After attempting to make French macarons, I had plenty of egg yolks left over (and no cookies!). Sure, I could make ice cream or pudding with them, but I didn’t feel like it. So even though I don’t have a pasta roller, I decided to make pasta dough and roll it out with my rolling pin. When the dough was finished, I was scared to ruin it, so I took my pasta over to my parents’ house, instructing my sister to bring her Kitchenaid pasta-rolling attachment there as well, and we teamed up to serve our family the best pasta dish ever!

There really is nothing like fresh pasta; it’s so unlike the boxed stuff, it was worth the failed macarons, the work and the wait!

We cut our dough into fettuccine and made a simple sauce with garlic, olive oil, fresh basil and a little butter so as not to overpower the delicious pasta, but once you have the fresh pasta, there are endless possibilities!

Seven-Yolk Pasta Dough
from French Laundry Cookbook, via Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions:

1. Mound flour on a board or in a bowl and create a well in the center, pushing the flour to all sides to make a ring with sides about 1-inch wide. Make sure that the well is wide enough to hold all the eggs without spilling.
2. Pour the egg yolks, egg, oil and milk into the well. Use your fingers to break the eggs up. Still using your fingers, begin turning the eggs in a circular motion, keeping them within the well and not allowing them to spill over the sides. This circular motion allows the eggs to gradually pull in flour from the sides of the well; it is important that the flour not be incorporated too rapidly, or dough will be lumpy. Keep moving the eggs while slowly incorporating the flour. Occasionally push the flour toward the eggs; the flour should be moved only enough to maintain the gradual incorporation of the flour, and the eggs should continue to be contained within the well. The mixture will thicken and eventually get too tight to keep turning with your fingers.
3. When the dough begins thickening and starts lifting itself from the board, begin incorporating the remaining flour by lifting the flour up and over the dough that’s beginning to form and cutting it into the dough. When the remaining flour from the sides of the well has been cut into the dough, the dough will still look shaggy. Bring the dough together with the palms of your hands and form it into a ball. It will look flaky but will hold together.
4. Knead the dough by pressing it, bit by bit, in a forward motion with the heels of your hands rather than folding it over on itself as you would with a bread dough. Re-form the dough into a ball and repeat the process several times. The dough should feel moist but not sticky. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you clean the work surface.
5. Dust the clean work surface with a little flour. Knead the dough by pushing against it in a forward motion with the heels of your hands. Form the dough into a ball again and knead it again. Keep kneading in this forward motion until the dough becomes silky smooth. The dough is ready when you can pull your finger through it and the dough wants to snap back into place. The kneading process can take from 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Even if you think you are finished kneading, knead it for an extra 10 minutes; you cannot overknead this dough. It is important to work the dough long enough to pass the pull test; otherwise, when it rests, it will collapse.
7. Double-wrap the dough in plastic wrap to ensure that it does not dry out. Let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before rolling it through a pasta machine. The dough can be made a day ahead, wrapped and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before proceeding.

Homemade Pasta with 7 Yolks is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

I’m pretty obsessed with my Crock Pot right now. I love to come home to the smell of a slow-cooked meal and to not have to cook dinner when I come home. It’s win-win. It’s pretty amazing how everything I make in there turns out delicious. I don’t even have to cook meat in it, vegetable stews work great, too. I always tell myself I will use it more often, then go through a slow cooker phase, and then put it away and leave it there for a couple of months. I hope this phase lasts longer!

I’ve been making a lot of stews to eat over rice lately, and I was in a pasta mood, so I decided to cook up a tomato sauce to serve on top of spaghetti, though it would be equally delicious with rice.

Flanken is the perfect meat  for a slow cooker (duh, chulent!), but this would be great with regular short ribs and maybe even chopped meat.

…8 hours later:

Slow Cooker Tomato and Meat Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 pound flanken
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 14-oz. cans chopped tomatoes
• 3 stems fresh oregano
• 1 lb pasta
• salt, pepper and olive oil

Directions:

1. Generously salt and pepper the meat. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan and brown the meat (in batches if necessary). Remove to slow cooker.
2. Throw the rest of the ingredients (except for the pasta!) into the slow cooker and set to low for 8 hours.
3. Discard the bones (the meat should slide right off).
4. Trim the fat off the top. Take out the meat, shred, and add back into the pot.
5. Cook a box of pasta according to instructions.
6. Put the sauce into a large bowl. Put the pasta in the bowl, mix and serve!

Tell us, what’s your favorite crock pot recipe? Inspire us to keep ours on the counter!

Slow Cooker Meat and Tomato Sauce is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

A while back, Stephanie posted about kelsonnes, a traditional Syrian stuffed pasta dish. While many people use pre-made dough, making it from scratch is not so hard. It’s pasta that you can make without a pasta maker, so it’s totally worth it. The stuffed pasta is so giant that you get a ton of cheese, which is amazing. We usually eat these with egg noodles baked with butter. The buttery noodles get nice and crispy, mmm.

The recipe said that it yields 60 kelsonnes. I made 50. It really depends on the thickness of the dough. And no, I don’t serve/eat all of them at once. I usually make about 4 per person (of course we serve this alongside other traditional Syrian foods) and freeze the rest for an easy dinner later in the week.

I made individual bowls of noodles and kelsonnes here. You really don’t have to do that, but I like to take advantage of my oven proof bowls, so I do. If doing it this way, reduce the oven time and watch them closely. You don’t to burn the noodles too much!

Kelsonnes, adapted from the red Deal Delights cookbook:

For the dough:

• 5 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• About 2 cups water

For the filling (I cut the original recipe in half for you – otherwise there is WAY too much leftover cheese):

• 1 pound meunster cheese, grated finely (I use the grating disc in my food processor), about 5 cups
• 1 egg
• Pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

1. Make the dough: combine flour, eggs, and salt. Add the water in a slow stream and mix together until you get a soft dough.

2. Combine filling ingredients, set aside.

3. Split the dough in half and roll out each half of the dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.

4. Drop a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture every 3 or so inches on half the dough (make sure you have enough room to close the dough between – see picture).

5. Cover the mounds with the other half of the dough.

6. Cut out the rounds with a round cutter (about 2 1/2 inch).

7. Repeat with remaining dough.

To assemble the dish:

For 4 people you will need:

• 1 pound bag egg noodles
• 12-20 kelsonnes, depending on how much your eaters like them
• 3 tablespoons butter
• Some salt

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

3. When boiling, add the kelsonnes. Boil for 5 minutes before adding the pasta.

4. Boil according to the time written on the package. Drain.

5. Combine butter, a pinch of salt, noodles and kelsonnes in a large casserole. Mix until the butter melts.

6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes, until the top noodles begin to brown and get crispy.

Noodles and Kelsonnes, Revisited is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

Chicken and spaghetti was always a Friday night staple in our home. Though Poopa Dweck’s book states that it’s a Syrian custom to not eat this dish for Shabbat dinner because it’s a sign of bad luck, my family’s been eating it for years, and I don’t think we’re any less lucky than other people out there. So If you’re superstitious, make it on a weeknight. It’s a good meal with just a small side salad or vegetable. If you’re not superstitious, or just want to make a main course that consists of a carb and a protein (does the tomato sauce count as a vegetable?), then make this for Shabbat dinner. Your guests and family will fight over the crispy burnt edges.

When my mother makes this, she always leaves the chicken pieces whole. This way, it’s easier to eat just the spaghetti, which I often like to do (especially when there’s chili on the table – chicken and spaghetti chopped with some chili is awesome). I sometimes shred the chicken into the spaghetti, so that every bite has a little bit of chicken and a little bit of spaghetti. I find that the chicken also stays more moist this way and soaks up the flavor of the sauce more. Try it both ways and let me know which you prefer. Remember if you’re shredding to be careful to remove all the bones and stuff. No one wants a mouthful of spaghetti and chicken bones!

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 chicken, cut into eighths (bone in, skin on)
• 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
• 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• Kosher salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Place chicken on baking sheet and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 35 – 45 minutes, until cooked. Then let cool and shred, cut, or leave whole. Save the chickeny oil and juice!

3. While chicken is roasting, boil spaghetti in very salty water for one minute less than stated on the package.

4. Drain the spaghetti.

5. Place spaghetti in roasting pan and add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, spices, salt, and some pepper. Mix well.

— Now you have what we like to call “And Spaghetti” which is the BEST Friday afternoon snack ever.

6. Add the chicken (pieces, shreds, whatever you decided) and the chicken juice and mix well.

7. Cover and roast in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, until the edges are crusty and the middle is soft.

Chicken and Spaghetti is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

Here’s something you should definitely put on your Shabbat menu for tonight: Keskesoon is not a complicated dish. In fact, it’s really just a pasta dish with chick peas in it. But no one makes it better than Grandma Sally, which is why we invited her to our kitchen JUST to make her specialty.

As you will see, the ingredient list isn’t so extensive. You probably have everything on hand, except maybe the teeny pasta, which you will find in most supermarket pasta aisles. Never seen it before? You probably just glanced over it because you prefer little stars in your soup than these crazy peppercorn shaped pastas. These are much better. The secret to this dish is toasting the pasta before adding the water. It adds a nutty flavor that you don’t ever associate with pasta, but just works. It also makes some of the kernels browner than others, which makes it prettier on the plate, of course.

Keskesoon was always a Friday night and holiday staple in my Grandma’s house. We ate in in our chicken soup instead of rice. We put sauce and meatballs (and eggy-surprise!) over it. We used it as a base for our Hamud, peas and kibbe, and kibbe mushroom. Basically, you won’t run out of ways to eat this stuff. Some people even enjoy it plain, and why not?

My family really only eats this with meat meals. We always make it pareve, and with oil. When I consulted Deal Delights (the red one) for the recipe, I was surprised to find how different their recipe is from ours! Theirs calls for about 6 tablespoons of butter, and baking it in a dish with grated cheese on top – keskesoon, mac and cheese style, sounds awesome. They also spell it keskasoon. I guess since it’s not an English word there is no one proper way to spell it. One day I will have to try that version, but for now I’m sticking to our traditional way of eating and spelling. How does your family make keskesoon?

Keskesoon, recipe adapted from Grandma:

Ingredients:

• 1 box acini di pepe pasta, #44
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 can chick peas
• 3 1/2 cups water
• Salt

Directions:

1. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the vegetable oil.

2. Open the can of chickpeas. Drain and rinse.

3. When the oil is hot, add the pasta. Swirl and mix, making sure each piece is coated in oil. Stir constantly until toasted.

4. Add the water and the chickpeas.

5. Bring to a boil, then lower, and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed.

Grandma Sally Makes Keskesoon is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

When my brother-in-law Ralph found out that I was having trouble using up all of the summer squash I’ve been getting in my CSA, he told me about a delicious pasta dish he made with browned zucchini, lemon and ricotta cheese. I was intrigued. When his mother-in-law told me it was the best pasta dish she had ever eaten, I knew I had to make it for dinner as soon as my next pickup, filled with two pounds of farm-fresh summer squash, arrived.

This is a light and fun pasta dish, and a nice change from our usual go-to pastas. I actually made only 1/2 the recipe (so unlike me to use 1/2 box of pasta!) and served it with a side salad for a wonderful and quick dinner. It barely takes longer than boiling a box of pasta, and you don’t even have to turn the oven on! I have a feeling we’ll be eating a lot of summer squash in this form as long as the season lasts. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Ralph’s Summer Squash Pasta with Lemon and Ricotta

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of pasta. Ralph used fettuccine and I used rotini.
• about 1 pound of summer squash, cubed
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese, store-bought or homemade
• 4 basil leaves, chopped
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Boil your choice of pasta according to the directions.* Save a cup of the pasta water for later!
2. Meanwhile, heat a large saucepan and coat the bottom with olive oil. Add the garlic until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes, then add the squash and mix to coat.
3. Let the squash brown and then flip to brown the other side.
4. Zest the lemon into the saucepan
5. Add the drained pasta to the pan and mix everything well.
6. Squeeze the lemon and mix the ricotta cheese into the pasta.
7. Add salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
8. Mix in some pasta water, about 1/4 cup at a time, until the sauce reaches the right consistency.
9. Add the basil and stir. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

*make sure not to overcook the pasta. It will continue cooking a bit in the sauce!

Ralph’s Summer Squash Pasta is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

Here is a meatless yet satisfying dinner for Meatless Monday:

This was the first time we’d ever cooked with fresh peas; we usually use the frozen variety. But since peas (as well as asparagus) are in season, this recipe from the Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Cookbook seemed like a perfect recipe to try. We used Alton’s recipe for the pasta.

Have you ever worked with fresh peas? It’s not that getting them out of the shell is that terrible, but the taste is no different from the frozen ones we know and love, and they’re more expensive. So we don’t really see the point.

Although we had the fresh peas and asparagus, we forgot to buy basil, so we left it out. It would have added a lot to the flavor of the dish, so I would run out and get some if I were to make this again. As for the cheese garnish, we’re not big fans of cheesy garnishes, so we purposefully left it out.

The result was a delicious and light pasta dish. The combination of subtle lemon flavor mixed with the bit of cream sauce and crisp fresh veggies is definitely a delightful one. If you don’t have a pasta maker I’m sure you can replicate it with a regular box of fettuccine, but there is something special about fresh, handmade pasta!

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch thick asparagus (about 8 spears)
• 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 2/3 cup heavy cream (but we used 1/3 cup)
• Minced zest and juice of 1 or 2 meyer lemons (we used 1 sweet lemon)
• Kosher salt and pepper
• 2/3 cup freshly shelled English peas
• 1 lb fresh fettuccini
• leaves from several sprigs fresh basil (we didn’t have this, so we skipped it, but it would have been a good addition)
• Shaved or grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese for garnish (we also skipped this one, but if you like cheese, you shouldn’t)

Directions:

1. To prepare the asparagus, snap off the tough woody ends of the spears and, if the skin is fibrous, peel it starting from just below the tips. With a sharp paring knife, cut the asparagus on the diagonal into pieces about 1/8 inch thick.
2. In a small saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the asparagus and sate for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, add the cream, and heat until warm. Add lemon zest, salt, and pepper to taste. Do now allow the mixture to boil.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the peas and cook for 30 seconds. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender and rises to the surface, 30 seconds-5 minutes, depending on freshness. Stir occasionally so that the noodles cook evenly. Drain the pasta and the peas, reserving some of the cooking water.
4. Return the pasta and the peas to the pot and season with salt. Pour the asparagus-cream mixture over the pasta and toss to coat thoroughly. Add the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce.
5. Tear some of the basil leaves into ieces and add along with the lemon juice to taste and additional salt to taste to balance the flavors.
6. Serve at once in warmed pasta bowls sprinkled with additional torn basil leaves and pepper, garnished with cheese.

This serves four, so we had some leftovers. Eat it for lunch the next day, cold. It’s even more refreshing!

Meatless Mondays: Fettuccine with Peas and Asparagus is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

I really like pasta, and lately I’ve been eating the homemade kind. With homemade pasta, of course I need homemade sauce! The traditional garlic and oil was getting boring, and I don’t really love tomatoes, so unless they’re cooked for a really long time, I don’t like making sauce with them (sometimes I do, anyway). I do, however, like red sauces. And I really like pink sauces, and I used to only have them in restaurants. But now I’ve found a way to replicate the restaurant flavor at home…and it didn’t even take THAT long. True, the sauce had to simmer in the oven for an hour and a half, but if you have laundry to fold, a paper to write, or some TV to watch, then do it when the sauce is in the oven. Oh yeah, and you’ll definitely have to do some dishes, too.

Mixing tomatoes with other flavors and simmering them changes their flavor and makes them the perfect company for pasta. Adding vodka to that sauce makes it even better. The addition of fresh herbs and heavy cream gives this recipe a restaurant-like quality. Want to impress your friends? Make this sauce.

You probably have most of the ingredients, anyway.

Oh, and fresh herbs. Delicious. I’m going to have to try this recipe AGAIN, but this time the correct way – that is, draining the liquid from the tomatoes! This time I was true to the recipe and used oregano, but next time I’m trying basil – I’ll let you know how that goes.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Spanish onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 cup vodka
• 2 28-oz cans peeled tomatoes
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano (I chopped this)
• Heavy cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. Heat the olive oil in a large oven proof saute pan on medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the dried oregano and red pepper and cook for another minutes. Add the vodka and cook until the mixture is reduced by half.

3. Drain the tomatoes (I skipped this step. The sauce is still delicious). Crush the tomatoes into the pan with your hand. Add two teaspoons of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

4. Cover the pan and put in oven, Cook for 1 1/2 hours.

5. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.

6. Blend the tomato mixture. Joseph and Ina use a blender and does it in batches. I did it with an immersion blender, much easier. You can probably do it in a food processor, too.

7. Reheat the sauce, add the fresh oregano and enough heavy cream to make the sauce creamy. Ina says to use between 3/4 cup and a cup. I didn’t even measure.

I didn’t eat this right away, but if you were going to, you should’ve cooked the pasta al dente right around the time you were taking the sauce out of the oven. Then toss the pasta in there and let it cook for another 2 minutes – serve with fresh oregano on top (and parmesan if you like smelly cheese).

Nick and Toni’s Vodka Sauce is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

Jessica bought a pasta roller attachment for her KitchenAid! So obviously we both wanted to use it right away. It was great to have two people to feed the dough into the machine and catch it as it came out (and take pictures of the process!) but you can do it alone, too! The machine is doing most of the work.

We used Tyler Florence’s recipe for pasta dough. He uses it to make ravioli, but works just as well for spaghetti and fettuccine. The recipe makes a pound of pasta, so if you want less, half it. Or learn how to dry and preserve it by making a nest. I’m still working on that skill.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and salt.
2. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to mix.
3. Drizzle in 1 tablespoons of the olive oil and continue to incorporate all the flour until it forms a ball.
4. Sprinkle some flour on work surface, knead and fold the dough until elastic and smooth, this should take about 10 minutes.
5. Brush the surface with the remaining olive oil and wrap the dough in plastic wrap; let rest for about 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

Once the dough is well rested, it’s time to turn it into spaghetti:

1. Cut the ball of dough in 1/2, cover and reserve the piece you are not immediately using to prevent it from drying out.
2. Dust the counter and dough with a little flour. Press the dough into a rectangle and roll it through a pasta machine, 2 or 3 times, at widest setting. Pull and stretch the sheet of dough with the palm of your hand as it emerges from the rollers.
3. Reduce the setting and crank the dough through again, 2 or 3 times. Continue tightening until the machine is at the narrowest setting; the dough should be paper-thin, about 1/8-inch thick (you should be able to see your hand through it.).
4. Flour the sheet as needed, or let it dry out a bit, before rolling it through the spaghetti setting. This is very important to prevent the strands of spaghetti from sticking back together!

And there you have it. Fresh pasta made with ingredients that you already have in your kitchen. After trying this, you’ll never want to go back to boxed spaghetti.

Homemade Pasta ! is a post from: The Kosher Foodies

If you grew up in the Blanco household and it was a Monday night, you would know what you were having for dinner: spaghetti & meatballs, of course! Now, I don’t actually remember the last time all six of us actually sat down on a Monday night and ate spaghetti & meatballs, but I know we all remember that’s what we’re supposed to eat.

Well, mom’s recipe for meatballs is exactly what a meatball sounds like; ground beef shaped into balls. I wanted to make mine a bit more sophisticated, so I took the advice of my Food Network friends (okay, maybe they don’t know who I am, but I feel like I know them so well!) and used two kinds of meat and some seasonings before cooking them slowly and for a looong time in garlic-y and wine-y tomato sauce.

Actually, rewind a little bit to my supermarket trip. It was a cold winter day in New York City, and I had a pound of ground beef defrosting in my refrigerator. I went to two local supermarkets, and they didn’t carry and kosher beef. They only had whole chicken pieces, no ground chicken. So kosher ground turkey had to do. Bobby Flay puts beef, veal, and pork in his meatballs, why can’t I put beef and turkey in mine? I can! And I did! And they were delicious!

For the meatballs:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1 pound of ground turkey
• 1/2 cup of seasoned breafcrumbs
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Shape into balls (however big or small you want them)

For the sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of red wine
• 5 peppercorns
• 5 cloves of garlic, separated
• 3 cans of tomato sauce
• olive oil, salt, and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a large pot, reduce the wine over a high heat with the peppercorns and one whole, unpeeled garlic clove.
2. Meanwhile, mince the rest of the garlic and saute it with olive oil.
3. Add the tomato sauce to the garlic and season with salt and pepper. Simmer.
4. When the wine turns into a thick syrup, lower the heat to medium, remove the garlic clove and peppercorn, and slowly add the tomato sauce.
5. Add the meatballs to the sauce and let boil, mixing occasionally. Then lower the heat all the way and simmer the sauce and meatballs for two hours, still occasionally mixing.
6. Now boil a pound of spaghetti. Drain it and mix it into the sauce until all of the pasta is coated.
7. Serve and enjoy!

What’s your meatball secret? Let us know in the comments!

Spaghetti & Meat-and-Turkey-Balls is a post from: The Kosher Foodies