Fresh pasta

I've been away from the blogosphere for a little while. I've been pretty busy with a couple projects that have taken up a lot of free time here at home. That doesn't mean I haven't participated in the act of food eating and making; I've gotta eat, you know. But these projects have actually taken up so much time that my routine for the past month (yeesh!) has been project, work, eat, wife-time.

So, a couple weeks ago, when I spent a 3-hour-plus stretch in the kitchen making fresh pasta for the first time, it was a nice break that resulted in something simple yet incredibly satisfying.

My wife and I have tried to find ways to cut back on the amount we spend on food, including making larger meals so that they can be eaten throughout the week (which reminds me that I have slow cooker on the counter keeping me waiting). I'm hoping that one day she'll start making bread at home. We're trying to find ways to grow certain things here at the condo so that we don't have to buy them. So the act of making fresh pasta made sense economically, as well.

Oh, and I did it all without a pasta machine.

The pasta was quite satisfying, both to make and eat. I did some research on pasta recipes and found 3 basic ones:

flour, egg, extra-virgin olive oil, and salt

flour and eggs

flour and water

I tried the first. I wanted something flavorful and knew that the first had the potential to deliver more flavor. In the interest of time, I used a food processor to make the dough. Provided I make the time, I'd like to try everything by hand next time (using the flour "volcano" method). In any case, once the dough was kneaded, I let it rest for 30 minutes.

Upon my return, I cut the ball of dough into quarters and proceeded to roll out some pasta. With a rolling pin. For the next hour.

I know a pasta machine would make things much easier. But I don't want to buy a pasta machine. We already have a rolling pin at home and don't have that much counter space. A pasta machine would be an unnecessary expense and then I'd have to figure out where I'd use it. So, the rolling pin it was, and though my time in the kitchen was longer than the time it took to eat the pasta, I did it anyway.

I was excited. I was excited that the pasta we were going to eat that night - the pasta that we would have otherwise purchased from the supermarket, the pasta that would almost certainly taste and feel different from what we were used to - was going to come from my hands, from ingredients that were cheap to purchase and could be stocked in our home for a long time without the need to replenish.

And I was excited just to be in the kitchen making something from scratch, making something that I knew would satisfy both our bellies and our taste buds. Excited to do something I love while getting away from what had become my new daily grind.

I ended up making wide-noodle pasta, about half the length of fettucini. I made a pan sauce with butter, extra-virgin olive oil, minced onions and garlic, and crushed red peppers. I served this with a side of sauteed asparagus with salt, black pepper, and minced onions and garlic.

Unfortunately, kitchen time is something I have to make time for, but as the project comes to a close and I can return to my more regular daily routine, and as my schedule changes for the summer, hopefully my presence in the kitchen will be more frequent.