Lots of time on your hands with few bucks in your pocket? You can eat better than your well and fully employed friends. Better yet, share with your friends, maybe they’ll pick up the ingredients next time.
I found instructions for How to Make Homemade Pasta from Scratch online. A couple of hours, several Italian Fantasies, and eighty cents worth of ingredients later, I was enjoying my very first batch of homemade fettuccine noodles. Wow!! Yum!! Upscale -Restaurant quality. What I would imagine an Italian Grandmother making for her family.
According to the recipe you are create a mound of flour, in the middle of this volcano-mound top it with eggs, olive oil, and salt. Whisk it all together and knead your dough to a glossy consistency.
Being a modern girl, I chose food processor over mound, top, and whisk. It did a good job starting the dough, but required finishing by hand, kneading the dough until it was shiny. Maybe I’ll try the by hand method next time.....
Next step, let the dough rest 30 minutes.... just enough time to give the pile of laundry some attention.
Now the fun part, dividing the dough, rolling it out folding it in half, repeat, repeat, repeat... I imagined myself in a beautiful kitchen carefully preparing a wonderful meal for large Italian family. I imagined myself a Chef lovingly preparing the staple ingredients for the nights dinner service. Finally, I imagined retiring the rolling pin permanently.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes (again)... time to walk the dogs and consider ironing...
On cutting the dough. For noodles, the recipe reads: “roll the sheets up loosely into a Swiss roll ... and use a sharp knife to slice noodles to the desired width.” After producing three very jagged sad “noodles,” I changed techniques. All the hand rolling (with the soon to be retired rolling pin) was not going to result in jagged ugly noodles!!
Taking a cue from a long ago drafting class taught with slide rules, I solved the ugly noodle problem.... Two chopping mats!! Placing my pasta sheet on the bottom mat and aligning the edges of the top map allowed me to make my own “slide rule.” Pizza cutter in hand, imagining myself an Italian grandmother in a beautiful Tuscan villa complete with vineyards, slide rule as my guide, I carefully cut fabulous, beautiful fettuccine noodles. Mama Mia! Success!
I carefully laid half the fresh noodles over a high top chair back to dry. With anticipation, I dropped the other half into a salted pot of boiling water. I quickly whisked together milk and parmesan cheese in a sauce pan over high heat. One minute, Two minutes - al dente (hmmm,,, Should we cook it more or not? More! Said my brain.), Three minutes, Four minutes -- Overcooked. Bummer.
Topped with the improvised Alfredo Sauce, my overcooked homemade pasta was still better than most restaurants and definitely better than the dried stuff sold at the store and I did it!! Too much time off and not enough work, treading on the wrong side of broke Me!!
But wait what about the rest of the pasta?? The pasta hung to dry??
Three days later...
Salted Boiling water with just a touch of olive oil -- Check
Garlic and Onions sauteing in a mix of butter and olive oil -- Check
The fettuccine drops into the boiling water. One small tomato, salt, pepper, dried basil, leftover baby portobello mushrooms (they were on sale), and a small contribution from my room mates open bottle of red wine joined the garlic and onions in the saute pan.
One Minute, Two (check for Al Dente), Three Minutes, Four - and a half - Al Dente!!
Strain the fettuccine, put it back in the empty pot, take the saute pan and top the pasta, stir, plate, add Parmesan. Wow! Amazing! You have to find one of those small, locally owned, Chef inspired Italian Restaurants to enjoy something this good!
Bonus - leftovers - lunch tomorrow!
Wish list for next time - pasta roller/ cutter. Found one on Amazon.com for under $30. Hmmmm....
I found instructions for How to Make Homemade Pasta from Scratch online. A couple of hours, several Italian Fantasies, and eighty cents worth of ingredients later, I was enjoying my very first batch of homemade fettuccine noodles. Wow!! Yum!! Upscale -Restaurant quality. What I would imagine an Italian Grandmother making for her family.
According to the recipe you are create a mound of flour, in the middle of this volcano-mound top it with eggs, olive oil, and salt. Whisk it all together and knead your dough to a glossy consistency.
Being a modern girl, I chose food processor over mound, top, and whisk. It did a good job starting the dough, but required finishing by hand, kneading the dough until it was shiny. Maybe I’ll try the by hand method next time.....
Next step, let the dough rest 30 minutes.... just enough time to give the pile of laundry some attention.
Now the fun part, dividing the dough, rolling it out folding it in half, repeat, repeat, repeat... I imagined myself in a beautiful kitchen carefully preparing a wonderful meal for large Italian family. I imagined myself a Chef lovingly preparing the staple ingredients for the nights dinner service. Finally, I imagined retiring the rolling pin permanently.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes (again)... time to walk the dogs and consider ironing...
On cutting the dough. For noodles, the recipe reads: “roll the sheets up loosely into a Swiss roll ... and use a sharp knife to slice noodles to the desired width.” After producing three very jagged sad “noodles,” I changed techniques. All the hand rolling (with the soon to be retired rolling pin) was not going to result in jagged ugly noodles!!
Taking a cue from a long ago drafting class taught with slide rules, I solved the ugly noodle problem.... Two chopping mats!! Placing my pasta sheet on the bottom mat and aligning the edges of the top map allowed me to make my own “slide rule.” Pizza cutter in hand, imagining myself an Italian grandmother in a beautiful Tuscan villa complete with vineyards, slide rule as my guide, I carefully cut fabulous, beautiful fettuccine noodles. Mama Mia! Success!
I carefully laid half the fresh noodles over a high top chair back to dry. With anticipation, I dropped the other half into a salted pot of boiling water. I quickly whisked together milk and parmesan cheese in a sauce pan over high heat. One minute, Two minutes - al dente (hmmm,,, Should we cook it more or not? More! Said my brain.), Three minutes, Four minutes -- Overcooked. Bummer.
Topped with the improvised Alfredo Sauce, my overcooked homemade pasta was still better than most restaurants and definitely better than the dried stuff sold at the store and I did it!! Too much time off and not enough work, treading on the wrong side of broke Me!!
But wait what about the rest of the pasta?? The pasta hung to dry??
Three days later...
Salted Boiling water with just a touch of olive oil -- Check
Garlic and Onions sauteing in a mix of butter and olive oil -- Check
The fettuccine drops into the boiling water. One small tomato, salt, pepper, dried basil, leftover baby portobello mushrooms (they were on sale), and a small contribution from my room mates open bottle of red wine joined the garlic and onions in the saute pan.
One Minute, Two (check for Al Dente), Three Minutes, Four - and a half - Al Dente!!
Strain the fettuccine, put it back in the empty pot, take the saute pan and top the pasta, stir, plate, add Parmesan. Wow! Amazing! You have to find one of those small, locally owned, Chef inspired Italian Restaurants to enjoy something this good!
Bonus - leftovers - lunch tomorrow!
Wish list for next time - pasta roller/ cutter. Found one on Amazon.com for under $30. Hmmmm....
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