A Dinner with Old Friends

 I invited two friends I've grown up with since I was less than 4 years old.  They are actually more like family.  Kim and Kathy and Kathy's daughter Jade came for dinner and I wanted to make something that was memorable.  So I made something from my own repertoire.  I made a Caramelized Onion Pizza with Brie and Gorgenzola Cheese and a Spinach Rotolo. 

The Spinach Rotolo evolved when I started eating these great meals from a banquet hall in Vaughn.  I couldn't wrap my brain around how they could make this dish so light that it would actually melt in your mouth.  The unknown became my challenge.  After a few interesting efforts, I think I came up with something that may actually beat out the banquet hall.  I first make the pasta from scratch. A smooth dough from a simple recipe.  You can make the pasta dough a bit more rich by adding 3 - 9 eggs, but I only use two.  The pasta still melts in your mouth.  The trick is to insure that you roll the dough out very thin.  I roll it out until I can see the wood grain in my butcher block table.  I could use a pasta maker, but your limited to how wide you can make your pasta so you have to patch the strips of pasta together to make a wide enough sheet to create your rotolo. Rolling it out by hand is a labor of love, but it's well worth the end result.   

The filling.  I kept the filing as light as I could.  I used ricotta cheese, chopped frozen spinach and parmesan cheese.  I also used marscaponi cheese to balance out the flavors. I think the marscaponi cheese helps the product come together and it provided an extra element to the dish. Since I use the marscaponi cheese I omit eggs from this dish.  I find that the eggs make the filling to pasty and dry. I then add a  touch of nutmeg, salt and pepper, once combined the  rotolo is ready to roll.  I steam the roll , slice and bake it with a white sauce.

I tell you, it's pretty good. When ever I've made this dish, the first thing out of my guests mouths is Mmmmmmm.  And I was happy that  Kim and Kathy also gave it their stamp of approval.  It's worth the work, just to see your guests faces.

It's a memorable dish for all the right reasons and you can make it a head and freeze it for another day.

I also made the Caramelized Onion Pizza.  My friend Joanne gave me this recipe.  It makes for a great appetizer. It's  yummy.  It's fast to make and it taste fantastic.  You can't go wrong with this one.

Once I get some sleep, I'll post the recipes to my blog.

 

Good food and wine and great friends.  That's what dinner is made of


The Cookbook Addict