A Week of Pasta

Homemade biscotti, homemade yellow squash and tomato sauce,
and penne (not homemade)

Last week I was away from blogging. After a quiet time with family on Labor Day, rest of the week turned into a chaos: teenager's school activities, college search, ACT, scholarships search, a job search for husband, helping our daughter with her college, my own job hunt, interrupted by couple of power outages were less than blog friendly. Each time I started to respond to the comments, I would be interrupted by some emergency. After it happened third time on the row, I decided it was a sign to take a break and take care of all things required my attention.  We were able to sort things out and make plans, and now I can get back to blogging and share some recipes. 

Homemade fettuccine and homemade pesto

My dear friends, please, come back for biscotti recipe... :)

See you,
Marina

A Sweet Start

Sweet ricotta  handkerchief    

When I was looking for a good recipe to make semolina pasta, I came across some interesting facts. It is a well know fact that pasta's delicious history goes back thousand of years. But what was a discovery to me is that pasta was an elitist food of the wealthy up until the nineteen century, same century when pasta met tomato! 
Two hundreds years later, and pasta is a very affordable food for poor and/or unemployed (like me). 
Another interesting fact about pasta is that at first it was served with sweet seasonings and fruits. I can do it, was my thought this morning. So I quickly stirred up some dough and made my all time favorite (as of today): 

Sweet ricotta on a handkerchief with a strawberry jam... 

Ingredients:

• 7 2x2 inches (5x5 cm) squares of pasta fresca (fresh pasta) -  handkerchief 
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 2 tablespoon strawberry jam (or any other jam)

Cook pasta squares to al dente, drain. Place handkerchief  on a plate, top with a teaspoon of ricotta, then place another handkerchief, another teaspoon of ricotta. Them top with a strawberry jam (it will run down your handkerchief "mountain"). Serve immediately.

Have a sweet week, my friends!

See you, 
Marina 

Mastering the Pasta Dough

Ravioli

While Julia Child, one of the greatest and my favorite chefs, was mastering the art of French cooking, I've been mastering the art of Italian cooking lately. I think the fact that I was born about 600 miles East from Italy has something to do with my tastes and preferences, specifically in pasta department. See for yourself: I grew up on polenta, different types of homemade pasta, lots of vegetables, homemade breads and cheese. Those Southern European countries, kissed by the sun, have many similarities in their cuisines. Since I discovered lately that I do love pasta, homemade and fresh, I went on a quest to find out more.


"Remember to stay away from mass-produced cheap pasta, you will just be disappointed come dinnertime" warned Justin Demetri. 
Well, I know that the hard way, ten-years-of-hating-anything-pasta-way. 
I was disappointed and I didn't eat pasta until mother came to the rescue: during her visit last winter she made some pasta and I fell in love with it again. 
Then mother showed me the family recipe and I've been rolling since. Making pasta is a  fun process and is considered to be a meditation, especially the kneading part (I do it by hands). 

Semolina flour

I've read that semolina flour is quite tricky to work with so I decided to try it slowly: I made the first batch with two parts of regular flour (unbleached unbromide wheat flour) and two parts of semolina flour. I did add 4 eggs and four tablespoons of water. 
How did it go? Here is the evidence:

I let it rest with hope that gluten will develop and it would be easier to work with...

Not exactly the way I wanted it to go. 
Something was wrong: a) not enough moisture or b) not enough kneading. I think it's both. If you have another idea, please, do let me know. 
It had to be fixed by more kneading, I thought... 15 minutes later still the same results. 

Really? 

And the dough was though to knead, at some point I  would jump and press on it with all my weight , then jump and press again... My arms were getting sore but the dough was still stubborn and not elastic. 
Then I decided to add more water. That's a very tricky part, it's easier (and better) to add flour than to add water. 

Roll, pat with some water, fold and repeat... (my way of fixing the dough)

What I did was I ran the small pieces of dough through pasta roller, then I would rinse my hands and pat the dough with my hands, then I would fold the dough in half and pat again, repeating this process a few time until I had a perfect elastic dough coming through.

...until it came out just perfect.

I spent five (!) hours doing this but the result was totally worth it. 
Now, don't get discouraged by my experience. I experimented without researching first (semolina flour needs more water, and I know it now! - the hard way, though), and my first college degree in food microbiology helps me to get things done most of the time.

Over sized bow ties :)

Do your homework, find a recipe you like and be patient: dough loves attention. Allow yourself plenty of time to knead the dough, turn on some music (Italian maybe?!) and relax during the process. I assure you, the result is fantastic. 
I make both fresh and dry pasta (which is fresh pasta that is let to dry for about 50 hours or so), and this pasta I certainly can eat every day, cooked al dente!

I was playing with different shapes of pasta...:)

I think I found out why I can't eat store bought pasta: the taste of pasta enhances if you air dry it, preferably on the sun (that's how I remember grandmother and mother made it).  I've seen pictures with rows of pasta drying outside in Italian towns, a very fascinating view.  And the best flour to make dry pasta is semolina flour.
My next challenge will be a pasta dough made with 100% semolina and water (which is required by Italian law for dry pastas!), then dried outside on the sun. 
However, it won't be in the next post. :)

The Pasta Eater, Pasta Agnesi Museum, Oneglia

I sure NEED to go to Italy to learn to make pasta from the best! 

Wouldn't you?

See you,
Marina

Pasta and Meatballs

I really enjoy making pasta with my new toy - Kitchen Aid pasta attachment. I also enjoy eating pasta, which had never happened before. 

Pasta and meatballs

For our Saturday lunch I made a simple meal: pasta and meatballs for my men, and vegetarian version for myself. I used a vegetable stock as a light sauce base. 

Pasta in light spicy sauce

I purchased a semolina flour and will be experimenting with it soon, I've read it's a bit tricky to work with, but the result worth the effort. Stay tuned to see how it turns out. 

Dessert: mango and raspberries. 

Happy Saturday, my friends!

See you,
Marina

Pasta (homemade)

Carrot-apple-ginger juice - for energy!

This post was written a few months ago when my parents still were here. Things have changed since, and you can see how from the crossed text. 
Remember Happy March 8th! post? It's not just a holiday, for us it is a big holiday, like another Christmas, which means some gifts. I got a few. 
Do you want to see some?

That made me happy!

***

For many years a word "pasta" gave me a shivering. Nothing "pasta" would raise my appetite, on contrary I would rather eat just a plain bread than pasta. Needless to say, I rarely cooked pasta at home, just when kids were asking bagging, not that often though.
Why is that? Many reasons, I would say, main being that pasta doesn't taste good. Didn't taste good to me until I discovered a home made pasta. Apparently, my taste buds were in dormant stage for the store bought pasta.
And then mom came to the rescue. 
And then to everybody's happiness pasta found a place in this home. 

Fettuccine (my favorite)

Pasta dough is easy to make even for a teenager.
Flour-eggs-pinch of salt-water-oil-mix-rest-roll-cut-cook-enjoy! See how easy, right?

Smooth dough

My mother's homemade pasta recipe:

Ingredients: 

• 3 cups of all purpose flour or 2 cups of all purpose and 1 cup of semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tbsp cold water (she actually uses eggshell to measure water, so did I)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp salt

Mother said that this recipe she has learned from her mother, and it was always done by hands, but I use my food processor or a stand mixer (lazy me!). 
Mix all the ingredients and knead the dough for 10 minutes (even I do it with my hands!) 
Form a ball and cover it with plastic wrap for a minimum 30 minutes.  

Wrap the dough

Then knead it again and ... here I wish I had a pasta dough roller...  I let the Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachment to roll the dough until it has required paper thin desired thickness.  
Cut the dough and toss it with a little corn or regular flour (to prevent it from sticking).  

Spaghetti (son's favorite)

Boil a large amount of water, add salt and 2-3 Tbsp olive oil, add pasta, and cook 2-3 minutes (this is the time for the fresh pasta. Dry pasta needs to be cooked longer, about 5-7 minutes). 
I set the kitchen alarm for 2 minutes and taste it. 
Some like it "well done", we like it al dente (firm to the bite). 

Plain pasta

Then pasta is dressed with vegetables, sauses, or just olive oil and garlic and served hot.  
That is pasta I love, we all do.

Pasta with Feta cheese and olive oil: I ate it all!

Today I made it with parsley "pesto": 
I just put in the blender a handful of parsley, a handful of walnuts, 2 cloves garlic, and a small piece of Pecorino Romano cheese (my favorite!). 
I gave it a couple of pulses and added freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1,5 lemons) and a tablespoon of a very good olive oil. 
Pulsed again, and pesto was done. 

Pasta with parsley "pesto"

When my work was done, for a moment I imagined myself in Italy... 
Music, roses, pasta...

A-ve Ma-ri-aaaa!!!

Until next time,
Cowboy Country Vegetarian