What I did during Hurricane Sandy Part II

Continuing with my culinary saga, I want to talk about pasta.

Various pasta fresca

I have been making my own pasta for many years now and it now has become very easy for me to make it, especially with the equipment that is now available. When I lived in Bologna, I learned about the many subtleties involved in making pasta and every single person I knew who made pasta, made it just a little bit differently. Some put a teaspoon of milk in it, others put a drop of olive oil, while others still, put in both; some recipes don't even call for eggs at all, but water or milk. Milk is always used when making Tortellini or Tortelloni or any of the other pastas involving stuffing; it helps the dough to be just a little more malleable sot the edges adhere to each other when making triangles, creating the cuff and twisting the tortellini into the now very famous Venus' navel. The question of using eggs vs. egg yolks is also an issue and changes from person to person, region to region, etc. It can be said that the further north you travel in Italy, the yellower the pasta will be and the more delicate as well. This may be the case, however, pasta fresca, no matter where you eat it, is in a class by itself when compared to boxed or dried pasta. As they say in Italian, non c'é una paragona (there is no comparison).

When I make Tagliatelle, I use 4 cups flour, 2 eggs and 7 egg yolks and a tablespoon of olive oil. What results is a paper thin sheet, the color of transparent straw, about 60 inches long. For stuffed pasta, I use the same basic amounts, but add a tablespoon of milk as well. In Bologna, I didn't have a Cuisinart or a KitchenAid - when I lived in Holland after that, I didn't have these miracle workers either - so it had to be made by hand. When I think of the muscle that went into it - and the patience! - it's hard to believe I even did it well. I now make pasta with my food processor and I have a great Atlas pasta rolling machine, both of which are God-sends. And I'll tell you, anyone who says they only make pasta by hand without the use of any help from a machine is either stupid or a liar. Who has the time today to spend a couple of hours rolling out dough to paper thin levels by hand? I certainly don't and the results are just as good if not better, depending on how masterful you are at doing it.

Basic Pasta Dough

4 Cups Flour (All purpose, "00", Organic, you name it, they all work)

2 Eggs

7 Egg Yolks

1 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil ("EVOO")

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process constantly for about 45 seconds. If the dough begins to form a mass and roll around the barrel, it should gather any and all "crumbs" into the ball. If the dough becomes grainy, you may have to add another egg. This will correct the problem and help to gather the dough into one solid mass.

Turn out onto a wooden surface. Knead by hand for a few minutes, incorporating just a little flower as you go. Place the rounded piece of pasta dough in a bowl and cover with a towel and let rest for about 30 minutes.

Set up the pasta rolling machine onto a counter top, making sure that the vice fits the machine securely into place. You don't want the machine to move while rolling the dough. My Atlas machine has 9 width settings. Starting at no. 1, Place the dough on a lightly floured wooden cutting board and with a pastry cutter or a sharp knife, cut a decently sized piece of pasta dough from the ball and flatten it with your hands. Place the dough between the two metal rolling pins and pass through with the crank. Repeat this until the dough starts to become silky. I often fold the dough in half to continue the process of pressing the dough to make it more uniform. Change the setting to no. 2 and repeat this process exactly, passing the dough through the pins over and over again until it is smooth and elastic. Continue to change the settings until you reach no. 7 or 8 and check to make sure that the dough is retaining its elasticity. You may, during the rolling, have to place the sheet on the cutting board and dust with more flour as you progress through each setting. For Tagliatelle, I stop at no. 8 to check to see if the dough will survive another pressing. I dust it with more flour and progress. What results is an extremely long sheet of pasta dough which must then be hung or laid flat to dry a bit before cutting. The sheet should be dusted with flour again before drying. The pasta should be the color of straw. At this point, you can either save the sheets and cut into rectangles for Lasagna or Fazzoletti, or cut your own Pappardelle or use the machine to cut noodles as described below.

All machines come with an attachment to make two types of noodles (Tagliatelle - or Fettuccine - and Taglioni or Capellini, Angel Hair in English). Cutting a 60+/- inch sheet of pasta can be somewhat difficult without help so it's advisable to cut the sheet in half before cutting it into noodles. Place the sheet into the 

Taglioni

noodle roller and start rolling, Once you have the other hand free, start to lift the pasta noodles off the surface of the work table and away from the machine. At this point, I have cane-backed chairs which I use to drape the noodles on to try for about 15 minutes or so before creating nests. Once you have gathered the noodles, start wrapping the noodles - a few strands at a time - around your hand and continue to roll the strands until you have gathered the strands into a clean, swirling nest. Place each nest on a netted surface (I have an expandable window screen precisely for this purpose) to air dry before cooking or storing. Air drying for an extended period of time (say 8-10 hours) is ideal; the dryer it gets, the better it will cook. A word of warning, though, fresh pasta will not keep in a container in the open air. You must either refrigerate and use within a day or two or freeze it.

Please note: If you want to make flavored pasta add ingredients to the basic pasta recipe. For Spinach, I add about 4 tablespoons of cooked chopped spinach. For Squid Ink, 1 or 2 packet or t tablespoon of ink., or more, depending on how black you want it. For Beet, about 2 tablespoons pureed beets or just a table-

Beet and Spinach Tagliatelle

spoon or two of beet cooking liquid. You can vary the ingredients to your pleasure but you don't need a lot, especially if you're making Saffron Pasta (a few strands in a tablespoon of warm water is plenty. You want subtlety, not an inundation of flavor which will overpower any variety of sauces from which you may choose. Needless to say, when marrying flavors, like cooking vegetables, if it grows together, it goes together.