Valentine Love and Homemade Pasta - from Scratch !!

While I'm the flowers -n-chocolate kinda romantic, KJ has his own quirks to show his love :-) and yet again this Valentine's day I was surprised with not flowers or perfumes or chocolates or cards but a Pasta Maker. Something I had been eyeing to buy for a while !! He always knows what truly gives me pleasure, what I would so dearly treasure !!



I got the delivery of the pasta maker in my office and by the time I got home it was late, but I was sure I wanted to try it out there and then. With actually an empty refrigerator and few basic ingredients in the larder, I braved making my first home made pasta with the pasta maker. For once while the pasta was made from scratch, the final dish did have some easy convenient store bought ingredients which are ever so handy on days nights like these (when you return late from work and don't want to order out).

Rolling out the first sheet of pasta was magical...really !! How a small ball of dough about 4 inches in diameter turns into a silky smooth sheet which is more than a meter long....
The more you roll the pasta, the silkier it gets. The standard cutter attachment with my new toy was the fettuccine.
Making Pasta at home is quick and simple. As Jamie Oliver says eggs and flour are always a little different, so if it feels a little wet add a little flour and if it feels a bit tight / hard add a little egg.
The thumb rule is 1 egg to every 100 g of pasta, though like I said earlier you can adjust the proportions. The idea is to get a smooth elastic dough.
Here goes the recipe:



Pardon the pictures, they are all clicked with my phone camera and this was not a planned shoot / post but I couldn't resist sharing this with all of you :-)
There was too much excitement in making the pasta and these photographs suddenly were incidental !

Fettuccine in Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients for the Pasta

Flour 200g
Eggs - 2
Salt to taste


Direction for making Pasta

1. Make a well in the centre of the flour and break 2 eggs in it. Add the salt and mix. Using a fork break down the egg and mix it in the flour  and now knead it into a smooth dough. DONOT ADD WATER WHILE KNEADING. If the dough gets too tight, you could add half an egg more.

2. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 40 minutes.

3. Remove from the fridge and divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Re-cover the three balls and work with one at a time.

4. Flatten the ball slightly with the palm of your hand and run the dough through the thickest setting on your pasta machine, 3-4 times. This makes the sides of the pasta fill out to the full width of the pasta machine.

5. Repeat this through the settings changing it to the thinner setting every time, till the pasta sheet is about 1-1.5 mm thick.

6. Pass it through the cutter attachment of the machine - I used fettuccine. Dust the pasta with a little dry flour so that it doesn't stick together and make bunches and keep aside.

7. Repeat the same procedure with the other three balls.

8. Once the required quantities are ready, boil water in a large pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1tsp of salt. Once the water comes to a boil, add the pasta and boil till done.

9. While the pasta is boiling, ready the sauce.


Ingredients for the Sauce

10 Clove of Garlic (I like my pasta nicely garlicky.... you could reduce it to 7 cloves)
400 ml of Tomato Puree - ( I used Dabur)
1 tbsp of Chilli Flakes
1 small Onion - finely chopped
2 tbsps Olive Oil
Black Olives for garnishing
Parmesan for garnishing


Directions

1. While the pasta is boiling, start working on the sauce. Heat olive oil in a pan, add chilli flakes. Once the aroma rises, add garlic. Once garlic turns golden, add the onions and saute` till onions become wet. You don't need to brown them. Now add the tomato puree, cook for 2 minutes on medium heat.

2. Now in the mean time the pasta is boiled. Strain the pasta , drain out all the water.

3. Transfer the pasta into the pan with the marinara sauce. Toss it well and serve.

4. Once plated up, garnish with black olives and parmesan shavings.

Serve.



  Happy Cooking !!


2 comments:

  1. New toys are always fun....
    Now we need to sample the fun you've been having.....

    ReplyDelete

 

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