Tag Archives: Pasta

Fettuccine Alfredo

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This is probably the easiest of all cream sauces to prepare. Many years ago, I watched a chef on television as he was asked how to make fettuccine alfredo. His reply is as easy to remember as the sauce is to make. Just remember 1,1,1,1. That’s 1 pint of cream, 1 stick of butter, and 1 cup of parmesan cheese for 1 pound of fettuccine. For the life of me, I cannot remember who that chef was, but I haven’t forgotten his formula. Make no mistake, this is one rich dish of pasta and, as a result, you, too, may find the recipe results in too much fettuccine alfredo for two people, let alone one. Should that be the case, you can easily reduce the ingredients, just maintain their ratio — i.e., 1/2 pint of cream, 1/2 stick of butter, etc. Additionally, while it may be true that some cannot get enough salt in their food, this dish shouldn’t require much, if any, salt added to it. Parmesan cheese is relatively salty and it should bring enough salt to the dish for most palates. Lastly, with so much cream, butter, and cheese, this is a dish that most would reserve for special occasions or at least serve infrequently. As such, do it right and prepare it using homemade or freshly made fettuccine. You won’t be disappointed.

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Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 pint heavy cream
  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
  • 1 cup parmesan cheese
  • 1 lb cooked fettuccine
  • salt & ground white pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Place heavy cream in a medium sauce pan over med-low heat. Allow to reduce for about 10 minutes. If necessary, adjust heat so that the cream simmers without boiling over.
  2. Add butter to the slightly thickened cream and stir to melt & combine.
  3. Add cheese to the cream-butter mixture and stir. When the cheese is fully incorporated, the sauce will be thick and rich. Taste and, if necessary, season with salt and ground white pepper.
  4. Combine cream sauce with cooked fettuccine and mix until pasta is well-coated.
  5. Serve immediately and have additional grated parmesan cheese available at the table.

Variations

The only variation that I employ — that doesn’t alter the original recipe too much — is to add garlic to the cream as it reduces. I will sometimes take a clove of garlic, crush it a bit, and place it in the cream. I remove it just before adding the butter and the result is an alfredo sauce with a hint of garlic. If you’re concerned that the garlic clove has fallen apart in the cream, pour the reduced cream through a sieve to remove any garlic bits before adding the butter and proceeding.

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Tomato Sauce with Tuna

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Having been raised a Catholic, the arrival of Lent reminds me of the countless meatless Fridays of my youth. Even when “the rules” changed in the 60’s, our house continued the practice of fish on Fridays, for the most part, and that was due largely because we all liked fish — and the Bartolini Sisters knew how to cook them. I hope to get to some of those recipes later but, for now, I’m going to start with a pasta dish. (Big surprise!)

Next to a marinara, this is about as simple a sauce as one can make. With tuna as its protein, this sauce is not as strongly flavored as, say, a puttanesca. As a result, one needs to be careful not to overpower the tuna with a lot of strong herbs and spices. The recipe, as presented, is exactly as my family made on many a Friday, with the exception of the capers and mushrooms. I happen to love both with my pasta. As for you, if it isn’t a tomato sauce unless you taste oregano or some other herb, spice, or ingredient, then by all means add it. Just be careful not to overwhelm the tuna and, please, just say no to cheese.

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Tomato Sauce with Tuna Recipe

total time: approx.  1 hour

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 can (28 oz) tomatoes (use crushed, diced, or whole that you mash during cooking)
  • 4 – 6 button or crimini mushrooms, sliced — optional
  • 1 can (5 oz) of whole chunk tuna, water-packed, well-drained
  • 2 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 3 tbsp capers, drained — optional
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 1 lb pasta

Directions

  1. Add oil to a medium sauce pan and heat over a medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and parsley and sauté until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
  2. If using mushrooms, add them now and continue sautéing another 3 or 4 minutes.
  3. Add tomato paste and sauté for about 2 more minutes.
  4. Add tomatoes, stir to thoroughly combine, bring to boil, and reduce to a simmer. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
  5. After 30 minutes, carefully add tuna so that the chunks do not fall apart. Add pasta of your choice into the boiling water.
  6. When the pasta is cooked al dente, remove from heat and drain.
  7. Add 2 tbsp basil (and capers, if used) to the sauce and stir carefully.
  8. Combine cooked, drained pasta with the sauce, stir until well-coated, garnish with remaining basil, and serve immediately.

Notes

This is another quick sauce. If you cook it for too long after the tuna has been added, the chunks of tuna will disintegrate.

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Puttanesca Sauce

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I was a boy when I first heard one of the legends behind pasta puttanesca. Dom DeLuise was the guest host on the Mike Douglas Show and he told the tale while he prepared the dish. It has to do with the “ladies of the evening” of Naples and the strength of their perfume.  I don’t know whether it was the pasta or the tale but I remember both to this day. A variation of the story is that these same ladies used the sauce’s aroma to lure gentlemen callers into their parlors. I’m sure that there are other legends about this sauce’s origins and I’m equally sure that they all involve its strong aroma. Once you’ve prepared a puttanesca sauce, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

Virtually all puttanesca sauces rely principally upon 5 basic ingredients: tomatoes, anchovies, red pepper flakes, garlic, and olives. I prefer a sauce with some texture so I’ll use crushed, diced, or whole tomatoes that I’ve mashed with my spoon. This recipe may call for 6 anchovies but I’ll very often use the entire tin, unless there’s a Caesar salad in my immediate future. Although most recipes call for pitted, black olives, I’ve found that the addition of a couple large, green olives adds another flavor into the mix. The purchase of a small container of mixed olives at my grocery’s deli counter works perfectly.  Speaking of olives, they, along with the anchovies and capers, can be pretty salty. Be sure to taste the sauce before seasoning with salt and do so at the very end of cooking. Now, whether you find yourself in Italy or in an Italian restaurant here in the States, it is frowned upon to use grated cheese of any kind on a pasta dish made with seafood. As such, there are many who will say that a puttanesca sauce starts with anchovies and, therefore, cheese must not be used. Others are willing to bend the rules since the anchovies are not the “star” of the dish as, say, clams might be in a different recipe. To cheese or not to cheese? The answer to that question will be left entirely up to you. I know a minefield when I see one.

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Puttanesca Sauce Recipe

total time: approx.  1 hour

Ingredients

The Basics

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/8 to 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 6 anchovy fillets
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 – 28 oz can tomatoes
  • 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 12 – 15 large Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped  (I’ll sometimes add a couple large, green Spanish olives.)
  • 3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 2 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 2 tbsp capers, drained
  • salt & pepper, to taste
  • 1 lb pasta, cooked about 2 minutes shy of al dente — refer to package instructions

 

Directions

  1. Add oil to a large, deep fry pan and heat over a medium-high heat. Add pepper flakes & anchovies and cook for 2 minutes. Use the back of a wooden spoon to stir & mash the anchovies until they disintegrate into the oil.
  2. Add onion and sauté until onions are translucent, 8 to 10 minutes.
  3. Add garlic & parsley and sauté for 1 minute.
  4. Add tomato paste and continue sautéing for about 2 minutes.
  5. Add tomatoes, stir to thoroughly combine, bring to boil, and reduce to a simmer.
  6. After 30 minutes, add olives and continue simmering.
  7. After 10 minutes, add capers and 2 tbsp basil, stir to combine. Taste before seasoning with salt and pepper.
  8. Add drained pasta to the pan, stir to coat with the sauce, and continue cooking until pasta is al dente, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve immediately, garnished with remaining tsp basil.

Variations

This sauce is cooked relatively quickly and features bold flavors. To add another dimension, try using fresh tomatoes that have been picked in the height of the season. I usually use 10 to 12 ripe plum tomatoes that I’ve peeled after blanching them in boiling water for about a minute. Once peeled, chop and, if you like, seed the tomatoes before adding to the pan. The fresh tomatoes, anchovies, and olives combine to make one spectacular dish!

Notes

Like many of my tomato-based sauces, this one calls for a large can of tomatoes. Truth be told, I rarely use canned tomatoes. Mid-August, I start buying half-bushels of plum tomatoes at my area’s farmers’ markets. After washing, some are blanched, peeled, chopped, and then frozen in quart containers. The rest are run through my Roma strainer before being frozen. I try to freeze at least 45 quarts and that will ensure that I’ll have enough tomatoes to easily last through Spring. When the time comes to use them, depending upon the sauce I’m preparing, I can choose between the chopped or strained quarts, or, I can combine them. Best of all, there are no more trips to the grocery store for a can of tomatoes, only to return with 2 bags full of impulse buys.

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Steak Pizzaiola

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This is not one of my family’s recipes and I only started cooking it a relatively short time ago. Sure, I’d heard of steak pizzaiola but, for some reason, I always assumed that it was too complicated for me to attempt. Then, one night I saw a rerun of an “Everybody Loves Raymond” episode in which the recipe was a point of contention between Debra & Marie. After the show, I searched the web for the recipe and was surprised to learn just how easy the dish is to prepare. Basically, it’s a steak and marinara sauce served over pasta. Well, I decided to give it a try and I’ve continued to make steak pizzaiola ever since. It is one of those recipes where a minimum of effort results in a great dinner — and it’s a bargain to prepare, as well.

Exhibit A

Searching the web, I soon learned that, as easy as it is, there’s no one way to make steak pizzaiola. It’s as if there’s a different recipe for every cut of meat, especially since the better the cut, the less time needed to cook it. As a result, some recipes feature a steak that’s braised slowly in the sauce while, in others, the steak and sauce are cooked separately, to be combined just prior to serving. Although there’s something to be said for the “fast approach,” I very much prefer a slow and steady method of cooking for this dish. So, I look for a cheaper cut of meat, preferably “bone-in” for added flavor, and let it braise for a couple of hours in the oven. The sauce itself is uncomplicated and there’s no need for a lot of herbs and spices. The braising will do the work for you and infuse the sauce with a rich beef flavor. Now, my family uses very little oregano in its dishes but so many of the web recipes call for it that I’ve listed it here, among the ingredients. Use it instead of, or in combination with, the Italian seasoning, if you like. In fact, if oregano is a favorite of yours, you may want to increase the amount listed in the recipe below. As for the type of pasta to use, I prefer serving it with rigatoni, penne, or cavatappi but feel free to use whatever works for you and your family.

Exhibit B

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Steak Pizzaiola Recipe

total time: about 2 1/2 hours.

yield: about 8 servings.

Ingredients

  • 2 – 3 pounds chuck steak, bone-in
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/8 – 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, depending upon taste
  • 1  medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
  • 2 – 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 large can (28 oz.) tomatoes (I prefer diced or crushed)
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning or dried oregano or any combination of the two
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 lb pasta, cooked al dente per package instructions, reserve 1 cup of pasta water
  • grated Pecorino Romano cheese

Exhibit C

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325*
  2. Heat oil in large, oven-proof, frying pan with a tight-fitting lid, over med-high heat.
  3. Season meat liberally with salt & pepper and sear in frying pan, about 4 minutes each side.
  4. Remove meat to a platter and add red pepper flakes to the pan. Cook for about  2 minutes.
  5. Add onions to the pan, season with salt & pepper, and sauté until translucent, about 6 – 8 minutes
  6. Add garlic and continue cooking for 2 minutes.
  7. Add tomato paste and continue cooking for 1 – 2 minutes.
  8. Add tomatoes, parsley, Italian seasoning and/or optional oregano, and stir to combine with pan’s contents. Season with salt and pepper.
  9. Return meat to the pan, cover the meat with sauce, cover tightly with lid, and place in center of oven.
  10. Braise meat for 2 hours, checking it every 30 minutes or so. Either flip the meat over or spoon more sauce over it.
  11. After 2 hours, begin heating water for the pasta and remove the lid from the pan in the oven. This will allow the sauce to thicken while the pasta cooks. When the pasta is al dente, reserve a cup of pasta water, drain the pasta, and check your sauce. If your sauce is too dry, use the pasta water to compensate.
  12. Place drained pasta in a large bowl. Take sauce out of the oven, remove any loose bones, and combine with cooked pasta. Garnish with basil and grated Pecorino Roman cheese.
  13. Serve immediately.

Exhibit D

Variations

As was mentioned earlier, some recipes call for using better cuts of meat than a chuck steak. Normally, those recipes do not need a long braise like the one that I’ve shared; the cut of meat is far more tender already. I very much prefer the long braise method, however, for it not only renders the meat fork-tender but the sauce’s flavors are more developed.

Notes

At one time or another, we all have some left-over pasta sitting in our fridge. Re-heating it can be a problem, unless you use Mom & Zia’s method. Rather than use the microwave, place about a tablespoon of butter and about 1/4 cup of water into a frying pan over med-high heat. Add the left-over pasta and sauté until heated through. Add a little more water if the pasta is too dry. Serve immediately, garnished with Pecorino Roman cheese. Understand that the pasta cannot possibly be al dente — that ship sailed the minute you put the left-overs into the fridge. This will, however, re-invigorate the sauce in ways that a microwave never could. As they say, “Try it. You’ll like it.”

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Pesto Trapanese

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Tis the Season

It’s the dead of Winter here in Chicago. As I write this, it’s 3* and the wind chill is well south of 0*. If ever there was a time for comfort food, this would be it. Most often, that would mean a stew or soup or a baked casserole of some sort — lasagna comes to mind. This time around, however, I’m going in a different direction altogether. I need me some Summertime and its name is Pesto Trapanese.

I first saw Lidia Bastianich, of Lidia’s Italy fame, prepare pesto Trapanese and it has since become a Summer staple of my diet. Like so many of her recipes, a few simple, fresh ingredients are combined to create authentic Italian fare. This dish, in particular, has many of the same ingredients of a fine marinara, with one critical difference. It is a pesto and, therefore, not cooked. The result is a pasta dish that screams “Summer!” Literally prepared in minutes, the flavors are fresh, like you just picked the basil and cherry tomatoes moments before — and come August, that is exactly what I do. So, when Winter’s winds howl and “Snow” is mentioned in just about every weather forecast, I turn to pesto Trapanese for my escape and it’s Summer in the City  — well, for one meal, anyway.

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Pesto Trapanese Recipe

Ingredients

Fresh Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup slivered, blanched almonds
  • 2 1/2 cups (3/4 lb.) cherry tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup whole basil leaves
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • pinch red pepper flakes, more to taste
  • 1 pepperoncini, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1 lb cooked pasta (spaghetti or linguine)
  • 1/2 cup “pasta water,” held in reserve if needed
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Summer on a Plate

Directions

  1. Toast almonds over medium heat in frying pan atop stove, 2 – 4 minutes.
  2. Add almonds, cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic, salt, red pepper flakes, & pepperoncini into food processor or blender and run for about 1 minute.
  3. Remove spout and gradually add olive oil until fully incorporated.
  4. Mix with cooked pasta. Add some/all of reserved pasta water if pesto is too thick.
  5. Add grated cheese, mix well, and serve immediately.

Notes

  • Pesto may be made in advance and reserved for a couple of hours at room temperature, before being added to freshly cooked pasta. If its use is delayed longer than that, it should be refrigerated and may be kept up to 2 days.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

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New ShellsLet me be clear about something. I love stuffed pasta shells. A cinch to make, they are the perfect blend of ricotta cheese, spinach, & pasta. I realize that some may feel that the same could be said for lasagna and they’d be correct, for the most part. My family’s lasagna recipe, however, doesn’t include ricotta, making it relatively unique, as far as lasagna goes. What’s more, we use very little ricotta in other recipes so these shells are a real stand out. In my last post, I described making ricotta and shared a recipe that yields about 2 pounds of the cheese. Well, that’s a lot of ricotta, as I soon found out. When all was said and done,  I had filled four 9 x 9″ aluminum cake pans with 12 shells apiece. (1 tray was destined for the oven; 2 for delivery to friends; and 1 was frozen.) I used that cooking experience as a guide for today’s recipe and halved the recipe, using 1 pound of ricotta. By the way, if you’re vegetarian or limiting red meat in your diet, use a marinara sauce instead of one with meat.

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Spinach-Ricotta Stuffed Shells Recipe

total time: about 90 minutes. yield: about 24 shells.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound fresh ricotta (1/2 of home-made ricotta recipe)
  • 1 – 10 oz. pkg frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well-drained
  • 1 c grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 quart pasta sauce, marinara or meat-based
  • water
  • 1 box jumbo pasta shells, cooked following package directions, reserved in cold water.
  • 1 cup grated mozzarella, or more to taste

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350*. Butter one9 x 13″ baking dish/pan.
  2. Place ricotta, spinach, parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, and nutmeg into a bowl and combine, either by hand or using a stand mixer, until well-blended.
  3. Add about 2/3 of the sauce to the baking dish with a little water.
  4. One by one, fill each shell with 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp of the filling mixture and place in the baking dish.
  5. When the tray is filled, drizzle remaining sauce over the tops of the stuffed shells. Sprinkle with mozzarella and cover with aluminum foil.
  6. Place on oven’s center rack and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 15 minutes more.
  7. Remove from oven, let rest at least 5 minutes, and serve.

Variations Instead of spinach, cooked & chopped Swiss chard or broccoli rabe (rapini) may be added to the cheese before stuffing the shells. For a cheesier dish, use a few tablespoons of chopped, fresh basil or parsley in place of the spinach.

Notes

Extra shells may be frozen using either of 2 methods:

  1. Perhaps the easiest way to freeze them is to place the stuffed shells on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Place the tray in the freezer and, after at least 2 hours, remove the shells and place in a container suitable for storage in the freezer. I wouldn’t suggest freezer bags because the pasta shells get rigid when frozen and bags may not offer enough protection. When you wish to cook them, treat the frozen shells as you would fresh and place them in a baking dish filled partway with sauce. Cover with foil, pace on center rack, and bake for 1 hour in a pre-heated 350* oven. After 1 hour, remove foil and insert tip of knife into the cheese of one of the shells in the middle of the tray. After a few seconds, remove knife and feel tip. If it’s just warm, cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes more. If the knife tip is hot, continue baking, uncovered, until the cheese on top is to your liking. If the knife tip is cold, the cheese isn’t heated. Put foil back onto the tray, cook for another 15 minutes, and test again.
  2. Alternately, you can prepare the shells in a tray as normal but put them in the freezer instead of the oven. Later, place them, covered with foil, in a 350* pre-heated oven for 1 hour. Refer to the prior note for testing the shells for doneness.

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Home-Made Fettuccine, Linguine, Capellini

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This is more an informational page than a recipe. As such, it only involves making the pasta noodles. Should you wish to see the pasta dough recipe, please refer to Mom’s Pasta Dough recipe.

Fettuccine

As was mentioned in the pasta dough entry, Mom cut the sfoglia by hand for much of my youth. Occasionally, I’ll do it myself although, to be honest, the width of my noodles aren’t nearly as consistent as were Mom’s. Whereas hers were perfect trenette, mine are more a collection of the various noodle sizes known to Man. Either way, thick or thin cut, you just can’t beat the taste of home-made pasta.

Although I follow Mom’s recipe for making the dough, I roll it into sheets using an attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, before using a hand-cranked machine to cut the noodles. Mom, as has been mentioned, used a machine with a hand-crank to roll out her dough and cut it into noodles. Both types of rolling devices work under the same principle. The dough is passed between 2 rollers, which are manually set at varying widths. Using the Kitchen Aid attachment as a guide, the no. 1 setting is where the rollers are at their widest, producing a very thick sheet of dough; no. 10 setting will produce an extremely thin dough strip. The relative thickness of the dough strips will depend upon their eventual use. When needed for lasagna, I stop after they’ve passed through the no. 5 setting. For noodles, I stop after setting no. 6. I use the same setting for large ravioli but will use no. 7 for small ravioli, where there isn’t so much filling. Zia, on the other hand, prefers to use no. 5 for her lasagna and noodles, with no. 6 being used for all of her ravioli. Again, let your own palate be your guide.

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Home-Made Fettuccine, Linguine, Capellini

total time: approx.  45 minutes (includes drying time)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 lbs. fresh dough, made using Mom’s Pasta Dough recipe
  • extra all-purpose flour for dusting the work surface and pasta sheets

Directions

  1. Be sure the dough has been allowed to rest at least 15 minutes before starting to roll it.
  2. Using a knife or dough scraper, separate a ball of dough, roughly the size of a very large egg. With your hands, flatten the dough somewhat, making a square. Set your machine’s rollers to the widest setting and dust the rollers with flour.
  3. Place one edge of the dough between the rollers and turn the crank, causing the dough to grow thinner as it passes through the rollers. Lightly flour the dough, fold it in half upon itself, and pass it through the rollers again. Repeat this, without adjusting the rollers, a few times.
  4. Get another dough “egg” and repeat steps 2 & 3. In fact, get as many dough “eggs” as you are comfortable handling. Just remember to keep the remaining dough covered while you work with the “eggs.”
  5. Once you have rolled a few “eggs”, adjust the rollers to the next setting and pass each dough sheet through the rollers. If the dough is at all sticky, dust the sheets with flour. When all the sheets have been rolled, fold each in half and send through the rollers again.
  6. Adjust the rollers and repeat Step 5, again and again, until the strips are the desired thinness. You shouldn’t need to flour the strips between passes through the rollers.
  7. At this point, the dough strips will need to dry a bit before cutting. This could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, or so. Much depends on your home’s temperature and humidity. If the strips aren’t dry enough, the freshly cut pasta will stick together and you’ll need to separate the noodles by hand. Just as strips that are too moist are a problem, so are strips that are too dry. In the latter case, the dough will crack & break during the cutting process. The dough strips need to be pliable.
  8. Once the sheets are suitably dried, pass them through the cutting rollers on your machine. Work the crank with one hand as you catch the noodles with the other. The freshly cut pasta may be lightly formed into bird’s nests or spread out on baking sheets, table tops, or floured towels. The pasta may be cooked immediately or allowed to dry completely, which should occur relatively quickly. If heat and humidity are a problem, freeze the freshly cut pasta to prevent mold from developing. Your pasta will store for weeks, whether dried or frozen, but the sooner used the better.

Variations

The steps outlined above use a machine to cut the fresh noodles. You can, if you like, try cutting them by hand. Take a strip of dough and fold it in half, thereby reducing its length by half. Fold it again in half, then again, and again, and again. The result should be a multi-layered dough strip about 2 – 3 inches wide. This is called sfoglia. Starting at one end and using a sharp knife, cut strips as thin as you like. Once the entire sfoglia has been cut this way, unfold the thin strips and these are your noodles.

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Mom’s Pasta Dough

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Hand-Rolling the Dough

Making pasta at home sure has changed a lot, just during my lifetime. For centuries, Italian women took a mound of flour, made a volcano-like cavity in its center, added a few eggs or some water, and slowly started combining the 2 ingredients. Eventually, a ball of dough would be formed, which they would knead before setting it aside to rest. (Let’s be clear: it’s the dough that rested.) Then, using long rolling pins, they rolled out the dough into huge sheets, 3 to 4 feet in diameter, and as thick as that day’s pasta required. The sheets would be laid somewhere to dry a bit before being folded repeatedly upon themselves to make sfoglia, which was then cut by hand with a sharp knife. It was the width of the noodle that determined the pasta — i.e., extremely thin: capellini (angel hair); somewhat thicker: spaghetti; a little thicker: trenette; a shade thicker: linguine; thicker still: fettuccine; etc. I think you get the idea. For generations, this is how pasta was made and our house was no different.  I have fond memories of the women of the house wielding their rolling pins; of wheels of dough drying on floured sheets covering tabletops, beds, and even the backs of chairs; of the family dog being banished while the dough dried; and, of the sound of Mom’s knife quickly cutting perfectly sized linguine, while holding a conversation with one of us or whomever entered her kitchen — and it was her kitchen. Then, about the time I entered high school, everything changed. Our family’s first pasta machine was purchased.

Sfoglia

Although relatively commonplace now, I’ve no idea how widespread their use was in the late 1960’s. I do know that Mom got her machine first and that things changed from that day forward. Mom’s long rolling-pin was all but retired. (She gave it to me a few years before she died.) Instead of round wheels of dough drying around the house, there were now strips of dough — and far fewer of them. You see, if you didn’t have to hand-roll the dough, you could do it more often and make less when you did. More change was to come when my sister and I bought Mom a food processor. Gone were the flour mounds and volcanoes, replaced by a 30 second whirl in this beauty built by Cuisinart.

Pasta Machine

Against this backdrop of technological advancement stood my Dad, a bit of a “pasta purist.” He insisted that he could tell the difference between pasta that was hand-rolled and that which was rolled by machine. As my sister lovingly recalls, if Dad noticed Mom preparing to make pasta that morning, he’d remind her of the benefits of rolling the dough by hand and ask that she do so. Mom would agree and a satisfied Dad would leave for work. Dad’s car was barely down the street when Mom went to the cupboard and pulled out the machine. (As I mentioned, it was her kitchen.) Later, at dinner, the hint of a wry smile would grace Mom’s face as Dad praised her “hand-rolled pasta.”

Pasta dough recipes abound on the internet. Just google “pasta dough recipe” and you’ll see what I mean. The one constant that all of the recipes share is that there is nothing exact about making pasta dough. For starters, not all “Grade A Large” eggs are created equal; some are larger than others. As for the flour, not only do you have to contend with differences between the kinds of flour, things like humidity and how you measure it will affect your dough, as well. These things may seem minor but you have to remember that as little as a tablespoon of liquid can make your dough too wet or, if it’s lacking, too dry.

Double Batch

Dough at Rest

This recipe was given to Mom by long-time family friend, Emilia, who had converted a few recipes for preparation using a food processor. (“Milia” and her husband were my brother’s god-parents.)  I follow this recipe because it uses a specific amount of liquid, thereby removing any variance resulting from eggs of differing sizes. Though flour-related variables may remain, at least we’re using a constant amount of liquid. Beyond that, one thing is certain: when making pasta dough, experience is the most important ingredient.

This post will only cover making pasta dough. Future posts will detail its uses.

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Pasta Dough Recipe

makes about 1.5 lbs

total time: approx. 45 minutes (includes 30 minutes rest)

Ingredients

  • 2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 whole large eggs + enough water to equal 1 cup of liquid. Egg should be allowed to sit on a counter for about 30 minutes before use.

Directions

  1. Place all ingredients in food processor and mix until a ball of dough forms, about 30 seconds. Place dough on floured work surface.
  2. Dough should not be stick to your fingers but should be moist enough to form a cohesive ball.
  3. Begin kneading the dough, adding flour or water, in small amounts, as required. Knead until a smooth dough is achieved, at least 5 minutes. The longer you knead the dough, the better the pasta’s texture will be.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for at least 15 minutes or up to an hour. If dough is to be rested longer than an hour, place it in the refrigerator. When removed from the refrigerator, temper the dough by leaving it on a counter for 30 minutes before using.

Variations

  • I prefer to add a pinch of salt and a dash (about 1/8 tsp) of olive oil to my pasta dough.
  • For green (verde) noodles, mix a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped spinach with the flour before adding the egg liquid to the food processor. Zia recalls that, years ago, they used spinach baby food when making pasta verde. 

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Pasta in Bianco (Plain/White Pasta)

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That’s me, with my trusty steed at the ready.

Pasta in bianco, also called pasta bianco, is about as simple a pasta dish as one can make. When I was a boy, Mom would serve this to me whenever I was recuperating from some sort of stomach ailment. I always thought that this “cure” was something peculiar to our house and it wasn’t until many years later that I learned that many Italian households do the same. Luckily, one doesn’t need to be ill to enjoy this simple, yet surprisingly flavorful, dish. And, requiring so few ingredients, this can easily be your “go to” dinner if you want something to eat but don’t have the time nor desire to cook a “normal” meal.

Pasta in Bianco

There’s no need to treat the ingredient amounts as set in stone. You can add more butter and less extra virgin olive oil, for example, if that’s your preference. In fact, true pasta in bianco is made with only butter and that’s how Mom served it to me when I was a boy. Now that I’m older — OK, much older — I’ve replaced some of the butter with the much healthier extra virgin olive oil. Whatever combined amount of butter and oil that you use, the result should be pasta that is well-coated, but not so much that it is dripping. The same holds true for the Pecorino Romano cheese. Some people enjoy a light dusting of cheese; others prefer a blizzard. Me? I’m a blizzard kinda guy — complete with drifts.

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Pasta in Bianco Recipe

serves 2

cook time: approx.  20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb angel hair/capellini or spaghetti or linguine
  • 2 – 4 tbsp butter
  • 4 – 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Fill a large, 6 to 8 quart, pot with water and bring to a rolling boil. Add the salt, then the pasta, and stir to help prevent the pasta from sticking.
  2. Follow package directions and cook the pasta, stirring occasionally, until al dente. Use a strainer to drain the pasta completely. Do NOT rinse with cold water.
  3. Return pasta to pot, add oil and butter, and mix to coat evenly. Add cheese and mix well.
  4. Serve immediately. Have additional cheese handy for us “blizzard” folks, as well as freshly ground pepper for those so inclined — like me.

Variations

The only variations listed involve the type of cheese to be used.  That’s the only ingredient that can be changed realistically without altering the recipe and, therefore, losing its simplicity.

  • In place of the Pecorino Romano, try using Parmesan, fontinella, ricotta salata, or asiago cheeses. Each can be grated and will impart its own distinctive flavor to the dish.

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Gee, that wasn’t so bad for my first attempt. Onward and upward!

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