Cooking with Family and Friends
I really love playing in the kitchen and sometimes, I like to play in the kitchen with others. The kitchen in our condo is kind of small and lacking counter space, but I have still found it possible to squeeze people in the kitchen with me, so we can have a good time cooking up something fun! Everyone I know, knows about my love of cooking and I like to have the opportunity to share this passion of mine with them. Cooking together is a whole different experience from cooking FOR someone, although that is great too! I think the key to cooking together with people in small kitchens is to use as few bowls and pans as possible, and to keep it simple so people can enjoy themselves no matter what their level of cooking is.
A few weekends ago we had both my mom and my cousin Michelle visiting. They both came up on a Friday, and since Fridays are always “Movie Night” in this household, I wanted to pick something that would be quick and easy, but also fun and delicious that we could eat while watching movies. Also since Michelle is the only other person besides Roberto that I know who could literally eat pizza every day I decided to do a “make your own pizza” night!
Before anyone arrived I made sure to make a batch of the Olive Oil Dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (seriously, if you don’t already have this book, stop reading this post and get it!). I also checked to make sure we had my secret pizza sauce ingredient – tomato paste. We use it straight from the can as pizza sauce – it is nice and thick, so no soggy crust!
Everyone had a great time rolling out their individual pizzas. I wish we had been better about taking photos of actual people, but we were too busy having fun! We had a variety of toppings to choose from, which are things I just had in the fridge: fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, olives, Applegate Farms pepperoni (no nitrates, antibiotics, etc), peperoncini and fresh heirloom tomato slices, and of course extra virgin olive oil to drizzle on top. We had a great time making pizzas and a week later I was still finding flour in random places 🙂
Then last week, our friends Chris and Erin from The Olive Notes came over for a pasta party. When they lived in Italy they always had several jars of Barilla’s Pesto Genovese in their Italian pantry, however were sad to discover that they could not find it back in the states. So when we were in Italy in March ( and I promise there are more travel posts to come) we brought them back a few bottles. To thank us, they suggested we have a pasta making party. Since Roberto and I are moving at the end of the month, we decided to have them over so that we could have one last get together at the condo.
We decided to make a filled pasta, and went with ravioli. We used this recipe for the dough from Recipe Zaar and decided to fill our fresh pasta with a mixture of wild mushrooms that Erin got at the Farmers Market, goat cheese and fresh chives from my garden. We also seasoned it with Sicilian Sea Salt with Blood Orange Zest that we got from D’Italia .
First we made the filling in the food processor – basically threw everything in there and let her rip. Then we cleaned it out and made the dough in the processor at well. Then Erin and I got to rolling out the dough, while the boys made various bruschetta.
Once the dough was rolled it had to sit for 15 minutes and then we filled and cut out the ravioli.
At this point we had another hour to wait until we could cook it, so we ate our bruschetta, sipped some wine and made a delicious salad made from wild arugula and heirloom tomatoes topped with a homemade balsamic-mustard-honey dressing Erin made – it was delicious.
We cooked up the ravioli and then enjoyed an evening reminiscing about our respective Italian travels.
We had such a good time cooking with people in our home that I plan to make this a regular thing, especially now that we are going to have a much bigger kitchen in the new place! So look forward to more of these posts in the future! 🙂
Esi - May 13, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Good luck with the move Jenn! I love cooking with my friends (especially if their kitchen is bigger than mine, lol)
Judy - May 13, 2009 at 8:37 pm
How fun Jenn!!! Next their will be pictures of us in that new big kitchen with you!!!
The Duo Dishes - May 13, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Those ravioli make us ravenous! So yummers.
Peter G - May 13, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Nothing is better than cooking for family and friends! Those ravioli look amazing!
patsyk - May 13, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Your ravioli came out perfectly! I still need to try making ravioli, but at least my noodles are getting better!
I love that pizza dough recipe, too! that book ROCKS!
jeremy hanlon - May 13, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Awesome combination of flavors for a raviloi dish! Thanks for checking me out at foodalogue… I love your leftover theme..I am all about no waste 🙂
Jenn - May 13, 2009 at 11:24 pm
I recently made pasta, too. But made noodles rather than ravioli. Yours came out great! I gotta try that pizza dough recipe!
girlichef - May 13, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Fun! Everything looks so good…and it was made with love 😀 And I have a small kitchen, too…so yep, figuring out what works and sticking with it is the simplest plan. Can’t wait for more of these posts.
Lisa - May 13, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Cooking with family and friends is so much fun. I have used tomato paste on my pizza too and love the reults.
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie - May 14, 2009 at 1:00 am
Sounds like so much fun! Everything looks wonderful and I especially love the gorgeous ravioli!
Rosa - May 14, 2009 at 1:07 am
I also love to play in the kitchen with others! Everything looks wonderful. I particularly like these ravioli!
Cheers,
Rosa
Bob - May 14, 2009 at 2:07 am
Man, I miss my buddy that I cooked with. Cooking with others is the best. In fact, we always talked about making ravioli…
kat - May 14, 2009 at 3:13 am
sounds like a lot of fun, I look forward to oohing and aahing over your new kitchen (I only have the counter space the size of a folder paper)…
Federica - May 14, 2009 at 4:19 am
Ciao from northern Italy 🙂 I love internet because with some casual click I can reach fellow “chef-amateur” all over the world, and find pearls as your blog.
I’m also pround that you try italian recipies, and fresh pasta ! I rarely do it myself !
I’m a pesto fan, it’s always better to make it fresh at home (the classic “Genovese” one with garlic, basil, pine seeds, parmigiano cheese and olive oil, or other versions with mint, or ricotta and chili peppers), but please next time try also the ravioli simply with melted butter and sage, and some parmigiano : it’s delicious. A presto 🙂
Happy Cook - May 14, 2009 at 7:39 am
Looks like you had a wonderful time, i have been wanting to make home made ravioli, a bit afraid to make them though.
Looks really hard work.
Joan Nova - May 14, 2009 at 7:45 am
Looks like good eats up there in the castle. Food is meant to be shared…at the dinner table and even in the kitchen where the magic happens.
kat - May 14, 2009 at 9:02 am
Looks like some really fun times!
marguerite - May 14, 2009 at 11:04 am
YUM!! That looks amazing!!
Rachel - May 14, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Inquiring minds want to know what movie(s) you watched. Always looking for some good referrals!
Superchef - May 14, 2009 at 3:39 pm
ohh..goodie!! can i come too?? 🙂
Ben - May 14, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Cooking with others is always more fun than cooking for them. My friends and I are starting this new tradition to cook every weekend. We learn so much from each other 🙂 You guys did a great job with that dinner. I wish we could cook together sometime :-p
Jan - May 15, 2009 at 2:18 am
Great ravioli! Looks like you had a fantastic time in the kitchen too!
nina - May 15, 2009 at 7:19 am
I love cooking with friends and family and I think it is a great stress release and everyone can do with that!!
erin :: the olive notes - May 15, 2009 at 7:24 am
i seriously am SO hungry now 🙂 It was so much fun…can’t wait to do it again in your new kitchen!
Dharm - May 15, 2009 at 7:36 am
A bigger kitchen is always a good thing! It looks like you had so much fun with this Jenn! Incidentally, your blog is getting really hard to get into – must be the heavy traffic!! There’s also a new curry post on my blog if you wanna new recipe!
Aggie - May 15, 2009 at 8:43 am
I love when friends cook with me!! Looks like fun and wow, what great things to cook! I’m drooling over the pizza and the ravioli…
Jeff - May 15, 2009 at 10:04 am
I swear my next house is going to be 75% kitchen and 25% rest. Every time people are over we end up crammed in the kitchen. Also, drives me nuts because the previous owners decided that all white ceramic tile was a brilliant idea. Grr….I am constantly cleaning after people leave.
Great party and awesome food! Nicely done as always!
Peter - May 15, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Playing in the kitchen with family & friends is akin to sandbox in grade one…endless joy!
The pasta turned out fab!
Bellini Valli - May 16, 2009 at 11:22 am
Sharing our love of food and all things “foodie” is what enriches our lives Jenn as you well know. It is why we all have such a passion for blogging as well.
Heather - May 17, 2009 at 3:52 pm
IT was so nice of you to bring them back some of their beloved pesto. I need to find someone to bring me back some bacon ramen from Japan. 😛
Rico - May 21, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I am so impressed by your cooking and how happy you look doing it with family and or friends, is not a surprise that your cooking is of such high level….The ravioli looks mazing with the glistening sauce on top well done delicious. 🙂 xxx Rico-Recipes
Windy - May 25, 2009 at 9:13 am
Wow! Seems so much fun to me that you and your friends do the cooking together. The ravioli looks very tasty.
de cicco tony - August 14, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Hello,
I am Tony, a French guy in Los Angeles just for a while. French food missed me and when I look at your Ravioli, it reminds me of France. I used to cook for my friends in France, but here it’s very expensive if you want to cook French. Now I shop online, it’s called straightfromfrance.com, French products for sure for a good price.
Just have a look, it’s amazing!!
Now I am going to do the ravioli!!
thank you