I was having an actual date the other night and before hand we were talking about her coming over to eat. I said I'd cook. She was surprised and asked if she could watch. I said sure because I know she didn't quite believe that I could, I asked her what she liked and Kymm aparently likes Italian. I found that neat because she's Korean.

Anyway...Here's some of my recipes:

Tageltelli?

Pasta: I buy this great sheet pasta from an organic bakery downtown so I take this and cut it into strips, I like using a crimped pastry cutter for this. I like a fresh pasta but am willing to let somebody better make it. Cook it in salted boiling water for about 4 minute +1 minute per 2 handfuls of pasta, drain it but do not wash the pasta.
Also don't cook the pasta until the sauce is done.

Sauce: I first take 4 sliced of panchetta and cube it. You can use bacon or even prochuttio if you want to but you want about 1/2 cup of it. Next I used ground turkey 1kg or about 2lbs and three good sized Italian spiced sausages chopped finely if you just have regular sausage or something like that just add a teaspoon of chili flakes and a tablespoon full of fennel seeds. Fry this until you have it all well browned. Then add 2 chopped cloves of garlic. Stir it for a few minutes then add 1 cup of chopped carrots,onions and celery each then stir and cover still on high heat for 5-8 minutes. Now add 1 cup of red wine to de-glaze the pan, stirring it getting as much of the brown bits off the bottom them I add 1 large can of tomatoes that I've whizzed up in a blender of whatever type you use. Then I add 1 peach half buzzed up as well and two bay leaves and several springs of thyme. Cover then let simmer on a low heat as you make desert. Please remove the herbs before serving it.

Desert: Pastry rolls

I use pre-packed puff pastry because I'm a realistic cook the rest is dead easy and you should assemble the filling before you start anything else it the meal.

Filling as follows: 2 packages of sun dried tomatoes or 500g or 2 cups.
1 cup of dried apricots chopped.
2 tablespoon fulls of raspberry jam. Any dark jam can be used though, I've done this with dark fresh mashed berries too but you need to add sugar as it's vital to the binding of the recipe. If fresh fruit you'll need 1 cup.
1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar.
1 teaspoon of orange or lemon zest.
1/2 cup of red wine.
Salt 1/2 teaspoon and a heaping teaspoon of black pepper.
Stir the stuff up and then just let it sit and stand for as long as possible as the dried fruit and tomatoes soak up the flavors.

Once you've got your pastry cut and are ready to make fold overs. Take your filling put and center it in the pastry sheets bits. Put 2 or 3 fresh basil leaves on top of it them a tablespoon of marscapone cheese over that fold the pastry over and bake.

All and all I had a good time even though Kymm was a terror about sneaking a parfait spoon into my cooked ingredients. I hope someone might find a use for my recipes.