handmade pasta and sauce

The other night I wanted to cook pasta for my girlfriend, so I thought it would be cool to do the whole process by hand. A few months ago, I had a huge crop of tomatoes, so I vacuum packed and froze them with a few sprigs of basil. This was the first time trying the freeze preserve method instead of canning. It was way easier and faster. All I had to do was blanch the tomatoes, put them in ice water to loosen the skin, and peel them. Then I simply squeezed some of the juices out, and vacuum packed 10-12 tomatoes together in one bag with some basil. I got the eggs from my friend’s backyard chicken coupe (see the post on Oct 11), and the onions were from my garden. Simply sweat the onions and garlic at a low heat, then add the tomato mixture (you can use fresh tomatoes to do this if you don’t have canned or frozen ones). There is no exact science to this, so you can make it how you like. The general concept is make sure your garlic doesn’t burn, take the skin off your tomatoes, and slow cook the whole thing at a low temp for a few hours. The more you cook it, the less acidic the sauce will be. If you like the taste of fresh tomatoes, cook it less (only an hour or so). Stir it and monitor it to make sure it doesn’t burn or dry out. If it is getting too thick, just add some stock or water. It will be good.

For the pasta, here are the general rules.

• About one handful of flower per egg
• One egg per person
• That’s it

Just mix one handful of flower per egg in a bowl. There cannot be exact measurements because every egg is a different size. Mix it and feel it in your fingers. If it sticks to your fingers too much, add some more flower until it is slightly tacky, but it doesn’t stick to your fingers. If it’s too dry, just add a bit of water. Then put it all on the table to roll out. First knead the dough a bit to get it into a ball, and keep kneading it for about a minute.

Then roll it out a bit, fold it in half, and roll it out again. Repeat this process for about 5-10 times. The more you do this the more smooth your pasta will be. If you have a pasta roller, this process is 20 times easier. They are only $30, but I like the satisfaction of rolling it out by hand. Roll it into semi thin rounds and let it rest. As you fold and knead the dough, it builds up tension. Breaking it up into smaller pieces reduces the tension and makes it easier to roll out thin. Once they are in thin little rounds, just let it rest so the tension releases. While its resting, bring a large pot of water to boil, and brown some ground meat for the sauce. Add the tomato mixture to the meat, and then go back to finish rolling the pasta.

Roll out the pasta, until you can start to see the table underneath. You’ll have to keep adding flower here and there so it doesn’t stick to the table or the rolling pin. If you don’t have a rolling pin, just use a wine bottle. If you mess up, just fold it over and roll it out again. Once its nice and flat, fold it over a few times and cut into whatever size you like. You can even make raviolis out of this if you make a filling.

If this is scary to you, just check out this youtube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boSyVjkf4to . Its really not that hard.

Run your fingers through the cut pieces, and lift and drop them so they all separate out. Cook them in a large pot of water for only 1-2 minutes. Don’t overcook. Please don’t overcook them. This is not dry pasta.

Now mix it with the sauce and plate. Its actually easier than it sounds once you get the hang of it. Serve it with some fresh bread with oil and balsamic vinegar.