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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Sometimes Life Gives You Breadcrumbs



Do you have days when you don’t feel like cooking? Even if you are a foodie/chef/a person obsessed with food/can’t think about anything else but food all day and night? Do you always have something fresh in the fridge to cook dinner with? Hhmmm.

Well, I don’t. I know, I know, I have posted a few weekly meal plans before (for November, October, and September) but that is only one week in a whole month. And we have already covered that when we discussed pizza for dinner. Anyway, last night we had ravioli with breadcrumbs. Yes, you heard it right. Luckily, it wasn’t breadcrumbs with ravioli.

The first time I heard about breadcrumbs “sauce” for pasta was when I was in high school. That was the time when my culinary interest has started budding. The idea of breadcrumbs with pasta seemed too bizarre and out of this world to me, and I never thought of trying it. Until last night. That’s 20 years later! (Now you can do the math and guess how young I am.)

Sometimes life just gives you breadcrumbly pumpkin ravioli. You eat it and you enjoy it. With butter. I’ve decided to enjoy my fat and make a buttery sauce.


Breadcrumbly Pumpkin Ravioli

Makes 2-3 entrées or 4 servings as a side dish

1 package 10 oz. fresh pumpkin ravioli (look at the grocery store in the fridge section)
4-6 tablespoons butter
2 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs, with herbs or plain*
1 handful pine nuts, toasted**
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked off the stems
Salt
Ground black pepper
½ lemon

Bring water to boil + salt to cook the pasta while you make the “sauce”.
In a medium size skillet, melt 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat and cook the breadcrumbs with thyme, salt and pepper until it is toasted, and crunchy, and browned (but not burnt). Add the extra 2 tablespoons butter to make it more sauce-y.

Cook ravioli according to instructions on package. Drain it and add to the skillet with the breadcrumbs, and toss gently.
Serve with the pine nuts and squeeze the lemon on top.

* Click here to see my tips on fresh breadcrumbs. If using plain breadcrumbs, use some herbs for more flavor, like thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, mint, etc.
** toast pine nuts in a 350 F oven for a few minutes or in a skillet over very low heat.

As good at this ravioli turned out, I think maybe you should take a pick at one of the weekly menu plans. Even if you pick out only 2 recipes, that’s 2 nights you don’t have to worry about what to cook for dinner. Doesn’t that sound good?!


I’ll “see” you again after Thanksgiving.
Have a GREAT feast!

Nurit


UPDATE: This part below was embedded in the post before Thanksgiving and was brought down over here after.

By the way, what are you planning for Thanksgiving dinner? No pressure, but you got 2 more days to plan. Since you are probably already flooded with recipes any way you look, I won’t post more recipes to confuse you. I’ll just share a little secret with you. It’s about the turkey.

This is year it’s going to be stuffed Cornish hens. Yep. I got the idea from Kari at Anticiplate blog and liked it a lot. Now I am plotting to tell the kids it’s, plan A - the tiniest baby turkey, or, plan B - a turkey seed (that you can plant in the ground and a turkey tree will grow by next year to give us more turkeys). Please cooperate with me here; do you think they will bite into it? I think it will be fun. Every person gets their own little “turkey”.

3 comments:

Vered said...

I OFTEN don't feel like cooking. :)

This recipe sounds really good.

Chocolate Shavings said...

That sounds delicious. I've never had breadcrumbs with ravioli, but I often make an olive oil, herb, garlic and breadcrumb sauce for spaghetti and it really gives great texture to the pasta. I imagine it does the same with ravioli!

Gemma said...

Breadcrumb sauces are great aren't they. I am awful at planning ahead and usually end up having to buy something to have for dinner after work every evening - tonight it's sausages with sauteed brussels sprouts but thankfully I did my shopping at lunch!