Using Up Leftover Pasta

There is an Italian restaurant near my house that I frequent when I am looking for a no frills carb fest. The atmosphere is not great and the décor definitely leaves something to be desired, but the food is outstanding - great pasta dishes with rich, sometimes creamy sauces and gargantuan portions. They fit so much pasta on one plate that two maybe three people could share just one dish.

This past weekend I started craving a no frills carb fest about halfway through a seven-mile death march, I mean really lovely hike through the Santa Monica Mountains. Truth be told it was a lovely hike, but one that left all three hikers absolutely famished. Immediately after we returned home we headed off to gorge ourselves on carbs to refuel our bodies.

Starving and unable to agree on dishes to share, we each ordered our own. Not surprisingly, this left us with three to-go boxes, enough for at least another meal per person. The next day, determined not to let all those leftovers go to waste, I threw a half pound of leftover pasta with marinara sauce into a frying pan with eggs and cheese and made myself a pasta frittata.

Frittatas are always a great way to clean out the veg bin and use up leftover ingredients, but this pasta frittata is now by far my favorite. The pasta gives it a heartiness that just isn’t present when a frittata is eggs and veg alone, and if you love the sauce your favorite Italian restaurant uses on your pasta, why not give it a second chance to shine?

I’ll be heading back for more carbs shortly, and I will be denying any requests to share. From now on, I’ll be making sure we come home with leftovers.

Note - Any frittata recipe should be thought of more as a guide then a strict set of rules. The whole idea is to use up what you have on hand. No parsley? Try any number of fresh herbs, decreasing the amount you use depending on how pungent the herb. No crème fraiche? How about goat cheese or sour cream? You get the idea. Throw in what looks and sounds delicious and it will turn out well.



Pasta Frittata

1/2 pound of leftover pasta with sauce
5 eggs
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup crème fraiche
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Preheat the broiler. Place the pasta in medium sauté pan over medium heat and warm through. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and parsley until combined and season with salt and pepper. Drop mounds of crème fraiche into the egg mixture, but do not combine. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta in the pan and cook until almost set, about six to eight minutes. Sprinkle the grated parmesan on top and place the pan under the broiler until the frittata is set and starting to brown on top. Serve with a side salad for a delicious little meal.

Grilled Zucchini Rolls for a Rainstorm

As we head into a weekend with nothing but rain on the docket, it’s easy for my mind to wander to soups, stews and braises. Something that will keep the oven on all afternoon and produce a dish that is warm, comforting and filling. It is easy for my mind to wander there, but I’m not letting it. I’m sticking with fresh, bright flavors in hopes of using my taste buds to pull myself out of this rainy weekend.

These little appetizers of grilled zucchini wrapped around fluffy fresh goat cheese, basil and citrus should be enough to remind me of warm evenings spent outdoors post-time change (even if the grill marks on the zucchini came from my grill pan and not the outdoor BBQ). The recipe comes from Ellie Krieger, but I’ve taken quite a few liberties with it including doubling the amount of goat cheese. After all, I wouldn’t want things too healthy - it is raining outside. If you want to read the original, and slightly more healthy version of the recipe, just click on her name below.

If all this rain continues, that duck confit I’ve been threatening to make will definitely come to fruition, but for now I’m counting on these light fresh flavors to satisfy me. Actually, even if the rain doesn’t continue, the duck is definitely coming to fruition. Perhaps after I let my mind start to wander again.



Grilled Zucchini Rolls
Adapted from Ellie Krieger

3 zucchini
3 oz goat cheese
1 T freshly minced parsley leaves
1/2 t lemon juice
1/3 cup basil leaves
Salt and pepper
Cooking spray

Thinly slice the zucchini on a mandolin and discard the outermost slices. Season with salt and pepper. Place a grill pan over medium heat and spray with cooking spray. Cook the zucchini until tender and grill marks appear (about four minutes per side).

In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, parsley and lemon juice, and season with salt.

Put a small spoonful of the cheese mixture on each zucchini slice and top with a basil leaf. Roll up and place seam side down on a platter. Repeat with remaining zucchini slices.

Gougères with Duck Confit

Pâte à choux is a wonderful, versatile dough that should be part of every cook’s repertoire. I’m a bit embarrassed that it took me as long as it did to try my hand at it, but now that I’m on board, my new favorite past time is coming up with pâte à choux variations.

Variation number one was made immediately after consuming every last one of the cream puffs drizzled with dulche de leche. I had leftover dough and, knowing that they were simply pâte à choux with cheese mixed in, gougères, in other words cheese puffs, seemed like the next logical incarnation. After all, we were all suffering from a pretty bad cream puff sugar high and needed something savory to get our feet back on the ground.



While researching pâte à choux the first time around, I read that a friend of Michael Ruhlman’s used up leftover duck confit by piping pâte à choux over little mounds of it. I had been obsessed ever since and figured if I was already adding parmesan to the mix, why not throw some duck confit in there as well?

Excellent idea friend of Michael Ruhlman! These were even more addictive than the cream puffs. Something about the warm dough wrapped around the salty parmesan and rich duck was totally irresistible. Next up, I am going to have to make my own duck confit so I have a supply at the ready whenever the craving hits – not to mention the added benefit of avoiding the $13 per leg of duck confit.



Gougères with Duck Confit
Ratio from Michael Ruhlman

2:1:1:2
(Water: Butter: Flour: Eggs)

1 cup (8 oz) water
4 oz butter (a bit less than a stick – weigh if you can)
4 oz flour
4 eggs (large eggs are about 2 oz per egg)
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan
1/2 cup of shredded duck confit (one duck leg will yield close to 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 425*
Place the butter and water in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter is melted and the liquid is simmering. Add the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the side of the pan. Transfer the dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add one egg at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. You can mix the eggs in by hand, in the same pot if you prefer. Stir in the parmesan.

Place the dough in a piping bag with a plain tip or a large Ziploc bag with one corner cut off. Place 1 t mounds of duck confit about two inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pipe the dough over the mounds so the confit is completely covered and place in the 425 oven for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 and continue cooking until fully cooked - about 20 more minutes depending on the size. Just look for them to be golden brown all over and you’ll know you’re done.

When The Cream Is Worth It

Sometimes the cream is worth it. Actually, in my book the cream is often worth it. However, as the January leanings towards a healthier diet continue into February, sometimes I find myself doing silly things like replacing all the cream in a recipe with low-fat buttermilk.

Perhaps you have found yourself doing the same thing. In theory I think it’s a good idea. After all, low-fat buttermilk has a thick texture that is similar to cream. Unfortunately, in practice, all that missing fat is noticeably missing.



I realized this recently while making a zucchini and goat cheese tart. All the shredded zucchini that the recipe called for seemed too healthy to bury under a mountain of cream and frankly, I did not feel like consuming most of my daily calories in one sitting. I replaced all of the cream with low-fat buttermilk and hoped for the best.



Even with the buttermilk, the tart ended up just fine. In fact, a friend who doesn’t eat a lot of rich food thought it was delicious, but for me, there was something missing (mainly all that fat).

I’m including the recipe as it was originally published in the current issue of Donna Hay. The next time I make this I will likely replace some of the cream with buttermilk, probably a third at most and see if I can be satisfied with that compromise.



Zucchini and Goat’s Curd Tart
Donna Hay Magazine Issue 47
Serves 4 - 6

2/3 cups butter, melted
8 sheets phyllo dough
5 zucchini grated
9 eggs
1 1/2 cups single cream
Salt
Pepper
7 oz goat’s curd or goat cheese

Preheat oven to 325*
Butter the base of a 12” x 15” pan (I ended up using a 9” x 13” brownie pan and it worked perfectly). Layer the sheets of phyllo, brushing butter between each sheet. Place the grated zucchini in the pan on top of the phyllo. Lightly beat the eggs and cream together, season with salt and pepper and pour over the zucchini. Top with spoonfuls of goat cheese and bake for 45 – 50 minutes until set. Let cool slightly before slicing.

Pâte à Choux

Pate a choux, pate a choux, pate a choux. I had a sneaking suspicion that when I finally tried you, I would fall in love, but truthfully, I never could have guessed to what extent. My only regret is that I waited so long.

Pate a choux is featured in the current issue of Donna Hay – my favorite Australian import. This prompted me to finally try my hand at the pastry responsible for so many little puffs – errhhh appetizers and desserts. Unfortunately, whether it is to be blamed on my poor job of translating grams to tablespoons or simply that my kitchen is in the northern hemisphere, my first attempt did not turn out well. The pate a choux didn’t rise due to too much butter and the resulting mounds looked more like discs than puffs.



I knew I could trust Michael Ruhlman and his ratios for try number two. Pate a choux is a simple formula of 2 parts water to 1 part butter, 1 part flour and 2 parts eggs. Following this formula resulted in a perfectly puffed pastry on the first try.

Pate a choux is not entirely delicious and enticing on its own. Its job is to serve as a blank canvas for whatever fillings – both savory and sweet - you can come up with. For my first go round, I decided to stick with a classic cream puff. I filled the pastries with store-bought pastry cream and drizzled homemade dulche de leche over the top.



My taste testers were in love as well. They demanded more pate a choux as soon as possible. I complied with a savory version that is apparently the best thing I have ever made – at least according to one taste taster. More on that soon. For now, I highly recommend you take a stab at pate a choux - if you haven’t already.



Pâte à Choux
Ratio from Michael Ruhlman

2:1:1:2
(Water: Butter: Flour: Eggs)

1 cup (8 oz) water
4 oz butter (a bit less than a stick – weigh if you can)
4 oz flour
4 eggs (large eggs are about 2 oz per egg)

Preheat oven to 425*
Place the butter and water in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter is melted and the liquid is simmering. Add the flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the side of the pan. Transfer the dough to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add one egg at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. You can mix the eggs in by hand, in the same pot if you prefer.

Place the dough in a piping bag with a plain tip or a large Ziploc bag with one corner cut off. Pipe the dough into 1-inch diameter mounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the 425 oven for 10 minutes. Lower the heat to 375 and continue cooking until fully cooked - about 20 more minutes depending on the size. Just look for them to be golden brown all over and you’ll know you’re done.

Once they’re cooled, what you do with them is really only limited by your imagination. I filled mine with a store-bought pastry cream and topped them with homemade dulche de leche.

Dulce de Leche

Dulce de leche is something I used to think of as more of a flavor – one introduced to me by Haagen Dazs ice cream. I knew there was more to it than that, but I had never had a real dulce de leche sauce. Thanks to Alton Brown that all changed this past weekend.

I was flipping channels and landed on Alton’s milk episode. Always interested in all things dairy – especially if those things have anything to do with aged, bacteria-laden dairy – I stopped and watched. While this episode had little to do with cheese, it did reveal a few secrets of tres leches cake and, the subject of this post, dulche de leche.



I couldn’t resist the simple preparation. Milk, sugar, vanilla and baking soda combined and then left to reduce. It takes a good amount of time for the milk to cook down to a rich caramel-colored sauce, but most of that time you can totally ignore it. Just let it go (aside from the occasional stir) and two to three hours later you’ll be left with a generous cup of dulche de leche that will last up to a month in the refrigerator.

With that kind of shelf life, you have plenty of time to find your favorite uses. Mine? So far I haven’t been able to beat dulce de leche drizzled over homemade cream puffs (more on that coming soon.)

I use vanilla bean paste in place of a vanilla bean. If you stick with Alton’s use of a split vanilla bean, you need to remove the bean after one hour of cooking or it will impart a bad taste.



Dulce de Leche
Adapted from Alton Brown

1 quart whole milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 T vanilla bean paste
1/2 t baking soda

Combine the milk, sugar and vanilla bean paste in a large saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, stir in the baking soda. Reduce the heat to low to maintain a bare simmer and let the mixture cook, uncovered, for 2 1/2 – 3 hours. Stir occasionally, being careful not to reincorporate the foam that forms on top of the mixture (you will strain this off at the end). After 2 1/2 – 3 hours, when the sauce is a deep-brown and you have just a bit more than a cup left, strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean jar. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.