First Come the Eggs . . .

When you have not only one but two or three bowls and baskets of this:

then it's time for this:

I remember Mom and Grammy making noodles together and drying them on racks like this.  The woodstove sure speeds things up!

After eating quite a few fresh noodles for supper and experimenting with freezing some, not too many made it to the drying rack as you can see.  But there might be another one or two meals out of the deal.  

Thanks to my sister for loaning me the pasta machine (big bonus points with the kids for getting to turn the handle and watch the "cute" noodles come out!).  Um, yes, it was a year ago that you gave it to me.  But see, it was here when I needed it!

Pasta Recipe

(approx. 16 servings--I will weigh it next time)

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

2 cups semolina flour

1 tsp salt

6 eggs (yes!)

2 TBSP oil

water to help bind the dough 

Pile the flours and salt into a mound on your kneading surface.  Make a well in the center and break the eggs into it.  Add the oil.  Begin breaking up the yolks and stirring flour into the mixture until all is incorporated.  Add water as necessary.  Knead until the dough is smooth, 8-10 min.  Cover with plastic and let rest a half hour or more until ready to make noodles!

Notes:

My dough was rather stiff since I forgot about adding water until it was a little late.  But it still worked out fine.  I divided it into five portions for rolling, but they could have been even smaller.  I flattened each piece with a rolling pin just enough to get it into the largest setting on the machine, then rolled several times through that until it was smooth.  Okay, smooth-ish.  I've got some work to do on my technique.  Then I rolled on smaller and smaller settings until I got the thickness I wanted.  I liked #4 for spaghetti noodles, but thought the wider noodles were a little too thick on that setting.  The ones I'm drying are #6.

Next up (if my sister lets me continue borrowing her machine!) I want to try fresh lasagna noodles.  Keep fairly thick (#3?) and assemble the lasagna right away to bake or freeze.  

Any advice out there?

Pumpkin Pasta

So I had this pumpkin around since last September. It came in our CSA box, and we had so many pumpkins around that I never used this one. A few weeks ago, I suddenly got tired of looking at it, and took a knife to it. I made pumpkin and chickpea chili. I made a pumpkin curry. And I made this pasta sauce.

The sauce involved sauteeing onions and garlic in some oil, adding the pumpkin, and then cooking it down until it was mash-able. I added a can of apricots and some sausage too! Spices included: cumin, cayenne pepper, and fresh sage and green onions. I think I finished it with a little milk to make it creamy. It was pretty good--savory and a little sweet with a cayenne zing!

And now I'm ready for fresh spring produce!

Pumpkin Gnocchi

While my husband re-heats leftovers, I have a few minutes to do a quick post before we enact "Computer-free Monday Evenings". (I'm getting reports that something bad might happen to me if I go around violating computer-free nights too freely). Yikes!

So, quick . . .

Pumpkin Gnocchi

I got this recipe from Martha Stewart. She e-mailed it to me. Just kidding! It's right here if you want to check it out. Since I pretty-much followed the recipe, I won't re-post it on this blog.

The gnocchi itself was fairly simple--flour, pumpkin, nutmeg, and cheese--while the sauce was a bit more involved.

Once this is mixed together, you roll it into ropes, cut into pieces and then boil them. It's a dumpling-pasta thing that is very soft and a little chewy. See a very poor picture below of the gnocchi emerging from the boiling pot.

First impressions: sorta flavorless with an overly-rich sauce. I think I would have preferred them with a tomato-y sauce, make it more like pasta.

Taste-tester says: "It's really gnocchi--like gummy bears with gravy." (to understand this comment better, you really should look up a pronunciation for "gnocchi")

Cook's Word: I think I'd make them again because it's a simple, fun, fast pasta thing to do. We liked them better lukewarm, and the texture kinda grew on me after a few days. I should try the more traditional potato variety too.


Now. Leftovers are hot, and "Computer-free Mondays" start in "one", "two" . . .

Summer Love

It's all about fresh, homegrown tomatoes and sweet, pungent herbs picked out of the garden.


Case #1: Buttery Sage and Tomato Omelet

In a few teaspoons of butter, saute some fresh chopped sage and diced tomato a few minutes. Not long enough for the sage to wilt and lose its color! Whip up your eggs (I used 2) with some salt, pepper, and a dash of milk and pour over the tomatoes. Next comes the hard part. Turn down the heat and resist the temptation to touch it until it is nearly dry-looking on top. Then get a spatula under that thing and flip it! Turn off the heat and let it sit in the pan a few moments to completely cook the eggs. Slide onto a plate, top with cheese, and give thanks to God for fresh tomatoes and herbs!

Of course, if you want to make it a real, full breakfast, you must have fried potatoes on the side. I cut up my potatoes, add some water and zap them in the microwave for about 4 minutes to cook them. Then I transfer to my iron skillet with some butter or oil and fry over low-med heat until they're browned. Salt, peppah, nothin' bettah! Here I ate them with some fresh tomato chutney.

Summer Love Case #2: Eggplant-Tomato Stackers with Pesto Pasta

Right off the bat, I have to say these stackers were less than ideal. Maybe they needed more salt, more oil, more pesto, or just needed to be totally re-done. I simply brushed eggplant slices with a little olive oil, spread on a bit of pesto, slapped a tomato on top and baked in the toaster oven at 350F for 20 minutes or so. Not particularly tasty. Salt helped. I think another time I would fry the eggplant first, salt the slices, top it with goat cheese--YUM!--and then add diced tomato and fresh basil with more salt and pepper. Or something like that.

As for the pesto pasta-yummy! Check back in for a pesto discussion later.



Case #3: Scrambled Eggs with Fresh Diced Tomato and Basil

Pretty, no? Especially on that blue and white plate! Scrambled eggs--make 'em like you like 'em. I like mine a little browned just so I KNOW they're done. Topped with fresh diced tomatoes, chopped basil, and parmesan. I loved how it looked, liked less how it tasted. Maybe too much basil in too big chunks. I think next time I will mix the tomatoes and finely chopped basil with a little olive oil and salt before topping the eggs.

Ah! Summer love! How quickly your beauty fades! How fast you all go to seed!

Buckwheat Pasta

Remember that other day when I bombed out on blueberry muffins and promised to go redeem myself by making some fresh pasta? Well I did. I was going to just follow the recipe found here on my blog but realized I didn't have whole wheat flour. Instead of making plain old white pasta, I added some buckwheat. It was a little strange, but still fresh and yummy with a homemade sauce.

The sauce was modified from a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen. The original calls for stewing a hunk of butter, an onion, and your canned tomatoes for an hour before removing the onion and serving the sauce. It's actually a lot tastier than it sounds. All that buttah!

I added some basil cubes from the freezer, fresh-ground black pepper, and left the onion chunks in it. So good! The great thing about making this pasta--if you roll it out by hand--is that once you get the hang of it you can whip it out like nobody's business! Sure the pasta is thicker than you'd get with a machine, but who's complaining when you're making it fresh?!? With friends on the way to pick me up, I found out I could go from ingredients in the cupboards and fridge to steaming, cooked pasta in my bowl in about 20 minutes.

roll it out with a generous dusting of flour so you
can fold it on itself to cut--I like using a pizza cutter

all that flour does make the water foam when it's
cooking--so keep an eye on it! only takes about 3 minutes

mmmmmm . . .

Pasta Primo

I have vague memories of making pasta with my mom when I was a kid. Mostly, I remember the strips of noodles hung out to dry over clothes-drying racks. So, although I've helped make pasta in the past, I will consider this my maiden attempt.

I've thought about making pasta before, but the idea finally came to fruition due to a mint-picking romp through my mother's garden. Driving home, the smell of fresh mint awoke a desire in me for pasta with mint. I went in search of a recipe for fresh pasta. Several cookbooks and websites later, I came across this, which I basically halved.

Pasta Primo
(makes about 6 servings)

1 cup semolina
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 small eggs
1 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
Water as needed (to bind dough)

I made a mound of the two flours plus salt on the kitchen table. I formed a well in the center into which I cracked the eggs and poured the olive oil.

The several recipes I read had instructions for using a fork to simultaneously break the eggs and incorporate the flour. I gave up on that pretty quick as the flour spread in an ever-wider circle on my slick formica table top. I dug into the mess with my hands, adding a little water to help the dough bind to itself.

The ball of dough got wrapped in a piece of plastic and stashed in the fridge for use at dinner time. But not all of it lasted that long. I couldn't resist trying a little sample batch. I rolled out a small piece of dough as thin as I could get it on my grandmother's bread board, dusting generously with flour to prevent sticking. When my arms tired, I folded my rectangular piece of dough over on itself twice and cut it into strips with a pizza cutter.

The noodles cooked in boiling, salted water in a matter of minutes (3-5). For this sample, I simply doused the cooked and drained pasta with some virgin olive oil, and sprinkled with fresh, chopped mint and parmesean cheese. Wow! A great 10am snack!

In the evening when I prepared it for my husband, I dressed it a little differently. I heated a few tablespoons (TBSP) of olive oil in a frying pan and gently sauteed a minced clove of garlic and a finely diced tomato in it. Salt and pepper to taste. Fresh, chopped basil! And parmesan cheese again.

We had our dinner al fresco, paired with a lovely mostly green salad made of lettuce, cabbage, parsley, mint, green onions, and radishes. The salad was dressed in my favorite salad garb: lemon juice, virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.

My taste-tester evaluates the dish . . .

I think he liked it!

Cook's Word: besides rolling out the pasta dough, quite a simple dish to make. I love all the fresh herbs that can be paired with a good pasta. And it will be extra yummy later in the summer when we've got some of our own garden-fresh tomatoes! The noodles were considerably thicker than "boughten" ones or noodles you might make with a pasta machine, but they were still delicious and soaked up the tomato juice very well.