fresh homemade pasta

I have been intending to make homemade fresh pasta for some time now. Unfortunately, I do not have a pasta machine, which is the main reason I have been putting it off. Today, though, I was thumbing through The Silver Spoon: Pasta, an Italian cookbook given to us as a wedding gift, and decided tonight was the night. The original recipe I was going to use from the book called for two kinds of flour that I don't have, so I abandoned that track and went in search of a simple "how to" online. What I found was a tutorial on a blog that will probably now be one of my absolute favourites, mostly because I adore Italian cooking.

The Italian Dish has a great post about making fresh pasta, along with a short video. The nice thing about making pasta is that it's not quite an exact recipe, which makes it perfect for me. Basically, it's a ratio of flour and eggs, plus a little water if needed. And there is the possibility of adding other flavours, like tomato or spinach. I decided to make the tomato-flavoured pasta because I had leftover tomato paste from the other day.

See, flour and eggs. And a food processor because that was less messy than mixing by hand.

I'm rather proud of my dough.

Look at the ickle noodles!

 

 

 

 

YUM.

As you can probably see from the photos, the noodles aren't uniform and are rather thick. As a result, they had the texture of over-cooked pasta, but they still tasted excellent with the sauteed veggies (green and red bell pepper and shallots) and homemade meatballs. This meal went really well with a glass of red wine.

foodie blues (or, I really miss Olive Garden)

Yesterday afternoon while folding laundry, I decided to watch a little bit of television. I don't often do this so early in the day, but it was quicker than putting in a DVD because I'm too indecisive for that and I would have spent at least half an hour choosing something. Anyway. The channel I chose to watch was the Cooking Channel. (Not the Food Network -- hooray for two food channels!) As I was matching socks and sipping a mug of reheated coffee (black -- I was tired), I realized something. I am a foodie. A HUGE foodie.

This may not come as a surprise to some of you. I grew up in a household where my parents (especially my dad) tried to expose my siblings and me to as many cuisines as possible. Our favorite, to this day, is Indian, for many reasons. Dad's mom grew up in India as a child of missionaries, and the food got carried over to the U.S. One of our favorite dishes (and the most typical one Mom makes now) is chicken curry with rice. Oh, and don't forget the poppadoms! And my dear husband knows I'm not kidding when I say one of the tests for belonging with the Blieses is trying and liking curry! (Don't worry, he passed!)

Other cuisines we were exposed to at a young age were Japanese (Dad's been to Japan four times.), Chinese (which is always fun), Mexican (tacos, anyone??), and Italian. I also really like Thai food, but I obviously have a thing for anything Asian. Of course, I've eaten my fair share of European cuisine. Good old German food is always delicious, if a bit heavy (I love me some bratwurst.). And though it can be bland, I ate some delicious food in England, too. And I live for England's afternoon tea spreads.

But out of all of these, I think I've finally found my favorite. (Excepting Indian, because that tops them all no matter what.) My favorite, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, is Italian. Any time I see an Italian recipe, my mouth waters. I make simple spaghetti and meat sauce at home a lot. But all the experimenting I do in my too-small kitchen will probably never top the gloriousness that is Olive Garden. At least once a week I find myself craving a meal from Olive Garden. This has been happening with alarming regularity for the last few years, and it doesn't help at all that the closest restaurant to us is either in Milwaukee or Appleton. Since we rarely make it to Milwaukee, and then it's to visit family where we'll be fed amazing food anyway, that's kind of out of the question. And Appleton is rather a lot farther away, but we'd be more likely to eat at the Olive Garden there...

So you see my dilemma. My favorite restaurant is not close enough. And I haven't yet found a suitable Italian replacement in Sheboygan County. Le sigh. So I'm left with my severe case of the foodie blues once again. I suppose I can console myself with a yummy fish fry tonight at our favorite bar.