Food Mamma

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pasta

lobster and prawn cannelloni

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Hubby and I celebrated our seven year anniversary on Monday! I feel like I was just reminiscing the other day about our honeymoon and that flashback has already been a year! Time really does fly.

Although we went for sushi with our little guy on the weekend, I wanted to make hubby something special.  My cousin had been talking about lobster mac and cheese a few weeks ago and I had been thinking about it ever since. Lobster definitely had to be in the picture, I just changed the cheese and pasta – cannelloni!

I filled the tubes with a flavourful mixture of ricotta cheese, sweet lobster and meaty prawns. Instead of using a bechamel, I opted for an alfredo sauce which covered the filled pasta shells and baked them in some bubbly cheesy goodness.

The richness was cut by the addition of some fresh tomatoes. The perfect indulgent meal to celebrate!

Lobster and Prawn Cannelloni

10 cannelloni shells, cooked as per package

2 lobster tails, cooked and cut into chunks
10 large prawns, cooked and cut into pieces
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 parmesan cheese
bunch of basil, chopped
salt
pepper

1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup parmesan cheese
pinch nutmeg

Cook the onion and garlic in a bit of oil until softened.  Combine with the cheese, seafood and basil. Stuff this mixture into the cannelloni and place in an oven safe dish.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add cream and garlic and let simmer for a few minutes.  Add the cheese and a pinch of nutmeg and stir until the cheese has melted.

Pour the alfredo sauce over the filled cannelloni and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes until golden and bubbly.

cheese stuffed turkey meatballs

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In our house, we are cheese fanatics. Usually, any dish loaded with cheese is a hit. These cheese stuffed meatballs were no exception.

The turkey was packed with flavour with the addition of pesto and the ooey gooey bocconcini centre was a very pleasant surprise.  I used the Trestelle Bocconcini* which were the perfect size to wrap the flavourful meat around. (Please excuse Q’s fuzzy picture.)

The meatballs were cooked and tossed into our favourite marinara sauce. The boys ate theirs with pasta while I chose to eat my meatballs with a runny egg. So tasty!

Cheese Stuffed Turkey Meatballs

1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 TB minced garlic
1 TB pesto
1 egg
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
salt
pepper
12 bocconcini
marinara sauce

Combine the turkey with the cheese, crumbs, garlic, pesto egg and onions.  Divide the meat into 12 balls.  Form the meat around the bocconcini.  Pan fry until cooked.  Add some marinara sauce and enjoy with pasta (or an egg!).

*I did receive vouchers from Trestelle to try out their cheese.  Opinions are my own.

seafood pasta with pesto cream sauce

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It had been one of those days and we were all feeling a little blah.  Dinner needed to be something that would fill us and cheer us up at the same time.  Pasta came to mind as being the perfect comfort in a bowl.  Q was up for pasta, especially when he got to pick out what shape he wanted.  After much deliberating at the supermarket, he finally settled on the rotini.

I had a jar of pesto that my sister had brought back for me from Cinque Terre, a little town on the Italian Riviera.  I had been wanting to use it for a while and knew it would make the perfect sauce with some cream.  The addition of shrimp and fish along with some veggies made it a quick weekday meal which we devoured.  It was perfect with some french bread smothered in some boursin. 

Seafood Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

3/4 cup whipping cream
3 tsp pesto
3 cloves garlic
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 pound shrimp
1 filet basa
olive oil
salt
pepper

Saute shrimp, fish, garlic and tomatoes for 5 minutes.  Add cream and pesto and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and let simmer until cream thickens.  Season with salt and pepper.  Toss with your favorite pasta.

redwater grille’s shrimp – delicious!

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A few weeks ago, we went to Redwater Grille to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  I started my meal with an appetizer of Pan Roasted Wild Shrimp in a garlic chili butter.  The dish was so amazing and I thought about it for days.  I had to find the recipe. 

Thanks to Google, I discovered the menu was created by Ned Bell, who was the corporate chef of the Vintage Group who owns Redwater Grille.  I happen to come across the recipe on someone’s personal website, under a different name – I was thrilled!  I made the shrimp for our Progressive Dinner and my husband commented that the sauce would go great with pasta.  This past weekend, I pulled out my new pasta machine and tried my hand at fettucine.  The wholewheat noodles were perfect to sop up the tasty sauce.

Ned Bell’s Wild West Prawns

3 TB olive oil
30 peeled jumbo shrimp
2 TB minced garlic
1/4 cup dice red bell pepper
1 cup cherry tomotoes, quartered
2 TB chili powder
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup cream
8 ounces butter, cut into cubes
salt
pepper
1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Heat oil in a pan until almost smoking hot.  Add the shrimp and sear for 30 seconds or until they start to turn golden brown.  Remove the shrimp and add the garlic, red pepper and tomatoes to the pan.  Saute for about 1 minute or until the garlic browns slightly.  Stir in the chili powder, cook 30 seconds and add the wine.  Bring to a boil and add the cream and butter.

Reduce the sauce for about 2 minutes, or until it is thick enough to coat a spoon.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix in green onions and cilantro.  Return the shrimp to the pan, warm through, and serve immediately.

making butternut squash ravioli from scratch

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Last year, at one of our family dinners, my cousin AJ made us butternut squash ravioli with sage butter sauce from scratch.  It was so rich and flavourful and ever since, I order butternut squash ravioli anytime I get a chance. When I bought my pasta machine this past Christmas, I knew the first thing I wanted to learn and make was my cousin’s pasta.

AJ came over yesterday and taught me how.  I couldn’t believe how easy it was.  I found it amazing how the pasta machine could take a ball of dough and turn it into something so long and thin.  Amazing that all it took was flour and eggs.  The word of the night was amazing.

The dough was just 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3 eggs and a little bit of olive oil.  It came together pretty easily and then we kneaded it for over 10 minutes.  We let the dough rest while we prepared the filling.

I had roasted the butternut squash earlier in the day with some olive oil and salt and pepper.  It was really tasty and it was hard to not eat the whole thing before pasta making time.  For the filling, we heated up some oil and sauteed a shallot with one clove of garlic.  We then added the squash and 150 grams of goat cheese until it was all incorporated.  We took it off the stove and mashed.  We then filled up a ziploc bag, our makeshift piping bag.

The dough was put through the pasta machine a couple times on each thickness.  By the time we got to the thinnest plate, the dough was long, thin and pliable.  We piped the squash on one half of the dough and folded the dough over.  Air pockets were removed and the dough was cut with a pizza cutter into squares.  We boiled the ravioli for only 3 minutes!

We topped the pasta off with a sauce made with browned butter and sage ,and some parmesan cheese.  So simple and with so much flavour!

I had so much fun making pasta. The end result was a very tasty, rich pasta.  Amazing!

garlic lemon shrimp orzo

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As much as I love cooking, sometimes after a long day at work, the last thing I want is to spend time in the kitchen.  With a 20 month old though, its not always easy to grab some takeout that has the nutrition that is important in his diet.  This is one of my favorite dishes and it’s a quick and easy dish to prepare.  The starch from the orzo makes the dish creamy, like a faux risotto.  Q can be moody about food, and things he likes one day can be something he doesn’t touch the next.  This orzo is tasty and comforting and a dish that he never says no to.  This dish is inspired by Ina Garten’s Baked Shrimp Scampi.

Garlic Lemon Shrimp Orzo

1 pound of peeled, deveined shrimp
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
grated lemon zest
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 TB butter
2/3 cup panko
1/2 cup orzo, cooked
salt
pepper

Cook the shrimp in oil until almost cooked through. Add the garlic, onions, tomatoes, and lemon zest and stir.  Add in the lemon juice, butter and panko and stir until mixture becomes thick.  Add orzo and stir until combined.