Bats And Cobwebs 57 Food

BATS AND COBWEBS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
• Fill a large pot with lightly salted water, bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the bow tie pasta and return to a boil. Boil pasta, stirring occasionally, until cooked through but still firm to the bite, about 12 minutes. Drain well.
• Cook and stir ground beef and onion in a large skillet until beef is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Drain fat. Stir in pasta sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer.
• Stir cooked pasta and half of the mozzarella cheese into the sauce; toss to combine. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
• Bake in preheated oven until browned and bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes.

BLOODY RED WINE PASTA WITH MOZZARELLA BATS

Steps:

• Combine water, red wine and beet juice (around 3/4 cup) in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add linguine and cook until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid and drain the pasta. Set aside.
• Add beets, remaining 1/4 cup red wine, garlic, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, 1/2 cup parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper to a blender. Pulse until smooth.
• Pour the beet mixture into a saucepan. Add the reserved cooking liquid and heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Add the sugar, remaining parmesan and a pinch of salt. Simmer for 3 minutes.
• Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat. Garnish with fresh mozzarella bats and parsley.

BAT AND COBWEB COOKIES

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together into a large bowl; set aside.
• Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Beat in eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture.
• Divide dough into 3 equal pieces, and flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough 1/8 inch thick. Transfer dough to a parchment-lined baking sheet, refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Use bat and cobweb cookie cutters to create shapes. Transfer to baking sheets, and refrigerate 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining disks.
• Bake cookies until crisp but not darkened, rotating sheets halfway through, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks, let cookies cool completely before decorating with Royal Icing.
• Using desired base color (black for bats, white for cobwebs) and a pastry bag fitted with a very small plain round tip (such as #3), pipe icing on each cookie to form an outline. Fill in with more icing, and smooth with an offset spatula. Embellish before icing dries.
• Bats: Using colored icing, pipe three lines in an arc on the still-wet icing base. For each wing: Drag a wooden skewer across the width in alternating directions. Add eyes after icing has dried.
• Cobwebs: Pipe a spiral of black icing on the still-wet icing base. Pipe decorative dots on points of cookie. Using a wooden skewer, draw lines from the center outward, connecting the center of the web and the decorative dots. Add spiders to webs after icing has dried.