Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

Some people hate Martha, but I’m one of those who love her. :)

I got this recipe from her website; the original version calls for pappardelle, but I chose to use linguine (one of my favorite pasta shapes). I think the substitution worked well.

It is a quick, easy to put together sauce and it smells wonderful, but one thing that didn’t please me much was finding large pieces of zest in my pasta – as much as I love lemons and oranges, I’m sure that the result would have been a lot better if grated zest had been used instead of chopped.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by the adorable Anh, of Food Lover’s Journey.

Linguine with olives, thyme and lemon

½ teaspoon coarse salt– I used sea salt
225g (8 oz) linguine
16 Kalamata olives, pitted
½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
zest of 1 lemon, coarsely chopped
one 3-inch piece orange zest, coarsely chopped
¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt and the linguine, and cook until pasta is al dente, following label directions. Drain in a colander.
While pasta is cooking, combine salt, olives, parsley, olive oil, thyme, lemon zest, orange zest, and red-pepper flakes in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse until a chunky puree forms. Transfer to a warm serving bowl large enough to accommodate cooked pasta.
Add pasta, and toss to combine.
Serve immediately.

Serves 2, or 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Marbled pound cake

When I was younger, many of my friends at school had nieces and nephews – I thought it was so cool! Being older than my brother (back then, Jessica hadn’t been born yet) I knew that it would take me a while to be called an “auntie”.

My brother is single and still don’t have kids, but my problem has been solved – Joao already had 1 niece and 1 nephew when we started dating and 1 girl and 2 more boys have been added to the family since I became part of it. :)

One of the girls is Rafaela – a full of energy 3 year old. She loved the orange and lemon cake I baked last week and wanted me to bake another cake for her. A simple cake was the idea – no filling or frosting – that’s why I went for the perfect pound cake recipe from this book. Since Rafaela adores chocolate, I followed Dorie’s instructions to make a marbled cake.

The recipe is easy and doesn’t call for many ingredients. The cake was tender and my niece loved it – I think that in a few years I’ll have a new helper in the kitchen. :)

Marbled pound cake
from Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
226g (2 sticks/8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
112g (4oz) bittersweet chocolate, chopped – I used 60% cocoa solids

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and set aside to cool.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 165ºC/325ºF. Butter a 9x5-inch (22.5x12.5cm) loaf pan or an 8-½x4-½ inch (21x11cm) loaf pan*. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until pale and fluffy, a full 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beater and reduce the mixer speed to medium. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 to 2 minutes after each egg goes in. As you're working, scrape down the bowl and beater often. Mix in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it is incorporated - don't overmix. In fact, you might want to fold in the last of the flour, or even all of it, by hand with a rubber spatula.

After the batter is fully mixed, transfer half of it to another bowl and gently blend in the melted, cooled chocolate. Alternate large spoonfuls of the light and dark batters in the pan, then run a kitchen knife in a zigzag pattern through the batters to marble them. Smooth the top.

Put the cake into the oven to bake, and check on it after about 45 minutes. If it's browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. If you're using a 9x5 pan, you'll need to bake the cake for 70 to 75 minutes; the smaller pan needs about 90 minutes. The cake is properly baked when a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, transfer the pan to a rack and let rest for 30 minutes.

Run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out, then turn it right side up on the rack and cool to room temperature.

*I used a 26x10cm loaf pan and my cake baked for 75 minutes.

Storing:
Wrapped well, the cake will keep for 5 to 7 days at room temperature (stale cake is great toasted) or up to 2 months in the freezer.

Serves 8-10

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

I know that many people frown at the simple mention of the name “ricotta” - right, C.? :)

I’m not one of those. I really like ricotta and find it very versatile. You can use it in both sweet and savory recipes and jazz it up with a diversity of flavors.

Valentina posted this gnocchi recipe a while ago on her blog in Portuguese and it sounded so easy I had to try it myself. Another use for the wonderful lemons in my fridge and also for my newest addiction: fresh thyme.



This is my entry for the Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Margot, from Coffee and Vanilla.

Ricotta gnocchi with lemon thyme butter sauce

Gnocchi:
250g ricotta cheese
¼ cup (25g) grated parmesan
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ cup (70g) all purpose flour
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra grated parmesan, to serve

Sauce:
80g unsalted butter, room temperature
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Start with the sauce: place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until the butter melts completely. Remove from heat and set aside.

Now, the gnocchi: place the ricotta, ¼ cup parmesan, egg, flour, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well until smooth – the ricotta cheese we have here in Brazil is a bit dry, so I started by breaking it with a fork and then added all the other ingredients. You'll see specks of ricotta in the gnocchi because I did not want to overmix the dough.

Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased or coated with cooking spray surface and shape into a long log; cut the gnocchi – they should be about 2cm.
Make indentations in each dough ball with a fork – I did not do that.

Cook the gnocchi in a large saucepan with boiling salted water – as soon as the balls come up to the surface, they will be almost ready; let them cook for another 30 seconds then remove them carefully from the pan, using a skimming ladle.

Heat the sauce, pour over the gnocchi, sprinkle with parmesan and serve at once.

Serves 2

Ranger cookies

According to Allen, I am a cookie monster. I think he’s right – I absolutely love baking cookies!

Not only they taste delicious and are great for those times when the urge for something sweet hits us, they’re also easy to share. Pop a few into a plastic bag, close with a beautiful ribbon and you’ll make someone’s day extra special.

I have hundreds of cookie recipes just waiting to be baked, but these had been on my mind since Lisa posted them. Walnuts, coconut, chocolate and oats combined in wonderfully golden little packages – just what I needed to make my Sunday even better.

She has some amazing baked goods on her blog, so check them out and get inspired, too.

Ranger cookies

8 tablespoons (112g/4oz) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt – I used sea salt
¼ cup unsweetened coconut
½ cup (56g/2oz) unsalted roasted walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and the granulated and brown sugars until smooth and creamy. Stir in the vanilla extract and the egg. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Stir in the coconut, walnuts, oats, and chocolate chips.

Using about 1 ½ tablespoonfuls for each cookie, place mounds of the cookie dough 3 inches apart on the prepared sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes – mine needed 14. Let the cookies cool to room temperature before removing them from the pans with a spatula.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on size – I got 26

Orange and lemon cake

I was going through the huge pile of recipe print outs I have at home and was stunned by the amount of paper there. It made me feel really guilty. So I chose some of those recipes to make on the weekend. And will try to cut the pile down a bit before adding more paper to it.

I picked 2 savory recipes and 2 sweet. To kick things off in a great way, I baked this out of this world cake, which I got it from an equally out of this world blog, Ivonne’s.

Most of you know I’ll pick citrus over any other flavor. Yes, even over chocolate. That’s why choosing this cake was not a difficult task. It had been there for over a year – you read it right, Ivonne posted it on January, 2007. I don’t know why it took me so long to try it – talk about a waste of time.

The cake rose beautifully and smelled so heavenly that I couldn’t wait for it to cool completely. I never thought a burned tongue would make me so glad. :)

Orange and lemon cake

3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
¾ cup (180ml) milk (preferably whole)
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF; butter and flour a round 25cm (10-in) cake pan or springform pan.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Once sifted, add the orange and lemon zests and mix well. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, using the paddle attachment on medium speed, combine the butter and sugar and mix for 2 to 3 minutes until the butter is light in color and appears fluffy.
Combine the lemon juice, orange juice and milk and stir.
Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, on medium speed, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Begin adding the dry ingredients, in three additions, and then alternating with the milk/juice mixture. You should begin with the dry ingredients and end with the dry ingredients.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Check the cake after 50 minutes by inserting a toothpick or cake tester into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, continue baking the cake. In my oven the cake took an hour so the baking time may vary based on your oven.
Once done, remove the cake from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, unmold the cake and dust with icing sugar before serving.