This summer my work colleagues and I came up with a brilliant idea one week to do a potluck for lunch. That was probably the second week on the job. Since then we have made it a weekly ritual. Everyone brings food on Thursday for a communal lunch and leftovers are eaten the next day. This past week we celebrated Canada Day (a long weekend), so we didn’t have a potluck. For our last potluck, I wanted to use up some ricotta cheese I had lying around. After consulting with Andrew, I came up with the idea to make pizza with ricotta cheese. After a short web search, I found a workable recipe with the ingredients I had in my fridge at the time.

I liked that there was no tomato sauce with a not-so-typical list of toppings. As soon as I saw the ingredients, I knew it was my kind of recipe. The pizza was a great success with my co-workers. Everyone wouldn’t stop raving about it all through lunch. A sure sign was that there was no pizza leftovers for Friday lunch.

Ricotta and Onion Pizza

Dough

• 1 cup water
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1/2 tsp dry basil, garlic powder

1. Put all the ingredients in the order listed into a Bread machine pan
2. Hit Start for the dough cycle
3. When it’s done, rub a baking pan with some olive oil, then roll out the pizza on it. I turned the pizza over in the pan to ensure the side facing up had oil on it.

• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 cups sliced onions
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• pinch of dry red chili flakes (like the kind you can find at Pizza Hut)
• coarse sea salt
• Roasted vegetables mix
• Tomatos
• 1 cup ricotta cheese

1. Pre-heat the oven for 440F
2. Heat 1tbsp of oil over medium high heat. Add onions and sugar. Cook them for 15 minutes or so, until they are dark brown. Don’t forget to stir from time to time.
3. Mix in vinegar and chili pepper. Cook for another couple minutes.

Put it Together

1. Evenly distribute the onion mixture to the dough
2. Sprinkle some sea salt
3. Add some roasted vegetables, tomatos – what ever veggies you have in your fridge that are on the verge of being tossed, cooking does a veggie good. (sometimes)
4. Finally add the ricotta over the veggie layer
5. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes – until the onions caramelize and the dough is crusty

mmm. Amazing pizza. Definitely a make-again kind of pizza. My rating 10/10. The wait for the dough was so worth it! Plus I had enough dough left over for another full pizza, which I happily made and brought in to work the next day for our ‘leftover potluck’. And there was still some leftover for Andrew to try.

I went home for the weekend in May and raided my family’s fridge. I came away with a few zucchini’s and a bunch of carrots. The current cookbook I am using for new recipes is ordered by vegetable. I checked under ‘Z’ for zucchini and the first recipe caught my attention. My mum used to make zucchini pancakes for our family in my childhood. I remember not being a huge fan. But then again, I wasn’t a huge fan of most vegetables when I was young.

Now I don’t think I could live without vegetables. So many wonderful dishes to be made with vegetables. Zucchini and Carrots are a great combination. This recipe added some oomph to the recipe my mum recited to me off the top of her head a few months ago. – She is not a cook by the book lady. I am a cook by the book to the extent that I have all the ingredients. Don’t be deceived by the look of these savoury latkes. They taste great!

Zucchini & Carrot Latkes

• 1 grated zucchini – 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 2 grated carrots (I used the matchstick carrots I took from home)
• 1/2 a diced onion
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 1/2 cup flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp oil, give or take

1. Mix zucchini with salt, set aside for 15 minutes
2. mix egg with carrots, onion and garlic
3. After 15 minutes have passed, squeeze out as much water out of the zucchini as you can and add it to the carrot mixture
4. Add the flour, salt and pepper
5. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Take a heaping spoonful of mixture and spread it on the pan in a circular shape. Cook them until golden coloured on each side – about 2-3 minutes/side. Add some extra oil, as you add a new batch to the pan.

The recipe told me it would make 8 latkes, but I think I made about 12-15 of them, so use that 2 tbsp of oil sparingly :)

My rating 8/10 – I still think these latke’s could be oomph’ed up a bit more.

By this time I was getting hungry but I had only just completed making the pierogi, not cooking it.

I needed morale support so I called rach.

Finally I finished, all I needed now was some sour cream to dip.

They turned out delicious. I loved the taste of freshly cooked dough. I used too many utensils, water and energy. I felt guilty so I ended up eating them with my hands.

Chocolate Cookies

• little more than half a cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp – baking powder, salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 + 1 tbsp butter
• 1 large egg

Vanilla Filling

• 1/8 cup butter, vegetable shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Several weeks before my week off, my mother came across an unopened pasta maker she had won in a contest long ago. Ever since she told me about it I had been dreaming of pasta making.

from smittenkitchen.com

Pasta Recipe

• 3 cups plain flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp water

1. I mixed them all in a food processor. I was told to add more water if the dough was too dry. I found the dough to be sticky.. so I added some flour. Hopefully that was the correct thing to do.
2. Break the ball of dough into 4 pieces on a floured surface, flaten each piece into a rectangular shape
3. Cover the pieces with a bowl, leave it for 1 hour — this is supposed to make for easy rolling

Arugala Filling

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 lb fresh arugula, coarsely chopped
• 3 Tbsp of bread crumbs,  I put a slice of bread in food processor — more than enough bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup Romano cheese
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 egg yolk and the egg white separated
• Egg wash: egg white mixed with 2 Tbsp water

1. Heat oil on medium heat in frying pan
2. Add onion and garlic, sauted until the onions are soft and wilted
3. Add arugula, stirring frequently about 3-5 minutes — until its water evaporates
4. Let the mix cool, then add breadcrumbs and romano cheese
5. Add Salt and pepper to taste
6. Add egg yolk, stir to combine

Putting it all together — NOTE: A pasta machine is required

1. Set the rollers of the pasta machine to the widest setting

For each rectangular piece

1. take out from under the bowl
2. dust with flour
3. feed through the roller
4. Fold the rectangle that comes out in half (length wise and width-wise)
5. Feed the rectangle back into the machine – folded end first
6. Repeat many times, and as you repeat this, adjust the rollers of the machine more and more narrower to the narrowest setting – eventually the dough will become a smooth sheet. — MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
7. Put the sheet of dough on a floured surface
8. Spoon a bunches of the arugala mixture down the center of the one side of the sheet (see picture above)
9. Brush each bunch with egg wash
10. Fold half the sheet to cover the filling
11. Press firmly around each bunch – try to keep as much air out as possible (air may cause ravioli to break in water)
12. Use a pasta cutter/pizza cutter/some kind of cutter to cut the sheet into ravoli’s (I put them on a towel-lined baking pan as I prepared them)

Then finally, put the pasta in boiling water for 8-10 minutes, serve with  homemade tomato sauce

My suggestion: do this with at least 2 or more people. It is a great group activity.
My rating: 9/10 (9 because it does take some time and effort – but it is definitely worth the yummy-ness)