Shrimp primavera

This is a tasty and quick pasta dish that involves little equipment (pot, pan, knife and you're good) which is especially key away from home in a poorly equipped dorm kitchen. It comes from City Food, a collection of recipes from Halifax restaurants purchased sometime in the early nineties, I am guessing. The restaurant it is from, Silverspoon, is no longer in existance and I have only had the homemade version. Which is really good. We have this often, we have this with guests, I ask for this when I am home for a visit.

Also an anecdote about my earliest cooking exploits and an example of how ridiculous my dad is sometimes:

In grade 8 home economics we had a project to cook a meal for our family, do a write-up and have a parent give us a grade. Most kids made burgers, spaghetti, easy but totally legitimite things. I made guacamole, this shrimp primavera and apple crisp. And it was excellent. Everyone' else's parents gave them 10/10. My dad gave me 9.5, baffling my teacher. "There's always room for improvement," he said. And I suppose he's right.

Shrimp Primavera (serves 4)

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 lb- 1 lb deveined shrimp
• 1 cup white vermouth
• 2 tbsp finely chopped dried apricots
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1-2 red, yellow or orange peppers (I only used 1)
• pasta for 4 people (I used linguine, up to you)
• 1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
• 1/4 heavy cream (I am waddling towards obesity and went with close to 1 cup)
• 1/2 mango, diced
• 

Sauté minced garlic in oil in a large skillet for one minute. Stir in shrimp and cook until opaque. Remove shrimp and set aside.
Pour in vernmouth and simmer 5 minutes. Add apricots, lemon juice, rosemary, salt and pepper. simmer 5-10 minutes to reduce volume by half.
Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in pasta and cook to desired texture (al dente, obviously). Drain well. Place in a very large bowl.
Immediately toss together: pasta, vermouth mixture, shrimp, strips of pepper, parsley and enough cream to coat the pasta. Garnish with chunks of mango. Serve immediately (although it also makes great leftovers)

Pastravaganza at Rossini

So I am back at school and without a kitchen, though I have friends with kitchens (hint hint, friends). But even better than friends with kitchens are friends whose family owns a restaurant. Sergio Zanetti, owner of Rossini Restaurant here in Toronto, was kind enough to invite me to learn to make gnocchi with their chef, Marco. While originally the plan only included gnocchi, things quickly escalated. I'm not including recipes as most of this was made in large batches and measured largely by eye, but I will try to include some helpful hints should you attempt pasta making.
We started off with gnocchi, sort of a soft noodle dumpling made from Russet potatoes, egg and flour. I'd originally asked my friend for a recipe because I had had some amazing lobster gnocchi at Rossini. You want to use as little flour as possible so that they are not overly gummy.
Marco took care of preparing the dough, and we got to work shaping the gnocchi. After rolling out thin ropes, we cut small pieces (these were probably about 3/4" but you could go slightly smaller or larger as long as they are consistent) and used a fork to give them a nice design (optional). Fold the fork firmly against the counter and roll the cut side of the gnocchi up to get this pattern. Work quickly and allow the gnocchi to chill in the fridge before cooking.

Next we made several kinds of pasta, all from the same basic dough. The only ingredients are eggs and flour, seriously. The restaurant has an industrial dough hook but if you were making a small batch it would be manageable in a home kitchen.
Pappardelle (like wider fettucine) was first. Pieces of the dough were flattened out by hand and then fed through the pasta machine (theirs is electric, though I've used a crank machine at home) at thinner and thinner settings, until the dough was almost paper-thin and translucent. Once it is rolled out, the dough is folded into thirds widthwise and then cut into strips of the appropriate size.Spaghettini starts the same way as papparelle, but instead of cutting the strips by hand they had a convenient attachment that cut the tiny strands.Next were tortellini and cappelletti, which are very similar. Marco mixed a filling of braised beef, parmesan and some bread crumbs, and dough that had been rolled out into thin sheets is cut into large squares. The folding is a bit finicky but oddly satisfying and something you get the hang of quite quickly. Of course you could do all kinds fillings, and sauces as well.
Ravioli are prepared by placing balls of the filling on a half of a long sheet of pasta, spaced out into even squares. Beat an egg in a bowl and brush on in between the squares as a sealant. Then fold over the remaining sheet and firmly press down, trying to remove as much excess air as possible while doing so (a lot like dumplings). Once they are all sealed up, cut them into squares and once again squeeze out any air trapped inside.It ended up being quite the day. I had a blast and learned a lot. You do need some equipment (hand-cranked models are not prohibitively expensive) and some practice, but once you have the techniques down, making fresh pasta is stress-free and rewarding. And wayyyy better than boxed.
Thanks again to Marco and Rossini for letting me come in! Also thanks to Martina for taking the pictures! Marco and I with the fruits of our labour: