Recipe #2 (Dessert Pasta?!)

Ricotta raviolis in honey quince sauce

If I mention dessert pasta, people would never look tempted. They must think spaghetti bolognese with chocolate or meat lasagna with a side order of custard. But pasta is made from flour and eggs, the basis of Western pastries, so there is no reason why it shouldn't work.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs 
• 400g flour
• 200g ricotta or pecorino fresco
  
• salt and water to cook the raviolis
• 1 beautiful quince with no spots
  
• 1 cup sweet white wine
• 50g pale liquid honey

Directions: A step-by-step visual diagram to make cooking for you easier

First you peel, core and dice the quince in very small dices. Not a quick job, and you are one a clock before the quince becomes all brown

In a small saucepan, mix the white wine with the honey and heat over a low flame. Add the quince and cook gently for about 30 minutes

Meanwhile make 4 eggs of pasta. Pass through the pasta machine, turn 90°, fold, and pass again. Finish with the thinnest setting you can manage

Lay a sheet of pasta on a cloth and put spoonfuls of plain pecorino fresco or ricotta at regular intervals

Cut trough with a ravioli roller

Heat olive oil in a skillet or deep frying machine and fry the raviolis over high heat in small batches until they are well colored

Serve over the quince honey sauce with some fine sugar sprayed on top

Original Recipe: http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?language=2&Display=23&resolution=high

Recipe #2 (Another Dessert Dish?!)

CHOCOLATE TAGLIATELLE

Ingredients:

• 200g semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 50gr icing sugar
• 50 gr cocoa powder
• Extra cocoa powder and icing sugar

Directions: A step-by-step visual diagram to make cooking for you easier

200gr of semolina flour is sifted

Add 3 eggs and beat them.

Add 50gr icing sugar...

...and then 50 gr cocoa powder

Mix with a fork...

...and then work by hand into a smooth paste. Leave in the fridge for 90 minutes wrapped tightly in tin foil

Spread cocoa powder and some icing sugar on the work space and cut the dough into 3 pieces  

Stretch the dough with the rolling pin until very thin  

Spread more cocoa powder on the stretched dough so it won't stick when you roll it  

Now the fun begins. Take the sharpest knife you have...

... and cut 5mm wide ribbons from the rolled dough  

The little spirals will unfold easily if you have sprinkled enough cocoa powder on top  

Take the rolled tagliatelle one by one ...

... and unfold them onto a wire frame or dry cloth.

Heat lots of water in a saucepan and boil the tagliatelle for a few minutes. As soon as they come up they are ready

Serve immediately with some melted butter ...  

... or with a chocolate sauce made from cocoa and cream

Add a scoop of thyme ice cream to complement the sauce 



A dessert pasta that looks good and tastes good.


Original Recipe: http://fxcuisine.com/Default.asp?language=2&Display=25&resolution=high&page=1 

Pasta FESTIVAL!

Duomo di San Feliciano, Piazza della Repubblica, Foligno, Italy 

Central Italian province of Perugia, an ancient town of Foligno, hosts the annual 'Festival Nazionale dei Primi Piatti '. It is a festival dedicated entirely to PASTA! So to all you pasta lovers out there, go online, buy a round trip ticket and head straight to the airport to fly to Italy! It will be the most memorable moment ever!

The festival offers a huge variety of soups, rice, and polenta with a wide selection of primi piatti (string pasta). Thousands of participants from all over the area would participate in mini-cooking classes, enjoy free shows, master and enjoy superfine gourmet menu of pasta. Talk about mouth-watering and absolute deliciousness!


The festival, organised by Epta-Confcommercio Perugia, is separated into four main areas: tasting, exhibitions, education and entertainment. But that's not the best part! The best part is that you get to do all that in 4 DAYS!! It runs from September 27th to 30th. Talk about days of mad pasta cravings!


Four-days of pasta loving will definitively satisfy all needs of gourmet palates from the simplest to the most refined. The 'Tasting Villages' serve up samples and tasting menus, such as 'Flavors of Tuscany' (A region in west central Italy ruled by dukes or duchess), 'Flavors of Tomato' and 'Gluten Free' dishes. 

Pasta Head Sculpture

In September 2008, the Pasta Festival cooked up to 13,000 pounds of pasta and 2,500 pounds of rice. That year was a record year. More pasta, rice, herbs, meat, and wine will be offered than ever before. Pasta made in strawberry, beer, and liquorice flavors are amongst the more and unusual variations well worth trying.




Other highlights include 'pasta art' (Sculptures made from pasta. How cool is that?), a children's area with tailored cookery classes, as well as earnest discussions concerning current food issues and plenty of expert chef are on hand to give you cooking and kitchen tips.

Interesting Attraction

Holiday Inn Express Foligno

A place to stay for the week in Foligno, Italy, is located closet to the Pasta Festival with the Holiday Inn Express Foligno. It is about a 5 minute drive and a 16 minute walk from the hotel to the festival. The staying cost for an average room is about $74.09 per night. It is located in Via Massimo Arcamone 16, Foligno, PG 06034. You can either book online for a room or call 1-866-500-4938.

Kuban Cloth

Elegant Lady

With a day of resting from the Festival, you can go visit an art gallery called “Shona” that is 2.1 miles away from the city center. It specializes in African sculptures (wood, stone), togan door, kuban cloths, and batiks (a technique of hand-dyeing fabrics by using wax as a dye-repellent to cover parts of a design).