Sunday Supper

Sunday dinner is hallmark in my book - there is nothing like gathering at the end of the weekend with friends or family to toast the week that was and the week that will be.  During the week it can be hard to have a proper meal with the fiancé, but the weekends are where I cook and we enjoy at least two meals together.  I love going out to try new restaurants but more often than not I prefer to flip through a cookbook or latest food magazine and usually end up making some sort of healthy soup or delicious roast chicken.  In order to inspire you to do the same, I have compiled some delicious recipes from Foodie.com.

The Dinner Table:: Pumpkin Ricotta Ravioli with White Wine Sauce

I do not have one bit of Italian in me, but sometimes I think I do, if only for my love of Italian food - hazelnuts, cappuccino, olives, bread and pasta.  I oftentimes think that I could trade the big city for a small town in Italy where life is simple and pleasures like food are greatly appreciated and celebrated.  

When it comes to pasta, typically I eat store bought whole wheat pasta, but recently on a crisp fall night, I had my mind on making ravioli filled with pumpkin and ricotta cheese.  Making your own dough is a labor of love, but definitely worth the effort.  I made this pasta dough recipe and filled it with this pumpkin ricotta filling and this white wine sauce - it was divine, absolutely heaven.  If you are looking for a great fall meal to celebrate the season, this should do the trick and then some.  Continue for more...

The Dinner Table: Quinoa Cakes

 For as much as I love to eat something sweet, you will find me more often than not eating healthy foods rich in nutrients. One of my favorite sources of protein and fiber is quinoa.  I love this grain for it's nutty taste, so I decided to make Quinoa Cakes, perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Continue for more...

The Dinner Table: Baked French Fries with Herbed Garlic Oil

I have many, many herbs to use before the first frost, so lately I have been incorporating them into every meal that I possibly can, as you saw here. I always prefer fresh over dried - I feel that the former imparts more flavor into a dish.  One recipe that I decided to make recently was Baked French Fries with Herbed Garlic Oil - a healthier version of the traditional approach of deep-frying.  After tasting these fries, you will most likely never go back to the fried version, as these taste just as good, if not better.  Continue for more...

The Dinner Table: Rustic Pizza

One of my favorite things to do over the weekend is to cook (and bake, of course!), preferably when it is a collaborative effort with my boyfriend, John. On this particular recipe, it was he who took the lead and I played sous-chef and of course, photographer.  For quite some time he has been perfecting not only his recipe for pizza dough but the technique that you actually cook it.  I am proud to announce that he has done both of those things with perfection. This pizza crust is fantastic and in my personal opinion it is like eating a slice of pizza on a piazza in Rome.  Continue for recipe...

The Dinner Table: A Greek Salad

 Oftentimes when I really want to remember the delicious food that we ate while in the Greek islands, I close my eyes, feel the breeze of the Aegean Sea and specifically remember biting into the juiciest, most amazing tomato that I had ever tasted, all while the sunset overhead.  

Prior to visiting Greece, I had quite a different idea in my head of what a Greek salad consisted of, oftentimes it was mixed greens (or even worse iceburg lettuce), crumbled feta, sliced black olives, and tomato. There was definitely something lost in translation when this salad started appearing on the menu in the United States.  The Greeks incorporate thickly sliced cucumber, sweet cherry tomatoes, diced feta, thinly sliced red onion, capers and Kalamata olives.  They then season it with a drizzling of olive oil and dried or fresh oregano.  Greek salad according to the Greeks, in my opinion is how salad should be; they combine the freshest ingredients and flavors that visitors will dream about and try to recreate for the rest of their life.  Continue for recipe...

The Dinner Table: Whole Wheat Pasta with Heirloom Tomatoes & Fresh Herbs

One of my favorite things to do in the summer besides going to the beach is visiting the Union Square Market on a Saturday morning.  Going early allows you to really miss the crowds of people that filter through and stare in awe at the beautiful produce (who knew fresh vegetables and fruit could be so pretty?). On this particular day I wanted to purchase some heirloom tomatoes, each summer I look forward to these multicolored tomatoes that pack so much flavor and can stand-out in any dish.  In my opinion, tomatoes work best with fresh mozzarella or pasta, so I decided to make the latter and incorporate some fresh herbs from my herb garden.  This dinner could not be any easier and involves very little prep work, but the results are so fresh and delicious, you won't be disappointed 

Directions: You can easily adjust this dinner for how many people that you are serving.  In my case I was serving only two. I finely diced five different sized tomatoes and set them aside, in the meantime I boiled water enough for two portions of whole wheat pasta.  Once the pasta was cooked and drained I added it to the diced tomatoes.  I finished the pasta off by chopping up various fresh herbs, I incorporated thyme, basil, and parsley. I mixed the herbs into the pasta and finished it off with a scoop of fresh ricotta, but parmesan reggiano would also work very well too, and finally I drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and presto, dinner is served!

*All photographs by Alison