Phylo Banana Ricotta Pastry

 One of the great things about phylo dough is that more often than not you will have a surplus by buying just one pack of it. This is particularly true if you use it sparingly like I always seem to do. I wanted to finish up a pack of it before it became completely unusable, so I concocted a little something sweet and savory. I took some ricotta, bananas, a little maple syrup (thank you Arianna for bringing me some real deal one from Toronto. You have made me immensely happy), nutmeg, Parmesan and of course the phylo and here is what I came up with.

Phylo Banana Ricotta Pastry

2 sheets Phylo Dough
3 TBSP Butter (melted)
1 1/2 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1 TBSP Ground Nutmeg
3 TBSP Maple Syrup
1 Banana (sliced into 1/4 inch pieces)
1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan (To garnish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Take your phylo one sheet at a time and brush with the melted butter. Lay one sheet on top of the other and fold in half. place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl combine the ricotta, nutmeg and maple syrup until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

Place this mixture on the center of your phylo dough and distribute evenly forming a strip about 2 inches in thickness making sure to end the strip about 2 inches away for each end and leaving enough room on the sides to allow room for you to fold the pastry over the filling.

Place the banana slices along the entire length of the ricotta strip. Fold the pastry over the filling and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until your pastry has reached a golden brown throughout.

Allow to cool before serving. You can serve this with a nice hazel nut or vanilla ice cream or just drizzle with either maple syrup or honey.

Enjoy :)

Ravioli with Carrot & Ricotta Filling

Sorry for my absence this week. It seems that as we get deeper into summer things start getting more and more hectic, which is the opposite of my general expectations, but what the heck. Since I have been cooking a bit of stuff that is on my usual repertoire, I decided that I should try to be a little more creative and make something that I could share will those of you who read through my humble blog. This week I made Jumbo Raviolis stuffed with a wonderful mix of Ricotta cheese and carrots. I made my pasta using a recipe from the Food Network website. After that it was a matter of making the filling and hand rolling the pasta into thin sheets to make the ravioli. Here is the recipe for the filling:


Carrot & Ricotta Ravioli Filling

2 TBSP Olive Oil

2 Shallots (small preferable - finely diced)
4-5 Garlic cloves (Minced)
2 Carrots (Finely grated)

1 Cup Ricotta Cheese (Whole or low fat - whichever you prefer)
 Salt and pepper to taste


In a pan heat the olive oil on medium high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and saute until the shallots are semi translucent and soft and the garlic is starting to brown.

Add in your carrots and saute for about 5-10 minutes, until the carrots are a deeper shade of orange.

Allow the mixture to cool slightly about 10-20 minutes.

In a separate bowl combine the carrot mixture with the ricotta. Make sure to mix well so that all ingredients are evenly distributed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Now you are ready to make your ravioli. If you do not have a ravioli maker (which I don't at the time), you can roll out your dough out into sheets about 1/8 inch in thickness (or slightly less - thinner pasta cooks quicker). The pictures below show you my process for making my ravioli.

 Place about 1 teaspoon of filling on one side of your pasta sheet.

make sure to leave about 1 inch between them and about 1/2 inch for the edges

 Fold pasta over and press between the mounds of filling.

 Cut Raviolis

 Roll edges of ravioli pillows to seal them in.

 Finished ravioli 

I topped mine off with some bolognese sauce, but you can do it any way you want (Alfredo, butter and garlic, etc...)

Enjoy

Chicken Lasagna

This recipe is very special to me because it was one of the things I always loved that my mom made (even though mine will never come close to how good my mom's is). This is the one that I would always request she make on my birthday. Here is my recipe.

Chicken Lasagna

9 inch by 12 inch Baking Dish
Lasagna pasta sheets (you will need enough for a base layer, 3 layers of filling in between and for the top)
3 large Chicken Breast Halves
3 Cups Chicken Stock/Broth 
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 Plum Tomatoes (Seeded, pealed and finely diced)
1 Large Shallot (Thinly sliced and diced)
5 Cloves of Garlic (Thinly sliced)
2 Green Onions (Thinly sliced)
1/2 Red Pepper (Finely diced)
1 Large Carrot (Grated)
1 lb Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 Cups Ricotta Cheese
1 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Bechamel Sauce (see recipe at end)


Preheat oven at 390 degrees Fahrenheit.

Start by heating your chicken stock  in a medium pot add the chicken breasts and allow to cook through. Once cooked through, remove the breasts from the broth and allow to cool. When they have cooled off shred them as you would pulled pork (you want long stringy pieces).

In a large pan heat your olive oil and add the tomatoes, shallot, garlic, green onions, red pepper and carrot and cook until the onions become translucent. (If your mixture starts to dry out a bit add a bit of the chicken stock used to cook the chicken breasts). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chicken to the vegetable mixture making sure to incorporate the chicken evenly and allowing the vegetable base to coat it. Once this is done set it aside.

In a bowl combine the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses until the Parmesan is evenly distributed into the ricotta. Set it aside.

Now start getting your pasta sheets ready in a large pot of boiling water with a pinch of salt and olive oil (I find it best to cook the pasta in batches on a per layer basis because it prevents the pasta from over cooking). 

Get your baking dish ready by greasing the bottom of it with a little olive oil. Start by laying down a layer of pasta at the bottom. Add half of the chicken and vegetable mix onto the layer of pasta making sure to distribute it evenly. Add the bechamel sauce on top of the chicken vegetable mixture (this will insure that your chicken will not dry out) and top out with a sprinkling of grated mozzarella. Now add another layer of pasta. The next layer is going to be your ricotta Parmesan cheese mixture distributed thinly and evenly. Add another layer of pasta and add the remaining half of your chicken vegetable mixture. Top this layer off with Bechamel sauce and a sprinkling of shredded Mozzarella. Add the last layer of pasta and add the rest of the shredded Mozzarella.

Place your baking dish at the center of your oven and allow the lasagna to cook until you see the ingredients bubbling and the mozzarella on top starts to brown. About 20-30 minutes.

Once ready remove from oven and allow it to rest for at least 15 minutes. Serve and enjoy


Bechamel Sauce (my version at least)

2 Cups Chicken Stock/Broth (you can use the stock/broth used to cook the chicken breasts)
1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
1/4 Cup Flour
Pinch of Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste (if necessary)

In a medium sauce pot, heat up your chicken stock/broth and heavy cream on medium heat until they they start to lightly simmer. Start sifting in the flour while whisking it into the broth and cream. Whisk until you are satisfied that there are no lumps and the flour has been well incorporated into the wet ingredients. Add the pinch of nutmeg. Allow to cook for about five additional minutes stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set aside to be used when needed)

Date, Ricotta and Parmesan Stuffed Pasta

 Pasta dough disks

Date, Ricotta & Parmesan Filling

Filling the pasta disks

 

Shaping the filled pasta disks

 

Pasta ready to go into its jacuzzi

 

The end result

 This is a recipe that I concocted to try to match a dish that my husband and I loved from MORE in Dubai. Their dish is called the celebration pasta, which I mentioned in my other blog. The dish consists of tri-colori tortellini filled with a date ricotta filling. Since I only knew the two main ingredients involved in the filling I winged it a bit. I also have never attempted making tortellini before so I apologize for the amateurish looking ones I made. Here is my adapted filling recipe as well as the link to the recipe I used to make the pasta for the tortellini:

Filling:


1 Container of whole milk ricotta cheese - 15 oz (425g) 
15 to 20 large, plump dates
2 TBSP fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste


Preparation:



If you have a food processor (I am jealous) put your ricotta in and add the dates pulsing to ensure the dates are integrating evenly into the cheese. Then add the remaining ingredients until they are well integrated. 

If you (like me) do not have a food processor, start by dicing your dates as small as possible. Place your ricotta in a medium sized mixing bowl. Add the  diced dates and integrate them into the cheese as evenly as possible. Incorporate the rest of the ingredients into this mixture as evenly as possible.


Set filling aside and get your pasta ready.


Pasta:


After you make your dough separate a third of the dough, set the remainder aside and take the necessary precautions to ensure the rest  remains moist. Roll out your dough until it is about 1/8 of an inch thin or thinner if possible (the thinner the less time it will take for the pasta to cook through).


Once the dough is well rolled use a circular cookie cutter (about 3" diameter max recommended) to cut out as many dough disks as possible. Set disks aside ensuring that they remain moist by placing them in a container with a moist towel on top. 


Repeat the steps above with the dough set aside earlier.




Now it is time to fill your pasta. 

Place a small ball (about 1/3 the diameter of your pasta disk) in the center of the disk. Wet the edge of the pasta disk. Fold the disk pressing the edges of the disk firmly together starting at the top center and then doing one side at a time so that you will not trap air in the pocket where the filling was placed. 


Shape the pasta into the tortellini shape by pinching and folding the sides. 


Place the tortellinis on flat dishes or baking sheets in rows with some room between each piece so that they will not stick together.

The yield on the tortellini will probably be about 4 1/2 dozen

At this point you can either make your pasta or you can store it in your freezer in an air tight container for up to two weeks. 


When you do decide to use it I recommend a nice garlic butter sauce, and top it off with fresh grated Parmesan.
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