Farmstead Roasted Vegetable Risotto with Crispy Sweet Potato Chips & Pomegranate Rubies

Do you ever fear that one day you will run out of creativity? That it will all just dry up in a panic and you'll be left with zero ideas. Sometimes I fear this will happen to me. Then I remember that there are restaurants and inspiration is literally everywhere. I swear one trip to Europe is enough to keep me inspired for years. 

The best meal I've had in a long time was vegetable risotto at Farmstead in Napa. You know something is amazing when you can't stop eating the leftovers, cold, five days later. Yeah. So good. The restaurant is as farm to table as you can get. We literally witnessed the chef walk out back to the garden, pick some herbs and return to the kitchen. Everything about this place was lovely. Including, and especially their risotto. Re-creating is has been on my to-do list for a while. And with Valentine's Day less than a week away, I think the timing is just perfect. 

After a couple tries it tastes spot on to the risotto I had on that cool afternoon back in October. Warning, risotto can be a bit involved, but in my opinion, it's got a worse reputation that it deserves. And should really only take about 20-25 minutes max of near constant stirring. You see, there are certain kitchen tasks that require near constant attention, like smitten's ethereally smooth hummus that requires you peel each single chickpea and homemade pasta that most normal people would totally roll their eyes at and say "you've got to be kidding me, not worth my time". Well, risotto sort of falls into that category. And you know, I think I've discovered the secret to these types of somewhat monotonous tasks. The answer is turn on a good pandora station, pouring yourself a generous glass of wine (hey, you've already opened the bottle of the risotto anyway!) and allow yourself to settle in and let it be a sensual meditative experience. It also helps if you have a partner, one person to manage the ingredients as they get added to the pot, and one to man the stirring. The result is well worth the wait.

I recently followed a butternut squash farro risotto recipe which was delicious and lovely, but it barely made 3 servings, which was seriously disappointing for the amount of time and effort. I knew I didn't want that so this recipe makes a whopping 6-8 servings, though I'd say closer to 8,  and also happens to re-heat beautifully. 

It's packed with tons of vegetables, from butternut squash to broccoli to everyone's favorite kale. And despite being a traditionally heavy winter dish, this risotto is surprisingly light and fresh with lemon zest, fresh basil, and tangy pomegranate arils. It almost feels spring-like which is sometimes refreshing in the dead of winter. Something about homemade risotto is just so special, comforting, and perfect for treating yourself or sharing with someone you love.   

Farmstead Roasted Vegetable Risotto with Crispy Sweet Potato Chips & Pomegranate Rubies
Serves 6-8 

For the Risotto:
2 cups arborio rice 
1 cup dry white wine
6 shallots, sliced 
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided 
1 small butternut squash
grapeseed oil for drizzling 
6-7 cups low sodium vegetable stock 
6 ounces baby broccoli, chopped
2 medium zucchini, diced
7 ounces shitake mushrooms, sliced 
1 small bunch of kale, de-ribbed & chopped 
2 teaspoons of salt 
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan 
zest of 1 lemon 
1 large pomegranate, de-seeded 
1 large bunch of basil, thinly sliced

For the sweet potato chips: 
1 large sweet potato 
grapeseed oil (or coconut or canola oil) 
1/8 teaspoon cumin 
1/8 teaspoon paprika 
1/4 teaspoon salt 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel the butternut squash and scrap out the center (you can save the seeds for roasting if you'd like), and dice into small cubes. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, toss squash with oil, salt and pepper. Cook for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato and using a thinnest setting of a mandoline, slice into thin strips. Toss with oil, cumin, paprika, and salt. Line a baking sheet with parchment and place sweet potato slivers in a single layer, being mindful they don't touch, and cook at 400 degrees for about 7 minutes, watching carefully as not to let them burn. Note: both of these can be done ahead of time. 

Make the risotto. Heat the vegetable stock in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat 3 tablespoons of butter in a dutch oven or large saucepan over medium heat. Sauté shallots in butter until soft, about 5 minutes. Add rice and stir. Add wine and continue stirring until the liquid reduces by half. Ladle about 1/2 cup of the warm stock into the rice, stirring until liquid is completely absorbed, then ladle another 1/2 cup of stock and continue to stir almost constantly. Repeat. Once about one quarter of the stock is incorporated, add in the broccoli, when about half the stock is incorporated add in the zucchini, when about three quarters of the stock is incorporated add the mushrooms. Just before risotto is finished stir in the kale. Continue with remaining stock until the risotto is creamy and al dente, I ended up using 6.5 cups total. Add roasted butternut squash, two tablespoons of butter, salt, lemon zest and parmesan and stir until warmed throughout. 

Remove from heat, and serve, topping with sweet potato chips, basil, and pomegranate arils. 

Notes: 

• I find the water method easiest and and the least messy method for removing pomegranate seeds. Here's a video.
• You can really do this with any vegetables you have on hand. Just add in the vegetables that take the longest to cook soonest. 

Fresh Goat Cheese Ravioli with Heirloom Tomato Carpaccio in Brown Butter Sage Sauce

We all knew it was only a matter of time until we got some fresh homemade pasta up in here. The time has come, people, get excited. 

To start, let's rewind a bit and go back to my first homemade pasta experience. Believe it or not, back in college, I was a horrible cook. The first time I ever cooked for my husband, and he tells this story all the time, I sprayed a pyrex baking dish with pam then filled it with a NO BAKE boxed peanut butter cup dessert. The pam soaked real nicely into the packaged cookie crust and it was my life's biggest disgrace. Years later, my roommate and I had a freezer stocked full of frozen food and most of what I knew how to cook was some variation on cheese and carbs. Thank god, I've grown up a lot since then. Here's to never looking back! 

Within the year after graduating college, my good friend hosted a pasta making class for her birthday. She had her friend, who had recently graduated culinary school, come and teach us to cook. At the time, I didn't have the slightest clue of how the heck pasta is made. I just thought it comes dried in a package. So when our instructor showed up with a pound of all purpose flour and a carton of eggs, I was a bit skeptical. How are we going to make pasta from that? I thought. 

What I experienced in the next two hours I'm pretty sure changed my life forever. I'm seriously getting a rush of excitement just writing this! Not only did mixing the dough by hand and running the sheets through the machine make me feel like a child again, it honestly felt like magic. I almost couldn't believe my eyes watching the fresh sheets roll through the machine and come out the other side as pillowy, soft, fresh strands of angel hair pasta. Not only was it magical, it was empowering! We started with a bag of flour and a carton of eggs and we created this! We're incredible! As if the experience wasn't magic enough, once everything was finished we got to eat the stuff. For those of you who have yet to experience fresh pasta, it tastes very different from dried - it's softer, lighter, and more delicate. Really a treat in and of it self. 

Months later, I got engaged, uprooted my life in New York and moved to California to be with my man. I was unemployed, broke, and struggling to figure out what I was doing with my life. And one day, after one too many craigslist job ads, I marched my sorry ass to Sur La Table and bought a pasta machine. Somehow I knew, that even though it wasn't going to solve my problems, taking this shiny new machine home and spending the entire afternoon making pasta by hand was exactly what I needed. And I was right.  In many ways I find the process very similar to my yoga practice. It's meditative, requires just the perfect amount of focus, care, and attention, and best of all it's just so damn joyful. 

Through the years I've learned a couple things about pasta making that I must pass on. Here they are: 

1. Don't stress. It's just pasta. It can be a bit stressful handling the long sheets and trying to get it just perfect. But you have to remember it's just pasta. And the experience is supposed to be enjoyable. Also, I had the opportunity of watching Italians make pasta at a factory in Florence once and they man-handle the stuff with such confidence, absolutely no timidity there. 
2. Do not, I repeat, do not make pasta the day of a dinner party. If you're like me, and have a bad habit of taking on way too much, especially when given the opportunity to cook for others, know this is not the time. Make them in advance, the day before, that way if things go wrong (which they can) you can have time to make a back-up plan. I say all of this entirely from experience. 
3. Make pasta on a day you have nothing else to do. It's not a project that likes a time limit. And giving it a time limit will only take away from the joy of it and add stress. You don't want to be rushed, because it can take a while to get the hang of it, and projects like this always take longer than expected. 
4. Be patient with yourself. I have messed up so many times. Like really badly messed up and had to start completely over. There is a learning curve and a lot of trial and error. Be patient & see tip #1. 
5. Find a good Pandora station, and have fun. The truth is, you could probably drive somewhere and have pasta made for you. But making your own is just as much about the process as it is about the final product. Both should be enjoyed. 

Which brings me to this dish. It is Summer meets Fall on a plate and it's a recreation from a fantastic dish I had a couple months ago at The Villa, a lovely little restaurant in Woodland Hills. I went with goat cheese and a little lemon zest for the filling, instead of traditional ricotta, to lighten things up. The fresh ravioli are laid over a bed of thick slabs of orange, purple, and yellow heirloom tomatoes, fresh, raw and dressed in nothing but olive oil, salt, and pepper. (The restaurant menu calls them tomato carpaccio, a word I'd only ever heard when referring to meat. Confused, I asked our waiter, who then went on to describe them as "tomato steaks" which pretty much sold me on them right then and there.) Finally, a warm brown butter sage sauce is poured over the whole thing. The freshness from the tomatoes and the deep rich flavors of brown butter and crispy sage are a match made in heaven. In fact, I found myself obsessing over the combination of the two so much that if you're not into the effort you can skip the ravioli all together and just serve tomatoes in brown butter sage and it would be divine. 

Fresh Goat Cheese Ravioli with Heirloom Tomato Carpaccio in Brown Butter Sage Sauce 
Inspired by The Villa 
Serves 4 as a main (48 small ravioli) 

For the dough: 
200 grams All Purpose Flour
200 grams Semolina Flour 
1/2 tsp sea salt 
4 eggs, room temperature, (plus 1 for an egg wash) 
1 tbsp olive oil (optional) 

For the filling:
2 garlic cloves
8oz goat cheese
8 oz ricotta
1/2 tsp sea salt
pepper to taste
zest of 1 medium lemon 

For the sauce: 
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
1 bunch fresh sage 
1 tbsp lemon juice 
parmigiano-reggiano, freshly grated, to garnish 

For the tomato steaks: 
3 large heirloom tomatoes, preferably in different colours 
extra virgin olive oil 
salt & pepper to taste 

Make the dough. In a food processor (if you don't have one, follow the well method here) pulse both flours with salt until combined. Add in eggs and pulse until mixture begins to combine, then add olive oil and continue to pulse until a dough ball forms. Remove from food processor and knead on a lightly floured surface 5-10 times. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Make the filling. Add garlic to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add goat cheese and ricotta and blend until smooth and creamy. Add salt, pepper, and lemon zest and blend until completely smooth, adjust to taste. Refrigerate.

Make the ravioli. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Heavily flour your ravioli maker with all purpose flour, and your parchment paper with semolina flour. Work with 1/4 of the pasta dough at a time, leaving the remainder in the refrigerator. Press dough into a flat disk. Crank the dough through the thickest setting of your pasta maker. Continue to crank the dough through, each time adjusting the settings thinner and lightly flouring the sheets with all purpose flour when they become tacky, until your sheets are about size 7 (see notes). Halfway through, cut your pasta sheet in half (one will be the bottom ravioli layer, the other will be the top). Lay 1 sheet over your ravioli maker and gently press down on the center of each ravioli to stretch the dough. Place about 1 tbsp of filling inside each ravioli. Using a brush, paint egg wash in between ravioli (it serves as glue) then add the top pasta sheet. Press down between each ravioli using a rolling pin/your hand. Cut excess dough from the sides of the ravioli maker and return the the refrigerator. Carefully remove each ravioli and place on baking sheet, being sure the ravioli do not touch because they will stick together and never let go. Continue until dough and filling are gone. 

Heat a stockpot with salted water and bring to a bowl. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Add butter to a saute pan over medium heat. As the butter heats, white bubbles will form. When the butter has stops bubbling and brown bits begin to form, add sage leaves and continue to stir until butter becomes a light carmel color with many brown bits and leaves are slightly crispy. Add in lemon juice and remove from heat immediately, brown butter turns to burnt butter quickly. 

Cut tomatoes into about 1/3 inch thick slabs and drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper and line on plates or a serving platter. When water is at a gentle boil, add 5-10 ravioli at a time and cook for 3-4 minutes. Top tomatoes with cooked ravioli, and drizzle with brown butter sage. Top with fresh parmesan and serve. 

Special equipment: 

• Kitchen Scale - I got away with a cheap $5 one for years before upgrading to a digital
• Pasta Machine - I have this one. 
• Ravioli Maker or Ravioli Stamp (I have this one and this one) 

Notes: 

• Different pasta machines have different settings. For mine size 7 is the second to thinnest setting. 
• This recipe calls for enough dough that you don't need to worry about salvaging the scraps. 
• If you find that the dough snaps back at you and isn't easily malleable when you're working with it, give it a time-out in the fridge. I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the gluten content, and it's solved by refrigerating for a couple minutes.