Holm Family Cookbook

Our friend Bruce Burton loves to cook for and with people, foods from scratch, that take hours and hours, such as ravioli, tamales (that's the next blog!), and the like.

Our Executive Chef

We had tasted his ravioli before, including butternut squash ravioli that just melted in your mouth, but we never had the opportunity to cook with Bruce. We finally found the time to “whip up” his Nonni’s (from Italy) ravioli. We passed out the ingredient list to friends, set aside a Saturday afternoon in the party barn, and got to work. We were making the dough, the filling, and the sauce. In hindsight, next time we may make the sauce, or filling, or both, the day before, as this was an all day process with multiple hands at work!

We really started from scratch by grinding our own meat. We had a couple of pork butts and a chuck roast that we sliced into strips and ran through the grinder.

The Meat Grinder

We didn’t follow the recipes to the tee (as usual!). We didn’t have chicken, so we doubled the pork, and for the sauce, we didn’t have canned tomatoes, we only used tomato sauce. Then the chopping began--lotsa chopping--and it had to be diced fine to fit into those delicate little pillows! Bruce’s Sous Chef, Joan (his wife!), was the chop master, with oysters, half a dozen fresh herbs, spinach, Swiss chard, onions, and, of course, lotsa garlic!

Our Sous Chef hard at work

We put our Italian friend Kristin (maiden name: Amicucci!) to work on the garlic.

The Italian Garlic Princess - Ms. Amicucci

Some of the same ingredients were used in the filling and the gravy (which we American’s would call sauce), we were working on those simultaneously. We needed to get the gravy on early so it could stew for about 3 to 4 hours. It was really amazing how much was happening on the party barn ping-pong table, multiple stations along the progress of our ravioli adventure.

Nonni's Gravy

Once we had the filling all chopped and mixed, and the gravy back in my kitchen on a slow simmer (the hot plates in the barn couldn’t cut the mustard), we got to work on the ravioli dough. Just like Mario Battali, Bruce started the dough with a pile of flour, made a well, dropped in the eggs, oil and salt and got to kneading.

Nonni's Dough

Three batches later, we were ready to starting rolling out the dough in the machine.

Once it was just about see-through, very thin, but not so thin it would tear, we placed it over the floured ravioli pan, made little divots, spooned a small amount of filling into the hole, watered the edges, and placed another layer of dough on top.

Then we used a small rolling pin to roll all the edges,

flipped the pan over onto a corn floured baking sheet, and got on to the next batch.

The final step was boiling the ravioli in a large pot of salted water. You dump the ravioli in and when they float, mission accomplished, about 5 to 6 minutes. We poured a bit of sauce on the plate, placed the ravioli on top, and poured more sauce over the top, and dug in.

My first bite was worth all the effort, these little pillows of loveliness melted in your mouth! I don’t remember ever tasting pasta that soft and velvety, I was so overwhelmed with eating that I never did get the “money shot” of the finished product! This picture doesn’t do those ravioli justice.

Nonni's Ravioli

So the next occasion you have multiple hands available, a lot of time, and the ingredients on hand, “whip up” some ravioli, it’s well worth the time and effort, and for those of you without an Italian Nonni like me, now you have a recipe!

Mangia! Nancy

NONNI’S GRAVY (SAUCE)

1 – 28 ounce can Italian plum tomatoes

1 – 15 ounce can tomato sauce

½ small can tomato paste

1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped

1 tsp. red pepper

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. dried thyme

pepper to taste

Blend plum tomatoes in cuisinart. Put in a 6-quart pot with remaining ingredients.

In cuisinart chop:

½ bunch parsley

10 large fresh mushrooms

½ cup dried mushrooms (soaked in water, squeezed and chopped, use strained liquid)

Add ingredients to the pot.

Fry:

1 pound ground beef

Chop in cuisinart to a fine texture and add to pot.

1 leg and 1 thigh of chicken

2½ cups water

1 pound boneless chuck roast

Cut big slices through the chuck but leave in one piece. Brown the chuck and chicken pieces. Cook with 2 ½ cups of water to make broth. Strain out the meat and chicken bones, add broth to the sauce and cook for 3 or more hours.

NONNI’S RAVIOLI FILLING (1/4 batch, 5 ounces = 1 dozen ravioli)

¼ pound sirloin

½ pound pork butt

¾ pound chicken (we didn’t use chicken, but more pork)

½ jar fresh oysters, chopped

¼ cube butter

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 bunch green onions, finely chopped

¼ cup celery, finely chopped

1 tbsp. Thyme and rosemary, finely chopped

½ bunch parsley, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ cup spinach, finely chopped and cooked

1 cup Swiss chard, finely chopped and cooked

6 eggs

3 tbsp. olive oil

8 ounces ricotta cheese

¾ cup Parmesan cheese

¼ cup breadcrumbs

Grind the beef, pork and chicken. Fry celery and onions in butter and olive oil. Fry the pork, then beef and chicken. Mix with the remaining ingredients to stuff the ravioli.

NONNI’S RAVIOLI DOUGH

1¼ pounds of flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp. Oil

¼ tsp. Salt

Hot water if needed, use oil in hot weather

Make a well in the mound of flour. Place the eggs, oil and salt in the middle of the flour. Mix together, kneed, put in bowl, cover and let rest for 1 hour or so. Roll out, add filling, top with dough, cut into raviolis.

Dungeness crab

During the fall and winter months in the San Francisco Bay Area and other communities along the west coast, many organizations hold crab feeds as their major yearly fundraiser. The crab feeds are typically held at an event center that can hold 200 - 300 people. The crab being served at the crab feeds are Dungeness crabs. Good, fresh Dungeness crab meat is sweet, tender and tastes great. The Dungeness crabs have hard shells and the crabs have usually been cleaned and cracked, but are still in the shell. Occasionally I hear about crabs feeds where the crabs are served already shelled, but it is really a lot of fun sitting around shelling and eating crab with your friends while wearing bibs. 

The Shrine Event Center in Livermore is a venue for several crab feeds every year

The menu at nearly all of the crab feeds that I have attended included all you can eat crab, salad, pasta, and garlic bread. Several crab feeds in the Bay Area also include all you can eat shrimp.  I would imagine that if someone were to attend several crab feeds during the crab feed season, they could easily pack on 25 pounds.

There is a group of friends and family members that I usually attend at least one crab feed with every year. Last Saturday night we attended the Livermore Rotary's crab feed. When we attend a crab feed, we don't just show up and eat. There are things to bring and some planning involved. Our friend Kim brings butter warmers, butter, and hand wipes. Although there is seafood sauce on the tables, my aunt Patsy brings her crab dressing, which I prefer over the seafood sauce. I bring light appetizers, such as crudités. Everyone brings tools to help make extracting the crab from the shell a bit easier.

One of Kim's butter warmers

Aunt Patsy's crab dressing

The tools we use to extract the crab from the shell

The salad

The pasta

A bowl of the all you can eat crab at the Livermore Rotary's crab feed

This was the first time we attended the Livermore Rotary's crab feed and fortunately, the Rotarians and their guests were well behaved. The event was much more low key than crab feed we attended a couple of years ago where there were "chick fights," dirty dancing, and wardrobe malfunctions (all performed by mom's that had way too many cocktails at this church affiliated crab feed).  The emcee for the Rotary's crab feed was Juliette Goodrich from CBS 5 news. It was a lot of fun seeing many old friends and coworkers at the event--even more so seeing them wearing bibs.

Emmy award winning reporter Juliette Goodrich emceed the event

It was a lot of fun seeing many old friends, like Jacob, at the Rotary Crab Feed

Aunt Patsy's Crab Dressing

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

Directions

In a mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce, and blend well.

~merry~

So, the West Coast has crab feeds, what kind of feeds do you have in your part of the country?

Last week I was flipping through channels looking for a movie to watch. I caught the tail end of one of my favorite movies from the 80's, St. Elmo's Fire, which was cast with the popular actors of the time. Think Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy. Watching that movie reminded me of the things I loved about the 80's--the big hair, the music, Miami Vice, California Wine Coolers sold in the 2-liter plastic bottles like soda, Rick Springfield, Ray Ban and Vuarnet sunglasses, Gucci purses, think Rob Lowe again . . . . and the list goes on.  Some of the foods that became popular during the 80's were blackened fish, buffalo wings, potato skins, ranch dressing, quiche, sun-dried tomatoes, sushi, mud pie, seven layer salad, and goat cheese (yuck) on salads and pizza.

My friends and me (that's me in the middle) toasting the bride and groom with our California Wine Coolers at a 1980's wedding

One weekend in the late 80's some of my friends (those California Wine Cooler drinking friends above) and I went to Napa for a wine tasting weekend. Being the wine connoisseurs that we were (remember the wine coolers), I think we probably tasted all of the sweet pink White Zin that Napa had to offer. 

While in Napa we went to a restaurant in an old brick building that had a line of people out the door waiting to get in. When we finally did get seated, it was late and the restaurant was nearly sold out of everything on the menu. What they did have left was the special. I had never heard of the special before and it was on the menu in celebration of St. Patrick's Day, which happened to be that day. I don't remember what the server told me that sold me on trying the pasta with the green sauce, which would have been outside of my comfort zone, but after that night the sauce became one of my all-time favorite sauces. The first bite of my pesto and pasta, covered with walnuts and chicken was incredible. At that time my hometown of Livermore was restaurant-challenged and I was afraid that night would be the first and last time I would ever eat pesto. Never fear, pesto would become more and more popular through the 80's and 90's. I would even be able to purchase frozen pesto at Safeway. Armanino frozen pesto in the blue box is my favorite frozen pesto.

I've mentioned before that I love the smell of fresh basil and I usually have some growing in my garden. I bought a basil plant at Trader Joe's in the late spring, planted it in my garden, and it is now huge and still has plenty of leaves on it. Well, basil just happens to be the main ingredient of pesto. So last week, after watching St. Elmo's Fire, I made some pesto for the family for dinner. A few nights later one of my friends was coming over for dinner and instead of running to the store for meat, I made another batch of pesto. Before the month is over, I hope to have made a batch or two more of pesto to freeze.

Here's the recipe I used for my pesto.

Basil Pesto - Makes one cup of pesto

Ingredients

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts or chopped walnuts

3 medium sized garlic cloves, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

If  you've picked your basil fresh from your garden, make sure you rinse it well and be on the lookout for critters.

Fresh basil from the garden, rinsed and critter free

In a food processor, combine the basil with the pine nuts (or walnuts). Add the garlic, pulse a few times. Add the olive oil and combine. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until everything is well blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Pine nuts

All pesto ingredients blended well

Pesto mixed with pasta and ready to serve

To serve with pasta: Cook one pound of pasta according to the directions on package. Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Stir in the pesto until all of the pasta is well coated. If the pasta has cooled down, put the pot on medium high heat until the pesto and pasta is heated.  Remove the pasta from the pot into a serving dish. Top with grated parmesan cheese and pine nuts (or walnuts). 

Other serving ideas:

Add grilled chicken:  Add bite sized pieces of grilled chicken into the pasta and pesto.

Add broccoli:  During the last two minutes of boiling the pasta, add bite sized pieces of broccoli to the pot. Drain the broccoli with the pasta and cover with the pesto. This is the method I used to get my girls to eat broccoli when they were toddlers.

Healthy eating: Use whole wheat pasta for extra fiber and other healthy benefits, which include lower blood pressure and reduced risk of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

~merry~