Well, here we are again discussing food. The song from The Sound of Music, "My Favorite Things," is playing in my head. I enjoy cooking/baking, trying new recipes, tasting new things, but most of all I enjoy feeding people. When someone really enjoys eating something I've made, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction.
So, we begin. I've been thinking about homemade pasta. When I talk to people about making pasta, they seem to think it's a complicated gourmet food, but really, it's quite simple. I remember as a boy seeing long noodles draped over a wooden drying rack or laid flat on a clean white sheet on top of one of the beds. It wasn't made all the time, but frequently enough to be normal. Dry pasta is great, all pasta is comfort food, but there's something pretty amazing about homemade pasta. All I have is an old-fashioned, hand-cranked pasta machine that makes either wide or narrow fettucini style noodles, but that's really all you need.
In the old days, my great grandmother often rolled the pasta dough by hand, then cut the noodles by hand, as well. I use semolina flour mixed with all purpose flour to get the texture I like. (More on Semolina from our friends as Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina ). Semolina flour is often available at your local grocery store, but you can definitely find it at Whole Foods-type markets.
In some later posts, we can discuss various homemade sauces for our pasta, though I rarely measure for them. The three sauces we most often make are tomato, alfredo, and pesto. I've also made a very nice white wine-based clam sauce on occasion, but I digress.
Pasta dough is a simple, somewhat tough dough that doesn't rise but needs to rest after it's kneaded (we all need to be needed, don't we?). So, what else to say but don't be afraid to experiment. I find in baking, measurements must be precise, but with cooking, all that really matters is that it tastes good. Buon appetito!
Fresh Pasta
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups semolina flour
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pinch of salt
Mix by hand or on slow to medium in a stand mixer. Knead on the counter for a few minutes, then let it rest up to thirty minutes. Roll, cut, lay out to dry. It doesn't really need to dry for too long, but can do so for a few hours. Any longer and it should be refrigerated due to the eggs. Fresh pasta doesn't take as long to cook as conventional dry, store bought pasta.
Joel DiGloria is a realtor with a passion for feeding people, caring for babies, and playing the saxophone. Since moving to North Carolina from Alaska more than thirteen years ago, he and his family have made a concerted effort to get back to their Italian roots. He is an internationally licensed chaplain and plans to work in the nursery at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem and volunteer in their chaplaincy services later this spring.
