This was another recipe the crew conquered during our Vegetarian Iron Chef party.

Ahhh… look at those beautiful little ravioli!

Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli with Braised Leeks and Herb Salad

For the Filling
1 pound baby spinach, washed and stemmed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oil
splash white wine
handful of bread crumbs to bind
1 egg
8 ounces of ricotta, water extracted with cheese cloth
salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg

Heat oil in a large pot on medium high heat. Add the spinach and garlic. With a wooden spoon or tongs, toss the spinach until it cooks down. Remove spinach and set aside. After it has cooled, squeeze out excess liquid.Chop the spinach, and toss with the remaining ingredients. Use your hands to combine them. If the mixture does not stick together, add more bread crumbs.

For the Ravioli
4 cups 00 flour (double zero is a fine grind of flour, available in specialty stores)
4 large whole eggs
* Alternately, you can use store bought fresh pasta sheets (4 sheets about 8×10 inches) or wonton wrappers for this recipe.

Pour the flour on a clean work space and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs and pour into the well. Use a fork to beat the eggs, gradually drawing flour into the mix. * Use only mild to medium pressure. Don’t worry, this is an easy process! Sprinkle your work surface with flour, and knead the dough. Work with it until mixture becomes homogenous. This will take a couple of minutes at the most. *If the pasta becomes too dry, sprinkle with some lukewarm water. Form the dough into a ball and cover with a towel. Let rest for ten to fifteen minutes. Roll the dough through the pasta machine several times until you get the desired thickness.On a clean work surface, lay out one of the pasta sheets. Place one teaspoon mounds of the spinach mixture on the pasta sheet, spacing them so there is 1 inch between each mound, and ½ inch around the edge of the sheet. Gently lay the second sheet of pasta directly on top of the first. Use your fingers to press down around each mound to seal the sheets together. Then use a ravioli cutter to punch out round shapes. Place the raviolis on a lightly-floured sheet pan, separating layers with parchment or wax paper.
Fill a pot ¾ full and bring to a gentle boil. Add oil and a pinch of salt. Place the ravioli gently into the boiling water. When they float to the top, they are ready. Remove with a slotted spoon.

For the Leek Sauce
3 to 4 cups of washed and chopped leeks
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary or herb of choice
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
¼ cup heavy cream
*tomato paste or cooked tomatoes can be added, too

Sauté the leeks in olive oil or butter until soft, then add stock, cream, and herbs. Bring to a simmer. Ladle over Ravioli.

For the Herb salad
2 cups mixed herbs
1 head frisée or winter greens, chopped

Toss herbs and frisée with olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper.

Not long ago, H.O.G. hosted an all out vegetarian iron chef competition. The guests not only had a blast but made some amazing food too! Based on the photo, need I say more?

They strayed from the base concept, but hey… we like imagination.

Corn, Pepper and Squash Gorditas with Sweet Pea Guacamole

For the Gorditas
2 cups masa harina
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups warm water

Mix flours, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Add the warm water. Combine thoroughly to make a smooth dough. Roll the dough into balls the size of a walnut, a few at a time. Set aside and keep covered.
One at a time, roll each ball of dough in moistened palm of your hand until smooth, lay on a piece of plastic wrap, cover with another piece of plastic wrap and press down to flatten. To shape the patty, cut with a 2 to 2 ¼-inch diameter cookie cutter. It should be about 1/8 inch thick. Smooth the rough edges with your finger to make it ready to cook. Pan fry the gorditas until golden on both sides.

For the Filling
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 small clove of garlic, chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 pound yellow squash, medium diced
3 ears yellow corn, shucked and corn removed from the husk
1 teaspoon fresh epazote, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Slowly cook the onion and garlic until tender, but still translucent. Add the peppers first and cook for about 5 minutes then add the squash, corn and epazote. Saute for another 5 minutes and set aside.

For the Sweet Pea Guacamole
2 pounds shelling peas removed from pods
2 ripe avocados
1 clove garlic, minced
Juice of one lime
Salt

Blanch the peas in simmering water for about 3 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and shock in ice water. In the food processor add the chili, peas and avocado. Let’ er rip until the mixture becomes smooth and satiny. Finish with a pinch of salt.To serve, spoon some filling on top of the Gorditas and slather with some guacamole and chopped cilantro

Last night as Molly and I were walking through a new neighborhood market my eyes bulged out as we passed thousands of containers of roasted peppers, tomato sauce, tapanades, pestos and various stock. wow and double wow! HOG’s going in the condiment business next week!! The dollar amount spent on luxury food goodies is on the grow and consumers are shelling out the bucks without even doing the cha-cha.

Now a lot of the folks that we work with at Hands On Gourmet might not want to crank up the food processor, bar blender or wait hours slowly simmering a sauce but a roasted pepper? its a thing of understated beauty that is soooo simple to do and so quick to make. Before summer is over and all the peppers are gone I’d like to share with you some tips on how to roast the perfect pepper. Great results and a good way to save a few bucks!

Now there are 2 basic ways to skin a pepper. One is roasting the peppers over an open flame and the other is roasting them in a hot oven.

Open flame method: turn on a burner to medium high heat and place the pepper on the grate above the flame. Make sure that the pepper isn’t directly on the flame as it won’t allow even roasting. As the skin of the pepper starts to bubble and blacken rotate it until all the skin is the same color, black and charred… and don’t worry, you won’t ruin the flesh. When it’s done roasting place it in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This is when steam gets in between the flesh and skin allowing them to separate. (this takes between 10 to 15 minutes).
The next step is to take it out and pull the stems out. Place the pepper on a flat work surface and pull the skin off with your fingers. Split the pepper open with a pairing knife and use the back side to scrape out the pith and seeds. A big big big no no is to rinse the pepper under water. It might help wash away some of the skin, seeds and pith but it also rinses away the flavor! Ok your all done!

Oven method: turn on your oven to 500 degrees. Line a baking pan with parchment paper (the reason you do this is to save a lot of clean up later), place the peppers on the pan and put in the hot oven. Some folks brush with oil but it really doesn’t matter. Watch the pepper and pull when it becomes black and bubbly. Repeat the steps above.

One of my favorites is a grilled chicken sandwich with roast red peppers, basil, mayo, a squeeze of fresh lemon and thinly sliced red onions.

Happy roasting! From Chef Stephen

It’s been a long week.. no no let me rephrase that.. it’s been a loooong month! Hands On Gourmet hosted 32 cooking parties last month and my dogs are killing me! Sadly, cooking for pleasure has taken a back burner. Late night tacos, jam sandwiches, chips, beer and random leftovers have been my main staple. I’ve been out of the loop with friends, surfing and my new hobby, blogging!This brings me to a considerably slower paced Saturday. Molly’s parents are here from Michigan. Jim is watching football and the girls just came back from the San Francisco botanical gardens. I’m still exhausted and would much rather read a book while munching on popcorn and sipping a black cherry soda. But the cook in me says “go at it boy”, get off your fat butt and make some vittles. So off to the market I go to forage for something quick and easy.

I always get a kick out the 20 minute meals you see in magazines… it cracks me up to see a beautiful manicured plate of food cooked in a mere 20 minutes!? come on… So with that in mind I bought ingredients for my own, at home, 20 minute meal. The photo above is the result. A bowl of fresh pasta with ripe tomatoes, herbs, olive oil, lemon juice, chili flakes, pine nuts, garlic, grated cheese and toasted baguette. Below is a step by step recipe. Try it and see if takes you 20 minutes, not including a trip to the market.

feeds 4 feisty diners
1. take out a large pot, fill up 3/4 of the way with water, add a dash of salt and a squeeze of oil, throw on flame (15 seconds)
2. turn on the oven (1.4 seconds)
3. take out cutting board, place a moist towel under the board, pull a sharp knife from the block (12 seconds)
4. crab a cold brew from the fridge, open bottle and take a long pull (blink of an eye)
5. rough chop 3 large tomatoes and 1/2 cup assorted herbs… mince 4 cloves garlic, grate 1 cup hard cheese, throw the baguette in the oven, toast 1/4 cup pine nuts in a hot pan (5 minutes)
6. open 1 pound box of fresh pasta and toss into gently boiling water, cook until al dente (3 minutes)
7. drain pasta and in the same pot fold in tomatoes, garlic, 3 tablespoons good olive oil, juice of one lemon, teaspoon of chili flake, salt and black pepper (2 minutes)
8. place the pasta in bowls, throw a handful of cheese and some toasted pine nuts over top, pull bread from oven. (3 minutes)

sit and eat! total time… 13 minutes, with time to spare!

A satisfying light and snappy meal for a lazy summer’s afternoon.This is Chef Stephen saying “boyyaaa” live from HOG Land USA…until next time