August 23

Brian, Kristen, Fusilli and Tiramisu

Menu

• Fusilli with Chopped Mushroom Sauce [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 1 pound pasta
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1/2 large onion (peeled)
  • 20 ounces mushrooms (wiped clean)
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 2 28 ounce cans tomatoes
  • hot pepper flakes
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tablespoons basil (cleaned and torn)
  • cheese

  Instructions

  We start by heating the olive oil in our dutch oven. We add the onion piece and cook on medium-low heat, turning often. This takes 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, we pulse the cleaned mushrooms in our food processor, a third at a time, until they are just chopped. We do not want them to get too wet. We add the chopped mushrooms to the onion pan and continue with the rest of the mushrooms. We cook, stirring often, over medium heat, with a little salt and pepper. When the mushrooms have released their liquid, we boil this water down. The minced garlic cloves are then added and cooked for 30 seconds.

  We pour the tomato liquid from one can into the dutch oven, and put the whole tomatoes from the one can into the rinsed-out food processor. We puree the tomatoes until smooth. When 1 can of tomatoes is completed, we pour it into our dutch oven. We then pour the tomato liquid from the second can into the dutch oven and puree these tomatoes. Once these have been pureed and added to the stove, we add the red pepper flakes, some more salt and pepper, and the bay leaf. We then simmer the sauce for about 20 minutes, partially covered, over medium low heat.

  We bring enough water to a boil for a pound of pasta and add a little salt. We cook the fusilli until al dente and drain it in a colander. We add the torn basil to the sauce at this time and turn off the heat. In a large serving bowl, we mix the pasta with some sauce.

  We serve this pasta meal with additional tomato-mushroom sauce and some Locatelli.

• Roasted asparagus
• Fresh italian bread
• Herbed white bean spread
• Salad with balsamic vinaigrette
• Kristen's Tiramisu [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 2 cups mascarpone (room temperature)
  • 9 tablespoons sugar (divided)
  • 2 cups cream (chilled, divided)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1.25 cups espresso (cooled)
  • 1/2 cup marsala
  • 1 pack cookies
  • 1 ounce chocolate

  Instructions

  We start this dessert early in the day to allow the dessert to set-up in the fridge. In a large bowl, we mix the mascarpone with 1/2 cup (8 of the 9 tablespoons) of the sugar until smooth. Next, in another large bowl, we whip 1 cup of the cream with 1 teaspoon of the vanilla using our hand-held mixer. We fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture and set this aside. In a measuring cup, we mix the expresso with the marsala. Finally, we grate the chocolate with our microplane grater onto a sheet of wax paper.

  We dip a cookie at a time quickly into the espresso (made using instant espresso earlier today) to moisten it, and start putting them into a decorative container. We use a 10-cup Pyrex bowl today. When we have a layer of cookies, we add a layer of the cream-mascarpone mixture, and continue layering. For the final layer, we whip the rest of the cream with the remaining tablespoon of sugar and the rest of the vanilla. The final layer has the whipped cream and then the chocolate on top. We cover the container and refrigerate for a few hours.