Sasha's Kitchen: Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli

I love making my own ravioli so here's my latest batch.  I made this for Valentine's Day so I made it the pasta dough a lovely shade of pink using tomato paste.  The newest, latest and greatest ravioli flavor I came up was goat cheese, roasted pepper ravioli which was just a lovely food combination.  As usual, I produced these en masse and made six dozen so plenty went into the freezer for no-cooking nights. This is a great romantic meal that is worth the effort that goes into it.  My husband absolutely loved these!

Pink Tomato Ravioli Dough (from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano)
3 1/2 cups flour
5 eggs
2 T tomato paste

Sasha's Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli
11/4 cups roasted red, yellow and orange peppers, pureed in a food processor
10.5 oz goat cheese
15 oz part skim milk ricotta cheese
1/3 tsp red pepper flakes

To make the dough, put the eggs in your stand mixer and beat for a minute to scramble.  Then add all the flour and tomato paste at once and mix into a dough.  Divide into four balls and wrap in plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for an hour before using.

Roll the dough to 6 or 7 thinness using your pasta machine.  Using a ravioli press, press into ravioli.  This recipe should make about six dozen as each sheet makes 12 at once.  Allow to dry for about an hour on a drying rack before placing the drying rack in a freezer.  Once they are frozen you can put them in freezer bags.  To cook place in salted boiling water and cook about five minutes.

Sasha's Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Sauce
2 cans organic whole tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes
2 red, orange or yellow peppers, diced
1 onion, diced
four cloves of garlic, minced
fresh thyme to taste (I used about 5 branches)
fresh oregano to taste (I used about a tablespoon)
salt and pepper to taste
1 T balsamic vinegar

Dice the onions, pepper and add the herbs and garlic and saute in three tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes.  Add the tomato puree and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer for a half an hour.  When the simmering has concluded, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Sasha's Kitchen: Goat Cheese-Roasted Pepper Ravioli

Sasha's Kitchen: Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms

I was excited to use the delicious looking jar of roasted red peppers from Greece that I had received from Shop-Rite in the mail as a participant in the ShopRite "Potluck" blog panel. I had already planned on making veal marsala for dinner. Then, I decided to go with the marsala theme, but vary things up a bit. This dish is kind of a take on veal marsala, but its quite untraditional - and better than even our best veal marsala. I jazzed up the sauce with a bit of lemon and some Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce that I got some coupons for as part of a Foodbuzz  promotion. So this is all about some great ways to use the goodies that I received. The roasted peppers from ShopRite in particular were delicious - and made a perfect complement to the marsala sauce and the mushrooms. The Lea & Perrins really jazzed up the marsala sauce in the best way ever - and is a must (in small amounts) in all of my marsala dishes from here on out.  I also used some of ShopRite's extra virgin olive oil that I received - fresh from Italy. It was delicious, and great quality and complemented a nice dish.

Sasha's Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms
flour
1 lb veal scaloppine or veal cutlet
ShopRite extra virgin olive oil
baby bella mushrooms (one package)
1 jar ShopRite roasted red peppers
1 onion, diced
3 sprigs of thyme
1 cup marsala wine
1 cup of chicken stock
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce

First, dredge the veal in flour and season with salt and pepper. Sear on all sides, and set aside. Dice an onion and saute in olive oil. Add a bit more olive oil, as well as the mushrooms and red peppers and thyme, and cook until softened. Add 1 cup of marsala wine and cook over medium high heat, and allow to reduce by half, as the mushrooms, pepper and onions will soak up the flavor of the marsala. Add the chicken stock and reduce until you have a proper sauce.  In the meantime, you can cook the veal to your liking in the oven before adding it back into the sauce and cooking over medium heat for another few minutes, as the sauce thickens. Add the Lea & Perrins and juice of half of a lemon towards the end. Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Veal with Roasted Red Peppers and Mushrooms

Sasha's Kitchen: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I love hummus, one of my favorite Israeli foods.  Eating hummus always takes me back to the summer I spent in Israel. It's not really necessary to make your own as you can get delicious hummus at pretty much any grocery store. But I figured I'd give it a try since it's not very hard. I also figured it would be a great way to use my new Strawberry Casserole Dish from Le Creuset that I got in a promotion from CSN Stores. I love Le Creuset for the colors and quality of the cookware and this strawberry dish is perfect for serving delicious dips and sauces.

For my first time preparing hummus, I decided to make a roasted red pepper flavored hummus, which was quite delicious. It's very simple to make as long as you remember to soak the chickpeas overnight. The rest is done using your blender. This probably isn't the most authentic Israeli version but it has the consistency and flavors right. It would likely taste delicious with homemade falafel, as well.

Sasha's Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

8 oz chickpeas (soaked in water for at least 12 hours)

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chile powder

1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup tahini

1 tsp diced garlic

3 roasted red peppers

1 T chopped cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender, except for the olive oil. Blend until combined. Blend, adding the olive oil (between 1/3 and 1/2 of a cup total) until the hummus is smooth and has the right consistency. Serve as a dip with vegetables or with falafel and pita.

Sasha's Kitchen: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Sasha's Kitchen: Philly Cheesesteak (North of Philly Version)

I spent four years living outside of Philadelphia during college, when I was an undergrad at Haverford College.  Most of my memories of food during college involve the mediocre typical college dining hall meals.  I certainly wasn't doing much cooking in those days because I loved in the dorms rather than the apartments that were a trek from the center of campus.  However, whenever I did take the less-than-reliable SEPTA commuter rail into Philly, I couldn't resist a cheesesteak from Pat's or Geno's.  Eric, my fellow guest blogger, and I both went to Philly-area schools and have a similar fondness for the cheesesteak as one of our favorite Philly cuisines.  Thus, we decided to have a friendly challenge where we would each make a cheesesteak that reminds us of our Philly college days and cheesesteak nostalgia, and write about it here on A Kitchen In Brooklyn.

In fairness, most of my cheesesteaks were inhaled in minutes, usually after drinking, so I wasn't paying much attention to the finer culinary points of the cheesesteaks during my college visits to Pats and Genos.   What I remember, is the melted cheese and the thin, delicious steak, and also that I loved cheesesteaks with sauteed mushrooms and onions.  When attempting to create this recipe, some years removed from college, I had the urge to caramelize the onions before adding them to the steak.

I purchased some quality Italian rolls from my local Italian market and butcher, M&S Prime Meats.  In addition, I decided that a thinly sliced rib eye was the way to go with the steak, since it isn't quite as lean as a cut of filet or sirloin would be.   The rib eye wasn't as thinly sliced as a Pat's cheesesteak, but it was cut into nice thing slices that my grill pan could easily handle.

To prepare the cheesesteaks, I seared the meat and cooked it through with a bit of canola oil in my grill pan.  I caramelized the onions with a bit of sugar (sliced one onion and added two tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of canola oil to the pan).  I sauteed the mushrooms in olive oil.  I used sliced baby bella mushrooms.  In addition, I bought a large roasted red pepper at the Italian market that I felt would be a perfect fit with this cheesesteak, so on it went.

Finally, it wouldn't be a cheesesteak without the cheese.  Some of the recipes from Philly that I looked at actually use cheeze wiz, but I certainly wasn't about to do that!  I decided that a sliced deli cheese was best and went with provolone.  The proper way to make a cheesesteak likely involves drizzling melted cheese, but I toasted the buns, assembled the sandwich and put it in the oven with the cheese at 350 for about five minutes until the cheese was melted.

In summary, here are the ingredients you will need to prepare my version of the cheesesteak.

Sasha's North-of-Philly (Brooklyn) Cheesesteak (makes two large sandwiches)

3/4 lb rib eye, thinly sliced

one onion, sliced

2 T of sugar

sliced baby bella mushrooms

canola oil  or olive oil

2 long Italian rolls

1 roasted red pepper

The end result was delicious.  Those Pat's and Geno's cheesesteaks had a special place in my heart from my college years, but my new cheesesteak is great for a new decade, although it was so big that I only ate half during dinner.  The flavors of the caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, sauteed mushrooms and provolone all combined nicely with the succulent, juicy rib eye.  The quality of the meat that I used is surely much better than a standard Philly cheesesteak, but keep in mind that this sandwich's main competition is my memories of Philly as a 19 year old college student.  Regardless, I was happy and nostalgic about this rendition.  This might just be the best Brooklyn cheesesteak out there!

Sasha's Kitchen: Philly Cheesesteak (North of Philly Version)