough, I set out to make the filling.  We decided to make one big bowl of the basic filling, which includes ricotta...

Parmesan....

And some shredded mozzarella.  Yum!  There's salt in there too.

We divided this base into three portions, and made three different types of base.  Dani toasted up some delicious pine nuts.

Chopped them up!

And we used a block of frozen spinach (thawed, drained, and chopped) to make some Spinach and Pine Nut Ravioli for set number one.

Delicious!

For set number two, we used a can of kalamata olives.

And some fresh rosemary from my one potted plant :)

Chopped it all up...

And thus we have Rosemary Olive Ravioli.

Lastly, we put some chopped up cooked shrimp

And added some minced garlic to make Garlic Shrimp Ravioli.  Delicious!

Okay, let's go back to the dough side.  This is such an amazing piece of technology.  Which is why it was the first thing to go on our wedding registry :)  Here is the dough doing through it's first few runs on the widest setting.

Dani gave me the great honor of using the pasta press on her kitchen aid.  I was immensely impressed, since I have only used manual pasta rollers in my life...the kind with the crank and the vice that anchors it to your table.  Ah, the good old days.

Okay, so here is where the fun happens.  After rolling out the dough to level 4 (1 being the widest, 8 being the thinnest setting), we cut a piece of dough that fits the metal tray.

Then we make round indents into each one using the white tray (not pictured here).  But then.  Remember the secret weapon I mentioned?  Oh boy oh boy.

It turns out, the melon baller is the perfect tool for scooping out exactly the right portion of filling for the ravioli press.  Secret weapon unleashed! 

Then you cover the tray with another piece of dough and run a rolling pin across it to seal the edges shut. 

Finally, you turn the tray over and tap out the ravioli onto the counter.  And voila!  Beautiful ravioli!

BONUS TIME:  Dani also got ambitious and made two batches of gnocchi.  I've never attempted gnocchi before because I don't have a potato ricer, but it was fascinating it see it happen. 

She tapped out four cups of pulverized potato onto the counter....

Then she made a dough out of them.  This dough is the softest dough I've ever felt.  Well, that's not true.  I've seen Heath work with softer doughs.  But this truly felt like a baby's skin.  So soft. 

Then she rolled them out into ropes and cut them into pieces. 

BONUS AGAIN:  We had some pasta dough left over but didn't have any more ravioli filling.  So we decided it would be fun to make wide noodles out of them.  I rolled out some thin sheets of pasta, rolled them up...

And sliced through them to make long ribbons of pasta. 

Yum!

After about four hours of doing this, we finally got a chance to sit down and enjoy ourselves some dinner.  Here is our lovely ravioli...

Topped with some of her mom's homemade pesto.  Yum!

Some gnocchi!  Mmm.

The ribbons of pasta got kinda messed up because we overcooked them, so no picture on that.  But we did crack open a bottle of New Glarus Raspberry Tart, a delicious ale that comes in a big bottle.  Delicious!

I love my crafty cooking partner!  Thanks for the ravioli date, Dani! 

Recipes for the ravs will be up this week.  Have a wonderful Sunday!