Decadent Pasta Night with Tenderloin

Honeydew Salad with Ginger Dressing

Creamy Mushroom Balsamic Pasta

Seasoned Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Blackberry Wine Sauce

Blueberry Lavender White Chocolate Gelato

Honeydew Salad with Ginger Dressing

Yield 2

3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. fish sauce

1 tsp. finely grated peeled ginger

1 tsp. brown sugar

1/2 serrano chile, thinly sliced

1/4  medium honeydew melon seeds and rind removed, sliced

1/2  cucumbers, sliced on a diagonal ¼” thick

1 avocado, peeled, thinly sliced

2 cups spinach

2 cups arugula

¼ cup mint leaves

¼ cup  peanuts, coarsely chopped

Feta or goat cheese to taste

 salt and pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar, fish sauce, ginger, and brown sugar in a large bowl to combine. Add chile and let sit 10 minutes.

Add melon, cucumbers, and avocado and toss gently to coat. Transfer to a plate with arugula and spinach top with mint and peanuts and sprinkle with salt/pepper.

Fresh Pasta Dough

yield: 2 servings

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt

  Making fresh pasta dough is fun and very easy. Traditionally, the dough is mixed directly on a board or counter but it is acceptable to begin the dough in a bowl to limit the cleanup. Laminate counter tops are fine for kneading dough but natural or engineered stone is best as it is non-porous and maintains constant temperature, especially important when working with yeast doughs.

  In a bowl or on a countertop, combine the salt and flour. Using your fingers, create a well in the center of the mound, being sure that the well’s walls are equally thick and high. In a separate container, combine eggs and olive oil. Scramble eggs with a fork to incorporate oil.

  Add 1/3 of egg/oil mixture to center of well. Using a swirling motion, pull flour from inner walls of well into eggs and mix until it forms a thick paste. If working on a countertop, be careful not to break through the walls of the well as egg will run out over the work surface. When center is no longer runny, add half of remaining egg mixture and stir to paste. Add remaining liquid and repeat. Continue to mix until fork is no longer effective and then turn dough out onto work surface.

  Knead dough by flattening, folding it in half and pressing hard with the palm of your hand. Rotate 90’ and repeat over and over until dough is a consistent color (no patches of flour or egg mixture) and begins to feel springy. Pasta dough should be visibly bumpy but soft and smooth to the touch. To test, press a finger into dough. The depression made by your finger should spring back almost entirely. Flatten dough into a disk 1 ½ inches thick, wrap with saran and place in cooler to rest for 20-30 minutes or until finger divot does not bounce back. This means that the gluten that was excited in the kneading process has relaxed and the dough is ready to be rolled and cut.

Mushroom pasta

Yeild 2

4 tbsp of butter, divided

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

salt, to taste

1/2 tsp sugar

1 pasta recipe, prepped

1 tsp dried thyme

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 cups spinach

½ cup parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Pepper, to taste

Red pepper flakes to taste

Melt 3 tbsp butter over medium-low heat in large sauce pan. Add sliced onions, mushrooms, pinch of salt and sugar. Cook, until onions and mushrooms are golden brown and caramelized. (Once the onions and mushrooms are golden, I turn the heat to medium-high for 3-4 minutes to get them deeply browned and almost crispy)

Meanwhile, in a large pot of salted water, cook pasta according to directions until “al dente”, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain and set aside.

Once onions and mushrooms are caramelized, add thyme, garlic and balsamic vinegar. Stir and cook until balsamic is reduced to almost half.

Stir in cream, and simmer.

Turn off heat. Add in cooked pasta, remaining 1 tablespoon butter, spinach and parmesan cheese. Stir until spinach is wilted. Add ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water at a time, adding more if needed to achive a creamy consistency. Adjust with red pepper flakes.

Serve immediately with extra Parmesan cheese if desired.

Beef with blackberry sauce

Yield 2:

Beef tenderloin

Salt and pepper

 oil

Blackberry Sauce

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup roasted blackberries

2 tablespoons blackberry jam

1 tablespoon  beef stock powder

2 tablespoons butter

Season Beef with salt and pepper. In a pan over medium high heat, add oil and beef. Cook until desired internal temp is reached.

Remove from pan and add red wine, roasted black berries, jam, beef stock and reduce down by half. Add butter and swirl to melt. Once melted turn heat off and serve on beef.

Blueberry Lavender White Chocolate Gelato

Yeild 10

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tablespoon lavender grounded

1/2.bottle white chocolate dessert drizzle

1/2 can blueberry pie filling

12 vanilla sandwich cookies crushed

In a bowl combine condensed milk, heavy cream, white chocolate and lavender. Put into an ice cream machine and then until firm

 Swirl in blueberry pie filling and cookies. Serve.

White Chocolate Lavender Gelato

Ingredients

for 700 gr of gelato

whole milk (3.9% in fat): 2 cups

cream (36% in fat): 6 oz

sugar: ½ cup

white chocolate ½ cup chopped

fresh lavender flower stems: n°

Steps

In a pot add milk, cream, chocolate and sugar. Mix until sugar and chocolate is dissolved. Add ground lavender

Heat mixture to 120

let the mixture rest in the fridge for 6-8 hours;

pour the mixture in your gelato or ice cream maker, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

leave the lavender gelato in the freezer for 30-60 minutes before consuming it.