spinach and ricotta-stuffed shells with meat sauce

when i make a pasta dish i usually go for some kind of noodle and ladle a thick, rich sauce over it. but after the mac n cheese success, i decided to do a baked pasta dish this time. when i think "baked pasta," images of piping hot, oozing, cheesy lasagna and manticotti come to mind. i've made lots of successful lasagnas in the past so this time, i wanted to try a new technique: stuffing pasta.

for this recipe i wanted to develop a rich meat sauce that would coat and flavor a creamy, herb-laden filling in large pasta shells. let's see how it turned out.

i browned 1 lb of ground sirloin and defrosted and drained 1 small package of frozen chopped spinach. make sure not to overcook the beef or it'll become rubbery and grainy.

in the same pan, i poured off the excess grease from the ground beef and added 2 chopped onions and a few cloves of chopped garlic. this would then brown over low heat to caramelize the onions, creating a rich, sweet, oniony base for the pasta sauce.

once the onions were brown i added a few tablespoons of tomato paste to brown for a minute in the pan.

then a large can of crushed tomatoes was added to the pan, along with chopped fresh basil and thyme.

the sauce simmered for about 20 minutes to thicken it and develop and concentrate the flavors. the ground beef was then added to the pan to finish off the sauce.

while the sauce was simmering, i made a filling for the pasta shells by combining 2 cups of ricotta, the spinach, some chopped basil and thyme, salt, pepper, and an egg to help bind the ingredients together.

i then filled each cooked pasta shell with the mixture and arranged them in a large baking dish on a layer of meat sauce. the pasta shells were cooked to just barely "al dente" to keep the shells from going soggy in the baking process.

once the shells were filled and arranged, i covered the entire thing with the remaining meat sauce and grated parmesan cheese all over. this then went into a 400* oven for about 20-30 minutes.

as dinner was baking away, i popped open a bottle of cheap tj's chianti, a bold, fruity italian red wine that would go well with the hearty tomato sauce in this dish. decanting the wine in the new wine decanter that christien got me for my birthday helped mellow out the acidity a little bit and made it much more drinkable.

and voila! the pasta is ready and dinner is served!

the pasta filling was hot all the way through and the parmesan had melted over everything. i thought the presentation was pretty striking.

hearty meat and tomatoes dousing big pasta with creamy, colorful fillings. great visual appeal here.

and it also looked great plated on a deep white plate.

the sauce was rich from all the caramelization action from the ground beef, tomato paste, and soft, melty onions. this was a perfect foil for the creamy, cheesy ricotta filling, balanced out by the delicate flavors of thyme and basil. and being baked in the oven for a while ensured the dish stayed piping hot throughout dinner.

did this pass the test? a thumbs up from christien should do the trick.

baked pasta dishes can be very rewarding, both visually and gastronimically. but, i must admit, they're a pain to assemble from scratch. not only are you cooking everything from scratch, but you're also stuffing and arranging. but is it worth it? you betcha.

spanish tapas cookbook and dinner

jen and dan picked out a great little spanish cookbook for my birthday present a couple months ago titled "classic spanish cooking: recipes for mastering the spanish kitchen" by elisabeth luard.

the cookbook is full of interesting recipes ranging from tapas to dessert and shellfish to legumes, covering pretty much the entire pantry. luard's writing style is unique; she describes cooking techniques that rely on common sense and observation versus measurements of capacity or time. for example, in preparing meat for skewers, she writes, "all the pieces should be neatly trimmed and no bigger than a baby's mouthful." or, when broiling shrimp in the shell, "the heat should be fierce enough to blacken the shells a little."

luard's cookbook reads much like a memoir of a spanish grandmother's cooking lessons, full of short stories and history but ever-focused on the good of the dish and whatever was in season and locally available. i found her recipes offer a sort of freedom, free of precise measurements and rigid structure you find in today's cookbooks, a sort of refreshing reminder that cooking is an art where you taste as you go and season by hand, not simply a scientific process to be followed.

there were many great-sounding recipes in here and i wanted to share them with a willing guinea crowd. so what better way than to invite jen and dan to our house for an evening of spanish tapas, featuring recipes from the cookbook they gave me!

dinner started a little later than i had anticipated. although i was only cooking for 5, i sorta miscalculated the time i needed to prepare the 6 tapas recipes i had picked out. that's 6 whole dishes made from scratch. that's a lot of cooking.

no matter. i sent out a small dish of setas a la parilla, or mushrooms grilled with garlic and parsley. i didn't have access to the type of mushrooms specified in the recipe (orange tear or saffron milk cap) and made do with small portabellos, grilled cap-side up on a grill pan until juices formed in the cap. garlic and parsley were added at the end just long enough to soften the flavors a little. i then chopped these up to top slices of baguette. along with some slices of manchego cheese and salted marcona almonds, it provided a nice first tapas. unfortunately i was too busy getting the other 5 tapas ready to take a picture.

a couple of wine glasses later, dinner was ready and we all sat down and started passing round the dishes.

a steaming-hot pot of almejas en vino de jerez, or clams in sherry, announced the beginning of our spanish tapas meal. the recipe was very simple and the flavors of garlic and fresh parsley blended beautifully with the dry sherry. i originally wanted to use black mussels here but the market was out of them. the manila clams were great though, with a slight hint of sweetness to their meat.

next was pisto de berejenas, or braised eggplants. this, while a little time intensive to make, was a hit, especially spread on crusty baguette swith warm slices of manchego cheese. another simple dish, i pan-fried diced eggplant with caramelized onions and a bit of cumin seed and salt and pepper. that's it. it takes time to caramelize the onions and fry the eggplant to a soft consistency. but when it's done... oh so good.

for this tapa, albondigas en salsa, or meatballs in tomato sauce, i recruited jen and dan's help to form the meatballs, a sort of pre-dinner entertainment. i've always read it's best to have something for guests to help with so they feel immediately at home and part of the action. so before jen and dan arrived, i had started the tomato sauce which was flavored with red peppers, sherry, bay leaf and cinnamon stick and let that simmer while i combined the meatball mixture which consisted of half ground beef, half ground pork, bread crumbs and egg, flavored mainly with onion, cumin, coriander, and parsley. after the meatballs were formed, they were then browned and finished off with a simmer in the tomato sauce. this was my favorite. the cumin and coriander in the meatballs coupled with the cinnamon and bay leaf in the sauce lent an exotic taste to the tender, moist meatballs. mmm.

the favorite of the nite, which surprised me, was a homey and hearty dish, arroz a la cubana, or cuban rice. this consisted of cooked risotta rice layered with a basic tomato sauce flavored with chile powder and allspice, caramelized plaintains, and 4 fried eggs. so simple, yet so good together.

about halfway through dinner, i got up from the table and fired up the stove one more time to quickly prepare this dish, gambas pilpil, or shrimp with garlic and chili. i wanted to keep it as hot as possible for serving, per luard's notes, hence waiting to cook until we were fully ready to eat it. i heated a good amount of olive oil and tossed in sliced garlic and whole, dried red chilies to season the oil with garlic essense and a huge amount of firey heat. the shelled shrimp took just a minute or two tossed in the hot oil to cook and that went quickly onto the table. everyone's first reaction? "whoa, that's got some bite!" indeed it did. the chili peppers had added a piquant zing to the shrimp that was quite memorable, but not hot enough to burn the tastebuds. fantastic. they disappeared in a couple minutes.

with all that salty savory-ness, we needed a contrast for dessert. jen and dan had brought a couple pints of excellent ice cream from bi-rite creamery, including roasted banana and the oh-so-tasty salted caramel.

and as if that wasn't enough, we enjoyed some baked treats from tartine bakery as well.

they also brought a fabulous spanish wine to wash everything down, a 2003 legaris reserva tinta fina (100% tempranillo) from the ribera del duero wine region in spain. smooth, ruby fruit and an elegant finish. highly recommended with the dishes prepared here.

thank you jen and dan for the thoughtful gift and a great nite of spanish tapas, wine, and friendship! we need to do it again soon...

dinner leftovers remix

after the volley of cooking last week, i had quite a bit of leftovers that needed to be eaten before going bad. with ingredients and extras from my casero cremini stuffed pork chops, french chicken in a pot, and macaroni and cheese, i asked myself, what the hell am i gonna do with all this stuff? how am i gonna create a tasty dinner from tired leftovers? christien was quite skeptical. well check this out.

i chopped up leftover mushrooms and garlic from the pork chop recipe...

shredded the remaining thigh and leg meat from the chicken dinner...

and sauteed everything together with olive oil, some lemon juice, salt, pepper, and the leftover chicken sauce that had gelatinized in the fridge.

for a side salad, i combined some cherry tomatoes with the chopped queso casero from the pork chop dinner and tossed them with chopped fresh basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper.

the leftover macaroni and cheese just needed reheating in the microwave so when that was done, i plated everything up. quick and easy.

looks intentional and from scratch eh? the "chicken stir fry" was meaty, hearty and flavorful. the mushrooms and garlic gave the chicken a slight twist from the simple french chicken in a pot recipe and helped what little meat i had go further.

the "caprese salad" was fresh and light, a nice contrast to the heartier flavors of the chicken and mac n cheese. the casero doesn't quite have the same flavor as mozzerella would in this salad though.

the mac n cheese was good and cheesy of course. nothing had to be done to that.

everything went great together. and christien was quite impressed indeed and probably won't ever look down on leftovers the same way again. be creative and the only person who will know that was leftovers will be you.

macaroni and cheese

mmm... mac n cheese. creamy, cheesey, gooey and salty, macaroni and cheese is one of the ultimate comfort foods. what better than to combat the cold damp fog than this recipe comes from a saveur magazine special edition issue, "classic american: comfort foods we crave." i follow the recipe exactly and here i'll illustrate it step by step.

a roux is created melting 6 T unsalted butter and stirring 6 T flour into it.

the roux is constantly stirred for 4 minutes over low heat until the flour is cooked.

3 3/4 cups hot milk is blended into the roux a 1/2 cup a time until the sauce thickens.

2 cups of grated cheddar cheese are stirred into the sauce until incorporated. i also seasoned it with some salt and pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a little heat.

here's the finished sauce that i held on the stove while i prepped the macaroni.

once the macaroni has been cooked al dente, it's drained well but not rinsed. it's then combined with the cheese sauce and checked for seasoning.

i then start layering the casserole in a buttered dish beginning with a 1/2 cup grated cheddar, a 1/3 of the macaroni, cheese, macaroni, and so on.

a 1/2 cup of heavy cream is poured over the top.

2 T of butter are melted and combined with a 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and sprinkled over the top of the casserole. this then went into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to brown the top.

while that was going, i prepared a side dish of greens to help offset the richness of the mac n cheese. 3 cloves of chopped garlic went into olive oil to brown.

a bag of tj's rainbow chard is tossed into the pan and sauteed until wilted.

a cup of water is added to the pan and the lid goes on to steam and soften the chard for 10 mintues.

after 30 minutes, i noticed the crust still hadn't browned, so i cranked up the thermostat to 500 degrees for another 10 minutes. that definitely helped, as evidenced here.

time to plate. the mac n cheese is creamy and gooey inside with a nice browned crust on top.

the chard gets plated along with some mixed greens and grape tomatoes tossed in some balsamic vinaigrette.

wow. talk about cheesey. this version is extremely rich and gooey. great flavor. addicting quality. fortunately the acidity of the balsamic salad and the vegginess of the chard helped cut the richness nicely.

a bottle of beringer's white zinfandel also helped cut the richness of the cheese with its palate cleansing and almost effervescent quality.

as the mac n cheese cools, the cheese does start to curdle slightly and wasn't as creamy as i'd expected. i'd also probably switch from breadcrumbs to panko breadcrumbs to get a crispier topping. otherwise, this recipe makes for a pretty darn good classic mac n cheese, and definitely cured my craving for comfort food tonite.