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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Pasta with parsley "pesto" |
When my work was done, for a moment I imagined myself in Italy... Music, roses, pasta...
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| A-ve Ma-ri-aaaa!!! |
Until next time,Cowboy Country Vegetarian
