(cheerful music) - [Sara] "Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by USA Rice.

And by: - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was started when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta, and now I transmit it to all the guests as something made specially for them.

- [Announcer] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(relaxing music) ♪ Inside out gotta figure it out ♪ ♪ I'm feeling good ♪ And it feels good to feel good ♪ - [Announcer] Sunsweet amazing prunes and prune juice.

(cheerful upbeat music) - They say America's favorite food is Italian.

Well, I say, give the people what they want.

Today I've got some crazy secrets for making the Italian dishes you love at home.

I think the Italians would all go, "Ah!"

But don't tell them.

But I'll tell you this.

You will adore my Butternut Squash Farrotto (oil splashing) with prunes and fried sage.

I'm a happy camper.

And then: You might be thinking, "Oh my goodness.

"I can't make pizza dough on a weeknight."

Well, guess what?

You can.

Takes six minutes.

And I've got more tricks up my sleeve.

Homemade ravioli using wonton wrappers stuffed with three cheeses.

What a perfect weeknight meal.

Don't you think?

Here's another one.

Fast weeknight lasagna.

My secret?

You can pull it off in no time if you use store-bought cooked polenta instead of noodles.

And a sausagey red sauce and mozzarella.

And...

Doesn't that look amazing?

Italian with a secret, today on "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(soft upbeat music) Farrotto is risotto made with farro.

What is farro?

It's an ancient grain.

And today I'm gonna make this dish, which is I think more nutritious than risotto.

Obviously, 'cause it's an ancient grain with butternut squash and prunes and fried sage.

So I'm gonna start by frying the sage.

And after you taste fried sage, you're gonna start frying every single herb known to man.

So in here I have one inch of high heat oil, grape seed oil, and we've heated it to roughly 365 degrees.

And you only wanna do a few at a time because they bubble off.

You're gonna see, okay?

Fasten your seatbelt.

Here it goes.

(oil splashing) Now it doesn't take any time at all, about 10 or 15 seconds, and then you take them right out.

Once you see them float and start to turn a little bit color, get them on a sheet pan lined with paper towels to drain off the excess oil, and then sprinkle them with a little salt.

And you wanna salt them while they're hot because it will stick to the oil on the sage leaves.

I'm gonna use the same pan for my farrotto.

But before I do that, I'm gonna brush my knife with oil.

You will find out why in a minute.

You can use this oil again.

It will smell wonderfully or have a faint taste of sage 'cause we just fried the sage in there.

But I'm not going to.

We don't need it today.

I'm using the same pan to make the farrotto, because why dirty two pans, you know?

Let me get my butter in there.

(butter splashing) Two tablespoons of butter.

And the pan's very hot from the oil so I'm gonna also add the onions at the same time and then just cook them gently until they get lightly golden or just translucent.

It's important to season as you go.

Don't wait till the end or it will taste like a dish with a salt garnish.

You just want it to have a lot of depth of flavor.

While the onions soften, I'm gonna cut up my prunes.

Now back to why I oiled my knife.

The prunes are gonna add so much to this dish.

I mean, first of all, prunes.

I mean, prunes are good for you.

Everybody knows they help keep you regular.

But for women it's very important for bone health.

So it's sort of good to incorporate it into your regular recipes.

They're high on the satiation chart.

I like them so much because they- See?

Doesn't stick to your knife.

When you're cutting up dried fruit, use an oiled knife.

They add moisture, they add their own flavor.

They're not just sweet.

And in a dish like this, they're perfect with the butternut squash and the sage.

So we need about a 1/2 a cup.

I'm gonna add 2 cups of pearled farro.

Very healthy, nutty, chewy, not as starchy as the rice you use for a regular risotto.

Just as you do with a regular risotto, we're gonna now put the grain in and we're gonna stir it around to make sure they get sort of coated with that butter.

Now it's important to get pearled or semi-pearled farro because if you get the whole grain farro, you'll have to soak it overnight.

It takes forever to cook.

And I'm gonna add both my prunes and that cup of dry white wine.

Use an Italian one, if you have one.

Even a Pinot Grigio would be nice.

The acid will balance sort of the starchiness of the farro and also the sweetness of the prunes.

It's gonna make a big noise.

(mixture bubbling and splashing) Traditionally, when you make a regular risotto, you add the liquid in small increments, like 1/2 cups.

I worked with Andrew Carmellini, a great chef from New York City, and he's Italian so I got it from Italian.

And he said, "Heck, I don't do it that way.

"I add the broth in two stages."

Now the broth, I haven't talked about that yet, is we're using chicken broth today.

You could keep this vegetarian and use vegetable broth.

I've got 5 cups that I've been simmering over there.

You want your broth to be hot.

Okay, that looks almost completely absorbed so I'm gonna go get my broth.

(soft upbeat music) So now we're doing the Andrew Carmellini lazy woman's version.

I'm just gonna let this gently cook down.

I'm gonna stir it, well, once or twice, but I'm not gonna fuss.

So while that's cooking, so 15 minutes we add the second half of the broth and then in another 15 minutes, but while it's cooking, let me talk about farro.

So this has been around since 44 BC.

They found it in some of the Egyptian tombs.

I mean, it's been around forever.

It's been served to troops throughout the centuries.

It's just so nutritious.

And if you've never had it, you can really find it in supermarkets now.

It's just a great grain to add to the plate.

All right, it's been 15 minutes.

It's absorbed most of the liquid.

I'm gonna go get the second half.

All right, here we go.

(soft upbeat music) All right, so while this cooks for another 15 minutes I'm gonna go deal with my butternut squash.

It's a small one.

What I do is I cut it and this is cooled now.

I cut the butternut squash in half and I roast it 350 for 45 minutes to one hour, or until you can stick a knife in easily.

And it's a really good way to cook butternut squash 'cause it concentrates the flavor.

One of my tricks is I don't take out the seeds before I roast it, because it's so much easier to take out the seeds after you roasted it.

So now I'm gonna take this out first.

Now I debated, when I worked on this recipe, should I puree the butternut squash?

And then I thought, "Well, why?

"I'm just putting it in here?"

You know, why puree it when you're just gonna throw it in the pot and stir it around and stir it around?

(soft upbeat music) I can't be bothered.

Okay, that looks good now.

It's creamy.

It looks like the grains are nicely cooked.

There still will be a nice crunch, which I like.

Time to finish the dish.

(soft cheerful music) I'm gonna add a tiny bit more water.

I like my risotto, whatever kind it is, and this is farrotto, to be soupy.

I think the Italians would all go, "Ah!"

But don't tell them.

I just like it to be sort of creamy and soupy.

So there's that.

Of course I love pepper in a dish like this, so plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

And then some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, about 1 ounce.

Please use the Real McCoy.

And how you know it's the Real McCoy is 'cause when you buy it in a chunk, you'll see somewhere on the edge of it, the outside of it, will be you'll see parts of the word of Parmigiano Reggiano.

Oh boy, this is the perfect dish for a cold night but really almost any night.

Oh yum, yum.

This serves four to six people.

Of course I see it as a main dish but you could certainly serve it as a course.

But it's so hearty that why not have it as the main dish?

So now a little more cheese.

The last thing that's just so wonderful.

A little bit of fried sage.

And hey, if you wanna be wild and crazy you can put even more on than I just did.

Well, what the heck?

I'm gonna be wild and crazy.

Okay, so there you have it.

My version of risotto made with ancient wheat.

And the funny thing is, if it's so darn ancient, how come it took me so long to find it?

But now that I found it, I'm a happy camper.

Mmm!

This is the best.

My farrotto with butternut squash, prunes, and fried sage.

(upbeat jazz music) All right, I'm cheating on you again.

And this time it's an ingredient I spent hours and hours and hours making this homemade pasta dough.

Not!

These are wonton wrappers.

You find them either in the freezer section of the supermarket or maybe in the fresh section where you might find the tofu.

And I'm gonna use them as ravioli wrappers and stuff them with three cheeses and some peas.

But I'm gonna start by making my tomato sauce because you can buy tomato sauce and, yeah, that speeds up the whole process a little bit, but why not just make your own with good old Italian plum tomatoes?

I've had some onions cooking here, 1/2 of a cup chopped onion, and some garlic.

And we're just gonna let this get aromatic for a second.

Then I'm gonna add some hot pepper flakes because I like that little bit of chili in there.

And the Italians use the hot pepper flakes all the time.

My little trick.

In the old days, I used to open up a can of tomatoes, put it all over the cutting board, and then chase the liquid all over the place.

So now what I like to do is take off the lid and then just take scissors and just give them a chop, chop, chop.

Stir this.

Oh my goodness, I'm cooking with two hands.

So.

There we go.

Yeah.

I'm gonna bring it up to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer and let it go until it's concentrated.

I'm gonna add a hefty pinch of salt too.

Oh, my pepper flakes.

How could I forget them?

And a hefty pinch salt.

Okay, onto the filling.

When you're making your stuffed ravioli, you need about a level tablespoon per ravioli.

I'm figuring, okay, I'm gonna make this for about six people and so each one is gonna get roughly four to six ravioli so I'm gonna make 2 cups total filling.

Which means I can make 32 ravioli.

I've got a 1/2 a cup of peas in here.

These are frozen, defrosted.

I'm gonna add a 1/2 cup of ricotta.

And add a 1/2 a cup of Parmigiano Reggiano.

This adds the salty element to it.

And we're just using the microplane, which is my favorite for grating cheese.

I just find it the fastest.

All right, so there's our Parmesan.

We're gonna add a little nutmeg because when you're making a cream sauce, or when you're working with cheese, nutmeg is just a nice thing to add.

(grater clinking) Onto our mozzarella.

I am using the dreaded four-sided grater because we need the coarse side.

I'm gonna spray it a little bit so that the cheese doesn't stick.

(soft upbeat music continues) Yeah, that looks about right.

Pinch of salt and some black pepper, freshly grated.

Always freshly grated.

Do not buy the pre-ground stuff.

It's dead.

Oh, this smells great.

I can smell the nutmeg.

Now when you're working with the ravioli, it's fresh and it dries out very quickly so you wanna keep it covered while you're working with it and just take one piece at a time.

So I've got a nice little towel.

You could use a towel, you could use some plastic wrap and just cover it up.

Got a little bowl of water.

We need some glue.

And you do about three at a time.

(cheerful upbeat music) So now we're gonna get them wet on the edges.

Now when you put the top one on, you press around right around the filling 'cause you don't want air in there.

You wanna make sure you get all the air out.

(cheerful upbeat music continues) And you notice as I've shaped them, I've put them on flour.

It could be corn starch also because they'll stick and we don't want them sticking.

So I'm just gonna add salt to my water, which you do at the last minute.

Plenty of salt.

This is particularly true with starch.

Potato, rice, pasta, that salt's gotta go in when they go in.

So in it goes.

This is kosher salt.

Now I'm gonna put them in and turn it down to a bare simmer 'cause if it boils wildly, they might all, pachew, fall apart.

And even so, sometimes they do and don't panic.

Just carry on.

These take about three to five minutes.

Usually, fresh pasta only takes about one or two.

Remember this is a double layer.

Okay, I'm gonna give this a little stir because we don't want them all sticking to each other.

Now I'm gonna get some basil for the topping.

Basil and tomato sauce.

Wow.

(cheerful upbeat music continues) Okay, I'm gonna check one.

I can see they're getting sort of clear around the edges.

Gonna take a little tiny taste off the corner.

Those are just about there.

I'm gonna start setting up.

Okay, so sauce on the bottom.

You can put sauce on the top too.

And I just tasted this and re-seasoned it.

It's very important to taste it.

So let's put this on the bottom and then we're just gonna put these guys on top.

So pretty, aren't they?

See?

They're substantial.

There we go.

Moving on.

Okay, tiny bit more tomato sauce on top.

We need to have a little more Parmigiano Reggiano right over it.

And finally, a little bit of basil.

What a perfect weeknight meal, don't you think?

My wonton ravioli stuffed with three cheeses and peas.

(bluegrass music) (upbeat music) What's more Italian than pizza?

We all love it.

Here's a secret.

Homemade pizza dough is super easy.

Here's how.

You might be thinking, "Oh my goodness.

"I can't make pizza dough on a weeknight."

Well, guess what?

You can.

Takes six minutes.

Okay, so we're gonna start with the dough which is all-purpose flour.

And we need about 1 3/4 cup.

And what's gonna really help us here is the rapid rise or instant yeast, 'cause it works a lot faster than regular yeast.

That's how come we get away with a 35 minute rise.

With a rapid rise or instant yeast, you add it right to the dry ingredients.

One package.

One teaspoon each of salt and sugar.

The sugar will help to sort of jump start the dough.

And there's a teaspoon of salt.

And then I've got some very hot water.

To the water, I'm gonna add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

First, I'm gonna just mix the dry ingredients.

And then in goes the liquid.

(mixer whirring) I want it almost to ball up.

Ah, look at that.

There we go.

Okay, so now we're gonna put it into a bowl that I've oiled very lightly with some more olive oil, and I'm just turning it around to coat the bottom side and then the top side with oil on it.

If I just put this in here without oiling the bowl and oiling the dough and just let it rise, it would get a skin and we don't want that.

So put plastic wrap on top.

Put it in a warm place.

And there you go.

And I have some over here that's been rising for 35 minutes.

And it doubles in bulk.

And how you know it's ready, besides just looking at it visually, is that- Let me just put a little flour on my finger.

That when you put your finger in, if it holds the indent of the finger, if it looks like an inny belly button, then it's good to go.

(cheerful music) Classic lasagna is not the kind of dish you can just throw together on a weeknight, but here's the secret.

You can pull it off in no time if you use store-bought cooked polenta instead of noodles.

So I'm also starting with sausages, I'm not just using ground meat, and I've got two sweet sausages.

You could use sweet, you could use hot Italian.

You just need about a 1/2 a pound.

And I threw these two sausages into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Look at how nicely they're slicing.

I'm also using the right tool for the job which is a serrated knife.

Meanwhile, gotta get my pan heating here.

We're gonna make a very- Oops!

A very quick tomato sauce.

This is olive oil 'cause this is a Mediterranean dish.

The sausage has some fat too so we don't need a ton.

Let me see how we're doing.

(sausage bubbling) It's really bubbling all around so I know the pan's hot enough.

I'm gonna get the rest in there.

And I'm gonna wash my hands and come back and continue.

(sausage bubbling) (upbeat music) While the sausage is cooking, and it will take about eight minutes to get some nice color on it, I'm gonna actually get my polenta going too.

Polenta is corn meal.

You could make your own polenta as your sort of lasagna noodle stand-in.

But I thought, "Why not buy this product in the supermarket?

"Makes my life easier."

Usually, I just saute the polenta like this in a non-stick pan in oil, but I wanna get a little color on it so I'm gonna take a tip from those big companies that make the French fries you eat at many restaurants.

They coat their French fries in some sort of corn starch or flour before they deep fry it, which gives it extra crispness.

Good.

(upbeat music continues) (pan bubbling) Gonna stir my sausages here.

By the way, you could also use turkey sausage.

You could make this leaner that way.

My onions are ready to go into the pan with the sausages.

It's one medium onion here that we finely diced.

I add a little pinch of salt 'cause I like to season as I go.

Get my mozzarella out and slice that up.

We need that to be ready too.

You need 4 ounces for this recipe.

I've got some beautiful, I can tell it's fresh mozzarella because it's very soft.

But any mozzarella that you like that works for you that you can find will be good.

We're gonna slice it.

So there's two cheeses that go in here.

There's mozzarella and there's Parmesan, 4 ounces of mozzarella and 2 ounces of freshly grated Parmesan.

Now I'm gonna turn these whether they're ready to turn or not.

That was worth the wait.

I got a nice little crisp on it.

Okay, I think I can add my garlic.

And this is only gonna be in with the onions and sausage for about a minute.

That's two cloves of garlic.

So I sort of just saute it around until I can smell it.

Which of course always makes me happy too.

And then when you've got a nice aroma of garlic, you add your tomatoes.

Our fire-roasted tomatoes, chopped fire-roasted tomatoes.

That's one 14 1/2 ounce can.

And we're gonna just simmer this until it dries.

We want all the flavors to meld.

And I think my polenta's done.

I'm gonna take it out and get another batch in.

(soft upbeat music) Ooh, this is wonderfully crispy.

(soft upbeat music continues) Okay, five minutes a side and then I think we're ready to assemble.

Okay, so we're ready to assemble.

First, a little spoonful of sauce just to moisten the bottom so that the polenta doesn't stick.

We did oil this square casserole dish anyway, but just a little sauce in the bottom.

Then about half of the slices.

Now half of the remaining tomato sauce.

Okay, half of our Parmesan.

Half the mozzarella.

The rest of the polenta.

I'm doing pretty well.

Of course, I'll get to the end and realize that I forgot something completely.

(soft upbeat music continues) The rest of the sauce.

I'm getting to the finish line.

Let's face it, you can't go wrong with melted cheese.

375 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes or until it just melts.

(cheerful music) Wow.

Doesn't that look amazing?

I can't wait to try it.

These three meals can be made in minutes and they're so budget-friendly, you must give them a try.

I'm Sara Moulton.

Thanks for joining me.

I'll see you soon for more "Weeknight Meals."

For recipes, videos, and more go to our website, saramoulton.com.

"Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by USA Rise, Sunsweet.

And by: - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was started when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta, and now I transmit it to all the guests as something made specially for them.

- [Announcer] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(relaxing music) (enchanting music) (upbeat music) (relaxing music)