Hi! I'm back from spending four wonderful days in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a relaxing long weekend of cooking, eating out, exploring downtown Charleston, walking on the beach and spending time with Melissa and Pankti. All the photos have been edited, and I will post a couple restaurant reviews in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
Today's subject, however, is pasta.
A few weekends ago I invited my friends Cecilia and Jenn over to my condo to make fresh pasta. Without a solid plan in mind, we met at Costco and picked up cherry tomatoes, asparagus and buffalo mozzarella to add to our homemade pasta.
I am not sharing exact recipes with you this time...just ideas and photos.
It has been a while sinceI last used my manual pasta maker. The first one had to be replaced because I did not read the directions and used water to clean it. The entire machine rusted. Do not use water to clean your pasta maker. Instead, use a pastry brush!!
We made our pasta with flour, eggs, semolina, and salt and pepper. You can add spinach or beet juice, a bit of olive oil and different spices, but we chose a simpler route.
We mixed everything directly on my granite counter.
Here you can see Cecilia demonstrating how thin our pasta was {you can also see a bit of my photo setup}:
We cut the pasta into fettuccine and let it rest. Unfortunately, we forgot to make little nests with the pasta, and it ended up sticking together. Oy.
We roasted tomatoes at 300F for about forty minutes, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. The asparagus was roasted for about 25 minutes at 400F.
Although the pasta stretched out and clumped together, it still tasted pretty good. We mixed the freshly-cooked pasta with roasted tomatoes and asparagus, sliced buffalo mozzarella and a good sprinkle of red pepper flakes. The entire dish got a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt at the end. Alas, we forgot to buy fresh basil.
Have you made fresh pasta before? Do you add any fun ingredients to your dough?
What do you make with your fresh pasta?
I hate when it sticks to itself! We have a pull-up bar that I cover with a towel so that I can hang the pasta from there. Like a pasta rack, but it takes up less space in the already-packed kitchen cupboards :)
ReplyDeleteThat is so smart! We completely forgot to hang our pasta to dry. I could have used my clothes drying rack ;)
ReplyDeleteNow I want a big bowl of pasta!
ReplyDeleteI make it all the time. So simple. I pile mine like you do but soon as it is done being sliced I dust it with flour and shake it around to make sure it is all coated. It never sticks. However, I usually time is so it goes directly into the pot, no resting needed.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have spent that time there! Oh my gosh, this bowl is SCREAMING my name. It's gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. I am sooooooo friggin' hungry now. I attempted pasta once...without a pasta machine...it came out...bit thick!
ReplyDeleteI think it looks beautiful! And the finished dish would be perfect for my dinner! I have made fresh pasta in the past, and I usually pair it with a long-cooking meat sauce.
ReplyDeleteI've made pasta before and it's surprisingly easy! I love the way you cooked it, so delicious looking!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteYou have totally inspired me to make fresh pasta, I use to make it but recently I have been on the easy track for everything...
Great recipe..... Fresh and Healthy..
Looks yum!
ReplyDelete