Adventures in Pasta Making - Chapter 1

I had been thinking about making my own pasta and mentioned it a time or two to my daughter Vanita, who is good at filing those requests away for future special occasions.

 Still, I was surprised on Mother’s Day when my three children showed up with a basket full of pasta making supplies.

There was a cookbook, ravioli maker, pasta machine, and various cutters. My son said it was a “win-win” situation, since they hoped to be sampling some of my pasta in the future.

I read the book Making Artisan Pasta by Aliza Green and bought Hodgson Mill Extra Fancy Durum and Golden Semolina Pasta Flour. I decided to try Chicken Fettuccini as my first dish with flat noodles.

Here is the basic Three-Egg Pasta Dough recipe:
3/4 pound Pasta Flour or unbleached flour
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
2 to 3 teaspoons tepid water

Now, I am not going to write all the specific instructions after that, because there were eight steps to mix the dough, and then six more steps for using the pasta roller.

Put the eggs in the center of the "volcano" of flour and incorporate the flour into the eggs.

This is what it looks after kneading more flour in for about five minutes.
Then the dough and I had to rest for about 30 minutes.



The first rolling of the pasta!



This is the drying rack. Is that impressive, or what?

 

Then I made my sauce using a recipe from The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network.  Yes, I used a whole stick of real butter and a cup of heavy cream!

Chicken Fettuccine

Ingredients

• 1 pound Fettuccine Noodles
• 1 stick Butter
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a saucepan or skillet, warm butter and cream. (I added grated garlic - at least a teaspoon.) Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Grate Parmesan cheese and place half of it into a large serving bowl. Pour warm butter/cream mixture over the top.

Drain pasta and immediately pour it into the bowl.
Toss a couple of times, then sprinkle in the other half of the Parmesan.

Toss to combine, thinning with pasta water if necessary.



I browned chicken breast and added that to the mix.

It was rich and creamy and delicious. The process from start to clean up took about four hours.  I think I will try ravioli next.