Homemade Pasta

      I have always wanted to try to make my own handmade pasta.  So, when I received a pasta maker for my birthday, I knew I would have to try my hand at the challenge!  I made a whole wheat pasta (1 cup whole wheat flour, ½ cup all purpose flour, 2 eggs, and a small amount of olive oil) and it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be … although it was also messier than I had hoped it would be.  I topped the fettuccini pasta with a homemade marinara sauce with mushrooms.  Sprinkled with freshly ground parmesan and the dish was actually good enough to be served at the Trattoria.

      We paired the pasta with a 2005 Bordeaux Superieur.  This was a very complex wine with a smooth finish that complimented the acids in the pasta excellently!  Of course it also went well with chocolate.

Nothing Special

We really had nothing special tonight.  We sautéed Mahi Mahi with some Island Fish Spice and combined it with roasted butternut squash and left over roasted Brussels sprouts from last night.  It all made for a tasty dinner with little effort.

This was paired with one of our house red wines, Les Enfants Terribles.  I have written about this $10 wine earlier and it is still as good as it ever was.  By the way, although I said it was nothing special … I may have lied because the chocolate pairing was special.

Cannelloni Beans from Italy

The last time we were in Italy we purchased a bag of dried cannelloni beans.  These are basically a white kidney bean which we use for one of our favorite dishes … Tuscan Chicken with White Beans and Wilted Greens (see a previous blog).  This time we decided to make something different with the beans so a search on food network dot com came up with Tuscan Shrimp with White Beans by Michael Chiarello.  We teamed the shrimp with roasted Brussels sprouts for a great and very filling dinner.

            The most difficult part of this meal preparation turned out to be the cannelloni beans.  We soaked them overnight but they were still hard so I put them in a skillet and added some water and let them simmer and simmer and simmer.  After about an hour and a half, the beans were finally soft and ready to serve.  As a contrast, the shrimp took about 10 minutes from initially putting the pan on the stove to putting the shrimp on the plate.

            The dinner was paired with a 2005 Valserrano Reserva.  This excellent red wine from Spain is an Alfio Moriconi selection from Total Wine.  It went very well with the dinner and of course paired well with the inevitable chocolate.

Wine was the Star

Our daughter is very partial to pumpkin so October is her favorite culinary time of year.  Therefore, when she found a recipe for pumpkin gnocchi she insisted that we make it and of course, since I like pasta, I readily agreed.  Although the dish used roasted butternut squash instead of pumpkin it surprisingly had the flavor and texture (and of course the color) of pumpkin.   This turned out to be unfortunate since when combined with the gnocchi it made a truly horrible (sticky and far too sweet) combination which could not be saved even when topped with toasted walnuts.  We were able to save the dinner somewhat by serving roasted tomatoes and onions on the side.

We paired the dinner with a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  “Cult” is an excellent wine with full body and very flavorful.  This complex wine was fantastic but even it could not bail out the disaster that was the gnocchi.  It did however go very well with the chocolate.

Missing New Orleans

It has been several years since we have been to New Orleans and I guess we were just missing it.  That is the only explanation I offer for why we were drawn to a Shrimp Creole with savory sautéed rice for dinner.  This was another volunteer from our Cuisine for Two cook book and it turned out to be just what we were interested in.  The seasonings on the Shrimp were perfect with just enough of a spice kick to give a little Creole burn.  The rice was sautéed in the pan with chunks of ham and green peppers and the cooked shrimp.  We added some roasted broccoli for a perfect meal and just let the good times roll.

            We paired the meal with a 2009 French cuvee which we purchased for about $10 per bottle.  Les Enfants Terribles is a blend of Mourvedre and Syrah which was a perfect compliment to the dinner.  The wine makers named the wine in honor of their 5 children and I can only guess at the mischief they must create.  Since the wine also compliments chocolate very well, I have to believe the “terrible children” must like chocolate which makes them all right in my book!

Coconut Fish

Tonight we decided to have Grilled Cilantro Fish in Coconut Broth.  This was another selection from our Cuisine for Two cookbook and was another winner.  The halibut was marinated in a cilantro and garlic marinade before it was grilled.  The recipe also included a sauce made with ginger, coconut milk, and serrano chile peppers.  We included black rice and roasted brussel sprouts for a delicious meal.  The halibut was great but the sauce was amazing and the black rice lent some body to the dish. 

It was a fantastic meal which we paired with a Vouvray wine.  Vouvray is a French white wine which went very well with the fish.  We topped off the dinner with a desert of pumpkin pie (seems like it is now fall).  The wine went superb with the pie but I have a suspicion it would have gone even better with chocolate.

Tarragon Chicken

If you follow this blog, you know we like chicken.  With that in mind, we searched the internet for a new recipe for a chicken dish.  We came across a Tarragon Chicken at myrecipes.com.  Since we still have some tarragon growing in the south forty of the gardens, we decided this would be a great dish to try out.  We combined the chicken with left over sautéed vegetables from last night and some roasted butternut squash.  I fix the butternut squash by cutting it into small pieces, drizzling olive oil over it, and sprinkling roasted cumin, salt, pepper, and nutmeg over it all.  As a side note, use fresh ground nutmeg … the difference is surprising.   By the way, when fixed this way, the butternut squash tastes and looks very similar to sweet potatoes (without the carbs).

            We paired the dinner with a 2010 Dogajolo Toscano.   This is a Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Tuscany Italy which we purchased from Costco for about $10 a bottle.  Although I have to admit, we selected this bottle  because we liked the pretty label, it turned out to be a good wine that went very well with the dinner and even better with the chocolate!