What’s Cooking?

BY DEBBI BARER

Ingredients

4-6 unsalted matzah sheets

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar, packed firm

¾-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semi-sweet chocolate

The Method

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line a cookie sheet completely with foil. Cover foil with baking parchment paper. This is very important to prevent mixture from sticking.

Line bottom of sheet evenly with matzah sheets, cutting extra pieces to fit any spaces as evenly as possible.

Combine butter and brown sugar in a 3-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Continue cooking 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and quickly pour/spread over matzah.

Place in oven and bake 15 minutes, checking every few minutes to make sure mixture isn’t burning. If it seems to be browning too quickly, remove from oven, lower heat to 325°F, and replace.

Remove from oven and sprinkle matzah immediately with chopped chocolate or chips. Let stand 5 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate over the matzah. While still warm, cut into squares or odd shapes (I find using a heavy knife or pizza cutter works well for this). Chill in refrigerator until set. (Freezer works too).

Optional: after spreading the chocolate but before cutting, sprinkle chopped nuts, sea salt, or anything that strikes your fancy.

The Barers prefer their “crack” straight up.

BY ELISE MEYER

Ingredients

4 medium zucchini

1½ cups jarred or homemade marinara sauce

Filling:

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg

¼ cup chopped fresh spinach

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

1⁄3 tsp pepper

½ tsp shredded mozzarella cheese

2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

2 tsp olive oil

Salt, to taste

Ground black pepper, to taste

Place upside-down into the baking dish to seal. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Sprinkle ravioli with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the zucchini is al dente and the cheese on top turns golden brown.

Serve with additional marinara sauce, Parmesan and fresh basil, if desired. Yields 14-16 ravioli.

BY DIANA SUSSMAN

Good breakfast and brunch dishes are always hard to find during Passover. These pancakes will start your child’s day with a smile.

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

4 eggs

½ cup almond butter

1 tsp Passover vanilla extract

The Method

Preheat oven to 375°F

Grease 2 (9 x 13-inch) baking pans. Then spread a layer of marinara sauce into prepared pans.

Using a potato peeler, slice the zucchini vertically into thin flat strips. You will end up with 50-60 slices. Discard any slices that contain any outside peel.

For filling: Mix the ricotta, Parmesan, egg, spinach, basil, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

To form the ravioli, place two strips of zucchini side by side, slightly overlapping. Then cross two more strips perpendicularly over the first strips, creating a plus sign.

Spoon 1 Tbsp of filling into the center of the plus sign. Bring the ends of the strips together, overlapping to create ravioli.

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chocolate chips

Butter or cooking oil for frying

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Honey or passover syrup for topping

The Method

Put bananas, eggs, almond butter and vanilla in food processor. Blend until smooth. As an option, you can stir in chocolate chips.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over low heat. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter into hot pan. When the top starts to bubble, flip pancake and fry for a minute more. Repeat with remaining batter. You can add fresh bananas, strawberries and blueberries on top for fun.