Ricotta Ravioli in Brown Butter Garlic Sauce

 One of my favorite movies has to be Julie and Juliet. Amy Adams is just so adorable and cute in it! Of course she always is in any movie she's in, but Julie and Julia is just especially great. Any movie having to do with food, and one of the food queens herself Julia Child, is obviously going to be amazing. 

One of my favorite parts is when she talks about butter. 

"Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter."

That quote right there sums it up! Butter is amazing. I mean just look at this amazingness going on here; butter, onions, and garlic... Nothing is better. Period. End of story.

Now to brown butter is even better! This recipe is so simple and can be made even simpler by using pre-made ravioli. 

Ricotta Ravioli in Brown Butter Sauce

Pasta Dough

3 cups flour

4 eggs

Directions

Make a well with the flour on your counter, then break the eggs into the middle. With a fork slowly start beating the eggs and incorporating the flour until the dough gets too thick to use the fork. Then begin kneading with hands. Wrap with seran wrap and let sit at least 30 minutes.

Ricotta Filling

16 ounces ricotta

Garlic salt

Parmesan (grated)

Directions

Mix all the ingredients together with a fork in a small bowl.

Assemble Ravioli

After dough has sit, roll out strips about 2 inches thick through a pasta roller. Use an ice cube tray to help you get even squares and equal sized raviolis. Pleace the dough over the tray and push filling into the holes. Cover with another length of dough and cut in squares with a pizza cutter. Use a fork to seal all the edges. 

Salt a big pot of boiling water and cook ravioli for about 5-8 minutes. Once the ravioli is done, transfer to pan with sauce.

Brown Butter Sauce

3 tbls butter

1 yellow onion (chopped)

2 cloves garic (minced)

1 tbls mascarpone cheese

1tbls flour

1/2 cup smoked gouda cheese (grated)

Directions

Melt butter in a large sauce pan and add onions. Cook stirring occasionally until the onions get translucent. Add in garlic and continue cooking for several more minutes. Add mascarpone and stir until melted then add in flour to thicken. Continue cooking mixture until it just starts turning brown and fragrant. 

Once sauce is done add the ravioli and immediately add cheese and stir, carefully so as not to break the ravioli.

Peanut Butter Cup Sprinkled Brownies

Is anyone else loving this weather? This morning I woke up to go to class and it was in the 50's! It's actually cold enough to have wear jackets and jeans!

This is part of why fall is my favorite time of the year. The cold weather, football games, hoodies, holidays, and pumpkin everything! Especially Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte... Mmmm... late night Starbucks run anyone?

Anyway, a friend of mine asked me to make him some brownies that he'd seen a picture of on facebook. He actually offered to pay me for the price of ingredients plus an extra $10! This is the first of my customers for my business! How exciting!

I don't usually use recipes from brand names, usually because I don't like using brand name mixes, I like homemade everything, but since he specifically wanted this recipe I allowed it. It was homemade too, except for the peanut butter cups, but it was absolutely delicious! He shared some with me and some co-workers, oh so sweet of him!

They came out so beautifully, and the peanut butter swirls remind me of maple leaves, which of course makes me think of fall, which is partly why i'm posting this now!

Fall is in the air and so is the smell of pumpkin! Which reminds me, Starbucks anyone?

Here is the link for the recipe if anyone wishes to try this deliciousness for themselves!

The Noble Pig

Finally! I was so excited to try The Noble Pig last week. After hearing about it from a friend, food network, everywhere in Austin and from my brother about amazing this place is, i've been eagerly awaiting the time when I would finally try it....

And now I have.

Sometime's after hearing great reviews on something it tends to be a let down. I mean it has to be truly mind blowingly good if that's what I hear about it all the time. The Noble Pig was not a let down.

It's a very small deli several tables and usually a line out the door. When I went it was no exception. Me and my brother patiently waited in line in the Texas heat with everyone else trying to have a taste of one of, if not, THE best sandwhiches in Austin.

The menu varies from a familiar BLT to a Smoked Duck Pastrami sandwhich. The one that really caught my eye though was the Seared beef tongue sandwhich with smoked green onions, red pepper relish, and aioli. This sandwhich.... pure bliss. Served on whole wheat toasted bread, the simple combination of flavors worked perfectly together. And how they managed to get the bread from getting soggy I have no idea, but this sandwhich was a work of art.

It comes with a bag of seasoned potato chips, and of course who can pass up root beer in a bottle? A perfect lunch any day. Well worth the 8 bucks.

Blue Dahlia Bistro

I'm late I know I know, not that anyone really reads these anyway... But! I have a good excuse so don't judge just yet! We went to dinner on Tuesday and I was exhausted that night, just go to bed at 9 o'clock tired I don't even know why, then Wednesday was my birthday, woot woot 17, which you will see in the belowe picture of me and my boyfriend, I look so weird, but he bought me a cookie cake, how sweet! And delicious! Plus my brother bought me a chocolate raspberry mousse cake, so heavenly, and my mom's making me a German Chocolate cake this weekend plus a birthday dinner. I think i'm getting fat.... Anyways, on Thursday I had classes, one of which got cancelled so being the smart person I am I went ahead and took the Department exam for English 1, which I passed! So guess who's done with English for the year! Ah i'm so excited, now I just have to finish TX Government and i'm done with school for summer! Two more weeks baby! And finally here it is Friday afternoon with nothing to do as of right now. Later i'm making shrimp and grits one of my specialties so a very exciting Friday for sure!

Now for the review. Blue Dahlia Bistro... Let me start by saying my dad wasn't too enthusiastic about coming to this place, just because of the location. Here's the story, my dad used to work for the Texas lottery back in the day, so he would have to go to convenience stores and liquor stores and do whatever business with the people. There's a little liquor store on East 11 that he had to go one day, it was in the afternoon, and he parks his car and starts walking towards the store. A white man then comes out of the store with a gun screaming "What the hell do you think you're doing here?" My dad tries to explain that he worked for the lottery and was just doing his job. The guy then tells him "Don't you ever come here in the afternoon. You make this your first stop, you come in the morning then you leave!" The guy then has to back my dad up to his car while pointing his gun at a bunch of gangsters walk out of the liquor store towards my dad. Yeah... I'd be iffy about going back too. Now though, where East 11th used to be ghetto, it's now the residence of places such as Blue Dahlia Bistro, Franklin Barbeque, and a little yoga shop. New buildings have transformed this place from a ghetto, to a nice little hipster corner. 

Blue Dahlia fits in perfectly. It looks like a French bistro, with a patio in the front and in the back. The front is covered in plants and flowers, and when you walk in it's dimly lit with a pastry counter filled with delicious treats you want to just attack right there. The back patio is all concealed by a fence and is beautifully decorated with plants and flowers as well. The atmosphere really made you think you were somewhere other than Austin. The wait staff were very friendly and attentive as well. I give them a good grade for that.

I had already looked up the menu online so I was pretty sure what I wanted before I even got there. Truffled Duck Mousse Pate with Cornichons, Coq Au Vin Blanc, and Duck Cassoulet stew. Unfortunately I didn't see the duck stew on the menu at the restaurant, so instead of that we got Mussels Dijon. 

Mmmm Duck Mousse Pate with Cornichons... Last week had been my first taste of any kind of pate, so you can see I got addicted. This here, was amazing... Better than the Pork Pate I had had before. It was stronger and creamier, and just melt in your mouth amazingly good. I could eat just that and be happy. 

The Mussels Dijon. A giant bowl overflowing with delicious mussels in a creamy white wine sauce with bread completely surrounding the whole thing... What's not to love? Second time having mussels ever in my life, and i'll be honest, the other time I had it was better. But, still very very tasty and definitely satisfies the craving for mussels. 

First time having Coq Au Vin Blanc chicken. Maybe I had my expectations higher, but I was expecting a little more. Maybe if I had had this on a cold day it would taste better, but on a 90 degree day in Texas, ehh. It was still delicious and cooked just right, but it reminded me of just chicken soup without the noodles. Which is totally cool with me because I really don't like noodles in soup too much. Very good, but I think i'll stick to the pate next time! 

So there you go folks! Sorry I was late once again! Do check out Blue Dahlia Bistro because it IS a very nice very relaxing restaurant, and I hear the brunch menu is amazing, I shall try that next time!