Sunday, January 11, 2009

Fresh Pasta is Easy and Delicious


As I mentioned in a previous post, I got a pasta machine as a Christmas gift. I have previously tried to make pasta from scratch on two different occasions. The first was when I was in high school and I took a home economics class on regional and international foods. The second attempt was several years ago when I made ravioli from scratch. In my high school class, I had a pasta machine to flatten and cut the dough, but the second time around I had nothing but patience and a marble rolling pin. Back in September one of my food resolutions was to make fresh pasta, and with the help of the right equipment I was able to produce some excellent fettucine.
Making fresh pasta is very easy. I took my noodle recipe from Patricia Wells' excellent cookbook Trattoria. You should be able to find a good fresh pasta recipe in any decent Italian cookbook or online, but Patricia Wells is my personal favorite. It is also the book I used for the sauce recipe, which was essentially crushed tomatoes (a great use for any that you may have canned over the summer) simmered with sauteed garlic and olive oil, and then finished with a pat of butter and freshly grated pecorino romano cheese. It took me about an hour and a half to make the whole dinner, though that includes an hour to let the dough rest (a good time to do the prep work for other dishes).
Pasta is essentially eggs and flour that are kneaded together until smooth. You let them rest for a little while and then you go to work with the pasta machine. The machine helps finish the kneading process in addition to creating the thin sheets that are then cut into noodles. The thin sheets feel soft like silk as they come through the pasta machine, and can then be put through the noodle attachments for fettucine or spaghetti. Some pasta machines have multiple attachments you can use, but you can use a pizza cutter if you want to make ravioli, lasagne, or farfalle. Some cookware stores even have little pasta cutters that look like a cross between pizza wheels and pinking shears.
Fresh pasta takes far less time to cook that dried pasta--between 3 to 5 minutes in boiling water. It has a wonderfully fresh taste that is particularly good with simple sauces.
The picture at the top of this post is my fresh pasta creation served with a skinless, boneless chicken thigh that was sauteed in olive oil with garlic and fresh snipped rosemary (yay for potted herbs).

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