Tessa Today: Home made Pasta

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Home made Pasta

On my birthday I decided I wanted to have some fresh pasta. It makes sense, right? I'm a runner, I love my carbs and what could be better than getting that fix from something you can't get everyday like made at home pasta? I mean, it was my birthday wasn't it? And besides, I was the one going to make it because that is something else I love besides carbs which is actually cooking things from scratch.
I thought I would go for a purely simple pasta alla carbonara. Since it wasn't only me on that New Years Eve birthday I added a New York Strip Steak to the side. That is fairly simple too if you think about it but fancy enough for a holiday meal.
Pasta Ingredients:

For 4-6 servings of pasta
2 cups flour
3 eggs
salt
Place the two cups flour in a mound on your cleaned work area and make a hole in the center. This is like you would do to your mashed potatoes to hold the gravy. Add your eggs and slight amount of salt. Use a fork to beat the eggs right there in the middle of the flour. Start incorporating the walls of the flour into the eggs until you are able to manage it into a dough.

You want a smooth consistency to the dough and it might not take all the flour. It's a scientific thing, I can't explain...size of the eggs, quantity of flour, humidity, altitude, whatever.
It should form a ball of dough and then you get to roll it out. Use lots of flour so it doesn't stick.

Roll it out thin and then fold it up (make sure you keep flouring it) to make it easy to cut the strips. You can cut as you like. They can be as wide or skinny as you like.

When you unravel them they will form long strips. Then they go into a pot of boiling salted water until cooked. Fresh pasta will start to float up to the top when done but be sure to taste. Don't leave it in too long...you'll have to check between 5-8 minutes.
That's it! Fresh home made pasta!
Then I made a simple carbonara with it which is Italian poor food. Come on...it's bacon and eggs on pasta. Talk about stretching the food but oh, my, how delicious!
Heat some olive oil in a pan and add pancetta (yeah-that's the bacon). Let it cook about 3 minutes and add minced garlic (of course, it's Italian). Add the fresh cooked pasta directly into the saucepan from the boiling water pot. That extra liquid helps this recipe. On the side beat an egg and add it to the pasta (bacon and eggs) in the saucepan and some flat leaf parsley. Mix it all up!