Author: pgoldietonic

Making Pasta: Cappelletti with Mushrooms

In Rome this spring, I had the opportunity to spend most of a day learning to cook some authentic Italian dishes from Chef Federico Alessandri who runs chefinaday.com  It was a great experience – starting in the farmer’s market buying ingredients, then making 3 types of pasta and other dishes.

Here’s the recipe for Cappelletti (little hats) with Mushroom stuffing. The picture here is from when we made it at his studio, the version I made yesterday with friends was, well, not quite as pretty.

Cappelletti with Mushrooms – Serves 4

Pasta

  • 300g double zero (00) flour
  • 3 Eggs (can’t be more than 60g each with shell – 55g good)
  • Spoon of EVOO
  • Pinch of salt

Make a well and mix in the wet ingredients to create a dough and knead for 5+ minutes until smooth. It’s okay if the dough is hard but make sure it is not too soft. Vacuum seal and refrigerate. 

Mushroom Filling

  • 8 ounces of mushrooms
  • 5 ounces of Italian ricotta cheese (preferably goat’s milk ricotta)
  • 2 ounces of pecorino cheese
  • Herbs: Parsley, Mint
  • 1Tbs Fibergold*
  • Nutmeg
  • Lemon zest
  • Salt, Chef’s pepper

*Fibergold is an Italian product I’ve not tracked down yet – it’s corn starch + potato fiber and it absorbs the moisture so that the mix is drier. I tried to substitute some cornstarch and tapioca starch and it didn’t fully work.

To make the filling, saute the mushrooms, then chop with the herbs and mix with the other ingredients.

Forming and cooking the Pasta

Take the dough and run through pasta roller a few times to get smooth and then increasingly narrow until very thin. Not sure of the exact # setting. Cut into 2″x2″ squares. Place a 3/4″-1″ ball of the filling in the middle, fold in half corner to corner to create a triangle. Pull around the sides of the triangle and overlap to create the “hat” shape. Boil the pasta for a minute or two until done and add to the sauce.

Sauce

  • 3Tbs Butter
  • 1C Water
  • 1C Parmigiana cheese

Warm the butter and water in a frying plan, add the pasta, stir and leave so the starch comes out. Add Parmigiana cheese only when mixture is between 50-60 deg C.  

Separate Creamy cheese sauce (to drizzle)
Soft cheese + Water
Blend
Cool to thicken

Sprouts to garnish
Evoo
Smoked salt
On plate

 

Favorite Pocket Knife

My favorite probably won’t be your favorite, because the Deejo knives are completely customizable. You choose the size, the metal finish, the handle material and the laser-etched design (including custom text) and for about $50, it arrives at your doorstep, from France, 2 days later. I found this knife because I was looking for something super light to take on the 50-miler hikes, but the design is just pure joy. www.deejo.fr

The Amazing AeroGarden

The AeroGarden is a great way to always have a supply of fresh herbs on hand. It’s a hydroponic garden, so it just needs water and nutrients – there is no soil involved. It has bright LED lights that are on an automatic timer to optimize the growth of the plants. You can grow 7 different herbs at a time. They are ready to harvest in a couple of weeks and you just keep trimming and growing for about 6 months. You can also insert a different base for growing seedlings to transplant in the garden (about 52 at a time), which has also been very successful for us. You can grow flowers, small peppers and tomatoes also, but I’ve had the best results with herbs. We’re on our second model (upgraded from CFL to LED lighting) and it’s very reliable. The seed pods you buy from AeroGarden are guaranteed – if they don’t come up, they will send you a new one, but I’ve also just used the bases and planted my own seeds successfully. You can learn more at their site AeroGarden, and you can also buy some of the models, like the AeroGarden Ultra at Amazon.com

The world’s shortest workout (that actually generates results)

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is all the rage these days. One of the early proponents and top researchers in the field is Martin Gibala, PhD, head of Kinesiology at McMaster University (yay, Canada). In a recent research study he showed that ONE MINUTE of super high intensity training, three times per week, was as effective a three 50-minute less intense workouts. The one minute was actually comprised of a light 2 minute warm up, followed by three 20-second bursts separated by a minute of light work, and then followed by a 3-minute cool down. But… that’s still <10 minute workout. Here’s the research abstract: Journal and here’s his upcoming book, being published in a few days:

Bali Breeze Cocktail 

I created this cocktail for a dinner party that had an Asian theme. I wanted something not too sweet, with some Asian flavors, and also red colored, since it was also Chinese New Year. Turned out pretty great…

  • 1 oz Gin
  • 1 oz Sake
  • 1/2 oz Aperol
  • 1/2 oz Canton Ginger Liqueur
  • Juice of 1/2 lime (or more)

Shake with ice and strain into a glass. Garnish with lime or a mini umbrella!

Bali Breeze Cocktail
The Bali Breeze

Scott’s Cheap Flights – email list for flight deals.

I recently discovered Scott’s Cheap Flights. It’s an email service where he sends you an email when he discovers good international flight deals, usually every day or two there’s something new. You can customize the departure cities you are interested in, so you only get emails that are relevant to you. He uncovers some really great deals – often 40-50% off the regular price and you book it on your own with any service. You can pay a premium to get “all” the emails or you can get about 1/3 of them for free. Sign up here: Scott’s Cheap Flights

Play Bigger – The Bible for Category Design.

Play Bigger is my business bible. It’s a brilliant business strategy book combined with some great in-the-trenches stories. It introduces the notion of Category Design which is the focus of my consulting business. Helping companies define their business category so that customers and analysts understand what they do and their need for it, and positioning the company to dominate the category. The guys who wrote the book are friends and the best in the world at what they do. If you haven’t read it, click on the image below and check it out right now!

The best food ever – Okonomiyaki

okonomiyaki

If you’ve never eaten, or even heard of okonomiyaki, you are in for a treat. Despite there being over 20,000 restaurants in Japan dedicated solely to this unique food, most westerners have never heard of it. It’s one of the best foods I’ve ever had, though if you just heard the description of the ingredients, it sounds pretty terrible. In summary, it’s a crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, pancake made with cabbage, scallions, and seafood, held together by a batter, covered with a layer of bacon, sweet sauce, mayo, dried fish flakes and seaweed powder. Yummmm.  Here is the best resource to learn about this amazing food – and a list of restaurants outside of Japan where you can try it. And do try it – trust me, you will thank me.  Okonomiyaki World