Linguine with Clams (Linguan with Claims) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 400 g (14 oz) Linguine pasta (cooked "al dente" - see How to cook perfect spaghetti)
• 500 g (1.1 lb) Fresh clams
• 60 ml (2 fl oz) Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Dried chilli (medium hot)
• 1 Clove of Garlic
• 60 ml (2 fl oz) White wine
• A handful of flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
• Salt for seasoning

Note:

I've put "preparation 10 minuets" because this is what it takes to prepare the Ingredients and rinse the clams. I am not taking in account the 2 hours while the clams are purifying in the water, because usually in this two hours we can do many other things that are not related to the cooking itself.

Directions:

Firstly, we need to clean the clams. Put them in a large bowl and fill it with fresh water and then add some salt. Recreating this micro environment , they will open and start to eject the dirt and sands they have inside. It's important to do this because a little grain of sand can really damage your teeth. Another good tip to get them opened is the "silence", so do not be noisy and do not toss the water. Leave them alone for a while; some say ½ an hour is enough and some say 4-5 hours, but personally I have found that after a couple of hours they can be ready for the next stage.

After a couple of hours of salty water immersion, give them a good rinse under fresh running water.

Then, put them into a pan.

Close the pan with a lid and let the heat (medium/high) to open them all. Just cook them until the are open, no more no less, and discard those that do not open at all. At this stage you can also drizzle with a few drops of olive oil.

With the pan closed, hold the lid down and shake the pan so that all the clams receive the same amount of heat; otherwise the ones that remain in the top may not open because the do not receive enough heat.

When the clams open, they will release the liquid they have inside.

Filter the liquid into a small bowl.

Then, set the filtered liquid aside.

Take ¼ of the clams available, remove the meat and chop them.

Then, chop the garlic and the chilli. If the chilli is "very hot", may be you can chop half of it (or even less) because this dish should be mildly hot.

Sweat off the garlic and chilli together (medium heat).

When the garlic starts to change colour, add the wine and let it evaporate for about 3 minutes.

Then, add the chopped clams.

Immediately after the chopped clams, add the rest of the clams.

Now, raise the heat from medium to high and add the filtered water.

Cook for about 5 minutes.

About 30 seconds before turning the heat off, add the parsley and...

...season with salt.

Meanwhile your pasta was already boiling. When the pasta is al dente, drain it and add it to the pan containing the clam sauce.

Toss and stir everything together on high heat for about 40 seconds.

Serve it and remember, a good glass of chilled white wine is the perfect accompaniment.

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Lasagne (Lasagan) Recipe

Ingredients:

• 12 Lasagne sheets (approx. 3 per person)
• 450 g (1 lb) Ragù sauce - see Ragù di carne (classic version - North Italy)
• 600 ml (1 pint) Bechamel sauce
• 4 Cheese slices
• Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Note:

About the ragù and bechamel sauces, the quantities I have given are approximate and you should use them according to your taste. Usually, when I prepare this recipe, I always use all the ragù sauce while I always have some bechamel sauce left because too much bechamel could make the lasagne too rich. Another important trick is that both the ragù and bechamel should be a bit more liquid than for other recipes because this help to keep the lasagne sheets moistered.

Directions:

Take a big pan, ¾ full of water, bring the water to the boil, add about 10 g (½ oz) of salt per litre of water and finally add few drops of olive oil (the oil helps the lasagne sheets not to stick together).

When the water is boiling, put the lasagne sheets into the pan and boil them for the required time. If the pan is very big, you can put the lasagne sheets all together, otherwise better to boil them 4 by 4.

Despite the fact that you can find lasagne sheets that do not require any boiling (you put them straightaway in the oven), I always prefer to buy lasagne sheets that required to be boiled first (it's just a personal choice - nothing more, nothing less).

Once the lasagne sheets are boiled, separate and lay them on a wet kitchen towel.

Take the oven tray and brush the bottom with melted butter.

The first stage is preparation of the bottom. After having brushed the bottom with butter, I usually start spreading some ragù sauce with few drops of bechamel sauce.

Then, I lay the first 3 lasagne sheets (first layer) and cover them with bechamel sauce.

Now, add few spoons of ragù sauce.

Spread the ragù sauce around.

To complete the first layer, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Now, we prepare the second layer. Lay other 3 lasagne sheets (lasagne sheets 4,5 and 6), and spread with bechamel sauce.

Few spoons of ragù sauce.

Spread the ragù sauce around.

Now, we add a bit of variation! Take a couple of cheese slices and break them over.

Like this.

Complete the second layer with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Now, prepare the third layer (lasagne sheets 7, 8 and 9) in the same way as the second layer without adding any cheese slices, but remember to sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. After that, we will pass to the final stage: the top layer.

Finally, cover with the last 3 lasagne sheets (lasagne sheets 10, 11 and 12). Cover them with a bit more bechamel than you did for the previous layers. Add few spoons of ragù sauce, but less than you used for the previous layers.

Break the two remaining cheese slices over the top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

This is the final tray ready for the oven or ready to be frozen.

Put the tray in the oven at 180ºC (gas mark 4) for about 30-40 minutes or untill it is sizzling and the top layer starts browning. On the top of this you can also add three or four small knobs of butter, just to give the final finish.

You could have also prepared the lasagne tray before and put it in the freezer. If you have done that, take the tray out of the freezer the night before and transfer it in the fridge. The following day it should be defrosted and ready for the oven. Usually, I find that lasagne that is kept in the freezer for a while (say 1 or 2 weeks) always tastes better than lasagne cooked straightaway; apparently the reason for that is because all the flavours, with time, blend together.

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Pumpkin Ravioli (Pumpken Raviolii) Recipe

Ingredients:

• A bowl containing the pumpkin stuffing
• Pasta dough using 400 g of plain flour and 3 medium size eggs (see my note below)
• A big rolling pin to prepare the pasta layer to make ravioli
• A 12 section ravioli tray + small wooden rolling pin
• A pastry wheel

Note:

The pasta dough should be a bit more elastic than the one you would prepare for making normal pasta like tagliatelle. Also, a dough aimed to be used for stuffing, usually requires less eggs. Try to make your dough using 400 g of plain flour, 3 eggs and a bit of water (room temperature). You can make your dough by hand or using a pasta machine, but please do not use any salt or olive oil for your dough - it's not a pizza! and you would upset the traditionalist. Finally, the ravioli (ravioli is the plural word - raviolo is singular) are the easier to make because of their square shape and using the ravioli tray is even easier, but I will show you also how to make the "pumpkin tortelli", which are different in shape (they look like little hats) and are as popular as ravioli.

Directions:

Prepare a pasta layer, large enough to cover the ravioli tray. The layer has to be as thin as possible because if it is too thick, this will affect the cooking time.

Fill the cavities with a small amount of pumpkin stuffing.

If the layer becomes too dry and you are worried that it will not stick to the second layer you are going to put on the top, brush the edges with a wet brush.

Cover with a second pasta layer of the same dimensions starting from one side. When doing this, proceed from side to side keeping your hand down against the ravioli in order to push out as much air as possible.

Finally, pass the small rolling pin over so that the two layers will stick together.

Turn the ravioli tray onto a wooden board or whatever working surface available.

Just a bit of flour onto the working surface and flip your 12 ravioli on it.

Take the pastry wheel.

Separate the ravioli cutting along the lines created by the ravioli tray.

Your ravioli are ready.

If you do not have a ravioli tray, you can try the alternative of making "tortelli". Cut your pasta layer in 6 cm by 6 cm squares. Then put the stuffing in the centre.

Fold the square and press down to stick the borders together. When doing that, try to push out as much air as possible.

Wrap the tortello (tortelli is the plural word - tortello is singular) around your finger and stick the two back corners together and lift the front corner up. That's it!

Now, coming back to our ravioli; all the ravioli are now ready on the wooden board.

Boil your ravioli in slightly salted water for about 5-8 minutes. The time depend of the thickness of the pasta layer you have used and also on the quantity of stuffing inside the ravioli. Try with two or three ravioli first, taking them out at different times and you will see what is the best boiling time to apply.

This photograph shows a pan full of tortelli.

Melt the butter and add few sage leaves.

Put your ravioli into a plate, pour over some of melted butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

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