Mushroom, mozarella and spinach ravioli

I have been wanting to make ravioli for ages but have never gotten around to it, until now that is. I set out for the store yesterday to buy myself some ingredients for the filling. I had in my mind decided on making a mushroom, spinach and mascarpone filling, but they didn't carry mascarpone at the supermarket. What kind of a country do I live in wherea decent supermarket doesn't carry mascarpone? The answer is Norway, also known as "FSC" or "friend-stealing-country" to some of us!

Well, I had to rethink and decided on putting some shredded mozarella in the filling instead. What a wonderful idea, and I am sure it would have been so tasty had I invested in some proper mozarella instead of relying on the pre-shredded stuff we bought at the supermarket the other week.

I was also a little worried the process of making the actual ravioli would be extremely time consuming, but all went well, it didn't take long at all. Maybe all that dumpling making finally paid off?!

Anyway, to make a long story short, the ravioli were good, but could have been so much tastier had I used the ingredients I first intended to use. Ah well, next time I'm making ravioli I'm going to have a go at making homemade mascarpone. Wish me good luck, I think I'll need it!

The filling

Ravioli. I made some different shapes, mostly because my
ravioli folding skills need some work.

Yum, the finished product!

Mushroom, mozarella and spinach ravioli
Serves 1-2

pasta dough for 1 person
5 smallish button mushrooms, thinly sliced
125 g baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
150-200 g mozarella (a little less than a ball)
salt and pepper

1. In a frying pan, melt some butter and add in the garlic and the spinach, allowing it to wilt. Remove and place on a plate to cool down.

2. Using the same pan, tip in the mushrooms and cook until most of the water has evaporated. Add in just a little butter and salt and pepper, stir. Remove and place on a plate to cool down.

3. Make the pasta dough while the vegetables cool down.

4. Using a pasta machine, roll the pasta dough to desired thickness.

5. Place the rolled dough on a clean and floured surface. Cut out squares.

6. Place the cooled vegetables in a mixing bowl, add the mozarella, stir to combine.

7. . Place 1 tsp of the filling in the centre of each pasta square.

8. Fold the square diagonally to create a triangle. Press down on the edges to ensure the filling doesn't leak out. Lift up the triangle and place it on your index finger with the base pointing towards the palm of your hand. Wrap the two corners that stick out around your finger to create a ring. Pull the ring off of your finger and place on a floured plate. Do this until you have no dough left.

9. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in the ravioli and boil for 2-3 min or until the tortellini float up the surface.

10. Drain and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and a few shavings of parmesan cheese on top.

Penne with salmon and creamed spinach

Yum, this was a great little dinner for one tonight. I just cooked some Penne pasta, wilted some spinach in a frying pan, tossed in some thinly sliced garlic, some sweet corn and poured in some heavy cream. Salt & pepper.

Delicious, simple and quick!

Frutti de mare

My boyfriend said he wanted frutti de mare for dinner tonight. Great! I said and cooked frutti de mare á la Angélica.

Frutti de mare
Serves 2

pasta for 2 people
2 salmon cutlets
10 tiger prawns
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
2,5 dl (1 cup) tomato sauce
salt, pepper, red chili flakes

1. Cook the pasta according to the intructions on the packet.

2. Remove skin and bones from the salmon cutlets. Peel and de-vein the prawns. Cut salmon into bite size pieces, and cut the prawns in half. Season with salt, pepper and red chili flakes.

2. Fry the salmon pieces until done in a frying pan. Remove. Fry the prawns until pink. Remove.

3. Heat some oil in a sauce pan. Sauté the garlic for a minute. Add the tomato sauce and heat. Tip in the salmon and prawns. Cook for a few minutes.

4. Drain pasta and return to pan. Pour the tomato sauce over the pasta and toss to mix.

5. Serve in deep plates, sprinkle some fresh basil or parsely, grated parmesan cheese and drizzle with some EVOO.

Homemade farfalle pasta

I was looking for a quick dinner to have before volleyball practice on Monday and all I could come up with was pasta. Finding myself with a bit more time on my hands than I had planned I decided to make homemade pasta.

I am so tired of the boring pasta shapes the machine can make so I decided to try my luck at making farfalle pasta. Farfalle pasta is also called bow-tie pasta, and it looks more difficult to make than it actually is.

I am not going to go into the actual making of farfalle pasta, that you can read about here. Just wanted to get it out there. I made farfalle pasta and they looked good!

Taco flavoured chicken lasagna

I have been absent for quite some time now, I haven't felt any inspiration at all lately. I have been cooking, but only half-heartedly.

However, the other week I made a delicious lasagna filled with goodness such as rotisserie chicken and taco spices. YUM! Here's the recipe:

Taco flavoured chicken lasagna
Serves 4

500 g chicken meat
2 onions
1 boccolli (250 g)
1 red bell pepper (200g)
2 bags of taco seasoning (80 g)
1 ½ dl water
2 dl light creme fraiche
200 g cream cheese (for example Philadelphia cheese)
2 dl milk
9 lasagna noodles
1 dl grated cheese
oil

1. Heat your oven to 175°C.

2. Peel and chopped the onion. Cut the broccolli + stem into smaller pieces. De seed and cut the bell pepper into smaller pieces.

3. Cut the chicken into strips. Fry the chicken and the vegetables in the oil for 5 minutes. Add the taco seasoning and water.

4. Stir in the creme fraiche, cream cheese, and milk. Bring to the boil.

5. Cover the base of an oven-proof dish with some of the chicken sauce. Cover with lsagna noodles, add another layer of chicken sauce, cover with noodles. Keep on doing this until you have used up all the sauce and noodles. Be sure to always start and end with a layer of sauce. Sprinkle with the cheese.

6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

- As seen in Buffé #2, 2009

Quick dinner

I opened my fridge and found.......... NOTHING! And it wasn't even like I had an empty fridge, I just couldn't find a single thing in the fridge that I felt like cooking for dinner. I hate when that happens, I have a full fridge and still nothing to cook.

In the end, I made homemade pasta- gosh, I just love my pasta machine- fried some button mushrooms and grated garlic in a frying pan. Poured over half a tub of creme fraiche, and sprinkled some fresh basil on top, gave it a good stir, mixed the pasta and the sauce together in the pasta casserole, and served.

Homemade pasta

Got a gift card from Clas Ohlson for my 25th birthday the other week. (Yes, I am now a quarter of a century old... yikes!) With the gift card in my hand, I headed in to Clas Ohlson, and came out one Mercato Atlas pasta machine richer!

This is how you make homemade pasta:

100 g plain flour per person

1 egg per person


Combine in a food processor until the dough resembles cooked couscous. Tip out and press down on the dough, be sure to catch any straggling bits.



Place the dough in the pasta machine, roll through and fold in half on the thickest setting 4-5 times.

Now, take it down notch and roll trough. Do this again and again, taking it down a notch each time until you have the desired thickness of your pasta.

Make the pasta sheet into tagliatelle or angel hair by using the different attachments on your pasta machine. Or cut the dough with a knife, either one works!

Cook the pasta in lightly salted water for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Watch Jamie Oliver make pasta