Homemade Pasta At Last!!!

They say that third time's a charm. Well this is the third time that I tried making homemade pasta and I refused to fail. Thankfully, Jamie Oliver's recipe in Cook with Jamie is much more helpful than his recipe in his first ever cookbook where only egg yolks were required. Plus it also helped that I scored some "tipo 00" flour at an Italian deli on a recent trip to Halifax.

The simple recipe calls for 5 cups of tipo 00 or pasta flour with 6 large free-range eggs. The flour should be the finest and silkiest one you can find...apparently, silky flour = silky dough = silky pasta. As for the free-range eggs, I think that if you know that food is unethically raised or pumped full of chemicals then you should stay away. So free-range is common sense.

You must first make a well in the centre of the flour, break the eggs into the well and start working the whole thing together. If you're lucky, you should end up with a nice lump of dough that you could just knead for about 10 minutes making it all soft and smooth. This was the exciting part for me because I knew that I'd finally made pasta dough. When you've got so few ingredients, it's all about texture. So then I just had to wrap it up in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour. Half an hour with a smile on my face.

One thing that I would consider as an absolute must is a pasta machine. It's either that or rolling the whole thing out by hand. Not something I'd enjoy doing. Even when the dough was so smooth and easily worked. So with my huge ball of dough, I divided it up, pressed it flat and then ran it through the largest setting of the pasta machine for a about 6 runs, folding it over every time to work the dough.

Trying to keep the sheet of pasta's edges square (fold the rough edges into the middle and pass it through the machine) all I had to do then was roll the pasta progressively thinner in the machine. Once I had that, I had a few options. The first I tried was cutting it with a sharp knife but this mostly just pressed the dough together thus making it a bitch to seperate every individual strand.

Fortunately, I have an attachement on my pasta machine to cut fettuccini or spaghetti. Fettuccini was on the menu the first day. On the second day of pasta gluttony, we went out and bought a mould to make ravioli. It was so simple. Just press one sheet into the dimples, drop a bit of ricotta or other filling, lay another sheet on top and press. They all come apart beautifully and make a really nice little meal.

I really love the fact that I can make my own pasta. Next time, I'm trying it with semolina since I find the smooth white flour lacked texture. But I really can't complain too much. Making things from scratch is a pleasure in itself. Eating it is only half the fun. Ok, maybe four sixth of the fun. Anywho...

Garlic Scape Pesto Fettucini with Sun-Dried Tomato Sausage

I know that title is too long. Sort of like something you would find on an insecure restaurant's menu. But this was no insecure meal. And it all started with my friendly local organic gardener. Where did I meet him? You guessed it, the farmer's market. They can also be found online at http://www.amarosia.com/.

This garlic scapes - something that looks like a stiff curling green onion - were great as a pesto. Not my recipe though. I got a free copy of the recipe upon purchase of the scapes. You wouldn't see a supermarket do that. And even if they did, the recipe would probably be some disgusting concoction.

Anywho, once I'd wizzed the pesto together with my food processor, I plopped a few handfuls of fresh spinach fettucini in some well salted water (These were bought from an Italian couple who sell their pastas at the market - ravioli to be featured soon). Eight minutes later, I pulled out the cooked noodles with tongues, did not dump them in a colander but simply in a bowl and drenched in the pesto. Now I've been reading alot about Italian cooking lately and if memory serves me right, this is what you're supposed to do with your pasta. Pasta water for Italians seems to be what butter is to the French. Or something like that.

Along with this very fresh pasta, I fried a few sausages from my market Italian sausage man. His sausages are huge, flavourful and always interesting. He makes buffalo sausages, apple sausages, a variety of Italian sausages (obviously) and, my own purchase, a pork sausage with goat cheese, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes. They were delicious and subtle. Their beautiful juiciness cut right through the richness of the pesto and the pasta. These ingredients complemented themselves very well.

What a joy it is to cook when things actually turn out like you wanted them to!

Amarosia's Organic Garlic Scape Pesto
5oz garlic scapes
3/4 cup olive oil (the original recipe call fro 1 cup but I find 3/4 is quite enough)
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
1/2 cup pine nuts, or walnuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Their way:

1. Coarsely chop garlic scapes, removing tough tips. Place in a blender and add 1 cup olive oil. Puree.

2. Add 1 cup parmesan cheese and 1/2 cup pine nuts. Puree again, add extra olive oil if needed.

3. Stir into freshly cooked pasta. Season with salt and pepper if desired.

My way:

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor except the olive oil. Pulse till a paste has been achieved.

2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil with processor spinning till the pesto becomes creamy and makes little slooshing sounds. The slooshing sounds are very important. Splashing means you've put too much e.v.o.o. in. Shame on you.

3. Stir into freshly cooked fresh pasta preferably made by your own hands. Season and enjoy.

Three Strikes Against Homemade Pasta

Turns out homemade pasta is really hard to make. The recipe in the italian cookbook you see at the left says that the basic recipe for pasta is 1 cup of flour for every egg with 1/4 tsp of oil and a pinch of salt. With two cups of flour, I had to use 3 eggs. Strike one.

After that, it was kneading time or, in other words, forearm workout. The dough ended up pretty smooth and elastic but sadly I didn't roll it thin enough. Strike two. My attempts were made with a rolling pin...now I know why I was advised not to try making homemade pasta without a pasta maker. It would have been much easier to feed in the dough and turn a crank. Needless to say we didn't eat it, which would be strike three.

Accompanying the pasta was a Sauce Vierge (literally meaning "virgin sauce" in French) which I found in the Cordon Bleu Professional Cooking book. This textbook set me back about $90 Canadian but it was well worth the buy even though I can't try everything or it would send my food budget through the roof. Anyways, the sauce is very good. Its sharp, tangy taste is mellowed out by the olive oil and tender tomatoes. Here's the recipe.

Sauce Vierge

7oz 200ml Olive oil

4oz 110ml Lemon juice

2tsp 7g Garlic, chopped

1 tbsp 7g Basil, chopped

51/2oz 160g Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

2oz 50g Black olives, diced

Salt

pepper

Hot pepper sauce

1. Warm olive oil

2. Add other ingredients

3. Serve warm over pasta