Dinner on Sunday?
After two months in my kitchen learning about butter, spices and cooking temperatures I decided to get brave. I boldly went where I have never gone before and invited a nice young man to dinner. Blog readers I politely ask that you shrink those wide eyes, and silence your gasps. This blog is about cooking after all, not my dating life.
The first step in this process was deciding what to cook. I wanted something easy yet really impressive. I decided on Chicken Ravioli with a Sage Cream Sauce. This recipe can be found in the Bravo Best of Bridge Cook Book on page 270.
It called for fresh Ravioli, I used an Olivieri, Chicken Sundried Tomato Ravioli. The pasta was very nice but cooked really quickly as it was fresh. I overcooked a few of them which caused them to burst. The trick to cooking the ravioli was doing it in time to toss it with the sauce as they cooled down quickly.
The recipe was easy to follow but required a few pointers from my Mom and Brenda. To keep the cream sauce from curdling, I was advised to saute it on a low temperature. I simmered the sauce for quite some time but it didn’t seem to reduce as much as I would have hoped.
However in tossing it with the ravioli it tasted delicious. I added a touch of olive oil to my Ravioli before I tossed it with the sauce. This gave it a nice glimmer and helped the cream sauce stick.
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| Presenting Dinner A'La Kerri |
I served the pasta with a tossed green salad , fresh bread with oil and vinegar and a nice white wine. In preparing all of this I realized I didn't have any nice serving dishes for pasta or bread. A recent sale at The Bay solved this problem. Be sure to come over soon so I can entertain you with my new serving platters.
Lessons from My Chicken Ravioli with a Sage Cream Sauce:
This was a great opportunity for me to brush up on my cooking vocabulary. For example words like shallot, clove, and reduction. A Shallot is a green onion, a clove of garlic is typically one of the petals on the bud and a reduction is a fancy word for sauce.
An additional question for the experts: How many tbsp of jarred Minced Garlic do you need when the recipe calls for 3 cloves?
A very successful dinner for my lovely guest, he was very impressed.
Degree of Difficulty: 7
Execution: 6 ( It was a challenge to get the sauce to reduce and to serve it hot)
Well now I am impressed. You are really getting into this. I must buy you some decent pots and pans for your birthday or my birthday. I am going to a party on Thursday and am trying a new appetizer. Chicken brushetta on foccia bread and also in Scoops. I will let you know how that one turns out.
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