More Stew... and Good Pinot Noir

Fritz 2005 Russion River Valley Pinot Noir.

We picked it up over the weekend at the Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants. I made stew last night (again-- but, it is October, after all) and we had wine and stew.

RC wants more vegetables with her meal. That's the thing with one-pot dinners. Not a lot of fresh vegetables.

I got my first ad out the door today. Yay, me. I'm going to have to start watching out for talking tumors, now.

Now that we have an '80's yuppie car, it's time to change careers. I see a brilliant future ahead in advertising.

Chez Spencer

Dinner with RC and Ma at Chez Spencer for Ma's birthday.

Ma had sweetbreads. Her description of trying to make it sounded complicated and gross.

RC had 2 scallops and a salad.

I had boulliabaise and mushroom risotto.

We all had champagne.

Ma was quoted in the Chronicle recently from her story about the Emporium. She went there on her lunchbreak to buy her wedding dress because my grandfather returned from overseas unexpectedly and they got married within the week. RC and I have a similar story of a quick wedding outfit purchase.

Gum Bear Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

With beef stew again. This one wasn't as good as last night, but still pretty good.

A propos of nothing, RC told me a funny story last night about singing the Beastie Boys' "Girls Girls Girsl" in her femenist literature class in college. They weren't amused.

Ravioli Filling

Ingredients

1/2 lb ea. Beef, pork, and veal, ground
8 oz. Chopped spinach
1/3 cube butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Romano cheese
1/4 carrot, ground
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 celery stalk
1 tbsp parseley
1/4 tsp. Poultry seasoning.
1/4 tsp. Sage

Directions

Grind carrot, onion,garlic, celery, parsely, poultry seasoning, sage.
Add salt & pepper.

Put olive oil in large pot. Add meat, salt, pepper, and mix well.
Start cooking. When moisture is gone, add ground vegetables.
Cook 10 minuts, stir often.

If the spinach is fresh, wilt it; if not, thaw it in boiling water.
Remove excess water.

Add bread crumbs and spinach to the pot. Add seasoning and butter.
When cool, add eggs. Cool overnight before using in ravioli.

Pasta Fagioli

Ingredients

1/2 lb pinto beans
1/2 lb ground beef
3 large carrots
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 handful of parsley
4 celery stalks
1 quart chicken broth
1 bowl cracked pasta

Directions

Place the beans in a pot with water 2 in. above the top of the beans and start simmering. Cut up 1 1/2 carrots, 1/2 of the onion, and two celery stalks and place them in the beans. The beans should simmer for an hour to an hour and twenty minutes.

While the beans are cooking, grind the rest of the carrot, onion, parseley, garlic, and celery into a bowl and set aside.

Grind the beef and place in a large pot. Sautee until cooked (don't brown). Salt and pepper the beef.

When the beans are done, removed the vegetable pieces and throw them away. Add the beans to the pot with the beef. Also add the ground vegetables, and the chicken broth.

Bring the soup to a boil, add the cracked pasta, and simmer until the pasta is done.

Eat right away or freeze. It will also last in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Pasta

Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 eggs
1 tsp. salt

Directions

Place flour in bowl. Add salt and eggs. Stir until doughy. Knead until firm (5-10 min). Form the dough into a ball, rub with olive oil, and place in a bowl. Let sit for 1 hour.

When dough is ready, wipe off olive oil and cover with flour. You're going to need a few cups of flour ready and it's going to get all over the place, so relax.

Slice dough into quarters and cover with flour again. Run the dough through the flattening rollers of the pasta machine. Run all pieces through at setting 1 (thickest), then again at setting
3, then, finally, at setting 5, dusting with flour as needed.

Let the flattened dough rest for a while before cutting. To cut it by hand, fold dough strips in half two or three times (depending on length) and slice with a knife. You can also send the flour strips through the cutting rollers on the pasta machine, but I personally find that annoying.

Make sure the pasta is completely dry in open air before storing or it will mold. Cooked fresh takes 3-5 minutes in boiling salted water. Cooked dry takes 10-12 minutes.

Passatelli

Ingredients

3 cups Romano cheese
3 cups bread crumbs
7-8 eggs
The rind of one lemon, ground
2-3 cans chicken broth

Directions

Mix the cheese, bread crumbs, eggs, and lemon rind together in a
bowl until it's the consistency of paste. Roll some into a ball and add
to a grinder. Catch the extrusions on a plate. Repeat until the batter
is gone.

Bring the broth to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Slowly add the
pasatelli to the broth. Make sure you don't end up with a bunch of
pasty lumps.

Cook for five to ten minutes.

Eat right away or freeze. Doesn't last too long in the fridge.

Cappelletti

Ingredients

3-4 chicken breasts broiled with skin

1/4 lb prosciutto

2 eggs, well beaten

1 slice french bread soaked in water, squeezed, broken into pieces

1/3 cup romano cheese

2 tbs finely chopped parseley

1/4 tsp Italian or poultry seasoning

1/4 cup milk

1/2 stick melted butter

1 lemon zest

salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions

Broil chicken breast, cool, removed meat from skin and bones. Grind with
prosciutto. Squeeze water from bread and add. Add all other ingredients and
mix very well.

There's more stuff to do, too, but these are the basics of the filling.

Cartlidge & Browne 2005 Pinot Noir & Stew

Just had beef stew w/ Cartlidge & Brown 2005 Pinot Noir from Hennesey's on 2nd St. Unfortunate name, but great with the stew.

We used a recipe from this article in Cooking Light (which, despite its name, has a lot of good stuff in it).

Next up, Nonni's recipes.