Cooking Italian Pasta Sauces: Ratatouille, Ricotta Sauce, and More!

Well, hello friends. We’re so glad you could join us today. We’re thankful that this is the day that the Lord hath made. And we do, we rejoice, and we are so glad in it. I don’t care what’s going on in your life today, I want you to know that God is aware of it. If you have made Jesus Savior and Lord of your life, then you do not face anything alone. And I pray that whatever’s going on in your life today you will just give it over to the Lord. Just say, God, this is more than I can handle. And you know, we all go through things like that, more than what we can handle. But it’s so comforting just to know that He says He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete. He’s the one that comes to walk beside us. When we have God, the Father, Jesus Christ, His son and our Savior, and the Holy Spirit, who is the teacher and the guide, all three of those at work in our lives, I tell you, there’s no way we can’t win. So, whatever is going on in your life today, I want you just to stop right now and say, Lord Jesus, I cannot handle it. I ask you to come in and help me today. I need you. He never goes unless he’s invited. So, invite him into your life, your circumstances, your family situation, your marriage, even into the innermost thoughts that you have. He wants to be part of your life. And he has only your best interests at heart. So, please, today, don’t make it a day where you’re carrying that heavy burden that you’re so weighed down, I don’t know if I can make or not, he wants to be there for you and he always is. Well, today, a very special guest. You’ve seen her many times. She’s part of our Cornerstone family. Mary Anne Skeba is here. Now, if you know anything about Mary Anne, she’s Italian. And she loves to cook. And when she and I get together, we talk recipes and we talk Italian. No offense, but we just — we do, because her whole heritage was around the table and having a good time with foods and her family and mine was working with Italian folks. Just love that culture. So, you’re in for a treat because she’s going to make three, not one, not two, but three quick pasta entrees. And you don’t want to miss it. Right after the hint, we’ll be back. The noodles are cooking so come on back in just a minute. We’ll be right with you. Here’s today’s At Home hint. Freeze peelings from citrus fruits and zest as needed. Zest may be added to sour cream for a fruit dip, softened cream cheese for a bagel spread, or in soft drinks and teas. If you’ve got as helpful hint, we want to hear from you. Sent your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. Hey! This is my [Speaking Italian]. She’s Mary Anne and we’re going to cook for you [Laughing].

Don’t get me started.

I know, Mary. We always —

You know how I am.

This is the way it is.

When we get started —

I know.

We never end.

I know.

We keep laughing until.

Okay, what are you going to make for us?

Okay, this is —

I’m glad you’re here.

I’m glad —

Yeah.

To be here too. This is pasta ratatouille. You know —

Ratatouille.

The name — you know what that means. It means —

Yeah.

Bunch of vegetables all together that tastes good well.

Okay, what do you got cooking in there?

I have onion, garlic, butter. All the good stuff.

Sazitza.

Sazitza. Can you see this? Can you see this? I guess you can.

You know, normally I would have put the sausage in first and browned that off and that. But she did the —

Yeah.

Butter and the onions and the garlic and then she added the little sausage balls. I thought that was interesting.

It makes a nice, like a little sauce.

Good.

And now I’m going to start adding on the vegetables.

Okay.

And there’s an awful lot of vegetables here.

I know.

So, I might not use them all.

But they cook down, huh?

They do cook down. But I’m not so sure I’m going to use them all.

Well don’t. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.

Well, there’s no — I’ll use all the zucchini.

See, she’s going to use them all. I knew she would.

Zucchini, she’s a good for you [Laughing].

We brought the vegetables that are good for you.

And eggplant.

Okay, eggplant. And that’s just like one eggplant, huh?

That’s a hundred, I think.

It’s a hundred eggplant. It multiplies like the —

I’m not going to be able to —

I know.

Turn all this.

How are you going to get everything in there?

All right, and just for color, let’s add a little bit of —

Green pepper.

Green pepper. And let’s add a little bit of —

Red pepper.

Actually, you do this all to taste, Ar.

Sure.

You know, what we were saying before.

A yellow pepper would be pretty in there too, huh?

Absolute. Hey, listen.

Yeah.

Any vegetable in here would be good. I mean, some people put string beans.

Really?

Summer beans.

Yeah, I could see why that would work.

The wax beans. Oh, there goes one on the floor. That’s for the —

The dog.

Yeah.

That we don’t have.

And then you just keep stirring it. And it’s going to have to cook down a little bit.

Yeah, it does. Now, would you put a lid on that for that to cook down or just leave it cook like that?

I usually just let it cook out in the open. Now, you know how it is when you’re not using your own pots and pans.

How come you didn’t bring your vat that you cook it in?

Arlene, why didn’t I bring it?

I don’t know.

That’s a good question.

That’s the biggest one we got.

Yeah.

It’ll work. It’ll work.

It’s fine. But look how pretty those colors are.

Is that grill up high, Mary? Do we have the fire up high? You want it a little higher?

Yeah. It’s the second one?

Go ahead. Yeah, second. There you got it. Oh, now you’re going to be cooking.

All right, now that’s cooking. But look how pretty this is. Isn’t it lovely?

Beautiful color.

Now, this has to cook down just a little bit.

Okay. Then what are you going to do after it cooks down?

After it cooks down, I’m going to add half of that tomato sauce.

It’d be like a 28-ounce can, right?

Twenty-eight ounce can.

Okay.

And depending on how much you make. And some people like it saucier, so you can put more in.

Right.

So, what — this is an elastic recipe.

It’s going to grow or it’s going to diminish or whatever, huh?

That’s right.

Could you put mushrooms in there?

Oh, my gosh. That’s so delicious.

It would be great in there, huh?

Yeah, but where would I have room —

Yeah.

In this pot?

But anything coming out of the garden at this time of the year would be perfect in that.

Oh, Arlene.

Yeah. All the good stuff that comes out of the garden. You know, people could even put — some people like cauliflower.

Sure.

Some people like —

Could you do broccoli in there?

Sure. Anything.

Okay.

Oh good. This is starting to get brown.

Starting to get brown. That’s what you’re looking for, right?

And I like to hear it bubbling.

Starting, yeah.

If you could smell all these fresh vegetables. Oh.

Now, Mary, do you season when you’re doing this, or do you season at the end?

I like to season as I go.

Okay.

So, let’s put a little bit of salt in. Oh, I like that courser salt.

That’s the — yeah, it’s the course.

Yeah, I’m going to put a little bit more in there.

Yeah.

Because that’s a lot of stuff in there.

Well, that bursts too and adds more salt.

And what do I do with this? Just twist it?

No, not [Speaking Italian]. Look, I’m going to show you.

Okay, show me, because it’s really —

First, I got to turn it upside down.

Fancy. Oh.

So, you turn it upside down and then you do that.

That’s nice.

And you — isn’t that great?

Where’d you get that? I have to get one.

I bought that at the store and it was like three, four bucks. It wasn’t bad.

Oh.

Isn’t that nice?

I really like that.

Do you think that’s enough?

That’s plenty now. Thank you.

Okay. You have to tell me to stop because I just keep going until they tell me.

Let’s put some fresh basil in there.

Fresh basil. Oh yeah, my basil this year was beautiful.

Mine too. And some fresh parsley. You can hardly tell the difference.

Flat leaf with parsley, yeah.

They look —

But you know, I don’t like what happens to basil when you chop it.

It gets brown —

It gets black, yeah.

Doesn’t it?

Yeah, I don’t like that.

That’s a shame that it does that.

It is because it’s beautiful when it’s —

Arlene, what do you want — do you want me to continue before —

Well, you know —

It’s ready or what?

Tell me, are you going to put the pastas in there, too?

I’m not putting it in here.

You’re going to put it in another pan. Well —

Yeah.

Let’s start with a second one and I’ll keep stirring that until it gets ready.

Okay, good.

Okay? All right.

The second one is this, Ar.

Okay. You have to — I’m going to move this back then.

Okay, I should probably put this lower because this is going to —

Then let’s turn this one up. Go ahead, you start that and I’ll —

Okay, hon.

Fix it for you.

You’re going to fix it for me. Okay.

I’m going to fix it.

Okay, what we did here is we sliced three large onions and we put it in olive oil and butter and a little bit of garlic and we kind of caramelized them. If you can tell, they’re a nice golden shade. What did I do with that other spoon? I’ll user this one.

Over there, yeah.

They’re caramelized. And see how they’re kind of limp, on the limp side. And that’s how — oh gosh, that’s perfect.

Beautiful.

That turned out just perfect.

You don’t want them to get real brown.

No, you don’t. But there’s is a nice amount of butter and all that good stuff in here.

Beautiful.

Now, then when you’re ready, then you come over here, and while that’s cooking up, and that’s getting a little bit warmer again.

I’m going to add your fettuccines in here, Mary.

Arlene, I’m going to get another spoon here.

Okay.

This will do. All right, and I’m going to put about a cup of mascarpone.

Mascarpone. No tell us about mascarpone.

Oh, mascarpone is the most wonderful, delicious concoction.

Concoction.

It is —

Is it cheese?

It’s a cheese, but it’s almost like a whipping cream —

Oh.

Taste. And it is — it definitely has the sweetness like sugar sweetness, but it’s just wonderful. But it — sour —

But the texture is like cream cheese?

Yeah, it’s like cream cheese. And it’s got a sour cream and a buttery taste at the same time.

Oh.

It is just wonderful.

Okay.

Now, I’m adding some fun — what do you call that?

Feta.

Feta cheese. And this is fontina.

Okay, and that’s just grated. You buy all that and you just grate it, right?

Uh-huh. Okay, and you’ll get all these directions.

Yeah.

And all the amounts.

Absolutely.

And, okay, now it kind of gets like a paste.

Oh, it does get like a paste.

And you mix it. Yeah, see.

Okay.

It’s kind of like a little bit of a paste. And probably what we’ll end up doing is adding a little bit of the pasta water to it.

Water to it. Okay.

Yeah, oh gosh.

Let me see if I can get you a little dipper.

And another thing to remember when you’re making this is to kind of make everything at room temperature so that —

Yeah.

It’s easily mixed together. Look at that. That’s lovely.

Oh yeah, it’s coming nice together.

Okay. All right.

Okay.

How about if you just give me a little bit of pasta water now?

With the pasta water.

Just a little bit. Just one scoop.

Like this?

There you go. Yeah, that’s good.

You mean you’re going to put that in with that? Will that melt that?

Yeah.

Oh, you want it to, right?

I do.

Okay.

Okay.

Now see, a lot of people don’t keep their pasta water. But I think that any time you’re doing as sauce that kind of gets thick on you, you want to keep that because that helps —

Oh, absolutely.

To thin it down a little bit. And look how nice that’s coming together now.

It is just delicious.

Beautiful.

See, and you want it a little chunky because it has all that good feta.

Yeah, the feta is nice in there.

Oh, I love the taste of feta cheese.

It’s wonderful on anything, salads or anything. It really is.

Right.

So, you’re not going to use the rest of that —

I’m going to put it on top when we —

On top, okay.

Actually serve it. Now —

Okay.

With that, now I’m going to —

What do you want to do?

Take all of this.

You’re going to pour it in the bowl?

Yes.

Okay, then I’m going to pull this back here.

So, pour this in here.

Oh, that smelled — you should smell the onions. You would not believe how wonderful.

It’s heaven, isn’t it?

Absolutely.

There is nothing like onions and butter and garlic all cooking up together.

Cooking it together. That’s it. Yummy.

Now, you just mix these things together. You know what it kind of reminds me of is a pierogi.

Oh yeah, it does, huh?

Uh-huh.

Except you don’t have any pasta in there.

Right. And then — now, this is spinach.

Okay, baby spinach.

That has been — baby spinach that has been —

Shredded.

So, it’s shredded. It’s not cooked.

Okay.

Okay? And you put that in there. And, Arlene, we had our shell pasta —

We had some pasta. Okay, we’re going to take a break. When we come back, she’s going to put this on top of the pasta. You don’t want to miss it. We’ve got another one besides these two. These are great and quick recipes. We’ll be right back. I feel like I’m at Mama Pepino’s in New York City. We got so much pasta going, it’s so wonderful.

We’re going to feed everybody.

I’m telling you. Everybody on the block, everybody in your house. Okay, talk to me now. We were sauteing.

The smell.

This is the one with the ratatouille.

Yes.

Tell us what you did.

Well, all right. After it had cooked down just a little bit —

It did.

And all the vegetables got a little more tender, then we took the water out of the pasta. We drained it.

And this penne rigate.

Penne rigate. It’s got the little lines on it.

Right.

That’s how you know. And then —

And you added your crushed tomatoes.

We added the crushed tomatoes, of course, then to the vegetables and stirred it all around.

Mix it all together.

And then we poured it on top of this pasta. Here, Larry, let me —

Look at that.

Pick this up for you.

Look at that.

There you got it. And look, all the vegetables and all the peppers.

Everything is there.

All the zucchini. Yummy, yummy.

That looks so good.

Yummy.

Yeah, that’s going to —

I’m ready to eat, Ar.

Feed a lot. Now, I bet you it warms up nice too, huh? Rewarm?

Oh yeah.

Re-air?

Oh yeah. You can use it the next day. Oh, it is —

Okay.

So good.

All right.

Yes, okay.

And then —

Okay, let’s do pasta number three.

The other one that we finished that has the onions and all that, we’re going to show you at the end.

Okay.

I had a taste of this here. It is good. I can’t share. Don’t take it. Yeah. When she’s cooking, I’m going to take a bite, okay? All right, now what’s this last one?

Okay, now the neat thing about it is that I start all my pastas off the same way —

Yeah, butter and onions.

With the butter and the onions, boil the onions and the garlic, okay?

Right.

Now, this is — while this is cooking, then I go over to the blender.

I’ll check this out and bring my little dish over. Don’t mind me. Go ahead.

Arlene, and again, I need a spoon. Here we go.

Okay.

This is three cups of our ricotta. And Arlene bought me —

Ricotta.

Some really nice ricotta. And here’s what I do with this, because I never know how blenders are actually going to work.

Yeah.

I put part in first because —

Yeah.

It’s so thick.

Yeah, start it up. Yeah.

And then I take one of the eggs and I crack it in there.

Okay.

And you say, what? You’re putting eggs —

Raw eggs, yeah.

On pasta? You can’t be doing that. Yes, I am.

Well, you do because you’re going to put this —

Okay, press it on for me, Ar.

Okay, Mary, she’s not hard.

How do you work it?

Look, she go.

See.

She’s no go [Laughing]. Because the plug, she fall out.

Arlene, is it always something when we cook together?

I know. It is.

I don’t know. Last time with —

I think it’s you. I think it’s you, Mary.

It could be.

Okay, let’s try [Blender whirring]. Oh, there you go. Shake a little bit.

Okay. Shake a bit.

Shake it baby. There you go.

Okay.

Put some milk in there?

Yeah.

Okay, shut him off.

Now, see that? You have to do it in helpings. Because if I would have put all that in there —

It wouldn’t work.

We would have been here. Then you put a little bit of the milk in there. Now we’re going to put it on.

Okay.

On high.

Get some off of there. We — go, Mary [Blender whirring]. Mary, did you break it?

Arlene, it’s not my fault.

Did you break it?

I’m telling you [Blender whirring].

Blend on high. Blend. That one stays in all the time, high.

Okay.

Okay?

There. Okay, let’s do —

Some more cheese.

The next portion of it. Are we —

Now, you’re going to put two eggs in this, huh?

Yes, madam.

Okay.

This is an awful lot of cheese.

This is like a white, cheesy sauce, huh?

Yeah.

Like alfredo or not alfredo?

Well, it — this is my form of alfredo, because I don’t use all that whipping cream. Honest truth.

Yeah.

But, you know.

We just use all ricotta.

We just use all ricotta. So, what’s better, huh?

I don’t know. I’m holding the plug here in case you’re wondering what’s going on. I’m not picking up trash.

Okay, I’m going to put a little salt in here.

This — yeah. Go.

You’re holding the plug.

Okay. That’s all right, I hold the plug. Go ahead.

Okay. My hands, they’re all — okay, what do I do?

Okay, Mary, over here, blend it [Blender whirring].

See? See, aren’t you glad I’m here.

All right.

I can’t take this off up here if you want to pour through —

Arlene?

The top.

Are we two technicians?

You know what, give me my food processor. I cannot use a blend.

I know. Maybe we should do that.

That’s going to work now. That’ll work now.

Give me the spoon first a little bit.

A spoon?

I thought you were going to say [Speaking Italian].

Yeah, [Speaking Italian]. Oh, it’s going to get creamy now.

Now it’s going to work.

She’s going to be fine. Okay, now hit blend [Blender whirring]. See, you learn.

Give me some big stuff.

Liquify?

Yeah [Cheering].

This thing looks like a smoothie. That doesn’t look like sauce. That looks like a smoothie.

Now, look how pretty that is.

Creamy, huh?

It’s creamy, just like cream.

Oh my.

Oh, it’s going to be delicious.

Okay.

I better hurry up because we don’t have very much —

Yes, we don’t have time.

Okay. Then —

The onions, she’s over here.

Okay.

What do you want to do?

There’s the onions. Okay, I’m going to put the pasta in.

Here. Okay, you got them?

Now, we’re going to reserve some of the pasta water, Ar.

Yeah, that’s fettuccine noodles in this one. One thing about Mary, she uses different kinds of noodles. I like that.

Oh, I like all different kinds of noodles.

And she just drops it right in there.

Just drop it right in there.

Want me to mix it in?

Yeah, mix it up.

Mix them around a little bit.

Now, Ar, here is —

Now she’s going to put the —

The most wonderful. Now watch this beautiful transformation. You pour this in there.

Do you keep stirring?

Oh, heavenly [inaudible].

It looks like a white milkshake from the Dairy Queen.

And look at that.

Beautiful.

Oh. And then you put a little bit of salt and pepper.

Okay.

Now, don’t worry. It looks thin, doesn’t it? Yes, it looks thin.

It’ll thicken up from the starch from the pasta.

I’m telling you —

I think.

It will. And you don’t want it to get dry.

No.

Because it starts to separate somehow. Ricotta does that. Then you put lots of cheese —

Now, what’s that one?

In there. Asiago.

Oh.

Now, this is one of my family favorites.

Okay. Yeah, asiago, yeah. Now, do you put — there has to be green in here somewhere.

Oh yes.

Okay, so we got the flat leaf parsley and some basil.

Just a little bit of basil.

Okay.

Not too much because basil really takes it over.

Yeah, it does.

Look and see how it soaked it all in all ready.

Yeah, it’s — and that cheese will make it thick, too, the asiago that you put on.

Oh, this is going to be delicious.

Now, is that a main? Is that a main?

This is a main entre. It’s making my mouth water.

I know, it’s hard to talk.

I can’t even talk.

Huh? It is.

Look at that. Oh, Arlene, it’s so good.

Well, we did ratatouille.

Right.

This is Mary’s special pasta.

Well this is ricotta pasta.

Yeah, okay.

The special pasta is that little shell pasta we made.

It’s really a side dish, isn’t it?

It’s a side dish. You know what, Ar, with that small pasta you could use ditali, ditalini.

You could even serve angle di pepe.

Angle di pepe, yes.

Wow.

All kinds of little pastas.

Great. Okay.

And look, I’m just going to keep adding this in there because it is —

Okay.

Going to be delicious.

And while she keeps adding, we’re getting the dining room ready. When we come back all of this will be in the dining room. I hope you’ll join us. Stay with us. We’ll be right back in just a minute.

So good.

I know you’re going to want these recipes today. And, Mary, I know they are because these are such great dishes. And remember, it’s just as easy as we just told you. Just — if you want to just get today’s recipes or this month’s, you can send and request. Put a little offering in there to help us with the printing cost. Or you can get a subscription for all year long for only $25. Never have to write again and ask for them. It’s through the U.S. mail. Or you can go to our website at www.ctvn.org and there’s a process there how you can get a subscription online. Only $15 for the whole year and it comes to your email address just at the beginning of every month, just like that. So, whichever you want to do. We try to make it easy. And Mary helps with that. She’s a big help with our newsletter. She does all the graphics. We appreciate that so much. Truly is a team effort. And we thank God for the great team that He’s given us to help you and to get the recipes to you. So, I think we should talk about what’s on this table.

Arlene, it turned out so well.

The ratatouille. Okay, Mary, you have to serve this up.

Okay, this is pasta ratatouille.

This is the one that has sausage.

I’m going to stand up and —

Sure.

Serve this.

Sausage and eggplant and tomatoes and pasta. Oh my, that’s beautiful.

All right.

And cheese. All kind of goodies. Mary, let’s do — while you’re up there, you may as well just give me.

Okay.

Tell us what’s in that one.

This is fresh spinach and little shells. This is a wonderful side dish.

And onion.

And caramelized onion. You want more than that, Ar?

Yeah, a little bit more. Now, that would be nice like if you had a pork chop.

Oh, chicken.

A nice steak instead of a baked potato.

Arlene, even fish.

Mary, may as well do over there, please.

Oh, okay. Even fish.

We may as well have a little bit of everything.

Oh yeah.

Even fish would be great.

Oh my gosh.

Just a nice little piece of salmon there would be nice. And that makes a ton of sauce. And there’s loads of sauce that goes. That’s a fettuccine noodle and it’s not alfredo. That’s a little different than alfredo. No whipping cream in that.

This is ricotta.

Ricotta.

That’s what makes it different. And it has asiago cheese in it, which is —

Please —

Oh, my goodness.

Mary, get some for you too.

Oh, I sure will.

And you know, all we did here was it just took a little — we took — I don’t know. Some people don’t even know what a wedge of lettuce is. But you just take iceberg lettuce, just like this. You cut it in threes, fours, twos, however big a wedge you want, and you just serve it on a plate. And then you just drizzle your dressing over the top. That is Paul’s favorite salad, because it’s crunchy. It’s nice.

So good.

He doesn’t like a lot of things in his salad, like a lot of vegetables and stuff. He’s kind of — I call him a purest. But when you have a lot of vegetables in the pasta like that, you don’t need them.

That’s right.

This is nice. We have a clear, clean salad like that. And then, Mary, we added a nice loaf of bread down there, crusty bread.

Oh yes.

And then we have a little cranberry spritzer here. What more could you want, huh?

And it is so good. And then if you want a little dessert, you can add a little dessert. Some Italian cookies or —

Yeah.

You know.

A little spumoni.

A little spumoni.

Maybe with a biscotti.

There you go.

Yeah.

A little biscotti would be great.

But you know, these are three very quick pastas. And, you know, we always think of pasta as, oh, it has to be with sauce. It has to be with the meatball. It has to be —

No.

With meat sauce. These are three completely different ones.

Right.

And every one delicious individually. So, I hope you’ll try them. I also hope that you will give heed to what we talked about at the beginning of the program, that God really is interested in where you are and what’s going on in your life. So, give Him a chance to help you. Thanks, Mary.

Oh, it’s been a pleasure.

Lord bless you. Always joyful. Be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then.

Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s County Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.

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