We’re hardly into October and we have just seen the first whispers of winter here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It’s still too early to break out the parkas, mitts and hats since I’m sure the little bits of snow will melt before they fall and stay for good but this kind of weather makes me long for comfort food.
As you all know, if you’ve been following me, I’ve recently plunged into a pasta making addiction and aside from the traditional comfort foods like ‘mac and cheese’ I love dipping into different ways of enjoying pasta. I’ve been craving a Czech dish that includes good pasta 😉 and poppy seeds and sugar. It’s a sweet dish that we would have occasionally and it was a treat. Unfortunately it’s rather difficult to find poppy seeds that aren’t bitter and old; I’ve gone to several places and haven’t yet been successful. No worries though, I will get there! For now though another sweet pasta dish was on the menu at our house.
Kugel is a Jewish dish that can be either sweet or savoury; I tend to lean towards the sweet and was on the hunt for a good recipe. I first fell in love with this dish when I had it at my friend Deb’s house many, many years ago. Even though I generally don’t like raisons in things, they didn’t bother me in this dish… and if you soak them in rum for a day like this recipe calls for, then they are even better!
I used my pasta recipe, which includes regular flour so it isn’t gluten free found in the last post or here I also sliced the apples super thin using a mandolin and layered them in the middle of two layers of the pasta, that way each bite was filled with a little of the sweet apple. I have to admit that I used homemade ricotta found here and homemade crème fresh found here and followed this recipe… it was super yummy! This was my first venture into homemade ricotta but it certainly won’t be my last. The ricotta that I am able to get at the store is generally quite wet and runny; who knew it was sooooo easy to make… alas another love affair has started! The homemade crème fresh was a little off putting because it seemed a little slimy so I’m not sure I’ll go down that road again but I have to admit that it tasted good.
I may not be Jewish, but master is and trust me, if you make this kugel recipe, all from scratch like I did, everyone will be sure that you are… Jewish that is…
… I’m actually convinced that you can make whatever you want and as long as you use these noodles you can’t go wrong.