Easy Cream Sauce

For our ravioli night, we decided to try a few different types: homemade, Mono Lisa's cheese ravioli, and beat, spinach, and goat cheese from Costco.  We had leftover osso bucco sauce so we just used but wanted a cream sauce as well.  Found some ingredients in the fridge and whipped this one together.

: 4 tbsp. butter
: 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
: 1/2 cup parmesan reggiano
: garlic
: fresh parsley, chopped

Melt butter, then add milk and other ingredients

Homemade Ravioli

Ever since Johnny got a pasta maker a couple of years ago, we've been making our own pasta.  Now it was time to try ravioli! 

We found a recipe in our go-to cookbook, The Silver Spoon (enter gates to Heaven music ;)

Dough

: 2 3/4 cups Italian type 00 flour, plus extra for dusting

: 3 eggs, lightly beaten

: salt

Sift flour into a mound on the coun

Make a well and add eggs in well.

Mix eggs with fingers

Using fingers in a stirring motion, gradually
incorporate the flour.

Knead for about 10 minutes

Shape dough into a ball

Wrap with plastic wrap and let rest for about an
hour in the refrigerator (or up to 24 hours)

Filling

: 1 cup ricotta cheese, whole milk

: 1 egg, lightly beaten

: 1 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

: grated parmesan to taste

: salt and pepper

 

Time to make the ravioli!

     

 

Summer Tomato Salad

Skipping the lettuce on this one and using up some of our home grown goodies from our back yard (and neighbor's)!

- tomatoes, sliced thin with salt to taste (heirlooms from our garden)
- avocados, peeled and sliced thin (from neighbor's tree)
- chopped cilantro
- pumpkin seeds
- lime, juiced (from our tree)
- olive oil to drizzle
- pepper flakes to taste

Pizza Night - Again!

At least once week (at least!), we have Johnny's favorite meal...pizza (can you see my eye roll?). This was a tradition in his family and now he's passionate about making it in our cucina. It's become a challenge to him to try to make the best!  Everyone seems to like it, so I say it's the perfect homemade pizza.

Made prior:
: Dough - we have to start by making the dough a few days earlier to let it proof in the fridge.
: Sauce - we usually use a left over sauce from pasta.  This time is was an osso buco sauce

* I'll have to do other posts on the dough and sauce later :)

Toppings: any veggies and meat in the fridge pretty much!
Pepperoni and fresh mozzarella balls (best kind is from Mona Lisa), mushrooms, olives, onions, peppers, jalepenos, pineapple, ricotta cheese, and fresh basil


: Let dough rise for a couple of hours. We ended up splitting each ball into two = 4 pizzas!

: Preheat oven to max. Ours is 500 degrees

: Prep ingredients

: Roll out dough and put in oven for a few minutes without ingredients. I like to put olive oil on the crust to make it a little buttery.  Add sauce.

 

: Add all ingredients you wish.  I'm a cheese on top of ingredients type person :)  Bake in oven for 10ish minutes or until lightly brown.  

: Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting.  

                                  

Sweet and Spicy Salmon

3 salmon steaks (got ours from Trader Joe's)
1/2 cup of jam.  I used picante de maracuya (passion fruit), but any jam would work - fig, apricot
1/3 cup Siracha mix

Siracha Mix = 1/2 Siracha, 1/2 Siracha chile

: Preheat oven to 250 degrees
: Place salmon on foil lined baking sheet. Spray with oil
: Combine jam and Siracha mix. Spread on salmon
: Bake in oven for 30 minutes

** A little too spicy for me, but Johnny loved it! 

Spinach, Mushroom, Bacon, and Ricotta Frittata

Original recipe

We increased it by 50% and added some ingredients.

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove liquid
6 eggs
6 slices of bacon, chopped and cooked
1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta
1 1/4 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
1 1/4 cup chopped portabello mushrooms
3/4 cup onion
1 cup-ish freshly chopped basil
1/2 cup-ish freshly chopped parsley
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper

: Preheat oven to 375 degrees
: Mix all ingredients. Pour into a pie plate
: Bake for 30 minutes or until brown. Let rest for 20 minutes.

For the Love of Cooking

So I'm going out on a limb and venturing out into this blog world.  I am definitely not a writer (I teach math and science and hated my English classes in school), but simply wanted a place to put all of my photos from cooking.  Nothing fancy.

My husband and I love to cook...well, ok mostly my husband, Johnny.  We grew up in two different lifestyles when it comes to home cooking.  He is half Mexican, half Italian with lots of homemade meals from his culture.  Being raised by my single mom, I grew up loving Hamburger Helper. You can imagine our cooking experiences after marriage.

I am very spoiled to have a husband who loves to cook.  I started mostly watching him with a glass of wine in one hand and my camera in another.  Now I'm trying to jump in more as his sous chef, even sometimes leading.  Either way, we love to cook together and share our food with friends and family.

I have learned so much about cooking and have appreciated family traditions and recipes so much more now. I've collected so many recipes on my Pinterest boards and reached out to my mom and late Gram to find German recipes from my family.  Many recipes I've yet to try so hopefully this blog will push me a little further.

Hope you can join me on this journey in our Cucina Petraglia...