I wrote last week about how I had decided to do PFJ this year and one of my goals was to start making pasta again to cut out another plastic packaged product. We love pasta around here and it's such a great quick meal to get together for hungry kiddos - but not when you have to make it from scratch at dinner time. Enter pasta day...
Colourful pasta dough.
My goal is to start with a monthly pasta making day and dry the pasta for use over the month. As I work on this I'll adjust how much I make based on how things pan out. I'm also open to adding in extra pasta making days if I need to - I don't want the once a month make to be a whole day thing or a mammoth effort as it's more likely to slide.
After my rocky start to the month in opening a packet of pasta on day one I thought I best get cracking. I'm happy to report that the first pasta making day has occurred. Yesterday I set aside some time to make up my pasta and get things started.
This month I chose to make three batches of pasta in different shapes - fettuccine, farfalle & lasagne sheets. And, because I never do things by halves, I decided to try out two flavoured pasta batches - spinach and herby tomato. I broke down the making of the pasta to fit it in around the kiddos. I mixed my dough up in rest time and then rolled it out in two lots around afternoon happenings. Here are a few pics.
Mixing the plain dough - I did it in a bowl rather than on the bench.
Rolling the dough.
Fettuccine and lasagne sheets drying.
Tomato & herb fetuccine
Spinach farfale.
After a day of making pasta I didn't really feel like doing anything too time consuming for dinner and I was intrigued to try my herby tomato experiment. So, I fried up some peppery salami and stirred it through hot pasta with oil and parmesan cheese. Simple and delicious. The herby tomato pasta was definitely a success so it will be a regular make on pasta day.
Simple fresh pasta.
Have you ever made pasta at home?
Any cooking or made from scratch goals for the month around your place?
P.S I'll post the dough recipes on Tuesday if anyone is interested in giving the flavours a go.
Yes, I would love the recipes, Laura. Pasta making has been on my to-do list for some time before I decide to get rid of the electric pasta maker I bought years back and used once unsuccessfully. I also have the one like yours which my daughter gave me so will give that a try first. We are having kitchen renos coming up so it is a good time to do some culling.
ReplyDeleteYes, definitely give it a try Chel before you offload - figure out which machine you like the best. Recipes ready to go for tomorrow.
DeleteCheers,
laura
I don't typically make pasta, Laura, but I have made gnocchi a couple of times. Can you make it without a pasta machine? Meg
ReplyDeleteHey Meg, yep you can definitely make it without a machine. You can hand roll with a rolling pin and then just cut your strips of pasta. There are also a heap of traditional Italian pasta shapes that don't require rolling - here is one video I found of a guy making it look oh so easy (i'm sure not so easy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew-3-8itpjc. I'm going to give some of the non-rolling shapes a go too.
DeleteI have never made my own pasta. It is something I thought would be a bit beyond me. However seeing it here step by step is interesting. Do you have Italian heritage Laura?
ReplyDeleteIt's actually pretty easy once you give it a go, it is time consuming and sometimes you need to adjust the 'wetness' of your dough, but that's about the only 'tricky' bits. No, I have Maltese heritage but not Italian. Although I didn't get exposed to much of the food heritage growing up - we were a meat & 3 veg family. All my food knowledge and skills is self taught or gleaned from friends.
DeleteGive it a go Lisa - I think you'd go well. Oh, and you could probably use some of your home grown & dried tumeric for an amazing colour in your dough.
Cheers,
Laura
Yay, Laura, this all looks wonderful! I'm glad you are back in your pasta groove. I must try farfalle - I always mean to, and then end up cutting into fettucine or linguine. Drying is a great idea too. How long does it take?
ReplyDeleteI totally get wanting a simple quick sauce on your fresh pasta after a day of pasta making! Yet the simplest of pasta sauces are often the best, and let your lovely homemade pasta shine. Cheers, Sally
Hey Sally, the pasta took less than 24 hours to dry this time - I did have the heater on for a little while in the evening and then they were just left overnight. Probably similar for you with a similar dry climate.
DeleteI think the Italians definitely had it right with the simple sauces.
Cheers,
Laura
Oh, this looks lovely! Clever to use the laundry airer for drying the pasta, too. I may just borrow that idea! No pasta making tips from me yet, unfortunately. I'm still in virgin territory, lol. But it's on my radar! :)
ReplyDelete