Capellini with Fresh Ricotta

Tonight I made a quite simple dish, with a bit of an interesting twist. It is basically just pasta and sauce, but the fresh ricotta adds a really nice touch, and is something that you might not normally think to make at home. It has light flavor and is very creamy, and can have a quite nice presentation

To make the Ricotta, just take 2C whole milk, 1/4t salt and 2T lemon juice and microwave for about 4 minutes. The milk should separate into curds and a translucent whey, and you can pour this into a colander lined with 2 or 3 layers of cheesecloth to collect it. For this, I used 2C of milk worth of cheese for each bowl.

To assemble, cook capellini or angel hair pasta. While the pasta cooks, warm up good quality tomato sauce with a little olive oil and pour in bowl. Then, stir some more olive oil and a little salt into the cheese to thin it. Twirl the pasta on top of the sauce and top with the ricotta and a little Parmesan. Tasty, light, quick and easy. Based on http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/dinner-tonight-capellini-with-fresh-ricotta-recipe.html and http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/02/how-to-make-fresh-ricotta-fast-easy-homemade-cheese-the-food-lab-recipe.html

Sliders Guest Spot

I wrote a guest-spot for The Amateur Gourmet blog about Sliders, take a look here:

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/community/2010/04/sliders.html#more

French Bread and Awesome Scrambled Eggs

Today I've got a basic french bread recipe that is pretty easy to make and adds some class to a meal, as well as my version of scrambled eggs that taste pretty awesome.

First, the French bread. To make the dough, combine 3C all-purpose flour, 2.5t yeast, 3/4t salt and 1C warm water. mix and kneed for about 10 minutes, then let rise for an hour or two. Then, roll or stretch out into a largish rectangle, and roll up from a wide end. Moisten the edge with water to seal it, taper the edges and place onto a lightly cornmeal'd pan. If you want a lightly brown and glossy top like in my picture, brush lightly beaten egg whites on top. Then, cut 3-4 about 1cm deep slices into the top of the bread and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top. This is best right out of the oven and, once sliced into, will begin to become stale rather quickly. I made a dipping sauce for this out of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red pepper, black pepper, oregano, rosemary, basil, parsley, garlic powder and minced garlic, and it was fantastic. Based on http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/French-Bread/Detail.aspx

Next, my version of scrambled eggs. This is largely personal preference, but I make them by combining 3 eggs, about 1.5t each of basil, oregano and thyme, and about 1.5T Parmesan. Whisk well, then cook on high heat. When the eggs are beginning to become differentiated, take the pan off the heat for about 15 seconds while still stirring. This makes them fluffier for some reason. Then, continue cooking until they are 97% done and put them on a plate; they will finish with their internal heat.