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Ricotta and Honey Tortellini

Wednesday 4 Jul 2012 | 4 Comments
Filed under: Sweets Tags: eggs, honey, pasta, ricotta

By: Deanna Linder This post has been a long time coming. Religiously, about every six months, since we started the blog, I’ve wanted to post a recipe for fresh pasta, and somehow haven’t gotten around to doing it. The culprit is usually not enough time at the end of a day’s shoot. This time we got it right and scheduled the pasta to be the first dish shot. Knowing how to make fresh pasta is a very liberating experience. With the help of a machine and some very basic ingredients, you are able to create pasta which is worlds away from the stuff you buy at the supermarket. There are two major components which go into making really good homemade pasta. The first is the type of flour you use. Some fresh pasta recipes call for regular all-purpose flour. In our opinion it’s like trying to a make a cake with cornstarch. Just don’t do it. The best types of flours to use are Italian typo ‘00’ or Semolina flour. We made this recipe with both, and the Semolina flour (DeCecco)...
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Grilled Summer Pasta

Thursday 11 Aug 2011 | 2 Comments
Filed under: Entrees, Main course Tags: chicken, olive oil, Parmesan, pasta, tomatoes, zucchini

By: Deanna Linder Time is a precious thing. It’s only once you don’t have though to you begin to realize how precious it really is. There are different types of “times”: personal time, professional time, family time, friend time, etc. I seem to be short on all of these “times” these days. Having a six month old baby (who doesn’t sleep) and back at work full time has at times felt more like I’m a professional juggler than a mom/food stylist/blogger/culinary editor (the list goes on: wife, daughter, sister, friend, etc.). Danya, is not only my friend and colleague, but has become a mentor to me; she is someone who juggles her professional world and her personal world (mother of two small kids), with as much finesse as Michael Jordan in his glory days. With all her finesse, Danya is too, as one can imagine, short on time. When the two of us get together for a Matkonation photo shoot, it is supposed to be our personal time. The blog, which differs from our day to day shoots...
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The Perfect Ragu

Wednesday 12 Jan 2011 | 4 Comments
Filed under: Entrees, Main course Tags: carrots, celery, Parmesan, pasta

By: Deanna Linder Growing up in Los Angeles, I was blessed to be exposed to a vast variety of ethnic foods, from Vietnamese, Persian, Peruvian, Korean, etc. I love tasting different flavors, ingredients and textures, and in general, just the feeling of sitting in a very authentic restaurant, that almost makes you feel as if you have actually travelled across the world (my second favorite hobby). To this day, now living in Israel, I still try to find and eat at ethnic restaurants like The Thai House and Salaam Bombay. But for some reason, when it comes to cooking at home, the style I prefer is almost always Italian. Italian cooking is characterized by fresh, available, local ingredients, not altered too much, seasoned just right, and unpretentious as can be. Take a perfectly ripe tomato, crisp basil, good quality olive oil and some fresh mozzarella, and you have the tastiest, simplest salad ever. Viva Italia! I’m a huge Mario Batali fan. In his book, Molto Italiano, Batali offers really...
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Italian Bean and Pasta Soup (Pasta e Fagioli)

Wednesday 8 Dec 2010 | 2 Comments
Filed under: Soups Tags: beans, Parmesan, pasta, tomatoes

I have a theory that the world divides into two types of people based on several different categories. These categories include, but are not limited to the following: those who prefer to drive with the windows open/those who prefer to drive with air conditioning; those who prefer to sleep on the side of the bed next to the wall/ those who prefer sleeping away from the wall; and those who eat soup all year round/those who can only eat soup in the winter. I’m a drive with the windows down, sleep away from the wall and eat soup all year round kinda girl. Until recently I thought that these were innate qualities that are predetermined and attest to other parts of ones’ personality. I have been proven wrong. I not sure whether it’s the final stages of pregnancy or the lack of onset of winter, but the thought of eating soup for the past several months has made me cringe. Finally, well into the first week of December, the winter has briefly appeared. A few hours of rain, and the craving...
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Pasta with Tomatoes and Spinach

Thursday 5 Aug 2010 | No Comments
Filed under: Main course Tags: pasta, spinach, tomatoes

My husband works in Berlin a lot. There are many disadvantages being that he works so far away, but also some advantages (hopefully he's not reading this). Every two months I join him for a weekend of shopping, restaurants and culture, and then come back to my kids on Sunday. Besides the many shoes and clothes I come back with, and the trinkets that he sometimes brings me, I have come to know one of the most amazing cities, which happens to be also a culinary capital that could give a fight to Paris and NYC. This recipe happens to be from the popular restaurant chain "Vapiano", an Italian, serve yourself restaurant with an unpretentious menu consisting of salads, pizzas and pastas only. In the entrance to the restaurant you are handed an electronic card which you bring with you to the food stands. Each dish has a separate stand, so that if you are craving salad and pasta, you have to stand in both lines. The electronic card is charged at the food stands and you pay when you finish according...
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