Chef Michael Salmon - Join me in my Kitchen
Pici is Tuscany’s signature pasta and is quite simple to make with common kitchen ingredients. No fancy tools or ingredients necessary.
In the spring when green peas hit the market, I find myself shucking pounds of them to create these wonderful Green Pea ravioli. The fresh lemon and olive oil sauce complements, but doesn’t over power their delicate flavor. Make them green by using Spinach pasta dough, or have a contrast in colors by using Egg pasta dough.
This dish of spaghetti with a Prosciutto and roasted pepper cream is always real popular on our Foodie trips to Italy. You can use dried spaghetti instead of making your own fresh pasta to save time in this recipe.
Tortellini is a fun pasta shape to master. Like any stuffed pasta, once you learn the technique, you will find yourself turning them out in no time. In this recipe, I fill the tortellini with a three-cheese mixture and serve them with a simple and flavorful chicken and pesto sauce.
Gnocchi was never really “my thing” until I started pan-crisping them. Lightly caramelizing the cooked gnocchi in olive oil so that they gain a little crunchy texture, transforms the soft blobs of cooked dough into a delightful foundation for an amazing pasta dish. In this recipe I cook fresh seafood, using their juices as the base for the sauce, and finish it with a creamy tomato-basil sauce.
Pappardelle is a wide noodle that creates a very rustic looking pasta dish. The sheer volume of pasta in each fork full makes pappardelle one of my favorite pastas to eat. Pesto is a perfect match for flat pasta since it will stick to anything, while a nice thin cream sauce would run right off. When tomatoes are oven-roasted, the flavors become concentrated and very intense.
This is winter comfort food at it’s core. The sweet potato filling is simple and quick to make and with a small investment of time, you can have ravioli’s made for a few meals. Place extra raviolis on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer until firm. Then, transfer to ziplock bags and keep up to 3 months in the freezer until needed.
Agnolotti is a stuffed pasta that comes from the Piedmont region of Italy. Agnolotti are similar to ravioli, but they have a unique shape with two large dimples that assist in “trapping” sauce. I find them much easier and faster to make than ravioli, once you have mastered the technique. The filling in this recipe is a spinach-ricotta mixture, but they can be filled with everything from roasted vegetables and cheese, to braised meats and seafood.
Adding puréed spinach to pasta dough transforms it into a brilliant green color. Use the Spinach Dough to make any shape of pasta from Fettuccini and Pappardelle to Tortellini and Ravioli. When you use a colored (beet or spinach) dough for a stuffed pasta like ravioli, use a contrasting colored filling (like goat cheese) for a dramatic effect.
The base of this lasagna is a wild boar Sugo. As wild boar can be difficult to come by in some areas, ground pork and/or veal or beef can be substituted. Sugo is a meat sauce made primarily with stock (instead of tomato) so it makes for a lighter and “meatier” lasagna than the typical bolognese base which is rich in tomatoes.
Join me in my kitchen as I prepare recipes from my two cookbooks, European foodie trips and explore new inspirations.
