Happy Thanksgiving!!

We all know that for Thanksgiving is a MUST to have on the table
a big turkey!
But my Italian origin requires an Italian flair to be added to the feast!
I have prepared "ravioli" filled with butternut.
Here is the recipe:

BUTTERNUT RAVIOLI with BUTTER and SAGE

Ingredients

for pasta:
4 eggs
400 g flour
1 pinch of salt

for filling:
1 butternut (more or less 500 g)
1 cup of grated parmesan
half tsp nutmeg
olive oil
salt
2 amaretti biscuits

Start with cooking the butternut.
Clean it from seeds, slice in big chunks, sprinkle them with oil and salt;
bake in the oven at 350 F for 40 minutes or till soft.
(you can prepare butternut also day before).

For dough,mix well all the ingredients to form a ball.

Let it rest under a ceramic bowl for 10 minutes.

When butternut is cold puree it in a food processor, then add nutmeg, parmesan, crushed amaretti and salt if needed.

Knead the dough, cut a small piece and flatten it
in a pasta machine to obtain a long rectangular stripe.
On one side of the stripe (lenghtwise) align 1 tsp balls of filling,
then cover them with the opposite side of the stripe and cut in squares.

Use all the ingredients.

Once ravioli are ready cook them in boiling salted water for 5/7 minutes.
Melt butter in a frying pan, add sage leaves and when frying add in ravioli.
Sprinkle with parmesan and serve very hot.

CREPES

In my family it's tradition to make crepes for breakfast
on a sunday morning!
Me and my son have been making them for a long time and
I have been experimenting lots of different recipes to find
the supreme one.
The recipe I have chosen among them all it hasn't been given
to me by one of my friends in Paris but by a mom of a dear
Italian friend.
I changed it slightly but I'm still calling it:

ANTONINA's CREPES

Ingredients for 8/10 crepes:

1 cup white flour (100 g)
250 dl milk
2 eggs
1 TBS melted butter (15 g)
1 TBS Cognac or white wine or beer


Separate whites from yolks and beat them to obtain soft peaks.
Beat egg yolks, add flour and milk little by little.
Add cognac and butter.
At the end add egg whites and mix gently with a wooden spoon.
Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Warm up a medium frying pan, spread base with butter
(use a solid piece of butter)and spoon in mixture.
Move frying pan around so mixture can spread covering the all pan.

After few minutes (when you start seeing little bubbles) turn crepe upside down with
a spatula and let it cook for couple of minutes or till golden.
If you want a sugar and cinnamon flavored crepe, this is the time you sprinkle it with them so sugar has a little time to melt!

Remove crepe in a plate and repete operation till mixture ends.

For breakfast you will sprinkle crepes with cinnamon and sugar if you want to reproduce an original French crepe or you will spread them with Nutella
if you want them Italian style.
If you then want an American flavor you will cover them with maple syrup and blackberries!

I remember that my aunt would prepare cannelloni with a crepe base instead of pasta.
So use your imagination and create lots of different delicious savory crepes.
My favorite is the traditional ricotta and spinach!