We are back to eating dinner at breakfast. Chef has listed for us to make today are puttanesca, ravioli, and double baked potato. Since the first two are pasta dishes, we measure out the ingredients to make fresh pasta. The meals are inexpensive to make and very easy ~ especially the first pasta. The pasta dough is mixed and will be left to sit and then made in to linguine pasta and sheet pasta.
The first thing that Chef has us do this morning is put the potatoes in the oven for the double baked potato. They are washed, and coated with oil and salt and put in to a 400 F oven to bake.
Because we are making a ravioli we are making the filling ahead of time so that it can cool. The filling for the ravioli is onions, mushroom, spinach, ricotta and some shredded Swiss cheese. The onions, mushroom and spinach are sauteed in butter and then put in the Robot Coupe to be minced. When the mixture has cooled we add the mixed ricotta and Swiss cheese and then mix again thoroughly and set aside for when we make our ravioli.
For the puttanesca sauce I prepared my mise en place (ingredients) ~ whole black olives, whole anchovy, whole capers, chopped canned tomato, sliced garlic, and chopped parsley. This is a very quick dish to make before making the sauce, I add the fresh linguine pasta to a pot of boiling salted water. I next add olive oil to a sauce pan to heat and add the olives and whole anchovy and let this cook for a bit before adding the tomatoes and sliced garlic and some of the tomato juice from the canned tomatoes and let it simmer to reduce. I add a couple of pinches of sugar and a pinch of pepper to the sauce but no salt because there is plenty of salt from the olives, capers and anchovy. The linguine that has been cooking for about five minutes is ready to be added to the puttanesca sauce and plated. Very quick and very inexpensive.
We're moving pretty quickly today and with one meal completed we work on our mise en place for the ravioli sauce ~ a cream based sauce. The onions are sliced, sun-dried tomatoes slice, red and green pepper diced, and the garlic sliced. I make the cream sauce by sauteing the onions in butter and season with salt and pepper, add the green and red pepper and deglaze the pan with white wine. Next I add the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and cream and heat through and set aside for later.
Now that the filling has cooled for the ravioli, we start working on our sheet pasta. We make enough pasta for about five large ravioli and get them stuffed with about a tablespoon of filling. To a pot of boiling water I add my stuffed ravioli and get back to my cream sauce and cook it until it has reduced and ready for plating. When the ravioli floats to the top of the boiling water, I know that it is almost cooked. A few more minutes and I'm ready to plate and serve to Chef.
With two plates behind us we start working on our twice baked potatoes. We've shredded some extra old cheddar cheese that will be mixed in to the potato. Cooked broccoli florets are to be added to the mash potato mixture too. We each take a potato and slice it on top length wise and scoop out the flesh of the potato. The flesh is mashed and mixed with heated milk and butter, and the extra old cheddar and cooked broccoli florets. The potato mixture is put back in to the shell of the potato, and topped with some shredded cheddar cheese. I add some broccoli florets to the top to give it some colour. The potatoes are placed back in the oven to be double baked. When the cheese has melted it is now ready to be plated and served. Some of us put the baked potato under the broiler to give the cheese a crusty texture.
Taking a break from homework tonight ~ it's Tuesday!
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