Inside My Mid-life Crisis

I took a stab at a classic French dish last week; Duck Confit. If you are a fan of any Food Network competition shows you hear references to the use and delightful benefits of duck confit and duck fat regularly. I wanted to see first hand what all the fuss was about. I searched the Internet to choose a recipe and settled on a "Simply Recipes" Easy Duck Confit.

Easy NOT. Standard preparation takes several days even this one would have taken a day or 2 and I was just not that patient.

The premise of duck confit is to take the leg and thigh sections of the duck, marinate for a day or 2 then slow roast in its own delicious fatty drippings creating succulent, rich, decadent duck morsels and precious duck fat. (You should now be either queasy or salivating).
I prepped my duck sections with garlic, fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a bay leaf and let it marinate for about 4 hours. I then slow roasted with the remaining duck sections in another roaster.
So even tho I gave up on the actual correct methods for confit, I still wound up with a rich and tasty roasted duck and about a half cup of precious duck fat (strained) to be reserved for use sparingly in sauted veggies or the like.

Suffice it to say I surely would have been kicked off "Chopped" for the hatchet job I did butchering my duck.

I decided yesterday to dust off my Atlas Pasta Machine (wedding gift used about 6 times in almost 20 years) and take on some fresh pasta. The Internet is rife with dough recipes and opinions..salt-no salt;egg-no egg etc. I decided to go with Food Network star Tyler Florence Pasta Dough for Ravioli recipe:
2 C All-Purpose Flour-plus more for dusting
1 t salt
3 large eggs-plus one for egg wash
2 T Olive Oil (approximately!)
Cornmeal for dusting

This is an "equipment-centric" endeavor as I used my Kichenaid mixer for the dough, my mini chop for tapenade and the pasta machine.

Drizzle in olive oil a little at a time until all the flour comes together in a ball.
Sprinkle some flour on your work surface (I used my silpat) knead and fold dough until elastic & smooth (5-10 minutes). Brush the surface with olive oil and wrap in plastic wrap;let dough rest for about 30 minutes to relax the gluten.
Make your filling while the dough rests-I went with 1lb mild Italian sausage and 2 C ricotta cheese with 1 t Tuscan Sunset (Italian herb blend from Penzys-my favorite)
Brown the sausage and drain and rinse if needed-my sausage was pretty lean as it came from the 4H side of pork purchased last fall.
Mix in the ricotta and the seasoning-taste it add salt & pepper if needed (I didn't need any)
Refrigerate until ready to use-note the 1T portioner-easy and consistent.
Cut your dough in half or thirds
 feed through the Pasta machine several times larger to smaller
 until you have a very thin sheet-you can almost see through it
Dust the sheet with flour as needed, I used a piece of butcher paper lightly floured to ease cleanup. lay your sheet out, egg wash the sheet edges.
Portion your filling about 2 inches apart leaving space to accommodate folding the sheet over to form the top. **this was easier then making a top sheet-I tried it both ways**
Fold the dough over (careful!) and gently section off your raviolis, press the filling down a bit to get the air out.
Cut your ravs apart ( I used a paring knife-it was easier then the little rav wheel I had) and press the edges closed with a fork.
Dust a sheet pan with cornmeal and lay your ravs out to dry a bit.
**LEARNING CURVE: Don't separate layers with plastic wrap and refrigerate-they will get sticky and fall apart. Don't layer them and let them dry out a bit or leave on teh sheet and freeze right way-place in zip bag once frozen** (salvaged by careful lifting and more flour dusting)

When ready to cook:
Bring your salted water to a boil- drop ravs in (I did about 6 at a time) they will float when ready.
I served with a light sauce of yellow-red-orange bell peppers, garlic,onion, mushrooms and a can of tomatoes lightly sauteed and simmered with a bit of olive oil.

Delizioso !

I made 2 batches of dough-one batch yielded 24 raviolis and with the second batch I made an additional 6 raviolis, I also made some "won-ton style" with goat cheese and sun dried tomato tapande (yuk, they were awful)

 and some fettuccine (cool)

All in with clean up I spent about 3 hours making this pasta so not too bad for time and well worth it for product quality. I froze half of my rav's and once the fet is dry will also freeze that for future use (soon!!)

Suezy got me going on her cilantro suggestions...here is what I came up with.

1 bunch cilantro (leaves-pick off the stems)
1 T sunflower seed meats (I didn't have pepitos--I think they would be better)
1 T cotija cheese
1-2T olive oil
salt** the seeds were salty and so is the cheese so taste first
black pepper
drum roll please--the game changer...juice of 1 small or half medium fresh lime

se habla bueno!

I will be serving as an accompaniment to "Turkey Enche-zania" my Mexican fusion of enchiladas and lasagna.

Making home-made pesto is simple and delicious. Use as a pasta sauce, a spread on crusty bread or add to olive oil and good white wine vinegar for a salad dressing. Pure, fresh ingredient flavors pack a punch and a little goes along way so not a big calorie fiend.

2 C fresh basil (just leaves, pick the stems off)
1 C grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 C pine nuts (toast if you like/raw is ok too)
2 cloves garlic (rough chop)
1/2 C olive oil (approximately)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place basil, Parmesan, pine nuts and garlic into food processor or blender. Add half the olive oil and pulse to blend.
Continue adding olive oil a bit at a time and pulse in between until you reach your desired consistency. I like mine fairly smooth. Taste the pesto and add salt and pepper to taste.
That is all there is to it. I buy my basil and pine nuts at Trader Joe's, they have the best price on the pine nuts which can be spendy. The basil is also very reasonable there and one container is about the 2 C needed. This is an easy recipe to make larger or smaller batches.

You can also add parsley in with the basil for a little different flavor. Some people substitute parsley and walnuts for the basil and pine nuts; called "winter pesto" and offers a different spin on classic pesto. MANGA MANGA!