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Bought a pasta machine, 4-5 years ago. Cost about $10.
Never used it.
Bought some pasta flour a couple of years back - never used that either.
Fortunately as long as you keep flour dry and sealed it'll last almost indefinitely. I did sieve it just to make sure there weren't any weevils :-)
Had some time yesterday and thought: 'lets make some pasta'.
And man is it easy !
Weigh 5oz pasta flour into a bowl, add a large beaten egg. Mix in initially with a fork and then knead for about 10 minutes till it's smooth and not sticky.
That's the pasta dough. I had no idea it was that simple.
Followed the instructions with the machine and wound it through on gradually thinned settings till I had a long thin sheet.
Ran that through the tagliatelli cutter and had what looked tagliatelli shaped thin pastry.
At this point I was stll not convinced I'd made pasta. So tried a little in a small saucepan. Added pasts to boiling water brought back to the boil and gave it 2 minutes. Result: really good pasta. I was impressed.
As there were three of us I did 2 lots of 5oz and 1 egg. Made plenty.
For the rest of the meal I made a cheese sauce.
Made the roux with a little olive oil and 4 oz of my smoked pancetta (cubed bellly bacon) takes a while as you cook the pancetta until all the fat renders out and you have to use a fairly low heat to avoid burning.
Use the bacon fat to make your roux and add milk.
No pics of this as anyone knows once you start adding the milk to a cheese sauce you don't stop stirring till it's done - or it burns :-)
I added some double concentrate tomato puree and a little garlic powder and some cbp to the sauce as well.
For the cheese I used some smoked cheddar and smoked edam. Makes a truly great cheese sauce but due to the time it takes to render down the pancetta you need to plan ahead :-)
Also cooked up some chopped yellow pepper and added that to the sauce.
Fried up some scallops in butter with a little pepper (they'd started to get freezer burn and needed eating).
Put a layer of scallops in each bowl, added the pasta, added sauce, mixed in briefly and topped with some 21-25 shrimp.
have to admit it was pretty delicious.
And the pasta was a revelation.
So if like me you've got a pasta machine languishing in a cupboard somewhere - get it out and have a play. I can pretty much guarentee you won't be disappointed :-)
Going to try ravioli next :-)
Never used it.
Bought some pasta flour a couple of years back - never used that either.
Fortunately as long as you keep flour dry and sealed it'll last almost indefinitely. I did sieve it just to make sure there weren't any weevils :-)
Had some time yesterday and thought: 'lets make some pasta'.
And man is it easy !
Weigh 5oz pasta flour into a bowl, add a large beaten egg. Mix in initially with a fork and then knead for about 10 minutes till it's smooth and not sticky.
That's the pasta dough. I had no idea it was that simple.
Followed the instructions with the machine and wound it through on gradually thinned settings till I had a long thin sheet.
Ran that through the tagliatelli cutter and had what looked tagliatelli shaped thin pastry.
At this point I was stll not convinced I'd made pasta. So tried a little in a small saucepan. Added pasts to boiling water brought back to the boil and gave it 2 minutes. Result: really good pasta. I was impressed.
As there were three of us I did 2 lots of 5oz and 1 egg. Made plenty.
For the rest of the meal I made a cheese sauce.
Made the roux with a little olive oil and 4 oz of my smoked pancetta (cubed bellly bacon) takes a while as you cook the pancetta until all the fat renders out and you have to use a fairly low heat to avoid burning.
Use the bacon fat to make your roux and add milk.
No pics of this as anyone knows once you start adding the milk to a cheese sauce you don't stop stirring till it's done - or it burns :-)
I added some double concentrate tomato puree and a little garlic powder and some cbp to the sauce as well.
For the cheese I used some smoked cheddar and smoked edam. Makes a truly great cheese sauce but due to the time it takes to render down the pancetta you need to plan ahead :-)
Also cooked up some chopped yellow pepper and added that to the sauce.
Fried up some scallops in butter with a little pepper (they'd started to get freezer burn and needed eating).
Put a layer of scallops in each bowl, added the pasta, added sauce, mixed in briefly and topped with some 21-25 shrimp.
have to admit it was pretty delicious.
And the pasta was a revelation.
So if like me you've got a pasta machine languishing in a cupboard somewhere - get it out and have a play. I can pretty much guarentee you won't be disappointed :-)
Going to try ravioli next :-)
" -- 
and I felt just like a gigolo 
but we soon tired of the mutual gathering for pasta making and now use only when were horny and feel like being Italian.
The box of Barillia now makes us settle down and not create a ruckus for the neighbors.
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