Pasta with fresh tomatoes

It's August, which sadly means that summer is winding down, but it also means that tomatoes are in season. My topsy-turvy hasn't produced anymore than the two tomatoes I previously mentioned, but some of our new neighbors--thanks Dave and Monica--have been keeping us in a supply of fresh cherry tomatoes.

They brought the first batch over during the pig roast and I decided to do a fresh tomato sauce with some whole wheat pasta. They probably brought over 20 to 30 cherry tomatoes, which I halved and the through into a skillet that already had some olive oil. I added some salt and pepper, about a tablespoon of sugar and about four cloves of diced garlic.

I cooked the pasta to just about al dente, drained and through it in with the tomatoes to finish cooking. I topped with some Parmesan.

Easy, simple and healthy meal and didn't take much longer than 20 minutes. You can make some additions to this too, I was just working with what was handy, you could add a little diced shallot or onion and some basil too. You could also strain to get some of the tomato seeds out to if you so desire.

Homemade ravioli

So I decided to up the ante with the pasta maker and make my own ravioli. It was for my mom's birthday and figured an Italian feast with a pasta course would be appropriate.

I used this as the basis for my recipe, bacon and mushrooms, how could you go wrong?

I made fresh ricotta and just add some salt, pepper and parmesan cheese for the filling. I also didn't make the ravioli completely by hand, my sister got me a press for my birthday, by the way it works awesome, you just need to make sure to flour it quite a bit.

They turned out awesome, really flavorful little bites and the sauce was excellent. I can't wait to experiment some more with it and some different flavors.

Dinner for mom

It's my mom's birthday Wednesday so Rory and I are having the family over for dinner next Saturday. I've been swamped at work because of my deadline and hadn't had much time to think of a menu. While I was initially considering a porchetta, it's off for now. We need to look at a house before dinner and I won't have time to roast the beast so I'm holding off for now.

But I'm still going with an Italian theme, relying heavily on the Marcella Hazan cookbook my sister got me for my birthday. I'll also be doing my first fresh ravioli, which should be fun.

I didn't necessarily mean for this to become an Italian feast but it is appropriate. My mom cooked Italian food the entire time I was growing up because that's what her mom cooked. The Bologense I cook is based on my great grandmother's recipe.

The other thing I'm excited about it the focaccia, or more specifically the crecentina, I'm going to serve with the meal. It's basically a bread with bacon.

I am once again making a pork themed meal and when I was looking for stuff to make that recipe popped out at me.

On tap is the crecentina, ravioli, drunken pork roast, brocoli and parmesan, potatoes with mushrooms. My sister is making a chocolate cake and I'm making tiramisu ice cream.