Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Angel Hair Croquettes with Cheese

Challenge recipe #3 was another difficult one. The book, The Renaissance of Italian Cooking by Lorenza De'Medici is gorgeous. Pictures of the different regions of Italy, beautiful houses, stunning food photos. But when it came to choosing a recipe to cook....

Spinach Sautéed in Garlic (Spinaci all'Aglio)? Boring. Not very challenge-ish.

Fresh Sardines Baked in Breadcrumbs (Sarde al Pangrattato)? Sounds good, but I have never seen fresh sardines here (or anywhere, for that matter).

Stuffed Rabbit (Coniglio Ripieno), which isn't really stuffed like you'd stuff a chicken, but instead laid out flat, topped with pancetta, egg frittata and mortadella, then rolled up and baked. Sweet Jesus, I want this right now. But have you seen the price of rabbit these days?

So I settled on Angel Hair Pasta Croquettes with Cheese (Crocchette di Capelli d'Angelo). You cook angel hair pasta, mix in eggs & parmesan, shape into balls, and stick a cheese cube in the middle. Coat in egg, then in breadcrumbs, and deep fry. Sounds good, a little like arancini, stuffed leftover-risotto balls (delicious), but with pasta instead of rice.

STOP! Don't try to make these. There was no way these were ever going to be shaped into "walnut-sized balls". I tried cutting the pasta into shorter pieces. I tried chilling it. I tried adding more egg. Then more cheese. No dice. I ended up frying the pasta in a skillet, with the cubes of cheese nestled into the pasta. Even that didn't work too well, because the 2nd side burned a little because I didn't add more oil when I flipped it. And it tasted like, well, fried pasta.

I should've made the rabbit.

4 comments:

Kitt said...

Aw, well, at least you learned something!

What is the price of rabbit? I love it, but have never tried to buy any rabbit meat myself.

Vicki said...

If you want a humanely raised organically fed rabbit, be prepared to pay more per pound than the same type of beef. I wish I was zoned for livestock so I could raise my own (and pay someone else to do the scary parts).

Kitt said...

Hmmm, lots of city dwellers are keeping chickens these days. Seems like you could have a few rabbits without anyone raising a fuss.

If it were me, though, I'd just end up with a whole lot of pet rabbits instead of food rabbits.

Vicki said...

True, and rabbits are much quieter than chickens. Skinning and gutting I can handle, but I'd probably end up with pets too, because I'm not sure I could kill a mammal.