Crisp fried (cheese) ravioli

As soon as the May Delicious arrived I knew I had to make the cover recipe - crisp fried cheese ravioli.  I really just wanted to eat it off the cover:

It's supposed to be an entrée, but I figured if I served a few more ravioli per person with a salad, then it would be a decent sized meal.  I also use spinach and ricotta, not cheese ravioli because I couldn't find plain cheese ones.

Dredged in buttermilk and egg, dipped in the panko and then deep fried (and drained afterwards of course).  I also did as the recipe suggested a purchased a ready made sauce to serve with them.

Broccolini and chilli spaghetti with panagrattato

Just a couple of cheats when I made this recipe.  I used panko, rather than make fresh bread crumbs and used a lot less garlic than called for (and I like garlic).

I made the breadcrumbs in the food processor, and they were WAY greener than in the magazine picture:

And though I didn't cut the broccolini as nicely as the food stylist did for Delicious, it tasted pretty awesome and looked quite delicious too.

Baked cherry cheesecake

This was a spectacular cake.  Spectacular looking, and tasted fantasic.  And to top if all off, I received a boat load of compliments!

The base was super minimal, and G was worried that there wasn't enough, made from mere grams of biscuits blitzed in the kitchen aid food processor, rather than the standard 150grams plus of biscuits.  It was a delicious cheesecake interior, that was mostly made in the Kitchen Aid (I have friends who joke that my kitchen is sponsored by Kitchen Aid - I WISH!!!)

Then into the oven for a serious amount of time and afterwards become disappointed that the cheesecake still cracks despite following the directions for cooling the cake:

Cover it up with super delicious cherry syrup, and cheer that it looks like it does in the cook book!

Mushroom lasagne

Honestly, I was not impressed with this lasagne.  It simply did not hold together to look anywhere like the picture, and I'm not sure why.

The magazine version:

Then mine:

The mushroom mixture was thick and tomatoey.

I went the whole way, and simmered the milk for the bechamel with half an onion, some thyme and a bay leaf.

But still it looked sad.

Not brown enough on top, and very runny (looked soupy and ugly on the plate, so I didn't take a picture!)

Pumpkin Rotolo

This was probably one of the 'cheffiest' dishes I have ever made:

Pumpkin rotolo with a burnt butter and sage sauce!

The burnt butter and sage is easy - and the only thing you need to worry about is time.  Start it 2 minutess before you cut the rotolo so it cooks long enough, but not too long that it separates too much. Then after the butter has cooked for 3 mins, throw in some sage leaves (several per person) and then pour over the sliced rotolo.

Now, onto the rotolo...

Roast pumpkin, mash pumpkin through a sieve, mix with ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper, roll the mix up in some lasagne sheets and seal it shut with egg wash.  Tie up in a tea towel and then simmer for 25 minutes.  Let stand for 10 minutes and then open up the tea towel and slice the rotolo.  The entire time you need to cross your fingers and hope that it works!

My mum always told me that you should never cook something for guests that you haven't made before, so Geoff and I were the lucky recipients of the rotolo.  However, now I am confident I would happily make it for other people and serve with a beautiful mixed leaf salad, or maybe some micro leaves if you were feeling very fancy.

The very last thing?  Feel pretty pleased with yourself that your meal looks like the picture from the magazine:

Stracciatella

This is not true stracciatella - 2 confessions:

1. I cook risoni in the stracciatella
2. I don't make my own stock

It's super simple and super tasty - a fabulous combination of parsley, stock, egg, butter and parmesan and you will end up with this:

Bring some stock to the boil (375ml per person) and throw in 1/4 cup risoni per person.  Cook that until done (to your taste).

Stir in a knob of butter, then stir in 1 beaten (with a fork) egg per person.  I like to not beat the eggs too much and then you get some distinct strands of white and yolk as well as some mixed strands.

Quickly stir in as much chopped parsley as you like, some grated parmesan and some pepper - you probably don't need salt if you use regular stock (not salt reduced) and parmesan.

Zucca's orange and olive salad

This is delicious, but not a meal - more like a side (interesting) salad, and the recipe can be found here.

I pulled out my food processor (which I love) for the olive tapenade, and replaced rosemary for the thyme in the recipe and I served it with a chicken and broccollini stir-fry:

I would say this is one of Mark Bittman's more attractive recipes, though technically it is not his - he 'borrowed' it from his favourite restaurant (and fully attributes it).