I’m going on vacation in a few weeks and I’m trying to work my way through as many cookbooks as I can because I have so many to tell you about!

One of the blessings of having a food blog is the opportunity (the honour!) to have a peek at the amazing cookbooks that are being produced.

First and foremost, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed Giada de Laurentiis’ latest: Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California.

Thanks to the kind folks at Clarkson Potter and Random House, I was able to take part in a conference call a few months ago were several bloggers got to ask Giada some questions about her new book.

Believe me when I say she’s just as charming in person as she is on the air! She answered everyone’s questions and made some really good points about the importance of fresh ingredients. Another great point she made was how easy it is easy to marry the ideas of Italian cooking and Californian cooking. In many ways, that’s what Giada at Home is about.

If you’re familiar with Giada’s previous books, the usual hallmarks are all here. Beautiful photos, well laid out, lots of recipes that work. Giada at Home is no different. Hope you give it a look if you haven’t already.

I made the Pea Pesto Crostini, which were easy and delicious!

The second cookbook I wanted to share with you today was Mario Batali’s latest: Molto Gusto: Easy Italian Cooking.

I own all of Mario’s cookbooks and this one will happily take its place beside its siblings. The idea behind this book was to give the home cook the chance to make a lot of the great food served at Batali’s Otto Enoteca Pizzeria at home. If buying it for all the pizza recipes isn’t tempting enough, then buy it for all the ice cream recipes.

I tried the Pennette with Cauliflower Ragu (opening picture) and loved it. Actually, sous chef honours must go to Mamma Cream Puff who helped me out by making the pasta dish. I photographed it! Much like Giada’s book, Batali’s book is filled with lots of great photos and easy instructions. Another keeper!

Okay. That’s two books off my list.

So many more to go!

Ciao!

What is it about this time of year that makes us look back and wonder?

What was the most important event of the year? Best song of the year? Favourite movie? Biggest discovery? It goes and on. In the days before the new year makes itself known, it seems we spend endless time evaluating the year that was.

Myself, I don’t really like to do that. This is partly because I have always viewed the new year with a mixture of both excitement and trepidation. Perhaps, when I was younger, I was a bit more optimistic but as the years go by, and life reveals itself both good and bad, I can’t help but feel both happy and anxious at this time of year.

What does the future hold?

Who knows.

Probably the only exception to this is books, and more specifically, cookbooks. Because they are my greatest pleasure, I seem to have no qualms in looking back. At the beginning of the month, I had a 12-day series highlighting my 12 favourite cookbooks of the year. But what I left out was the book that was, in fact, my absolute favourite of 2009.

While it wasn’t written in 2009, I was lucky enough to receive a copy and even luckier to read it.

The book I’m talking about is Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family.

Of all the books that I read in 2009, cookbooks included, this was my very favourite one.

I read it in early October, not long after I had returned from my trip to Italy.

Maybe it was the fact that I was missing my Italian family. Or maybe it was the fact that I was missing the food that my Italian family cooks. Whatever it was, from almost the very beginning, this book struck a deep chord with me.

Schenone’s book is primarily about her endeavour to discover the origin of her family’s beloved ravioli recipe. The deep need she has to uncover this recipe puts her on a road that takes her to Italy, but far more importantly and far closer to home, it takes her through the neighbourhood we all know as “family”.

Unabashedly, honestly and lovingly, Schenone tells us the story of her Italian-American family’s life in a new country, including the triumphs and pitfalls. I was struck at how open she was in her book and how she laid bare not just the good times, but the bad as well.

But I was most struck by how eloquently Schenone captures the reality of the immigrant experience.

We tend to romanticize the past. In my own family, as a first-generation Canadian, I can look around quite happily and say that we’re a success. My parents bought a home, built a business, acquired all the modern comforts and are really nice people to boot. The same goes for my aunts and uncles and for my grandparents, the first to immigrate to Canada.

What is not so visible is the struggle. The harshness. The pain. The hard work. The alienation. The adults in my family kept that from us when we were children. But now that I’m grown, and privy to the real history of my family, I see that my grandparents and parents had plenty of suffering mixed in with the success.

Schenone captures all of this in a way that is compelling and sometimes, hard to read. It’s like witnessing a difficult scene in real life. Just as you want to look away then, there are times I wanted to avert my eyes from the page because the emotion was so palpable.

And just as in life, in the midst of the challenges, there are successes and newfound joys. I especially loved reading about Schenone’s trips to Italy and how she made so many friends and learned so much there.

Mostly, though, I loved reading about her singular, intense and passionate drive to perfect pasta and ravioli. Just brilliant. I love how she reveals herself in her book. How she very honestly shows herself in transition in the midst of her life and how that affects not just her, but her children, her spouse and her extended family.

This treasure of a book came to mind again during the Christmas season. For Christmas Day, my mother made her pasta recipe and then made ravioli. They are not really based on anyone else’s ravioli recipe but rather are a Mamma Cream Puff original (my mom rocks the house!).

I didn’t help my mom much this year. We had a very small gathering on Christmas Day so she had everything under control.

Instead, I watched her from afar. And at one point, I saw her working away and noticed her ravioli press and rolling pin on the counter. I suddenly thought of Schenone’s book and realized that this is my little legacy. That little press and rolling pin, the fresh pasta, and my mom in the kitchen, they all came together in a snapshot that is frozen in me.

I don’t know what 2010 holds. I hope it holds health and good food and happy family and some nice surprises. And beyond that, who knows.

All I know is that I hope I never ever forget, in any of the years ahead, that picture of my mom making ravioli.

Ciao!

I will always say that my mom’s fresh pasta recipe is the best. Here it is.

I sincerely hope you will pick up a copy of Laura Schenone’s The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family. It is worth it in every way.

Last month I posted about a cooking group called Cooking Italy, started by Angela of Spinach Tiger. The idea behind the group is that each month, you prepare a set of pre-chosen recipes from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

I loved the idea of the group as soon as I heard about it because I am a huge fan of Hazan’s and don’t use her book nearly as often as I should.

One of the things I told Angela, right off the bat, is that it would be very unlikely that I’d be able to make all of the recipes each month. These days, I’m having enough difficulty getting to the Daring Bakers/Daring Cooks challenges, much less anything else.

Add to that the fact that the past month-and-a-half has been brutal at work. I’ve barely been home and the idea of cooking has been just that … an idea.

Thankfully, work has eased up and I can begin to contemplate some return to normalcy. The very first thing I did this weekend was to make one of the Cooking Italy November recipes: Amatriciana.

Amatriciana is a sauce that originated in Amatrice, Rome, where one would usually eat the sauce with a type of pasta called bucatini. I have other recipes for this pasta dish, Bucatini all’Amatriciana, but many of them do not include tomatoes, which I find interesting.

I believe that it is more authentic to include tomatoes, as Hazan does in her book. Essentially, Amatriciana is a sauce of onion, pancetta, tomato and chili pepper. In my opinion, the spicier the sauce is, the better it is.

Another reason why I wanted to finally try this recipe for the cooking club is that several weeks ago, we went to one of our favourite restaurants and unfortunately, I had a most disappointing dish of pasta with Amatriciana sauce. The pancetta had no flavour (which to me means that it must have been very old) and the pasta was literally lost in a plate full of sauce. Way too much sauce. Worst of all, the pasta was overcooked. I was so disappointed that I vowed to make a good plate of Amatriciana as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

When Angela chose Amatriciana as part of the November schedule, I was thrilled!

This sauce was so good. It was bright, spicy and flavourful. I especially loved the finishing touch of Parmigiano Reggiano combined with Pecorino Romano, two of my favourite hard cheeses.

While I couldn’t find bucatini at the store, I did find spaghettoni which are a thicker version of spaghetti.

I absolutely loved this pasta. I’ll be honest, my eating habits haven’t been very good for the past month or so. Late nights at work mean lots of pizza and take-out. It was lovely to have a simple, yet robust plate of good ol’ home-cooked pasta.

I altered the recipe slightly so here’s my version, but Marcella’s version is on page 157 of the book.

Check out the Cooking Italy page for more information on the group and also to see the monthly schedule.

Ciao!

Spaghettoni all’Amatriciana

Note: If you can’t find bucatini, try another thick, long pasta or try a larger small pasta like rigatoni. An authentic Amatriciana should use fresh hot chili peppers but I didn’t have any and surprisingly, our local grocer didn’t have any either. I substituted red pepper flakes. This dish will serve 4 people very generously

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small piece of pancetta, finely diced (you want between a 1/4 cup and 1/2 a cup of diced pancetta)
1-1/2 cups of chunky tomato puree (either use whole canned tomatoes that you chop up yourself until you have a chunky/juicy blend or, when they’re in season, use fresh tomatoes that have been coarsely chopped in a blender or food processor).
1 tbsp. red pepper flakes (yes, that’s a lot, but we like it spicy)
salt, to taste
3 to 4 tbsp. Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
3 to 4 tbsp. Pecorino Romano, grated
1 pound of the pasta of your choice

Prepare the sauce:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large, shallow pan that is big enough to accommodate the pasta. Add the onion and saute for 3 to 4 minutes, over medium heat.

Add the pancetta and continue sauteeing for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and the red pepper flakes. Let the mixture come to a boil and then salt to taste.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 20 minutes. You want the sauce to reduce considerably. You should have a thick sauce when you’re done.

Prepare the pasta:

While the sauce is simmering, boil the water for the pasta. About 10 minutes before the sauce is ready, boil your pasta according to package directions.

Assembling the pasta:

Once the sauce is done, adjust the seasoning and then lower the heat until the pasta is ready. When you’ve drained the pasta, add it to the pan with the sauce and toss to coat.

Immediately add in the Parmigiano and the Pecorino and mix well. You may need to add a bit more cheese, but that’s up to you.

Serve immediately and enjoy.

It has been a jam-packed couple of weeks for the Cream Puff. Work has been incredibly busy and there’s been lots going on with family and friends between the Thanksgiving holiday and other events.

This is going to be a quick Magazine Mondays post but I definitely wanted to take the time to share with you a pasta dish that I made quite some time ago. I’d actually forgotten about these little beauties until recently, when I read a beautiful book that I’m looking forward to talking about very soon on this blog. You’re just going to have to wait for the details.

In the meantime, the pasta triangles you see above are my attempt at making pansotti, also often spelled as pansoti. I didn’t know what pansotti were until I saw a recipe for them in Issue 1 of Taste Italia magazine. They’re basically large ravioli stuffed with a filling of cheese and often bread soaked in milk. As far as I can tell, they’re not filled with meat.

I was happy to try them but I can’t say I was blown away by the recipe. It seemed like a lot of work to make the filling and I wasn’t happy with the pasta as it ended up being a bit on the touch side. Still, though, I’m hoping to try them again soon.

As you know, Magazine Mondays is an opportunity for everyone to dig into that magazine pile and try some new recipes. Here’s who’s joined me for this week’s edition:

Tia of Buttercream Barbie (cute name!) made a Marbled Mocha Cake from Gourmet magazine.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made some gorgeous Lemon Ricotta Pancakes from Canadian Living magazine.

Tina of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made Chicken Club Stuffed Potatoes from Southern Living Magazine.

Erica from the charming Cooking for Seven made a New York Cheesecake from Martha Stewart Living.

Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies made Cranberry Nut Rolls from Bon Appétit.

Allison of LemonBasil brings us a beautiful triburte to Gourmet magazine.

Emily of Sandmuffin made a gorgeous Applesauce Cake.

Janie of Panini Girl made an Eggplant, Zucchini and Fennel Casserole from Taste of Italia.

Thanks to everyone that took part. Remember that Magazine Mondays is a very informal event. You can participate any time. All you have to do is send me the link to a post you’ve done about a magazine recipe.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

You can find the recipe for Pansoti with Walnut Sauce here.

The NHL season has already begun but tonight, for the hockey fans out there, is the unofficial beginning of the real hockey viewing season as it’s the first Saturday night transmission of Hockey Night in Canada.

Regular readers will know that I’m a huge hockey fan and that my heart belongs to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I’ll give you a moment to make the usual assortment of Leafs’ jokes.

[pause]

Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’m happy to announce that in honour of this season’s first HNIC broadcast, Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and Mary of The Sour Dough have joined me in preparing a hockey fan’s meal to be enjoyed throughout the game.

Mary is in charge of Appetizers, I’m in charge of the Main and Peabody, of course, is in charge of Dessert.

This idea came about as a result of several different conversations between both Mary and Peabody and myself. Peabody, of course, is my soulmate in both baking and hockey. I never have to worry that she won’t understand when I gripe about why people don’t like to bake and she totally hears my pain when it comes to the Leafs.

Mary and I share an undying love for Steve Yzerman. Enough said.

So what am I bringing to the HNIC potluck? Good ol’ baked macaroni and cheese! On Saturday nights, when the hockey game is on, I do not want to be in the kitchen all night. I do not want to be cleaning up for hours. I do not want to be anywhere but in front of the television and baked macaroni and cheese is the perfect dish. You can make it earlier in the day and just heat it up when you’re ready to eat (first intermission, after Coach’s Corner).

Baked macaroni and cheese is a very easy dish. It essentially consists of a cheese sauce, macaroni and a breadcrumb topping. You can add anything you like to those basics from ham to mushrooms to tomatoes. I’m a bit of a mac and cheese purist so I don’t add anything to my dish but you are certainly welcome to experiment.

The recipe that I use originally comes from Fine Cooking. The only difference in my version is that I don’t use Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce, and I don’t use a sharp white cheddar, but rather a sharp yellow cheddar. I also bake the macaroni and cheese in smaller containers that I can freeze so that whenever I have the craving for mac and cheese I can just defrost and warm it in the oven.

So this is what we’re having as a Main tonight. I can’t wait to see what Mary and Peabody have in store for us!

Have a good game, everyone. Go Leafs Go!

Ciao!

Peabody made Hockey Puck Chocolate-Peanut Butter Peanut Brownies with Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche Sauce.

A trio of appetiziers from Mary of The Sour Dough.

For a great baked macaroni and cheese recipe, click here.

Magazine Mondays returns with a perfect recipe for this time of year. If you’re lucky enough to have fresh asparagus and peas available, I urge you to consider this pasta from the April 2009 issue ofFood & Wine: Penne with Asparagus, Sage and Peas.

Not much to say about the recipe beyond that it was delicious, easy and seasonal in every sense. I urge you to give it a try!

I have some MM submissions this week. Remember, if you post a magazine recipe, send me the link and I’ll add it to my next MM round-up. You don’t have to post your recipe on a Monday, you can post it any day of the week.

Andreas of Delta Kitchen made Asparagus Pasta from essen&trinken Für jeden Tag 06/09.

Biz from Biggest Diabetic Loser made Tofu Kebabs with Cilantro Sauce from Everday Food.

Alisa from One Frugal Foodie made a Scrumptious Sesame-Orange Salad Dressing from Cooking Light.

Di from Di’s Kitchen Notebook made Ginger-Spice Sandwich Cookies with Lemon Cream from Fine Cooking.

Wandering Coyote of ReTorte made Hamburger Buns from Gourmet.

Megan of Delicious Dishings made Pork Chops with Leeks in Mustard Sauce from Bon Appétit.

Tany of 3 Sides of Crazy made a Pineapple Casserole.

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Whenever I tell people that I have no idea how many cookbooks I own (I never count them!), I usually get a surprised response. Most people I know might own a handful to ten cookbooks. I own well in excess of 100 (and counting).

The inevitable question is: Why do you have so many?

And the answer is: Because … cookbooks make me happy.

For me, cookbooks are a source of inspiration and a source of pleasure, particularly when I’m stressed out or preoccupied. If I sit down with a cup of coffee and a cookbook, it’s an opportunity for me to focus on what makes me happy and in the process, clear my thoughts.

So it goes without saying that I will never turn down a cookbook. Never!

I was so happy when I was given the opportunity to review The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook: The Essential Recipe Collection for Today’s Home Cook.

I won’t lie. I’m a Williams-Sonoma junkie. I have access to not one but two Williams-Sonoma stores and I regularly make a pilgrimage to worship at the altar of expensive kitchenwares.

Yes. I know. You don’t need any of that stuff to be a good cook. Blah blah blah.

Me likey. And if I want to weep over multi-coloured melamine nesting bowls that’s my business, not yours!

On to the book at hand. As I mentioned, I had the chance to review this book and as one would expect from a cookbook featuring the Williams-Sonoma brand, it’s polished, thorough, accessible and pretty to look at.

The book has almost 400 recipes so it’s definitely value for the price. The recipes range from classics to more modern fare. If you’re familiar with Williams-Sonoma cookbooks then you won’t be surprised by this one. The recipes are clear, clean and precise and never daunting. And they all have that same quality that you sense in the retail outlets: it all just seems so easy.

I would have loved to try about half of the recipes but I had to get my review up so instead I settled on two classics: Banana Bread and Macaroni and Cheese. Both easy enough, but I’ve seen and tried many a recipe for both dishes that greatly disappoint. So I thought I’d put the book to the test.

I wasn’t disappointed.

The Banana Bread was easy, quick and completely satisfying. I actually threw in pistachios for the nuts because I’m on this pistachio bender at the moment and the results were lovely. The cake was moist, not too sweet and made all the banana bread lovers happy.

The Macaroni and Cheese made me really happy. I like old-fashioned macaroni and cheese where you take your time and make a cheese sauce and pretend that cholesterol counts don’t matter. Too many macaroni and cheese recipes nowadays cut corners or try to get you to believe that a few measly tablespoons of cheese will satisfy you. This recipe is pure macaroni and cheese at its finest. I wish I could be more eloquent but really, there’s not much more to than it was really really really good.

If you’re a fan of the Williams-Sonoma cookbook collection, this is one to add to it. If you’re looking for an excellent general purpose cookbook, then this is one to invest in. If you want to live in a Williams-Sonoma store, this cookbook is the next best thing.

Ciao!

Unless you happen to live in Emilia-Romagna, in whose towns and cities there are still a few shops selling pasta made by hand, you can make far better fresh pasta, either by the rolling-pin method or the machine method, than you can buy or eat anywhere.

– Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Truer words were never written than those above. Homemade pasta is the epitome of creating beautiful food at home. And contrary to what many people thing, making pasta at home is not difficult, even if you make it entirely by hand and roll it yourself!

The Daring Bakers had the opportunity to do this thanks to our March hostesses.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

These lovely ladies threw down the pasta gauntlet by challenging us to make lasagne typical of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy; a region renowned for its citizens’ abilities to make the most beautiful homemade pasta..

To see the challenge recipe, you can visit The Daring Kitchen and view the recipe archive, or you can visit Mary, Melinda and Enza.

The recipe, the main challenge being hand-rolling the pasta, was for a spinach dough, a country-style ragu and a bechamel.

So I should tell you right off the bat that I had to make amendments to each section of the recipe. Normally, I love all of these elements but Famiglia Cream Puff has been struggling with various forms of flu and the thought of a heavy, albeit delicious, lasagne didn’t sit very well with the stomach.

Instead, I made a basic pasta dough, a plain tomato sauce and a bechamel that I used for a mini-lasagne. I used the rest of the dough to make a larger and plainer lasagne that was enjoyed throughout the week for work lunches.

I began by creating my dough. Using the method Mama Cream Puff taught me, I created a ring of flour and dropped in my eggs. Using a fork, I slowly incorporated the flour into the egg until I had a thick mixture that I gathered into a ball. I kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes (by hand) until it was nice and smooth. I then let it rest for about an hour.

I used the longest rolling pin that I had to begin rolling out my dough. It was tough work, especially because at a certain point I had to divide the dough in half. Our counters are very small and there was no way that I could roll the dough out thinly without cutting it into two pieces.

At a certain point, I will admit, I gave up. It was hard work rolling that dough and I probably could have gone a bit thinner, but I was satisfied so I cut my dough into segments, floured them and placed them on a baking sheet to dry out a bit.

I then went ahead and made a half portion of the bechamel. Because I couldn’t stomach the idea of eating bechamel since I was under the weather, I made a mini lasagne with the bechamel. I began with a layer of bechamel, followed by a layer of cooked lasagne noodles topped with sauce and grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

I repeated these steps several times and ended with a slathering of bechamel on top.

The end result looked lovely. While I didn’t try it, my family ate it right up, which is, of course, the best compliment a cook can get.

I went ahead and used the rest of my dough to make a simple lasagna of noodles, sauce and grated Parmigiano, which was also delicious.

My mother’s lasagne is the standard by which I judge all others. While this lasagne was good, it’s certainly not Mama Cream Puff’s, although I did take many liberties with the recipe.

I do want to thank Mary, Melinda and Enza for challenging us to step out of our comfort zones and get rolling!

Ciao!

A few weeks ago, as I began hearing about people’s plans for Father’s Day, it occurred to me that ever since my father passed away in 2001, we’ve been spending Father’s Day in our own special way.

Now neither Father’s Day nor Mother’s Day were ever huge days in my family. My father always said that every day should be Mother’s Day and every day should be Father’s Day so while my parents always appreciated our little gifts and well wishes, they instilled in us the belief that honouring your parents is something you should do all the time.

I guess that’s why Father’s Day has never been a particularly tough day for us. It’s not that we don’t think about him, it’s just that we spend the day the way we always spent it even when he was alive: together enjoying a nice meal.

When I received the June issue of Gourmet magazine, I came across a feature by Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez called “Sear Delight”. The entire menu is prepared on the grill and is also Italian-themed. This being Italian June, I thought that I might take it upon myself to prepare the entire menu!

So for this edition of Magazine Mondays, I give you the following treats:

Grilled Pancetta-Wrapped Asparagus

Love pancetta. Love asparagus. Enough said.

Caramelized-Onion and Gorgonzola Grilled Pizza

This was my first time preparing a grilled pizza and I loved it. I was amazed at how quickly it cooked. I was so afraid that the ingredients would spill over, though, that I was a bit ungenerous. Next time I’ll be piling on that gorgonzola dolce for sure!

Grilled Veal Chops with Arugula and Basil Salad

We grill veal chops all the time but this is the first time that we pounded the meat so thinkly. They were so tender! And the arugula and basil salad was a nice touch although I had to augment it with romaine lettuce as our arugula is just coming in so there wasn’t enough for a full salad.

Grilled Baby Artichokes with Caper-Mint Sauce

Prepping the artichokes was a total pain in the butt, however, it was worth it. These were the hit of the day and that caper-mint sauce had us all licking our fingers.

Acini di Pepe Pasta with Garlic and Olives

Some of us liked this pasta salad with the couscous-like acini di pepe and some of us didn’t. I loved it. It was garlicky and spicy but if I make it again I might add in some herbs for more of a flavour impact.

Stracciatella Tortoni Cake with Espresso Fudge Sauce

Hello, Tortoni! This was a cross between an ice cream cake and heaven. I loved it so much that I’ve already decided I’m making it for a big family BBQ that we’re having in a few weeks. And that sauce … oh, that sauce!!!

Have a great week, everyone!

Ciao!

Look who else is taking part in Magazine Mondays: Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction made Maple Sugar Ragamuffins. Wandering Coyote of Retorte comes in with two delicious entries: Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake and Coconut Blondies.

If you have some magazine piles you need to thin out then start cooking and baking and send me a link to your Magazine Mondays post!

And just like that, the full force of spring hits us.

We went from chilly, rainy weather to “where did I put my flip flops” weather in the blink of an eye.

This morning I woke to the sound of birds singing and my Italian neighbours, two doors down, discussing the layout of this year’s garden (they’re very loud talkers …).

Wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather, I decided to take an early-morning walk through the neighbourhood. Almost every house I passed had bags of old leaves and garden waste lined up at the curb, beside neatly stacked piles of trimmed twigs and branches.

A few people I passed were getting an early start on some home improvement projects.

One man was methodically sweeping his driveway clean.

The bocce court at one of our local parks has been cleaned and is ready to go.

I smiled.

Spring has sprung!

Ciao!

Note: On Saturdays, we usually don’t have a big breakfast. Instead we like to have a nice lunch, usually right at noon, that will tide us over until the evening when we most often go out. While it may seem that baked pasta is a dish for the fall or winter, this is a quick one that I made for a recent Saturday lunch. It’s simple with some very classic flavours. The original recipe calls for ziti but I used tortiglioni instead.

Baked Tortiglioni with Cream and Pancetta
Adapted from On Top of Spaghetti … by Johanne Killeen and George Germon.

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 to 2 slices pancetta (about half an inch thick), chopped up into tiny pieces
1-1/4 cups heavy cream (35% cream)
1/2 cup Parmigiano Reggianio, grated
1/2 cup Pecorinio Romano, grated
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 pound dried pasta (I used tortiglioni)
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt.

In a skillet, heat the olive oil and add the pancetta. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until the pancetta is golden. Be careful not burn. Remove the pancetta to a plate and reserve the oil and fat in the skillet.

When the water is boiling and you’ve salted it, add the pasta and cook for 6 minutes. Meanwile, heat the oven to 500 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the cream, salt and pepper. Stir in the pancetta and a tablespoon or two of the oil/fat left in the skillet (flavour flavour flavour!)

Once the pasta has cooked for 6 minutes, drain and immediately add to the cream mixture. Stir well to ensure that the pasta is coated in the cream and cheese.

Pour the mixture into a deep baking dish and bake in the oven for 12 minutes. The pasta should be golden on top and the cream should be bubbling. If it’s not, bake for another 5 minutes and check again.

Remove the pasta from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!