Ratatouille ravioli

Yes, I made ravioli again! I was too happy last week to finally masterize the pasta machine and the ravioli mold. So far I was using them but it was never perfect, but now I know how to do and it works really well. And because we love ravioli there is no excuse not to make some! The problem was to find the appropriate filling. Last week I used asparagus, but this time I wanted to challenge myself with something new, something more summer than spring. There was not too many option at the farmers market, so I decided to go for ratatouille since there was everything I needed to make a real ratatouille the way my grand mother would.

So first prepare the ratatouille: onion, zucchini, eggplant, capiscum, tomato. All cut in small pieces, a bit of olive oil, garlic for those who like I don’t), salt, black pepper and a leaf of fragant laurel. Cook at low heat under cover for 2 to three hours, check and stir every 30min. Since we want to use this as a filling it needs to be significantly dry, so remove the cover if needed in the end. Cool when ready, ravioli filling cannot be used warm. Then prepare the dough with the classic recipe: 100g flour, 1egg, salt, olive oil. I actually used half flour half semolina. Then roll your dough until the level of thinness you like (I used 8 out of 9 on my pasta machine). Then flour well one side of the dough and ise the ravioli mold to fill them and shape them.

Now prepare a big pan with water to boil the ravioli, and add one big branch of fresh rosemary for the broth. Keep the water boiling 3min before adding the ravioli. The smell of rosemary should be quite strong before adding them. Cook until they come back to float on the surface. Serve immediately, just with olive oil and pepper. The rosemary broth slightly perfumes the ravioli to bring a perfect balance of taste with the ratatouille filling.

June 5, 2016

Lunch on the desk

When busy weeks with visitors and eating out are followed by busy weeks preparing lectures, writing big grant proposal and traveling I need lunch that are quick, light and fresh, but full of energy and tasty. I am lucky enough to have a space in my office where I can prepare rudimentary things, and usually I would go for avocado-cream cheese-seeds on bread or bagel. But somehow I got tired of avocado and of seeing them everywhere on IG and in magazines. So this time I’ve opted for something new and more seasonal: an open sandwich with raw zucchini (the season is just starting), rucola, basil, fresh mozarella, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. That was a super boosting lunch! What is it you like to eat when you are busy?

June 3, 2016

New plates and colorful one-plate

You may have noticed that new plates have suddenly appeared since Saturday. Watching to many beautiful plates on IG I thought it was high time to renew our plates, to offer different plating options. After looking for quite some time and not being able to find exactly what I wanted I finally opted for simple Arita yaki (Japanese ceramics) with a white smooth inner side and a rough black outter side, not as refuned and beautiful as the one I was having in mind, yet simple and so far very easy to use. The right portion size too if you don’t use a ton of salad!!! So to inaugurate them I prepared one of my favorite dish: seasonal veggies sautéed and creamy scrambled eggs. The veggies are new potatoes from our neighbours garden, little carrots, green beans, and jumbo radished. Simple as usual but really delicious. And I find the new plates really easy to use and not bad for plating, knowing that my own ability is quite limited!!

May 31, 2016

Asparagus and herbs ravioli

It’s been weeks I wanted to make ravioli and I totally felt in love with the IG picture of Zucchero e zenzero‘s ricotta and asparagus ravioli just before the golden week. The events during and after the golden week being what they’ve been I didn’t had a chance to make ravioli until last night, and because I found some nice local asparagus I decided to go for asparagus ravioli. Since A. doesn’t eat cheese I skipped the ricotta and used only basil and parsley in the filling. Super easy and really delicious.

For the pasta dough as usual 100 of flour or semolina, one egg, a bit of olive oil and salt. I rolled the dough up to number 8 on my Atlas 150. Thinner for ravioli is quite risky since the way I do it, my filling is not totally smooth. For the filling I blanched the asparagus (I kept the heads for later), drained them well, then add parsley and basil, and grinded all together manually. Then I just prepared the ravioli, boiled them and serve with olive oil, salt and pepper. Simple and too delicious we want to eat ravioli every day!!!!!!

May 29, 2016

When A. is out

There are weeks like this week when we have westerners visiting for work as I was mentioning yesterday. This week actually both I and A. do have visitors and this means a lot of eating out, and usually working late (the regular work still has to be done, right?), so when the opportunity after a long day at work to dine at home (alone) finally arrives, it’s only to eat things I love, simple, fresh, and full of cheese that A. wouldn’t eat :)!
I was lucky to find beautiful tiny zucchini in Koganei and I had a few cherry tomatoes waiting in the fridge, I quickly roasted both of them in a hot pan, just a few minutes, I added pieces of mozzarella, the fresh juice of half a lemon, a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and went out on the terrace to cut some fresh mint, and my dinner was ready, together with a taste of summer!

May 26, 2016

Cherry clafoutis 🍒

We unusually spent the weekend in Tokyo because A. promised his shamisen group to play with them at a volunteer concert in an old folks day care. And I had to go and sing too!!! I like these concerts because giving a bit of our time for these people, it’s always a nice. Though it can be a really depressing moment (I really don’t want to grow old). And this weekend was also the first giving a real taste of summer. I’ve craved for outdoor swimming but outdoor pools will only open in June… I’ve craved for summer fruits and summer recipes. So for once I bought some non-local products: American cherries and prepared a traditional cherry clafoutis for our breakfast. Clafoutis can never go wrong and are always perfect for breakfast with tones of fresh juicy fruits and a simple base of flour-sugar-egg-milk. I use brown sugar only and soy milk, but one can use whatever is available. Now the question of pitting the fruits arises and of Prunellia always pit them, I never pit the cherries. When pitted they have a tendency to shrink and melt in the dough and dry, while not pitted they just bake in their own juice under the skin, ready to deliver it when in the mouth. How do you like yours?

May 23, 2016

Having fun with broad beans

I had a few broad beans left and had this idea of making soup with them, so I boiled them, peeled them and blend them and instead of water I used some cream. What happened is that it became a broad bean whipped cream! Oh oh! What a nice thing! So I really made broad beans whipped cream, adding a little more cream and a little salt. And decided to serve it with an asparagus and an asparagus risotto with Parmegiano. This was probably the simplest and funniest dis to prepare, and taste wise it was awesome. The very subtle taste of broad beans in the cream goes perfectly with both the rice and the just blanched jumbo green asparagus. I’m not very good at plating because I don’t like to waste food, but the cream thing, I must admit helped a lot to give texture, color and fixation.

May 18, 2016

Comfort food: cacao madeleines

I consider most of what I cook as comfort food because I only cook what we love and we indulge in some delicious breakfast everyday. But today I needed something special for tea, something sweet and warm, because the weather was chilly, because we had a short night and a long day, because I was sad we split our 4 kittens into 2 groups to deliver to their new homes and one group has left already. So I decided to prepare madeleines. I used the recipe I presented before, but slightly changed it: I added plenty of cacao powder, refrigerated 90min and cooked all the time at 200. I managed to obtain pretty bumps ans the taste of cacao was well present which is not often the case with cacao taste sweets.
Now it’s time we go deliver our last two kittens. En route to Hayama! It’s gonna be a long trip for them!

May 14, 2016

Deconstructed frittata

I am really in love with this whole wheat pasta and in particular penne that can be found super easily in any good supermarket in Tokyo. This time it’s deconstructed frittata style for two with already cooked pasta, one new onion, one capsicum, three eggs all cooked in a greased pan, and a handful of raw cherry tomatoes added at the very end. Finished with olive oil, salt and pepper. An other manner to get plenty of good energy, a colorful and tasty plate and vitamins.

May 12, 2016