Flour + Eggs = Pasta!

(This post is the second on pasta...find the first here.)

Simple food. Preparation easy enough to afford the cook some much needed quality time with the people she (or he) is feeding. If you are too exhausted from cooking to enjoy the people you are serving, then it's too complicated. Do the French spend ANY time with their families after their Oscar worthy culinary performances?

Ah, but the Italians. Now they have absolutely mastered the marriage of simple ingredients, amazing food and wine, great conversation, and the ability to include everyone within smelling distance in the warmth of their homes and love. When I lived in Italy, if there was one thing I wanted to soak up like a thirsty sponge, it was this lovely symphony of kitchen skills.

La mama is truly the heart of the home. I know, I know...women aren't the only great cooks. And I know, not all, not even many, women want to be relegated to this familial duty, but I relish it, and hope to share this passion with others. 

      

So, pasta. Yep, all there is to it is flour and eggs. And la macchina. Must have one of these:

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There are many brands now in the US, and they are not too hard to find. We devoted a cooking lesson to this skill and the next day, my girls swooped in and gobbled up every pasta machine in town! 

I'll try and explain the process here, but like with a lot of things, you've just got to get your hands dirty and try it. 

Step 1: For two people, use one egg and approximately 1 heaping cup of flour. Start by whisking the egg with a fork in a small bowl. While continuing to whisk the egg, sprinkle flour slowly into the bowl. Soon the mixture will become too stiff to continue with the fork, so just start using your hands. When it is right, it will form a very stiff dough, not unlike sugar cookie dough. Cover with a damp cloth on a floured countertop or towel until you are ready to use it. 

Step 2: Using a pastry scraper or large knife, cut off a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball. Cover the unused dough with the damp cloth. Set the pasta machine at the lowest setting; on mine, it's #1. Place the dough in the top of the machine, between the rollers and crank the handle clockwise to squeeze the dough through. This two-handed technique takes a little practice. Fold it over and do it again. Do this 7 or 8 times, till the dough is very smooth. Then continue to do this, changing the setting to higher and higher numbers (without folding) until you are ready to use it. You will have a long narrow (perhaps 3"-4" wide) sheet.

Step 3: Once you have rolled it, lay it out on a floured towel or cotton tablecloth. You then have a couple of options. You can cut it into fettuccine or spaghetti with the attachment on your pasta machine (this requires only one trip through the machine). OR you can form the sheets into stuffed delicacies (which sadly, make this simple process a whole lot more complicated, but fun, and you can rally the troops to help!). For fettuccine, arrange the ribbons into little 'nests' and sprinkle them with a tiny bit of flour. Give them a little shuffle every few minutes while you work the rest of your dough. This will keep it from sticking together.

Step 4: (Simple, fettuccine) If you are not making ravioli, tortellini, agnolotti, or any number of other exotic sounding stuffed pastas, then it's time to cook. Bring a large pot of salted water to a slow boil, and drop the nests into the water for just a few minutes, no more than 3 or 4. Drain and serve on heated plates or pasta bowls. 

Add a bit of your favorite sauce (another lesson) and enjoy. Anything is good...marinara, pesto, bolognese, puttanesca, vodka...whatever. The sauce is not the main attraction anyway, right?

My husband and I make an event out of this on Saturday nights. We turn on our favorite Andrea Bocelli tunes (which has to include "Mille Lune, Mille Onde" one of the most romantic songs EVER), open a bottle of wine, light a few candles, shave the parmigiano reggiano, slice up some really good dried sausage, get out the olives and grapes, and set the table. He sings. We drink and snack on the antipasti. Sometimes we dance and kiss. I make the pasta. He rubs my shoulders. If it's warm, all the better so we can spend the evening outside. 

And on a wintry night in January, a few young ladies came over and we had a lesson. We actually did make ravioli with a chicken, sausage and goat cheese filling. Here are some photos from that really fun night!

          

                           

And my really clean kitchen...which didn't happen til the next morning!