Wednesday, June 8, 2011

PASTA la vista...Baby! Day 17!

Hello Food Diary and Hungry Bloggers!!



The Italian Accordion - Track02 .mp3
Found at bee mp3 search engine
Let's all take a trip... We are off to Italy... Everyone close you eyes and picture this... It is a beautiful day in June. The sun is shining bright and the weather is perfect! We are strolling along the tiny cobblestone streets...passing by pizza parlors, coffee shops, and bistros. We come across a delightful little Bistro that claims to have the best pasta in all of Italy, and we stop in for a bite to eat. On the menu is a dozen different types of PASTA! You order the ravioli and I order the fettuccine Alfredo... And it is spectacular! There is nothing better than a nice big fresh dish of pasta...and of course being in Italy! I've have never been, but hopefully one of my many food adventures will take me there eventually... A girl can dream! Now that we are thoroughly stuffed...open your eyes! (Sorry to disappoint...you are still sitting at your computer...and not lounging in Italy :( ) 


Ravioli in the making!
Ravioli!
Finished un-cooked ravioli!
Today in the fabulous Le Cordon Bleu it was Pasta day!! And guess what?...we made Ravioli with a ricotta stuffing and Fettuccine Alfredo! Today is by far my favorite day in my chef training career! I love everything pasta! So to start off we took our rested pasta dough from the day before, cut it in half and rolled it out . We used a pasta roller to get it nice and thin(it went from a little mound of dough to a 3+ foot long sheet of pasta!!!). The first half of my dough was for the ravioli. I took my 3 ft long piece of pasta and cut it in half. I took my ricotta mixture (ricotta, Parmesanbasil, parsley, salt, and an egg yolk) and placed it in little balls on top of one piece of my pasta sheet. Then I brushed egg whites (Egg whites are kind of like a food glue stick) on the other pasta sheet and stuck it on top of my ricotta balls. I made sure there were no air bubbles in my ravioli and I cut them into little squares. Once that was done...I threw them into heavily salted boiling water. They cooked for about 3 minutes, then I tossed them into my pesto sauce that Chef had made for us all and served them! Yummy! (I do have to say that I was the first person to complete and turn in a dish today! My speed is improving!) Chef was feeling under the weather so she wasn't tasting any food today...but she looked at my plate and said "they look wonderful and your food always tastes good, so I'm sure they are great!" Yay! Now time for my fetuccine!! I grabbed the other half of my dough and started rolling it through the pasta machine. Once it was so thin I could see my hand through the other side I sliced it up.  I took my freshly sliced noodles and took them back to my station and started my Alfredo sauce. I poured heavy cream, a crushed garlic clove, and butter into a saute pan, reduced it by 3/4 and added a TON of grated Parmesan. I threw my noodles into the boiling water and cooked them for a minute, then dumped them into my sauce. I plated my noodles and topped them with basil and more cheese! Chef said "they looked great, and to ease up on the sauce a little bit next time." Not too bad! Before clean up I devoured half of my pasta...sooo yummy!
Fettuccine Alfredo!


Ciao!!!


- Chef Kass In Training!

















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