Cookaholics Bulletin Board

"Baby Jaden" enjoyed a dish at a local restaurant the other night which is huge for this picky eater. It was a simple Bowtie pasta dish that was flavored with butter and Parmesan Cheese....no onions or veggies. Looking for a flavorful similar recipe.

I would like to make a Chocolate Roulade....I would prefer a whipped cream center but I understand that the filling will not hold for more than a day. I've looked at CI's recipe which uses marscapone cheese....any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you!

Lu

Like Pasta Aglio e Olio? I used to make a similar dish in my bachelor days. I'd slowly sauté some garlic in olive oil, then mix it with cooked pasta, chopped parsley, and a couple handsful of grated Pecorino Romano cheese. Some toasted bread crumbs are nice, too. No real recipe, though. It was just something I'd make for lunch or dinner when money was tight. I made it with Parm every now and again, but that sort of defeated the purpose of making a cheap meal. Also, I really love sheep's milk cheese, so I was actually more partial to the Pecorino.

I can empathize with the picky eater problem. My son only likes peanut butter on whole wheat, crackers and Monterrey Jack cheese, hummus, and pancakes. Or, you know, anything with sugar in it.

Pesto, but it is the dreaded green color. Also, I make kind of a spaghetti pancake by mixing eggs and whatever Ihave. You can do this with just egg and cheese. And hang in there. My baby, who lived on nuggets, noodles and carrot sticks is now texting me photos of her culinary adventures. She may even like crab. I almost fainted.

Mary

Good parm and butter over hot noodles might just be what that was, nothing fancy but oh so good. The secret is gobs of cheese. And butter.

I just made a 7 minute frosting the other day and think it would be great in a roulade. Or any of the variations for a whoopie pie filling, i.e. the one from CC with the marshmallow fluff or a boiled icing (the one with milk and flour).

I was thinking butter and Parmesan too. The key is to melt the butter in the pasta, let the pasta cool a bit, and then add the Parmesan. Keeps it from clumping. A tbsp or two of heavy cream helps too. I personally like it with a good grind of pepper, but this would not be for a child's palate.

Yup. Even though I do not have kids, I've got 17 nieces and nephews, and they just want it simple. Oodles of butter and cheese and they're happy. No seasoning or additions whatsoever.

Luckily for me, they are mostly all beyond that point, so they now appreciate more sophisticated tastes.

Amy

Lu, for the filling you might try CI's whip cream and cream cheese frosting from the Strawberry Cake, it holds up nicely or my favorite from Flour, Crispy Magic Frosting. I think I posted the recipe here before.

I agree with the simple pasta. I love just good olive oil, with garlic and good parm, but enjoy it with Pecorino or a combo as well. I actually prefer it with oil than butter, but butter is super good too.

You may want to also try making your own mascarpone (super easy), and then whipping it to firm it up a bit since homemade mascarpone isn't quite as stiff as commercially available. But, it's much better tasting!

Amy

Hey Lu. Actually if you have whipped cream stabilizer available, your cream filling will stay in good shape for several days inside a roulade. I always use Dr. Oetker Whip It in the little blue packet whenever I make whipped cream that will be frosting or filling for a cake (or just when I want to have some whipped cream around for a few days and don't feel like using my whipper.) But I've also seen that KAF sells stabilizer too in a larger quantity.

I used Brown Eyed Baker's Buche de Noel recipe to make a roulade at Christmas. The cake was delicious but the filling had a bit too much coffee taste for me (should have used less espresso powder) and I thought it could have been a little sweeter. But that didn't stop me from snacking on it for days afterward. Actually now that I think about it, I threw away the last few slices of it because I couldn't leave it alone

Emilie

p.s. Amy, thanks for mentioning the homemade mascarpone. I've never made that before and it's a great idea.

I'm with Alina on using the filling from CI's Strawberry Cream Cake. I've used that in a chocolate roulade and it held up great. Basically the filling is whipped cream stabilized with cream cheese, and in addition to making the filling less weepy, I like the subtle flavor increase the cream cheese provides.