Category: Food & Drink

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

 

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!

I’ve spent years working on this. I’ve stopped varying the dough recipe at experiment #17 and that is the final one. Double Zero flour with some whole wheat and cornmeal as well. If you want to see an interactive story on how to make pizza, click the play button below (or if you are on a phone or tablet, click this link: Pizza At Home. )

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