Spinach Ravioli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Bocconcini, Basil and Prosciutto

I've been making fresh pasta for a few years now.  It takes two or three attempts to get really comfortable with the process, but after that its a breeze.  And there is nothing better than fresh pasta - whether its fettucine, lasagne, ravioli or any of the other wide variety of options.

This time I adjusted the quantity of pasta dough as I was just cooking for me and I decided to make green pasta!

At its core, pasta dough is the simplest recipe - flour and water or some other liquid.  Many recipes use whole eggs to give the pasta a more silky texture or just egg yolks for a richer taste.

There are all sorts of ingredients you can add to give the pasta colour or design - black pepper, herbs or beet juice for example.  The main thing to keep in mind is that if you are adding a wet ingredient (spinach, beet juice), make sure you leave out an equivalent amount of the egg so that the resulting mixture has the same ratio of wet to dry.  I replaced a couple of the eggs with blanched and drained fresh spinach to give the pasta a vibrant green hue.

• 1 3/4 - 2 cups flour (preferably tipo '00' flour which is finer and easier to work with)
• 1 whole organic egg
• 5 - 6 oz spinach (blanched for 2 - 3 minutes, well drained and then run through a food processor)

Kneed the dough by hand for 4 or 5 minutes until the dough has a silky, smooth and slightly elastic texture.  Wrap it in cling wrap and pop it in the fridge for an hour.  After the dough has sat, cut it into fourths, and work with a quarter of the dough at a time.

I typically put it through the pasta machine on the thickest setting four or five times, folding the ends of the pasta sheet into the middle after each attempt.  Then, adjust the thickness setting down from 7 to 6, and run the pasta sheet again, repeating this and lowering the setting each time until you've run it through the thinnest 1 setting.  Its a smart idea to keep extra flour on the work surface and to dust the pasta sheet regularly so that it remains easy to work with.

Ravioli is easy to make from here because all you need to do is place one sheet on your work surface, add your filling at evenly spaced intervals along the pasta sheet and then cover with another pasta sheet.  Make sure that there are no air pockets within the filling, and then cut them into individual raviolis.  Because the pasta is fresh, it should only take 3 or 4 minutes in boiling water to cook.

For the filling you can start with something simple like spinach and ricotta or mint and buffalo mozzarella.  For this attempt I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe and used sun-dried tomatoes, bocconcini, basil and parmesan wrapped in a small prosciutto slice.

Pan-Fried Halibut with Black Beans and Chile-Cilantro Salsa

I was given the Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone cookbook for Christmas and immediately found a number of recipes that I wanted to try out.  I'm also a big fan of his Take Home Chef series, on which many of the recipes in this book are based, including this one.

Not only is this easy to make, but its healthy as well and it makes for a great lunch.

Filet de Boeuf Braisé Prince Albert

This year I decided to go French for my New Year's Eve dinner, channeling an impressive Julia Child recipe on the main course.  The full menu was:

• A take on Escargot en Brioche
• Twice-baked Cheese Soufflés with spinach salad
• Julia Child:
• Filet de Boeuf Braisé Prince Albert
• Broccoli Gratinéed with Cheese Sauce
• Glazed Carrots
• Espresso Crème Brûlées (I used brewed espresso instead of instant coffee)

I used foie gras that was brought back from a trip to Reims, France.

The filet de boeuf isn't as difficult to make as its intimidating 2 1/2 page recipe (from Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking) lets on, but it does benefit from some preparation ahead of time.

I had some trouble finding truffles but I used white truffle pate instead (which I marinated in madeira per the recipe).

Browning the tenderloin on the stove top.

With the carrot, onion and beef broth.

This was probably the best roast I've ever had - no surprise when you consider that it's a tenderloin stuffed with foie gras and truffles, cooked in booze and beef stock, with bacon on top.

Ceviche Shrimp Bloody Mary Shooters

I was ambituous, probably overly so, with the menu for this year's Xmas drop-in.  In addition to the standard fare, I prepared a number of appetizers and several amuse bouche which were partly of my own creation.

The entire menu consisted of:

• Shrimp ceviche Bloody Mary shooters
• Spinach artichoke dip
• Hot bean dip
• Cranberry brie puffs
• Tomato orange soup with seared scallop shooters
• Spring rolls
• Chipotle cornbread bites
• Cranberry glazed meatballs
• Rosemary-skewered Mediterranean grilled chicken
• Seared beef sushi
• Lamb & feta cigars
• Egg nog fondue

I had an appetizer similar to this at a party in L.A. and wanted to recreate it for my drop-in party.  It is really very simple.  There are many Bloody Mary recipes online - so choose the one that you like best.  For the Bloody Mary mixture I adapted a recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Maze cookbook (the original receipe is actually a Bloody Mary sorbet).

Purée 1 shallot, 1/4 cucumber, 1 small red pepper, 8 ripe tomatoes (cucumber, pepper and tomatoes de-seeded).  Strain and add 2 tbsp each of fresh lemon juice and tomato paste, and a couple of shots of vodka and mix thoroughly.

Place your uncooked deveined shrimp in a small Ziploc with enough fresh lime juice to cover and leave them 5-7 minutes so that they cook in the juices.  To serve put some of the Bloody Mark mixture in a shot glass, with one shrimp and sprinkle with chopped cilantro.  Bottoms up!

Where have all the good sushi gone?

After an unfortunately long absense from sharing my food experiences I've decided to renew focus by dedicating an entire blog to making great sushi at home.  Please check it out here: http://www.sushichefshawn.com/.

The Best Baked Potato Ever

I made these Jamie Oliver baked potatoes last night to go with a roast leg of lamb. Bacon makes everything taste better. Add anchovy, sage, garlic and lemon zest to the mix and of course the potato is going to have amazing flavour.


These are super easy to make and they taste great. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Take an apple corer to medium sized white waxy potatoes and core all the way through. Save the core for later.


Place the following in each potato: a half slice of raw bacon, a big sage leaf, an anchovy fillet, a couple slices of garlic and a little lemon zest. Use a half inch of the potato core to plug each end.


Coat the potatoes in some olive oil, sprinkle a little sea salt over them and bake for 60 minutes. Anchovies turn many people off, but when you bake them for this long they just disintegrate and add great flavour, so don't leave them out!

Chocolate Cookie Cheesecake

I've eaten many a cheesecake in my day, but I've never had the opportunity or inspiration to make one myself until now. The catalyst was when I was commissioned to make a dessert for my friend's staff meeting. After a little browsing I came across this chocolate cookie cheesecake recipe.


I always love when something you make for the first time turns out great. Not that cheesecake is a very difficult dessert to make, but it's still rather satisfying.


For the cookies I used Mr. Christie's Chocolate Wafers, and I followed the above recipe fairly closely, with the following exceptions:

• I found that I needed more than 2 tbsp of butter to get the crust to a consistency where it would sufficiently stick together. I used two to three times as much.


• I used a fresh vanilla bean instead of extract in the cheese mixture, another bean in the sour cream mixture, and a 3rd in the chocolate sauce. It sounds a little over the top, but it adds tremendous flavour. Plus I think that it's great when you see the vanilla spots in a dessert.


• Instead of a solid coating of chocolate sauce, I used a sauce bottle to decorate the top, and then added some milk chocolate shavings for a little extra presentation.