pizza pies

Maggie decided it was time to make our own pizza pies, so back to Jamie O we went. We started with basic pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce and followed a recipe for six small pizzas with different toppings, including portobello mushrooms, seasoned new potatoes, egg, mozzarella cheese, rosemary and thyme. Delicious, except for the anchovies.

italian floating islands

Maggie found a new recipe on the Food Network website that we decided to try - zucchini lasagna. Made with fried zucchini (done in our wok), ricotta cheese and a marinara sauce, it looked like a standard lasagna (not Cassie Basting's, however) but was light as a feather when we tasted it. We think that adding a layer of homemade pasta next time might be a valuable addition. For dessert we challenged ourselves by making Floating Islands - meringue, roasted almonds and spun sugar (caramelized superfine sugar) laid atop 'proper' custard (made with a real Vanilla bean - $4.50 each - ouch). Our custard tasted great but could have used a little more cooking time for a firmer consistency.

homemade pasta

Even though Maggie was a little under the weather she wanted to cook homemade pasta so we borrowed Kaitlin's pasta maker (a wedding gift) to recreate Jaime Oliver's Cherry Tomato Sauce with Cheat's Fresh Pasta that we paired with Marinated Mozzarella from Gordon Ramsey. We topped off the meal with Fruit Scones (complete with French strawberry preserves and whipped cream).

thank you Jamie O

Spaghetti con gamberetti e rucola (spaghetti with shrimp & arugula) served last Saturday night at the first Smith Farm Cook In.