Tea for Two (…plus 48)

What a week it’s been! Today Rachel and I catered our largest event yet– 50 people for an advent tea reception at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham. If you’ve seen us at all in the last week, you could probably tell there something just a little different. Not that we’re ever gloomy or sullen (especially after a 12 hour day of making pasta… never!), but there’s just something about actually cooking that puts us both in fantastic moods! From designing the menu to choosing the ingredients, creating a schedule to getting the whole thing done (this was all largely done by Rachel), we had a blast! Here’s a look at our menu and all the finished products…

Savory Hors D’oeuvres & Tea Sandwiches:

Duxelle Pinwheels-homemade puff pastry filled with a mixture of mushrooms and shallots and reduced in marsala wine

Traditional Cucumber Tea Sandwiches- served open-faced with a hint of roasted garlic and lemon juice

Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches- served open faced with candied pecans

Assorted Miniature Pastries:

Lemon Tartlets- almond shortbread tartlet filled with lemon curd and topped with a fresh blackberry

L’Opera- traditonal sponge cake moistened with coffee syrup and topped with silky ganache and buttercream

Chocolate Raspberry Mouse Bites- a base of shortbread dough topped with a light and airy raspberry mouse and garnished with fresh raspberries and buttercream

We were so thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our catering work and we can’t wait for the next event! In the meantime, here are some additional shots of the event…

Christmas, Homemade

If any of you have ever started a business, you know. In the beginning stages (slash first 2 years) you relish in the fact that you are your own boss, you work when you feel like it, and “work” happens to be something that you absolutely love. What you may forget, however, is your oh-so-happy life does not include a paycheck. Hence, when it comes to holiday giving, better make it homemade. At first I felt guilty about the predicament of having an entirely homemade Christmas, but in the end, the recipients enjoyed their gifts all the more knowing they came from the heart (or kitchen, rather). So, on the list for this year’s Christmas: homemade sherry peppers, Nella Pasta crackers, rosemary maple spiced almonds and hand-knit mittens (yes I know, I’m a huge dork). Since I’ll be spending this Christmas in Florida with my mom, this past weekend Jeff and I headed to NYC to celebrate my sister’s engagement and an early Christmas with my dad, step-mom, sister and future brother-in-law. Here’s a peek at preparing Christmas, homemade…

Sherry Peppers– sherry peppers have always been a staple in my dad’s pantry as the perfect spicy punch to top off soups, stews and gravy. Traditionally, this sauce is made to accompany the traditional recipe for Bermudian Fish Chowder, but we use it on just about anything. Just buy a whole bunch of dry sherry, add dried hot peppers, pepper corns, allspice, cloves, orange rind and garlic and let is sit. After 2 or 3 days, take out the garlic and orange rind. After about 1 to 2 weeks, the sherry peppers are ready to strain through a coffee filter and bottle. To keep things simple I used cleaned out wine bottles and bought cork stoppers from a local hardware store. If you like it spicy, keep a few peppers in the bottle to let the sherry peppers get hotter and hotter as it ages. To make your sherry peppers fit for a gift, just print out your own label, affix to the bottle with a glue stick and adorn with a holiday ribbon.

The Nella Pasta Crackers– if you remember back to this post, these crackers turned out so well I decided to try it out again and give them to my family to serve with cocktails. Before heading to NYC, I served these whole wheat rosemary crackers with spinach artichoke hummus and olives at the Natale’s house in CT.

Maple Rosemary Spiced Almonds– these couldn’t be easier. Just combine raw unsalted almonds with a drizzle of Grade B dark maple syrup, about 2 teaspoons butter, salt, pepper, cayenne and fresh chopped rosemary. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Be forewarned- these nuts are addicting!

Hand-knit Mittens– I figured I had to make something that didn’t involve calories… My step-mother taught me how to knit when I was about 8 years old and it’s always come in handy when you want to give someone a handmade gift. This time around, I chose striped mittens (and frantically knit for a full week to make 4 pairs!).

Off to NYC for an early Christmas!

In other news, I got a new camera for Christmas! Thanks to my Dad, the Nella blog will no longer have terribly lit, blurry pictures. I can’t wait to learn how to use it! Stay tuned this week for pictures of our next catered event in Hingham and info on our next wine tasting scheduled for next Saturday.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

I know I know, it has no relevance to pasta whatsoever, but I thought I’d share this recipe since its so darn good. As some of you know (Rachel, namely), I hate recipes. I have wonderful cookbooks from Tyler Florence to Alice Waters and everyone in between. I search Epicurious, Foodbuzz and a myriad of food blogs daily for inspiration, yet I just can’t seem to get myself to actually follow a recipe. Since were talking baking, I had to base my recipe on something tried and tested, but after changing a thing here and there countless times, its taken on a whole new form. So here’s my attempt to actually put my Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins down on paper and not merely throw things in a bowl (and please pardon the vague measurements,  just eyeball it).

In the pasta….

Butternut squash– it’s in the pasta, it’s in the ravioli. Ravioli filling isn’t just for ravioli anymore… there’s countless uses for this yummy filling! Tonight’s menu: Butternut Squash & Kale Lasagna. It all starts with our butternut squash filling used for ravioli. We take Springbrook Farm roasted butternut squash and mix it with ricotta, parmesan, apple butter, our now famous maple cider brown butter and a host of spices (salt, pepper, nutmeg, clove, allspice & a touch of cayenne). Stuff it in a ravioli, roll it into a cannelloni, smear it on pizza, dollop on garlic toasts… you get the picture. Fillings are so versatile you can use them in just about anything, which brings me back to my lasagna. I layered our squash filling with fresh sheets of pasta, wilted kale and a mornay sauce to create an ooey-gooey yummy one-dish meal. Here’s how:

First, lay out your ingredients (or Mis en Place, as they say) for quick assembly

Next, sautee the kale

As the kale cooks down, start on your Mornay sauce. A Mornay is a simple bechamel with the addition of cheese. Fresh grated is always better, but tonight I used pre-shredded part-skim mozzarella. Melt 2 1/2 tablespoons butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add 3 tablespoons flour (I used white whole wheat and it came out fine!) and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute or until the “roux” is yellow and frothy.  Slowly whisk in 2 cups warm milk (I used 1%) and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and season with the salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Allow to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes then add about 1/4 cup grated cheese and whisk until melted. If the sauce seems too thick, you can always add a bit more milk.

Finally its time to layer. Lightly oil the bottom of your pan with extra virgin olive oil. Next add a very light layer of mornay sauce. Layer 2 sheets fresh pasta to cover bottom of pan, then spread butternut squash mixture in an ever layer, add a layer of kale then the Mornay sauce again.

You should be able to get 2 of each layer, with the topost layer being the Mornay. To finish,  sprinkle with extra shredded mozzarella (it’ll get all brown and bubbly- YUM). Bake in  a 400 degree over for about 30-40 min (the joys of fresh pasta, see!) and enjoy!

and the aftermath….

Wine Tasting, Anyone?

Count me in! In fact, anyone want to man the Nella table while I’m busy tasting?? I’ll keep tonight’s post short because the lengthy one I already wrote about making Butternut Squash & Kale Lasagna was ruined when my camera decided it didn’t feel like working with my computer to upload the step-by-step photos I took (this is me being passive aggressive… hence the wine). Best Buy will certainly be hearing from me later, but in the meantime, tomorrow’s wine tasting at Upper Fall Discount Wine & Spirits. We have a great spread of holiday gift baskets, boxes, dried rigatoni and butternut squash ravioli (made with apple butter and our maple cider brown butter- YUM!). We’ll be set up throughout the duration of the tasting from 1-5 so come on come all, try the wine and know that in your tipsy state, all you have to do is boil water and dinner is done! Just as a reminder Upper Falls is located at 150 Needham St. in Newton, MA, hope to see you there!

Pasta e Vino, A Match Made in… Newton!

Looking back to the semester I spent taking culinary classes in Italy, the dishes we made differed, but one thing always remained the same: vino. I happened to be in a morning class, and whether we finished our dish at 10am or 2pm, we always wrapped up the class by tasting our dish and pairing it with wine (and then stumble to Italian class with a slight slur).

This Saturday, we’re bringing pasta e vino together again at Upper Falls Wine & Spirits in Newton, MA. You may remember previous posts about our friend Mike’s food and wine blog, Rooftop Gourmet. This week we’ll be taking advantage of Upper Falls’ annual wine tasting to bring pasta and wine together. Look forward to tasting over 75 wines from every region and enjoy 20% off all bottles of wine (see the Upper Falls website for full details). Add to that a plethora of Nella holiday gifts including gift boxes and baskets of every shape and size, holiday wrapped dried rigatoni and fresh butternut squash ravioli. Mike and the rest of the gang at Upper Falls Wine & Spirits will be there to help you find the perfect bottle to pair with your fresh pasta and any other wine suggestion you may need (they also have an extensive beer selection as well).

We’re thrilled to join forces to bring Nella Pasta to Upper Falls and let’s be serious, who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by a tasting with over 75 wines to choose from! The tasting will be from 1-5pm on Saturday at 150 Needham Street Newton, MA. Please e-mail us or comment below with any questions, and we hope to see you this Saturday!

Hingham Holiday Gift Boutique!

It’s finally here and we are more than ready! We’re bringing just about everything to the fair tomorrow from fresh 3 cheese and roasted butternut squash raviolis to fresh lasagna sheets, Thanksgiving hostess gift baskets to Christmas teacher presents and just about everything in between. Our fresh and dried pasta prices range from $7-12, and our special holiday gifts range from $12-100. There’s something for everyone, so come one come all! Here are a few more pictures of what you’ll find tomorrow.

Remember, we’ll also be taking special orders from now until Christmas, so feel free to e-mail us with any special requests.We will also have a menu/ special order form with us at the gift boutique with three different lasagnas, an assortment of gift boxes, and a gift basket with all available fillings listed for you to choose from. See you tomorrow!

Sneak Peek at our Holiday Workshop

Seriously… Today we took over the entire back room at Crop Circle kitchen and turned it into Santa’s workshop. Over the past couple weeks we’ve been shopping for the perfect fillings for our holiday baskets and today we unloaded and got to work! Here’s a peek at day one of preparing for Saturday’s Holiday Gift Boutique. And don’t worry, unlike  every store we entered over the past 2 weeks blarring Christmas music, we haven’t forgotton Thanksgiving– we have plenty of fall harvest baskets as well!

ps. We’ll update photos of the final products on Friday!

So Long Farmer’s Markets, HELLO Holiday Gift Boutique!

So if you happen to follow us on Twitter, you read that our farewell to Hingham happened a bit sooner than we would have liked, in fact, we missed it altogether. Clad from head to toe in rain gear, we headed to the beach at the usual time (around 9am) to set up for the market. On a typical Saturday, at least a half dozen tents are up, cars drive in by the minute and vendors mosey around the parking lot saying hellos to one another. Yesterday, the lot was empty, and I sat in my Mini in the middle of the lot (more like lake) waiting for some sort of answer. Thankfully, I caught Rachel in time before she headed over, but not before she carefully packed all our fresh pasta made the previous afternoon. Oddly enough, we can’t even tell you what happened becasue we don’t know ourselves! We assume the market was cancelled due to the crummy weather and we somehow got missed on the e-mail chain. Anyways, we regret that we did not get the thank our regulars in person for their loyalty all summer, but we’re excited for our change in scenery as we prepare for the Hingham High School Holiday Fair next weekend. Here’s some info on the event:

All week Rachel & I will be assembling gift baskets with some great goodies we’ve been stocking up on over the past couple weeks. The baskets will come in a number of shapes in sizes, and feature a great variety of foodie items including decorative packages of Nella dried rigatoni, marinara sauce, dried mushrooms, dish towels, wooden spoons, extra virgin olive oil and lots more. We’ll also have keepsake holiday boxes filled with our dried pasta and wrapped with some extra goodies. Cranking out dried rigatoni, trying ribbons, and continuing our ongoing effort to roast, puree and preserve our huge stock of squash from Springbrook Farm is what’s in store for the Nella girls this week. If you know you would like a gift basket, feel free to shoot us an e-mail to reserve one to pick up at the gift boutique on Saturday. We also have a number of the specialty packaged dried rigatoni ready to go at our Jamaica Plain kitchen (see photos below) that can be picked up any time during the week, just let us know and we can arrange a time to meet. Looking forward to a great holiday fair, see you Saturday!

Farewell to the Hingham Farmer’s Market

It seems like only yesterday (slash, 3 years ago), that I awoke promptly at 4 am Pacific time, knowing that Rachel was packing the Nella Mobile for our first day at the Hingham Farmer’s Market. It was a drizzly day in late May, and while I sat by the phone across the country in San Francisco, anxiously awaiting her hourly text updates, Rachel weathered the storm to introduce Nella Pasta to Hingham. Thanks to months of recipe development, logo design, shopping trips for tables, tents, table clothes and other adornments for our stand, our first market was a huge success; a sell out, in fact. Since then we have grown to love our Saturdays in Hingham– selecting our produce from Springbrook Farm, throwing back handfuls of TT Buds popcorn, making our ’rounds’ to pick up our weekly groceries from fellow vendors and most importantly, getting to know our devoted customers. Over the past 6 months, we have grown a steady base of “regulars” who rain or shine, 40 degrees or 90 degrees, national holiday or just a perfect summer weekend, have visited the Nella stand and enthusiastically asked “so what am I making for dinner tonight??” We truly appreciate your loyalty and support for helping to grow Nella from a mere daydream to a reality. Thank you for all your feedback, suggestions, and of course, appetites.

Ok, enough sappy talk. We aren’t going away forever! For one thing, we’ll be just down the street next weekend at the Hingham High School Holiday Fair (more info to come). We are also starting our wholesale business shortly and wouldn’t think to leave Hingham off our list. So what do we have in store for you tomorrow? First, the perfect hostess/ teacher/ neighbor/client/ (well, anyone!) gift– a bag of our dried rigatoni adorned with a holiday ribbon. Our dried pasta can be stored in the pantry, cooked up in about 4-6 minutes, and can be served any way you would with regular boxed pasta! The difference between our dried pasta and the regular boxed variety is how its extruded. For conventional store brand boxed pasta, the dough is extruded through plastic dies creating a slick, smooth surface (think: rubbery pasta with sauce that rolls right off and sits at the bottom of the bowl). For our dried pasta, we use the traditional Italian bronze dies that create a a courser texture, allowing the pasta to cling to and absorb whatever sauce you prepare with it. If you like your pasta plain jane, we use first pressed extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and durum flour for a an excellent taste that can stand alone with a mere pat of butter and grating of parmesan cheese.

Since the forecast looks a bit grim, we looked to comfort food with gift-giving potential: lasagna. We prepared fresh pasta sheets for make-your-own lasagna or cannelloni that you can make any which way you like. Keep it simple with layers of homemade marina sauce and ricotta, add spinach, sausage and grilled eggplant to spruce it up a bit, or for a fall treat try making a butternut squash lasagna with a classic béchamel or Mornay sauce. For more inspiration, try one of these recipes we found on our favorite cooking sites, just swap our pasta sheets for the boxed variety (no need to cook the pasta before layering, the sauce you use is all the moisture you need to cook the pasta while baking): Tomato & Mozzarella Lasagna, Roasted Portobello & Prosciutto Lasagna, Lasagna Rolls, Butternut Squash Lasagna, you get the idea….

Be a hero and bring a prepared lasagna or baked cannelloni to your host or hostess at Thanksgiving, an expecting mom or anyone who would appreciate a homemade, frozen, ready-made meal (um…everyone!). We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and make sure to check back for more details on next week’s holiday market- ciao!