pasta | SCISSORS & SAGE

If pasta is involved, sign me up. It doesn’t matter the size, texture, or sauce — I will probably love it (unless it involves mushrooms). I could eat pasta a few times a week if you really twisted my arm about it. It’s like a blank canvas, just screaming for culinary magic to happen on it.

I was so happy when I stumbled upon this recipe by Lil’ Luna for creamy garlic (penne) pasta. I gave it a whirl soon after discovering it, and was not disappointed. This recipe is a fantastic twist on a classic pasta dish. It’s subtle, but means business.

Creamy Garlic Linguine (via Lil' Luna)

Ingredients:

1 lb linguine pasta
3 tbs butter
2 tsp fresh minced garlic
3 tbs flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup milk
2 tsp fresh minced parsley
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

To begin, cook linguine according to package instructions (or if you’ve got some Italian flare in you, don’t read the instructions and go by taste to determine done-ness).

While the pasta water is boiling and the pasta is being cooked, melt butter in a medium sauce pan (I used a wok). Add garlic and cook for one minute. Add flour and cook for 30 seconds, making sure to stir constantly with a whisk. Don’t go grab that glass of wine!

Add milk and chicken broth, again stirring constantly. Cook until sauce boils and thickens. Add parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Continue stirring until the parmesan has melted. Have faith, it will work.

Once the linguine is cooked to al dente perfection and is strained, combine pasta and sauce in either the pasta pot or the wok (whichever one is larger). Use a pasta scooper to blend the two together.

Serve linguine, with a garnish of fresh parsley, immediately and enjoy!

From Scissors & Sage

Tag your own culinary creations (especially if you try this one at home) with #scissorsandsage on Instagram or Twitter!

With graduate school over, and Anne off from teaching for the summer, it finally feels like we’ve got our feet back on the ground again. It’s been a crazy few months to say the least, but we’ve taken the last two weeks to recuperate by spending time with our families and friends, going for bike rides through Philly, and cooking up one hell of a storm in our teeny weeny kitchen. We challenged ourselves to make homemade pasta, and we decided on ricotta gnocchi.

We found a delicious and easy-to-understand recipe from Italian Food Forever. Her recipe uses only four ingredients, and does not require any rest time or chill time. All we added was the use of a wooden gnocchi board to make ridges in the dough. The ridges help catch sauce and cheese — mmm! Check out a video of our process on Instagram.

Ricotta Gnocchi (via Italian Food Forever)

Ingredients:

1 lb full fat ricotta
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg

In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan, and egg with a fork until blended. Add one cup of flour until blended. Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface, and add any remaining flour until the dough is not too sticky.

Break off one fist-sized piece of dough at a time, and roll it into a one-inch-wide snake. Be sure to coat your hands in flour as you work to avoid too much stickiness. Then, with a sharp knife, cut the dough snake into 3/4-inch pieces.

If using a wooden gnocchi board, take one cut piece of dough and gently flatten it out over the board. Then, roll the dough into a pinwheel. (Note that this is an unconventional way to do this. We boiled a few gnocchi as we rolled them to taste-test, and found that this method resulted in much lighter, fluffier gnocchi.) Place the finished gnocchi on a floury cookie sheet. Repeat this process until all of your dough is in gnocchi formation.

Put a large pot of salted water on to boil. It’s best to give gnocchi its space — don’t cram them all into a small pot. When the water comes to a rolling boil, gently place the gnocchi into the water. When they float to the top, they are cooked. Use a slotted spoon to take them out of the water as they are finished in case they are different sizes and have differing cook times.

Top the gnocchi with a sauce of your choice. Anne and I used a tomato sauce with lots of sautéed garlic and fresh basil. Be sure to have a glass of wine in one hand and a gnocchi-filled fork in the other, and it will surely be a successful dinner!

From Scissors & Sage

Lead chef and hand model: Anne Kenealy